#rockets

The first flight of SpaceX’s redesigned Starship V3 achieved stage separation, payload deployment and re-entry milestones even as booster and engine issues kept the mission from a fully nominal profile.

A new Department of the Air Force study says the United States will probably need another launch site capable of heavy and super-heavy missions as military and commercial demand outgrows current range capacity.

Chinese launch startup Zenk Space has secured fresh funding as it prepares for the first orbital attempt of its Zhihang-1 kerolox rocket in June.

SpaceX has stacked and fueled its new 408-foot Starship Version 3, a launch candidate designed to push the program toward in-orbit refueling and operational lunar missions.

Skyroot Aerospace has raised $60 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, giving India’s launch sector a major funding milestone ahead of Vikram-1’s first orbital attempt.

The U.S. Space Force now expects 25 additional high-energy national security launches through 2029, increasing pressure on a market where only two providers are certified and only one is currently flying those missions.

Astrobotic says its Chakram rotating-detonation engine completed a successful NASA-backed test series, including a 300-second burn that the company says is the longest for the engine class.

Blue Origin achieved its first reflight and landing of an orbital-class New Glenn booster, a major step for reusability, before an upper stage problem undercut the mission’s overall success.

Blue Origin has completed a static fire of the first previously flown New Glenn booster, a step that could clear the way for a launch of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird-7 satellite as soon as Sunday, April