SpaceX
Every Cosmic Herald story on SpaceX — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Commercial
Blue Origin Pins New Glenn Pad Explosion on a BE-4 Oxygen Valve
Blue Origin says a single malfunctioning main oxygen valve on a BE-4 engine destroyed New Glenn and 48 Amazon Leo satellites in May, with fixed hardware due late August and flights targeted before year's end.
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Commercial
Starship Flight 13 Deploys First Operational Starlinks, but Booster Splashdown Gets Rough
SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 delivered 20 production Starlink satellites and an in-space Raptor relight, but Super Heavy limped to a hard splashdown on just five of 13 engines.
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Commercial
Starship Flight 13 Nails Its First Intact Splashdown — and Drops 20 Real Starlink Satellites
On Flight 13, SpaceX put an intact Starship in the water for the first time and deployed 20 working Starlink V3 satellites — its first real payloads — even as the Super Heavy booster came down hard after an incomplete landing burn.
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Commercial
America's First In-Orbit Mechanic Is on Its Way to GEO
A Falcon 9 launched Northrop Grumman's Mission Robotic Vehicle on 21 July 2026, carrying DARPA/NRL's RSGS robotic arms to geosynchronous orbit to inspect, repair, relocate and life-extend aging satellites.
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Commercial
America's First Robotic Satellite Mechanic Reaches the Pad
A Falcon 9 is set to launch Northrop Grumman's MRV-1 and three Mission Extension Pods on July 21, carrying DARPA's RSGS payload — the first U.S. multi-mission robot built to inspect, repair, upgrade, relocate and refuel satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
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Commercial
SpaceX Marks the 600th Flight of a Reused Falcon Booster With a Pre-Dawn Starlink Launch
A pre-dawn Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral quietly notched a milestone that says more about SpaceX's operating model than any single mission: the 600th flight of a reused booster.
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Commercial
FAA Closes Starship Flight 12 Mishap Probe, Clears SpaceX for Flight 13
The FAA closed its Flight 12 mishap investigation on July 13, pinning the Super Heavy booster loss on heat effects and bad engine alarm settings, and cleared SpaceX for a Flight 13 attempt as soon as July 16.
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Commercial
Vast's Haven-1 in 2026: a 3D-printed space station preparing to host orbital manufacturing
Vast's Haven-1 station is now targeting Q1 2027 after its Haven Demo pathfinder flew 49 test objectives. The single-module outpost carries metal 3D-printed hardware — and its manufacturing network now spans orbital bioprinting, drug crystallization, and pharma production partners.
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Commercial
Rocket Launch Vehicles Compared: Payload, Cost, and Reusability in 2026
Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, New Glenn, Vulcan Centaur, Neutron, Ariane 6, and six more launch vehicles compared on payload, cost per launch, and reusability, including China's Long March 10B, which on July 10 became just the third rocket in history to catch its own booster.
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Commercial
Transporter-17: How Two Student-Built CubeSats Hitched a Ride Among 81 Satellites
SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare launched 81 satellites from Vandenberg on July 7, including two NASA-linked CubeSats — GRITSS and MAVERIC — built to sharpen ground-station geodesy and test magnetic navigation.
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Commercial
ispace Buys a Ride on Starship, Betting on SpaceX to Cut the Cost of Reaching the Moon
Japan's ispace has purchased 500 kg of Starship cargo capacity for $50 million, launching a new shared-ride lunar delivery service alongside its own Ultra lander program.
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Commercial
The World's First Commercial Nuclear-Powered Satellite Just Reached Orbit
Miami-based City Labs flew its tritium-powered BOHR CubeSat on SpaceX's Transporter-17, becoming the first commercial mission to clear the FAA's NSPM-20 nuclear-launch pathway with Sandia's safety sign-off.
