SpaceX

The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Image: NASA The White House released its proposed federal spending budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday and with it a series of deep cuts to most areas of discretionary spending, including to NASA. The requested cuts come, ironically, on National Space Day. If adopted as proposed, America’s space agency is facing a 24.3 percent funding cut, dropping it from about $24.8 billion in FY25 to $18.8 billion in FY26. The agency was hoping for a funding increase to get a number of programs back on track following two years of what amounted to spending cuts due to budgets being held at FY24 spending levels. That loss in spending will be felt most deeply by the space and Earth science divisions, which would see a loss of $2.3 and $1.2 billion...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 6-75 mission. Image: SpaceX Update May 1, 11:30 p.m. EDT: SpaceX confirms successful deployment of the 28 Starlink satellites. SpaceX kicked off of the month of May with the first of likely several Falcon 9 missions launching more of its Starlink V2 Mini satellites. Onboard the Starlink 6-75 mission were 28 of the internet supporting satellites, adding to the more than 7,300 currently on orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 9:51 p.m. EDT (0151 UTC).  On Wednesday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a greater than 95 percent chance for favorable weather at liftoff with no meteorological concerns for the...

United Launch Alliance launches their Atlas V 551 rocket on Monday, April 28, 2025 with the first batch of Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon towards low Earth orbit from SLC-41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Against the setting Sun, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket thundered off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force State to begin the flight of the first production satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation. Five solid rocket boosters helped propel the rocket and the 27 satellites on board from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 UTC).  The threat of anvil clouds caused ULA to adjust the liftoff time by one minute, but otherwise, weather was quite pristine for the north-easterly trajectory. ULA use...

Tejpaul Bhatia, Axiom Space’s Chief Revenue Officer, was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer on April 25, 2025. He will oversee the company as it completes its planned Axiom Station and AxEMU spacesuits for the Artemis Program. Images: Axiom Space; illustration by Will Robinson-Smith The new leader at Axiom Space is a familiar face around the office. On Friday, the Houston-based company announced that its Chief Revenue Officer, Tejpaul Bhatia, is taking the reins as the new Chief Executive Officer. Bhatia takes over the position from Kam Ghaffarian, the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Axiom Space, who has been serving as interim CEO since Aug. 9, 2024. That’s when co-founder Mike Suffredini announced he would step down as CEO “for personal reasons,” but continue on as ...

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 2 West at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the ‘Message in a Booster’ mission. Image: Trevor Mahlamann / Firefly Aerospace A perfect storm of range restrictions and suboptimal weather seems to finally be clearing for Firefly Aerospace. After delaying the flight of their sixth Alpha rocket for more than a month, the company announced a new launch window, which opens on Sunday. Onboard the rocket, designated FLTA006 by Firefly Aerospace, is a technology demonstration for Lockheed Martin’s LM400 satellite bus. The mission, dubbed ‘Message in a Booster,’ has its first launch opportunity during a window that runs from 6:37-7:29 a.m. PDT (9:37-10:29 a.m. EDT, 1337-1429 UTC). That roughly one-hour window is the firs...