Top Stories

Blue Origin Has 7 Blue Moon Landers in Production While Recovering from New Glenn Pad Explosion

More than a month after the New Glenn pad explosion, Blue Origin says it has seven Blue Moon lunar landers actively in production. The company is keeping lunar program development separate from the launch vehicle recovery effort.

The New Glenn explosion grounded Blue Origin’s only orbital-class rocket at a critical point in its manifest. With seven landers in work simultaneously, the company is betting that lunar logistics demand will materialize even as its primary heavy lift vehicle remains sidelined.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

SpaceX Rideshare Falcon 9 Carries 81 Payloads to Sun-Synchronous Orbit — Including Military Tech Demos

SpaceX launched 81 payloads from Vandenberg SFB pad 4E on a sun-synchronous rideshare mission, with a 95-minute window opening at 12:12 a.m. PDT. The manifest includes fire detection satellites, military technology demonstrators, and 3D printers. Deployment stretched over approximately 2.5 hours.

SSO rideshare batches like this one generate dense clusters of new catalog objects. Expect a wave of NORAD tracking entries in the days following deployment as Space-Track builds out the catalog. You can monitor newly launched objects in KeepTrack as TLEs become available.

Read the full story: Spaceflight Now

BAE Systems’ Endura Radiation-Hardened Microchip Passes Testing for Classified and Missile-Defense Satellites

BAE Systems’ Endura computing chip has cleared radiation testing and is being positioned for classified satellite programs and missile-defense applications. Radiation-hardened processors are a hard bottleneck for high-value government space payloads — a chip that passes testing moves to the front of a short list.

Missile-defense satellites typically operate in MEO or higher orbits where radiation exposure is severe. Endura passing these tests matters for any program that needs onboard compute in those environments.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

Long March 10B and India’s Vikram-I Both Debut This Week Among Six Scheduled Orbital Launches

This week’s launch manifest includes first flights for China’s Long March 10B and India’s Vikram-I, alongside three Falcon 9 missions. Six orbital launches in a single week from three countries, two of them debut vehicles, is a heavy tempo.

Long March 10B is a new variant in CASC’s lineup. Vikram-I is the orbital vehicle from Skyroot Aerospace, India’s first private launch company to attempt orbit. Both vehicles will add new objects to the catalog if they reach orbit successfully.

Read the full story: NASASpaceFlight

NATO Picks Saab GlobalEye — Up to 10 Aircraft — to Replace E-3 Sentry After Boeing E-7 Deal Collapsed

NATO Secretary General confirmed the alliance will acquire up to 10 Saab GlobalEye aircraft to replace the aging E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet. The decision follows NATO’s cancellation of a planned purchase of Boeing E-7 Wedgetail surveillance aircraft.

GlobalEye is built on the Bombardier Global 6000 airframe and integrates radar, maritime patrol, and ground surveillance in a single platform. Switching from Boeing to Saab represents a significant shift in NATO’s airborne early warning procurement, with direct implications for interoperability and maintenance infrastructure across member states.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Isar Aerospace Secures Canadian Launch Site Contract Tied to German Submarine Sale

Isar Aerospace has signed a contract to build a launch site in Canada for its Spectrum rocket. The agreement is tied to a broader deal in which Canada is purchasing submarines — linking launch infrastructure to a defense procurement package.

Spectrum is a two-stage liquid-fueled rocket targeting small satellite LEO missions. A Canadian site would give Isar a second launch location beyond its existing agreement at Andøya in Norway, expanding inclination options for customers. No launch date from the Canadian facility has been announced.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

U.S. Army Restructures Acquisition Portfolios Again, Realigns Autonomy Office

The Army has made another round of adjustments to its acquisition portfolio structure and moved its autonomy office under a new organizational alignment. The changes follow a broader overhaul last fall. A service spokesperson described the approach as retaining what is working and changing what is not.

The autonomy realignment has downstream relevance for space-enabled targeting and ISR programs, which depend on Army acquisition pathways for ground-based receivers and autonomous systems that integrate satellite data feeds.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Satellite of the Day

SLINGSHOT 1

SLINGSHOT 1 is a 12U CubeSat technology demonstrator developed and operated by AERO (Aerospace) in the United States. Launched on July 2, 2022, from Wallops Flight Facility aboard Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne air-launch vehicle, this compact satellite was designed to advance small-satellite technology and capabilities. With a launch mass of just 19 kilograms and box-shaped configuration measuring 0.3 × 0.2 × 0.3 meters, SLINGSHOT 1 exemplified the growing trend of miniaturized spacecraft for rapid technology validation and innovation in the commercial space sector.

The satellite operated in a 44.96° inclination orbit and was powered by solar cells and onboard batteries. As a technology mission, SLINGSHOT 1 likely served as a testbed for new subsystems or operational concepts relevant to the expanding CubeSat industry. Though the satellite has since decayed from orbit, missions like this remain valuable for the aerospace community, providing real-world flight heritage data that informs the next generation of small-satellite designs and mission architectures.

Learn more about this satellite: View SLINGSHOT 1

Upcoming Space Launches

July 9

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 10-42
  • Starlink Group 10-42 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA (09:05 UTC) SpaceX Falcon 9 launching 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1067 flying for its 36th time, landing on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Watch Live

July 10

• China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 10B: Demo Flight
  • Long March 10B Demo Flight from Wenchang Space Launch Site, People’s Republic of China (05:12 UTC) Maiden demo flight of the Long March 10B, a reusable launch vehicle derived from the Long March 10A first stage. The vehicle features a first stage powered by 7 YF-100 series kerosene/liquid oxygen staged-combustion engines designed for downrange recovery via an arrestor net on a barge, and a second stage powered by a single YF-219 methane/liquid oxygen engine. The rocket is capable of delivering up to 16,000 kg to low Earth orbit.

July 11

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 17-48
  • Starlink Group 17-48 from Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA (02:00 UTC) SpaceX Falcon 9 launching 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1067 flying for its 36th time, landing on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Watch Live

July 12

• Orienspace Technology Gravity-1: Unknown Payload

  • Unknown Payload from Haiyang Oriental Spaceport (02:00 UTC) Details to be determined. The Gravity-1 is a four-stage vehicle by Chinese private company OrienSpace, consisting of clustered solid rocket motors with a center motor igniting just before booster separation. Capable of delivering up to 6,500 kg to low Earth orbit.

• Skyroot Aerospace Vikram-I: Demo Flight

  • Vikram-I Demo Flight from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India (05:00 UTC) First orbital launch attempt of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-I, an Indian privately developed four-stage launch vehicle capable of carrying up to 350 kg to low Earth orbit. The first three stages use solid fuel motors topped by a hypergolic upper stage. Several cubesats will fly as payload; identities are to be determined.

July 13

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 15-14
  • Starlink Group 15-14 from Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA (22:38 UTC) SpaceX Falcon 9 launching 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1067 landing on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Watch Live

July 14

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 10-45

  • Starlink Group 10-45 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA (07:15 UTC) SpaceX Falcon 9 launching 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live

• Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) Soyuz 2.1a: Soyuz MS-29

  • Soyuz MS-29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan (14:47 UTC) Soyuz MS-29 will carry a crew of three to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, along with NASA astronaut Anil Menon. The Soyuz 2.1a features a fully digital flight control system and is currently the primary vehicle for crewed Soyuz and Progress missions to the ISS.

July 17

• Rocket Lab Electron: LOXSAT 1
  • LOXSAT 1 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (Time To Be Determined) LOXSAT 1 is a demonstration satellite developed by Eta Space, sponsored by NASA’s Tipping Point program, to test a complete cryogenic oxygen fluid management system in orbit. Flying on a Rocket Lab Photon-LEO satellite bus, it will collect cryogenic fluid management data over 9 months, demonstrating in-space cryogenic storage and transfer technologies intended to support future commercial propellant depots.

Schedule Changes

• New Launch Added: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 carrying Starlink Group 10-45 has been added to the manifest, scheduled for July 14 at 07:15 UTC from Cape Canaveral SFS, FL.
• New Launch Added: Rocket Lab Electron carrying LOXSAT 1 has been added to the manifest, currently with a To Be Determined date of July 17.
• Status Update: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 17 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare) has progressed from Go for Launch to Launch in Flight and has been removed from the upcoming launch calendar accordingly.

Note: Launch dates and times are subject to change due to technical or weather considerations.