Latest Developments

SpaceX marked a milestone double-header on April 29, flying Falcon Heavy for the first time in 18 months while simultaneously conducting its 51st Falcon 9 launch of 2026. The Falcon Heavy — on its 12th flight ever — lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A at 10:13 a.m. EDT carrying the 6-ton ViaSat-3 F3 communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit, ending a hiatus that had stretched since late 2024. Hours later, a Falcon 9 departing Vandenberg SFB added 24 more Starlink satellites to a constellation that now stands at 10,280 operational spacecraft out of 10,296 currently in orbit. Away from the launch pad, a spent Falcon 9 upper stage is drawing scrutiny after an amateur astronomer calculated it could strike the Moon in early August.

Space Safety

Current Starlink conjunction risk remains elevated with four MODERATE-risk events identified in the April 2026 timeframe, though no HIGH-risk conjunctions are present. The most critical engagement involves STARLINK-33563 approaching COSMOS 2251 DEB on April 13 with a collision probability of 0.397, followed by STARLINK-5601 and DELTA 1 DEB on April 11. Concurrently, 10 Starlink satellites are predicted to reenter Earth’s atmosphere between April 30 and May 3, 2026, with decay windows ranging from 1 to 2,880 minutes.

Detailed Coverage

Stray Falcon 9 Stage Tracked on Potential Lunar Impact Trajectory

A derelict Falcon 9 second stage left over from a mission launched last year has been flagged by an amateur astronomer as a potential lunar impactor, with an estimated strike window in early August. The upper stage, which lacks the propellant to perform a controlled disposal burn, has been drifting on a chaotic Earth-Moon trajectory since its mission concluded. Satellite trackers note that predicting the precise fate of high-altitude debris remains difficult due to solar radiation pressure and sparse observational coverage, but the geometry currently points toward a lunar encounter — joining a small and ignominious club of human-made objects confirmed or suspected to have struck the Moon unintentionally.

Read the full story: Space.com

Falcon Heavy Roars Back on 12th Mission, Delivering 6-Ton ViaSat-3 F3

After weather forced a scrub earlier in the week, Falcon Heavy lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at precisely 10:13 a.m. EDT on April 29, dispatching the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite — a roughly 6-metric-ton broadband payload — toward geosynchronous transfer orbit. The return of SpaceX’s triple-core heavy-lift workhorse after 18 months of inactivity underscores the vehicle’s role as the go-to ride for government and commercial payloads too large or high-energy for standard Falcon 9. Side boosters executed their return landings, and the mission proceeded nominally through payload separation.

Read the full story: Spaceflight Now

NASASpaceFlight Digs Into the Falcon Heavy Revival and What Comes Next

The NASASpaceFlight team published detailed coverage of the ViaSat-3 F3 mission, contextualizing the 18-month gap and what it means for Falcon Heavy’s manifest going forward. With several high-profile government and commercial heavy-lift contracts in the pipeline, the vehicle’s return is expected to accelerate cadence through the remainder of 2026. The piece also examines the specific trajectory demands of the ViaSat-3 F3 deployment and why Falcon Heavy’s superior performance to GTO made it the clear choice over Falcon 9 for this particular 6-ton spacecraft.

Read the full story: NASASpaceFlight

Starlink 17-36 Pushes 2026 Falcon 9 Count to 51 Missions

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s SLC-4E at 7:42:49 p.m. PDT on April 29, deploying 24 Starlink satellites in the 17-36 mission and marking SpaceX’s 51st Falcon 9 launch of the year — an extraordinary pace that projects toward a record annual total. The fresh batch joins a Starlink constellation now comprising 11,877 satellites launched all-time, with 10,296 remaining in orbit and 10,280 actively serving users. The booster completed another successful landing, continuing SpaceX’s near-perfect reusability record for 2026.

Read the full story: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX Board Ties Elon Musk Compensation to Colonizing Mars With 1 Million People

In a significant corporate governance development, SpaceX’s board has formally structured a compensation bonus for CEO Elon Musk contingent on placing one million people on Mars. The arrangement reflects both Musk’s long-stated founding vision for SpaceX and the company’s internal commitment to treating Mars colonization as a concrete operational objective rather than a distant aspiration. Financial analysts and space policy observers will be watching how this milestone-based pay structure influences Starship’s development timeline and resource allocation, particularly as the vehicle edges toward full orbital and crewed flight qualification.

Read the full story: Teslarati

Weather Scrub Sets Stage for Falcon Heavy’s Tuesday-to-Wednesday Slip

Before Wednesday’s successful launch, SpaceX was forced to wave off the ViaSat-3 F3 mission on Monday due to unfavorable weather at Kennedy Space Center, pushing the attempt to Tuesday and ultimately to April 29. The 85-minute launch window opened at 10:13 a.m. EDT, and teams threaded the weather constraints successfully on the second attempt. The brief delay had no impact on the mission profile or payload health, and the clean execution on the rescheduled date validated SpaceX’s rapid turnaround procedures for Falcon Heavy ground operations.

Read the full story: Spaceflight Now

Constellation Status

No changes have been detected in the Starlink constellation since the last check. The constellation currently consists of 11,877 total launched satellites, with 10,296 remaining in orbit, 10,280 of which are fully operational, and 1,581 that have decayed from orbit.

• Total Launched: 11877
• Total On Orbit: 10296
• Total Working: 10280

Track Starlink satellites in real-time: Track Starlink