Latest Developments

SpaceX is targeting as early as Tuesday, May 19 for the landmark Flight 12 test of a substantially redesigned Starship upper stage, marking the most significant Ship evolution since the early SN-series test articles flew in 2020 and 2021. On the operational side, a Falcon 9 successfully launched the CRS-34 Dragon cargo mission on May 15, delivering approximately 6,500 pounds of science payloads and supplies to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Meanwhile, in the commercial satellite communications arena, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are rallying support behind a proposed telco-led direct-to-device joint venture that directly challenges Starlink Mobile’s growing grip on the smartphone connectivity market. With 10,354 Starlink satellites currently operational out of 10,370 in orbit — drawn from 11,979 launched to date — SpaceX’s network remains the dominant benchmark against which all D2D competitors are measured.

Space Safety

The current Starlink conjunction assessment identifies four MODERATE risk events within a six-day window (April 7-14, 2026), with the highest concern being STARLINK-33563 approaching COSMOS 2251 DEB on Apr 13, 2026 at a maximum collision probability of 0.3973—though still below critical thresholds. The remaining six conjunctions are assessed as LOW risk, primarily involving operational satellite pairs with greater separation distances. Additionally, one Starlink satellite (STARLINK-5369) is predicted to reenter within the monitoring period, with decay expected around May 18, 2026.

Detailed Coverage

Starship Flight 12: SpaceX’s Most Evolved Ship Yet Primes for Debut

SpaceX is readying Starship’s second stage for its Flight 12 debut, and by all accounts this iteration represents the deepest structural and systems evolution the upper stage has undergone since the program’s earliest test articles. Changes span propulsion, thermal protection, and vehicle architecture, reflecting lessons absorbed across eleven prior flights ranging from the explosive early SN-series hops to the increasingly controlled integrated stack tests of the past two years.

The attempt window opens as early as May 19, according to reporting from Ars Technica, placing the flight squarely in the spotlight for the global launch community. A successful Flight 12 would validate the new Ship design under real ascent and reentry conditions, a critical gate before SpaceX can advance toward the high-cadence operations Starlink v3 constellation buildout and point-to-point ambitions will eventually demand.

Read the full story: NASASpaceFlight

CRS-34 Lifts Off, Delivers 6,500 Pounds of Cargo to ISS

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 15 at 6:05 p.m. EDT, carrying a Cargo Dragon packed with nearly 3,000 kilograms — approximately 6,500 pounds — of science experiments and crew supplies bound for the International Space Station. The mission, designated CRS-34, continues SpaceX’s long-running Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA and underscores the Falcon 9’s remarkable cadence reliability.

Among the payloads are science investigations that will take advantage of the station’s microgravity environment across biology, materials science, and technology demonstration disciplines. Dragon is expected to berth at the ISS within roughly two days of launch, with cargo transfer operations to follow over the subsequent weeks. The booster supporting this mission continued SpaceX’s reusability program with another controlled return landing.

Read the full story: Spaceflight Now

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Back Telco-Led D2D Joint Venture to Counter Starlink Mobile

The three largest U.S. wireless carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon — are throwing their weight behind a proposed direct-to-device joint venture structured to give terrestrial operators a coordinated stake in satellite-to-smartphone connectivity, a market that SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile has moved aggressively to define. The initiative is drawing support from operators who supply the satellite infrastructure needed to reach ordinary, unmodified handsets from low Earth orbit.

The move signals growing unease within the traditional telecom industry about ceding the emerging D2D segment entirely to SpaceX, whose constellation of over 10,354 active satellites gives it an inherently formidable coverage advantage. A successful joint venture could offer regulators and consumers a competitive alternative, though critics note that assembling the required satellite capacity, spectrum rights, and interoperability agreements to rival Starlink Mobile’s existing footprint will be a multi-year undertaking at minimum.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

Rocket Report: Russia’s New ICBM Test Succeeds; LEO Data Centers Gain Traction

Ars Technica’s weekly Rocket Report flags two developments worth tracking alongside SpaceX news: Russia claims a successful test of its newest intercontinental ballistic missile, a development with downstream implications for debris environment modeling and LEO access risk assessments, and a growing conversation around the viability of commercial data centers operating in low Earth orbit. The LEO data center concept, sometimes framed as bringing compute infrastructure closer to Starlink’s backbone, remains speculative but is attracting serious investor attention.

For satellite trackers, Russian ICBM activity is a perennial concern due to the potential for intentional or incidental debris generation — a factor already complicating conjunction analysis for operators managing large constellations. SpaceX’s Starlink network, with thousands of active nodes distributed across multiple orbital shells, represents one of the assets most exposed to any significant debris-generating event in LEO.

Read the full story: Ars Technica

Constellation Status

There have been no changes to the Starlink constellation since the last check. The constellation currently consists of 11,979 total launched satellites, with 10,370 in orbit, 10,354 of which are fully operational, and 1,609 that have decayed from orbit.

• Total Launched: 11979
• Total On Orbit: 10370
• Total Working: 10354

Track Starlink satellites in real-time: Track Starlink