Seth Kurkowski

Jared Isaacman has finally received his call to be interviewed by the Senate for his new job as NASA Administrator, much more delayed than we originally thought. This will kick off the intense process before Isaacman can officially begin managing the agency.

SpaceX announced that its Starship Flight 9 mission will see the rocket’s first taste of reusability with the booster from Flight 7. The company also announced that a vast majority of the Raptor engines that flew on the booster will return for flight as well.

Read more: Starship Flight 9: SpaceX shows off Ship 35 heading for testing

Last week NASA announced that it has added SpaceX’s Starship rocket to its NASA Launch Services II contract, giving future access to NASA missions when the agency and rocket are ready. However, Starship’s current status will need to move forward in development much further before it will likely be able to compete for contracts.

Jeff Thornburg, former SpaceX VP that oversaw the development of Starship‘s Raptor engine, announced today that his company, Portal Space Systems, has raised $17.5 million in seed funding. The company plans to finish development and launch its first Supernova satellite system that is powered by an engine that comes with the benefits of nuclear propulsion, without the reactor.

Last week, the US Space Force announced it had certified ULA‘s Vulcan rocket for use on national security space launches, a major win for the company’s bottom line. However, the multi-month delay means Vulcan will not be ULA’s next launch, but the company still has big plans for this year.

A recent report from ProPublica shared a rather concerning tactic SpaceX is encouraging when it comes to foreign investment. While Chinese investors are usually avoided when the company is a defense contractor, SpaceX has supported this investment through offshore shell companies, masking their identity from government regulators.

After a rather space-packed first term, many expected the same to happen during President Trump‘s second term. However, we are approaching two-thirds of the way through Trump’s 100 days, and we still don’t have a firm understanding of his space goals.

The crew of FRAM2, the first crewed spaceflight to fly over Earth’s poles, is set and ready to launch as soon as a week from today. The four crew members completed their training at SpaceX‘s Hawthorne offices and are now off to Cape Canaveral to enter quarantine before launch.

For the last couple of years, SpaceX has been shaving hours off its booster turnaround timelines. This has turned months-long turnarounds into weeks; last week, SpaceX finally got that timeline down to just nine days! The company also just recently broke a launch pad turnaround timeline as well.

We’re soon closing the chapter on the first quarter of 2025, and so far the only companies in the headlines for launches have been SpaceX and Rocket Lab, with other companies like Firefly soon to follow. However, SpaceX’s supposed competitor has been nowhere, still waiting on final work from the Space Force that its Vulcan rocket is cleared to launch the missions it was contracted to do. So when might ULA, Vulcan, or Atlas finally launch next?

It’s been a while since we’ve discussed the space tourism company after it retired its VSS Unity spaceplane last year. 2025 will be the year of building for Virgin Galactic; the company announced recently that work is already underway on its first Delta spaceplane.

Over the weekend and yesterday, NASA and SpaceX successfully rotated out Crew-9 for Crew-10 at the International Space Station. The crew members included former Starliner crew members, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

Early Friday morning, if you were brave enough to stay up late or wake up early to see it, the Moon passed through Earth’s shadow, turning the surface a reddish-orange tint. This is known as a lunar eclipse or “blood moon.” These happen about as often as solar eclipses but can cover much larger parts of the Earth, so when is the next one?

In case you’re going to be up late tonight, you might want to take a chance to look up at the Moon as it will be turning colors, to red! Tonight will be a rare moment to witness a total lunar eclipse. While not as rare as a solar eclipse, it is still not something you see often.

Last night, SpaceX attempted to launch its Crew-10 mission from LC-39A; however, it ran into a snag about 40 minutes before liftoff, scrubbing the launch. NASA and SpaceX will reattempt to launch the international crew of four on Friday, March 14 at 7:03 P.M. ET.

After being first reported over two years ago, Blue Origin has finally released details on its first all-female New Shepard mission, commanded by helicopter pilot, entrepreneur, and girlfriend of Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez.

Last week featured a rare zero-launch week for SpaceX’s Falcon rocket as the company jumps back after a failed booster on March 2. SpaceX is expected to return to Falcon launches this week with the launch of two NASA payloads: SPHEREx and PUNCH.

Last week was a big week for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as it saw two landings by two different companies. The hope was that the agency would end up with two successful providers of NASA science to the Moon’s surface; instead, it saw one, with the other falling over once again.

During the live coverage of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 8, the company laid out an update to its plan to launch the massive vehicle from Florida. Some of the plans we’ve seen starting to take shape already were finally confirmed by SpaceX, such as the massive expansion of Roberts Road.

SpaceX was able to get its Starship Flight 8 off the ground after a scrub Monday afternoon; its goal was to repeat the Flight 7 objectives. However, Flight 8 ended in a similar spot, with Ship 34’s ascent into space being cut short due to an unknown issue.