Space Explored

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy spoke to media this afternoon at EAA AirVenture about new Federal Aviation Administration rules and NASA.

The jets that make up Ghost Squadron were in town on Day 1 at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this evening. Shortly after the airshow ended, the MiG-29, L-39 Albatross, and Alpha jets taxiied and took off for a presumed practice run over Lake Winnebago.

Using telescopes in space is often advantageous to get the best image of interstellar objects. Astronomers place telescopes on mountains in the middle of the ocean or in desert to remove as much as the atmosphere as possible. The middleground? An airplane.

In summer 1975, the Vietnam war came to and end, Jaws was just released as the big summer blockbuster and Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win Wimbledon. As Earth transformed and made history, two countries were busy changing the course of history in space.

Today marks the last day of meetings for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration in Berlin, Germany. The collaborative effort shared on X (formerly Twitter) last week that a meeting would be held in Berlin from July 14-18. “120 international scientists will gather to discuss the next big goals for black hole science – publishing new, better images using recent data and creating “movies” of M87*,” EHT shared on X.

This week Elon Musk shared his patented vague timeline announcements for future Starship launches, “launching again in ~3 weeks.” Can SpaceX do it after Ship 36’s and Massey’s destruction? When will Starship Flight 10 actually fly?

The SpaceX Falcon 9 just hit a major launch milestone over the weekend with its 500th successful launch. While most companies would have maybe made a bigger deal out of the milestone, it was just another day for SpaceX, and the payload it flew left the mission in a veil of secrecy for a little bit.

Cameron County has approved SpaceX to build an air separator at its Starbase facility to help with liquid oxygen and nitrogen propellant. However, the locals aren’t too pleased with the development, and the county has some stipulations.

Late yesterday, President Donald Trump appointed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to be interim Administrator of NASA, a move that was both surprising and unprecedented. Duffy will continue in his current job while also taking on the duties of NASA Administrator.

In the wake of the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, a wave of headlines has described NASA’s future in stark, often dire terms. Phrases like “extinction-level event” and “gutting science” have circulated widely, creating the impression the agency is on the verge of collapse. The proposed cuts are indeed significant – but from a reporting standpoint, the broader picture appears more layered than many early reactions suggest.

NASA announced this week that NASA+, the agency’s new streaming service, will be making the leap to another streaming service, Netflix. However, NASA+ will still be available, for free, on the agency’s website.

As United Launch Alliance rolled out its second Atlas V mission of the year on June 23, it wasn’t just rockets taking center stage. An ambitious artificial intelligence initiative dubbed “RocketGPT” has quietly lifted off behind the scenes, signaling the company’s broader modernization agenda alongside the final missions of the reliable Atlas fleet.

Jared Isaacman, best known for commanding private astronaut missions such as Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn, has pivoted from his sudden departure as NASA’s Administrator nominee to lead a bold new front: mobilizing private capital for space science. At the June 21 International Space Development Conference in Orlando, where he accepted the National Space Society’s Wernher von Braun Award, he shared his vision for privately funded robotic science missions developed in partnership with top-tier universities. 

SpaceX’s final Crew Dragon to roll out of the factory floor has officially arrived at the International Space Station after a successful launch with the crew of Axiom-4. With that, it brings SpaceX’s total to five crew-capable Dragon spacecraft for government and commercial use.

In an era where space exploration is transitioning from fleeting missions to lasting habitation, one question has emerged at the forefront: how do we not just survive, but thrive in environments beyond Earth? According to one company, the answer lies in the intersection of visionary design and advanced digital tools.

In a last-minute announcement, SpaceX, NASA, and Axiom Space are attempting to launch Axiom-4, the company’s fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS for about two weeks. The launch is set for 2:31 A.M. ET from LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Earlier this week, SpaceX suffered a major setback again in its Starship development program with the total loss of Ship 36. In good news, the potential failure of the COPV that is in Starship will not affect Falcon 9’s historic launch cadence.

Tuesday, Honda’s Research and Development Company surprised the world with its announcement of a successful low-altitude hop of a test vehicle designed as a reusable rocket testbed. While Honda’s entrance into the space industry is not new, no prior word of this sort of progress in the space launch market was previously known.

Vast is working on what might just be the first commercial space station in low Earth orbit. To get the public excited about the station’s launch as soon as one year from now, the company released a VR fly through, led by Vast’s Lead Astronaut, that is available on Meta, Steam, and yes, Apple’s platforms.

SpaceX’s Starship program has hit another setback as what was expected to be its next flight-ready Starship second stage exploded on the test stand prior to an engine test. The cause of the explosion is unknown, and as of this writing, no injuries have been reported.

ULA is set to attempt its second launch of Amazon Kuiper satellites from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This will be Amazon’s second batch of operational satellites to be deployed as well, finally hitting a stride in getting its constellation of internet-providing satellites out there.

SpaceX has begun the process of clearing the launch site once used by its rival, now expected to be used for the company’s Starship rocket. This comes as SpaceX continues the growth of its Starship system on the East Coast but struggles to get its launch rate up at Starbase.

NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom Space have decided to postpone the launch of the Axiom-4 crew to the International Space Station pending the completion of an investigation into a leak on the Russian side of the station. The news came after a single-day delay due to another leak, this time on a Falcon 9 booster, discovered before launch.