Render of future SLC-47 site // Photo: SpaceX A Major Milestone for America’s Next Heavy-Lift Launch System In a landmark decision with wide-reaching implications for U.S. spaceflight, the Department of the Air Force has officially approved SpaceX to redevelop Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for future Starship launches. The announcement, delivered on December 1, 2025, concludes a lengthy environmental and regulatory review and opens the

Soyuz MS-28 Launch // Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) A textbook ascent with a hidden problem On 27 November 2025, a Soyuz-2.1a rocket lofted the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov to the International Space Station (ISS). The ascent was nominal, rendezvous was on time, and the crew docked safely a little over three hours after li

Render of New Glenn 9x4 launching // Photo: Blue Origin Blue Origin has taken a major step toward turning New Glenn from a single heavy-lift rocket into an entire family of launch vehicles aimed at everything from Amazon’s Kuiper satellites to crewed lunar missions. In a sweeping update released on November 20, the company detailed both near-term upgrades to the current New Glenn and a new super-heavy variant dubbed New Glenn 9×4 . Together, the pair are meant to serve as a f

Photo: Blue Origin Blue Origin has revealed a full-scale, deployable aerobrake system, marking one of the company’s most significant advances in spacecraft atmospheric-entry and orbital-maneuver hardware to date. Designed to use planetary atmospheres to slow spacecraft and reduce propellant requirements, the new system could reshape how missions to the Moon, Mars, and Earth orbit are planned and executed. The aerobrake prototype—shown in a demonstration released by Blue Origi

Rocket Lab's Electron HASTE mission vertical at Wallops Flight Facility // Photo: Ryan Bale for Spaceflight News Rocket Lab successfully launched its latest HASTE mission—codenamed “Van”—from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia. The mission lifted off on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at approximately 8:00 a.m. EST following a weather delay the previous day. The mission was originally slated to fly on Monday, but the first launch a

SLS rolling out of the VAB for the first time // Photo: Ryan Bale for Spaceflight News With the federal government reopened and NASA centers returning to full operational tempo, progress on Artemis II  is accelerating once again. Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, the Space Launch System (SLS)  and Orion spacecraft  now stand fully stacked—forming the complete 322-foot rocket that will send astronauts on the first crewed lunar mission of the Artemis

New Glenn lifting off // Photo: John Kraus/Blue Origin Blue Origin has officially entered the heavy lift arena with a flawless launch and recovery of its New Glenn rocket, delivering Rocket Labs twin ESCAPADE spacecraft toward Mars while also achieving its first ever booster landing on an ocean going droneship. This mission stands as a defining milestone not only for Blue Origin but for Rocket Lab, NASA's small mission program, and the future of reusable heavy lift launch sys