::: spoiler Article text Jeff Foust

4–5 minutes

WASHINGTON — Commercial space station company Vast announced June 24 the addition of several companies and organizations to its network of partners for microgravity research and manufacturing.

Vast said it signed memoranda of understanding with the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego, Auxilium Biotechnologies, LambdaVision and BioOrbit. The agreements cover potential future use of Vast’s space stations by those organizations for microgravity research and related projects.

The agreements are intended to continue work those organizations have done on the International Space Station, principally in biomedical research and applications, after the ISS is retired at the end of the decade.

“The International Space Station has enabled more than two decades of scientific research in microgravity,” said Meghan Everett, Vast’s principal scientist and former deputy chief scientist for the ISS, in a statement.

“Vast’s Haven stations will build on that legacy and help accelerate commercial scientific discovery. By bringing together the foremost leaders in their respective fields, our network combines complementary expertise under a shared vision: advancing discoveries that benefit both life on Earth and humanity’s future in space,” she said.

Among Vast’s new partners is LambdaVision, which has flown nine missions to the ISS to test production of artificial retinas in space. The company, which raised $7 million last year, is working toward preclinical trials of those retinas for patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa.

“Commercial space stations represent an important next step in the evolution of space-based manufacturing,” Nicole Wagner, co-founder and chief executive of LambdaVision, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Vast supports LambdaVision’s long-term vision of creating a sustainable and scalable biomanufacturing platform that can benefit not only patients with retinal degenerative diseases but also future applications across biotechnology and advanced materials.”

LambdaVision does not plan to rely exclusively on Vast for future research. The company said in February it booked space on Starlab Space’s planned Starlab commercial space station.

Another partner is Auxilium BioTechnologies, which last year successfully produced implantable medical devices using a 3D bioprinter on the ISS.

“By combining Auxilium’s expertise in microgravity bioprinting with Vast’s commercial space infrastructure, we’re creating new opportunities to develop and manufacture complex biological systems in ways not possible on Earth,” said Isac Lazarovits, vice president of engineering at Auxilium, in a statement.

BioOrbit is developing systems for large-scale production of protein drugs in microgravity, having flown its BOX system on the ISS.

“Haven stations are designed to give us the repeat access and dedicated infrastructure we need to scale from demonstration through production and ultimately bring a shift in health care here on Earth,” Katie King, co-founder and chief executive of BioOrbit, said in a statement.

The Sanford Stem Cell Institute has done research on how the space environment, including microgravity and exposure to radiation, can accelerate the aging process of cells, enabling rapid modeling of the effects of cancer and diseases.

“We’re thrilled by the possibility to continue our vital aerospace medicine research in space — with major implications for the health of Earth-bound humans — on Haven stations,” said Catriona Jamieson, director of the institute.

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::: spoiler Article text Jeff Foust

6–7 minutes

WASHINGTON — A report by NASA’s inspector general is the latest to highlight the problems that the increasing number of launches is posing to spaceports.

NASA’s Office of Inspector General released a report June 22 on NASA launch infrastructure at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It concluded that those spaceports are not equipped to handle the growing demand for government and commercial launches.

“NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the agency and government and commercial partners,” it stated. “Based on current launch projections, Kennedy and Wallops are expected to operate near capacity in the 2028 to 2029 time frame.”

NASA data included in the report projected launches supported by KSC, which includes those at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, to grow from 109 in 2025 to 268 in 2030. Launches from Wallops would grow from 17 in 2025 to 44 in 2030, according to the agency.

That projected growth is pushing the limits of what the spaceports can handle, particularly when accounting for events like launch scrubs and major tests. The report said that KSC will reach its limits by early 2029, while Wallops could be at capacity by 2028.

Those launch rates are projected to continue to grow beyond 2030. According to the report, Blue Origin expects to perform more than 50 New Glenn launches a year by 2030 and more than 120 annually by 2035, figures the company has not widely discussed before. The report said the company approached NASA about another launch site on KSC property, although the site identified by NASA, north of Launch Complex 39, “is a protected wetland and would have to undergo lengthy and extensive federal and local review and approval processes.”

Concerns about launch activity exceeding capacity at U.S. spaceports are not new. In March 2025, executives with three major launch companies — Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance — all warned that spaceports would not be able to meet the demand they projected for their vehicles.

A report by the Commercial Space Federation released in May also noted that high demand for launches could overwhelm existing spaceports. Its recommendations included improved coordination and investment in existing spaceports while considering new launch sites, such as inland or sea-based facilities.

The NASA inspector general’s report, though, provided additional details about the conditions at KSC in particular and the demands on infrastructure there. The center’s electrical infrastructure is aging, the report noted, and demand from future Starship launches at Launch Complex 39A could exceed capacity.

Similarly, the center’s gaseous nitrogen pipelines, which extend to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, cannot simultaneously support launches of Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur or the Space Launch System. The report added that Blue Origin warned that future SLS launches could create “1- to 2-month blackout periods” in the gaseous nitrogen pipeline.

Those problems are exacerbated by funding shortfalls. The report stated that NASA funding for launch facilities and other infrastructure across its field centers has been falling over the last five years when adjusted for inflation. The agency is also restricted from receiving money from companies using launch facilities and has used agreements, like the one with SpaceX for using LC-39A, that limit its ability to recover costs.

Last year’s budget reconciliation bill included $250 million for infrastructure improvements at KSC. “However, NASA has estimated that projects to upgrade and improve infrastructure at the center could cost at least $1 billion,” the report stated. “In our judgment, it is imperative that NASA strategically prioritize funding to address Kennedy’s most pressing common-use infrastructure issues, including those related to electrical power distribution, gas supply and distribution, and transportation.”

In a response included in the report, Brian Hughes, named by NASA as director of KSC last month, accepted recommendations that included prioritizing that $250 million for launch infrastructure, as well as studying the effects of increased launch-related road traffic on the center’s roadways and assessing ways to charge fees for the use of launch infrastructure to fund maintenance and upgrades.

The report added that infrastructure problems at Wallops are not as acute as those at Kennedy, in part because of recent upgrades to the facility’s power distribution system and construction underway on a new bridge connecting Wallops Island to the mainland. However, Wallops may need to invest in additional pipelines for gaseous nitrogen and helium, and the site expects traffic from increased launches to require “frequent and necessary road repairs.”

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Starlink Group 17-45 launch out of SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is currently scheduled for 2026-06-25 03:30:38 UTC, or 2026-06-24 20:30:38 local time (PDT). Booster 1081-25 to land on Of Course I Still Love You.

• SpaceX mission page
• NextSpaceflight page

Webcasts:

• Space Affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qw6nsZ6CXw
• Spaceflight Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcNChtlCdOU
• NASASpaceflight: none
• The Launch Pad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IByRJn9WzkY
• SpaceX: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2069984002568769972
• The Space Devs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdM4PvqOmdA

::: spoiler Article text Andrew Jones

5–7 minutes

HELSINKI — A state-funded tender for tank tooling, a delivered stainless steel forging and launch pad planning suggest that China is developing 7-meter-diameter reusable rockets.

China has been working on a range of state and commercially developed reusable launch vehicles in recent years, ranging from 3.8 meters, such as the already-flying Long March 12A and 12B, up to 10.6 meters for the more distant national Long March 9 program, expected to debut in the 2030s, with the efforts aimed at boosting launch cadence and payload capacity and enabling megaconstellation deployment and large space infrastructure projects.

China’s main space contractor now appears to be working on a new, powerful intermediate rocket with a diameter in the 7.0-meter range, according to recent developments. The nearest comparison would be to Blue Origin’s operational New Glenn 7-meter-diameter, partially reusable, two-stage methalox rocket.

A tender appeared on the electronic procurement platform of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) for a single 7-meter-class tank-dome welding system. This followed Shanghai-listed forging firm Wuxi Parker New Materials announcing June 4 that its subsidiary Paixin Aviation had passed acceptance and shipped a “7.5-meter-class ultra-large-diameter high-strength ring for aerospace use” made of S-03L martensitic stainless steel for an unnamed “important model.” An acceptance panel was formed from CASC’s China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) and the Central Iron and Steel Research Institute (CISRI).

The moves correlate with a development recommendation circulated in May 2023, in which a CALT-attributed presentation slide suggested developing rockets of 5 meters, 7 meters and 10 meters, variably using clusters of 130-metric-ton-thrust YF-100K kerolox engines, the 80-ton YF-209 methalox engine and a 200-ton methalox engine, yielding low Earth orbit (LEO) payload classes of roughly 15,000 kilograms, 25,000 kg, 50,000 kg and 100,000 kg.

The 5-meter-diameter class of vehicles corresponds to the Long March 10 series, including the 10 and 10A for crewed launches, and the 10B cargo variant—expected to have a debut flight in the near future—and the 10-meter, 100,000 kg-class vehicle to the super-heavy Long March 9.

The intermediate 7-meter step—with a 25,000 kg-class vehicle with 25 YF-209 engines and a 50,000 kg-class vehicle using 13 of the larger engines—has had no public profile and no announced designation.

The current activity suggests the 7-meter-plus line is being developed and, like the known 5- and 10.6-meter classes of launcher, is being migrated from aluminum to stainless steel. CALT described its April 2025 10.6-meter stainless tank prototype as the first step in “small steps, rapid iteration” development of large-diameter stainless structures.

CASC’s other main rocket maker, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), also signalled in 2022 plans to develop reusable launchers with diameters of 3.35, 4 meters and 7 meters, with the 7.0-meter-diameter rocket planned to be able to launch more than 20,000 kg to 700 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). SAST, which operates separately from and even in competition with CALT, has developed the Long March 12A and 12B 3.8-meter-diameters reusable rockets, with the latter claimed to have gone from development to launch in 21 months.

A further sign of China’s intent are developments at Hainan commercial space launch site (HCSLS). Yang Tianliang, chairman of Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Co., Ltd., (HICAL), said in an interview published on Douyin April 8 that the site’s existing launch facilities serve 5-meter-class rockets and that the company hopes to build larger facilities, “for example, 7-meter or 10-meter level,” for vehicles generating several thousand tons of thrust. HCSLS currently has pads 1 and 2 operational, facilitating launches of the Long March 8 and Long March 12, while pads 3 and 4, both “universal” pads for liquid propellant rockets, southwest of the existing two, are under construction as part of phase 2 development. Phase 3 could see pads for the larger diameter rockets.

The geography is consistent with China’s launch hardware logistics. The 3.35-meter diameter of older Long March rockets was set by rail loading gauges, while current 4.2- and 4.5-meter commercial vehicles are sized for road convoys to Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert. Five-meter-class stages are built in the northern coastal city of Tianjin and shipped by sea to Wenchang on Hainan island. A 7-meter-plus stage could move only by water, implying coastal manufacturing and Wenchang-area launch infrastructure.

The configurations of any new 7.0-meter-diameter class reusable rockets is unknown, with the 2023 CALT recommendation possibly having evolved, and CALT and CASC yet to publicly disclose new plans. Such a move, if realized, would fit into China’s efforts to greatly boost its access to space and payload capabilities.

:::

Credit: u/Fuzzy_Hearing_5146

Inspiration: u/Makalukeke

::: spoiler Article text Jeff Foust

5–6 minutes

WASHINGTON — NASA’s safety advisers say that while the agency and Boeing continue to make progress in addressing problems with the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle, it could be up to a year before it flies again.

Members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, or ASAP, said at a June 22 meeting that although Boeing was committed to fixing problems with Starliner, there was no clear timetable for flying the vehicle on an uncrewed test flight, called Starliner-1.

“Teams continue to work through technical issues from CFT and address actions from the PIT report,” said Kent Rominger, a former astronaut and member of the panel.

Starliner last launched in June 2024 on the Crew Flight Test, or CFT, mission with NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on board. The spacecraft experienced thruster failures on its approach to the International Space Station and, after months of analysis, NASA concluded it was not safe for Starliner to return with people on board. The spacecraft made an uncrewed return in September, while Williams and Wilmore remained on the ISS until March 2025, returning on a Crew Dragon.

NASA released in February an independent report into the CFT mission by what the agency called a Program Investigation Team, or PIT. It found flawed decision-making and leadership by agency officials during the mission and recommended that the flight be categorized as a “Type A” mishap, the most serious kind. NASA accepted that recommendation.

Neither NASA nor Boeing have provided significant updates since February on work to correct the technical problems with Starliner and implement recommendations from the independent report. NASA said at a May briefing about a SpaceX commercial cargo mission to the ISS that launch plans for Starliner-1 “remain under review as teams continue working through technical issues.”

“The Starliner-1 uncrewed mission’s launch target is under review as work continues to close the final propulsion system issues,” Rominger said at the ASAP meeting. “Teams have a better understanding of the anomalies experienced during CFT through investigations and testing.”

He said integrated Boeing and NASA teams have made good progress closing all 72 observations from the CFT mission and 22 of the 28 in-flight anomalies. However, he said some of the biggest issues with the flight, such as failures of reaction control system thrusters in Starliner’s service module and heating of “doghouses” that contain the thrusters, “remain constraints for Starliner-1.”

Rominger also noted progress on organizational changes at NASA and Boeing, including leadership changes and direct coordination between Boeing and NASA mission managers. “There’s a renewed focus on improving trust and communication between NASA and Boeing,” he said.

The uncertainty about when Starliner-1 will launch contrasted with optimism early in the year. In early February, before the release of the PIT report, NASA officials said Starliner-1 could launch as soon as April. However, by May, the agency said it was unclear whether the mission could launch this year, citing limited opportunities in the ISS schedule.

Later in the meeting, Susan Helms, chair of ASAP, reiterated that there was no formal launch date yet for Starliner-1, but said that mission would take place “in the next year or so.”

While the schedule for Starliner-1 remains uncertain, ASAP members said they have assurances from NASA and Boeing that the company wants to fly the spacecraft again and obtain certification for crewed missions.

“NASA and Boeing continue working toward the goal of Starliner’s crewed certification, which includes defining what is needed and acceptable for the next uncrewed mission to reduce risk and confirm readiness for crewed missions,” Rominger said.

He added the panel met with Don Ruhmann, Boeing’s chief aerospace safety officer. Ruhmann “emphasized Boeing’s commitment to NASA and Starliner,” he said. Ruhmann also met with NASA’s astronaut office and offered “his commitment to a safe Starliner service.”

NASA, though, is preparing for scenarios where Starliner does not return to service soon or at all. In a procurement filing last month, the agency said it planned to add six flights to SpaceX’s commercial crew contract, citing “technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing” among the reasons for doing so. The additional SpaceX flights would be enough to handle projected ISS operations through its scheduled retirement in 2030.

:::

Webcasts

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:

☑️ 35th launch from SLC-40 this year

☑️ 6 days, 04:14:00 turnaround for SLC-40

☑️ 28 days, 23:04:56 turnaround for B1078

☑️ 158th landing on ASOG

☑️ 634th Falcon Family Booster landing, 645th Falcon recovery attempt

☑️ 73rd Falcon 9 mission this year, 656th overall

☑️ 75th SpaceX mission this year, 685th overall (excluding Starship test flights)

☑️ 75th SpaceX launch this year, 694th overall (including Starship test flights)

Mission info

• SpaceX mission page
• NextSpaceflight page

Starfall

Starfall is SpaceX's mass-produced reentry vehicle designed to autonomously transport valuable customer experiments and other payloads safely back from space to Earth, including for in-orbit manufacturing. Starfall is a cylindrical shaped capsule approximately 0.75 meters tall with a diameter of 3.1 meters, weighing approximately 2,100 kilograms, and capable of carrying 1,000 kilogram of payload. It is designed to be carried on Starship flights.

::: spoiler Article text Sandra Erwin

5–6 minutes

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched a spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force to begin a military exercise focused on rapidly identifying and characterizing potential threats in space.

The company on June 19 launched the Victus Haze spacecraft, known as “Victus Haze Puma,” aboard an Electron rocket from the company’s launch site in Mahia, New Zealand. The satellite was developed under a $32 million contract awarded by the Space Force in 2024 and is one of two spacecraft participating in the Victus Haze mission.

The spacecraft was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit and will now undergo commissioning before beginning rendezvous and proximity operations, or RPO, with a spacecraft operated by Colorado-based startup True Anomaly.

“With launch complete, the team will now complete on-orbit checkout and vehicle commissioning, after which RPO operations begin,” Space Systems Command said in a June 22 statement. “During these operations, the teams operating both the Rocket Lab and the True Anomaly space vehicles will conduct a variety of scenarios, demonstrating space domain Awareness and characterization capabilities, each in dynamic engagements with the other.”

Victus Haze is the fourth demonstration under the Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Space, or TacRS, program, which seeks to prove that commercial providers can rapidly launch spacecraft on military timelines while also performing increasingly sophisticated missions once in orbit.

The exercise builds on lessons from the 2023 Victus Nox demonstration, when the Space Force and launch provider Firefly Aerospace launched a satellite within 27 hours of receiving a launch order. While Victus Nox focused primarily on rapid launch, Victus Haze expands the concept to include the ability to quickly deploy spacecraft capable of maneuvering, inspecting and characterizing objects in orbit.

The broader goal is to transform responsive launch from a demonstration effort into an operational military capability. Space Force officials have argued that future conflicts may require the rapid replacement of damaged satellites, deployment of new sensors or launch of spacecraft to investigate suspicious activity in orbit on timelines measured in days rather than months or years.

Under the Victus Haze architecture, the Space Force selected Rocket Lab and True Anomaly to provide separate maneuvering spacecraft that would conduct rendezvous and proximity operations after launch.

The Rocket Lab spacecraft is expected to conduct operations with Jackal-004, a True Anomaly spacecraft already in orbit, rather than waiting for a dedicated Victus Haze vehicle that had been expected to launch separately on a Firefly Aerospace rocket.

Jackal launched May 3 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission carrying South Korea’s CAS500-2 Earth observation satellite. The spacecraft will maneuver and interact with Rocket Lab’s vehicle with during the demonstration.

True Anomaly received a $30 million contract for Victus Haze.

Prior to the Rocket Lab launch, the Space Force’s Space Safari program office directed the company to a “heightened readiness posture” before activating the team into alert status.

Rocket Lab highlighted several milestones achieved during the exercise. After receiving the formal notice-to-launch order from the Space Force’s Space Safari program office, Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket within 16 hours and 42 minutes, beating the mission’s 24-hour responsive launch requirement.

The company’s guidance, navigation and control team took roughly four hours to calculate a final trajectory to a previously undisclosed orbit, update flight software and coordinate ground stations ahead of launch. Once in orbit, Rocket Lab completed commissioning of its spacecraft in 37 hours and 36 minutes, allowing it to begin orbital maneuvers more than 34 hours ahead of Victus Haze’s 72-hour operational deadline.

“Victus Haze set out to demonstrate our ability to respond to irresponsible behavior on orbit under operationally realistic conditions, and we are doing just that, leveraging commercial partnerships to maximize flexibility and minimize cost,” said Col. Bryon McClain, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Space Combat Power.

True Anomaly said in a statement that Jackal is “fully operational and ready to execute rendezvous and proximity operations.”

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::: spoiler Spoiler The culprit turned out to be the Russian military satellite Cosmos 2546. :::