Tag: reusable rockets
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SpaceX FCC Filing Outlines First Full Orbital Attempt for Starship Flight 14
SpaceX has submitted communications applications to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for Starship Flight 14, formally identifying the mission as the program’s first attempt to place the vehicle into a sustained Earth orbit. The paperwork requests authority to operate launch-vehicle communications during a window beginning September 15, 2026, and extending through March 15, 2027. The…
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SpaceX Launches 27 Starlink Satellites as Falcon 9 Booster Completes 35th Flight (Video)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 27 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sept. 2, 2026 at 1:42 a.m. PT (4:42 a.m. ET). Credit: SpaceX SpaceX launched 27 Starlink broadband satellites from California on September 2, extending the company’s low Earth orbit communications network while…
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Hainan Could Become the Hub of China’s Commercial Space Future
The global launch industry is entering a new phase, one defined less by whether rockets can reach orbit and more by how quickly launch capacity can scale. Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim recently pointed to a widening imbalance between the number of satellites waiting to fly and the amount of launch capacity available to carry…
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Pallas-1 Y1: Another New Rocket from a Chinese Private Launch Company Reaches Orbit
At 10:00 a.m. on September 1, 2026, Pallas-1 Y1, a medium-to-large reusable liquid-propellant launch vehicle developed by Galactic Energy, lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone. The rocket successfully entered its designated orbit as planned, performed normally throughout the flight, and achieved all test objectives, marking the successful completion of the mission.…
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Six Key Metrics for Assessing China’s Reusable Rockets
China’s reusable-rocket race has reached a turning point. With the Long March-10B completing an offshore net-capture recovery and Zhuque-3 Y2 landing its first stage on deployable legs, the country has demonstrated that it can recover intact boosters from orbital-class missions. But landing a rocket is not the same as reusing it—and reuse does not automatically…
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Decoding the Six Reusable Rockets Successfully Recovered Worldwide
Rocket recovery has evolved from an experimental concept into one of the defining capabilities of modern launch vehicles. By returning and potentially reusing major rocket stages, launch providers aim to reduce costs, shorten turnaround times and support a higher launch cadence. To date, six orbital-class launch vehicles worldwide—Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, New Glenn, Long…
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China’s Race for Orbit and Spectrum: Hainan’s New Factory Targets 1,000 Satellites a Year
The successful recovery of Zhuque-3 was celebrated across China. From state-owned aerospace organizations to private companies, China’s commercial space sector has achieved a historic breakthrough in rocket recovery technology. Yet while everyone was looking up at the sky, another, less visible part of China’s space strategy was quietly taking shape. June 2026, Wenchang, Hainan Province.…
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In-Depth Look at the Long March 10B Launch Vehicle
I. Basic Information The Long March 10B is a large, reusable commercial liquid-propellant launch vehicle with a diameter of 5 meters. The rocket was developed under the overall responsibility of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The project was formally approved on July 3, 2025, entered the engineering development phase in December 2025,…
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Falcon 9’s Final Chapter? SpaceX Plans to Retire Its Workhorse Rocket Once Starship Reaches Full Operational Service
SpaceX is preparing for one of the most consequential transitions in launch industry history: the eventual retirement of the Falcon 9 rocket, the vehicle that transformed commercial spaceflight and established reusable launch systems as an industry standard. According to comments highlighted by SpaceX leadership and reported by Space.com, the company intends to phase out Falcon…
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After Long March 10B and Zhuque-3 Recoveries, What Comes Next for China’s Commercial Rockets?
On August 19, 2026, the second Zhuque-3 rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone. Its first stage subsequently returned to a landing pad in Minqin, Gansu Province, marking China’s first land recovery of the first stage of an orbital-class launch vehicle. Just 40 days earlier, on July 10, the Long March…