Tag: Starlink
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SpaceX Pushes First Starship Tower Catch Attempt to Later This Year as Reusability Campaign Advances
SpaceX is now targeting its first attempt to catch a returning Starship upper stage with the launch tower “chopstick” arms within the next few months, a shift from earlier expectations that the milestone could occur on the vehicle’s next flight. The updated timeline came from CEO Elon Musk, who said the company’s first Starship tower-catch…
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SpaceX Reaches 100th Mission of 2026 as Starlink Launch Highlights a New Era of High-Frequency Spaceflight
SpaceX has completed its 100th mission of 2026, reaching the milestone on Aug. 19 with another Starlink deployment from California. The mission, Starlink Group 17-50, sent 24 Starlink broadband satellites toward low Earth orbit aboard a flight-proven Falcon 9, underscoring how rapidly SpaceX has transformed orbital launch from an occasional event into a high-frequency operational…
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Airtel Africa and Starlink Turn Direct-to-Device Connectivity Into a Commercial Network
The commercial launch of Starlink Mobile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) marks a more important shift in satellite communications than the headline “Africa’s first commercial direct-to-device service” might suggest. On August 14, 2026, Airtel Africa and SpaceX began commercial Starlink Mobile operations in the DRC, allowing customers with compatible smartphones to connect…
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Russia Accelerates Rassvet Satellite-Internet Deployment
MOSCOW/KYIV, Aug. 13, 2026 — Russia is accelerating the deployment of Rassvet, a domestically developed low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation intended to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign satellite communications. Recent launches and orbital observations suggest that the project has moved beyond experimental testing, although its present capabilities remain far short of SpaceX’s Starlink network. The system…
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China’s Space Computing Race: Competing for the Next Decade’s AI Compute Power
AI’s computing needs are outgrowing what Earth can easily supply — and a new race is emerging to move data centers into orbit. This report breaks down the emerging “space computing” industry from every angle: what it actually is and why energy and bandwidth constraints are pushing computing into space (Sections 1–2); the physical advantages…
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SpaceX spooks investors with debut earnings report
SpaceX shares dropped on Wednesday after Elon Musk’s plans for blockbuster spending to position his AI and rocket company as a data center developer spooked investors. SpaceX surpassed analysts’ expectations in Tuesday’s debut earnings report, posting quarterly revenues of $7.8 billion, well above analysts’ estimates of $6.82 billion and up 92 percent from a year…
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Starship Flight 13 Set to Deploy First V3 Starlink Satellites in Operational Debut
Flight 13 is the 13th test launch overall of the Starship megarocket and the second flight this year, following the May 22 launch of Flight 12. It will also be the second flight of SpaceX’s new Starship Version 3, or V3. The vehicle stands more than 400 feet tall and is being designed as a…
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Starlink Satellites Now Dodging Collisions Almost Weekly as Maneuvers Triple in a Year
The increase coincides with rapid growth of the constellation and the broader satellite population. Starlink expanded from about 6,000 satellites in 2024 to more than 10,000 as of June 2026. Over the same period, the total number of operational spacecraft in orbit rose from around 10,000 to roughly 16,000. Between December 2025 and May 2026,…
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Starship Flight 13 Carries 20 Starlink V3 Sats July 16
Does Starship Flight 13 Carry Its First Real Payload? Yes — and it matters. SpaceX has confirmed Starship Flight 13 is targeting liftoff from Starbase, Texas, as early as Thursday, July 16, carrying 20 Starlink V3 satellites: the vehicle’s first operational payload in 13 flights of developmental testing. For the first time, the world’s most…
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Falcon 9 Booster Hits 35 Flights, 12,472 Starlinks Launched
Is a 35-Flight Falcon 9 Booster the New Normal for Launch Economics? A single Falcon 9 first stage flew its 35th mission on July 10, 2026, deploying 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit and landing intact for future reuse. The flight is the highest confirmed reuse count in the Falcon 9 fleet to date,…