SpaceX is preparing to push Starship into another major test, while rocket teams across the world are racing to prove new engines, launch vehicles, and space missions. The next Starship flight is scheduled for NET the 22nd, and this time SpaceX has confirmed an orbital mission carrying 26 V3 Starlinks during a planned 10-hour flight.
The mission will end with a splashdown in the Pacific off the Chilean coast, and SpaceX will not attempt to catch the booster. That choice gives the company a clear test focus: send Starship around the planet, gather flight data, and bring the vehicle back through the challenges that have shaped its development.
Starship Heads Toward Its Next Big Test
SpaceX has already gone captive, according to Eric Berger, who said, “I can tell you SpaceX has already gone captive.” The next flight will include changes to both the Super Heavy booster and the spacecraft’s heatshield, building on information from Flight 13.
The Super Heavy booster will receive hardware modifications designed to improve filtering to the engines. SpaceX also plans software changes aimed at improving relight reliability, adding another layer of preparation before the scheduled flight.
Flight 13 data also led to heatshield improvements, with plans to re-fly 2 tiles. Each change points to the same goal: turn test results into hardware updates before Starship attempts another demanding mission.
SpaceX also launched a trio of satellites for SES on a Falcon 9 rocket from Fl, with the launch scheduled for about 6pm local time on the 15th. Together, the Falcon 9 launch and the upcoming Starship mission show the company managing routine satellite work alongside its most ambitious vehicle test.
New Rockets Crowd the Global Launch Calendar
Avio’s Vega C rocket successfully launched the European Space Agency’s FLEX Earth Explorer satellite and Copernicus Sentinel-3C into low-Earth orbit. The rocket can carry 2.3 metric tons into low-Earth orbit, and the launch cost about $60 million.
“Preparing and launching two satellites together is no easy task,” said Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s director of Earth observation programs. The mission placed two important Earth observation spacecraft into orbit on one flight, showing the planning required when a launch carries more than one satellite.
China packed four launches into a 44-hour window, starting Tuesday, using the Jiuquan and Hainan spaceports along with a maritime mission from the East China Sea. The rockets were LandSpace’s Zhuque-2E, Orienspace’s Gravity-1, the Chinese space agency’s Long March 12, and ExPace’s Kuaizhou-11.
That burst of activity put four different launch vehicles into action within less than two days. The sequence also brought private companies, a national space agency, and a maritime launch operation into the same fast-moving stretch of the launch calendar.
French launch startup Sirius Space Services successfully test-fired a complete prototype of its STAR-1 rocket engine. The engine is designed to produce 55 kN of thrust, and one description said, “The engine looks strikingly similar to SpaceX’s Raptor 3 engine.”
Another comment captured the urgency behind the new launch race: “We felt like now is the time to pour gas on that fire.” The STAR-1 test adds another engine program to a field already filled with new rockets, new launch providers, and tougher demands for orbital access.
Telescope Images Reveal More About Space
The Roman Space Telescope has produced its first test images, revealing a diffraction pattern caused by the supports for the secondary mirror. The pattern is not just a visual detail; it gives the telescope team information about how the instrument handles starlight.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope includes a Coronagraph Instrument that uses shaped pupil masks about the size of a U.S. quarter. Those masks modify the diffraction pattern of starlight, creating a path toward the instrument’s planned observations.
Closer to home, LRO identified a new impact crater on the moon. The event is estimated to be a once every 132 years phenomenon, giving the discovery a rare place in the ongoing record of lunar change.
Rocket development will continue on several fronts. Astra plans to launch its Rocket 4 from Wallops in January or February, with the vehicle designed to carry 600 kg to low-Earth orbit.
From Starship’s planned 26 V3 Starlinks to Vega C’s paired Earth observation satellites, the next phase of spaceflight is taking shape through repeated tests and tightly scheduled launches. Engine prototypes, booster software, heatshield tiles, telescope instruments, and lunar discoveries are all adding pieces to the same larger picture: access to space is becoming a faster, broader contest, and the next launch window could reveal which designs are ready to move ahead.
Based on
- Rocket Report: China wants a Raptor 3 engine; SpaceX set for big Starship test — arstechnica.com
- Rocket Report: ULA flies into uncertain future; Falcon 9 family hits 700 launches | Ars OpenForum — arstechnica.com
- Rocket Report: Europe joins the commercial launch club; a Ravn X sighting? | Page 3 | Ars OpenForum — arstechnica.com
