Space Stuff and Launch Info

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Honda tests a reusable rocket (300 m hop)

 

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Starship flight 10 was planned for June 29th, but the ship exploded in a test.



The ship is gone, it's likely the test site suffered extensive damage. It's separate from the launch site. It happened half an hour ago, there is still some fire burning. Live:

 

[Flyboy]

Well, how far away is the nearest sniper perch, I wonder?

 

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Images of the aftermath showing damage to the Starship test site.
Looks like a COPV (composite overwrapped pressure vessel) exploded at a pressure where it shouldn't.

 

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Axiom-4 launch in 15 minutes
Alternative coverage
Launching India's second astronaut, and the first once since the 1980s. His spaceflight experience will help India develop its own crew capsule.

Falcon 9 has become the rocket that delivered the most payload mass to orbit (the Space Shuttle is still ahead if we include its dry mass).

 

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Who needs nozzles anyway?

New: Burnthrough during a test of an upgraded SLS booster, looks like the nozzle disintegrated (other view, longer coverage). This booster is planned to be used for Artemis 9 and later, if these missions will happen.
Coming some time after Firefly Alpha lost a nozzle in flight and Vulcan Centaur lost a nozzle in flight.

 

[Flyboy]

Yeah, I don’t think this design will ever fly.

I saw someone call SLS the Senate Launch System, and there’s a depressing amount of truth to that accusation. They need to accept that they would get more bang for their buck by starting over and ignoring the sunken cost fallacy. Clean sheet, you can use certain things like the RS-25s, but no solid boosters. Take a page from SpaceX and use LRBs that do a boost back and land on shore.

 

[gleem]

Starship 10 is rumoured to be launched in the first week of August.

 

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Launch failure of Eris on its first attempt. Lost thrust immediately after takeoff and ended up making a short "hop", exploding when it hit the ground near the launch pad.
First orbital launch attempt for an Australian rocket (the UK previously launched from Australia, but with British rockets).

 

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Much better video
Clearly some issues with the engines. Looks like the front right engine stopped producing thrust almost immediately after takeoff, the front left engine seems to fail a few seconds later.

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.gspace.com/post/first-t...-a-giant-leap-for-australian-space-capability

The 23-meter, 30-tonne Eris rocket, powered by new hybrid propulsion technology, successfully lifted off from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in North Queensland, achieving approximately 14 seconds of flight.

"Space is hard," said Adam Gilmour, CEO of Gilmour Space Technologies. "SpaceX, Rocket Lab and others needed multiple test flights to reach orbit. We've learned a tremendous amount that will go directly into improving our next vehicle, which is already in production."

"Getting off the pad and into flight is a huge step forward for any new rocket program. This was the first real test of our rocket systems, our propulsion technology, and our spaceport — and it proved that much of what we've built works."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...rocket-launch-success-despite-crash/105591262

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cz93xzv3njjo

https://www.space.gov.au/news-and-media/first-launch-attempt-of-aussie-made-rocket

Almost, but not quite. Missed it by that much.

It looks like one of the engines failed soon after liftoff.

 

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Static fire of Starship 37 with all 6 engines.
After the explosion at the dedicated ship test stand, SpaceX adjusted the orbital launch pad to be able to do static fire tests with ships. These modifications need to be reverted before they can launch the next test flight. SpaceX aims at mid August.

After flight 10, SpaceX has one more Block 2 ship and one more Block 2 booster, which could potentially make flight 11 together. Everything after that is Block 3.

The ship alone looks tiny on that giant launch mount and next to the tower, but it's about the same mass as a Falcon Heavy.

 

[nsaspook]

The Perfect Rocket Fuel: No Fires, No Chemicals. Just Energy.
https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/06/27/perfect-rocket-fuel-no-fires-no-chemicals-just-energy-49569

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09032-9

According to CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ (ΔH0) computations, the decomposition of N6 into three N2 is exothermic (ΔH0) by 185.2 kcal mol−1, which is 2.2 and 1.9 times higher than the decomposition enthalpies of TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) and HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane, octogen) by weight50 (see the ‘Computational details’ section in Methods).

 

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It decomposes just from heating up - try to burn a part and you blow up the whole storage. They calculate a detonation velocity of 9 km/s. Not a property you want for a rocket.

I'm surprised its not more energy dense with such an exotic shape. Just 9 kJ/g. For comparison, forming water from hydrogen and oxygen releases 16 kJ/g.

 

[Filip Larsen]

Not a property you want for a rocket.

At the headline level I came to think of a chemical variant of the Orion project, i.e. pulsed detonation propulsion, but I am not aware of anyone actively pursuing propulsive pulsed detonation beyond theoretical work.

 

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Chemical pulsed detonation is inefficient. Nuclear pulse propulsion is interesting because you can use the vastly larger energy content of nuclear reactions.

 

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Vulcan Centaur and Ariane 6 both made their third flight. Ariane carried a weather satellite, Vulcan carried a military satellite, its first national security launch. The launches happened to be so close together that Ariane was visible from the northeastern US and Canada just ~10 minutes before Vulcan launched.

ULA still expects 9 launches this year and 24 next year - as of today, they have made 3 flights in 2025.

 

[Filip Larsen]

Vulcan carried a military satellite, its first national security launch

Arstechnica has a piece on that:
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/...cy-to-new-heights-ahead-of-key-rocket-launch/

 

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SpaceX report on Starship flight 9
* The larger angle of attack they tested with the booster was too large.
* Methane entered the nosecone of Starship (where the header tank is), leading to various problems and ultimately a loss of attitude control.

Flight 10 no earlier than Sunday, August 24
The profile is the same as for flight 9.

Also planned for August 24 is the launch of CRS-33, a Dragon resupply mission to the ISS. This one features a "boost trunk", designed to raise the orbit of the ISS multiple times - reducing the dependency on the Russian Progress spacecraft which did that job in the past.

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NASA’s acting chief calls for the end of Earth science at the space agency
Can we get someone else, please?

 

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Starship moved to the pad at Starbase for its tenth flight test. The 60-minute launch window opens tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. CT with weather currently 45% favorable for liftoff → https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-10

Countdown for time zone conversion.
With only 45% chance for good weather, and possible other issues, a delay is more likely than a launch.

 

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Shifted by one day due to an issue with ground equipment.
Live coverage started.
T-40 minutes, although the weather is still a coin toss.

Edit: Weather is too bad, next attempt tomorrow if the weather improves.

 

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Next launch attempt in 3 min: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-10

Liftoff!

Spoiler

The booster lost one engine on ascent, but still completed its mission nominally. The landing over the ocean was a success, with a simulated (additional!) engine-out during landing.

The ship reached the planned almost-orbital trajectory and deployed some mass simulators. Now it's cruising over Africa. Waiting for the Raptor re-light to simulate a reentry burn.

Relight successful.

Reentry looked super spicy with one flap and the engine skirt getting damaged, but the ship overall maintained control. They do stress the vehicle more than necessary on purpose to find the limits of the heat shield.

Landing burn looked good, it splashed down in the Indian Ocean. After it hit the water it tipped over and exploded, but that's expected. A tower could have caught it in flight.

Some damage to the flaps and engine skirt, but otherwise a fully successful flight.

 

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Better Starship landing videos:


The red and white colors are from tests - metallic tiles and insulation material from spaces where tiles were removed released stuff that spread over the rest of the heat shield.

The next flight will be the last one of the v2 version. The flight profile will be the same, except for a possible booster catch. We can expect more heat shield and flap tests.

v3 is larger and needs major changes to the launch pad. SpaceX is preparing its second Texas launch pad for v3 already but a launch is not expected before late 2025.

 

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Static fire of Super Heavy for Starship's 11th flight
(probably at some point in October)

 

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Successful static fire of Tianlong-3
Their attempt last year was more dynamic.

I don't find a specific launch date but they are likely aiming at a launch this year.
It's extremely similar to Falcon 9. Designed with a reusable booster, burning kerosene and oxygen, with 9 engines on the booster and a vacuum-optimized version of that engine on the second stage. 3.8 m diameter vs. 3.7 m (compatible with road transport), 71 m height vs. 70 m, 590 tonnes vs 550 tonnes. The larger fairing option has 5.2 m diameter and is 14 meter long, while Falcon 9's fairing has 5.2 m diameter and 13 m length.

I don't find info if they want to return to launch site or land the booster on a barge in the ocean, or both depending on the mission. I hope we get some landing footage once they try to recover the boosters.

 

[Filip Larsen]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/northrop-grummans-new-spacecraft-is-a-real-chonker/

The first flight of Northrop's upgraded Cygnus spacecraft, called Cygnus XL, is on its way to the international research lab after launching Sunday evening from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This mission, known as NG-23, is set to arrive at the ISS early Wednesday with 10,827 pounds (4,911 kilograms) of cargo to sustain the lab and its seven-person crew.

 

[berkeman]

LOL. I had to Google "chonker".

 

[Filip Larsen]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/...the-international-space-station-as-scheduled/

A problem with the main engine on Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft will keep it from delivering 11,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station as scheduled on Wednesday.

Since the ISS resupply schedule is already a bit pressed for time due to pre-launch damage to the preceding Cygnus, it seems rather important that this Cygnus makes it to ISS.

 

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It might still reach the ISS with some delay. If not, upcoming missions will carry more consumables and fewer science experiments to compensate. The ISS has a pretty steady stream of them.

The first HTV-X is scheduled to launch in October, it's Japan's new resupply vehicle with 5800 kg of cargo capacity. If Cygnus (5000 kg) doesn't make it, this one will be the next to reach the ISS. There is also a Progress (2400 kg) planned for December, SpaceX might fly the next Dragon (3000 kg) earlier than planned, and Dream Chaser (4500 kg) might finally fly in late 2025.

 

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Cygnus arrived at the ISS

The next Starship arrived at the launch site for testing