Stoke Space raised $1 billion in a Series E round, bringing its total funding to $2.3 billion, and unveiled a larger rocket called Nova Block 2. Block 2 would carry up to 15 tons to low Earth orbit on a first stage with 14 Zenith engines, and Stoke targets its first launch for 2029. The smaller Nova Pathfinder, with seven engines, is still aimed at a debut in early 2027 carrying a customer payload. The money will also pay for a 475-acre expansion of the Moses Lake test site in Washington and a payload facility at Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex-14.
NASA awarded Relativity Space a place on its NASA Launch Services II contract on September 9, using the contract's annual on-ramp for new rockets. The award makes Terran R available for future NASA missions, and NASA can also order launches for other agencies such as NOAA. The contract allows orders through June 2030 and runs through December 2032.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 2:49 p.m. EDT on September 13 carrying the last three satellites for SES's O3b mPOWER constellation. It was the 700th flight of the Falcon rocket family, which began with Falcon 1 in March 2006. The booster, on its 29th flight, landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas. The satellites were released into medium Earth orbit about 5,000 miles up over a 14-minute span, starting roughly 33 minutes after liftoff, and join the 10 O3b mPOWER satellites SES already operates.
BlackSky was named exclusive supplier of very high-resolution optical satellites for a $1 billion space intelligence program announced at the International Space Summit in Paris with President Macron present. Its Gen-3 spacecraft will join an initial 50-satellite constellation that combines optical, radar and other sensors. The consortium includes Marlan Space, Loft Orbital and Mistral AI, along with other French and UAE companies, and will serve government and commercial users in France, Europe and the UAE. BlackSky did not say how many satellites it will build or what its share is worth, and more details are due later this year.
SpaceX launched USSF-153 from Vandenberg at 8:42 a.m. local time on September 10, and the booster, on its 27th flight, landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. Little is known about the payload, though one tracking site thinks it may be Starshield satellites for a US government customer.
Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, who flew Artemis II earlier this year, are becoming NASA emeritus astronauts at Johnson Space Center this month. In that role they will mentor and train the current workforce as NASA prepares Artemis III for 2027.
NASA awarded Inversion a contract to study using the Arc reentry vehicle to demonstrate aerocapture, which uses an atmosphere to slow a spacecraft into orbit, for the first time at Earth. In theory, deep space missions using the method could carry less fuel and more payload.
The Space Force's latest acquisition report shows the National Security Space Launch program growing by 91 missions and nearly $17 billion through fiscal 2032. Total procurement now stands at $76 billion for 337 launches, while the average cost per launch has dropped from about $422 million in 2022 to $192 million.
Tomorrow.io picked York Space Systems to build the first phase of its second-generation DeepSky constellation under a $187 million contract. The satellites will carry upgraded microwave sounders, GNSS radio occultation and reflectometry, infrared and visible imagers, and a precipitation radar.
Rocket Lab released its IMM Apex solar cell for production. It reaches 31.5 percent efficiency at beginning of life with 40 percent less cell mass, and it uses no germanium.
SpaceX's chief financial officer told an investment conference that Starship's fourteenth flight, expected by the end of September, will carry production Starlink satellites rather than demonstration units. The company is treating the flight as a move from testing to commercial service.
Muon Space ignited its Starlight thruster, which burns zinc instead of xenon, on July 1 aboard the SERT-III test satellite that launched on a Falcon 9 in March. The company says zinc could cut propellant costs for satellite operators by more than 99 percent.
Astronomers combined Hubble's visible-light and Webb's infrared observations for the first time to survey the region past Neptune, finding 27 previously unknown trans-Neptunian objects. Some are among the smallest and faintest ever directly detected, and there were fewer tiny objects than some planet-formation models predicted.
Ars Technica looks at whether United Launch Alliance's financial strain could push its owners to sell the company. ULA is preparing to resume Vulcan launches in the coming weeks.
Amazon Leo raised its order with Arianespace from 18 to 24 Ariane 64 launches, announced at France's International Space Summit in Paris on September 9. Arianespace has already flown three Ariane 6 missions for Amazon Leo this year, deploying 100 satellites, at a time when both Vulcan Centaur and New Glenn, the other rockets Amazon bought, are out of service.
The Exploration Company closed a $450 million Series C, which it calls the largest ever for a European space company, co-led by Atomico and the EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund with Bessemer Venture Partners. Its first goal is the Nyx reusable capsule, which it expects to dock with the International Space Station by November 2028, and it plans to build a reusable heavy-lift launcher. Atomico says 10 Nyx missions are booked, backed by more than $2 billion in contracts and commitments.
At the International Space Summit in Paris on September 9, the European Space Agency signed an agreement with Vast to fly Greek ESA flight surgeon Adrianos Golemis to the International Space Station. The mission is NASA's sixth private astronaut flight to the station, awarded to Vast in February, and is targeted for no earlier than summer 2027 on a Crew Dragon launched by Falcon 9 and lasts up to about two weeks. Golemis would be the first Greek citizen in orbit, pending approval by the station partners' crew operations panel.
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