SpaceX will attempt a second launch of Starship Flight 13 from Pad 2 at Starbase on July 24, 2026. The launch window opens at 5:45 p.m. CDT and lasts 90 minutes.

Engine work after the July 16 abort included replacement of at least two Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster and updates to startup sequences.

Ship 40 was de‑stacked on July 17, returned to the production site, and was re‑stacked atop Booster 20 on July 22 after the booster was rolled back to Pad 2 on July 21.

The flight aims to deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites, which will fire their onboard lasers to connect with the existing Starlink constellation before reentering the atmosphere about 20 minutes after release.

SpaceX plans a Raptor engine relight roughly 11 minutes after liftoff, a boostback burn for Booster 20, and a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

Improvements to the heat shield, including new tiles and load‑sensing sensors, are intended to gather data for future full reusability.

The same Starship configuration will be used on NASA’s Artemis 3 mission to dock with the Orion spacecraft.

An April 2026 Government Accountability Office report noted that SpaceX is more than a year behind its original schedule for key milestones and that Raptor engine development remains a top risk.

NASA officials said the updated Raptor version incorporates welded fuel joints to reduce fuel‑leak failures that caused a vehicle loss in March 2025.

NASA hopes to land astronauts on the Moon by 2028 using either Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander.

A coalition of environmental nonprofits filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission urging a pause on licenses for proposed orbital datacenter projects, saying the plan could cause significant atmospheric pollution.

The petition, submitted by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Earthjustice, and DarkSky International, warns that millions of additional satellites could release black soot, rare metals, aluminum oxides and other substances during launch and re‑entry, potentially affecting the stratosphere.

Scientists note that the environmental impact is not fully understood; a 2023 NOAA‑sponsored measurement flight detected metals in sulfuric acid aerosols that help regulate Earth's temperature, but the interaction of spacecraft metals with these aerosols remains largely unknown.

The groups argue that the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to assess the environmental consequences of the satellite projects, and they call for a thorough review before any new licenses are granted.

SpaceX, Blue Origin and other firms have requested FCC approval for their datacenter constellations, which could include tens of thousands of satellites.

Former NOAA satellite office director Steve Volz said the cumulative effect of many satellites burning up in the atmosphere could be comparable to emissions from a smoke stack.

Cole Donovan, a former NOAA space policy expert, added that the projects would demand large quantities of rare metals already in short supply.

The petition also highlights concerns about light pollution, which could disrupt nocturnal wildlife, and notes that the companies have provided limited details on how they will mitigate cumulative environmental harms.

The FCC has not yet responded to the petition, and the environmental assessment of the orbital datacenter proposals remains pending.

Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce (OSC) released a draft proposal in March that would create a certification process for companies seeking government approval to conduct novel space activities. The proposal, described as a “call for interest,” will be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks and will allow firms to indicate their intent to participate. OSC Director Taylor Jordan told the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee that the agency would collect information from interested companies, share it with the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and NASA for review, and issue a certification if all parties agree. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission would retain authority to waive their own regulations as part of the process. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the framework is built on a presumption of approval to keep regulations out of the way and make approvals swift and easy. The initiative responds to President Trump’s August 2025 executive order on enabling competition in the commercial space industry, which emphasized that new space‑based industries and defense capabilities should be pioneered in the United States. The commercial space sector has long sought clearer and more predictable regulatory rules, as current responsibilities are divided among the Department of Commerce, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Communications Commission under existing statutes. Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty requires governments to authorize and continuously supervise the space activities of non‑government entities. Previous congressional efforts, including the 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and attempts in 2018 to assign broader regulatory authority to Commerce, have not produced a comprehensive regime. The Trump administration is advancing the proposal without new legislation, positioning the Commerce Department as a clearinghouse for interagency review while noting that companies may still need to engage directly with other agencies. Representative Brian Babin, chair of the House committee, said he would assess whether the proposal fully meets industry needs or if legislative action is required, while Representative Zoe Lofgren noted that Congress has considered similar proposals without reaching a solution. The public comment period for the draft is expected to remain open for several weeks.

Mark Matossian, an aerospace engineer and former Iceye U.S. program manager, co-founded Whipsmart Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on space and deep‑tech companies, in San Francisco earlier this year. The fund is led by Matossian, software developer Lylan Masterman and venture‑capitalist author Judy Robinette. It plans to lead or co‑lead Series A rounds for companies with 10 to 20 employees. Whipsmart aims to close the financing gap between early‑stage prototypes and Series B funding, a challenge Matossian described as the ‘valley of death.’ The fund will invest in seven priority areas: secure navigation and timing; autonomous robotics; real‑time intelligence for disasters, hazards, military threats and climate risks; sovereign technology for defense, cloud, space, manufacturing and critical resources; edge processing and orbital computing; resilient distributed energy; and affordable global broadband. Whipsmart intends to make larger investments than typical early‑stage funds, often taking board seats and maintaining majority ownership, and will serve as the primary contact for entrepreneurs facing operational or financial challenges. The announcement follows a quarter in which space‑technology startups raised $7.5 billion, yet many companies still struggle to scale beyond laboratory success, and Whipsmart intends to support those ventures through subsequent growth stages.

Airbus Defence and Space will construct the Aeolus-2 wind-monitoring satellite for the European Space Agency. Chief executive Mike Schoellhorn said on July 21 that reforms undertaken after the company recorded about 2 billion euros in charges in 2023 and 2024 have improved the performance of its space division. He said the changes have created greater discipline in order intake, risk management and project delivery. Demand for space capabilities has risen from both civil and defence customers, driven by increased funding for the European Space Agency at the November ministerial conference, the development of the IRIS² secure connectivity constellation and interest in military and Earth observation satellite systems. Airbus has been able to meet this demand because of the reforms, which followed poor cost and schedule performance on programs such as the OneSat software-defined GEO communications satellite. The company is planning a joint venture with Thales and Leonardo, code-named Bromo, announced in October after more than a year of negotiations. The venture will combine Airbus Defence and Space with similar divisions at Thales and Leonardo and is expected to generate about 15 billion euros in annual revenue. Regulatory approval for Bromo is pending and may not be finalised until 2027, and the project has faced opposition from labour unions and competition concerns raised by OHB. Schoellhorn said the joint venture will be one of three such arrangements, alongside MBDA and ArianeGroup, and that the remaining Airbus Defence and Space business will remain air‑power focused. The company reported earnings before interest and taxes of 800 million euros in 2025 and aims for 1.3 billion euros by 2029, noting that the outlook holds regardless of whether Bromo proceeds. Airbus said growing demand for Earth observation data may lead to an expansion of that business, and a blackout period precedes the release of its first‑half 2026 financial results scheduled for July 29.

Will Bruey, chief executive of Varda Space Industries, told the Space Minds podcast that the company aims to use low Earth orbit to develop pharmaceuticals and noted the successful re‑entry of its space vehicle over Australia.

The interview took place at the Ascend conference, where Bruey and host David Ariosto discussed how microgravity may enable new drug manufacturing processes and how Varda's vehicle returned safely after a test mission.

Bruey explained that placing drug production in orbit could allow precise control over protein folding and reduce contamination risks, according to the podcast transcript. He added that the company has already demonstrated a controlled re‑entry, retrieving the capsule without damage, the company reported.

Varda plans additional missions to test in‑orbit drug synthesis, but regulatory approval and technical challenges remain unaddressed.