Fly, Learn, Repeat ... and Nuclear Power in Space

SpaceX has a mantra: Fly, Learn, Repeat. And there will be a lot for SpaceX to learn from the ninth test flight of Starship, which ended with the loss of both the booster and 'Ship'.

Starship’s ninth flight test lifted off at 6:36 p.m. CT on Tuesday from Starbase, Texas. The Super Heavy booster supporting the mission made the first ever reflight in the Starship program, having previously launched on Starship’s seventh flight test in January 2025. The booster performed nominally until it reached the splashdown coordinates in the Gulf of America, and the landing burn was initiated. Dan Huot is part of the SpaceX Communications team.

Huot SOT "Ignited for our landing burn. It may have ended with that landing burn. It does look like we lost telemetry from the booster once we starten in to that landing burn. We just heard confirmation that the booster did demise. So the booster's flight ending before it was able to get through landing burn, but again we were not bringing that back, we expected it to make a hard splashdown in the gulf. We were getting data back that entire time through that high angle-of-attack flight, so that was something that was really vital for us to get from this re-use. First re-flight of booster in the books."

Ship continued on and reached an orbital altitude, but when the deployment of starlink analogs was attempted, but payload bay doors failed to open properly, and then attitude control of Ship was lost.

Huot SOT "As you can see from some of the views and some of the telemetry we are in a little bit of a spin. We did spring a leak in some of the fuel tank systems inside of Starship which a lot of those are used for attitude control. So at this point we've essentially lost our attitude control of Starship. We are still on a path toward reentry, We are suborbital so no matter what, we are going to reenter. However, this lowers the chances this will be a controlled reentry."

Contact with Starship was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight, with all debris expected to fall within the planned hazard area in the Indian Ocean. Elon Musk said on X that he expects the cadence of launches of Starship to increase as the flight test program proceeds, but it will be at least in part up to the FAA when the next next launch will occur.

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NASA has awarded a contract to Sierra Space to study the use of the company’s expandable space station technology on the moon. The purpose of this contract will be to ultimately develop innovative solutions for lunar surface logistics and mobility supporting NASA’s moon to Mars Architecture.

Under the NextSTEP-2 Appendix R for Lunar Logistics and Mobility Studies award, the research will include everything from the potential use of Sierra Space’s inflatable LIFE habitat technology for tunnels around a moon base to tracking and storage of goods on the moon, as well as integration of the entire framework for habitation on the lunar surface.

The company has been deeply involved in NASA's lunar habitation efforts, conducting analyses and design work on everything from landing systems to habitats and pressurized lunar rovers.

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Dawn Aerospace has opened the order book for its Aurora spaceplane, with first deliveries expected in 2027. This marks the first time a space-capable vehicle – designed to fly beyond the Kármán line - has been offered for direct sale to customers.

Aurora is set to become the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a conventional runway, blending the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability and operational simplicity of tra