SpaceX’s next Starship/Super Heavy launch will feature hot staging in which the upper-stage Starship booster will fire its engines while the engines of the lower stage Super Heavy rocket continue to fire, according to CEO Elon Musk.

The first half of 2023 saw Elon Musk launch his giant Starship/Super Heavy rocket, another commercial mission visit the International Space Station (ISS), Europe send a probe to explore Jupiter’s icy moons, one Virgin space company begin commercial service and another go belly up, and launch providers on three continents experience delays with their next-generation rockets.

A group of five environmental and cultural-heritage non-profits has sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) claiming the agency broke environmental law when it approved SpaceX’s Starbase spaceport for launches of the company’s Starship/Super Heavy rocket.

The question of whether SpaceX’s Starship maiden launch last Thursday was a success or a failure is a matter of perspective.

SpaceX’s massive Starship/Super Heavy rocket failed just under four minutes into its maiden flight on Thursday, resulting in a fireball over the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast.

On April 17, 2023 SpaceX scrubbed the maiden flight test of its Starship/Super Heavy booster due to a pressurization issue with the first stage. SpaceX has announced that the next attempt will be made on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

SpaceX test fired 31 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy rocket in a major test of the company’s Starlink super-heavy booster program. The test was a key milestone toward an orbit flight test that could take place in March.

There’s good news and bad news in the latest scientific assessment of Earth’s vital ozone layer, which helps to protect life on Earth by absorbing the Sun’s ultraviolet light.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO and President Mike Sievert will unveil how the two companies are working to increase connectivity on Thursday night. Details are vague, but it most likely involves cooperation between SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband network and T-Mobile’s cellular phone network. The presentation will take place at 8 p.m. EDT from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in south Texas. The event will be livestreamed on SpaceX.com.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

During the first seven months of the year, five new satellite launch vehicles from Europe, China, Russia and South Korea flew successfully for the first time. As impressive as that is, it was a mere opening act to a busy period that could see at least 20 additional launchers debut around the world.