The rise of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic is opening up the thrills of riding rockets, floating in microgravity, and staring open-mouthed at spectacular views of Earth to those wealthy or lucky enough to book a flight. But while more private companies are flying individuals into space, governments around the world remain key to the success of commercial flight providers and future private space stations.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and SpaceX are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and an Native American nation that wants Starship/Super Heavy rocket launches from the Starbase spaceport in Texas suspended until a new environmental review of the area is conducted.

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.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX kicked off July by sending the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope into space on Saturday, July 1. Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket is set to fly for for the final time later today, July 5. The two launches illustrated the problem Europe is having with launching spacecraft this year.

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.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX will launch a new space telescope, India will send a spacecraft to land on the moon, and Europe will say goodbye to a venerable launch vehicle during the first half of July. In the meantime, the world is closing in on 100 launch attempts as the first half of 2023 comes to a close on Friday.

Welcome to Biz Briefs! In today’s edition, Vast selected Impulse Space to provide propulsion for its planned space station, Hydrosat acquired IrriWatch to improve farm irrigation, Arianespace signed memorandums of understanding with two launch startups, Astroscale introduced a new docking plate, Sri Lanka gets Starlink, and much more.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX placed 125 satellites into orbit on Monday with a pair of Falcon 9 launches conducted from opposite coasts only 14 hours apart.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX launched its 28th resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning. In addition to supplies and experiments, the Cargo Dragon spacecraft will deliver a pair of International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs) that will increase the amount of power available to the facility after astronauts install them.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who announced his candidacy for president last week on a Twitter Spaces event hosted by Elon Musk, signed on Thursday (May 25) a spaceflight liability law that further protects SpaceX. Boeing and other space companies from being sued in the event people are injured or killed during spaceflights that launch from Florida.