In this week’s Launch Roundup, a new crew led by a veteran astronaut on his fourth spaceflight arrived at China’s Tiangong space station for a six-month mission on Tuesday (May 30).

In this week’s Launch Roundup, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (May 22), bringing four astronauts on Axiom Space’s second private mission to the orbiting facility. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson commands the eight-day Ax-2 mission, which was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, new crews and cargo ships are scheduled to visit the International Space Station and China’s Tiangong orbital outpost this month.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, Rocket Lab launched two satellites for NASA that will provide valuable data on hurricanes and tropical cyclones on Sunday, May 7 (Monday, May 8 in New Zealand).

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX leads all launch providers thus far in 2023 as the Elon Musk-led company has averaged one flight roughly every four days.

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