Will China & Europe Get Their Own Starship? | This Week in Spaceflight

It’s been a huge week for space exploration! 🌌 Here’s what we’re covering in This Week In Spaceflight:

🚀 Rocket Lab’s Big Plans
From exploring a faster, cheaper Mars Sample Return mission for NASA to preparing its Neutron rocket for a 2025 debut, Rocket Lab is making waves. Highlights include a successful second-stage test, the completion of its reusable “Hungry Hippo” fairing, and progress on its Virginia launchpad upgrades—all aiming to secure a U.S. Space Force contract and revolutionize space access.

🌍 Reusable Super Heavy-Lift Race Heats Up
ESA awarded contracts to RFA and ArianeGroup under the PROTEIN study to design reusable rockets for massive payloads like space-based solar generators. Meanwhile, China unveiled updates to its Chang Zheng 9 rocket, featuring Starship-like variants and an earlier debut timeline, aiming for lunar missions by 2030. Reusable rockets are becoming a global priority!

🚀 Vandenberg’s Launch Cadence Expands
SpaceX can now launch 50 times per year from Vandenberg after clearing a lengthy environmental review. A future goal? 100 launches annually with SLC-6!

🏗️ Haven-1 Moves Forward
Vast’s Haven-1, potentially the first commercial space station, is progressing fast. With its primary structure nearly complete and testing imminent, astronauts like Czech reserve ESA astronaut Aleš Svoboda might soon call it home.

🛰️ This Week’s Space Traffic Report
A packed week in spaceflight saw China launch multiple Chang Zheng rockets, including missions for radar imaging (PIESAT-2), oceanography (Haiyang 4-01), and resupplying the Tiangong station (Tianzhou 8). SpaceX set a record with five Falcon 9 launches, deploying Starlink satellites, including Direct-to-Cell models, and the Koreasat 6A communication satellite. A notable highlight was the Kinetica 1 rocket’s mission from China, carrying 15 diverse satellites, including the first foreign payload from Oman. SpaceX also reached a 31-day streak of 17 launches, aiming for a staggering 200 per year!

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🤵 Hosted by Elysia Segal (@elysia_segal)
🖋️ Written by Martijn Luinstra & Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera (@AlexPhysics13)
🎥 Footage from: Max Evans, D Wise, Space Coast Live, SpaceX, Rocket Factory Augsburg, CCTV/CASC, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, ArianeGroup, CCTV, CCTV/DSEL, CCTV/CAS Space, Aviation Industry Corporation of China, VAST, ESA, PLD Space, Stoke Space, CCTV/CNSA, Roscosmos, Roscosmos/NASA
✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).
💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed).

🔍 If you are interested in using footage from this video, please review our content use policy: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/conte...

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