The space race heats up: all the news on the latest rocket launches – The Verge

Blue Origin’s Starlink rival TeraWave promises 6-terabit satellite internet

2026-01-21T19:45:05-05:00

The Blue Origin New Glenn rocket lifts off at Launch Complex 36 in its second launch attempt at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on November 13, 2025 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. | Photo: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / Getty Images

SpaceX has the most internet-beaming satellites in its constellation, but the competition is coming, and now Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has announced the TeraWave network. It says TeraWave will offer bandwidth of up to 6Tb available anywhere on Earth, for both upload and download.

The only wrinkle? Even after satellite deployments are scheduled to start near the end of 2027, you probably won't be able to connect directly. That's by design, as former Amazon Alexa boss and current Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post that it's "purpose-built for enterprise customers."

The layers of TeraWave's internet satellites. | Image: Blue Origin" data-portal-copyright="Image: Blue Origin">

Blue Origin's network has a "multi-orbit" design of 5,408 …

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SpaceX Starship explodes again, this time on the ground

2025-06-19T16:34:02-04:00

Late Wednesday night at about 11PM CT, SpaceX was about to perform a static fire test of Ship 36, ahead of a planned 10th flight test for its Starship, when there was suddenly a massive explosion at the Massey's Testing Center site. SpaceX says "A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," and that there are no hazards to residents in the area of its recently incorporated town of Starbase, Texas.

"After completing a single-engine static fire earlier this week, the vehicle was in the process of loading cryogenic propellant for a six-engine static fire when a sudde …

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SpaceX rockets keep exploding. Is that normal?

2025-05-31T14:15:08-04:00

SpaceX lost contact with Starship after its launch on March 6, 2025. | Image: AFP via Getty Images

With yet another failed Starship test this week, in which the ambitious heavy rocket exploded once again, you might reasonably suspect that luck has finally run out for SpaceX.

But this degree of failure during a development process isn't actually unusual, according to Wendy Whitman Cobb, a space policy expert with the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, especially when you're testing new space technology as complex as a large rocket. However, the Starship tests are meaningfully different from the slow, steady pace of development that we've come to expect from the space sector.

"The reason a lot of people perceive this to be unusual …

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The FAA is taking extra precautions for SpaceX’s next Starship test flight

2025-05-31T12:29:56-04:00

SpaceX’s 9th Starship test flight could take place early next week. | Image: SpaceX

Following the failure of the 8th Starship test flight in early March that ended in another explosion, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finally cleared SpaceX for a 9th test which could take place as soon as next week.

"The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight," the FAA said in a statement released yesterday.

Similar to how SpaceX's 7th Starship test flight played out in January, Flight 8 saw the ship successfully separate from the Super …

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NASA and Boeing investigate Starliner’s ‘anomalies’ before its next crewed flight

2025-03-28T11:15:29-04:00

NASA and Boeing are preparing the Starliner for its next flight after technical issues left the spacecraft unable to ferry its astronauts back to Earth for months. On Thursday, NASA announced that it's working with Boeing to "resolve Starliner's in-flight anomalies" before a crewed flight that could take place later this year or in early 2026.

The Boeing Starliner took off successfully for the first time last June, bringing Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station for what was supposed to be about a week. However, issues with the Starliner's thruster, valve, and helium systems led NASA to bring the Starliner back t …

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SpaceX’s latest Starship explosion lights up the sky over the Caribbean again

2025-03-07T11:54:46-05:00

BOCA CHICA BEACH, TEXAS – MARCH 06: SpaceX Starship Flight 8 prepares for takeoff from Orbital Launch Pad A at Boca Chica beach on March 06, 2025 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. The SpaceX Starship Flight 8 test launched and successfully caught its booster upon descent. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) | Screenshot: SpaceX

Stop us if you've heard this one before. Similar to the aftermath from SpaceX's failed seventh test flight on January 16th, yesterday's explosion following the launch of Starship's eighth test flight created another spectacle in the night sky as debris rained down over parts of the Caribbean causing flights to be delayed and diverted in Florida and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Following a successful launch, Starship separated from the Super Heavy booster rocket which returned to the launch pad and was captured by the launch tower for the third time. But during the upper stage's ascent burn, "an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship re …

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Jeff Bezos is sending Katy Perry to space

2025-02-27T13:15:40-05:00

Katy Perry will fly to space during Blue Origin's next crewed mission, the Jeff Bezos-owned space company has announced. The pop star will join CBS host Gayle King and Bezos's fiancé Lauren Sánchez aboard the New Shepard rocket this spring, marking its 11th human flight.

Along with Perry and Sánchez, who is known for her work as a news anchor and correspondent, the crew will include research scientist and activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe. Sánchez first revealed her plans to lead an all-female Blue Origin mission in 2023, but she didn't mention who she would take on the flight …

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SpaceX thinks it knows why Starship exploded on its last test flight

2025-02-24T16:48:20-05:00

SpaceX believes it has determined why Starship exploded during its seventh test flight. | Image: SpaceX

SpaceX believes it knows what caused the explosion during the seventh test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster on January 16th, 2025. Fires in the aft section of Starship, located between the bottom of its liquid oxygen tank and rear heat shield, caused "all but one of Starship's engines to execute controlled shut down sequences" leading to a loss of communication and eventually the spacecraft's safety system triggering its own destruction.

The goal of the seventh test flight was to test several upgrades SpaceX made to its heavy-lift rocket system. After a successful launch and completing a full duration burn, the Supe …

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SpaceX’s fiery Starship explosion put on a fantastic show but delayed and diverted flights

2025-01-17T14:25:20-05:00

The falling debris field from the SpaceX Starship explosion lit up the night sky over the Caribbean, | Screenshot: YouTube

Falling debris from the SpaceX Starship explosion yesterday created what looked like a meteor shower, or a colorful fireworks show based on videos shared by people in the area, but it also delayed flights.

Eight and a half minutes after launch yesterday, the upper stage of the SpaceX Starship "experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly," following the separation from its booster and the start of its ascent to space.

The footage of the explosion's aftermath was shared to social media and Reddit. Some of it was recorded inside planes flying nearby, and many flights were diverted around the debris field, or delayed until all the fragments to …

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SpaceX catches Starship booster for a second time but loses the spacecraft

2025-01-16T20:14:09-05:00

SpaceX successfully caught its Super Heavy booster for the second time. During Starship's 7th test flight from Boca Chica, Texas, Super Heavy descended into the launch tower's "chopstick" arms, allowing it to grab the booster.

Despite the successful catch, SpaceX lost communications with the Starship spacecraft mounted atop the booster. "It successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, but during that ascent phase, a couple of the engines dropped out, and then shortly thereafter, we lost communication with the vehicle," SpaceX's Kate Tice said during the stream. "We are assuming that we have lost the ship."

According to SpaceX, "Sta …

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