SpaceX

SpaceX has been on a tear with launches, having boosted over 10,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Now it’s celebrating a new milestone that’s become so automatic we just expect it.

Former Real World cast member and current Transportation Secretary / acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy recently said SpaceX was “behind” on its contract for Artemis III and proposed reopening it. (Elon Musk responded with a predictable slew of insults.)

O2 Satellite won’t launch until the first half of 2026, and only with messaging and data for maps and location services at first, but it’s expected to expand. O2 customers can register their interest now, though pricing is still to come.

The US is falling behind China, according to former space agency officials.

In unsealed testimony, SpaceX investor Iqbaljit Kahlon says that some Chinese investors are “directly on the cap table.” This may raise some national security concerns, depending on how much information about SpaceX — which is deeply involved with the US defense department — gives to its investors.

We’ve grown so accustomed to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets launching and landing after deploying Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, or sending real astronauts and cargo to the ISS, that it’s almost become dial tone — you just expect it.

After four explosions (flight tests seven, eight, and nine, as well as one on the ground), SpaceX successfully launched another prototype vehicle Tuesday night. This time, the Super Heavy booster rocket splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico as planned, as Starship deployed Starlink simulator satellites, then splashed down under control in the Indian Ocean.

The New York Times has the story.

Amazon’s third batch of Project Kuiper satellites has launched into space on Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket. The deployment of 24 Kuiper satellites comes just three hours after 26 Starlink satellites were deployed. Jeff Bezos plans to light up his space Internet service later this year with help from launch partners ULA, Arianespace, and yes, his own Blue Origin. The Kuiper constellation will eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites, less than half of what Starlink already has operating, with more competitors to come.

“Each one of these new satellites is designed to provide over a terabit per second of downlink capacity (> 1,000 Gbps) and over 200 Gbps of uplink capacity to customers on the ground,” Starlink says. “This is more than 10 times the downlink and 24 times the uplink capacity of the second-generation satellites.”

Apparently following through on his threat to challenge Republicans who supported Donald Trump’s budget bill, Musk tweeted, “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” He also said it will be ready next year -- a “consistently proven wrong” theme for Musk.

Jenna Shumway, a former manager at SpaceX, accuses the company of failing to pay her as much as her male counterparts for similar work, as reported by TechCrunch.

Another batch of Jeff Bezos’ Kuiper broadband satellites are now operating in low Earth orbit as Amazon prepares to light up its high-speed low-latency Starlink competitor later this year. It comes almost two months after Kuiper’s inaugural launch of 27 satellites on April 28th.

An update on how the extremely public political breakup is going today, as protestors face off with federal immigration agents in Los Angeles.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is surging ahead in the race to cover the planet with fast, low-latency internet beamed down from space. Xi Jinping and Jeff Bezos are just getting started while Europe, to nobody’s surprise, is mired in bureaucracy and woefully behind despite launching its first internet satellites back in 2019.

For the third time in a row, a Starship test ended in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” after tumbling toward the Indian Ocean rather than making the planned controlled descent and soft splashdown.

At 7:30PM ET, an hour-long launch window is scheduled to open for the ninth test of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. After the seventh and eighth flight tests ended in massive explosions, the FAA has expanded the hazard area and required SpaceX to schedule its launch during “non-peak transit periods.”

The Information reports that three years ago, Musk offered Apple an 18-month exclusive connection via SpaceX in return for $5 billion up front, and $1 billion per year after that to support satellite-connected iPhone features. If Apple didn’t take it within 72 hours, he threatened to announce a competing feature.

Even if Musk plans to take a step back from DOGE, his influence grows with each Starlink launch. Space is getting crowded with satellite internet companies vying to control the future of our information flows. Musk is crowding out the competition.