Your Guide to SpacePast briefing
Space Now
What changed, why it matters, and what to watch next.
News from the last 24 hours, plus the ongoing storylines shaping the roadmap
Catch up fast
Today in 60 seconds
The three fastest entry points into today's briefing.
The Briefing
The developments worth your attention right now
If you only have a minute, start here. These are the changes most likely to affect missions, schedules, or the longer arc of the story.
Starship deploys working satellites on Flight 13
SpaceX launched Flight 13 from Starbase at 6:51 p.m. Eastern after a one-day weather delay. The upper stage finished its suborbital run and demonstrated spacecraft deployment, while several engines needed for the booster’s landing burn failed to start.
mission cargo release has moved from a planned Starship objective to a demonstrated flight result. The booster landing sequence still needs work.
Flight 13 supplied the result the program had been waiting for: a completed flight with functioning satellites released, alongside a clear shortfall during Super Heavy’s return.
What we know
- SpaceX launched its 13th Super Heavy-Starship test flight. The booster made an on-target but hard splashdown off the Texas Gulf Coast, while the upper stage completed a suborbital flight to the Indian Ocean.
- SpaceX launched Starship on its 13th suborbital test flight July 24, correcting some issues seen on the previous flight and deploying functioning satellites for the first time. Not all engines required for the booster landing burn started.
- SpaceX launched Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, on a critical 13th test flight on July 24, a stunning test flight that notched big success and ended with a huge surprise.
What remains unknown
- Whether the target, status, webcast, or mission outcome changes again after the next public update.
Watch for SpaceX’s postflight account of the landing-burn engine failures and any corrective work before Flight 14.
Spaceflight Now
SpaceX launched its 13th Super Heavy-Starship test flight. The booster made an on-target but hard splashdown off the Texas Gulf Coast, while the upper stage completed a suborbital flight to the Indian Ocean.
Open sourceSpaceNews
SpaceX launched Starship on its 13th suborbital test flight July 24, correcting some issues seen on the previous flight and deploying functioning satellites for the first time. Not all engines required for the booster landing burn started.
Open sourceSpace.com
SpaceX launched Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, on a critical 13th test flight on July 24, a stunning test flight that notched big success and ended with a huge surprise.
Open sourceWildfire empties two deep-space communications sites in Spain
Personnel evacuated NASA’s Madrid complex and ESA’s nearby Cebreros station as a wildfire approached.
Deep-space communications are distributed across several sites precisely so another complex can carry traffic during a local disruption.
Quick hits
Also worth knowing
Three smaller developments worth keeping on your radar.
Defense customers are treating rapid turnaround less like a niche feature and more like an operating requirement.
Science missionsNASA’s public schedule continues to target Aug. 30, 2026, for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.Roman is close enough to launch that a firm confirmation or delay would matter quickly.
Lunar infrastructureSeveral NASA-backed CLPS cargo missions remain spread across 2026 and 2027.A durable lunar program needs repeatable deliveries, not isolated landings.
Artemis III prime crew members
Crew assignment is not evidence the mission will launch on time, but it is a concrete development that NASA is moving from architecture drawings into flight preparation.
This turns Artemis III from a program milestone into a named crewed mission with training and integration work now visible.
Webb caught a clue about black holes that may have formed first
NASA's Webb team reports evidence that a massive early-universe black hole in Abell2744-QSO1 may have formed before a mature host galaxy.
The image shows a lensed Little Red Dot in Pandora's Cluster, magnified into multiple views that let Webb study gas motion near a distant black hole.
It is a reminder that the same space ecosystem tracking rockets also expands the story of how the universe built its first structures.
You're caught up. Check back after the next source and editorial review.
What to Watch Next
The moments this briefing was watching
These were the events Space Now was watching from this briefing date.
Starship Flight 13’s recycled launch attempt
The flight can be judged against specific objectives rather than pad activity alone.
Blue Origin’s explanation of the New Glenn NG-4 hotfire anomaly
New Glenn cannot return to the near-term launch picture until the cause and repair implications are clearer.
Falcon 9 launch of MRV-1 from Cape Canaveral
MRV-1 carries a robotic system intended to extend the working lives of satellites in geostationary orbit.