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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
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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 is still afloat five days after Flight 13
Space.com reports that Starship was still floating on July 29. Earlier drone imagery showed white streaks near tile boundaries, cracked tiles and broken edges, but SpaceX has not released a technical damage assessment.
Floating for days is a curiosity; the condition of the heat shield is the real test. Refurbishment work will determine whether this design can move toward rapid reuse.
The latest images extend the postflight inspection window. They do not yet reveal how much repair the vehicle would require before another mission.
What we know
- SpaceX continues to collect imagery of the vehicle as it floats in the Indian Ocean five days after its most recent flight test.
- An analysis by three space-industry officials said significant challenges remain for rapid reuse. It identified white streaks originating at tile boundaries and indications of cracked tiles and broken edges in drone footage of the landed Starship.
- The ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean about 65 minutes after liftoff, flipped upright, then tipped over and floated. It continued transmitting over Starlink while SpaceX drones inspected it.
What remains unknown
- Whether the target, status, webcast, or mission outcome changes again after the next public update.
SpaceX’s assessment of the thermal-protection system and a confirmed plan for Flight 14.
Space.com
SpaceX continues to collect imagery of the vehicle as it floats in the Indian Ocean five days after its most recent flight test.
Open sourceArs Technica
An analysis by three space-industry officials said significant challenges remain for rapid reuse. It identified white streaks originating at tile boundaries and indications of cracked tiles and broken edges in drone footage of the landed Starship.
Open sourcemission cargo
The ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean about 65 minutes after liftoff, flipped upright, then tipped over and floated. It continued transmitting over Starlink while SpaceX drones inspected it.
Open sourceCuriosity maps a broad Martian honeycomb field
NASA says the rover encountered polygonal fractures measuring 1.5 to 3 inches across throughout Valle Grande.
Repeated fractures across such a large area may preserve clues to how the rock formed and changed as the planet’s environment evolved.
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 assessment and next-flight plan
The key question is now repair burden: whether the ship’s thermal protection can support quick turnaround rather than merely survive one descent.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn recovery plan
Parallel upper-stage testing and pad reconstruction could keep one bottleneck from controlling the entire schedule.
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.