A growing cadence … The Ariane 6 rocket has launched five times, including its debut flight in July 2024. All of the launches were a success, although the first flight failed to relight the upper stage in order to make a controlled reentry. Arianespace increased the cadence to four launches last year and will seek to try to double that this year.

After a string of dramatic failures, the huge Starship rocket from SpaceX had a fully successful test on Oct. 13, 2025. A couple more test flights, and SpaceX plans to launch it into orbit.

That’s the question being asked after the U.S. Space Force announced a plan over the holidays to develop a new launch site at the Santa Barbara County base capable of hosting “heavy” and “super-heavy” rockets that will deliver massive payloads into orbit, and beyond.

After a tumultuous 2025 that saw it lose around 4,000 employees, NASA finally has an operating budget for 2026, and one that largely preserves its scientific capabilities.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson publicly criticized the Chinese government after it was accused of disregarding safety standards by not sharing trajectory data on the reentry of its Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket, which shot through Earth's atmosphere on ...