OUTERSPACE TODAYNEWS
← All editionsMonday, July 27, 2026 / Issue 041
[ OST Daily ]

Starship Flight 13 Lands Intact, Rocket Lab Wins $266M Space Force Deal, L3Harris Quadruples THAAD Propulsion

Outerspace Today6 min read / 2026-07-27
OST Daily July 27, 2026 — SpaceX put the first intact Starship in the water on its 13th test flight and set up a tower catch on the next mission, Rocket Lab secured its largest launch contract with a $266 million Space Force award tied to a new Alaska site, and L3Harris signed a seven-year framework to quadruple THAAD propulsion output for Lockheed Martin and the Department of War.
The daily pictureOST editorial illustration · 2026-07-27
[ 01 ]

The briefing

SpaceX flew Starship for the 13th time on Friday evening from Starbase, putting the first intact ship in the water after a 65-minute suborbital flight that deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites. All 33 Raptor 3 engines lit, Starship relit a Raptor for 14 seconds, and the upper stage floated intact in the Indian Ocean, giving engineers their first drone survey of a flown heat shield. Only a subset of Super Heavy's 13 landing-burn engines relit, and the booster hit the Gulf hard. Musk said a tower catch follows on the next flight if data review is clean.

The defense book kept building around the launch. Rocket Lab disclosed its largest launch contract, a $266 million Space Systems Command award for 12 suborbital missions with options for six more, and confirmed a launch site at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, with first flight no earlier than end of 2026. L3Harris signed a framework agreement with the Department of War and Lockheed Martin covering a seven-year contract to quadruple THAAD propulsion output, the largest such award the company has received; it builds THAAD's Solid Rocket Boost Motors in Huntsville and Camden for the Missile Defense Agency.

Elsewhere, NASA and Blue Origin signed a reimbursable Space Act Agreement giving Blue Origin access to the B-2 test stand at Stennis Space Center to hot-fire New Glenn second stages while Launch Complex 36 is rebuilt after the May 28 explosion. ESA awarded ispace-Europe a €65 million contract to complete the MAGPIE lunar rover for a 2029 south-pole landing on ispace's Mission 4 lander. Wildfires near Madrid forced the evacuation of NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex and ESA's Cebreros station; NASA found damage limited to pavement and vegetation, and ESA cleared Cebreros to nominal operations on July 27.

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The headlines

01

Starship Flight 13 puts first intact ship in the water, teeing up a tower catch

SpaceX

SpaceX launched Starship Flight 13 from Starbase at 6:51 p.m. Eastern on July 24, deployed 20 working Starlink V3 satellites for the first time, relit a Raptor in space for about 14 seconds and brought the upper stage down to an intact soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean roughly 65 minutes after liftoff. The ship tipped over and continued transmitting over Starlink while drones inspected the heat shield, giving SpaceX its first close look at reentry damage on an intact vehicle. Elon Musk said on X that SpaceX will attempt a tower catch of the ship on the next flight absent problems in data review.

02

Super Heavy landing burn fails again as V3 booster hits Gulf hard

SpaceX

The Super Heavy booster on Flight 13 completed a boost-back burn but suffered another landing-burn failure. Only about five of 13 engines were running at splashdown according to Spaceflight Now, and Payload reported only 5 of 13 engines fired during a burn SpaceX itself called a hard splashdown. It is the second consecutive V3 booster to fail its landing sequence in the Gulf, following the May flight, and delays any near-term attempt to catch the booster back at the tower until the ignition sequence is understood.

03

Rocket Lab wins $266M Space Force deal, opens Alaska launch site

RKLB

Rocket Lab announced a $266 million multi-launch contract with U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command's Rocket Systems Launch Program, its largest launch award to date, covering 12 suborbital missions with options for six additional launches. The company confirmed it will stand up a new launch site at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, its fourth alongside New Zealand and Virginia, with first launch no earlier than end of 2026. The award further embeds Rocket Lab's Electron-derived HASTE suborbital vehicle in Pentagon hypersonic and missile-defense test campaigns.

04

Blue Origin moves New Glenn upper-stage hot fires to Stennis B-2 stand

NASA and Blue Origin signed an annex to a reimbursable Space Act Agreement giving the company access to the historic B-2 test stand at Stennis Space Center for hot-fire testing of New Glenn second stages, with the stand due to enter service this fall. Blue Origin had performed static fires at Launch Complex 36, which is being rebuilt after a May 28 New Glenn explosion during a hotfire test. The company framed Stennis as part of a broader expansion to deconflict LC-36 launch operations, and NASA linked the deal to Blue Origin's role as an Artemis lunar lander provider.

05

ESA awards ispace €65M for MAGPIE lunar rover on 2029 south-pole mission

The European Space Agency awarded ispace-Europe a €65 million contract to complete development of the MAGPIE lunar rover and deliver it to the surface of the Moon in 2029, covering rover and payload development, transportation, surface operations and data delivery. The Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration will characterize volatile deposits at the lunar south pole under ESA's Small Missions for Exploration initiative and will fly on ispace's Mission 4 lander. ispace-Europe said Phase 2 work began July 1, with a structural thermal model manufacturing readiness review as the next major milestone.

06

Wildfires force evacuation of NASA Madrid DSN and ESA Cebreros stations

Wildfires near Madrid forced the evacuation of NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex at Robledo de Chavela and of ESA's nearby Cebreros deep-space ground station on July 24. NASA said an initial onsite inspection on July 25 found wildfire damage primarily to pavement and surrounding vegetation, with no significant structural damage observed to antennas or buildings, and that Canberra and Goldstone had assumed DSN operations. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said on July 26 that Cebreros had been cleared to return to nominal operations from July 27 after checks confirmed the 35-metre antenna escaped damage.

[ 03 / +31 / -6 ]

Market pulse

Archived snapshot from this edition. Prices and moves are not live.

Gainers+31
Decliners-6
Big mover GSAT+4.1%
AssetSnapshotMoveTrend
GSATGlobalstar$83.38+4.1%
CRSCarpenter Technology$519.66+3.2%
ATIATI$187.44+3.0%
YSSYork Space Systems$14.73-3.5%
DCODucommun$179.02-2.4%
BABoeing$216.14-2.2%
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Filings

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