01
SpaceX sets Starship's first orbital attempt for Monday morning with 26 Starlink V3 satellites
SpaceX
SpaceX scheduled the first orbital launch attempt of Starship, the 14th flight of the Starship-Super Heavy rocket, for a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. Central on Monday, September 28, from Starbase, flying booster B21 and upper stage Ship 41 on the mission designated Starlink 31-1. About 25 minutes after liftoff the upper stage is to relight one of its three sea-level Raptor engines to circularize its orbit; if it does, it will begin deploying 26 Starlink Version 3 satellites about 34 minutes after liftoff, three of them carrying cameras to film the heat shield.
02
Crew-13 cleared for October 1 launch after Dragon oxidizer valve fix
SpaceX
NASA and SpaceX set 11:10 a.m. EDT on October 1 as the earliest Crew-13 launch opportunity from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, after SpaceX replaced an oxidizer valve in Dragon's propulsion system after an oxidizer leak pushed the mission back from September 12. Commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday after a Friday Flight Readiness Review. A Falcon 9 engine test was scheduled for Sunday and a launch-day rehearsal with the crew for Tuesday.
03
Rocket Lab's CFO says more acquisitions are coming after Iridium's vote
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Rocket Lab chief financial officer Adam Spice said more mergers and acquisitions are on the horizon, deciding between building and buying case by case, and estimated that 40 to 50% of the company's space systems portfolio already comes from acquired technology. Spice also defended Rocket Lab's protest of NASA's decision to pick Blue Origin for the Mars Telecommunications Network, calling it a sign the company has reached the big leagues. Iridium shareholders cast 99.6% of votes in favor of Rocket Lab's takeover, which is expected to close in mid-2027 at about $54 per Iridium share in cash and Rocket Lab stock.
04
SpaceX launches classified USSF-385 Starshield mission from Vandenberg
SpaceX
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at 7:00 a.m. PDT Saturday from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the classified USSF-385 mission for the U.S. Space Force, flying a southerly trajectory into low Earth orbit. The flight is thought to be the third in a series deploying Starshield government variants of Starlink, following USSF-366 on August 15 and USSF-153 on September 10, each of which added 23 catalogued satellites. Booster B1100 flew for a 10th time and landed on Of Course I Still Love You.
05
NASA and Boeing to brief Starliner development and regular crew-flight plans
BA
NASA and Boeing leadership scheduled a 3 p.m. EDT news conference Monday at Kennedy Space Center to discuss Starliner's development and plans for regular crew flights to and from the International Space Station. The briefing is being held alongside Crew-13 prelaunch activity and will be open to media already credentialed for that mission, with dial-in access for off-site reporters.
06
PRIMA will reuse a spare Webb cryocooler to build a $1.2B telescope in record time
NASA's PRIMA far-infrared observatory, chosen last week as the first Probe Explorer, will cool its primary optics to 4.5 Kelvin with a spare cryocooler left over from James Webb Space Telescope development, modified to use helium-3 as its cooling fluid, as NASA tries to launch a $1.2 billion telescope in 2033, seven years from now. The 1.8-meter telescope will observe between 24 and 235 micrometers from the Sun-Earth L2 point. PRIMA was the sole finalist after NASA disqualified the competing AXIS X-ray observatory earlier this year on schedule and budget grounds.
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