New challenges and important milestones marked the space sector in the first week of July 2026, with delays in NASA missions, the end of an era for a consolidated rocket and significant advances by startups. Reports indicate that only one of the 20 most anticipated missions for this year, NASA’s Artemis II, has been completed so far, highlighting the persistence of delays in the industry.
Swift Boost mission reaches orbit
An unprecedented commercial mission, aimed at repositioning NASA’s Swift astronomical satellite, was successfully completed in the early hours of Friday, after facing delays earlier in the week. The operation, which saw Katalyst Space Technologies’ Link service satellite reach orbit, used a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. The launch took place from a modified L-1011 plane over the Pacific Ocean, a remote location chosen for the maneuver.
There were two canceled attempts on Tuesday and Wednesday due to unfavorable weather conditions at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, the plane’s launch base. On Thursday, a technical problem in the launch vehicle itself again prevented the release of the rocket after the L-1011 took off. This launch marked one of the last scheduled flights of the Pegasus rocket, an air-launched technology that had great success in the 1990s and 2000s but whose use has declined with the emergence of more economical alternatives from SpaceX and Rocket Lab. The Link satellite will approach the Swift observatory, which does not have the ability to compensate for atmospheric drag and, without this intervention, would likely re-enter the atmosphere later this year. The mission aims to increase the satellite’s altitude, extending its useful life, given that the Swift, launched in 2004, was not designed for maintenance in orbit.
Launch window for Indian Vikram-1 rocket
Skyroot Aerospace, an Indian startup, has scheduled the launch window for the first test flight of its Vikram-1 rocket between July 12 and August 4. The liftoff will take place from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, marking the first attempt by a private Indian company to put a launch vehicle into orbit. The primary objective of the mission is to collect crucial data on flight performance, including propulsion, stage separation, guidance, navigation, control and overall vehicle performance.
The test flight will depart from a launch pad originally developed for the Indian government’s space program. To date, Skyroot has raised around $160 million, with a $60 million funding round announced in May that took the company’s market cap to more than $1 billion. Vikram-1 consists of three stages powered by solid propellant and a fourth stage with liquid fuel engines, designed for final maneuvers to position payloads in low Earth orbit, with a capacity of almost half a ton.
Braking motors for Rosalind Franklin rover
NASA has confirmed the delivery of braking engines for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosalind Franklin mission to Mars, European Spaceflight reports. These engines represent one of three fundamental U.S. contributions to the mission, which also include launch services and Radioisotope Heating Units (RHUs) to keep the rover’s instruments operational in the low Martian temperatures. The launch of the Rosalind Franklin rover is scheduled for late 2028 after years of delays largely due to geopolitical tensions.
The MR-80 engines, which use hydrazine as fuel, were manufactured by L3Harris, formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne, as part of the American contribution to the ESA-led mission. Four of these engines will be responsible for controlling the final descent of the landing module onto the Martian surface. NASA and L3Harris will deliver a fifth spare engine to Europe, completing the propulsion contribution. It is worth mentioning that the same type of engine was successfully used in the landings of NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars, which took place in 2012 and 2021.
Rocket Lab selected for NASA science launches
NASA chose Rocket Lab to launch two science missions aboard three Electron rockets in 2027, Space News reported. One of the missions is the Polarized Submillimetre Ice Cloud Radiometer (PolSIR), which consists of two compact, suitcase-sized satellites designed to monitor the formation and dissipation of ice crystals in tropical clouds. The PolSIR satellites will be sent on two consecutive Electron rockets from Rocket Lab’s space center in New Zealand, with launch scheduled for no earlier than June 2027.
The other launch contract awarded by NASA to Rocket Lab is for the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-2 (TSIS-2) mission, scheduled to take off in early 2027, also from New Zealand. The TSIS-2 spacecraft will succeed the TSIS-1, an instrument currently attached to the International Space Station that measures the amount of solar energy reaching Earth’s atmosphere. Initially, NASA planned to integrate TSIS-2 as a shared payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but has now opted for an exclusive launch with Rocket Lab, highlighting the growing demand for dedicated launches.
Isar Aerospace and its “all-German” mission
Planet Labs has shown confidence in German startup Isar Aerospace by committing to launch at least one of its satellites on the Spectrum rocket, which has not yet reached orbit. According to a report from Aviation Week & Space Technology, the launch, from northern Norway, could take place later this year. Isar Aerospace said in a statement on Thursday that the mission will involve one of Planet’s high-resolution Pelican Earth observation satellites, assembled at the American company’s new factory in Berlin. Isar highlighted that “with the satellite and rocket being built in Germany, this launch will be a first for the country, demonstrating the rapid advances in the nation’s sovereign space capabilities.”
However, Isar did not provide updates on the next test flight of its Spectrum rocket, which has missed several launch opportunities since January. The most recent launch attempt, on June 15, was canceled after “abnormal behavior was detected in the vehicle’s fluid systems.” This mission will seek to place a batch of CubeSats into orbit from the Andøya Space Center in Norway. The first Spectrum launch failed in March 2025.
End of an era for the Atlas V rocket
The last flight of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket is still a few years away, but a significant era for the launch company came to an end early Thursday, as reported by Ars Technica. The latest Atlas V destined for the Amazon Leo broadband constellation lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending 29 satellites into orbit and bringing the network closer to the start of its operations. This was the ninth Atlas V mission for Amazon Leo and the fourth Atlas V launch in less than three months, a blistering pace to close out its nearly quarter-century career.
Furthermore, this was the last mission to use an Atlas V rocket with a payload fairing, a farewell to what was known as the “Bruiser”. The six remaining Atlas V rockets in ULA’s inventory are designated to launch Boeing’s Starliner crew capsules to the International Space Station, and these missions will be flown without the fairing. Thursday’s mission was also the last to employ the most powerful Atlas V configuration, equipped with five solid-fuel boosters. ULA’s next launch will mark the return to flight of its latest Vulcan rocket, which has been grounded since February due to problems with its solid-fuel boosters.
SpaceX reaches milestone of 1,000 Merlin 1D engines
With frequent launches, the impressive performance of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket often goes unnoticed. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets have already completed 671 flights, with the majority of these missions using reused propellants and engines. This week, SpaceX announced on its X channel the manufacture of the thousandth Merlin 1D engine for the first stage of the Falcon rocket. Nine of these kerosene-fueled engines power each Falcon 9 launch, and 27 of them power the Falcon Heavy. A modified version of the Merlin engine is used in the upper stages of both rockets.
The production of a thousand Merlin 1D engines is a remarkable feat for any rocket engine, and it is crucial to point out that the Merlin 1D is designed to be reusable. This engine has already accumulated more than 6,000 flights with the thousand units produced. SpaceX highlighted in X that “with the reuse of the Falcon, the recovery of these engines has enabled continued improvements in reliability, making the Merlin one of the most reliable rocket engines ever made.” By comparison, the equally reliable but single-use Russian RD-107/108 engine has powered variants of Russia’s R-7 rocket family since the 1950s, a legacy that now continues with the Soyuz launch vehicle. With more than 2,000 Soyuz and similar flights, this equates to more than 10,000 RD-107 and 108 engines produced in Samara, Russia.
SpaceX’s unprecedented mission to geostationary orbit
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Sunday, carrying a multi-ton broadcast satellite for SiriusXM. The satellite will replace two older units in geostationary Earth orbit, as reported by Spaceflight Now. The SXM-11 is a large satellite by today’s standards, with a launch mass of approximately 7 tons (15,000 pounds). It is destined for a position over the equator, at an altitude of more than 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles), where its speed will align with the Earth’s rotation to ensure continuous broadcast coverage in the United States.
Of SpaceX’s 78 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches this year, this was only the third mission with a payload destined for geostationary orbit. While geostationary orbit has historically been preferred for most commercial communications satellites, the current trend is tilting toward low Earth orbit with the development of megaconstellations like Starlink. However, SiriusXM and the manufacturer of the SXM-11 satellite, Lanteris Space Systems (a subsidiary of Intuitive Machines, acquired in January 2026), continue to operate actively in this segment.
NASA pleased with Blue Origin recovery
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said this week that Blue Origin has directed considerable resources to cleaning up its launch pad following the explosion of its New Glenn rocket in late May, according to a report by Ars Technica. Isaacman, in response to journalists on Wednesday, described Blue Origin’s response to the situation as “almost impressive,” an assessment shared by NASA. The May 28 explosion destroyed Blue Origin’s only launch pad. NASA has a strong interest in Blue Origin’s return to spaceflight, relying on the Mk. 1 for cargo missions to the Moon and the Mk. 2 to, in the future, take people to the lunar surface. The New Glenn rocket was expected to be instrumental in launching both landers.
Blue Origin plans to resume flights with the New Glenn rocket before the end of the year, but the launch pad will feature a different design. Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, reported that the investigation into the explosion is still ongoing, with initial analyzes pointing to the rear section of the first stage. During the anomaly, the company lost the lightning protection tower and the erector transporter, which moved the rocket from the hangar to the platform and lifted it vertically. For the return to flight, Blue Origin will not rebuild the erector transporter, opting to use a crane to lift the rocket to an upright position on the platform, after pre-flight testing, before installing the payload fairing.
