Dawn Aerospace, manufacturer of the Mk-II Aurora, announced that New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has granted it approval to fly at “unlimited” speeds at up to 80,000 feet in altitude. The company is permitted to fly beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of a remote pilot and will not be limited to restricted airspace.

Dawn describes the Aurora as “an aircraft with the performance of a rocket.” According to the company, the aircraft is designed to be the first vehicle capable of flying to the Kármán line—which at about 100 kilometers in altitude is considered the edge of space—twice in one day.

“This unlocks the next major performance milestone for the Mk-II vehicle, namely supersonic flight,” said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn. “To the best of our knowledge, this would be the first privately funded [uncrewed aerial vehicle] to break the sound barrier.”

The only successful supersonic airliner, Concorde, which was developed by two now-defunct manufacturers, was retired more than two decades ago. But a new crop of companies, including Dawn and Boom Supersonic, are trying to break the sound barrier again.

Unlike Boom’s Overture, which is being developed as a passenger airline, Dawn’s Aurora is intended for space transportation.

The Mk-II first flew in 2021 and has since completed more than 50 test flights, operating under both jet and rocket power. It last flew in 2023, reaching 200 knots at an altitude of 9,000 feet. But those flights were under a more restrictive license than the one obtained by the company last week.

The goal of the firm’s upcoming campaign, which will comprise about a dozen flights between July and September, is to reach Mach 1.1—the boundary of supersonic speed—at an altitude of 70,000 feet. It hopes to fly to space twice in one day and spend about 180 seconds in microgravity.

If it achieves all objectives, the company believes it would set records for speed, altitude, and climb rate for a self-powered aircraft.

Dawn’s primary business is manufacturing propulsion systems for satellites, and it has 76 thrusters in space. But the company is now looking to enter the suborbital space.

The Aurora is a first-stage demonstrator for the company’s more robust Mk-III—a two-stage-to-orbit model that will take off from the runway and deploy a 250 kilogram satellite at the apex of its flight path.

According to Dawn, it is remotely piloted, low cost, and “rapidly reusable,” designed to fly multiple times per day and between 100 and 1,000 times over its lifespan.

Its engine uses storable, “aircraft friendly” propellants that allow the vehicle to take off without having to wait to be fueled. The engine is also carbon neutral, producing no hydrocarbons during operation.

“Room temperature storable propellants will not boil off, and carbon fiber will not suffer from microcracking, as is common in cryogenic composite tanks,” the company says on its website.

Dawn chose a winged design in order to reduce the risk of an engine malfunction, which could jeopardize the landing—and therefore reusability—of the Mk-II. It will be certified as an aircraft in New Zealand. The model takes off like a conventional aircraft, accelerating to Mach 3 speeds and bending upward into a near-vertical route. On the way down, it descends and glides horizontally back to the runway.

Dawn’s first phase of aircraft testing, conducted with the company’s jet-powered Mk-I, comprised eight hours of flight time across 47 flights. After receiving CAA approval for rocket-powered flight in March 2023, it began flying in just a few weeks.

So far, the Mk-II has made three rocket-powered flights, completed within a three-day span a little over one year ago, as part of the second phase of aircraft development, with the goal of reaching the Kármán line under certification.

According to a blog post from Powell, the current version of the vehicle has a maximum altitude of about 60,000 feet, which will require the company to develop a more powerful variant called the Mk-IIB.

“At full performance, the Mk-II will fly faster and 2.5 times higher than any prior aircraft that takes off from a runway, including the current record holder, the SR-71 Blackbird,” said Powell. “That is the power of bringing rocket performance to an aircraft platform.”

Despite being a demonstrator, Dawn plans to one day use the aircraft for Earth observation, high-speed flight research, in-space science including microgravity research, and even civil and defense applications. According to Powell, the company is already fielding interest in a commercial version of the Mk-II and will be in a “prime position” to roll one out once it reaches the Kármán Line.

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On Saturday, after 378 days of solitude, crewmembers Anca Selariu, Nathan Jones, Kelly Haston, and Ross Brockwell emerged from Mars Dune Alpha: a 1,700-square-foot simulated Mars habitat part of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) program. The yearlong simulation was the first of three planned exercises with human volunteers.

“Hello. It’s actually just so wonderful to be able to say hello to you all,” said Haston, CHAPEA commander, as cameras captured the moment she stepped outside the 3D-printed habitat.

The goal of CHAPEA is to provide NASA data on the effects of long-duration habitation of Mars by putting the crew through the throes of life on the Red Planet: isolation, equipment failures, limited resources, and plenty of work. Selariu, Jones, Haston, and Brockwell entered the simulator on June 25, 2023.

The habitat includes 3D-printed spaces for cooking, medical, recreation, fitness, work, and growing crops, as well as private quarters and bathrooms for each crewmember. Volunteers tested out each of these amenities, grew and ate crops like tomatoes and peppers, and performed simulated “Marswalks,” collecting data on their physical and mental health.

“We cannot live, dream, create, or explore on any significant time frame if we don’t live these principles, but if we do, we can achieve and sustain amazing and inspiring things like exploring other worlds,” Brockwell said Saturday during a press conference.

In conjunction with Artemis missions to the moon, CHAPEA is helping prepare NASA for flights to Mars and beyond without crews having to leave Earth. According to the space agency, 3D printing could become a unique tool in its arsenal when the time comes.

“Future space exploration settlements have the potential to be 3D printed with additive construction technology to eliminate the need to launch large quantities of building materials on multiple flights, which is cost prohibitive,” the agency says on the Mars Dune Alpha webpage.

In February, NASA put out the call for the next group of CHAPEA volunteers, who are scheduled to enter the habitat in spring 2025.

“Mars is our goal,” said Stephen Koerner, deputy director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, during the media briefing Saturday. “As global interests and capabilities in space exploration continue to expand, America is poised to lead.”

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For the public, those were the first words heard from NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—the crew of the space agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT)—since they arrived at the orbital laboratory more than one month ago for an intended eight-day stay.

The Earth-to-orbit call between crew and NASA command was live streamed on the agency’s website. The event answered appeals from members of the media, made during a previous press conference, to see the astronauts on camera as concerns with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner—which brought them to the ISS—continue to linger.

The spacecraft is contending with two key problems: helium leaks and deactivated or underperforming thrusters. The issues are concentrated within the spacecraft’s service module, which aids in maneuvers such as docking and undocking with the ISS.

NASA and Boeing have indicated that Starliner has more than enough helium to make it home but are continuing to assess the root cause of the leaks. During a hot fire test after docking, four out of the five affected thrusters performed as expected. The fifth was deactivated for the remainder of the mission.

Williams and Wilmore recounted their trip to the space station and the moment they realized that Starliner’s thrusters were not firing at full power. They also sang the spacecraft’s praises, with Wilmore even saying he was tempted to award his first perfect rating for its handling performance.

Separately, NASA and Boeing representatives held a press conference to provide the latest on ongoing ground thruster testing at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Officials again did not provide a firm return date for Wilmore and Williams. But Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, estimated that testing could wrap up by the end of the month, after which point teams will iron out a timeline.

Engineers hope to conduct as many evaluations as possible while the semireusable spacecraft, designed to survive 10 missions, is in orbit. Starliner’s service module, the expendable component of the spacecraft, will be jettisoned and lost as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere.

Astronauts Phone Home

Williams and Wilmore on Wednesday made their long-awaited first appearance on camera since arriving at the ISS on June 6, recounting the CFT’s progress so far.

“Launch was spectacular,” Wilmore said, adding that the spacecraft performed “unbelievably well” during operational capability checks.

However, on the second day of their journey to the ISS, the astronauts could tell something was amiss. As Starliner approached the orbital lab, a total of five reaction control system (RCS) thrusters on its service module either turned off or did not fire at intended strength. Williams and Wilmore commandeered the capsule manually for about one hour as teams on the ground assessed the issue.

“From that point on, you could tell that the thrust was degraded,” Wilmore said. “But it was still impressive.”

Even with less-than-optimal performance, the thrusters completed what Wilmore described as a perfect maneuver as they navigated the final 10 meters to dock Starliner with the space station.

According to Williams, the astronauts talk with mission crews once per week to share and analyze the data they’ve collected. She highlighted the capsule’s ability to serve as a “safe haven” in the event of an ISS evacuation—a role it fulfilled last month after a Russian satellite broke up in orbit.

“We are having a great time here on the ISS,” said Williams. “I’m not complaining, Butch isn’t complaining, that we’re here for a couple extra weeks.”

One question NASA and Boeing have received is whether Starliner could bring Williams and Wilmore home right now. Officials insist it could, but only in an emergency situation that would require the ISS to be evacuated. The astronauts were asked about their confidence level in that scenario.

“I feel confident that, if we had to—if there was a problem with the International Space Station—we could get in the spacecraft and undock, talk with our team, and figure out the best way to come home,” said Williams.

She later added, “I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home no problem.”

Wilmore said he and his crewmate “trust the tests we are doing are the right ones we need to do to get us the right answers, to give us the data we need to come back,” adding that they are “absolutely ready” for a return based on current engineering data.

NASA could send a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule—which has completed all eight ISS Commercial Crew rotation missions to date—to retrieve the astronauts should Starliner’s issues persist. On Wednesday, Stich said the space agency has not yet opened those discussions with SpaceX, though he did not rule out the possibility.

The astronauts also described their view of Hurricane Beryl from space, saying that their families—who live in Texas and were in the storm’s path—are doing well. Wilmore said he is “90 percent sure” he could see the storm forming off the West coast of Africa days before it was named.

The 20-minute call concluded with some zero-gravity backflips by Williams and a big, smiling thumbs-up from Wilmore.

NASA, Boeing Share More Info

Stich and Mark Nappi, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew program, addressed the media following the astronauts’ remarks.

According to Stich, Starliner will need to undock before mid-August, when SpaceX’s Crew-8 team swaps with the incoming Crew-9. Williams and Wilmore will need to return a few days before the Crew-9 launch window opens. Starliner remains a “go” for return in an emergency scenario, officials said. But they prefer to wait until ground testing is complete before attempting a by-the-books return,

Stich estimated that hot fire testing at White Sands could “optimistically” wrap up by the end of July, though it could be extended. Teams are working toward a nominal return flight readiness review, standard for crew rotation missions, that would give the green light to finish the mission as planned. 

Should more time be needed, NASA is in the process of approving a 45-day extension of the CFT, which is contingent on the health of Starliner’s batteries. According to Stich, those systems have shown no sign of wear and tear.

The goal of the test campaign is to recreate the firing pattern of one of Starliner’s faulty thrusters using an identical thruster—designed for a future mission—on the ground. Hot fire testing began on July 3, but Stich said crews have so far been unable to achieve the temperatures experienced by the thruster in orbit. Engineers believe the unusual firing pattern could be due to excess heat.

Teams will then attempt to predict how the thrusters might behave as Starliner undocks and flies home. Based on their learnings, they could modify the spacecraft’s flight path, deactivate certain thrusters, or fire them at different rates. Williams and Wilmore are capable of piloting Starliner manually if issues arise.

At the same time, Stich said White Sands personnel are evaluating the service module for Starliner’s inaugural crew rotation mission, Starliner-1, scheduled for February. The current service module has contended with a series of helium leaks, for which crews are attempting to uncover the root cause. Starliner-1’s service module won’t be redesigned, but Nappi said future models could incorporate changes based on the testing at White Sands.

The Outlook

Extended ISS stays are not necessarily uncommon, and the space station is designed to accommodate crew for months at a time if needed.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, for example, set a U.S. spaceflight record when his planned six-month mission was nearly doubled to 371 consecutive days aboard the orbital laboratory. Unlike Starliner, the Russian Soyuz capsule that ferried Rubio to the ISS was quickly ruled out as an emergency return vehicle, lending credence to the idea that Boeing’s issues are less severe.

However, NASA and Boeing face the added pressure of certification after close to a decade of delays to the Starliner program. In a prior press conference, Stich acknowledged that NASA and Boeing “understand it’s going to take a little bit longer” to certify Starliner than originally planned.

On Wednesday, the Commercial Crew manager said teams will decide between Starliner-1 or SpaceX Dragon’s Crew-10—which are booked for the same February launch window—once the CFT ends and postflight analysis is complete. The longer that takes, he said, the more likely it is that SpaceX will take over the mission.

Nappi agreed with that assessment, citing the need to understand and fix Starliner’s helium leaks as the biggest obstacle to certification.

NASA and Boeing said Wilmore and Williams will make one more Earth-to-orbit call before they depart the ISS, with more details to come.

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In late 2024 or early 2025, the agency’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer—or NEOWISE—is expected to come home in pieces following the conclusion of its second mission later this month. The spacecraft, which spent more than a decade collecting data on objects whizzing past the Earth and exploring ways to defend the planet and its satellites from falling rocks and ice, is now at the mercy of the sun. Soon, it will become unusable.

However, NASA has a replacement lined up: the Near Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor), set for a 2027 launch. The infrared space telescope is the first to be designed specifically for hunting large numbers of NEOs in and around Earth orbit. It has a baseline development cost of $1.2 billion to which NASA committed in 2022.

“NEOWISE has become key in helping us develop and operate NASA’s next-generation infrared space telescope,” said Amy Mainzer, principal investigator of NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “It is a precursor mission. NEO Surveyor will seek out the most difficult-to-find asteroids and comets that could cause significant damage to Earth if we don’t find them first.”

On the Hunt

Built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and borne out of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NEOWISE has actually contributed to two separate missions in its 14 years of operation.

Originally known simply as WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), the telescope launched in December 2009 and now orbits the Earth 15 times each day. It was placed in hibernation in 2011 after two years spent discovering and studying galaxies, comets, asteroids, white dwarf stars, and faint objects undetectable to ground-based telescopes.

WISE mapped the entire visible sky using infrared wavelengths—twice—to visualize the clouds of gas and dust orbiting around stars, and its findings are still being analyzed. It also identified tens of millions of supermassive black holes feasting on stars, hiding in plain sight.

After being reactivated in 2013, the spacecraft, now bearing the name NEOWISE, embarked on its second mission, which NASA says has become a key piece of its current planetary defense strategy.

In 2005, Congress directed the space agency to identify and describe at least 9 in 10 of the large space objects that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. The objective is to seek out hazards and steer them clear of the planet and its growing commercial spaceflight industry.

From near-Earth orbit, NEOWISE so far has taken 1.45 million infrared measurements of 44,000 objects in the solar system. Of those, 3,000 are near-Earth objects (NEOs), including 215 newly discovered NEOs. One of these, named Comet NEOWISE in the spacecraft’s honor, could be seen lighting up the night sky during summer 2020.

“The spacecraft has surpassed all expectations and provided vast amounts of data that the science community will use for decades to come,” said Joseph Hunt, NEOWISE project manager at NASA JPL. “Scientists and engineers who worked on WISE and through NEOWISE also have built a knowledge base that will help inform future infrared survey missions.”

However, because it lacks a propulsion system to keep itself in orbit, the spacecraft has gradually descended toward Earth since launching.

Compounding that is the solar maximum: a period of increased solar activity that occurs every 11 years and appears to be on the horizon, so to speak. Solar flares and other activity are expected to cause atmospheric drag on satellites, which could cause NEOWISE to come tumbling back to Earth as soon as this year.

“The mission has planned for this day a long time,” said Joseph Masiero, deputy principal investigator for the program. “After several years of calm, the sun is waking back up. We are at the mercy of solar activity, and with no means to keep us in orbit, NEOWISE is now slowly spiraling back to Earth.”

As NASA announced in December, the mission will officially come to an end on July 31 when the telescope ceases surveying. The space agency will then place it in hibernation for the final time in August.

Introducing NEO Surveyor

However, NEOWISE’s legacy is expected to live on through NEO Surveyor.

Unlike its predecessor, which found new life under a revised mission profile, NEO Surveyor is being purpose-built to hunt large numbers of asteroids, comets, and other NEOs. Construction of the new design began in December 2022 following a successful technical review, and NASA aims to have it ready in time for a 2027 launch.

Orbiting between the Earth and sun, NEO Surveyor’s mission will be to search for the darkest, least reflective NEOs using its infrared sensors. It will focus mainly on large objects in the neighborhood of Earth’s orbit, which are thought to pose the greatest threat to life should they make impact on the planet or spacecraft. It will also uncover “Earth trojans”—asteroids already in orbit that are often hidden by the sun’s glare.

The program will not eliminate or deflect NEOs, but, as NASA puts it, the agency can only protect Earth and its satellites from hazards if it can identify them first.

“Ground-based telescopes remain essential for us to continually watch the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the ultimate high ground that will enable NASA’s planetary defense strategy,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office in Washington, D.C.

After launch, NEO Surveyor will use its infrared instruments to complete a five-year baseline survey. Its goal is to find at least two-thirds of the NEOs larger than 460 feet across and describe their composition, shape, orbital behavior, and rotation. The observations are intended to be accurate enough that NASA could easily rediscover each object.

Planetary defense is the program’s highest goal. But NEO Surveyor will further help NASA scientists understand how comets and asteroids form and evolve, also an objective of the space agency’s concurrent Psyche asteroid mission.

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Each nation is allotted one seat on an upcoming Blue Origin flight, and applicants can secure a slot for just $2.50.

“India has achieved remarkable milestones in its space journey the past few years, including becoming the first country to reach the moon’s southern pole,” said Joshua Skurla, co-founder of SERA, of the program’s newest partner nation.

The U.S. and India last month strengthened their collaboration on human spaceflight and space security. NASA is also training an Indian astronaut for a trip to the International Space Station as early as this year.

SERA works with countries that have had few or no citizens reach the final frontier. In April, it purchased six seats on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket that will fly citizen astronauts to the Kármán line, which at 100 kilometers is considered the boundary between Earth and space.

Formerly known as the Crypto Space Agency and funded by NFTs, the program played a role in Blue Origin’s fifth crewed spaceflight, NS-21, awarding a seat to Brazilian civil engineer Victor Hespanha, that country’s second astronaut, through a raffle.

According to SERA, more than 8 in 10 astronauts come from just three countries: the United States, Russia, and China. In June, it partnered with Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency to send that country’s first citizen to space.

“Our mission is to democratize space by enabling citizens from over 150 countries with limited access to space to participate in ground-breaking research and create history,” said Skurla. “Our aim is to empower people globally to have a voice and stake in the future of space exploration.”

In an unprecedented move, SERA will allow people around the world to vote on which citizens will take the approximately 11-minute journey.

Anyone living in one of the program’s partner nations can apply to secure a seat. Applicants must be proficient in English, at least 18 years of age, and meet Blue Origin’s parameters for height, weight, physical fitness, and citizenship.

Five of the seats will be allocated to specific nations, and candidates will be voted on by citizens of those nations. The sixth will be open to anyone within a SERA-partnered country and chosen through a global vote. Remaining seat assignments will be announced later this year.

During the second quarter of 2024, voters will choose from 24 final candidates. After that, they will design and vote on the experiments the astronauts will perform during the flight. Later this year, a prelaunch docuseries will reveal the winning experiments.

Following three days of training at Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas, the civilian crew will strap themselves into New Shepard sometime after the third quarter. The company’s next mission, NS-26, does not yet have an expected launch date.

“By giving communities the power to choose their astronauts, we ensure this mission is driven by people, for people,” said Sam Hutchison, who co-founded SERA alongside Skurla. “This approach will ignite national conversations on space and foster international collaboration in space exploration.”

Hutchison previously served as president of Boeing-backed Reaction Engines, which designs rocket engines intended for hypersonic flight.

SERA says its upcoming mission will be the first of several flights in partnership with Blue Origin. The company’s New Shepard rocket in December made a return to action following a grounding and FAA investigation into a September 2022 incident and in May launched another mission—its first crewed flight in nearly two years.

The spacecraft so far has performed as expected, which should give SERA confidence in being able to send more civilians to space in the near future.

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During a media briefing on Friday, NASA and Boeing representatives said the astronauts’ return to Earth will come after ground testing at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete. Teams are working to re-create some of the issues experienced by the reusable spacecraft during its inaugural crewed flight to the orbital laboratory.

According to Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, Starliner was originally deemed safe for a stay as long as 45 days on the ISS. Crews are in the process of extending its battery life, which Stich said will keep the risk level manageable for another 45 days, at least.

However, he conceded that NASA and Boeing “understand it’s going to take a little bit longer” to certify Starliner than previously planned. The spacecraft is scheduled to fly its first service mission, Starliner-1, early next year. Officials said SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which has completed all eight commercial crew rotation missions to the ISS to date, could take that slot.

“We’re not in any rush to come home,” Stich said Friday. “The risk for the next 45 days is essentially the same as for the first 45 days.”

Added Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate: “We have the luxury of time.”

Stich, Bowersox, and Mark Nappi, the manager of Boeing’s commercial crew program,  reiterated that “engineering data suggests” Starliner is safe to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth in the event of an emergency.

Officials also reported that the spacecraft is in “good shape” despite two lingering issues—a set of helium leaks and faulty thrusters.

A total of five helium leaks have sprung up on Starliner’s service module, which makes tiny maneuvers to the spacecraft to assist in docking and keep it in orbit. After testing the helium manifolds earlier this month, NASA found that leak rates had declined. Stich on Friday said those rates have not changed.

The other issue involves the service module’s thrusters, some of which did not fire at full strength en route to the ISS. These were also assessed earlier this month, and Stich said performance on all thrusters is between 80 and 100 percent.

It appears the thrusters are the main factor necessitating a longer mission for Starliner. As soon as Tuesday, engineers will begin testing an identical component at White Sands to re-create the firing pattern of one of the in-orbit thrusters. Officials said the campaign is expected to last several weeks and could be extended.

According to Nappi, teams want to keep Starliner in space for the evaluations because they could inform additional in-orbit tests or a modification of the spacecraft’s undocking procedure. He said crews do not yet understand the issue well enough to fix them permanently and that it would be “irresponsible” not to use additional time to conduct testing. Starliner’s crew module is reusable for up to 10 missions, but the service module will be jettisoned during the CFT.

Nappi said he has been in contact with Wilmore and Williams and that they remain in good spirits, describing Starliner as “pristine and precise.” The astronauts are able to communicate with their families daily and according to officials are not “stranded.”

On Wednesday, Starliner got another real-life test when an in-orbit satellite breakup created a debris field that hurtled toward the ISS. Wilmore and Williams tested the spacecraft’s ability to act as a “safe haven” in the case of a contingency on the space station, getting inside, powering it up, and sealing the hatch. They remained inside for an hour and according to officials were prepared to initiate an undocking if necessary.

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The space agency on Thursday announced it awarded SpaceX a contract, worth up to $843 million, to build a vehicle that will deorbit the space station when it is retired in 2030. At the end of the laboratory’s lifespan, NASA will use the SpaceX-built vehicle to bring it crashing down into a remote section of the Pacific Ocean.

The Biden administration in 2021 committed to extend ISS operations through the end of the decade. After that, it is planned to be replaced by an array of NASA-funded commercial space stations.

“Selecting a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle for the International Space Station will help NASA and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible transition in low Earth orbit at the end of station operations,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “This decision also supports NASA’s plans for future commercial destinations and allows for the continued use of space near Earth.”

Once the vehicle is developed, NASA will take over and oversee its operation. Like the ISS, it is expected to break up as it throttles toward the Earth. A launch service will be procured in the future—the agency currently uses SpaceX’s Falcon rocket to launch Commercial Crew rotation missions to the orbital laboratory.

Deorbiting the ISS will be the responsibility of the U.S., Canada, Japan, Russia, and member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA). Since 1998, the ESA, NASA, Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Russia’s Roscosmos have operated the space station, occupying it continuously for almost a quarter of a century.

In that time, it has been used to conduct microgravity experiments, test technologies that could be used to explore the moon and Mars, and, more recently, host commercial activities such as private astronaut missions.

According to an FAQ on NASA’s website, the agency expects itself to eventually become one of several customers, rather than a provider, of those services in a commercial space marketplace. As private companies take over low-Earth orbit operations, it will focus on flying humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

The first crewed lunar landing in the Artemis moon program, for example, is scheduled for September 2026. SpaceX is involved in that effort, too, developing the landing system that will put astronauts on the moon’s south pole.

NASA weighed several options for decommissioning the ISS, including a disassembly in space or boost to higher orbit, before settling on a controlled reentry. It will lower the station’s altitude using onboard propulsion before deploying SpaceX’s specially designed deorbit vehicle to bring it back into the atmosphere.

After lining up the debris footprint over an uninhabited area of the ocean, the space agency will give the all clear for one final burn. Most of the laboratory is expected to melt, burn up, or vaporize.

NASA in 2021 selected three private companies—Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and Starlab Space, a joint venture between Voyager Space and Airbus—to develop free-flying commercial alternatives to the space station. The firms were awarded space act agreements totaling $415 million.

Another private partner, Axiom Space, is designing four modules that will attach to the ISS and later jettison to form another commercial space lab. The company is in the design review phase and is on schedule to launch its first module in 2026 under a contract worth up to $140 million.

All four spacecraft are expected to be operational before the end of the decade to ensure a smooth transition away from ISS operations, but NASA will first need to certify them.

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Last week, Blue Origin filed a public comment to the FAA requesting that the regulator limit the number of launches of SpaceX’s Starship—the largest and most powerful rocket ever built—out of Launch Complex-39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which currently hosts the company’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

The FAA in May released a SpaceX proposal for high-frequency Starship operations at Kennedy, including the construction of infrastructure that would allow Musk’s firm to complete 44 launches per year.

The filing is the latest wrinkle in the multiyear feud between Musk and Bezos, who have exchanged taunts and legal actions as they battle for supremacy in the commercial spaceflight industry. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have obtained contracts from U.S. government agencies such as NASA and the Pentagon and intend to make cosmic tourism a piece of their business.

“Sue Origin,” Musk bantered on social media platform X, which he acquired in 2022.

In a subsequent post, the SpaceX boss added, “An obviously disingenuous response. Not cool of them to try (for the third time) to impede SpaceX’s progress by lawfare.”

The public comment filed by Blue Origin has no legal bearing, but the FAA will consider it as it determines what restrictions to place on Starship at Kennedy.

SpaceX is seeking a commercial launch vehicle operator license for Starship operations at Launch Complex 39-A, which will require the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). The EIS describes the potential effects of those operations on the surrounding environment and was required for SpaceX to begin the Starship orbital test flight program, for example. SpaceX will prepare the assessment itself under FAA supervision.

During Starship’s maiden voyage, which ended in a ball of flames a few minutes into the mission, the impact from the launch caused unexpected damage as far as 6 miles away from the Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas. The force of Starship broke windows, sent ashy debris into the sky, and brought an FAA investigation into SpaceX’s environmental mitigations, grounding the rocket for months. Five environmental groups sued the FAA over its handling of the mission.

Since then, SpaceX has made several improvements to Starbase to contain Starship’s debris field, and subsequent missions have resulted in little fanfare. However, it appears Blue Origin will use the incident as leverage in its plea to the FAA.

“At Starbase, Starship and Super Heavy test missions have been subject to environmental scrutiny due to their impact on the local environment and community,” the public comment reads, citing the aforementioned lawsuit against the regulator as evidence.

Blue Origin too launches operations out of Kennedy. The company leases Space Launch Complex-36 and occupies several hangars, as well as a manufacturing site, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), which it says are close to the area SpaceX wants to use.

“Blue Origin employs over 2,700 full-time employees in [Florida’s] Brevard County, including 449 employees at CCSFS that are directly impacted by local launch activities,” the filing reads. “Blue Origin has invested more than $1 billion in capital expenditures to develop [Launch Complex-36] as the first privately built heavy-lift launch complex in the world.”

The company said it worries about the safety of property and personnel during a Starship launch anomaly, such as an explosion, fire, debris, or loud noise. It also argued that Starship operations could impede Blue Origin’s access to shared infrastructure and “limited airspace and maritime resources.”

Starship and the Super Heavy booster hold about 5,200 metric tons of liquid methane for propulsion—the force of which, Blue Origin claims, would impede company and government activities at Kennedy due to the anticipated requirement of a safety margin around the site.

The firm urged the FAA to place a cap on the number of Starship launches, specify and limit launch times, and invest in infrastructure that would make Kennedy and CCSFS safer and more accessible for other launch providers.

It also suggested that SpaceX and the government be required to compensate Blue Origin or other companies whose commercial activities are impacted by Starship, as well as mandatory penalties for SpaceX should it violate the EIS or its license.

Given Bezos’ history with Musk, it’s difficult to say whether genuine concern, a desire to hamper the competition, or both prompted the comment.

Blue Origin is developing an alternative to Starship, New Glenn, but the rocket has faced delays and has yet to fly. New Glenn has collected a handful of customers, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper and NASA, which intends to launch it to Mars on its maiden voyage later this year.

NASA was at the center of the most publicized dispute between Blue Origin and SpaceX. After the space agency tapped SpaceX as the sole provider of a human landing system (HLS) for Artemis missions to the moon, Bezos in 2021 took NASA to court, arguing that it had promised two contracts.

The company would ultimately lose that battle. But the space agency in 2023 announced Blue Origin as the second Artemis HLS provider. Both companies are now working with NASA to develop a revamped plan for the Mars Sample Return Program, each receiving a $1.5 million contract.

The firms are also competing in the military sphere. In 2022, Blue Origin lost out on a pair of Pentagon contracts at the expense of SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. But earlier this month, it secured its own agreement with the U.S. Space Force for 30 military launches, worth up to $5.6 billion.

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Wilmore and Williams began their sojourn to the ISS on June 5 with plans for an eight-day stay but will now spend a minimum of three weeks aboard the orbital laboratory.

Partners NASA and Boeing—under contract for six Starliner Commercial Crew missions following the completion of the CFT and the vehicle’s certification—had previously targeted a return date of Saturday, doubling the length of the astronauts’ mission. On Tuesday, however, they decided to further delay a return to allow teams to collect data from Starliner’s service module.

The service module, which makes small maneuvers to align the capsule such as when orbiting or docking, is an expendable component that is jettisoned before the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere. NASA and Boeing hope to study it further in order to assess issues that have arisen during the mission. Their findings will inform any modifications required before the capsule can be certified to enter NASA’s rotation.

NASA Commercial Crew program manager Steve Stich, ISS program manager Dana Wiegel, Johnson Space Center flight director Mike Lammers, and Boeing Commercial Crew program manager and vice president Mark Nappi addressed those problems Tuesday.

Starliner is contending with three main issues. The most significant is a series of helium leaks traced to the seals between the service module’s thrusters and manifold, of which crews have identified five. The first leak was discovered during prelaunch preparations, two were uncovered on the way to the ISS, and two more were identified after docking.

Another complication, which teams on Tuesday theorized may be connected to the helium leaks, involves the service module’s aft reaction control system (RCS) thrusters. Five of these engines failed to fire during the final phase of the spacecraft’s rendezvous with the ISS. Each phase of the remainder of the CFT requires a different number and arrangement of RCS thrusters.

The last problem stems from a faulty oxidizer isolation valve, which has been closed for the remainder of the mission. All other valves are functioning normally, NASA said.

According to Wiegel, the ISS can hold Wilmore and Williams indefinitely as NASA and Boeing prepare Starliner for undocking. Nappi said 77 of 87 CFT flight test objectives have already been completed, with the remaining few taking place during the trip back to Earth. He described the astronauts’ extended stay as an “opportunity” and a “privilege” to study Starliner further on orbit, which is considered an ideal test environment.

Over the past week and a half, Starliner teams have been busy gathering flight data on thruster firing, docking, and other maneuvers, as well as performing testing and analysis on the ground.

During a hot fire test over the weekend, one of the five RCS thrusters displayed what Stich described as “a strange signature where we’re getting almost no thrust out of that [engine].” Crews have opted to power down the thruster for the remainder of the mission. Three other thrusters functioned as expected.

On Starliner’s first visit to the ISS in 2022, a similar issue occurred where two RCS thrusters failed. Stich theorized that heat may be causing propellant in the engines’ chambers to vaporize.

The hot fire test also reflected a promising outlook for the helium manifold problem: “I would say every single manifold that we looked at [following testing], we saw the leak rates going down,” said Stich.

Starliner requires about seven hours’ worth of helium to undock from the ISS, perform a deorbit burn, and touch down on Earth, representing the final steps of the CFT. On Tuesday, teams estimated that the spacecraft will have at least 70 hours of margin.

According to Stich, three helium leaks, described as larger than the rest, tend to reach their highest rate when the service module’s RCS thrusters are firing, leading he and NASA to believe there may be a link between the two problems. As noted earlier, two leaks were identified after Starliner docked to the ISS, which Stich said placed an unexpected amount of demand on the thrusters.

Stich added that the two leaks discovered en route to the orbital laboratory stabilized while Wilmore and Williams took their designated sleep, suggesting there could be some correlation between thruster activity and leak rate. He theorized that the seals on the service module’s helium manifolds could be getting worn down due to extreme heat, for example.

NASA and Boeing representatives said Wilmore and Williams remain in good spirits aboard the ISS. The astronauts are using their extended stay to perform additional tests and equipment checkouts, including a demonstration of Starliner’s use as a safe haven in the case of a contingency aboard the space station. Stich likened the scenario to seeking refuge in a storm cellar during a tornado.

Crews throughout the week will continue to conduct evaluations of Starliner on orbit and on the ground, including simulations of the mission’s final phase. If all goes according to plan, Starliner, carrying Wilmore and Williams, will undock from the ISS on June 25 and land at White Sands Space Harbor the following morning at 4:51 a.m. EDT. Additional landing opportunities are available every four days, with the next being June 30.

The CFT is intended to be Starliner’s final test flight before the vehicle is certified by NASA for service missions. On Tuesday, representatives did not dismiss the possibility of a delay in certification to address the spacecraft’s frequent issues. The vehicle’s first operational mission, Starliner-1, is scheduled for 2025.

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Starship and the Super Heavy booster finally made it back to Earth following the spacecraft’s fourth integrated flight test (IFT-4), which was the main goal of the mission that launched from Boca Chica, Texas. As SpaceX put it, “the payload for this test was the data.”

Super Heavy splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after jettisoning from Starship about four minutes into the flight. Starship, meanwhile, flew nearly halfway around the world over the course of about 40 minutes before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

External cameras and on board Starlink satellites gave viewers a rare live look at Starship’s reentry into Earth’s atmosphere from its suborbital flight path. The video feed appeared to show the loss of several heat shield tiles and damage to one of the flaps—which control the vehicle as it decelerates from hypersonic speeds—as plasma built up around the spacecraft.

Live footage cut in and out several times, prompting cheers from the SpaceX team each time the feed was restored. Crews toasted marshmallows in celebration of Starship’s inaugural landing burn, which slowed it down for a “soft” ocean landing. Then, finally, after much anticipation, the gargantuan spacecraft splashed down for the first time at T-plus 1 hour and 6 minutes.

“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a post on X, the social media platform he acquired in 2022. “Congratulations @SpaceX team on an epic achievement!!”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who is betting on Starship to complete the necessary test flights in time for SpaceX to prepare a Starship Human Landing System (HLS) for the Artemis III mission—NASA’s first lunar landing attempt since the Apollo missions—also sang the praises of IFT-4.

After successfully making it to suborbit and back, the arrow is pointing up for Starship.

Each of the spacecraft’s first two integrated test flights ended in explosions, and its third was cut short just after reentering the atmosphere. All three attempts resulted in the spacecraft’s grounding by the FAA.

But SpaceX painted these as successes. According to the company, Starship’s development falls under its philosophy of rapid design iteration. Essentially, the firm is okay with blowing up a few rockets if it can collect data that helps it hone the design, increasing the chances of success on future launches.

A reentry and soft landing was the primary objective of Thursday’s flight test, validating that Starship and Super Heavy—which are designed to be reusable—could survive the extreme conditions during approach and landing.

At present, it’s unclear whether the extent of the damage will prevent the rocket from flying again. But with both stages back on Earth, it seems unlikely that the FAA would move to ground Starship for a fourth time.

“The fourth flight of Starship made major strides to bring us closer to a rapidly reusable future,” SpaceX said in an update on its website. “Its accomplishments will provide data to drive improvements as we continue rapidly developing Starship into a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars, and beyond.”

That would mean Musk and SpaceX can turn to the next step in Artemis preparations: an in-orbit propellant transfer demonstration. Following that, Starship will need to complete an uncrewed lunar landing, which could require multiple launches.

The final phase will be a crewed flight test, in which the spacecraft will land billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman on the moon. Isaacman is the driving force behind the Polaris Program, which in 2022 purchased three flights from SpaceX in an effort to advance human spaceflight. The program’s first mission, Polaris Dawn, is expected to launch this summer on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. It will culminate in the crewed flight of Starship.

It’s difficult to gauge exactly how many Starship launches SpaceX will need to complete before the rocket is certified for routine missions. But the company is under a time crunch.

Already, Artemis III has been pushed back from 2025 to September 2026. And NASA, facing competition from Russia, China, and others to expand the envelope for human spaceflight, will likely want to stick to that timeline.

If that’s the case, SpaceX will need to see continued positive results from rapid design interaction. The good news is that Starship appears to be on the right trajectory.

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