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launchseismic2026-09-05

Isar Aerospace reaches orbit with Spectrum on second flight

Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket reached orbit from Norway, the first orbital-class launch from Western Europe.

Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket lifted off from Andoya Spaceport in Norway on its second flight, carrying five cubesats and one ESA-sponsored experiment, and reached orbit roughly seven minutes after liftoff, per NRK and Aftenposten. The rocket's March 2025 debut failed 30 seconds after launch, and five subsequent launch attempts this year were scrubbed for technical and weather reasons before Saturday's flight. Isar Aerospace itself reported the second stage achieved a preliminary 180 x 500 km orbit, per SpaceNews reporter Jeff Foust. Isar's chief commercial officer Stella Guillen told CNBC on September 7 that the company's order pipeline is now worth more than 10 billion euros, though the company has not said how much of that is signed.

Isar Aerospace8 sources →
launchseismic2026-09-01

Galactic Energy launches Pallas-1 on debut flight from Jiuquan

China's Galactic Energy flew its new Pallas-1 rocket for the first time, reaching orbit on a test flight with no customer payload.

Galactic Energy launched the Pallas-1 Y1 rocket on its maiden flight from the Dongfeng commercial space site at Jiuquan on September 1 at 10:00 a.m. Beijing time (02:00 UTC), carrying no customer or internal payload; both stages separated normally and the second stage reached its target sun-synchronous orbit, completing the flight's test objectives, per Xinhua and China-in-Space. No booster-recovery hardware was installed on this flight; Galactic Energy said the debut completes the first of a three-step plan toward routinely reusing the first stage, which the company says will progress to a controlled descent and an eventual first-stage landing on future flights, per China-in-Space.

Galactic Energy4 sources →
launchseismic2026-08-18

LandSpace lands Zhuque-3 booster on second flight, a China first

LandSpace landed Zhuque-3's booster on its second flight, a China first, but the recovered stage later tipped over on the pad.

LandSpace launched its Zhuque-3 rocket on its second flight from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 23:35 UTC on Aug. 18, carrying a prototype LEO communications satellite for its subsidiary Hongqing Technology, per SpaceNews, Space.com and NASASpaceflight. About 137 seconds after stage separation, the first stage completed a powered vertical landing on deployable legs roughly 390 km downrange in Minqin County, Gansu province, becoming the first Chinese company to recover an orbital-class booster and the first recovery in China using landing legs rather than net capture. Zhuque-3's December 2025 debut flight reached orbit, but its booster crashed during an earlier landing attempt. LandSpace said the mission moves Zhuque-3 "from the technological demonstration and verification phase toward the engineering application phase of reusability," per Space.com. LandSpace was targeting a reflight of the recovered booster within six months, a company representative told SpaceNews. Days later, the booster tipped over on the recovery pad: a fire broke out near its base during propellant offloading and one of its four landing legs failed, per NASASpaceflight and China in Space. China in Space reported the fall damaged the interstage and both propellant tanks and deformed two of the booster's nine Tianque-12A engine nozzles.

LandSpace7 sources →
launchseismic2026-07-18

Skyroot's Vikram-1 becomes India's first privately built rocket to reach orbit

Skyroot's Vikram-1 reached orbit on its debut flight, becoming the first privately built rocket to do so from India.

Skyroot Aerospace's four-stage Vikram-1 rocket lifted off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 18 and placed multiple payloads into a roughly 450-kilometer low Earth orbit about 15 minutes after liftoff, per SpaceNews. Reuters reported the rocket stands about 22 meters tall, uses three solid-fuel stages plus a liquid-fuel orbital adjustment module with a 3D-printed engine, and can carry up to 350 kilograms to low Earth orbit. The mission, called Aagaman, carried customer and technology-demonstration payloads including cubesats from Skyroot and Grahaa Space and hosted payloads from Dcubed and Cosmoserve Space, according to SpaceNews.

Skyroot Aerospace4 sources →
launchseismic2026-07-10

China recovers Long March 10B first stage on maiden flight

China's Long March 10B flew for the first time and recovered its first stage at sea, the second country to do so.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launched the Long March 10B on its maiden flight from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site early July 10, carrying a satellite that reached its planned orbit, per SpaceNews and Space.com. About six minutes after stage separation, the first stage returned vertically and was captured by a net system aboard a sea-based recovery platform, the vessel Linghang Zhe, roughly 11 minutes after liftoff, per CASC's own statement quoted by Space.com. CASC said it intends to reuse the recovered stage before the end of 2026.

CASC4 sources →
financialseismic2026-06-12

SpaceX goes public on Nasdaq, raising $75 billion in the largest IPO on record

SpaceX sold 555.6M shares at $135 and closed its first day near $161, a $2.1 trillion valuation, per CNBC.

SpaceX priced 555,555,555 Class A shares at $135.00 each in its initial public offering, for proceeds to the company before expenses of $74,499,999,925, and began trading on Nasdaq on June 12 under the ticker SPCX. Per its prospectus, underwriters hold a 30-day option for up to 83,333,333 additional shares, and Elon Musk retains about 82.4% of voting power after the offering through the dual-class structure. Per CNBC, the stock opened at $150, closed near $161, up 19%, valuing the company around $2.1 trillion, with more than 500 million shares traded on the first day; TechCrunch called it the largest IPO in history, eclipsing Saudi Aramco's 2019 debut.

SpaceX3 sources →

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