Where are America’s Commercial Space Stations in 2025?
The ISS is aging rapidly, and a replacement is desperately needed. As America’s posture in low Earth orbit threatens to slip away, where are its commercial stations in 2025?
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Author: Beverly Casillas
A Shaky Step Forward for Starship Flight 9
The ninth flight test of SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy rocket took place on May 27, 2025, achieving a marginal improvement over the previous two missions. Although Ship 35 completed a successful ascent, fuel leaks and a loss of control in space prevented the spacecraft from completing most of its intended objectives.
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Athena and IM-2 Lost After Landing
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission came to an abrupt end after an unsuccessful landing attempt on March 6. Although the spacecraft reached the surface intact, Athena toppled over after touchdown, leaving its solar panels in shadow and unable to recharge its batteries.
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Familiar Spectacle and Setbacks From Starship Flight 8
SpaceX launched Starship’s eighth integrated test flight on Thursday, March 6th, producing a remarkably similar showing to its seventh flight. Exactly seven weeks after that test was cut short by an upper stage failure, the system encountered another anomaly.
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Blue Ghost Makes “Picture Perfect” Moon Landing
Firefly Aerospace scored their first successful Moon landing early Sunday morning. As their Blue Ghost lander touched down on the
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Intuitive Machines Aims High for Second Moon Landing
Intuitive Machines has embarked on its second Moon landing attempt for NASA’s CLPS initiative with the launch of IM-2.
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Blue Ghost and HAKUTO-R Take Flight
Two robotic moon landers shared a ride into space in the early morning of Wednesday, January 15th. Hours earlier, Blue Ghost, built by Firefly Aerospace in the United States, and HAKUTO-R, built by ispace of Japan, were comanifested in the fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, stacked one on top of the other.
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NASA Chooses Nuclear Fission Power for Humans on Mars
NASA has made its first key architecture decision on the branching road to Mars: nuclear fission will power the first human missions on the Martian surface.
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NASA Set to Update Moon to Mars Architecture with ACR24
NASA is developing the latest version of its overarching vision for space exploration: the Moon to Mars Architecture. Amid an environment of questions about the Artemis Program, the agency’s year-long Strategic Analysis Cycle is drawing to a close this November with the 2024 Architecture Concept Review, called ACR24.
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Starship Completes Flight 6, Aborts Tower Catch
SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle completed a sixth flight test on Tuesday, November 19th, capping off an eventful year for this unique development program.
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Hera Beats the Weather – Sets Sights on Dual Asteroid
The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft has lifted off on a unique mission to the binary asteroid pair Didymos and Dimorphos. The probe will seek new insights into planetary defense techniques that could protect the Earth from asteroid impacts in the future, following up on NASA’s DART mission which intentionally struck Dimorphos in September of 2022.
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Crew-9 Launches Two Astronauts to ISS
SpaceX’s ninth crew rotation to the International Space Station is underway, carrying two crew members uphill to the orbiting laboratory. Crew-9 evaded stormy weather to lift off on September 28th, 2024 at 1:17 PM EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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SpaceX Makes Adjustments For Crew Dragon’s Future
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has been a resounding success, both for SpaceX itself and for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. After ending a 9-year gap in the United States’ crewed launch capability, the spacecraft has become the de facto leader in the developing commercial orbital economy.
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NASA Identifies Lunar Cargo and Mobility Gaps
The development of NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture is a continuous process, one which is always seeking to strengthen our approach to sending humans to Mars and beyond. In June, NASA released a pair of white papers that give a glimpse into this year’s analysis: Lunar Surface Cargo and Lunar Mobility Drivers and Needs.
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Moon to Mars Part II: Evolving to Mars
Artemis’ stated goal to “prepare for human missions to Mars” is an ambitious undertaking, with visible consequences on its organization. With Artemis entering flight across its various programs, and hardware which will eventually support its primary missions in flow, we have entered a unique era for spaceflight.
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NASA, SpaceX Share Updates on ISS Deorbit Vehicle
In a teleconference on July 17th, NASA and SpaceX provided additional information about the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), the spacecraft which will be tasked with pushing the International Space Station out of orbit at the end of its lifetime.
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A Graceful Exit, Part 2: What Comes After ISS?
The end of the International Space Station will mark a tectonic shift in human spaceflight. The ISS program united the efforts of fifteen nations, including a landmark union between the United States and Russia, and citizens from eight other countries have since visited the orbiting laboratory. Now, approaching retirement, we begin to ask the question of what comes next?
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A Graceful Exit, Part 1: How to Responsibly Retire ISS
Responsibly disposing of the ISS will be a monumental undertaking all its own. As we prepare to lay to rest one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments, what will it take to give the ISS a graceful exit?
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GOES-U Heads for Geostationary Orbit
NASA and SpaceX have launched GOES-U, the final Earth observation satellite in the GOES-R series. The spacecraft was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, dodging inclement weather to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at 5:26 PM EDT on July 25th, 2024.
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Meet The Pressurized Rover
In April of this year, the United States and Japan signed a formal agreement to collaborate on the first of a new kind of spacecraft for the Artemis Program: a pressurized rover. Acting like a camper van for astronauts to live in as they roam across the surface of the Moon, the pressurized rover is a dramatic new capability for the Artemis Program.
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Starship Survives Reentry, Completes IFT-4
SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle has completed its fourth Integrated Flight Test (IFT-4), lifting off from the company’s Starbase facility at 7:50 AM Central Time on Thursday, June 6th, 2024.
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Op-Ed: Human Health Research, the Key to the Commercial Space Revolution
If one word can summarize the past five years of human spaceflight, it’s “commercialization.” The early 2020s have been defined by a dramatic shift in the way we think about space exploration, particularly as NASA moves beyond LEO to procure new capabilities for its groundbreaking Artemis program.
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NASA Gives the Green Light to Lunar Terrain Vehicle Teams
On Wednesday, April 3rd, NASA announced the three teams of commercial companies that will develop concepts for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, an unpressurized rover which will provide mobility for astronauts as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
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Starship Completes Third Test Flight
On Thursday, March 14th, SpaceX completed the third Integrated Flight Test (IFT-3) of its Starship launch vehicle. Notably, IFT-3 successfully achieved the first complete ascent of the combined Starship and Super Heavy system.
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Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus Achieves First Landing for CLPS
On Thursday, February 22nd, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander Odysseus successfully touched down on the Moon, achieving the “ultimate milestone” for the IM-1 mission and marking the first major victory for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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As IM-1 Prepares for Launch, Questions Abound for CLPS
Intuitive Machines is targeting February 14th for the launch of IM-1, the first flight of its NOVA-C robotic moon lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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What To Expect: NASA’s 2023 Architecture Concept Review
Set for release on January 22nd, these highly-anticipated documents will provide key insights into NASA’s overarching Moon to Mars exploration strategy, including new details in its vision for sending humans to Mars.
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NASA Leadership Lays Out Revised Artemis Schedule
In a media teleconference held on January 9th, NASA leadership announced significant delays to the next two missions in its Artemis program.
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Orion’s Journey to Artemis II and Beyond
One year ago, NASA’s Orion spacecraft concluded its maiden voyage around the Moon, a journey of 1.4 million miles ending with a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Now, the first crewed Orion is well underway in construction, with more on the way…
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Anatomy of a Deep Space Transport
The problem of transporting humans to Mars is a daunting one, yet the slate never stays blank for long. However, if we are to succeed in this boldest of adventures, we must first step away from the whiteboard and take a moment to reflect on our motivations and goals.
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Powering Artemis: RSRMVs Arrive at KSC
Artemis 2’s Solid Rocket Motors, or RSRMVs, have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center as NASA and their international partners gear up for humanity’s return to the moon.
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