Russian roulette
SpaceX’s upgraded Starship is set to launch on its first test flight as soon as Tuesday, May 19.
A Zhuque-2E rocket blasts off from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone on May 14, 2026 in northwest China.
Welcome to Edition 8.41 of the Rocket Report! The stories of the world’s two most powerful rockets are now intertwined. Hardware for NASA’s third Space Launch System rocket is coming together at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while SpaceX is readying its first upgraded Starship Version 3 rocket for liftoff from Starbase, Texas. The readiness of each vehicle, along with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lander, will go a long way toward determining the schedule and content of NASA’s Artemis III mission in low-Earth orbit. We discuss those plans in this week’s Rocket Report.
As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
