Rocket Report: China launches without prior warning; The European drone ship

Welcome to Rocket Report 8.15! This year has been, at best, a year of mixed results for SpaceX’s Starship program. Significant progress has been made, including the successful reuse of the rocket’s massive Super Heavy booster. Clearly, SpaceX is getting really good at launching and recovering the 33-engine boost stage. But Starship itself, both spacecraft and upper stage, hasn’t fared as well-has at least, that wasn’t the case before the last two months. After the destruction of four spacecraft in flight and on the ground in the first half of 2025, the last two missions ended with precise landings in the Indian Ocean. This week’s most recent mission was arguably the most successful yet for Starship, which returned to Earth with little damage, suggesting that SpaceX’s improvements to the heat shield are working.

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-range rockets, as well as a quick look at the next three launches on the schedule.

SpaceX vet will fly with Blue Origin. Hans Koenigsmann is one of SpaceX’s oldest, longest-serving and most revered employees. He worked at Elon Musk’s space company for nearly two decades, rising to vice president for mission assurance and safety before leaving SpaceX in 2021. He led investigations into every Falcon rocket failure, mentored young engineers, and became a public face of SpaceX through numerous presentations and press conferences. And now he’s announced he’ll be heading to space for a future suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, Ars reports.

Due diligence … Koenigsmann will fly into space alongside her friend Michaela “Michi” Benthaus next month. She’s remarkable in her own right: A mountain biking accident in 2018 left her with a spinal cord injury, but she didn’t let that derail her from her dream. She will become the first person in a wheelchair to fly in space. Koenigsmann said one of his main concerns about the flight was safety, but meeting with Blue Origin engineers gave him the confidence to board the New Shepard. “When we met with them, I asked a lot of technical questions about security, and I feel like they answered the majority of them thoughtfully and correctly.” So what’s it like for a longtime SpaceXer to work with a former competitor, Blue Origin? Read Eric Berger’s interview with Koenigsmann to learn more.