Space Explored

6 days ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

iSpace will soon be making its next lunar landing attempt after its Hakuto-R lander took the long way to arrive at the Moon. The lander completed a major milestone this week by entering the Moon’s orbit after a long, multi-month trip. Launched alongside Firefly’s successful first lunar lander, Firefly, iSpace’s second Hakuto-R lander named “Resilience” entered orbit Tuesday.

1 week ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

This week, the FAA approved SpaceX‘s request to increase its Starship launch limit from Starbase from five launches to 25. A great step towards full operation, but will SpaceX even reach that goal this year? So far, SpaceX has launched two Starship rockets in 2025. While initially a much faster cadence than 2024, it has come to a halt as the company tackles back-to-back launch failures in a similar fashion. However, that hasn’t stopped Starbase from pumping out hardware.

1 week ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

Friday, President Trump released his “skinny” budget request for the U.S. Government’s Fiscal Year 2026; included for NASA is $18.8 billion in proposed funding. This is down 25% from what the agency received in FY2025. Here’s what programs are safe and in trouble. Called a “skinny” budget, the released proposal doesn’t go into detail as to which programs will receive what funding but shares the big picture of how much each agency will receive and a breakdown of increases and decreases.

1 week ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

After years of building up the local area, moving countless SpaceX employees, and employing thousands, SpaceX’s Starbase facility now resides in the city of Starbase, Texas. The incorporation became official after about 300 eligible voters voted yes to create the city, most of whom work for SpaceX. Starbase’s first elections were held Saturday, where the roughly 300 residents voted on whether or not they wished to incorporate as the city of Starbase.

1 week ago | spaceexplored.com | Seth Kurkowski

Currently, there are four reusable spaceplanes either operational or under development around the world. However, the leaders in the industry have switched back to space capsules, so are spaceplanes back or not? NASA’s Space Shuttle was one of the most iconic rockets created, so much so that many still refer to all rockets launching from Florida as “space shuttles.” It definitely doesn’t bug all of us, I swear. However, the rocket, even with its popularity, was not all it was designed to be.