Illustration: the night side of North America seen from orbit, city lights under a thin blue atmosphere.

Mars is the finish line.

The exhaust plume of a SpaceX Starship rising over the Gulf coast from Starbase, Texas, photographed by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station on November 19, 2024, during Starship's sixth flight test. NASA photograph.

FEATURE

Starship Flight 14, the Day the Biggest Rocket Ever Built Reached Orbit

Thirteen flights went up and came back down. On September 28, 2026, the fourteenth went around. What happened, why reaching orbit is different from going high, and what still has to come next.

The Earth setting behind the Moon's far side, photographed by the Artemis II crew from Orion on April 6, 2026.

Moon Tracker

Artemis II crew, Apr 6, 2026 · NASA

Artemis II (crewed lunar flyby)Apr 2026

Artemis III (Orion + lander docking test)Mid 2027

Artemis IV (crew on the Moon)2028

Sustained lunar presence2029+

NEXT LAUNCHES

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-25

SpaceX · Go

Watch on YouTube (SPACE AFFAIRS)

Oct 12

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-35

SpaceX · Go

Watch on YouTube (NASA)

Oct 13

Falcon 9 Block 5 | USSF-481

SpaceX · Go

Watch on X (SpaceX)

Oct 15

H3-24 | Martian Moons eXploration (MMX)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries · Go

Oct 19

Vulcan VC6L | Amazon Leo (LV-01)

United Launch Alliance · TBD

Oct 29

Source: Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs) · updated Oct 12 · every launch

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RKLBNeutron hype + ARK accumulation

▼ -2.8%as of Oct 12

LUNRArtemis momentum

▼ -1.7%as of Oct 12

OKLONuclear policy tailwind

▼ -4.2%as of Oct 12

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Mars is the finish line.

THE MORNING DEW

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