Blue Origin Begins Pad Rebuild as Relativity Announces Mars Orbiter Mission

Blue Origin has begun rebuilding Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral after the New Glenn rocket exploded during a pre-flight test in May. The company said the pad has been cleared of debris and reconstruction work started this week, with the goal of flying New Glenn again before the end of the year.

Isar Aerospace postponed another test flight of its Spectrum rocket after detecting abnormal behavior in the vehicle’s fluid systems. The German-based startup, which has raised nearly $1 billion, has already experienced multiple launch-date changes this year due to issues such as a pressurisation valve fault, rising fuel temperatures and a suspected leak in a pressure vessel.

French launch startup Latitude removed the "Zephyr" name from its website, now referring to its two-stage vehicle simply as "Our Launcher." The change likely stems from a trademark conflict with Airbus subsidiary AALTO, which holds the Zephyr trademark for aerospace products.

Relativity Space announced an Interplanetary Sciences Program that includes a Mars science and telecommunications orbiter slated for launch in late 2028 on the company's Terran R reusable rocket. The payload will carry instruments from NASA’s Ames Research Center and other partners, though details on the spacecraft’s mass and cost were not disclosed.

China’s commercial Zhuque-2E upper stage broke apart in low-Earth orbit shortly after reaching orbit on June 9, creating a debris cloud of 100-150 pieces tracked by the U.S. Space Force. The fragments are in an altitude range that overlaps the International Space Station and several Starlink satellites, but atmospheric drag is expected to deorbit most debris within months.

Japan successfully relaunched its H3 rocket on June 12, using a new three-engine core stage configuration without solid boosters. The flight placed a dummy payload and small satellites into the intended orbit, marking the program’s return after a failure in December.

Other notable items include Katalyst Space Technologies preparing a reboost satellite for a Pegasus XL launch, AST SpaceMobile launching three large “BlueBird” satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 after a previous loss, and Amazon’s Leo constellation receiving its heaviest payload ever launched by a European rocket on an Ariane 64 from French Guiana.