SpaceX leaves a lunar mark as launch landscape shifts
In this Rocket Report edition, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 upper stage made a fresh lunar crater captured by NASA’s LRO, signaling a future likely dominated by Starship as Falcon 9 commercial launches may wind down after 2028; China’s Long March family rebounds with a successful Long March 12 flight and a Chang’e 7 mission targeting Shackleton crater near the Moon’s south pole; LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 demonstrates booster recovery; Taiwan’s NCSIST test for a military launcher experiences a trajectory anomaly triggering self-destruct; Innospace suffers a second suborbital failure; ULA names Mark Peller as president and CEO amid Vulcan grounding; ESA halts Ariane 6 Block 3 in favor of Block 2 and a new kick stage; cost-to-orbit data show the U.S. leading due to reuse, while Ukraine strikes a Russian rocket facility.