After some delays, SpaceX’s Starship rocket is back in testing mode, with yesterday’s 13th launch a success. The rocket met the milestones set for the mission, and even launched a batch of satellites. This should give SpaceX and NASA some breathing room, as well as the new investors in SpaceX.
Mr. Musk had a bad week with both Tesla and SpaceX stock struggling. While SpaceX stock fell approximately 7 percent during the five days preceding the launch, the market should be somewhat more confident on Monday morning following the successful test.
Reutersreported last week that short sellers betting against SpaceX are making a fortune to the tune of about $8.7 billion. Mr. Musk may not like this, but if you want to be part of the marketplace then you need to understand how the market works.
In stocks, what goes up can often come down, and it can be painful to watch. As a rocket man, Mr. Musk should be familiar with this.
Maybe his success with Starship on Friday will turn some of that around.
NASA’s working masterplan for the upcoming lunar landings has a fundamental flaw that could prove fatal to the first American astronauts set to touch down on the Moon in 2028, say experts at the NASA Office of Inspector General, an independent watchdog empowered by Congress to oversee the space agency. During the race to explore the south pole of the Moon, these inspectors say, “While NASA is taking steps to prevent catastrophic events from occurring during the Artemis [Moon] missions, at some point in the future, astronauts will likely encounter a life-threatening emergency in space.” But under NASA’s landing blueprints, they warn, “should the astronauts encounter a life-threatening emergency in space or on the lunar surface, NASA does not have the capability to rescue the stranded crew.”
NASA has canceled a $73 million commercial lunar lander mission after years of delays and cost overruns, ending the project before the spacecraft ever launched. The agency and contractor Draper mutually agreed to terminate the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Task Order CP-12, a mission that began in 2022 and was intended to deliver scientific payloads to a crater near the moon’s south pole…NASA has already paid about $43 million under the contract and said those funds cannot be recovered because they were legally obligated under the agreement.
A groundbreaking mission that explored Pluto and distant solar system objects in unprecedented detail has awakened from its longest sleep ever — and it’s 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer. The mission’s flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed that New Horizons is in great shape and ready to transmit a stream of science data gathered during hibernation from its location in the region of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt.
Image (Credit): Image from July 14, 2026 showing the smoke from Canadian fires covering eastern parts of Canada and the U.S. (NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin)
For those in the northeastern part of the United States, the impact of the ongoing Canadian fires is clear to see outside your window. A more distant view from a satellite (as shown above from earlier in the week) gives a better picture of what is occurring in Ontario and its impact on the surrounding region.
According to the latest data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), about 904 fires are currently burning across Canada, with 190 of the fires burning in Ontario.
Image (Credit): Wildland fire activity in Canada as of July 17, 2026. (CIFFC)
Image (Credit): One artist’s version of a Martian base. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
“So, who should have the right to acquire property in space? My answer: those who have the financial means to get there, develop, and use the land. For instance, if SpaceX succeeds in reaching Mars and starts to build permanent settlements on the red planet, then the ownership of land should go to SpaceX first. Not of the entire planet, of course, but of a practicable area, for example the size of Singapore. The surface area of Mars is 200,000 times that of Singapore, so SpaceX would initially only own 0.0005 percent of Mars. That would be enough to develop multiple settlements, but not so many that others would no longer have a chance.”
-Statement by Rainer Zitelmann, a historian and sociologist, in his Reason magazine article titled “Why You Can’t Settle Mars or Colonize the Moon Without Real Property Rights.” You do not need to agree with his conclusion, but he discusses a timely topic. The Moon Agreement and Outer Space Treaty may need to be revisited now that the idea of permanent settlements on the Moon and Mars are not simply science fiction, as they were in the 1960s and 1970s when these provisions were agreed to (and not by all nations, keep in mind).
Image (Credit): The “Discovering Our Universe” gallery at the National Air and Space Museum. (NASM)
If you are looking for something to do this summer inside an air-conditioned building, you may want to visit the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC to enjoy some of its new exhibits.
On July 1st, a new exhibit called “Discovering Our Universe” opened to the public. It covers the tools used to understand the universe, from early land-based telescopes to the great space telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. As a result of these tools, the exhibit shares what we have already learned about what it out there as well as the plans to gather even greater amounts of data.
Other space-related exhibit openings include:
Living in the Space Age Hall: The display provides insight into space technologies and infrastructure that are largely invisible to the public but have a profound impact on our daily lives.
The Art of Air and Space: Interpretations of Flight: The display explores the relationship between art and the transformative power of the experience of flight through the display of the Museum’s permanent collection.
Of course, there is plenty more to see at the National Air and Space Museum as well as others along the National Mall. And it should be easier to get around now that the Fourth of July crowds have departed. And if you still have time, you may want to visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA where more aircraft and spacecraft are on display.
Our Awesome Universe 