Tag: Tenth

AIAA Statement on Tenth SpaceX Starship Test Flight

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 27, 2025 – Reston, Va. – AIAA issued the following statement from CEO Clay Mowry:

“Congratulations to the SpaceX team on the incredible 10th test flight of Starship. Every flight pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in reusable launch systems. The onboard camera views gave us a front-row seat to witness progress on the world’s largest heavy-lift reusable space launch system.

This flight demonstrated several of Starship’s capabilities including the ability to successfully dispense test Starlink payloads. The SpaceX engineering teams have applied valuable lessons from their recent test flights and they are making progress on a number of fronts.

It’s exciting to see SpaceX breaking barriers in reusable launch! We applaud SpaceX on accelerating humanity’s journey back to the moon and onward to Mars.

AIAA salutes the thousands of SpaceX professionals whose engineering expertise and determination have made this bold step forward with Starship that is shaping the future of aerospace.”

Media contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org or follow AIAA on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Will Fly Past its Tenth Asteroid

The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA’s Lucy spacecraft “is adding one more asteroid to its flyby list, bringing its total to 10 and giving scientists a close-up look 17 months sooner than expected.” The spacecraft is “on a 12-year voyage to visit Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun.” These space rocks “could unlock secrets to the formation of planets in our solar system.” Lucy launched in October 2021, “and scientists expected it would reach the first asteroid, Donaldjohanson, in the main asteroid belt in April of 2025.” That was to be “followed by eight Trojan asteroids, some orbiting ahead of Jupiter and some trailing behind, between August 2027 and March 2033.” Now, Lucy will pass roughly “280 miles from a yet-to-be-named asteroid – currently referred to as (152830) 1999 VD57 – in the main asteroid belt on Nov. 1, 2023.” This was added “so Lucy’s team could test the spacecraft’s asteroid-tracking navigation system.” This new system “addresses a problem that had plagued previous flyby missions: it was difficult to determine precisely how far the spacecraft was from the target and which way to point the cameras.”
Full Story (Houston Chronicle)