4–5 minutes

WASHINGTON — Varda Space Industries completed its latest reentry mission Jan. 29, completing an end-to-end demonstration of a new in-house spacecraft design.

The W-5 mission concluded with a reentry Jan. 29 (U.S. time) at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by Southern Launch. The landing ended a mission that began with the spacecraft’s launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-15 rideshare mission Nov. 28.

The capsule carried a payload for the U.S. Navy under the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Prometheus program, which funds commercial reentry missions to collect hypersonic flight data. The program previously supported Varda’s W-2 and W-3 missions.

W-5 marked the first completed mission using a spacecraft design developed internally by Varda. The company used a Rocket Lab spacecraft bus for its first three missions but pursued vertical integration by developing its own bus.

“By owning the spacecraft, the capsule and the mission operations end to end, we can iterate faster, fly more often and reliably bring complex manufacturing processes back to Earth,” Nick Cialdella, Varda’s chief technology officer, said in a statement.

W-5 was the fourth completed mission but the fifth to launch. Varda launched the W-4 spacecraft — the first to use the new in-house bus — in June on SpaceX’s Transporter-14 mission to conduct pharmaceutical development in microgravity. The W-4 capsule was scheduled to reenter in December, but Varda called off the attempt “so we can further evaluate the propellant feed system,” the company said in a social media post Dec. 16.

At the time, Varda said it would wait until after W-5’s return to attempt another recovery of W-4. A company spokesperson said Jan. 30 that Varda is evaluating “a few paths” to bring W-4 back but did not provide details. The company emphasized that W-4 was a demonstration mission and that customer missions such as W-5 and the upcoming W-6 are the priority.

The W-5 reentry was also the third time Varda has recovered a capsule at the Koonibba Test Range, following its use of the Utah Test and Training Range for the inaugural W-1 mission. Varda signed an agreement with Southern Launch in September to support up to 20 landings at the site through 2028.

Southern Launch promotes Koonibba as an ideal location for spacecraft reentries because of its large land area and limited maritime and air traffic. Beyond Varda, Southern Launch has an agreement with Lux Aeterna, a startup developing a reusable spacecraft platform, to host the landing of its first spacecraft in 2027.

“Every spacecraft return strengthens Australia’s reputation as a trusted global destination for safe, reliable orbital reentries,” Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, said in a statement. “We are leading the world in helping companies like Varda bring their technology back to Earth and create a thriving orbital economy.”

4–5 minutes

HELSINKI — China launched a satellite for Algeria late Friday, as signs mount that multiple missions have been delayed amid preparations for a key human spaceflight test.

A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:01 p.m. Eastern, Jan. 30 (0401 UTC, Jan. 31). Insulation tiles fell away from the hypergolic rocket as it climbed into a clear midday sky above the desert spaceport.

The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success, revealing the payload to be the Algerian Remote Sensing Satellite-3B, also known as AlSat-3B.

The launch follows the Jan. 14 launch of AlSat-3A. The pair are designed to provide very high resolution capabilities dedicated to observation and strengthen capabilities in geospatial intelligence, according Algerian press reports. Both satellites were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a major CASC subsidiary. The launch was also the first from Jiuquan since the failure of the new Ceres-2 solid rocket, the flight of which appears to have been terminated early into its flight.

Long March 12 launch

The AlSat-3B mission also follows an expendable Long March 12 launch from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site Jan. 19. The launch sent the 19th batch of satellites for the national Guowang broadband megaconstellation into orbit. The satellites for the mission were produced by commercial satellite manufacturer GalaxySpace. These carried phased array antennas, millimeter-wave antennas, integrated electronics and energy systems, according to reports.

The Long March 2C and Long March 12 missions were China’s seventh and eighth orbital launch attempts of 2026. The country is likely targeting more than 100 launches in the calendar year for the first time, having achieved 92 attempts including two failures across 2025.

Delays and impending flight test

Further launches of the Long March 7A and Long March 8A from Hainan meanwhile appear to have been delayed, with airspace closure notices for launches of these vehicles having been rescinded over the past week. The apparent delays follow the failed launch of a Long March 3B due to a third stage anomaly. The upper stages for the other launches feature commonalities with Long March 3B’s hydrogen-liquid oxygen third stage.

Another potential reason for the delays is activity at Wenchang spaceport in which CASC appears to be preparing for a test of the Long March 10 series, which is designed for human spaceflight to low Earth and the moon.

Images shared on Chinese social media show a test article on the pad at Wenchang which could be used for either a low-altitude flight test or a flight abort test of the Mengzhou crew spacecraft at maximum dynamic pressure. The test is expected in early-to-mid February, though there is no official comment on the test.

The test is part of preparations for a first full flight of the Long March 10A—a single-stick variant of the tri-core full Long March 10—later in the year. This is likely to be combined with the Mengzhou spacecraft, with newly-released candidate mission logos suggesting a possible Tiangong-related mission profile. China is also preparing for a test flight of a reusable cargo variant, the Long March 10B, in the first half of the year.

5–7 minutes

ORLANDO, Fla. — Blue Origin announced Jan. 30 that it will halt flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle for at least two years as it shifts its focus to human lunar exploration.

In a statement, the company said it was pausing flight of New Shepard, a vehicle that has flown 38 times since 2015, to concentrate on its lunar programs. Blue Origin said the pause would last “not less than two years.”

“The decision reflects Blue Origin’s commitment to the nation’s goal of returning to the moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence,” the company said.

The announcement came eight days after the most recent New Shepard mission, NS-38, which carried five paying customers and one company employee who replaced a sixth customer who became ill before launch. The flight followed a typical New Shepard profile, and Blue Origin gave no indication during the webcast that it was preparing to halt vehicle operations.

“As we enter 2026, we’re focused on continuing to deliver transformational experiences for our customers through the proven capability and reliability of New Shepard,” Phil Joyce, senior vice president for New Shepard at Blue Origin, said in a statement after that flight.

Four months earlier, Joyce had said Blue Origin planned to increase the number of New Shepard flights, not suspend them. Speaking at a spaceport conference in Sydney, Australia, he said the company aimed to move to an “approximately weekly” cadence over the next few years, supported by additional vehicles and possible operations from locations beyond Launch Site One in West Texas.

“The demand is really strong,” Joyce said at the time. “We’re continuing to see sales every week, every day.” In its Jan. 30 statement, Blue Origin said it still has a “multi-year customer backlog” for New Shepard.

The company did not explain how New Shepard resources would be redirected to lunar programs or whether the pause would affect jobs. Accelerating lunar lander plans

Blue Origin is developing its Blue Moon lunar lander, including a Mark 1 uncrewed version and a Mark 2 crewed version for NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program. The company recently completed its first Mark 1 lander, which departed its Florida assembly facility Jan. 22 and was shipped to Houston for thermal vacuum testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Blue Origin has not announced a launch date for that lander. It will not fly on the next New Glenn launch, scheduled for late February. Eddie Seyffert, Blue Origin’s director of civil space, said after a panel at the SpaceCom Expo here Jan. 29 that the lander will spend at least two weeks in thermal vacuum testing on a “green-light” schedule, meaning no major issues. After testing, it will be shipped back to Florida for launch preparations.

NASA has urged both Blue Origin and SpaceX — the two companies selected for HLS awards — to accelerate development of their lunar landers as part of efforts to ensure the Artemis 3 mission launches no later than 2028, a deadline set by a White House executive order in December.

Neither company has disclosed details of its acceleration plans, which NASA is reviewing. “We are looking at a renewed urgency to return to the moon sooner,” said Thomas Percy, manager of systems engineering and integration in the HLS program office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, during the panel. “We are working with both of our providers to identify ways that we can move faster.”

“Those discussions are ongoing. There’s not a lot I can say about the specifics,” he added.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Jan. 30 that the agency is prepared to support those efforts. “We are going to do everything we can to enable the acceleration plans that were submitted by both HLS providers,” he said in an interview with SpaceNews.

“We are willing to rethink a lot of our requirements in order to achieve the objective on time,” he said. “We are willing to make available any resources and expertise that we have in order to better set those missions up for success.”

Asked about the acceleration plans during a Jan. 17 news conference tied to the Artemis 2 rollout, Isaacman praised both companies’ proposals without providing details.

“These are both very good plans. I would say they both reduce technical risk from where we were before,” he said. He added that a key factor will be increased launch rates to demonstrate technologies such as in-space propellant transfer, which is critical for both the Blue Moon Mark 2 lander and SpaceX’s Starship.

“So, I’d say if we’re on track, we should be watching an awful lot of New Glenns and Starships launch in the years ahead.”