A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral AFS on Aug. 30, sending an Argentine remote sensing satellite into a polar orbit, a flightpath from Florida that had not been used since 1969. 

Rocket Lab’s Electron small satellite launcher returned to flight on Aug. 30, sending a 220-lb. (100-kg) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite into orbit for Capella Space, a San Francisco-based information services company.

The report calls on Congress to “enact, without delay, appropriations and any required authorities" for the Office of Space Commerce "to build this critical capability with requisite personnel, office infrastructure and authorities.”

Resources like the vast quantities of water ice believed to reside within shadowed craters at the Moon’s south and north poles promise to reduce the costs of initial exploration substantially.

Universal rocket modules for the Angara A5 heavy launch vehicle have been sent by train to the Plesetsk military spaceport in preparation for the rocket family's first liftoff since 2014.

The mission set a SpaceX record for reuse of a Falcon 9 first stage.

Following their successful Demo-2 test flight, NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Oct. 23 for the first operational commercial launch of astronauts to the International Space Station.

An Ariane 5 rocket carrying the second Northrop Grumman Mission Extension Vehicle along with U.S. and Japanese telecommunications satellites successfully lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, late Aug. 15.