China just made history — landing a rocket at sea for the first time ever. Starship Flight 13 is coming next week. Avi Loeb now heads the White House UFO panel. Wally Funk has passed. New Horizons is awake beyond Pluto. Remarkable week.
On July 10, 2026, China achieved what only SpaceX had done before — landing an orbital-class rocket booster after launch. China's Long March 10B lifted off from Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island at 04:15 UTC, successfully placed a satellite into its designated orbit, and then had its first stage return and be caught on the recovery ship "Ling Hang Zhe" (Navigator) via a novel wire-net system approximately 6 minutes after stage separation. According to Wikipedia, CZ-10B is now the sixth rocket system in history to achieve first-stage recovery (after the Space Shuttle in 1981, Falcon 9 in 2015, Electron in 2020, Starship in 2024, and New Glenn in 2025) — and the first outside the United States. It is also the first launcher in history to succeed at first-stage booster recovery on its very first attempt. CASC plans to refly the booster by the end of 2026. China called it a "reusable configuration that significantly reduces launch costs."
SpaceX ignited all 33 Raptor 3 engines on Super Heavy Booster 20 on July 10, 2026 in a roughly 25-second static fire that simulates launch conditions on the Starbase pad. The successful test clears the path for Starship's 13th test flight, which the FAA has cleared for as early as Wednesday July 15. Booster 20 is the second "Version 3" (V3) booster to reach the pad and features SpaceX's upgraded Raptor 3 engines — the most powerful in the fleet. Ship 40, the upper-stage spacecraft, completed its own static fire on July 2. The mission will test full reusability, including the first-ever attempt to catch the Ship upper stage with the Mechazilla arms (SpaceX has caught boosters but not yet Ship). SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare (81 payloads, July 7) and Starlink 10-42 on a record 36th-flight booster (July 9) kept the launch cadence blazing heading into Flight 13.
The space industry just had its biggest two weeks in years — Rocket Lab acquires Iridium, China lands a rocket, Starship Flight 13 coming. The commercial space economy is exploding. Get your business in front of the right audience at SpaceTradeshow.com and shop the hottest products at 247Tradeshow.com.
Trump ordered full declassification in February 2026. Three Pentagon batches since May. Harvard's Avi Loeb now heads the White House UAP study group. 40% of UAPs remain unexplained. Orange mother-orbs on camera. CIA spy plane confession. Crop circles in Wiltshire. And China just landed a rocket in a way that made people ask: "are you sure that was their first time?"
A CME that left the Sun on July 9 may deliver a glancing blow tonight, with G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm conditions possible tonight July 11 and extending through July 12. AR4485 is still growing a small delta configuration — further activity possible. Monitor spaceweather.com for live Kp index. Best aurora prospects: northern Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, Scotland, Alaska, northern US, and southern NZ at higher latitudes.
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