SpaceX’s second-generation Starship vehicle has just made a graceful exit. The company achieved every major objective it set for the super-heavy lift vehicle’s 11th flight test, the second-gen Starship’s final flight, which launched from Starbase in Texas on October 13. It followed another successful test in August, which saw Starship deploy its payload for the first time ever. Before those two most recent flights, SpaceX suffered a series of failures: Starship exploded during its ascent stage in the company’s seventh and eighth tests, and it failed to deploy its payload during its ninth test. Another Starship vehicle blew up on the ground during a routine test while SpaceX was preparing for its 10th flight.

All of the vehicle’s 33 Raptor engines ignited upon launch, and the stage separation and first-stage ascent went smoothly. The Super Heavy booster splashed down into the ocean as planned, while Starship was able to deploy all its Starlink simulators before re-entering the atmosphere. During its reentry burn, SpaceX intentionally stressed the vehicle to determine the capabilities of its heatshield. And with just a few minutes left to the flight, the vehicle executed a banking maneuver to “mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.”

The company says it will now focus on developing the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy. It has multiple versions of the vehicle and the booster being prepared for tests at the moment, and it expects them to be used for the first Starship orbital flights and operational payload missions.

Following a string of unsuccessful flights, SpaceX managed to pull off its most successful test in months, with Starship fulfilling a number of key milestones.

It was a good day for SpaceX. The megarocket blasted off on time, leaving the Starbase launch mount at 7:30 p.m. ET. Stage separation went off without a hitch, with the Super Heavy booster landing in the ocean as planned nearly 7 minutes into the mission. Second engine cutoff (SECO) occurred a few minutes later, and Starship began to cruise in space, this time without the awful tumbling experienced in the most recent mission.

History was made at the 18:30 mark, when Starship opened its bay doors and ejected payloads into space for the first time.

In this case, the payloads were mock-ups of next-gen Starlink satellites. Acting like a Pez dispenser, Starship popped each dummy satellite into space one at a time and in roughly one-minute intervals (the units will fall back to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere). It marked a huge moment for SpaceX, with Starship finally functioning as a delivery vehicle.

About 38 minutes into the flight, Starship re-lit one of its vacuum-optimized Raptor engines—the second time SpaceX has ever pulled off the maneuver.

Reentry of Starship began at roughly the 45-minute mark, with the spacecraft hurtling towards the Indian Ocean. SpaceX ran a stress test on the vehicle, deliberately compromising its heat shield to be “mean to the spaceship” and putting it “through its paces,” as SpaceX’s Dan Huot said during the broadcast. The fins in particular were pushed to the limit, with one of them showing clear signs of scarring.

The Starship upper stage returned to Earth at 8:37 p.m. ET, ending the 67-minute mission. Despite the abuse, Starship executed its last-moment flip, performing a landing burn and splashing down softly into the Indian Ocean before exploding in a fireball. Incredibly, a camera mounted on a nearby buoy managed to catch the action.

This was the flight that SpaceX desperately needed. We’ll learn more about the test in the coming days and weeks, but the modifications made to the oversized launch system appeared to do the trick. But as we’ve learned, a single successful test is no guarantee of future gain. SpaceX still has a long way to go before this incredible launch system is fully operational.

 

In a surprise move, President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. The private astronaut’s prospective role as NASA administrator was seen by the space community as a welcomed change to the agency during a critical time, with looming budget cuts and several of its missions on the chopping block. With Isaacman out, it could signal dark times for NASA.

The White House announced the decision on Saturday, stating that “it’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda,” spokesperson Liz Huston is quoted in Space Insider as saying. Isaacman’s nomination for NASA administrator was approved by a Senate committee in late April and was headed to a confirmation vote this week. Trump’s withdrawal of Isaacman’s nomination comes at a time of uncertainty regarding the administration’s stance on NASA’s ongoing programs, including its long-anticipated return to the Moon. It also squashes hope of Isaacman leading NASA toward a brighter future, one that better aligns the agency with the private sector and adds a fresh perspective to its outdated methods.

Trump’s change of heart is reportedly attributed to donations Isaacman had made to Democrats in the past, with the president citing “a thorough review of prior associations,” on Truth Social as the reason behind him withdrawing the nomination, according to The New York Times. Although he wasn’t a frequent political donor, Isaacman did donate to former Senator Bob Casey and to the California Democratic Party, as well as Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former astronaut. Trump’s decision was also reportedly influenced by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk’s supposed departure from the government. Musk had lobbied for Isaacman’s nomination, with the tech entrepreneur and pilot having flown to space twice on private missions operated by SpaceX. Isaacman was clearly a fan of the private space sector and a close ally of Musk.

With Isaacman out, the person next in line for the position will likely be more aligned with the current administration. “I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Although there hasn’t been an official announcement yet, two sources told Ars Technica that the new nominee will likely be former U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Steven Kwast. The retired commander is more geared toward using space for military operations and less likely to favor NASA’s science missions, according to Ars Technica. Trump wants to build a $175 billion Golden Dome defense system, a space-based weapon system designed to be a layered shield of defense over the U.S.

As NASA awaits a new nominee, the agency is also facing monstrous budget cuts that threaten some of its major missions like Mars Sample Return. Earlier in May, the U.S. administration released a so-called skinny budget, which included the funding for NASA in the year 2026. The budget proposes a $6 billion cut to the agency, 24% less than NASA’s current $24.8 billion budget for 2025. The proposed budget highlights the “objectives of returning to the Moon before China and putting a man on Mars.” It would, however, phase out NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule, replacing them with commercial substitutes for the agency’s upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon. The proposed budget would also terminate the agency’s Lunar Gateway, an in-the-works space station that would be the first to orbit the Moon, and axe NASA’s Mars Sample Return in an effort to “terminate unaffordable missions.”

In response to reports of budget cuts at NASA prior to the release of the skinny budget, Isaacman wrote on X, “I’m a humble nominee on the outside, hoping for a chance to contribute. I don’t know anything about those supposed cuts, but the President said he’s targeting fraud, waste & abuse w/ a scalpel—not a hatchet.”

It’s not clear what his stance was after the proposed budget was released, but Isaacman is well-liked in the space community and is generally seen as a proponent of space exploration. At the time of his nomination, several experts told Gizmodo that Isaacman may just be what the agency needs to reinvent itself during this transitional time. Without Isaacman, things are looking bleak for NASA. “NASA is fucked,” a leading official told Ars Technica on condition of anonymity.

Black holes are perhaps the most nightmarishly fascinating features of our universe. Like long dark tunnels to nowhere (or giant garbage disposals), these mysterious fixtures in space exert a gravitational pull so gripping that nothing close by — not even light — can escape from being swallowed. What goes in, (mostly) never comes out. (More on that later.)

For this reason black holes are invisible to the eye, as lightless as the empty, dark space surrounding them. Scientists know they exist not because they can see an actual hole, but because a black hole’s tremendous gravitational clench affects the orbits of nearby stars and gas. Another clue is the detectable radiation emitted as gas that’s being sucked in is superheated. In fact, these strong X-ray emissions led to the discovery of the first black hole, Cygnus X-1 in the constellation Cygnus, in 1964.

If all this sounds like science fiction, read on. It’s only the tip of the cosmic iceberg. As scientists are discovering, black holes are even stranger than science fiction. Here are seven mysteries to ponder.

1. Black Holes Distort Time and Space Around Them

If you happened to fly near a black hole, its extreme gravitational pull would increasingly slow down time and warp space. You’d be tugged ever closer, gradually joining an accretion disk of orbiting space material (stars, gases, dust, planets) spiraling inward toward the event horizon or “point of no return.” Once you crossed this boundary, gravity would overcome all chances of escape and you’d be super-stretched, or “spaghettified” as you plunged toward the singularity at the black hole’s center — an inconceivably small point with a monstrous mass where gravity and density theoretically approach infinity and space-time curves infinitely. In other words, you’d be gobbled up and annihilated in a place that utterly defies the laws of physics as we understand them.

Take a simulated journey

2. Black Holes Come in Miniature, Middling and Mammoth Sizes

Middling-sized stellar-mass black holes are the most common type. They form when a massive dying star, or supernova, explodes and the remaining core collapses from the weight of its own gravity. Eventually, it compresses into a tiny, infinitely dense singularity that forms the center. In truth, then, black holes aren’t really holes, but points of highly compacted matter with outsized gravitational footprints. Stellar-mass black holes typically weigh about 10 times more than our sun, though scientists have discovered a few that are significantly larger.

Supermassive black holes are the biggest in the universe, some with masses billions of times that of our sun. Scientists don’t fully understand how they form, but these enormous celestial mind-bogglers may have appeared shortly after the Big Bang and are believed to exist at the center of every galaxy, even the tiniest ones. Our own Milky Way galaxy spirals around Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*), which contains the mass of about 4 million suns.

Researchers have also recently discovered stealth black holes that appear to devour material and gases at a slower rate, meaning fewer X-rays are emitted so they’re harder to detect. Astronomers also believe there are tiny primordial black holes formed in the seconds after the Big Bang. These mini-mysteries have yet to be observed, but the smallest may be more minuscule than an atom (but with the mass of an asteroid), and the universe may be swarming with them.

3. There Are Too Many Black Holes to Count

The Milky Way galaxy alone is thought to harbor between 10 million to one billion stellar-mass black holes, plus supermassive Sgr A* at its heart. With 100 billion galaxies out there, each with millions of stellar-mass black holes and a core supermassive monster (not to mention other types being discovered), it’s like trying to count grains of sand.

4. Black Holes Devour Things — and Regularly Spit Them Out

Rest-assured, black holes don’t roam the universe like hungry predators, stalking planets and other space prey for dinner. Rather, these heavenly beasts feast on material that orbits too close, like this unfortunate star that scientists have watched being swallowed for the last decade (the longest black-hole meal ever recorded). The good news is that Earth isn’t on a collision course with any known black holes.

But just because we’re unlikely to be slurped down, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry. That’s because Sgr A* (and presumably other supermassive behemoths) occasionally fling out planet-sized “spitballs” that could someday do us in.

How do spitballs escape a black hole’s clutches? They’re actually made of matter that slips from the accretion disk before passing the point of no return and coalesces into chunks. In the case of Sgr A*, these hefty pieces are spewed into our galaxy at up to 20 million miles per hour. Here’s hoping one never zooms too close to our solar system.

5. Supermassive Black Holes Also Give Birth to Stars and Determine How Many Stars a Galaxy Gets

In the same way that planet-sized fragments are expelled from the accretion disk, a recent discovery shows that behemoth black holes occasionally unloose enough material to form whole new stars. Even more remarkable, some even land in deep space, well beyond their galaxy of origin.

And a 2018 study in the journal Nature suggests that supermassive black holes not only create new stars, they control how many stars a galaxy gets by directly impacting how quickly the process of star formation turns off. Star formation, perhaps strangely, stops more quickly in galaxies with smaller — in a manner of speaking — black holes at the center.

Learn more about black-hole star formation:

6. It’s Possible to Stare Into the Abyss

The new Event Horizon Telescope — powered by nine of the world’s highest-resolution telescopes — recently took first-time photos of the event horizons surrounding two black holes. One is our own Sgr A* and the other is a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, 53 million light-years away. The image of the latter, now dubbed Powehi, astonished astronomers in April 2019, but the photo session also raised new interest in ongoing questions about what black holes look like and the mind-warping laws of physics that drive them.

7. Yet Another Black Hole Head-Scratcher

Astronomers in South Africa recently stumbled upon a region of distant space where supermassive black holes in several galaxies are aligned in the same direction. That is, their gas emissions all jet out as though they were synchronized by design. Current theories can’t explain how black holes up to 300 million light-years apart appear to be acting in concert. In fact, the only way it’s possible, say researchers, is if these black holes are spinning in the same direction — something that may have occurred during galaxy formation in the early universe.

Space exploration equipment supplier Redwire‘s (RDW 23.39%) stock defied gravity in the best possible sense on Tuesday. Its shares seemed to be strapped to a rocket, as they closed the day nearly 21% higher on news of the company’s latest delivery. With that gain, they were practically in a different orbit than the S&P 500 index, which bumped higher by 2% on the day.

Next-generation brain in space

That morning, Redwire divulged it had delivered, to a business partner based in Italy, an onboard computer for one of the most important clients in the space exploration field. This is the European Space Agency (ESA), whose Comet Interceptor craft will use the device to assist it in its comet-analyzing endeavors.

Redwire is not only the company securing delivery of the onboard computer; it is also its developer. In space, it will perform a variety of functions as the “brain” of Comet Interceptor, including communications and systems monitoring.

The device is currently on the premises of that partner, OHB Italia. It is scheduled to undergo integration and final acceptance review before being deployed to Comet Interceptor. The craft is slated for launch in 2029.

In its press release touting the computer’s delivery, Redwire did not provide any financial details of the project.

An encouraging trajectory

Space stocks remain rather speculative investments, as they often trade on potential and/or ambition rather than actual deliverables. So when a company in the field actually ships or deploys a product, investors get understandably excited about the news.

Personally, I’d be a bit more cautious, preferring to wait for details of the financial impact of such work. Still, this news makes Redwire a stock to keep an eye on in the space space.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.