Space
NASA’s Mars Rover blasts off on ULA rocket for mission to the red planet
The summer of worldwide Mars missions saved the best for last with the successful launch of NASA’s most advanced rover ever. Following on the heels of the successful launches of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft and the United Arab Emirates Hope Mars mission, NASA joined the 309 million miles (497 million kilometers) interplanetary journey to the Red Planet with the successful launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission. Safely secured to the top of a mighty United Lunch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket and Centaur upper stage, NASA’s car-sized Perseverance rover – and accompanying Ingenuity helicopter – left Earth on Thursday morning (July 30) in spectacular fashion. Getting off this planet, however, is only the beginning.
Why go to Mars again?
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is perhaps NASA’s most ambitious Mars mission. Formally announced in 2012, the then-unnamed Mars 2020 rover would be tasked with studying the Red Plane in a way that had never been attempted before. It would be collecting samples for eventual return to Earth in search of finding evidence of ancient microbial life.
NASA’s 2012 Curiosity mission uncovered the fact that Mars was rich in material that could have potentially supported microbial life once upon a time. Now, eight years later, the Perseverance mission will hunt for and collect the evidence to back up that claim.
A rover tasked with such an important astrobiological mission required NASA to develop the most technologically advanced range of scientific instruments that had ever been sent to Mars. As described by NASA, Perseverance is outfitted with seven different “state-of-the-art tools for acquiring information about Martian geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and potential signs of life (biosignatures).” Perseverance will be the first rover to collect and cache samples of the Martian surface to later be collected and eventually returned to Earth by future joint NASA and European Space Agency missions.
Credit: NASA
It is also the first rover to travel to Mars with a vast array of high-definition cameras with advanced imaging capability. Perseverance will also carry high-definition microphones with it, allowing, for the first time, the sounds of Mars to be captured. This will include the ability to hear entry, descent, and landing from the point of view of the rover, as well as the sound of what it’s like to drive over the Martian terrain.
Perseverance also carries with it two demonstration missions. Onboard is MOXIE, or the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment, designed to test technology that can convert carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into oxygen – an important precursor experiment to one day sending humans to Mars. Also aboard is Ingenuity, the first-ever rotorcraft – or helicopter – designed to fly on another planet. Ingenuity will test the effectiveness of rotorcrafts on other planets with different atmospheric and gravitational makeup than Earth to perhaps one day serve as planetary observational crafts or delivery systems.
Leaving Earth was the easy part, sort of
A major challenge that faced the Mars 2020 mission was completing final integrations during the global Coronavirus pandemic, which required most NASA and JPL personnel to work from home. NASA LSP senior launch director, Omar Baez, stated that “I never would have thought that a launch director would be working from home and I’ve done that for the last five months.” He went on further to state that “It’s humbling to see how our whole team from the range, to our partners at JPL, to our partners at ULA, to our folks at headquarters – how we all had to adjust to work in this environment, to work electronically.” Although challenging, the Mars 2020 mission persevered to overcome the obstacles and meet the targeted launch date.
The Mars 2020 mission initially targeted a July 18th liftoff at the very opening of the available one-month interplanetary launch window. The mission did suffer a few minor setbacks during the integration phase when ULA had to take a few days to address an issue with a crane at the Vertical Integration Facility pushing the launch date to July 22nd. Then, as explained in a statement provided by NASA the launch date suffered another delay, this time eight days to July 30, “due to launch vehicle processing delays in preparation for spacecraft mate operations.”
The ULA Atlas V in its 541 configuration consisting of a common core booster and four solid rocket motors fully stacked with the precious payload stood 197 feet (60 meters) tall. The Atlas V 541 provided 2 million lbs of thrust rocketing the spacecraft east away from Florida over the Atlantic Ocean. After approximately ninety seconds of flight, the solid rocket motors burned out, separating away from the booster followed quickly by stage separation. The Centaur upper-stage was the workhorse of the mission left to deliver the Mars 2020 payload to its Earth parking orbit.
After a coast phase lasting about 30 minutes, the upper-stage Centaur performed another eight-minute long nominal burn delivering the payload to a heliocentric – or solar bound, rather than Earthlocked – orbit for the Trans Mars Injection maneuver lining it up to intercept with Mars in February 2021. Upon spacecraft separation and successfully propelling the Perseverance mission onward to Mars, the Centaur upper-stage performed what is called a blowdown maneuver for planetary protection, ensuring that it would miss Mars. Twenty minutes later, the Perseverance spacecraft initiated its transmitter to communicate with Earth, and a good acquisition of signal was received by NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas, the Deep Space Network.
The Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are expected to continue on the journey to the Red Planet and attempt entry, descent, and landing on February 18, 2020.
Elon Musk has firmly denied recent media reports suggesting that SpaceX has reduced its target valuation for an upcoming initial public offering.
The denial came directly from the SpaceX and Tesla frontman on his social media platform X, where he responded with a single word, “False,” to a post from ZeroHedge that cited Bloomberg sources.
This swift rebuttal underscores Musk’s ongoing effort to manage speculation surrounding one of the most anticipated market debuts in recent history.
False
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2026
According to the disputed reports, SpaceX had lowered its IPO valuation goal to at least $1.8 trillion from previous ambitions exceeding $2 trillion.
The claims emerged amid growing anticipation for the company’s confidential S-1 filing, which positions it for a potential public listing as early as June.
Some had pointed to strong revenue growth, particularly from the Starlink satellite internet service, which contributed heavily to the firm’s 2025 figures of $18.7 billion. Yet challenges persist in other areas, including substantial investments and losses tied to ambitious projects like Starship development and artificial intelligence initiatives, which plan to make life multiplanetary eventually.
Musk’s response highlights a pattern in which he actively counters what he views as inaccurate portrayals of his companies’ trajectories.
SpaceX, already valued privately at extraordinary levels, stands as a cornerstone of Musk’s empire alongside Tesla and xAI. The entrepreneur has long emphasized the transformative potential of reusable rockets and global broadband access, factors that fuel investor enthusiasm despite operational hurdles.
By rejecting the valuation downgrade narrative, Musk signals confidence in SpaceX’s fundamentals and its readiness for public markets on terms favorable to its long-term vision. People have been waiting a very long time to invest in SpaceX, and the valuation, as well as the introductory share price, is not going to need adjusting.
They’ll have plenty of suitors.
This episode reflects broader dynamics in the technology sector, where rumors often swirl around high-profile entities. Musk’s direct engagement with media narratives serves to maintain transparency and control the narrative around his ventures.
As SpaceX prepares for greater scrutiny in public markets, the founder’s denial reinforces optimism about its prospects. Supporters argue that the company’s innovative edge positions it for enduring success, far beyond short-term valuation debates. With the denial now public, attention turns to forthcoming regulatory filings that could provide clearer insights into SpaceX’s strategy and financial health.
The coming weeks promise to reveal more about how SpaceX will transition into a publicly traded powerhouse.
Elon Musk
SpaceX to become America’s Military data backbone for missiles, drones, and warfighters
The Space Force just handed SpaceX $2.29 billion to build the military’s space internet backbone.
The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract on May 26, 2026 to build the backbone of its Space Data Network, a satellite-based communications system designed to keep American military forces connected anywhere on Earth in real time. The contract is firm-fixed-price and requires SpaceX to deliver a fully operational prototype by the end of 2027.
In plain terms, the SDN Backbone is the plumbing behind the military’s space-based internet. It functions as a low Earth orbit satellite constellation providing robust, high-capacity, and low-latency data transport for the Joint Force, connecting sensors and weapons systems continuously, globally, and securely. Think of it as a private, hardened version of Starlink built specifically for battlefield communications, one that soldiers, ships, and aircraft can rely on even in contested environments where ground-based networks have been disrupted.
SpaceX is quietly becoming the U.S. Military’s only reliable rocket
The Space Force was direct about why SpaceX was selected. “The SDN Backbone leverages the best of commercial innovation and delivers a strong foundation for the SDN mission set — a huge benefit and enabler for our warfighters,” said USSF Col. Ryan Frazier.
“We aren’t trading speed for scale; we are demanding both. By using rapid prototyping and Other Transaction Authorities, we are ensuring our advanced solutions are integrated and delivered to the warfighter as fast as possible,” added USSF Lt. Col. Fry, SDN Backbone system program manager.
The SDN Backbone will work alongside the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer, with the two systems forming a unified open architecture to provide critical data transport for current and future Department of War missions.
As Teslarati has reported, this is not SpaceX’s first Space Force contract of 2026. In April, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $178.5 million to launch missile tracking satellites, and SpaceX is already embedded in the Golden Dome missile defense software group. The $2.29 billion SDN Backbone award puts SpaceX at the center of how the American military communicates in space, a position with direct implications for its reported $1.75 trillion IPO valuation as the company heads toward a public offering as early as June 2026.
Elon Musk
NASA’s first human outpost on the Moon starts now – SpaceX on deck
NASA named the rovers, landers, and vendors that will build America’s first Moon Base.
NASA has laid out its most detailed Moon Base plan to date, describing a permanent outpost near the Moon’s south pole that the agency intends to build over the coming decade as a direct stepping stone to Mars. “The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, adding that every mission crewed and uncrewed “will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”
The plan is structured in three phases involving both uncrewed and crewed missions to deliver equipment, vehicles, and infrastructure to the surface, with the first three moon base missions targeted to launch before the end of 2026.
Moon Base I, targeting fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to deliver scientific instruments to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, the same region where Artemis astronauts will land. Moon Base II will send Astrobotic’s Griffin lander carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cargo including Astrolab’s FLIP rover to begin developing mobility systems on the surface. Moon Base III will carry the Lunar Vertex science mission on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lander to study lunar swirls near the south pole, with ESA and Korean science payloads aboard.
On the rover side, NASA awarded Astrolab $219 million and Lunar Outpost $220 million to build the first phase of Lunar Terrain Vehicles, with both rovers targeted for deployment to the lunar surface by 2028. Astrolab’s crewed rover weighs roughly 2,000 pounds and can reach over 6 mph. Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus rover can operate autonomously or via remote control at over 9 mph. Blue Origin separately received $188 million with an option worth $280.4 million to deliver cargo landers for rover transport.
NASA also confirmed that MoonFall, a mission deploying four survey drones to scout Artemis landing sites, has selected Firefly Aerospace to build the transport spacecraft, with a 2028 launch target.
SpaceX sits at the center of that commercial layer. SpaceX holds the NASA Human Landing System contract for the Starship-derived lander that will put astronauts on the surface under Artemis IV, currently targeting 2028. Before that can happen, SpaceX must demonstrate in-orbit propellant transfer at scale, a process requiring multiple Starship tanker launches to fuel a single mission. Water ice at the lunar south pole is central to the base’s long-term viability, as it can be converted into drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel, directly reducing dependence on Earth resupply. That resource loop becomes far more practical if Starship can land and be refueled on or near the Moon itself.
Elon Musk has publicly stated that Starship V3, which recently completed its first flight, should be capable enough for initial Mars missions. The Moon Base plan announced Tuesday is the infrastructure layer that connects everything between those two ambitions, and SpaceX is the only American company currently contracted to build the rocket that gets humans to either destination.
Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla exec says Roadster unveil is soon — for real this time
