Artemis III will demonstrate rendezvous and docking with test versions of commercial human landing systems being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

RAMSES will consist of two main modules.

Beyond Gravity is supplying RAMSES’s central tube.

APCO is supplying RAMSES structural panels.

OHB Czechspace is supplying additional support elements for RAMSES.

RAMSES’s Core Module will be developed at OHB Italia in Milan.

RAMSES will carry two CubeSats.

RAMSES derives largely from ESA’s Hera spacecraft architecture.

RAMSES will compress development, integration, and test campaigns into 3.5 years.

RAMSES’s Propulsion Module will be transferred to ArianeGroup in Lampoldshausen by the end of June for integration of tanks, thrusters, valves, and feed lines.

RAMSES is scheduled to launch in spring 2028.

RAMSES’s Core Module will host the mission’s onboard computer, attitude control, communications, and navigation systems.

OHB began assembling the RAMSES spacecraft in a clean room in Bremen.

OHB Italia is the ESA-appointed prime contractor for RAMSES.

OHB System AG developed the Hera mission to study the asteroid system targeted by DART’s orbital-deflection experiment.

The second RAMSES CubeSat will monitor Apophis’s behavior and composition from close orbit.

RAMSES’s central tube is about 1.55 meters tall and weighs less than 40 kilograms.

ESA’s RAMSES mission will reach asteroid Apophis before Apophis’s close Earth flyby in April 2029.

OHB System AG is leading RAMSES structural integration.

One RAMSES CubeSat will operate at low altitude and reach the asteroid’s surface.

ESA plans to integrate the two RAMSES modules at ESTEC in the Netherlands at the beginning of 2027.

About 35 specialists in Bremen are working on RAMSES.

Progress MS-36 is scheduled to launch in November 2026 on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket.

Progress MS-36 was sent to the Baikonur cosmodrome on June 9, 2026.

The Soyuz-2.1b launch of Progress MS-36 is likely part of a transition from Soyuz-2.1a to Soyuz-2.1b.

In April, Arkadia Space agreed with Dassault Aviation to integrate 250N thrusters into Dassault’s VORTEX subscale demonstrator program for a first-phase flight as early as 2028.

Arkadia Space’s propulsion systems use hydrogen peroxide instead of toxic hydrazine as a green alternative.

Reflex Aerospace’s 200-kg satellite is expected to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-20 rideshare mission in Q2 2027.

Arkadia Space used the mission with Reflex Aerospace to demonstrate that its green propulsion system can replace conventional satellite propulsion systems.

Reflex Aerospace selected Arkadia Space to provide a propulsion system for its satellite mission launching in 2027.

Arkadia Space flew a subscale system called DARK on a demo mission with D-Orbit last year.

Reflex Aerospace will fly a chemical-propulsion system on one of its satellites for the first time.

Arkadia Space plans to develop more powerful bipropellant systems for larger spacecraft, including potentially lunar landers.

Reflex Aerospace’s 200-kg satellite will use Arkadia Space’s Triton 5N monopropellant engine for in-space maneuvers and end-of-life deorbiting.

In February 2025, Arkadia Space agreed to provide 250N thrusters to MaiaSpace for the reaction-control system of MaiaSpace’s launcher.

Payload Research estimated Starship’s internal cost per kilogram to orbit in an expendable Version 1 configuration at approximately $500.

The Space Data Network Backbone contract requires a fully operational prototype by the end of 2027.

SpaceX’s Starship Version 3 is designed to carry approximately 200 metric tons to low Earth orbit in fully reusable configuration and roughly 400 metric tons in expendable configuration.

Flight 12 deployed 20 Starlink simulator satellites on a suborbital trajectory over approximately ten minutes.

SpaceX controls the Starlink and Starshield programs.

The Starship V3 Ship stage performed its planned suborbital trajectory during Flight 12.

The Super Heavy booster did not complete its planned return to the launch site during Flight 12.

SpaceX launched Starship Version 3 for the first time on a suborbital test flight designated Flight 12.

SpaceX can use Starship V3 to deploy more Starlink satellites per flight or fly larger Starlink satellites per mission.

Flight 12 launched from Launch Pad 2 at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas.

Starship V3 uses an integrated hot-staging design that removes the interstage ring used in earlier vehicles.

The United States Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion fixed-price contract for the Space Data Network Backbone before the V3 test.

Flight 12 was the first Starship flight in several months and the first to use SpaceX’s newly constructed second launch pad at Starbase.

NextBigFuture reported that SpaceX projects Starship launch costs could fall toward approximately $100 per kilogram as the vehicle scales toward 70 or more flights.

SpaceX’s Starship V3 includes three larger grid fins instead of the prior multi-fin arrangement.