NASA's SunRISE mission has been assigned a new rocket: It will now be delivered to orbit by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rather than a ULA Vulcan Centaur.

Watch how the atmospheric re-entry of one of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy's fairings, reported to be traveling at more than 15 times the speed of sound. Credit: SpaceX | Mash mix by Space.com's Steve Spaleta

Scrub! SpaceX was unable to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on what would have been the 50th rocket launch of 2026 in California. See the recap here.

From Starfall to Starmind, the latest projects from Elon Musk's SpaceX continue the company's cosmic naming tradition.

"Standing down from today’s Starlink launch; vehicle and payload remain safe," SpaceX said in an update after the scrub.

SpaceX Falcon 9 abort struck the Starlink 17-39 mission at Vandenberg Space Force Base Monday morning when all nine Merlin engines briefly ignited before the automated flight computer commanded a shutdown at T-0 — the second engine-related launch anomaly across two SpaceX vehicles in four days,