For the sixth year in a row, SpaceX is on course to set a new annual launch record for the Falcon 9 rocket, highlighting SpaceX’s increasing dominance in orbital launch activity, as well as the success of its reusable booster system in enabling frequent, cost-effective flights. The Elon Musk-led spaceflight company is set to complete […]
How do you top a highly detailed scale model of NASA’s new moon-bound rocket and its support tower? If you’re Lego, you make it so it can actually lift off.
Lego’s NASA Artemis Space Launch System Rocket, part of its Technic line of advanced building sets, will land on store shelves for $60 on January 1, 2026, and then “blast off” from kitchen tables, office desks and living room floors. The 632-piece set climbs skyward, separating from its expendable stages along the way, until the Orion crew spacecraft and its European Service Module top out the motion on their way to the moon—or wherever your imagination carries it.
“The educational LEGO Technic set shows the moment a rocket launches, in three distinct stages,” reads the product description on Lego’s website. “Turn the crank to see the solid rocket boosters separate from the core stage, which then also detaches. Continue turning to watch the upper stage with its engine module, Orion spacecraft and launch abort system separate.”
China’s first attempt to land an orbital-class rocket may have ended in a fiery crash, but the company responsible for the mission had a lot to celebrate with the first flight of its new methane-fueled launcher.
LandSpace, a decade-old company based in Beijing, launched its new Zhuque-3 rocket for the first time at 11 pm EST Tuesday (04:0 UTC Wednesday), or noon local time at the Jiuquan launch site in northwestern China.
Powered by nine methane-fueled engines, the Zhuque-3 (Vermillion Bird-3) rocket climbed away from its launch pad with more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The 216-foot-tall (66-meter) launcher headed southeast, soaring through clear skies before releasing its first stage booster about two minutes into the flight.
There’s a race in China among several companies vying to become the next to launch and land an orbital-class rocket, and the starting gun could go off as soon as tonight.
LandSpace, one of several maturing Chinese rocket startups, is about to launch the first flight of its medium-lift Zhuque-3 rocket. Liftoff could happen around 11 pm EST tonight (04:00 UTC Wednesday), or noon local time at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.
Airspace warning notices advising pilots to steer clear of the rocket’s flight path suggest LandSpace has a launch window of about two hours. When it lifts off, the Zhuque-3 (Vermillion Bird-3) rocket will become the largest commercial launch vehicle ever flown in China. What’s more, LandSpace will become the first Chinese launch provider to attempt a landing of its first stage booster, using the same tried-and-true return method pioneered by SpaceX and, more recently, Blue Origin in the United States.
LAUNCH COMPLEX 14, Cape Canaveral, Fla.—The platform atop the hulking steel tower offered a sweeping view of Florida’s rich, sandy coastline and brilliant blue waves beyond. Yet as captivating as the vista might be for an aspiring rocket magnate like Andy Lapsa, it also had to be a little intimidating.
To his right, at Launch Complex 13 next door, a recently returned Falcon 9 booster stood on a landing pad. SpaceX has landed more than 500 large orbital rockets. And next to SpaceX sprawled the launch site operated by Blue Origin. Its massive New Glenn rocket is also reusable, and founder Jeff Bezos has invested tens of billions of dollars into the venture.
Looking to the left, Lapsa saw a graveyard of sorts for commercial startups. Launch Complex 15 was leased to a promising startup, ABL Space, two years ago. After two failed launches, ABL Space pivoted away from commercial launch. Just beyond lies Launch Complex 16, where Relativity Space aims to launch from. The company has already burned through $1.7 billion in its efforts to reach orbit. Had billionaire Eric Schmidt not stepped in earlier this year, Relativity would have gone bankrupt.
One week after the successful second launch of its large New Glenn booster, Blue Origin revealed a roadmap on Thursday for upgrades to the rocket, including a new variant with more main engines and a super-heavy lift capability.
These upgrades to the rocket are “designed to increase payload performance and launch cadence, while enhancing reliability,” the company said in an update published on its website. The enhancements will be phased in over time, starting with the third launch of New Glenn, which is likely to occur during the first half of 2026.
A bigger beast
The most significant part of the update concerned an evolution of New Glenn that will transform the booster into a super-heavy lift launch vehicle. The first stage of this evolved vehicle will have nine BE-4 engines instead of seven, and the upper stage four BE-3U engines instead of two. In its update, Blue Origin refers to the new vehicle as 9×4 and the current variant as 7×2, a reference to the number of engines in each stage.
From top left, clockwise: Boop CEO Nancy Li Smith, Dotted CEO Eric Neuman, FurFriends CEO Avery Morton, and AceRocket CEO Dong Zhang.
Our latest spotlight on up-and-coming startups in Seattle covers a lot of ground — dog-influenced connections, shareable travel itineraries, personalized exam prep, and streamlined product reporting.
This regular series spotlights early stage startups that are getting off the ground with innovative ideas.
Read on for brief descriptions of each company — and a pitch assessment from GPT-powered “Mean VC,” which we prompt to offer both positive and critical feedback.
Check past Startup Radar posts here, and email me at taylor@geekwire.com to flag other companies or startup news.
The business: Learning platform that helps high school students prepare for SAT, ACT, and AP exams through personalized daily practice. Uses AI and an adaptive question engine to tailor each learning path to a student’s performance. The bootstrapped startup has served more than 200 beta users and plans to expand its pilot program later this year.
Leadership: CEO Dong Zhang spent three years at Amazon as a machine learning scientist and two years at IBM as a data scientist.
Mean VC: “AceRocket hits a timeless market with an AI-driven, adaptive prep system that could actually make standardized test study less soul-crushing and more effective. But the test-prep space is dominated by giants with brand trust, so unless you show radically better outcomes — or pivot fast when tests go optional — you’re launching into headwinds, not orbit.”
The business: AI-native social travel companion that automatically turns real trips into shoppable itineraries friends can copy, personalize, and book. Boop wants to create the world’s largest network of itineraries — connecting travelers, creators, and local businesses through personalized recommendations. Boop is backed by Bling Capital, BBG Ventures, and the AI2 Incubator, and just launched its public waitlist.
Leadership: CEO Nancy Li Smith is a longtime product leader with stints at Meta, Microsoft, and more recently BrightAI.
Mean VC: “Boop taps into the perfect intersection of social discovery and travel commerce, with a clear path to viral growth if itineraries truly feel personal and shareable. But unless Boop cracks retention and monetization beyond influencer sparkle, it risks becoming another glossy app people forget between trips.”
The business: Automates product reporting by pulling live data from tools like Jira, GitHub, and Slack, turning it into leadership-ready narratives. Aims to replace slide decks, free product teams from manual updates, and give executives real-time visibility and control. Dotted is currently in closed beta is building out its B2B early access program.
Leadership: Co-founder Dunni Abiodun spent nearly a decade at Microsoft as a software engineer and manager. Co-founder Eric Neuman was a principal product manager at Axon, and worked at Amazon and Microsoft. Former Microsoft director Jeremy Schreiber recently joined as chief commercial officer.
Mean VC: “Dotted smartly targets a universal pain point — turning scattered product data into clear, executive-ready updates without wasting a PM’s weekend on slides. But automation in reporting is a graveyard of ‘almost useful’ tools, and unless Dotted nails narrative accuracy and context, leaders won’t trust what it writes any more than what they already ignore.”
The business: Aims to help locals break the “Seattle Freeze” through dog-friendly social connections. The app organizes puppy playdates and events that help dog owners form real-world friendships. The company plans to launch premium subscription features and partnered with the Seattle Mariners earlier this year for a Bark at the Park event at Victory Hall.
Leadership: Founder Avery Morton is a former senior technical product manager at Amazon and was a product manager at Prodege.
Mean VC: “FurFriends cleverly uses dogs as social catalysts to thaw the ‘Seattle Freeze,’ tapping into a playful, emotionally resonant niche with real community stickiness. But unless you crack consistent engagement beyond the first tail wag, you’ll end up with more ghost towns than dog parks.”
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