NASA has developed an advanced propulsion technology to facilitate future planetary exploration missions using small spacecraft. Not only will this technology enable new types of planetary science missions, one of NASA's commercial partners is already preparing to use it for another purpose—to extend the lifetimes of spacecraft that are already in orbit.

Identifying the opportunity for industry to use this new technology not only advances NASA's goal of technology commercialization, it could potentially create a path for NASA to acquire this important technology from industry for use in future planetary missions.

SpaceX sent up the 30th launch from the Space Coast for the year on the evening of April 23, a mission that also featured the company's 300th successful booster recovery.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites blasted off at 6:17 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40.

The first-stage booster set a milestone of the 300th time a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy booster made a successful recovery landing, and the 270th time SpaceX has reflown a booster.

This particular booster made its ninth trip to space, a resume that includes one human spaceflight, Crew-6. It made its latest recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean.

The company's first successful booster recovery came in December 2015, and it has not had a failed booster landing since February 2021.

The current record holder for flights flew 11 days ago making its 20th trip off the launch pad.

SpaceX has been responsible for all but two of the launches this year from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral with United Launch Alliance having launched the other two.

China's space agency is making final preparations to send a new crew to its space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030.

The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will relieve the current team who have been manning China's Tiangong space station since last October.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to the United States' concerns over the People's Liberation Army's—the Chinese Communist Party's military arm's—involvement in the program.