The SpaceX Falcon 9 at 2104 UTC on July 1, launched Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center. MTG-S1 is the second in a six-satellite series developed by the European Organization for the Exploration of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) alongside European Space Agency(ESA).

Falcon 9's first stage(B1085) came back to Earth as planned about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile the rocket's upper stage continued spaceward, deploying MTG-S1 about 35 minutes after liftoff.

The satellite will now make its way to geostationary orbit (GEO), which lies 35,786 kilometers above Earth. At this altitude, orbital speed matches Earth's rotational speed, meaning satellites there "hover" over the same patch of the planet continuously. This makes GEO a popular destination for weather and reconnaissance spacecraft.

MTG-S1 represents Europe’s first hyperspectral sounding instrument placed in GEO. It is the second of the MTG satellites to take flight. The first was MTG-I (MTG Imager), which launched atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket in December 2022.

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 instrument, which will monitor air quality over Europe, sits on board the MTG-Sounder (MTG-S) satellite. Copernicus Sentinel-4 is part of the European Union's Earth-observation program.

The instrument is an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer, which will monitor air quality over Europe and North Africa every hour, according to ESA officials.

"The spectrometer delivers high-resolution data on gases that affect the quality of the air we breathe, including a wide range of atmospheric trace gases and pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde," they wrote in the mission description.

"The mission will complement the Sentinel-5 and Sentinel-5P missions, which provide daily observations of the Earth from their polar orbits."

After undergoing a checkout period, MTG-S1 will use its infrared sounder instrument "to capture data on temperature, humidity, wind and trace gases that are used to generate 3D maps of the atmosphere, improving the accuracy of MTG's weather prediction," ESA officials said in a mission description.

The satellite "will provide coverage of Europe and part of northern Africa on a repeat cycle of 15 minutes, providing meteorologists with a complete weather picture of the region, complementing data on cloud formation and lightning from MTG-I," they added.

Today's launch and landing was the ninth for the Falcon 9 booster B1085, according to a SpaceX mission description. Among the booster's previous flights were the Fram2 private astronaut mission, the Crew-9 flight to the International Space Station for NASA and a January 2025 launch that sent two private landers toward the moon: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience.

Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle, a crew capsule-booster combo, carrying 6 space tourists lifted off at 1439 UTC on June 29, from the the company's Launch Site One in West Texas. The 10-minute NS-33 mission included a about 3 minutes minutes of weightlessness for the passengers aboard the gumdrop-shaped capsule (or RSS Kármán Line), at its apogee (highest point away from Earth.

Following liftoff, the propulsion module(or booster) Tail 5 returned less than 8 minutes later as planned near the launch site. Meanwhile RSS Kármán Line carried the passengers -- Allie and Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno, Jr., Owolabi Salis, and James Sitkin -- skywards, reaching an altitude of 105.2 kilometers above the ground, surpassing the Kármán Line, which is internationally recognized as the boundary between Earth and space at 100 km high.

For about three minutes as RSS Kármán Line reached its apogee, Kuehners, Larson, Rescigno, Salis and Sitkin experienced weightlessness and saw the curvature of the planet set against the stark blackness of space.

Carl Kuehner became Blue Origin's astronaut number 70, which based on prior precedent, was determined by the seat on board the New Shepard capsule that he assigned for the flight. He also became the 750th person in history to reach space, as recorded by the Association of Space Explorers' Registry of Space Travelers.

The six NS-33 passengers dubbed themselves "The Solstice 33," as they were originally scheduled to launch on the summer solstice (June 21) but were delayed by poor weather conditions.

Flying along with the NS-33 crew were more than 1,000 physical and digital postcards designed by students and the public, as collected by The Museum of Flight in Seattle and Parkcrest Elementary in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The cards are part of an on going project by Blue Origin's non-profit organization Club For the Future.

About 10 minutes 14 seconds after liftoff, RSS Kármán Line returned the six NS-33 passengers to Earth via a parachute-slowed, air thruster-cushioned touchdown near the launch site, demonstrating the reusability of the New Shepard system, which is designed for vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL).

NS-33 crew brought the total number of people who have flown on suborbital flights to 123, according to the Association of Space Explorers. Each NS-33 crew member had a unique background, including environmental advocacy, real estate development, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and law.

The NS-33 mission patch included symbols representing each crew member’s unique journey. For example, the leaves symbolized Allie and Carl Kuehner’s commitment to environmental stewardship, while the scales of justice represented Jim Sitkin’s work in employment law. Each symbol was connected to the Crew Capsule by a thin green line, symbolizing the interconnectedness of their individual paths.

Sunday's mission marked Blue Origin's 13th human spaceflight and the 33rd flight overall for the New Shepard program.

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket carrying a satellite for a confidential customer lifted off from Pad B at Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in Mahia on June 28 at 0708 UTC, successfully deploying the satellite into a 650 km circular Earth orbit.

"MISSION SUCCESS and payload deployment confirmed! Music to our ears for the 'Symphony In The Stars' mission and Electron's 68th launch," Rocket Lab officials wrote on social media. This was also Electron's tenth mission of 2025.

'Symphony In The Stars' marked the second of two launches from the same Rocket Lab launch site in less than 48 hours, setting a new launch record for the company. The launch was part of a series of missions planned for a new customer, with a second mission scheduled before the end of 2025.