Dassault Aviation and the French government signed on Friday an agreement whereby France's armed forces ministry would support the development of Dassault Aviation's VORTEX spaceplane demonstrator.

SpaceX's ongoing mission to prepare Starship spacecraft for trips to the moon and, eventually, Mars suffered a setback when a spacecraft exploded this week in South Texas. The explosion happened during what SpaceX called routine testing in preparation for Starship's 10th flight since 2023, which was expected to happen later this month.