April 30, 2026

Projects on the Chopping Block at NASA Under the White House's Drastic Proposed Cuts (Source: NBC)
Weeks after NASA’s first crewed mission around the moon in more than 50 years ended to great fanfare, one might expect its leader to be enjoying something of a victory lap. Instead, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman spent much of the past week in hearings on Capitol Hill defending the Trump administration’s proposal to cut the space agency’s budget by 23% for fiscal year 2027. (4/29)

Russia Debuts New Rocket with Maiden Soyuz-5 Launch (Source: NSF)
Russia’s brand new Soyuz-5 rocket made its first flight on Saturday, lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday on a suborbital demonstration mission with a dummy payload that will pave the way for its entry into service. This launch is something the Baikonur Cosmodrome has not witnessed for many decades – the debut of a new rocket rather than a modification of an existing launch vehicle. (4/30)

What Does it Take to Call Home From the Moon? (Source: Universe Today)
Bolted to the exterior of the Orion spacecraft, the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System that was developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, became the first laser communications terminal ever to support a crewed mission at lunar distance. Rather than radio waves, the device used invisible infrared light to carry data between the spacecraft and receivers on Earth, exploiting the fact that the shorter the wavelength, the more information you can squeeze into a single beam.

Over the course of the roughly ten day journey, the system transferred 484 gigabytes of data between Orion and the ground in total. Those figures weren't just impressive on paper, they translated directly into the images that stopped the world. The striking photographs of Earthset, Earthrise, and the solar eclipse captured from the Moon's far side, images that circulated across front pages and social media feeds within hours of being taken. It all came home via that laser link. (4/30)

China Accelerates Commercial Space Race with Completion of Massive Lijian-2 Liquid-Propellant Rocket “Super Factory” (Source: Aviation News Daily)
China has reached a pivotal milestone in its commercial aerospace ambitions with the full completion of a state-of-the-art “super factory” in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. This expansive facility is specifically designed for the Lijian-2, a large liquid-propellant carrier rocket, signaling a major transition toward the mass production of advanced launch vehicles.

The factory stands as a comprehensive industrial hub, integrating final assembly testing with the high-precision processing of core components. Production lines are now established for critical hardware, including rocket tanks, pipeline valves, interstage sections, and conduits. Once the site reaches full operational status, it will possess the industrial capacity to manufacture 12 Lijian-2 rockets annually, according to reports from China Media Group. (4/29)

NASA’s Artemis II Moonship Returns Home to its Launch Site After Historic Voyage (Source: AP)
The spacecraft that flew four astronauts around the moon is back where its record-breaking journey began. NASA’s Artemis II capsule returned to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, almost a month after blasting off on humanity’s first lunar trip in more than a half-century. (4/29)

NASA Chief Jared Isaacman Fighting for Pluto (Source: Space.com)
NASA chief Jared Isaacman wants to restore Pluto to its former glory. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) stripped Pluto of its planethood, reclassifying the icy world as a "dwarf planet." The decision was controversial, and not just because it forced schoolchildren around the world to learn a new mnemonic for our solar system's major denizens. (4/29)

ST Engineering Signs Singapore Public Safety Deal with HTX (Source: Via Satellite)
ST Engineering and HTX (Home Team Science and Technology Agency) will establish a new space technology program, and co-develop space-based science and technology capabilities to strengthen Singapore’s public safety operations. The two organizations have signed a five-year MoU, which ST Engineering announced on April 28. (4/29)

Federal Employment Candidates Must Provide Trump "Loyalty" Statements (Source: FNN)
New essay questions on many federal job applications, asking candidates how they would advance the Trump administration’s policies, are optional, according to the Office of Personnel Management. But new documents submitted in a lawsuit seeking the removal of these essays show that job candidates, in some cases, can’t submit their online job applications if they leave the fields for essay responses blank.

One of several essay questions, outlined under the Trump administration’s Merit Hiring Plan, asks candidates how they would “advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities,” to name “one or two executive orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you,” and how they would help implement them if hired. Federal employee unions who filed the lawsuit last fall claim the inclusion of a “loyalty question” on federal job applications runs counter to the nonpartisan nature of the civil service. (4/28)

Ariane 64 Lofts 32 Amazon Leo Satellites on Second Arianespace Mission for Amazon (Source: Mach 33)
Arianespace flew its second Ariane 64 in the four-booster configuration from French Guiana, deploying 32 Amazon Leo satellites on the LE-02 mission. The flight is the second of an 18-launch contract Amazon procured from Arianespace.

The launch matters more for Amazon than Arianespace. With the FCC requiring Amazon to deploy half of Amazon Leo by July 2026 and New Glenn grounded indefinitely, Amazon is leaning on every alternative manifest, including Ariane 6, ULA Atlas V, and Falcon 9. Ariane 64 cadence sits near six flights per year, well below Falcon-class, but it is the only non-U.S. heavy-lift option on the Amazon Leo manifest. Amazon is paying a strategic premium to spread deployment rather than buy more Falcon 9. (4/28)

SpaceX and 11 Others Win $3.2B Golden Dome Space-Based Interceptor Prototypes Contract (Source: Mach 33)
The U.S. Space Force awarded up to $3.2 billion across 12 companies for space-based interceptor prototypes under Golden Dome. Awardees include SpaceX, Anduril, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Booz Allen, General Dynamics, GITAI USA, Quindar, Sci-Tec, True Anomaly, and Turion Space. Contracts are Other Transaction Authority agreements, and awardees must demonstrate a working interceptor capability by 2028.

This is the first time SpaceX has been publicly contracted on the interceptor itself, not just the launch or constellation layer. The 12 names will compress to two or three production winners and convert into multi-billion follow-ons if Golden Dome stays funded. The cost-skepticism Gen. Guetlein flagged at HASC on Apr 16 has not killed the space layer. The Pentagon is paying to find out whether the unit economics work, which is a different posture than cancellation. (4/24)

Pentagon Modernizes SBIR, STTR to Spur Small Business Innovation (Source: Defense Scoop)
The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs are being updated as part of an effort spearheaded by senior defense and small business officials. The revamp aims to remove regulatory barriers, streamline processes, and ensure that innovative small businesses can swiftly develop and deliver advanced technologies to the military. "There's sort of specific modifications we're going to make to make it easier ... for small businesses by removing some of the barriers -- regulatory and otherwise -- that they currently face," says Emil Michael, Pentagon CTO. (4/29)

Space Force to Welcome Nearly 250 Part-Time Guardians (Source: Stars and Stripes)
The Space Force has selected nearly 250 Air Force reservists to transfer this summer as the first part-time guardians. This initiative, enabled by the Space Force Personnel Management Act, seeks to create a unified service of full- and part-time guardians, eliminating the need for separate active-duty and reserve components. Part-time guardians must serve at least 36 days a year, with officers committing to a minimum of three years and enlisted personnel serving up to six years. (4/27)

York to Acquire All.Space for $355 Million (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems will acquire satellite terminal manufacturer All.Space in a $355 million deal. The companies announced the deal Thursday, set to close in the third quarter. York will pay $155 million in cash and up to 5.9 million shares of York stock to acquire All.Space. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in the United Kingdom, All.Space makes multi-orbit, multi-band communications terminals designed to connect across multiple Earth orbits. The planned acquisition is York's second since it went public earlier this year. In March, the company acquired Orbion Space Technology, a supplier of satellite propulsion systems. It is part of a strategy of expanding across the satellite communications value chain. (4/30)

China's Cosmoleap Raises $73 Million for Starship-Like Rocket (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch startup Cosmoleap raised $73 million for work on a Starship-like rocket. Cosmoleap, whose full name is Beijing Dahang Yueqian Technology Co., Ltd., said it raised the funding from several investors to support development of the Yueqian-1 rocket and what it describes as China's first "tower catch and landing recovery" rocket system. The tower recovery system resembles the SpaceX Mechzilla tower system with "chopstick" arms. Cosmoleap says final assembly and testing of the Yueqian-1 rocket, capable of placing up to 18,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, will begin in the second half of 2026, with the debut flight planned for 2027. (4/30)

Cause of Russian Segment ISS Cracks Unresolved (Source: Space News)
While air leaks in a Russian space station module have stopped, the cause of the cracks in that module remains unresolved. At a meeting Wednesday of the International Space Station Advisory Council, the committee said engineers at NASA and Roscosmos have yet to find the root cause of the small cracks seen in PrK, a vestibule of the Zvezda module. Those cracks had been linked to a small but persistent air leak there over several years, although that leak stopped in recent months after cosmonauts applied sealant to the cracks. While the leaks have stopped, crews take precautions such as limiting the time the vestibule, which links a docking port to the rest of the station, is pressurized. The committee said NASA and Roscosmos still don't agree on the severity of the cracking. (4/30)

Planet Developing Upgraded Methane-Tracking Spacecraft (Source: Space News)
Planet is developing a new version of its Tanager spacecraft with enhanced capability to detect and monitor methane and trace-gas emissions. The company announced Thursday a version of Tanager that will fly a shortwave infrared instrument rather than a hyperspectral imager. Planet will produce SWIR Tanager with the nonprofit environmental-monitoring organization Carbon Mapper and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which designs and builds Tanager imaging spectrometers. SWIR Tanager will gather 30-meter-resolution imagery in 100-kilometer swaths, optimized for the spectral bands for atmospheric gas detection. (4/30)

DoD Rapid Capabilities Office Picks Three Companies for Counter-Surveillance Sensors (Source: Space News)
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office selected three companies to develop counter-surveillance sensors. The office, a specialized acquisition arm within the United States Space Force focused on rapidly fielding space systems, said Wednesday it awarded contracts worth $3 million each to Assurance Technology Corp., Raptor Dynamix and Innovative Signal Analysis. The contracts will cover development of payloads that can be installed on satellites in geosynchronous orbit to detect and characterize emissions from ground-based radars. That would allow the satellites to know when they are being tracked and targeted. (4/30)

Canadian Space Agency Terminates Spire Wildfire Monitoring Contract (Source: Space News)
The Canadian Space Agency has terminated a contract it awarded last year to Spire for a series of wildfire-monitoring satellites. Spire said in a regulatory filing last week that CSA terminated for convenience a contract worth 72 million Canadian dollars ($52.7 million) for WildFireSat, a set of 10 cubesats equipped with sensors to detect wildfires. Neither Spire nor CSA disclosed why the contract was canceled, although Spire executives said in an earnings call in March that work on the contract was paused while it discussed timing and requirements with the agency. CSA said it planned to continue work on WildFireSat with other Canadian government agencies and would soon engage with industry on revised plans. (4/30)

Falcon Heavy Deploys ViaSat-3 From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
The first Falcon Heavy mission in 18 months successfully launched the third and final ViaSat-3 satellite Wednesday. The Falcon Heavy lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, deploying the ViaSat-3 F3 spacecraft into a geostationary transfer orbit nearly five hours later. Viasat expects F3 to enter commercial service late this summer over the Asia Pacific, following extensive health checks on the operator's payload and spacecraft bus from Boeing.

This satellite uses a different large deployable antenna than the one used on the first two ViaSat-3 spacecraft. The antenna on the first failed to deploy properly, depriving it of more than 90% of its capacity, while the antenna on the second satellite is in the process of deployment. This was the first Falcon Heavy mission since October 2024, when it launched NASA's Europa Clipper mission, although additional Falcon Heavy launches are planned for this year. (4/30)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission From California on Wednesday (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX also launched more Starlink satellites from California. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, putting 24 Starlink satellites into orbit. This was the 52nd launch this year by SpaceX, 42 of which carried Starlink satellites. (4/30)

Falcon 9 Upper Stage to Crash on Moon in August (Source: Space News)
A Falcon 9 upper stage that launched a pair of lunar landers last year will make its own crash landing on the moon in August. Astronomers tracking the upper stage, which launched Firefly's Blue Ghost 1 and ispace's Hakuto-R Resilience landers in January 2025, said the upper stage is on a trajectory to collide with the moon Aug. 5. The stage is expected to hit near Einstein crater on the western limb of the moon, but the impact is unlikely to be visible from the Earth as it will take place while the region is in sunlight. (4/30)

Morocco Signs Artemis Accords (Source: Space News)
Morocco is the latest country to join the Artemis Accords. Nasser Bourita, Morocco’s foreign minister, signed the Accords in a ceremony in the capital of Rabat attended by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and the U.S. ambassador to Morocco. Morocco is the 64th country to sign the Accords and the third to do so in the last 10 days. One former agency official attributed the surge in signings to the recent Artemis 2 mission. (4/30)

L-3Harris Plans IPO for Missile Unit (Source: Reuters)
L3Harris has confidentially filed plans to take its missile unit public. The confidential filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission allows the company to work with regulators before making the registration statement public. L3Harris said earlier this year it would spin off the missile unit into a standalone publicly traded company, part of a deal that included a $1 billion investment from the Pentagon. (4/30)