May 1, 2026

Blue Origin Certainly Has Ambitious Launch Targets for New Glenn (Source: Ars Technica)
Earlier this week, Blue Origin posted a job opportunity for a “senior manager” to oversee tank fabrication for “Quattro,” and the description contained some intriguing information. “As part of a hardworking team of specialists, technicians, and engineers you will be the Senior Manager of Gen 2.0 Tank Fabrication, and will own the production execution of the most structurally complex and schedule-critical subsystem on the vehicle—the propellant tank,” the job posting states.

Quattro is the company’s nickname for a more powerful upper stage for the New Glenn rocket, which will feature four BE-3U engines instead of the two currently powering the booster. Blue Origin revealed plans for this more powerful variant of New Glenn, 9×4 (nine first stage engines, and four upper stage engines), last November. It is possible this rocket, significantly larger than the 7×2 variant currently flying and necessary for the company’s lunar ambitions as part of NASA’s Artemis program, could make its debut next year. (4/30)

SpaceComputer to Conduct On-Orbit Test of Secure Computing Infrastructure (Source: Space News)
SpaceComputer, a Singapore-based startup developing distributed computing infrastructure, is preparing to test its hardware and software in orbit later this year. The startup’s first product, Space Fabric, is a hardware and software architecture with secure and physically isolated computing elements to link ground stations with satellites and enable satellites to share computing resources. Space Fabric is being integrated with printed circuit boards (PCBs) in preparation for launch in October on an unidentified satellite. (4/30)

France and Spain Want Space Reserved for EU Firms in Satellite Frequencies (Source: Politico)
France and Spain have teamed up in a bid to reserve space for European companies in an upcoming spectrum auction for mobile satellite communications, effectively pushing out U.S. players. The move comes as Brussels and EU capitals are mulling restrictions on non-EU players in a vast array of technologies from cloud computing to software, and grappling with the bloc’s reliance on U.S. and China-made tools. (4/30)

DARPA Selects Three Companies for Lunar Orbiter Studies (Source: Space News)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded contracts to three companies to study concepts for a lunar mission to search for water ice in very low orbits. DARPA announced last year the Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO) program. LASSO would demonstrate the ability to operate in a very low orbit around the moon while searching for locations on the moon that contain water ice at concentrations greater than 5%.

The mission, the agency stated, would test “sustained and advanced maneuverability” needed to maintain that low orbit, with applications elsewhere in cislunar space. The scientific data from the mission would support both NASA and commercial efforts to use lunar resources. While there had been no formal announcements of awards, a DARPA spokesperson said April 30 that the agency selected three companies for Phase 1: Benchmark Space Systems, Quantum Space and Revolution Space. (5/1)

NASA, Boeing Advance Truss-Braced Wing Research in Test (Source: NASA)
NASA and Boeing have completed wind tunnel testing to study an innovative advanced aircraft design intended to improve aerodynamic efficiency. A truss-braced wing configuration, involving a long, thin wing with aerodynamically shaped structural supports, has the potential to reduce fuel and operational costs for future airliners, which is why NASA has collaborated with Boeing to advance the design.

But this kind of wing would be much more than a simple tweak to existing designs – for an aircraft the size of a passenger jet, it would be a revolutionary redesign, requiring extensive study from NASA and Boeing. (4/29)

New FCC Rules Could Mean 'Sevenfold' Capacity Increase for Starlink (Source: PC Mag)
SpaceX's Starlink could see a "sevenfold" increase in capacity under new rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission this week to improve satellite internet services. “Americans are now about to see a big upgrade,” said FCC Chair Brendan Carr. The commission introduced the new rules earlier this month before approving them at a Thursday meeting. The revamp targets the Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) rules, which were developed in the late 1990s and limited the amount of energy satellite systems could transmit to and from ground equipment. (4/30)

US–Indian space mission maps extreme subsidence in Mexico City (Source: Phys.org)
One of the most powerful radar systems ever launched into space has mapped the ground moving beneath one of the fastest subsiding capitals in the world: Mexico City. The findings show how quickly and reliably the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite can track real-time changes across Earth's surface from orbit, unhindered by clouds or vegetation that impede optical sensors and higher-frequency radars.

Home to some 20 million people, the Mexico City area is built atop an aquifer. Extensive groundwater pumping, combined with the weight of urban development, has resulted in the compaction of the ancient lakebed beneath the city for more than a century. An engineer first documented the issue in 1925, and by the 1990s and 2000s, parts of the metropolitan area were sinking by around 14 inches per year, damaging infrastructure including the Metro, one of the largest rapid transit systems in the Americas.

Several generations of space-based radar have tracked Mexico City on the move. The NISAR mission, launched in July 2025, is now advancing these efforts, analyzing fast-changing areas that are challenging to survey from space. (4/30)

Trump Nominates Schiess as Next Space Force Chief (Source: Space News)
President Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess to be the next commanding general of the Space Force. The White House announced Friday that it nominated Schiess for promotion to general and to be chief of space operations, a position that requires Senate confirmation. Schiess has served as the Space Force's deputy chief of operations since November. His nomination signals continuity in the service's emphasis on operational readiness and integration with joint forces, as the Pentagon looks to strengthen space capabilities in the face of growing threats from China and Russia. Schiess would succeed Gen. Chance Saltzman, who has led the Space Force since 2022 and is expected to retire later this year.  (5/1)

House Subcommittee Keeps NASA Budget at 2026 Levels (Source: Space News)
A House appropriations subcommittee advanced a spending bill that would keep NASA funded at 2026 levels, rejecting a proposed 23% cut. The House Appropriations Committee's commerce, justice and science (CJS) subcommittee approved a fiscal year 2027 spending bill on an 8-6 party-line vote Thursday, sending it to the full committee. The bill would provide NASA with $24.4 billion in 2027, the same overall funding as in 2026. The administration had proposed $18.8 billion for NASA. The House bill does shift funding among NASA's accounts, putting more money into exploration and less into science than the 2026 bill. The full committee is scheduled to mark up the bill May 13. (5/1)

Northrop Develops Missile Warning Satellite System Despite Pentagon Moves to Cancel It (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman says its development of a missile warning-satellite system is on track despite efforts by the Pentagon to cancel it. Northrop said Thursday it accepted delivery of a sensor designed for the polar component of the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared program, known as Next-Gen OPIR Polar. The program, started in 2018, planned to place two satellites in highly elliptical orbits to monitor missile threats over the Northern Hemisphere.

The company said that delivery keeps the program on schedule, but the Pentagon announced in its fiscal year 2027 budget proposal it intended to cancel Next-Gen OPIR Polar, focusing instead on constellations in low and medium Earth orbit. The program's projected cost is $3.4 billion, including $2.1 billion already spent. The budget allocates $436 million in 2026 primarily to close out development activities. (5/1)

Space Force Picks K2 Satellites for Optical Comms Test (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force plans to use satellites built by K2 Space to test optical communications. The company has been selected for the Pentagon's "OPIR Space Modernization Initiative," a research-and-development program aimed at advancing technologies that could eventually underpin operational missile-detection systems. The program will test laser links between satellites in low and medium Earth orbits, as well as with ground stations. Missile-warning systems depend on rapidly moving data from sensors to decision-makers and interceptors, but existing architectures weren't built for large, distributed constellations. The program has a $180 million budget for fiscal 2027, including $7.3 million earmarked for crosslink demonstrations. (5/1)

European Startups Relying on US Investors (Source: Space News)
European space startups are relying heavily on American investors. The amount of venture capital invested in European space ventures in 2025 jumped 13% year-over-year to 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) according to a report by the European Space Policy Institute. Five of nine "scale-up" rounds included in the report were led by European or national governments, but the four remaining deals anchored by private investors were all led by U.S. firms. The report indicates a gap in Europe's ability to finance late-stage space companies without relying on public institutions or foreign capital. (5/1)

Starcloud Seeks $200 Million for Orbital Data Centers (Source: Space News)
Starcloud seeks more orbital data center funding shortly after unicorn status. Starcloud is looking to raise at least $200 million in a deal that would double the two-year-old orbital data center startup’s valuation to about $2.2 billion, a source close to the situation confirmed. The funding talks come roughly a month after the Redmond, Washington-based venture announced a $170 million Series A round that made it the fastest company in accelerator Y Combinator’s history to reach unicorn status. Starcloud has raised about $200 million to date for a proposed constellation of 88,000 satellites to move data center computing beyond terrestrial infrastructure constraints. (5/1)

Singapore's SpaceComputer Developing Shared System to Link Satellites and Ground Stations (Source: Space News)
A distributed computing startup is planning to test its hardware and software in space this year. Singapore-based SpaceComputer is developing Space Fabric, a hardware and software architecture with secure and physically isolated computing elements to link ground stations with satellites, and enable satellites to share computing resources. Space Fabric will be tested on an unidentified satellite scheduled to launch in October. Use cases for Space Fabric range from secure computing and communications to provenance verification for geospatial data. (5/1)

Russia Concerned About Ukraine Attacks at Plesetsk Spaceport (Source: Ars Technica)
Russia is restricting information about launches from a spaceport because of Ukrainian drone attacks. Airspace notices for launches from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome are spanning much longer periods than usual, lasting up to 10 hours a day for 14 days. The move appears to be an effort to hide when a planned launch from there is actually scheduled to protect against drone attacks. Ukrainian drones reportedly attempted attacks at the spaceport during launch attempts in December and again in March. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, told Vladimir Putin in April that the March launch took place despite "serious inbound attempts," an apparent reference to the drone attacks. (5/1)
 
BlackSky Touts Record $30M Defense Imagery Subscription (Source: Space)
BlackSky Technology has secured its largest annual contract for the Assured intelligence service, a $30 million deal with an international defense client for Gen-3 satellite imagery. The one-year, Assured contract follows the commissioning of BlackSky's fourth next-generation satellite and the client expanded the contract from an Early Access program within six months. (4/30)
 
Space Force to End $3B Missile Warning Program for Arctic (Source: Defense Daily)
The US Space Force has indicated in its fiscal year 2027 budget request that it plans to terminate the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar satellite program, which covers the Arctic region, in favor of other programs for the same mission in lower orbits. The space-based missile warning program, developed by Northrop Grumman, has cost more than $3 billion and was to include two satellites with planned launches in 2028 and 2030. (4/30)
 
Africa - Europe Partnership Aims to Build Space Collaboration (Source: Spacehubs Africa)
The Africa–EU Space Partnership Program, backed by the European Commission’s Global Gateway strategy, is actively building bridges between the two continents on the basis of true co-ownership. This was emphasized in discussions hosted by the Digital for Development (D4D) Hub, which brought together leading voices from the African Space Agency and ESA, as well as from EARSC and Centre National d'Études Spatiales to discuss the best way to maximize the partnership and ensure its efficacy and relevance. (4/25)

US Space Force Wants Space-Based Missile Interceptors for Golden Dome Ready by 2028 (Source: Space.com)
The US Space Force has created a new program to develop space-based missile interceptors, with the goal of being able to demonstrate their capability within two years. The U.S. Space Force established the Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) program in order to develop a constellation of spacecraft that can defend the United States against "a new generation of threats" such as hypersonic weapons, neutralizing them while in flight. The program is part of the planned Golden Dome. (4/30)

SpaceX Spending on Starship Tops $15 Billion in Rush for Airline-Like Rocketry (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion developing its next-generation Starship rocket, according to the company’s IPO registration reviewed by Reuters, a sum that dwarfs the cost of its workhorse Falcon rocket as Elon Musk’s space company nears a ​decade trying to perfect a fully reusable launch system.

The future of SpaceX’s most lucrative businesses as it sprints toward public markets at a $1.75 trillion valuation rests largely on Starship, a towering two-stage rocket system central to ‌Musk’s ambitions to launch larger batches of Starlink satellites, carry humans to the moon and Mars, and eventually deploy thousands of artificial intelligence computing satellites as an alternative to power-hungry data centers on Earth. (5/1)

Blue Owl Sold About Half its SpaceX Holding at $1.25 Trillion Valuation (Source: Reuters)
Blue Owl sold about half its investment in SpaceX at a $1.25 trillion valuation, the alternative asset manager's co-CEO Marc Lipschultz said. "Specifically at ​SpaceX ... we made about 10 (times) our money on that investment," Lipschultz said. SpaceX is expected to go public this ​year at a possible valuation of $1.75 trillion, raising about $75 billion in what would be the ​largest public listing on record. The deal could put founder and CEO Elon Musk on track to become the world's first trillionaire. (4/30)

NASA Demonstrates New Prescribed Burn Capability for Spaceport (Source: NASA)
Anyone who has seen a launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida knows the agency’s pursuit of the stars involves some smoke and fire. Sometimes, however, the smoke doesn’t come from the rockets that propel astronauts beyond Earth’s bounds. That was the case during the second weekend of January 2026, when NASA teamed up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and commercial space partners to intentionally ignite around 2,600 acres of scrub habitat at NASA Kennedy during an active launch countdown, a first for the busiest spaceport in the world.

Staff from NASA Kennedy’s Spaceport Integration Directorate oversaw two prescribed burns conducted by the Service. The larger burn affected around 1,400 acres on the northeast corner of the center, known as Happy Creek — a key habitat for the federally protected Florida scrub-jay and other wildlife that rely on periodic wildfires to thrive. (4/29)

Virgin Galactic Reveals New Ship, but it’s Running Out of Time and Cash (Source: Ars Technica)
On Thursday, the publicly traded spaceflight company Virgin Galactic shared on social media a new photo of its next-generation spaceship being towed outside of its factory in Mesa, Arizona. The space tourism company was founded 22 years ago by Sir Richard Branson to bring spaceflight to the masses. Hundreds of people began buying tickets to space nearly two decades ago. And after a long, and at times deadly, development campaign, the company reached outer space (defined, somewhat controversially, as an altitude of 80 km and above) in December 2018.

Since then, the company has been largely quiet, making this week’s revelation of new hardware notable. So Virgin Galactic is still pressing ahead, but the question is where it’s going, and along with it, the entire suborbital space tourism industry. There was a time, about five years ago, when the market appeared poised to break through. During the summer of 2021, both Virgin Galactic and its US-based competitor, Blue Origin, began commercial flights. Famously, Branson and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos both went to space within weeks of one another.

Two years ago, Virgin Galactic’s “cash position” was reported as strong, with $982 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. A year later, this cash position had declined to $567 million, as the company has very low revenues while it’s not flying. To that end, Virgin Galactic said a first spaceflight with the new spaceship carrying research payloads was coming in summer 2026, with private astronaut flights in “fall 2026.” At the end of March, the company reported its most recent quarterly results, with its cash position declining to $338 million. The company was now projecting that its new spaceship would “enter service” between “late Q4 2026 and early Q1 2027.” (5/1)

Space Nuclear Execs Cheer the FY27 Budget Proposal (Source: Payload)
There’s been a lot of criticism of the FY27 NASA budget proposal, but not everyone is unhappy with the proposal as written, and that faint sound of cheering is coming from the budding space nuclear industry, which sees the bill as potentially kick-starting their wildest dreams. It advances many high-level goals that will necessarily require space nuclear power for lunar spacecraft to survive the lunar night, and eventually, to support human efforts on Mars.

Three line items in the FY27 proposal specifically set aside funds for space nuclear efforts: $438.8M for Mars technology, which includes the development of fission reactors as a “major focus;” $135.3M for radioisotope power systems; and $100.9M for space infrastructure and exploration, which includes funding for the Harmonia Radioisotope Power System Tipping Point team to demonstrate a Stirling generator and lander integration system, with the eventual plan to build into a flight-ready system for future missions. (5/1)

New EU-Switzerland Bilateral Agreement to Open up Swiss Participation in EU Space Program Activities (Source: Spacewatch Global)
The EU and Switzerland have signed agreements, including a specific EUSPA activities accessible under new EU–Switzerland agreement pact announced in 2026, enabling full Swiss participation in Galileo and EGNOS. This allows Switzerland to participate in procurement, contribute financially to EU satellite navigation systems, and gain observer status in EUSPA’s Administrative and Security Accreditation Boards. (5/1)

Why the Moon May Matter Before it Pays (Source: Aerospace America)
Market creation beyond Earth-facing space remains deeply challenging. Business cases are fragile, and the most plausible near-term path is still hybrid public-private rather than purely private. That is why lunar gateways should not be framed as engineering projects alone. Infrastructure in space does not endure simply because engineers make it possible. It endures when technical systems and their corresponding superstructures — the social contracts embedded in governance, regulatory and organizational arrangements — are aligned well enough to survive uncertainty, cost, delay and competing interests.

We have seen this before. Early space development was never just about rockets and spacecraft. It was also a story of governments creating institutions, regulations, funding capacities and organizing forms that could absorb uncertainty. The first era laid the foundation, the second matured orbital operations and the current era remains fundamentally hybrid.

The absence of strong lunar business models today is not an argument for delay. It is an argument for pragmatic collective action. Markets emerge when infrastructure, superstructural arrangements, operational experience and strategic commitment reduce uncertainty. If we wait for mature markets to justify lunar presence, we may wait forever. If we invest, build, experiment, fail, learn and coordinate, we improve the odds that real markets eventually follow. (4/30)

Why We Cannot Leave Public Private Partnerships Behind (Source: CASIS)
Space-enabled research is the new alchemy, a risky business with noble intentions to change our world. It may not deliver immediate, dramatic breakthroughs, but like alchemy, it offers something more valuable: transformative knowledge and innovation fueled by public-private partnerships. For nearly 15 years, the ISS National Laboratory, managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), has forged the path for public-private partnerships as the primary drivers of commercial research and technology development (R&D) in space.

Through these partnerships, the ISS National Lab is transforming space into a powerful engine of scientific discovery, economic growth, and human benefit. Under a Cooperative Agreement with NASA, CASIS manages the ISS National Lab’s half of the U.S. research allocation on the ISS. This allocation is reserved for non-NASA entities, including commercial companies, academic institutions, and other U.S. government agencies. But most importantly, the ISS National Lab’s allocation seeks to improve the lives of people back on Earth.

Without the alchemy of public-private partnerships creating a new space ecosystem, none of these successes would have been realized. NASA built the launchpad for these accomplishments by seeking new approaches to fulfill its mission “to explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery.” NASA’s Commercial Cargo and Crew programs revolutionized space access by partnering with American private industry to deliver supplies and astronauts to the ISS. (4/30)

A Lost Galaxy Called 'Loki' May Be Hiding Inside the Milky Way (Source: Phys.org)
A group of astronomers recently studied a sample of 20 stars they believe formed together in a dwarf galaxy they call "Loki" that merged with the Milky Way during its early evolution. These stars are metal-poor, but distinct from other metal-poor stars found in the halo of the Milky Way. Surveys of stars in the Milky Way have found very metal-poor stars, but most are in the halo, not the galactic plane. Some evidence suggests that retrograde planar stars can only originate from early Milky Way assembly, while prograde orbiting stars were added by later accreted systems. (4/30)

SpaceX’s Starlink Revenue Per User Fell 18% As Customers Quadrupled (Source: The Information)
According to draft IPO documents, SpaceX’s Starlink quadrupled its subscriber base to 8.9 million between 2023 and 2025. However, the average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped 18% to roughly $81 per month, driven by lower-priced plans and global expansion. While the user base grew significantly (quadrupled), the decline in revenue per user indicates a shift toward a volume-driven model. (4/29)

Vast is Building the First Commercial Space Stations (Source: NBC)
Vast hopes to be the first U.S. company to put a commercial space station into orbit, eventually replacing the ISS with it's own, smaller stations. NBC News' Gadi Schwartz gets a tour of their factory in Long Beach, California, where the bulk of their stations are manufactured. Click here. (4/28)

Artemis Astronauts Make Uncomfortable Visit to Trump's Oval Office (Source: TNR)
The crew of NASA’s Artemis II visited the White House Wednesday to celebrate their successful mission around the moon, but they ended up roped into one of the president’s diatribes against NATO. The astronauts were visibly uncomfortable flanking Donald Trump behind the Resolute Desk as he tossed questions their way regarding the country’s participation in the strategic alliance. The astronauts appeared visibly tense and pained,, with some turning away.

During the same event, Trump made a remark about NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's "beautiful ears," and boasted he would have been qualified to be an astronaut. The visit followed a previous viral, 63-second silent video call between the crew and Trump on April 6, 2026, during their mission, which he attributed to communication delays. (4/30)

California Company Plans to Protect Us From Dangerous Asteroids (Source: Space.com)
Southern California-based startup Exploration Labs' (ExLabs) has proposed what it bills as the first commercial deep space ride share mission, known as Apophis EX. ExLabs says the mission aims to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis before and after its 2029 Earth flyby and deliver unparalleled scientific data for planetary defense, resource prospecting and future deep-space exploration. (4/30)

U.S. Air Force, Space Force Make ‘Explicit Shift’ in RDT&E Funding (Source: Aerospace America)
The U.S. Air Force and Space Force would shift their research and development funding away from early-stage work and toward the end of the development pipeline under the fiscal 2027 budget request released this month. The Pentagon groups its research, development, test and evaluation funding into categories based on the type of work involved. New technologies generally move through six stages: basic research, applied research, advanced technology development, advanced component development and prototypes, system development and demonstration and, finally, operational system development. (4/30)

With Dragonfly Mission, NASA Faces Challenges Great and Small (Source: Aerospace America)
The $3.35 billion Dragonfly mission faces a tough set of challenges, as NASA is aiming for the craft to traverse Titan for at least three years, surveying the surface via a series of short flights resembling leapfrog hops. The agency’s interplanetary rotorcraft experience is limited to the Ingenuity helicopter, which completed 72 flights during its nearly three years on Mars, and Dragonfly will experience vastly different conditions. Titan is about eight times farther away than the red planet, and at their lowest, temperatures drop to about minus 180 Celsius — 100 degrees colder than Mars.

After years of testing rotors, instruments and materials for survival in these harsh conditions, NASA and lead contractor Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory are now building Dragonfly, in preparation for a launch in 2028. Integration tests began in early February, the first time all of the spacecraft’s components will be tested as a complete system. It’s impossible to replicate Titan’s atmosphere for testing on Earth, but the Dragonfly team has high confidence in its models, says Michael Wright, NASA’s Dragonfly entry descent and landing lead. Also, past tests have incorporated real data gained from Huygens. (4/30)

Arianespace Launches Another 32 Amazon LEO Satellites Aboard Ariane 6 (Source: European Spaceflight)
European launch services provider Arianespace has successfully launched a second mission for Amazon, deploying 32 satellites for the company’s Amazon LEO constellation aboard an Ariane 6 rocket. The rocket, launched in its Ariane 64 configuration that features four solid-fuel boosters, lifted off from the ELA-4 Launch Complex. The first of the 32 satellites was separated from the rocket’s upper stage just under an hour and a half after liftoff. All 32 satellites were deployed over 12 separation events lasting roughly 25 minutes in total. (4/27)

USSF 2027 Budget Forecasts Two New GPS III Sats Annually (Source: Aviation Week)
The U.S. Space Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request shows intent to award the next two GPS III Follow-On satellites—and to procure two more systems—over the next two years, with dual-satellite procurements forecast through 2031. The service has procured and awarded 12 satellites under the next-generation satellite program, with the latest two systems—known as space vehicles 21 and 22—awarded to longtime contractor Lockheed Martin in May 2025. (4/30)

Mining the Solar System to Build a New World (Source: Phys.org)
Building a colony on Mars is not just an engineering problem, it's a logistics one too. The logistics, unglamorous as it sound, may ultimately determine whether humanity becomes a multi-planetary species or stays firmly rooted on Earth. Think about what a Mars colony actually needs. Not just food and oxygen, but metal. Structural steel for habitats, aluminum for equipment, iron for tools and many of the components will wear out, break, and need replacing. Shipping all of that from Earth every time is not a serious long-term strategy.

A new study from researchers in Switzerland posted to the arXiv preprint server has now done the hard math on mining asteroids and delivering the metals directly to Mars. The solar system contains millions of asteroids, and the metallic ones, known as M-type asteroids, are essentially giant lumps of iron, nickel, and other valuable materials floating through space. The question is whether we can actually reach them, extract what we need, and get it to Mars efficiently enough to make it worthwhile. The answer, it turns out, is a careful yes but with conditions.

The results identify specific asteroids that sit within reach of current spacecraft technology, where the energy cost of getting there and back is low enough to make the mission viable. The team soon learned that selecting the right targets is everything. A poorly chosen asteroid could consume more fuel than the value of the metals it delivers. What makes this study significant is not that it solves the problem, because we are still a long way from the first asteroid mining operation. Instead it's that it demonstrates the problem is 100% solvable. (4/27)

Rocket Lab Infrastructure Set to Power Next-Gen Orbital Projects (Source: Simply Wall Street)
Rocket Lab is drawing fresh attention as it moves deeper into commercial orbital infrastructure, with its share price recently trading at $78.59. While Meta Platforms has recently signaled a major move into space-based solar power to fuel its data centers, the development highlights a growing market where Rocket Lab is strategically positioned to provide critical hardware and launch services. These moves into components and power applications broaden the story for Rocket Lab beyond pure launch services, reflecting its massive gains over the past year.

Rocket Lab has introduced a new High-Performance Star Tracker specifically aimed at long-duration missions in high-radiation orbits - the exact environments required for orbital power and data-center-focused satellites. This development points to broader vertical integration for the company, moving into key satellite subsystems that are essential for the ambitious orbital projects currently being explored by Big Tech. (4/29)

Astrobotic's RDRE Makes Big Thrust (Source: The Drive)
The Astrobotic Chakram Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) achieved more than 4,000 pounds of thrust in multiple tests at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. That’s remarkable considering how compact the engine is. And these tests focused largely on duration, to see how well everything operates for extended periods. Astrobotic says the Chakram could be introduced to its existing product lineup, which includes the Xogdor VTOL reusable rocket and two lunar landers. The company insists that the more efficient combustion could be a boon for taking more payload up higher or faster. (4/29)

Strange Little Red Dots May Really Be 'Black Hole Stars', X-Ray Data Suggests (Source: Space.com)
The discovery of an X-ray signal coinciding with the location of one of the mysterious 'little red dots' found by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has strengthened the theory that the dots are 'black hole stars' — huge, dense clumps of gas energized by the presence of a growing supermassive black hole within them. (4/29)

The Challenge of Celebrating Artemis II as NASA Cuts Loom (Source: Big Think)
With the successful Artemis II mission now complete, humanity has returned to the Moon, breaking the all-time distance record and adding four new astronauts, including the first black man and the first woman, to the list of people who’ve left low-Earth orbit. But contemporaneously with that remarkable achievement, the United States has just released their proposed FY2027 budget, and it’s a bloodbath for NASA science and the NSF: cutting the science budget by 50% in the country. For many astronomers, it’s hard to celebrate success even within your own field when it’s your own neck, and the necks of your projects, students, and collaborators, on the chopping block. (4/28)

Fee Approach Suggested by Trump Administration for FAA Air Traffic (Source: Bloomberg)
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy floated the idea of charging a fee to help the US Federal Aviation Administration modernize its air traffic control system on a more regular basis. “I would welcome an opportunity to think through, how could we have a small fee that went into allowing us to continually upgrade our systems,” Duffy said Wednesday at an event hosted by American Airlines Group Inc. (4/29)

Canada Proposes POET Mission to Hunt Earth-Sized Planets (Source: Universe Today)
Canada proposes a novel micro-satellite mission called POET (Photometric Observations of Exoplanet Transits), which is currently in development and will search for and identify Earth-sized and super-Earth exoplanets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our Sun, which the researchers refer to as “ultracool dwarfs”. These consist of K-type, M-type, and brown dwarf stars, the last of which are designated as “failed stars” whose sizes range between gas giant planets and M-type stars. (4/29)

Space Force Proposes Canceling Polar Missile Warning Program (Source: Air and Space Forces)
The Space Force is proposing to cancel a $3.4 billion program intended to provide missile warning and tracking coverage of the northern polar region as part of its 2027 budget request.

Northrop Grumman is under contract to build two satellites for the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar program. According to new budget documents released April 27, the service wants to cancel NGP and instead rely on new proliferated constellations it is building in other orbits, which it says will provide needed coverage of northern hemisphere missile threats. (4/28)

NASA Fires Up Powerful Lithium-Fed Thruster for Trips to Mars (Source: NASA)
A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. On Feb. 24, for the first time in years and at power levels exceeding any previous test in the United States, a team fired up an electromagnetic thruster that runs on lithium metal vapor. This prototype achieved power levels beyond the highest-power electric thrusters on any of the agency’s current spacecraft. Valuable data from the first firing of this thruster will help inform an upcoming series of tests. (4/28)

What is Quantum Gravity? Scientists Think it Could Explain the Beginning of Our Universe (Source: Space.com)
Scientists have redefined gravity to explain the Big Bang and perhaps change our picture of the earliest moments of the cosmos. This new framework of "quantum gravity" may explain aspects of the theory of general relativity fails to account for — maybe even doing away with the challenging concept of a singularity existing prior to the dawn of the universe.

General relativity doesn't just fail at small scales; the theory also collapses when trying to explain the extreme high-energy conditions that existed during the universe's first moments. To get around this issue, a team of researchers explored a theory called Quadratic Quantum Gravity. As it turns out, this theory seems to work even when explaining the high-density, high-temperature birth of the cosmos. (4/29)

Light-Propelled ‘Metajets’ Could Enable 20-Year Journey to Alpha Centauri (Source: Gizmodo)
Using conventional rocket propulsion, traveling to our nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, would take thousands of years. Instead, researchers are looking to light as a faster, cheaper, and more sustainable form of propulsion that could enable deep space travel. A team of researchers demonstrated the use of laser beams to lift and steer tiny engineered devices without physical contact. The scientists behind the study developed micron-scale devices called metajets—ultrathin materials smaller than the width of a human hair. The devices are etched with tiny patterns that act like a lens, helping scientists control how light behaves as it bounces off them. (4/28)

T-Mobile CEO: Cellular Starlink Usage Lower Than Expected (Source: PC Mag)
T-Mobile has been offering SpaceX’s satellite-to-phone service since last year, but usage hasn’t been as high as the carrier originally expected, CEO Srini Gopalan said. “Our partnership with SpaceX is very strong. We worked closely with them to really invent an entire category. That’s been putting an end to dead zones. We’re pleased with that,” Gopalan said. (4/28)

Only Elon Musk Can Fire Elon Musk From SpaceX, Filing Shows (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX is telling investors that no one can fire Elon Musk from his ‌role as chief executive and chairman of the board without the billionaire founder's consent, according to an excerpt of its IPO filing. The filing states that Musk "can only be removed from our board or these positions by the vote of Class B holders" - super-voting shares with ten ​votes apiece that he will control after the IPO, making his removal effectively a self-vote. (4/29)

Gravitational Waves May Have Created Dark Matter in the Early Universe (Source: Johannes Gutenberg University)
In the chaotic first moments after the Big Bang, ripples in spacetime may have done more than just echo through the cosmos—they could have helped create dark matter itself. New research suggests that faint, ancient gravitational waves might have transformed into particles that eventually became the invisible substance shaping galaxies today. (4/25)

Starlink to Drop Tech That Helps Beat GPS Spoofing. Maritime Users Are Alarmed (Source: PC Mag)
Starlink is best known for supplying high-speed satellite internet, but it turns out SpaceX’s technology can also counter a persistent problem in the Middle East: GPS spoofing and jamming. “Those [Starlink] satellites are so much closer than the GPS satellites, and so their signal is maybe 100 to 1,000 times stronger,” says Bruce Toal, a Starlink subscriber from Texas who’s been sailing the world. “They can overcome all kinds of jamming.”

But in recent months, the maritime community has found a solution in their Starlink dishes, which can connect to SpaceX’s fleet of over 8,000 active satellites to receive fairly accurate positioning coordinates. The only problem? The company is preparing to shut down the positioning data on May 20, which is alarming boat owners, including Toal, who recently sailed up the Red Sea. (4/28)

Could the Moon Ever Be Blockaded? Experts Predict Cislunar Space Could Be the Next Strait of Hormuz (Source: Space.com)
The ongoing military conflict regarding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz may well mirror a future situation off-Earth — the use of cislunar space, the region between the moon and our planet. Think blockades, seizing of ships, impacts on the global economy, repercussions in terms of needed resources and markets, from fuel to high-tech semiconductors and production processes. Now turn your attention skyward and note that the U.S. Space Force is establishing a dedicated acquisition office to appraise the importance of the cislunar region for warfighting and national security. (4/28)

The FCC Just Said ‘No’ to SpaceX for Now (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX was dealt a new setback on April 23, 2006 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the U.S. government agency dismissed the company’s petition to access a Mobile Satellite Service spectrum that would allow direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities. The FCC regulates communications by radio, television, wire, and cable, which also includes regulating D2D technology that lets your existing smartphone connect directly to a satellite orbiting Earth, the same way it would connect to a cell tower. (4/26)

FAA and NASA Sign Annex on Commercial Space Activities at Kennedy Space Center (Source: FAA)
The FAA and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida signed an annex that implements and clarifies safety authorities, responsibilities, and roles for commercial launch and reentry activities at NASA Kennedy. It streamlines the FAA launch license approval process, improves the efficiency of the FAA technical review, reduces duplicative safety reviews, and lessens the amount of launch application material the operator must submit.

This is an annex to a 2025 FAA / NASA agreement that clarifies safety roles and responsibilities, eliminates any duplicative requirements, and resolves any inconsistent requirements between the agencies. A similar annex for FAA-licensed launch operations from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is also being coordinated. (4/30)

FAA and Sweden Sign Commercial Space Licensing Agreement (Source: FAA)
The FAA and the Swedish National Space Agency signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to establish and maintain a shared understanding of the U.S. commercial space transportation regulations and provide a basis for Sweden's recognition of FAA-issued commercial space launch and reentry licenses.

The agreement enables the global growth of the U.S. commercial space industry by increasing regulatory interoperability and eliminating duplicative safety assessments and approvals for U.S. operators. The FAA has signed similar licensing recognition agreements with The Bahamas and New Zealand, and other agreements supporting consistent safety approaches with Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. (4/30)

FAA Collaborates with U.S. Space Force and NASA on LOX/Methane Testing (Source: FAA)
The launch vehicle industry is interested in expanding the use of Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Methane (LOX/Methane) as a mixture for rocket propulsion due to its potential for greater efficiency, storability, and cleaner combustion in reusable rocket engines and deep space missions. Several launch vehicles currently use this new propellant formulation, and others are in advanced stages of development. 

The FAA is coordinating with the U.S. Space Force and NASA to conduct a set of explosive tests to explore the after-effects of LOX/Methane-propelled launch vehicles failing shortly after leaving the launch pad and falling back to impact. The test results will provide critical data on the hazards and risk assessments of LOX/Methane rocket propellants to support specific analyses for licensing launch vehicles for public safety. (4/30)

FAA Posts Commercial Human Space Flight Recommendations Report (Source: FAA)
The FAA posted the final recommendations report from the Commercial Human Space Flight Occupant Safety Rulemaking Committee. The FAA will consider the recommendations for possible future revision of the Part 460 regulations. Under federal law, the FAA cannot currently promulgate regulations regarding the safety of space flight participants on board a space launch or reentry vehicle. Congress established a legislative moratorium in 2004 as a learning period for industry and extended it multiple times. It is set to expire Jan. 1, 2028. 

While safety remains the priority, FAA regulations require that crew and space flight participants be made aware of the hazards of space travel and space flight participants must provide written informed consent before they launch. Click here. (4/30)