May 15, 2026

ULA Confirms Successful Solid Rocket Booster Test as Vulcan Anomaly Investigation Continues (Source: Spaceflight Now)
United Launch Alliance oversaw the completion of a critical milestone in mid-April on the road to resuming flights with its Vulcan rockets. On April 15, the company said Northrop Grumman performed a successful static fire test of a Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM) 63XL Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). The test served to “demonstrate nozzle design enhancements which were already in work and an advanced propellant technology for future solid rocket motors across their portfolio.”

“The information gathered from this test, along with findings from the investigations will provide critical data to validate analytical models and support Vulcan’s return to flight,” the spokesperson said. During the launch a mission for the United States Space Force, dubbed USSF-87, one of the four SRBs attached to the Vulcan booster suffered a nozzle problem prior to SRB separation. The rocket rolled more than intended following the incident. (5/14)

NASA Picks Up X-59 Flight Test Tempo (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA is continuing to speed up the rate of X-59 flight tests as the Quesst low-boom supersonic demonstrator program builds up to its first Mach 1 faster-than-sound milestone flight. The needle nose Lockheed Martin Skunk Works-built aircraft has so far accumulated around 19.6 flight hours on 16 flights, eight of which were completed in April. (5/15)

U.S. Space Force Reorganizes, Pauses Commercial Accelerator Program (Source: Aerospace America)
The Space Force has reorganized its commercial innovation-focused laboratory, moving it under another program office in a change meant to accelerate the acquisition of participants’ software. However, the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab — dubbed the SDA TAP Lab — said it is now in a “strategic pause” after its latest technology accelerator cohort wrapped up in March. (5/15)

Houston, the Freedom Plane Has Landed (Source: Boeing)
This month, the National Archives Freedom Plane, carrying documents foundational to American history, landed in Houston, Texas. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong spoke the famous words "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed", to NASA's mission control center, cementing the place of Apollo 11 in history. But the road to get there was a long one and for over a decade, the aerospace industry worked tirelessly to achieve the impossible. To honor the most recent Freedom Plane stop, we reflect on Boeing’s contributions to an iconic period of American history: the Space Race. Click here. (5/11) 

Antarctic Microbes Head to Space (Source: CASIS)
An international team is sending microbes from Antarctica and Chile to the ISS to study how they withstand radiation and other spaceflight stressors. The investigation will leverage the MISSE Flight Facility, an ISS National Lab asset owned and operated by Aegis Aerospace, mounted externally on the space station, to expose the organisms to space for approximately six months.

The Polar Organisms Launched for Astrobiology Research in Ionizing Space (POLARIS) project will study six extremophiles, microorganisms naturally equipped to endure some of Earth’s most unforgiving environments. Funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the project brings together the Department of Defense Space Test Program, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Aegis Aerospace, Radix‑Lucis, and Biociencia Fundación Científica y Cultural, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Chile and AFOSR’s Southern Office of Aerospace Research and Development. (5/13)

Guetlein: Golden Dome Cost Estimate Inaccurate (Source: Space News)
The general leading development of Golden Dome said a recent $1.2 trillion cost estimate for the system is inaccurate. Speaking at a conference Thursday, Gen. Michael Guetlein said the Congressional Budget Office's estimate released earlier this week is not for "what we're building." The Pentagon has not released details of its Golden Dome architecture. Guetlein argued the report extrapolated from older defense acquisition models rather than the emerging commercial space manufacturing and launch systems his office expects to leverage. He acknowledged, though, that affordability remains the decisive issue for space-based interceptors and defended previous comments that the Pentagon will abandon the concept if it cannot be produced cheaply enough and at sufficient scale. (5/15)

China's MinoSpace Seeks $736 Million Through IPO (Source: Space News)
Chinese satellite manufacturer MinoSpace is seeking to raise $736 million in an IPO. The company's initial public offering application to Shanghai's STAR Market was accepted earlier this week. The company plans to use the IPO as a platform to build phase one of the 112-satellite Taijing constellation, with a mix of optical, multispectral and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites. MinoSpace also plans construction of an R&D center, research and development for satellite platform components, a next-gen communications satellite and a new SAR payload production facility. (5/15)

Cowboy Space Plans 20,000 Orbital Data Satellite 'Stampede' (Source: Space News)
Cowboy Space has filed plans with the FCC to deploy 20,000 orbital data center satellites. The company, previously known as Aetherflux, filed an application with the FCC this week for the Stampede constellation, but provided few details about the system other than that the satellites would be in dusk-dawn sun-synchronous orbits to provide continuous solar power. The company announced earlier this week a $275 million funding round for the system, which includes development of a launch vehicle whose upper stage would serve as the computing platforms. While massive by historical standards, Stampede is smaller than SpaceX's plan for up to one million satellites, Starcloud's 88,000-satellite system and Blue Origin's 51,600-satellite Project Sunrise. (5/15)

China's Kinitica-1 Launches (Source: Xinhua)
A Chinese commercial rocket launched five satellites Friday. The Lijian-1, or Kinetica-1, rocket lifted off from Jiuquan, China. The rocket's payloads included Tianyan-27, a satellite to test infrared imaging systems and onboard processing. (5/15)

Virgin Galactic On Track for 2026 Flights (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic said Thursday that it remains on track to begin commercial flights with its new suborbital spaceplane by the end of the year. In an earnings call, the company said its first next-generation SpaceShip vehicle is going through ground tests now and should be complete by its next earnings call in August. The vehicle will then go to Spaceport America in New Mexico for flight tests, with commercial flights beginning by the end of the year. Virgin said it is seeing strong demand for a new tranche of tickets it is selling at $750,000 each, and reiterated it has the funding needed to get the vehicle into commercial service. (5/15)

SpaceX IPO Prospectus Coming Soon (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX could publish the prospectus for its IPO next week. The company is planning an investor roadshow the week of June 8, and regulations require the company to publish its prospectus at least 15 days before those presentations begin. SpaceX previously confidentially filed its prospectus with the SEC to allow it to work with the regulator on any issues before making it public. (5/15)

Wargame to Include Orbital Nuclear Explosion (Source: Ars Technica)
A recent space wargame included a scenario that was until recently considered unlikely: a nuclear explosion in orbit. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, said at an event this week that it included that "notional worst-case scenario" in a recent tabletop exercise involving military organizations, international partners and companies. Two years ago, officials said they had evidence that Russia was making efforts to deploy a nuclear weapon in orbit that, if detonated, could disable large numbers of satellites. (5/15)

Phyche Probe Passes Mars en Route to Asteroid (Source: Scientific American)
A NASA asteroid mission will fly by Mars today. NASA's Psyche spacecraft will pass about 4,500 kilometers above the surface of Mars at 3:28 p.m. Eastern. The gravity assist maneuver will put the spacecraft on a trajectory to arrive at the metallic main-belt asteroid Psyche in 2029. Psyche will collect images and other data during the flyby, including looking for any rings of dust around the planet. (5/15)

Data Centers in Space: A Pipe Dream, or AI’s Next Big Thing? (Sources: Wall Street Journal, SPACErePORT)
Nvidia recently posted a job straight out of a science-fiction epic: orbital data-center system architect. The chip maker and other technology giants are working to take an idea that has captivated futurists—channeling the sun’s power through spacecraft to support activity on Earth—and make it reality for artificial-intelligence computing. Nvidia's Vera Rubin Space Module is an enterprise GPU designed to process data and train AI models in space.

Meanwhile, Google's Project Suncatcher plans to use specialized, radiation-tolerant Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) aboard solar-powered satellites. SpaceX's Terafab initiative features a massive facility in Texas to manufacture chips, with the majority of this compute intended for space-based applications and orbiting solar data arrays. Companies like Star Catcher and Overview Energy plan to harness solar power in space and use lasers to beam it directly to space-based users, and Earth-based data centers like those developed for Meta.

While the physics are sound, engineers are actively working to solve the "savage" economic and design constraints of the environment. Without air or water, satellites can only dissipate immense computer heat using closed-loop infrared radiation panels. Cosmic rays will cause computational bit-flips and degrade silicon, requiring heavy hardware shielding and redundant error-correcting code. And transmitting raw data back and forth to Earth creates communication bottlenecks, meaning space data centers will likely focus on processing short queries or pre-loaded AI inference models. (5/12)

Casimir Raises $12M for Chips That Generate Power from Quantum Vacuum Fields (Source: Douglas Messier)
Casimir, a quantum energy technology company founded by former NASA advanced propulsion researcher Dr. Sonny White, announced the close of a $12 million seed round to commercialize the world’s first quantum vacuum energy source: semiconductor chips that harvest energy from quantum vacuum fields to produce continuous electrical power with no batteries, cords, or charging required.

The oversubscribed round exceeded its original $8 million target, reflecting strong investor confidence in Casimir’s solution to one of energy technology’s longest-standing challenges, harnessing the Casimir effect. The funding will accelerate chip performance optimization, targeting commercial availability of the company’s first-generation MicroSparc chip by 2028, positioning Casimir to disrupt the ultra-low-power electronics sector. (5/14)

DoD Civilian Workforce Losses Strain Military Installation Operations (Source: FNN)
The Pentagon’s deferred resignation program and other civilian workforce reduction efforts have led to staffing shortages in critical installation support roles, which have caused cost increases, inadequate oversight of installation projects and contributed to delays in project design and execution. Dale Marks, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and the environment, said the Defense Department is tracking personnel losses in key installation support roles that are negatively affecting the military construction enterprise. (5/14)

Sidus Space Reports Revenue Improvement (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, including revenues of $359,000, an increase of 51% compared to $238,000 in Q1 2025, driven by new customer contracts including Lonestar Data Holdings and Teledyne Marine. The company posted a gross loss of $1.1 million, a 36% improvement from a gross loss of $1.6 million in Q1 2025. (5/14)

Amazon Leo to Double Satellite Launches for Broadband (Source: Geekwire)
Amazon Leo plans to double its satellite launches and deployments in the next year to accelerate its satellite broadband service. The company has deployed 304 satellites and aims to increase this number significantly, although it has faced challenges such as a limited availability of launch vehicles, including a temporary grounding of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.  (5/14)

Earth Observation Data is Getting Stuck in Orbit (Source: Space News)
Earth observation infrastructure needs a serious upgrade, so that ground infrastructure and data transfer can accommodate the vast quantities of data being captured and relayed from orbit, according to Cailabs CEO Jean-François Morizur. "Earth observation data is taking so long to be received, processed and distributed that it is degrading, losing its value and, in some cases, becoming unusable," he wrote. Morizur calls on private companies to build more ground stations, governments to provide steady demand for them and policymakers to establish shared standards across borders so that global infrastructure can work together. (5/14)

Staggering Defense Budget Could Weaken Bipartisan NDAA Support (Source: FNN)
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget could weaken the broad bipartisan support for the must-pass defense policy bill as Democrats grow increasingly uneasy with the massive defense spending proposal. "My colleagues and I are overwhelmed at the amount of money that we're being forced to authorize and appropriate," Reed said.

The Pentagon is seeking $1.15 trillion for its base budget, while another $350 billion would come through a separate reconciliation package that Republicans could pass along party lines without Democratic support. Republicans would need near-unanimous support to pass another reconciliation package at a time when some Republican lawmakers are growing increasingly wary of deeper cuts to social programs amid rising living costs and looming midterm elections. (5/13)

Federal Employees Sue Agency Chief Over ‘Escalating’ Religious Messaging (Source: FNN)
Department of Agriculture employees are suing Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over a series of emails she sent to staff, arguing that the “increasingly proselytizing” messages crossed a line and violated the First Amendment. The new lawsuit comes in response to an Easter message Rollins sent to USDA employees in April. Plaintiffs called Rollins’ message “unconstitutionally coercive,” as it sought “to impose her brand of Christianity on the agency’s 100,000 employees.” (5/13)

China’s Electronics Industry Could Upend America’s Lead In Space (Source: Aviation Week Network)
America’s lead in space has never been bigger: 3,720 satellites and payloads were launched last year, compared with 371 by runner-up China. Most of that is thanks to SpaceX’s partially reusable rocket, the Falcon 9. But that all could change drastically if China figures out how to stick the landing on its own reusable rocket, a missing technology constraining the nation’s space ambitions. (5/14)

Blue Origin Eyes Austin Suburb for $650M Industrial Megaproject (Source: The Real Deal)
Blue Origin is zeroing in on Hutto for a massive industrial campus that could cement Williamson County as Central Texas’ aerospace hub. The aerospace company is eyeing Hutto for a 1.3 million-square-foot manufacturing, research-and-development, warehouse and logistics project in the fast-growing Austin suburb. The project, publicly referred to only as “Project Blue Hub,” was the subject of a public hearing regarding potential financial incentives.

While Blue Origin was never named during the meeting, multiple sources said the company is behind the proposal. The details align closely with reporting from late last year about Blue Origin’s statewide search for a Texas manufacturing and logistics hub approaching $1 billion in investment. Officials said the proposed Hutto development would bring more than 2,000 jobs over five years with average annual salaries of roughly $88,000. Capital investment was pegged at more than $650 million, though state and regional economic development groups suggested the total project could ultimately cost $1 billion. (5/13)

Could This Be the Moment That Drug Manufacturing Takes Off in Orbit? (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA has enabled scientists to study the impact of microgravity on drug development for decades, beginning with the Space Shuttle. This work accelerated in the 2010s, with the completion of the International Space Station and full-time crew members devoted to scientific research.

There have been some notable successes during this timeframe, such as the ability to grow a more uniform crystalline form of the cancer drug Keytruda in 2019. This opened up the possibility of administering the drug via injection rather than requiring a patient to spend hours in a clinic setting to receive the drug intravenously.

NASA subsidized much of this work, typically paying the considerable costs to transport research to the ISS and for astronaut time to conduct research there. There were, however, trade-offs, such as long lead times to get research into space. Nevertheless, it has become clear that there could be some commercial applications for making drugs in space. (5/13)