May 25, 2026

China Launches Shenzhou 23 Spacecraft with 1 of 3 Astronauts set for Yearlong Stay (Source: AP)
China launched the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft Sunday night with three astronauts heading to its space station, including one set to stay in space for a year. The spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. The much-anticipated launch comes as China prepares for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030. (5/24)

Very Low-Earth Orbit Could Help U.S. Space Force in a Conflict Scenario (Source: Aerospace America)
Deploying satellites below 250 kilometers in altitude could help the Space Force create “a resilient and survivable architecture,” the service’s deputy chief science said Wednesday. "The ability to preposition and launch quickly a proliferated architecture of intentionally throwaway systems in 30, 60, 90 days, that might be all that we need for a conflict.... There’s some resiliency and survivability about vLEO that doesn’t exist in other orbits.”

DARPA considers vLEO to be between 90 km and 450 km, but there is no widely agreed-upon definition of this orbital regime. The Space Force is also looking into vLEO’s “potential for better imagery and lower latency” communications, Bussey said. The service’s Concepts and Technology Center “has this on their plate” for fiscal year 2027. “They’re hoping to do a vLEO concept.” (5/21)

Are We Pilots or Are We Passengers? (Source: ESA)
Recent changes to the Artemis architecture by the United States signal a rapidly shifting landscape in human space exploration. Decisions to pause Gateway and cancel Mars Sample Return disrupt Europe’s lunar exploration plans, underscoring a broader reality: Europe has become too exposed to decisions beyond its control.

Europe must decide whether it prefers to be dependent on others to send its explorers into space or to assume its role as a fully capable space power. As the head of the European Space Agency (ESA), I am convinced that autonomous human spaceflight is not a luxury. It is a necessary anchor for Europe to secure its freedom to unlock the scientific, economic, strategic and geopolitical benefits of space and to inspire a new generation to shape Europe’s future.

Through ESA’s Explore2040, Member States have already agreed on a cohesive exploration strategy, laying the foundations for Europe’s own human and robotic spaceflight capability. Yet, political decisions have always fallen short of pursuing full autonomy in human exploration – a hesitation which has had lasting consequences. To reconcile this, we now need the political will to adjust and accelerate the roadmap. (5/18)

Will They Come If We Build It? Town Hall Calls for U.S. to Approach Lunar Development Like Real Estate Projects on Earth (Source: Aerospace America)
As the United States confronts its great power competition with China to the moon, NASA and policy and commercial space experts shared current thinking on how to accelerate developing the lunar environment — and why it matters. Peter Garretson of the American Foreign Policy Council summarized China’s ambition “to build a $10 trillion a year moon‑earth economic zone by 2050 and to industrialize the moon.”

Charles Miller, a longtime space entrepreneur and policy strategist, predicted that whoever dominates commercial space industries and resources will become the preeminent military space power — and thus dominate Earth. He draws an analogy to maritime history, where Britain and then the United States became dominant military powers by first becoming dominant commercial maritime powers. The goal, he explained, is to create a stable governance framework that can cut through political and regulatory uncertainty, give companies clear mining and usage rights, and unlock private capital to build out lunar infrastructure.

Miller said a shared authority would invite U.S. allies and partners to work together and coordinate long-term development of a scalable industrial hub capable of supporting mining, manufacturing, and permanent human presence. A proposed Lunar Innovation Park must support tightly co‑located landings — as close as 20 meters apart, delivering vertical solar arrays, the IPEX and later CPEX excavation platforms, energy storage, and ultimately ARMADAS self‑assembling structures and buried shelters. Over time, excavation robots would build berms and pads, enabling reusable launch/landing sites and a local power grid. (5/21)

ISS National Lab Provides Fresh Lens on Aging and Health, Sparking Space Medicine Programs Nationwide (Source: Aerospace America)
The biological research onboard the ISS over the last 26 years hasn’t only benefited astronauts; it’s driven new understanding of human health on the ground. “There are things we can learn by exposure of biology to the space environment that inform us about new cures, new therapies, and new ways to approach aging and disease here on Earth,” said Michael Roberts.

Roberts said the ISS has inspired medical researchers and biologists to use microgravity as a platform for cures on Earth. At Cedars Sinai, stem cell biologist Arun Sharma founded the Center for Space Medicine Research a decade ago to push regenerative medicine into orbit. Sharma is best known for leading a first-of-its-kind space experiment – sending human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) to the ISS – that became “the first long duration cell culture experiment in space” and set the tone for a program now centered on stem cell biomanufacturing in space. His team studied how microgravity affects human heart function over time. (5/21)

Varda CEO Foresees Space-Based Medicine Moving from Research Novelty to Manufacturing Mainstream (Source: Aerospace America)
Fresh off the reentry of its sixth vehicle over Australia and a newly announced commercial partnership with United Therapeutics, Varda Space Industries is positioning itself as a bridge between orbital research and real-world medicine, CEO and Co-founder Will Bruey said. Bruey said the United deal shows that pharmaceutical companies are starting to treat microgravity as a practical manufacturing tool rather than a research novelty. (5/21)

Uh-oh, the International Space Station is Leaking Again (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA confirmed Thursday that the Russian segment of the International Space Station has begun leaking atmosphere into space again. It’s an old problem that NASA recently hoped was resolved. For more than half a decade, engineers from Roscosmos and NASA have been tracking the leak rate from a small Russian module attached to the space station that leads to a docking port. The source of these leaks, microscopic structural cracks, have been difficult to find and address. (5/21)

Military Boots on the Moon Needed to Beat ‘Belligerent’ China (Source: Breaking Defense)
The US should begin preparing now to put boots on the moon in order to beat China to domination of outer space, argues a provocative new policy paper by the Mitchell Institute. The paper thus advocates for the US to overturn nearly 70 years of a consistent national space policy that separates NASA’s civil space program from military space activities under Title 10, as well as Washington’s almost 60-year stance as a champion of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) that prohibits territorial claims and military occupation of the moon.

Entitled “Military Human Spaceflight: A Key Component to U.S. Space Superiority,” the paper is premised on twin assumptions. First, that lunar resources and territory are a critical first step to the future habitation of space, and as such are vital to US national security. And second, that Beijing’s lunar research program is a guise for using its military to occupy the moon as an “extension” its “belligerent” earthly ambitions to extend China’s territory. (5/21)

Rocket Lab's SpaceX Moment Has Arrived (Source: Seeking Alpha)
Rocket Lab (RKLB) is transitioning into a vertically integrated space infrastructure platform providing launch services, defense systems, satellite manufacturing, propulsion technology, optical communications and in the longer term, space services. The SpaceX IPO filing shows us that ecosystems, not launch, have been creating superior economics all along. Having a $2.2 billion backlog, growing exposure to defense, five Neutron launches contracted out pre-first flight and rapidly scaling Space Systems revenues make Rocket Lab the only credible public space company poised to benefit from space infrastructure. (5/22)

Stoke Space: The New Rocket Company in Town (Source: MyNews 13)
Space Launch Complex 14. The last time it was used, it was 1966. It sent up the crewed Gemini 12 mission, the last one for the Gemini program. Four years earlier, the historic pad sent up the Friendship 7 mission, making John Glenn the first American to orbit our Earth. Now, 60 years after the Gemini 12 mission, Stoke Space plans to send up its Nova rocket. Click here. (5/20)

Dassault Falcon Jet Joins Florida Tech’s Vertex as Newest Business-in-Residence (Source: FIT)
Dassault Falcon Jet is the newest Business-in-Residence at Florida Tech’s Vertex Applied Innovation Hub. Alongside other visionary companies in the Business-in-Residence (BIR) program, including Larsen Motorsports, SafeSky Systems USA and Zeal OTM, Dassault Falcon Jet is now part of Vertex’s impactful ecosystem. That means access to the facility’s advanced equipment and spaces as well as opportunities for expert collaboration, all in the realm of one of the country’s leading STEM universities. (5/12)