Tag: competition

Vast unveils new high powered satellite bus to support the expected boom in satellite construction

9:21 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Artist rendering of Vast’s Haven-1 station, with a docked
Dragon capsule. Like Have Demo, it is being built using
company funds with no government support.

The space station startup Vast yesterday unveiled a new product line of high powered satellite buses, dubbed Vast Satellite, designed to support the expected boom in satellite construction.

With the launch of Vast Satellite, Vast is expanding beyond commercial space stations into high-volume spacecraft platforms designed for high-performance orbital missions. The first offering is a 15 kW-class satellite bus designed to support a wide array of power-intensive missions through flexible configurations.

Built around common in-house subsystems—including avionics, power, communications, propulsion, and flight software—Vast Satellite leverages technologies already developed for its Haven-1 space station, and validated through the successful Haven Demo mission in 2025. This shared architecture combined with Vast’s vertically integrated manufacturing model and advanced production capabilities is designed to support faster development timelines, lower costs, and increased mission reliability.

The company says it has already sold four buses to a confidential customer, with an option for 200 more. This sale occurred because Vast has proved itself with its policy of committing its own investment capital in designing, building, and flying demo missions. The Haven Demo was initially launched to test the subsystems to be used on the Haven-1 single module station the company hopes to fly next year on a three-year mission, during which four two-week manned crews will occupy it. That success allowed Vast to now diversify, using what it learned and proved on that demo to sell new products to other customers.

Similarly, its Haven-1 station, built on its own dime with no NASA funds, is intended to prove its capability as a space station provider. If successful, it is certain at that point to attract customers, including NASA.

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Sri Lanka’s government to formulate a space policy

8:45 am

The Sri Lanka government has now established a committee whose task will be to formulate the country’s first space policy.

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a resolution presented by the Minister of Science and Technology to appoint an expert committee tasked with formulating Sri Lanka’s first National Space Policy. According to the government, space technology has become a critical driver of national development, delivering benefits across disaster management, communication, security, environmental monitoring, and economic innovation.

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty, so any policy it establishes has to fall under its rules and limitations. This op-ed today in one of the nation’s major media outlets provides a very detailed overview of the issues. It seems the country has a lot of options, most of which revolve around attracting already established aerospace companies to build there.

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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites

8:30 am

SpaceX in the early morning hours today successfully placed another 24 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its second flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

58 SpaceX
28 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 58 to 50.

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BUMPED: 12th Starship/Superheavy test delayed another day to May 21, 2026

10:08 am

UPDATE: One day after its announcement below, SpaceX announced another one day delay. The 12th Starship/Superheavy launch is now targeting May 21, 2026, with a launch window beginning at 5:30 pm (Central).

Original post:
———————
SpaceX earlier today announced a revised launch date for the 12th Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight, delayed one day from May 19, 2026 to May 20, 2026, with a launch window opening at 5:30 pm (Central).

No reason was given. I suspect weather might have played a factor, but it is also possible that some technical issues required a short delay.

Either way, the link to the X live feed will be posted here once it goes live. I will also embed it on Behind the Black once it goes live.

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Several major American satellite companies release a joint guide on “orbital safety”

9:19 am

Working with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American satellite companies building large orbital constellations — SpaceX, Amazon, Iridium, and Eutelsat — have now released a joint reference guide for building and operating their satellites, dubbed “Satellite Orbital Safety Best Practices 3.0.”

  • Emphasizes the design phase for improved orbital safety
  • Stresses pre-launch coordination and collision avoidance analysis, especially near crewed vehicles, mitigating hazards during post-launch identification and cataloging of new orbital objects
  • Provides guidance on data sharing across design and operations emphasizing the critical importance of sharing and screening high quality ephemeris with covariance from deployment through disposal
  • Includes an Appendix with data exchange recommendations to mitigate conjunctions

The companies have apparently decided they needed to get together to make sure they were not stepping on each other’s toes. I would expect other companies to soon join this cooperative effort, as it is in no one’s interest to have satellites colliding in orbit.

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New fuel startup unveils rocket and jet fuels that it says are as much as 32% more efficient

9:07 am

A new startup, CycloKinetics, has announced a product line of chemically engineered rocket and jet fuels that it says are as much as 32% more efficient that standard fuels.

CycloKinetics’ approach is to create “plug-in” fuels that can replace conventional fuels in various vehicles without requiring modifications to the craft or its engines. There’s nothing particularly wild or exotic about this, and no unobtanium-type elements are involved. It’s more a matter of changing the geometry of the hydrocarbon molecules that make up the fuel itself.

Conventional aviation fuels consist of linear and branched hydrocarbon molecules, which limits how much energy can be packed into a given volume. CycloKinetics instead engineers cycloparaffinic hydrocarbons – that is, ring-shaped molecular structures that pack more carbon and hydrogen atoms into the same space as would be occupied by conventional fuels.

The upshot is 32% more energy in the same volume as standard Jet A fuel. That means, for example, an aircraft capable of flying 1,500 nautical miles (1,726 miles, 2,778 km) on standard fuel could potentially exceed 1,950 nautical miles (2,244 miles, 3,611 km) using the new superfuel, while reconnaissance aircraft could remain on station up to 30% longer.

The company is also selling its version of RP-1, the kerosene fuel used for example by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

It remains unclear whether it will be cost effective for rocket or airline companies to consider buying this fuel. For one, the extra cost to make it might outweigh the fuel savings. For another, it is unclear the company will be able to produce enough to meet the market. Nonetheless, the concept is intriguing, and could pay-off for this startup in the long run.

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Astrolab’s Flip lunar rover will carry 4 NASA payloads

8:37 am

Moon's south pole, with landers indicated

When NASA cancelled in 2024 its Viper rover, removing it as the main payload on Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander, the company quickly made a deal in 2025 with the rover startup Astrolab to put its s FLIP prototype lunar rover on board instead.

Astrolab yesterday announced that NASA has agreed to purchase payload space on FLIP, placing four different science instruments on the rover, each from a different NASA center.

The map to the right indicates the location where Griffin is supposed to land, about 100 miles from the Moon’s south pole. Nova-C, Intuitive Machines first attempt to soft land on the Moon, landed at the green dot, but failed when it fell over at landing. Its second lunar lander, Athena, also fell over when it landed in the same region that is now Griffin’s target landing zone.

Griffin’s launch itself has been delayed repeatedly. Astrobotic was originally issued its NASA contract for Griffin in 2020, with a launch planned for November 2023, carrying NASA’s Viper rover. In July 2022 however it was delayed one year to November 2024 because Astrobotic said it needed more time. This date was then delayed to 2025 when Viper was canceled, and then in October 2025 the launch was pushed back again to July 2026.

According to the press release at the link above, that July 2026 launch date is now invalid, with the new launch date set for before the end of 2026. I strongly suspect that date will slip again.

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France’s space agency CNES gives ESA 5-year extension at French Guiana spaceport

8:14 am

French Guiana spaceport
The French Guiana spaceport. The Diamant launchsite is labeled “B.”
Click for full resolution image. (Note: The Ariane-5 pad is now the
Ariane-6 pad, and the Soyuz pad is now controlled by rocket startup
MaiaSpace.)

France’s space agency CNES and the European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced a new five year agreement extending ESA’s operations at France’s French Guiana spaceport.

The contract covers all activities required to operate Europe’s Spaceport that is on French territory and so falls under the responsibility of the French government represented by CNES. The contract includes both daily operations and running of the facilities and continuous upgrades to adapt the Spaceport to changes taking place in the space sector, including the arrival of new rockets and launch services.

The signature covers three years of operations, renewable for a further two years, including a total investment of over €1 billion with €635 million funded by the European Space Agency – showing the agency’s central role in supporting the operation of Europe’s Spaceport. In support of the transformation of the space sector, the contract takes new launch operators into account as well as sharpening safety requirements even more – ensuring launches from Europe’s Spaceport are reliable, safe and competitive.

While the deal is not surprising — neither ESA nor CNES have any reason to end this arrangement — there is one aspect of the deal that is significant: Nowhere in the press release or agreement is there any mention of Arianespace, ESA’s commercial division. For decades Arianespace ran French Guiana for ESA and France. It is now gone, eliminated as an unnecessary middle-man as Europe shifts to the capitalism model.

At the moment, ESA has reduced Arianespace’s role to just one task, marketing and launching the Ariane-6 rocket. At the same time numerous European nations are doing whatever they can to encourage the development of competing independent rocket companies, all aimed at replacing Ariane-6 eventually, and as soon as possible. While that effort will take at least a decade, it is definitely happening.

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Louisiana passes legislation favorable to aerospace rocket companies

7:40 am

Pecan Island SpaceX facility?

In what appears to be a direct response to the rumors that SpaceX might be considering buying a gigantic swath of land near Pecan Island on the Louisiana coast for future launch operations, the Louisiana state legislature this week passed several laws providing tax breaks and protection from frivolous lawsuits to “aerospace flight entities”.

The tax breaks relate to the sales and property taxes. As for the lawsuit protection:

The bill would protect aerospace companies from temporary restraining orders for claims of noise pollution and similar public nuisance lawsuits by creating what’s called a “special motion to strike,” which would require a plaintiff to show the court early on that they’re likely to win their lawsuit.

Apparently the legislature has been negotiating with at least one or two big aerospace companies on these matters, and has taken these actions in response to these negotiations. Non-disclosure agreements prevent the legislators from revealing the companies involved, but it does appear based on all the local rumors that SpaceX is a likely candidate to buy that 200+ square mile plot near Pecan Island. It also appears it wants some legal protections before it commits, based on its experience at Boca Chica.

With the passage of this legislation, we should find out relatively soon what companies are involved.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Avio completes its first Vega-C launch for ESA

10:25 pm

The Italian rocket company Avio today successfully completed its first Vega-C launch for the European Space Agency (ESA), placing into orbit ESA’s SMILE telescope, designed to study the Sun’s solar wind and its interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field.

The significance of this launch is that it is the first time the Vega-C was launched under the management of Avio, which manufactures it, rather than ESA’s commercial division Arianespace. Arianespace is being cut out of the picture. At the moment I think it only has one more Vega-C launch on its manifest. All other future Vega-C launches will be sold and managed by Avio directly.

As this was Avio’s first official launch in 2026 (or ever), the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged.

57 SpaceX
28 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 57 to 50.

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SpaceX prepares for the biggest IPO in history

9:35 am

SpaceX logo

As SpaceX and numerous banks get ready for the company’s initial public offering of stock (IPO), several tidbits about the structure of the stock and the company post-IPO have been dribbling out.

First, prior to the sale the company split its stock, converting each existing private share from one to five. It appears this action served to protect the value of that previously issued stock, much of which had either been issued to employees or purchased by major investors, including Musk. This split maintains their control over the company.

It also lowered the expected price of the stock in the IPO, ranging from present estimates of $100 to $160.

The absolute level of a stock doesn’t typically matter all that much, but a lower price might help smaller retail investors build positions. Retail shareholders are expected to be important for SpaceX. They hold a lot of Tesla shares.

Second, these preliminary stock arrangements appear designed to guarantee Elon Musk will remain in control of the company, even after it goes public. His shares, numbering 260 million (which could be more than a billion if prior to the stock split), will be given supervoting powers, ensuring his mastery of the company.

When the IPO happens remains uncertain. The Wall Street Journal says June 12, 2026, while Bloomberg says it could be as soon as May 20th.

Either way, it will be a major financial event, and should shake up the entire global launch industry in ways that cannot be predicted. It will certainly give SpaceX the funds it needs to develop Starship/Superheavy fully, making access to space cheap and affordable. It will also allow the company to pursue its goals in space, establishing data centers constellations in orbit and on the Moon (for profit) as well as colonies on Mars.

Whether the IPO will suck all the investment capital out of the rest of the industry remains uncertain, though some are claiming this. In reality, it could just as easily end up doing the opposite, as the market is never zero-sum game. Success in one place usually ends up fueling success all around.

Either way, this IPO is going to change things for sure. It will establish without question what I have been saying for more than a year, that the real American space program is being run by SpaceX, and that NASA’s Artemis program is merely a long term ineffective sideshow that is simply aiding the company achieve its goals.

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China launches another 18 Qianfan internet satellites

12:55 pm

China today successfully launched 18 more Qianfan internet satellites (also called SpaceSail), its Long March 8 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

Though China’s state run press did not reveal the number of satellites launched, other sources said the rocket placed 18 satellites into orbit. If so, there are now 173 Qianfan satellites in space, out of a planned constellation of as many as 12,000. The first phase of the constellation however only requires 648, which China hopes to reach before the end of the year.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

57 SpaceX
28 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 57 to 49.

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SpaceX launches cargo Dragon to ISS

3:11 pm

SpaceX today launched an unmanned Dragon freighter to ISS, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The first stage completed its 6th flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The capsule is also making its sixth flight to ISS, and will dock with the station at 7 am (Eastern) on May 17, 2026.

57 SpaceX
27 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 57 to 48.

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Intuitive Machines buys British ground station company

9:22 am

The lunar lander startup Intuitive Machines is now in the process of buying the British ground station company that operates antennas used for deep space communications in both Britain and the U.S.

Intuitive Machines announced May 14 that it entered into an agreement to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. and its American subsidiary, Comsat. Intuitive Machines will pay 37 million pounds ($49.6 million) for Goonhilly, split equally between cash and stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approvals in the U.S. and U.K.

Goonhilly operates a ground station in Cornwall, England, that includes 30- and 32-meter antennas that have been used for lunar and deep-space communications. Through Comsat, it operates teleports in Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California, that have dozens of antennas.

This antenna deal gives the company added flexibility in its future lunar missions. It also gives it a capability it can sell to both the European Space Agency as well as NASA. NASA for example is looking to accelerate in the next few years the number of unmanned lunar landers it will buy from the commercial sector. It also is looking for commercial options to improve its communications capabilities for those missions. Intuitive Machines is now better placed to compete for this work.

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Northrop Grumman completes successful test of new nozzle for its solid-fueled boosters

9:13 am

Unexpected debris falling from rocket at about T-1:00
Nozzle failure during February 12, 2026 Vulcan launch

Northrop Grumman on April 15, 2026 successfully completed a test of a new nozzle design of a GEM solid-fueled booster, the strap-on booster whose nozzle failed on two previous ULA Vulcan rocket launches.

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). A spokesperson told Spaceflight Now on Thursday that 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.

At the moment the Pentagon has grounded all Vulcan launches because of this nozzle issue, and has given several planned Vulcan payloads to SpaceX instead. ULA hopes to resume normal Vulcan flights using GEM boosters before the end of the year, but it also hopes to launch Vulcan sooner without the boosters. It is right now preparing a boosterless Vulcan to do a launch for Amazon, placing an as yet undetermined number of Leo satellites into orbit. It is also possible it will do the same with AST SpaceMobile’s Bluebird satellites.

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Virgin Galactic releases ’26 first quarter financials; stock at new low under $3

8:53 am

The suborbital tourist company Virgin Galactic, that promised much over two decades and delivered little, this week released its ’26 first quarter financial statement, claiming its situation is “strong” with the completion of its “new SpaceShips”.

Two details however contradict this conclusion. First, revenue in the quarter were only $200K, down from $500K earned in the first quarter of 2025. Second, the company’s stock is now trading at under $3 per share, a far cry from the high of $62, when Richard Branson sold the bulk of his holdings and got out when the getting was good. It is also a quarter of the stock’s initial value when first issued in 2019.

The company hopes to resume flights with these new spacecraft later this year, but whether there is any substantial interest in suborbital tourism remains unknown.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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China launches five classified satellites

8:39 am

China today successfully placed five classified satellites into orbit, its Kinetica-1 rocket (also called Lijian-1) lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

No word from China’s state-run press where the rocket’s lower stages crashed. The rocket itself is built by pseudo-company CAS Space, which is wholly controlled by a government agency.The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

56 SpaceX
27 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 56 to 48.

SpaceX scrubbed a Starlink launch this morning, rescheduling it to tomorrow. It also hopes to launch a cargo Dragon to ISS this afternoon, a launch that has twice in the past week been scrubbed due to weather.

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Japanese company NEC initiates its own orbital tug project

9:08 am

Having won a grant from Japan’s $6.6 billion strategic fund (designed to encourage private enterprise in space), the Japanese company NEC Corporation has now begun work on its own commercial orbital tug, which it dubs an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV).

Moving forward, NEC plans to conduct market feasibility studies, conceptual design, and demonstrations for OTVs by the end of fiscal year 2027 to clarify the required functions and other specifications. Following this, NEC plans to begin development of a demonstration model in fiscal year 2028, with the goal of launching it and conducting in-space demonstrations in fiscal year 2032, and aims to bring the technology to practical use in the future.

While the overall goal makes sense, the timetable seems far too slow. By the time NEC is ready with its operational OTV in 2032, at least a half dozen tugs will have been in operation for at least three to five years. Already several tugs have flown missions, with several more in the pipeline. Moreover, these companies have found less demand for tugs than expected, and have been repurposing their technology to other purposes.

Regardless, it does appear Japan is beginning to use this strategic fund as intended, to encourage the development of a private space industry, independent of its government space agency JAXA.

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Pharmaceutical company to use Varda’s capsules to manufacture heart drugs in space

8:34 am

Varda's W-5 capsule after landing today
Varda’s fifth capsule after landing on January 29, 2026

The pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics Corporation has purchased space on an unspecified number of future Varda’s recoverable capsules so that it can manufacture pulmonary drugs in space.

Through the collaboration, Varda and United Therapeutics will conduct pharmaceutical processing of small molecule medicines for pulmonary disease aboard Varda’s orbital manufacturing and reentry platform during multiple missions to low Earth orbit.

The companies will utilize microgravity’s influence on the structure and crystallization properties of therapeutic compounds in pursuit of novel formulations that may improve stability, bioavailability, and other delivery characteristics. The first compounds to be analyzed onboard Varda spacecraft will likely be focused on therapies for patients living with life-threatening pulmonary diseases.

Varda has a deal in Australia to land 20 more capsules through 2028. This deal helps fill the payload space on those capsules.

As I have noted repeatedly, there is money to be made manufacturing drugs in weightlessness for later sale back on Earth, a reality that NASA has blocked on ISS for decades. Varda is now grabbing that market, which is also why a lot of investment capital has become available for a whole slew of proposed competing recoverable capsule companies.

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Chinese pseudo-company launches its expendable Zhuque-2 rocket

11:20 pm

The Chinese pseudo-company Landspace successfully placed an experimental payload into orbit today (May 14th in China), its expendable Zhuque-2 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

Video of the launch (found by BtB’s stringer Jay) can be seen here. Zhuque-2 was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit, but it is not reusable, as is Landspace’s larger Zhuque-3 rocket that has made one failed attempt to land its first stage. The company hopes to try again before the summer.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

56 SpaceX
26 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 56 to 47.

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ESA announces new round of funding for new rocket companies

9:28 am

Capitalism in space: The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced a new round in its Boost! program to provide new startup rocket companies funding.

The new round will accept new submissions through 2028. The program is designed to encourage the development of private and independent rocket companies, competing for market share, with the added ability to provide ESA its needed launch services. What makes this ESA program different than all its previous rocket programs is that ESA does not own or control the rockets. It is helping to get these companies started, and will simply then be a customer buying the product from them once operation. Ownership will belong to the companies, not ESA.

To emphasize the ownership point, to get funding under this program “requires private co-funding. For every euro invested by ESA in commercial space businesses, often more than five euros are leveraged from private investors.”

So far ESA has provided funding to eleven different European startups, including Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, and PLD, all three of which hope to make their first orbital launch this year. This new round is being offered to these companies and any new ones that might come forward. Of the 110 million euros so far allocated 20 million euros remains available for distribution.

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AST SpaceMobile reaffirms its goal to launch 45 Bluebird satellites by the end of ’26

8:59 am

Despite the launch failure last month by Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, causing the loss of its satellite, AST SpaceMobile in its most recent quarterly report this week reaffirmed its goal to get 45 Bluebird satellites into orbit by the end of 2026.

In AST SpaceMobile’s 10-Q filed with the SEC on Monday, the company said the loss is expected to be in line with the carrying value of the satellite, in the range of $155 million to $160 million. The company plans for an asset write-off in the second quarter of 2026. The company also said in the 10-Q it had launch insurance coverage that covered a portion of the satellite and launch costs and has filed claims.

“At the end of the day, remember, we have 33 satellites in advanced stages of production at the factory. So it was a loss, we’re on to the next,” Wisniewski told investors. He added that the company is working closely with Blue Origin and is “optimistic” about New Glenn returning to the launch pad soon.

The company’s next launch is with SpaceX on a Falcon 9 rocket that will launch three satellites — BlueBirds 8, 9 and 10. Wisniewski confirmed the company has contracted launch capacity to meet its target of deploying 45 satellites by the end of this year. He also mentioned that five BlueBirds would fit in a United Launch Alliance Vulcan configuration, mentioning the company has been developing other heavy launch providers outside of SpaceX and Blue Origin.[emphasis mine]

The highlighted sentence suggests the company is also negotiating new contracts with both Arianespace’s Ariane-6 rocket and India’s LVM3 rocket. It has already used the latter on one launch successfully.

Nonetheless, the only company with the capability of ramping up enough launches quickly this year to meet this goal will be SpaceX. Expect that company to get more Bluebird launches in 2026.

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The 12th Starship/Superheavy test orbital flight now scheduled for May 19, 2026

8:46 am

Starship/Superheavy (version 3) on launchpad
Starship/Superheavy (version 3) on launchpad

SpaceX yesterday announced that the 12th orbital test flight of its Starship/Superheavy rocket is now scheduled for May 19, 2026, with a launch window opening at 5:30 pm (Central).

The mission will be also be the first flight of what SpaceX calls Version 3 of both the booster and the spaceship, will include the first use of the Raptor-3 engine, and the first use of a completely redesigned launchpad.

The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test.

The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.

The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including the deployment of 22 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites. The last two satellites deployed will scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.

As an added potential test-to-failure, the company has also removed a single heat shield tile to test how Starship performs under this failure scenerio. The flight plan will be the same as the previous flights, designed to come down in the Indian Ocean.

A detailed description about the upgrades to Starship, Superheavy, and the ground systems can be found here.

The company will broadcast the launch live, which I will embed on Behind the Black once available.

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SpaceX kind of confirms rumor it is considering purchasing 136,000 acres in Louisiana

8:01 am

Pecan Island SpaceX facility?

In a tweet yesterday SpaceX sort of confirmed the rumor reported here last week that it is considering purchasing a giant 200-plus square mile plot (about 136,000 acres) on the south coast of Louisiana near the unincorporated town of Pecan Island.

It’s no secret that we intend to launch Starship a lot, targeting thousands of flights per year. That cadence will require the ability to launch from many different locations, so we are constantly exploring to find viable sites to expand Starship operations in the future, both domestically and internationally

This comment was in response to a tweet touting this rumor. Note that SpaceX’s comment is somewhat vague. It says the company is searching for additional launch locations for Starship, but does not say specifically if this Louisiana plot is one of them.

I suspect it is, based on all the known facts. The company is just being coy, likely because negotiations are still on-going. If so, the tweet tells us that if purchased SpaceX intends to use the site as a future spaceport. And because of its size, it will likely also install Raptor-3 engine test stands as well as its planned data-center satellite manufacturing, consolidating some operations in one location.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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SpaceX and Google negotiating deal to launch data centers into space

11:56 am

Though few details have been confirmed, according to the Wall Street Journal SpaceX and Google are in advanced negotiations to launch data centers into space.

We don’t know if these data centers will be part of a SpaceX/Google partnership, or whether Google is merely negotiating a SpaceX launch deal to place its own data centers in orbit. Nor do we know if this deal will use SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, or is aimed at using Starship when operational. Neither would surprise me. Nor would it be surprising if both occur.

The story is in linked to SpaceX’s impending initial public stock offering (IPO), expected to the biggest in history.

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OHB joins Dassault’s project to build a reusable mini-shuttle

9:28 am

Vortex
Vortex-S with service module attached. Click for original image.

The German aerospace company OHB has now joined with France’s Dassault Aviation in its project to build Vortex, a reusable mini-shuttle that could be used to supply cargo to the future commercial space stations presently under development.

An initial subscale demonstrator of the spaceplane, called the VORTEX-D, is being developed by the company with support from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. During a 25 June 2025 hearing of the French National Assembly’s Committee on National Defence and the Armed Forces, it was revealed that the demonstrator is expected to be launched in 2028 and has a total project cost of €70 million, with Dassault providing more than half of the funding and the remainder coming from the French government.

The VORTEX-S is expected to follow the VORTEX-D demonstrator. This larger, more complex variant will be developed in partnership with OHB following the finalisation of the 11 May agreement, as the companies seek to secure ESA backing for the project. According to the release announcing the partnership, discussions are also underway with other major European space companies to “expand the team.”

Dassault will remain the lead contractor, building the mini-shuttle. OHB will build the service module. The hope is that later versions of Vortex could also ferry crews to and from space.

This project started in 2023, and initially hoped to do the first test mission to ISS in 2026. That test flight is now targeting 2029, with later missions slipping beyond 2031 and now targeting missions to one of the new stations replacing ISS.

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Two overnight launches from SpaceX and China

9:15 am

Both SpaceX and China successfully completed launches since yesterday. First, SpaceX launched a new group of satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Falcon 9 lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. For security reasons, the number of satellites launched was not revealed.

The first stage completed its 9th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

Next China launched another set of Qianfan (SpaceSail) internet satellites into orbit, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China. Though China’s state run press did not reveal the number of satellites launched, past Long March 6A launches of this constellation have placed 18 satellites into orbit. If so, there are now 155 Quinfan satellites in space, out of a planned constellation of as many as 10,000. The first phase of the constellation however only requires 648, which China hopes to reach before the end of the year.

The state-run press also did not reveal where the rocket’s lower stages (using very toxic hypergolic fuels) crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

56 SpaceX
25 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 56 to 46.

SpaceX hopes to complete another launch later today, carrying a Dragon cargo capsule to ISS (on its sixth flight), but weather might force a scrub. UPDATE: Scrubbed due to weather, rescheduled for May 13, 2026.

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China launches Tianzhou freighter to Tiangong-3 station

8:33 pm

China today (May 11th in China) successfully launched the tenth Tianzhou freighter to its Tiangong-3 space station, its Long March 7 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

China hopes to keep this cargo freighter in orbit for a full year, as part of its effort to reduce the number of cargo missions per year while expanding the capabilities of its spacecraft and station.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

55 SpaceX
24 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 55 to 45.

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Vast signs deal with Lithuania

10:03 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Artist rendering of Haven-1 with docked
Dragon capsule

The space station startup Vast earlier this week signed an agreement with Lithuania to work together on future space missions, either to ISS or its Haven-1 single-module station scheduled for launch next year.

Under the agreement, Vast and Innovation Agency Lithuania will explore opportunities for joint scientific research activities either in the International Space Station National Lab or Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station, launching in 2027. The partnership also includes plans to further develop educational programs in Lithuania and deepen engagement with local industry.

This deal is similar to Vast’s earlier deals with the European Space Agency, the Czech Republic, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Japan, and the Maldives. All are structured so that should Haven-1 reach orbit and be proven operational and safe for occupancy, these countries could consider sending their own astronauts on missions there. All thus show there is an international market for a private space station, a market that Vast is working hard to capture.

In other space station news, Voyager Technologies, the lead company building the Starlab station, released its 2026 first quarter fiscal report, indicating a solid financial position resulting from its diversification into military-based space applications. Though the report notes that “Starlab does not generate revenue today, nor is expected to generate revenue in the near term,” the company’s overall strength lays a strong foundation for that station’s eventual construction.

In my rankings below of the five stations under development, these two stations remain essentially tied for first place, with Axiom a close third.
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