Tag: competition

Pentagon raises the list of companies that can bid on space infrastructure projects to almost two dozen

9:48 am

Capitalism in space: In its effort to rely on the private sector for its space needs, the Pentagon yesterday added fourteen space companies to its list of eight companies that can bid on space infrastructure projects.

The latest round of companies added to the project includes Capella Space, EdgeCortix, Eutelsat America Corp. OneWeb Technologies, Fairwinds Technologies and AST Space Mobile, Illumina Computing Group, Lockheed Martin Space, MapLarge, SES Space & Defense, Skycorp, SkyFi, Ursa Space, and Viasat.

They join eight other firms that were brought on board in 2022: Aalyria Technologies, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Kuiper, Anduril, Astranis, ATLAS Space Operations, Enveil, Google, Palantir, Planet Labs, Microsoft, and SpiderOak.

Essentially, the Pentagon wants these companies to compete for contracts to build various space-based communications assets, coming up with the designs and spacecraft themselves. In this round the specific goal is to develop satellite systems that can transmit data and communications to military units anywhere on the globe.

It is puzzling however that SpaceX is not included in this list, even though all its competitors are. I suspect this is because SpaceX’s Starshield version of Starlink is covered under different military programs and contracts. Or it could be that politics forced the military to exclude it in this case. Or there could be some other reason that defies logic. Understanding the byzantine workings of the government’s bureaucracy is often impossible.

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Lockheed Martin invests in new solid-fueled rocket startup

9:36 am

In its most recent fund-raising round, the solid-fueled rocket startup X-Bow (pronounced “crossbow”) raised $35 million in private investment capital, with Lockheed Martin being the largest investor.

Lockheed Martin’s involvement marks a deepening interest in securing alternative sources for solid rocket motors, components that are increasingly vital to a wide range of U.S. missile systems, including hypersonic weapons. The investment comes three years after Lockheed’s attempt to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission on antitrust grounds. Aerojet was later bought by L3Harris Technologies, leaving Lockheed without a vertically integrated propulsion supplier.

Nor is this the first time that Lockheed Martin has invested in a rocket startup. It had previously invested in ABL and Orbex, both liquid-fueled but struggling or failing, as well as the much more successful Rocket Lab. It has also invested in the orbital tug startup Orbit Fab, the orbital capsule company Inversion Space, and the satellite startup Terran Orbital, which it ended up buying entirely.

All in all, Lockheed Martin appears determined to join the new wave of space startups, if not by doing it itself but by buying into the successes of new startups. So far this has not entirely paid off, but it does appear to be, in the long term, a viable strategy to keep Lockheed Martin competitive and in the game.

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SpaceX launches twice last night, with one launch using first stage for record 28th time

8:41 am

SpaceX last night successfully placed more than fifty Starlink satellites into orbit, launching Falcon 9 rockets from opposite coasts with one using first stage for record 28th time.

First the company placed 26 Starlink satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the first stage completing its sixth flight by landing softly on a drone ship in the Pacific.

Four hours later the company placed 28 Starlink satellites into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the first stage completing its 28th flight by landing safely on a drone ship in the Atlantic. Not only did this set a new record for reflights by a Falcon 9 first stage, it matched the number of flights of the space shuttle Columbia (the last of which ended in its destruction). Columbia took 22 years to complete those flights. This booster took less than four years to do the same. And it is still viable and has the chance (along with several other Falcon 9 first stages) of eventually beating the flight records of the shuttles Discover (39 flights) and Atlantis (33).

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

57 SpaceX
24 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 57 to 41.

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Poland completes suborbital test launch

8:36 am

A consortium of Polish private and public institutions announced on May 9, 2025 that it had successfully completed a suborbital rocket launch on April 15, 2025, testing the first stage of a planned three-stage suborbital rocket.

According to a separate release from ZPS Gamrat [one of the consortium partners], the rocket exceeded an altitude of 10 kilometres before being destroyed by its onboard flight termination system, as planned. The goal of the test was to validate the rocket’s navigation and control systems, engine performance under flight conditions, flight termination system, telemetry systems, and aerodynamic characteristics. According to the WITU release, teams are currently analysing the data collected during the flight.

The next flight will add the second stage, and is targeting a launch this summer. If successful, the third launch using all three stages will take place before the end of the year.

This solid-fueled rocket is essentially a re-invention of the Scout suborbital rockets that NASA (and its predecessor the N.A.C.A) tested and flew many times out of Wallops Island in the 1950s and 1960s. Those test flights tested many basic components used in orbital rockets today, while also doing short suborbital science research each flight. It appears Poland aims to do the same thing now.

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China launches classified satellites for military remote sensing

10:27 pm

China today successfully launched a set of classified satellites (number classified) for doing military remote sensing, its Long March 6 rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China.

As usual, China’s state-run press released little information about the satellites, the launch, or where the rocket’s core stage and four strap-on boosters crashed inside China. The report did state the Long March 6 was “modified,” but did not detail how. One wonders if China has done something to improve the rocket’s upper stage, which reaches orbit and has had a tendency to break up shortly thereafter, creating large clouds of space junk.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

55 SpaceX
24 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 55 to 41.

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SpaceX completes two launches today

11:36 pm

SpaceX successfully completed two Starlink launches today.

First, it placed 26 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its fourteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

Next, it launched another 28 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The Falcon 9 first stage completed its eleventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

55 SpaceX
23 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 55 to 40.

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China hints that it is moving forward with expansion of Tiangong-3 space station

12:39 pm

According to a statement by one Chinese official, China will use its Long March 5B rocket to soon launch more modules to its Tiangong-3 space station, expanding the station’s size considerably.

“According to the plan, the Long March 5B rocket will also carry out the future launches of additional modules for the crewed space station,” Wang Jue from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) told China Central Television (CCTV) April 30. No official timeline has been released for the missions, but the comments appear to confirm plans to add modules to Tiangong, a T-shaped, three-module orbital outpost constructed across 2021-2022.

In 2022 China had hinted on this same plan, but it is three years later and nothing has yet happened. It could be this statement was an attempt at lobbying by this official, trying to convince the government to finance the new modules. Or it could be the first new module, a hub with six docking ports that will allow the additional fullsize modules to be attached, is nearing completion and launch.

Who knows? One must take all such proclamations from China with a grain of salt.

The article also notes the revisions to the Long March 5B rocket so that its core stage no longer reaches orbit to subsequently crash uncontrolled somewhere on Earth. Instead, the upper stage has been upgraded so that it gets the payload into orbit and the core stage shuts down earlier and thus falls into the ocean immediately after launch.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Rocket Lab’s as-yet unlaunched new Neutron rocket gets military contract

10:01 am

Neutron landing platform
Graphic showing Neutron landing on Rocket Lab’s
barge

Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab has won a contract from the Air Force to test the use of its new Neutron rocket for tranporting cargo quickly across the globe, despite the fact that the rocket won’t make its first launch until later this year, at the earliest.

The mission, slated for no earlier than 2026, will fall under the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) “rocket cargo” program, which explores how commercial launch vehicles might one day deliver materiel to any point on Earth within hours—a vision akin to airlift logistics via spaceflight.

…The cargo test would be a “survivability experiment.” Neutron is expected to carry a payload that will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, demonstrating the rocket’s ability to safely transport and deploy cargo.

Neutron is designed to bring its first stage back to a vertical landing on Earth for re-use, similar to what SpaceX does with its Falcon 9. Unlike the Falcon 9, however, Neutron’s fairings remain attached to the rocket, opening and closing like alligator jaws to deploy its satellite payloads. Since it brings the fairing back attached to the rocket and closed after satellite deployment, the plan will be to see if it can carry within this enclosed fairing this Air Force test payload and bring it back unscathed.

This contract suggests the military is very confident that Neutron will fly as planned, and will succeed in its early launches.

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Israeli non-profit suspends its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander

11:35 am

The Israeli non-profit, SpaceIL, has now suspended its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander, citing an inability to raise funds for the project.

SpaceIL had built Beresheet-1, which in 2019 successfully reached lunar orbit, only to crash when it attempted to soft land.

The project’s budget was expected to be similar to that of Beresheet 1, which cost approximately $100 million. Most of the funding came from a group of donors led by Patrick Drahi and Morris Kahn, the primary backer of the original mission. However, in mid-2023, the donor group announced it would no longer support the project. SpaceIL launched an urgent effort to find alternative funding, but the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, made fundraising even more challenging.

The organization’s board of directors repeatedly extended deadlines to secure funding, but by the final deadline—March 2025—the necessary funds had not been raised, forcing the suspension of the project.

A number of SpaceIL’s engineers on Beresheet-1 left the company after its failure to instead form their own Isreali company that partnered with Firefly to build the successful lunar lander Blue Ghost. I suspect their departure was a major reason why the original investors left, and no others could be found.

SpaceIL continues to do non-profit educational work in Israel. Though it claims its lunar lander project is not dead but merely suspended, it is almost certain it will never fly.

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Update on Vast’s space station plans

10:19 am

Haven-2
Haven-2 station once completed

Link here. The article provides a very detailed look at Vast’s short and long range plans, including its overall strategy to win NASA’s full space station construction contract by first building, launching, and occupying its small scale Haven-1 station and thus demonstrating it is the right company for NASA to finance its full scale Haven-2 rotating space station (shown in the graphic to the right).

The article notes that Vast intends to complete Haven-1’s primary structure in July, and do environmental and vibration ground testing from January to March 2026, with its planned launch on a Falcon 9 rocket in May 2026. Once launched it plans to put crews on board for a total of 30-days (though it is unclear at this moment whether that will be a single mission or a series of shorter flights).

In addition, the article reveals that the company also hopes to do two spin tests of Haven-1, testing its ability to rotate and create an artificial gravity. That aligns with the goal of Vast’s full scale Haven-2 station, which it wants to rotate as well. Since the plan is to assembly Haven-2 from upgraded Haven-1 modules, these spin tests are essential for proving the larger station’s design.

Based on this new information, I think we can now map out the evolving but still subject-to-change manned operations at Haven-1, comprising several short 3-5 day manned missions. The first will the crew test the module’s operation. The next two will be to do these spin tests, with people on board.

Vast’s strategy is fundamentally different than the other proposed stations (all listed below). Instead of taking a small NASA development grant to create designs on paper, it is spending its own money to actually launch a demonstration station. If successful, this strategy will make it very easy for NASA to pick it when the time comes to award the larger station construction contracts.

My present rankings for the four proposed commercial stations:

  • Haven-1, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company is moving fast, with Haven-1 to launch and be occupied in 2026 for an estimated 30 days total. It hopes this actual hardware and manned mission will put it in the lead to win NASA’s phase 2 contract, from which it will build its much larger mult-module Haven-2 station..
  • Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched three tourist flights to ISS, with a fourth scheduled for early June, carrying passengers from India, Hungary, and Poland. Though there have been rumors it has cash flow issues, development of its first module has been proceeding more or less as planned.
  • Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, with an extensive partnership agreement with the European Space Agency. It recently had its station design approved by NASA.
  • Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Overall, Blue Origin has built almost nothing, while Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, and appears ready to start building its module for launch.
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The French startup, The Exploration Company, ships its next cargo capsule prototype for launch

9:50 am

The Exploration Company, a French startup aiming to provide cargo services to both ISS and the future space stations that will replace it, has completed construction and testing of its next cargo capsule prototype, dubbed “Mission Possible,” and has shipped it to Vandenberg in California for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in June 2025.

In a 6 May update, The Exploration Company announced that it had completed Mission Possible’s pre-shipment review on 2 May and subsequently shipped the capsule to its launch site in the United States. The spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-14 rideshare mission, which is expected to lift off no earlier than June 2025.

Once launched, the Mission Possible capsule will remain attached to the Falcon 9 upper stage until after the stage completes its deorbit burn. This approach is necessary because the capsule lacks sufficient propulsion to independently deorbit itself. After separation, it will carry out a series of reorientation manoeuvres as it begins atmospheric reentry.

This capsule is 2.5 meters in diameter, smaller that its proposed commercial Nyx capsule that is the company’s eventual commercial freighter. It is also larger than the company’s first prototype, which flew on the first launch of Ariane-6 in 2024 but was unable to test its re-entry designs because of a failure in that rocket’s upper stage engine that prevented its planned controlled de-orbit.

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Europe and India sign agreement to work together on manned space flight

9:35 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced that it has signed an agreement with the Indian government that will lay the groundwork for them to work together on manned space exploration, first in connection with their future space station plans and later on lunar exploration.

ESA and ISRO declared their intent to work together on the interoperability of rendezvous and docking systems to allow their respective spacecraft to work together in low Earth orbit. They will also examine further activities related to astronaut training, analogue space missions – where teams test aspects of space missions in ground-based simulations – and parabolic flight activities.

…Future cooperation possibilities include ESA astronaut flight opportunities to the planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) and early scientific utilisation, as well as developing infrastructure in low Earth orbit. The two space agencies are also discussing alignment on payloads and robotic scientific missions to the Moon.

Faced with the decommissioning of ISS in 2030, as well as the likely end to several major Artemis components (Orion and Lunar Gateway) that ESA has had a major part, it appears Europe has quickly begun looking for other alternatives. It already has partnered with the American consortium building the Starlab space station, but this new agreement with India gives it more options.

India meanwhile gets aid and support from Europe. It could even be that both are negotiating transferring some of Europe’s Lunar Gateway modules to India’s space station.

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Russia signs space agreement with Venezuela

9:23 am

The losers unite! Russia’s state-run press today announced that its government have signed a bi-lateral agreement with Venezuela to work together in space.

Moscow and Caracas have agreed to enhance cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space, including by building a Glonass ground station in Venezuela, according to a bilateral cooperation treaty.

Because of the bankruptcy at both nations, this agreement really doesn’t involve much real space development. All it really does is allow Russia to build a ground station in Venezuela for operating its orbiting Glonass GPS-type constellation, which Russia in turn has been struggling for decades to bring back into full operation after the fall of the Soviet Union.

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SpaceX gets approval to sell Starlink in India

9:18 am

Almost immediately after India’s government issued this week new tightened regulations for allowing private satellite constellations to sell their services in India, it also apparently completed negotiations with SpaceX to allow it to sell Starlink in India based on these rules.

According to sources, the DoT [Department of Transportation] granted the LoI [Letter of Intent] after Starlink accepted 29 strict security conditions, including requirements for real-time terminal tracking, mandatory local data processing, legal interception capabilities, and localisation of at least 20% of its ground segment infrastructure within the first few years of operation.

Starlink’s nod came amid heightened national security sensitivities, coinciding with India’s pre-dawn Operation Sindoor strikes on terror camps across the border in response to the Pahalgam massacre. However, DoT officials clarified that the decision to approve Starlink was independent of these military developments.

At the moment SpaceX’s chief competitors, OneWeb and Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, have not yet obtained the same permissions. This allows SpaceX to grab a large portion of the market share in India before either of these other companies.

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India tightens its satellite regulations for foreign companies

9:27 am

In what is a likely response to the increased military conflict with Pakistan, India’s government has announced new satellite regulations for foreign companies that will likely impact the operations of both Starlink and OneWeb.

The country’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announced 29 additional regulations May 5, citing national security interests, which also apply to companies that already hold licenses for providing space-based communication services directly to users.

The rules include a requirement for call logs and other user data to be stored in India, and new obligations for interception and monitoring under national law. Satellite operators must also show how they plan to source at least 20% of their ground infrastructure equipment from India within five years of commercial launch.

The article at the link suggests that these new regulations will have a greater impact on OneWeb than Starlink. Yet, OneWeb already has approval to sell its services in India, while Starlink has not.

The article also included one interesting tidbit from a Starlink official, noting that the company expects to have 6.5 million subscribers by the end of this year. Based on the company’s subscriber fees, that translates into many billions in revenue. Very clearly SpaceX no longer needs NASA to develop Starship.

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Ispace’s Resilience lander successfully enters lunar orbit

9:15 am

Map of lunar landing sites
Landing sites for both Firefly’s Blue Ghost and
Ispace’s Resilience

Ispace today announced that its lunar lander Resilience, launched in January by SpaceX, has now been successfully inserted into lunar orbit,

Ispace engineers performed the injection maneuver from the Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan in accordance with the mission operation plan. The orbital maneuver required a main thruster burn lasting approximately 9 minutes, the longest to date during Mission 2. RESILIENCE is now maintaining a stable attitude in its planned orbit above the lunar surface. Mission operations specialists are now preparing for final orbit maneuvers after reaffirming Ispace’s ability to deliver spacecraft and payloads into lunar orbit. A lunar landing is scheduled for no earlier than June 5, 2025 (UTC) (June 6, 2025, JST).

If all goes right, Resilience will touch down in Mare Frigoris in the northern latitudes of the Moon’s near side, as shown on the map to the right.

This is Ispace’s second attempt to soft land on the Moon. Its first attempt, Hakuto-R1, got within three kilometers of the surface in Atlas Crater (also shown on the map), but then its software mistook its altitude, thinking it was only a few feet above the surface and shut down the engines prematurely, causing it to crash.

This second landing is critical for the company’s future. It has contracts for future landers from both NASA and Japan, but a failure now might cause both governments to reconsider those deals.

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FAA approves SpaceX request to increase Starship launch rate at Boca Chica

11:40 am

The FAA today by email announced that it has released the final environmental reassessment that approves SpaceX’s request to increase the number of yearly Starship/Superheavy launches at Boca Chica to as many as 25.

The assessment is now available for public comment, and could still be revised. However, the FAA’s conclusions are clear, as indicated by the highlighted phrase:

The FAA is announcing the availability of the Final Tiered Environmental Assessment and Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision (FONSI/ROD) for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Vehicle Increased Cadence at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas (Final Tiered EA and Mitigated FONSI/ROD).

Under the Proposed Action addressed in the Final Tiered EA, the FAA would modify SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license to authorize:  Up to 25 annual Starship/Super Heavy orbital launches, including: Up to 25 annual landings of Starship (Second stage); Up to 25 annual landinqgs of Super Heavy (First stage). The Final Tiered EA also addressed vehicle upgrades.

You can read the executive summary of this announcement here [pdf]. The full reassessment can be read here [pdf]. Its conclusion is quite blunt:

The 2022 PEA [Preliminary Environmental Assessment] examined the potential for significant environmental impacts from Starship/Super Heavy launch operations at the Boca Chica Launch Site and defined the regulatory setting for impacts associated with Starship/Super Heavy. The areas evaluated for environmental impacts in this EA [environmental assesssment] included air quality; climate; noise and noise‐compatible land use; visual resources; cultural resources; Department of Transportation Section 4(f); water resources; biological resources (terrestrial and marine wildlife); land use; hazardous materials; natural resources and energy supply; and socioeconomics, and children’s health. In each of these areas, this EA concludes that no significant impacts would occur as a result of SpaceX’s proposed action. [emphasis mine]

As I’ve noted repeatedly, this has all been self-evident for years, as proved by the environmental circumstances at the American spaceports at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy in Florida and Vandenberg in California. Spaceports help the environment by creating large wildlife refuges where no development can occur. We have known this for decades. That the FAA and the federal bureaucracy has in the past five years suddenly begun demanded these long reassessments time after time that simply restate these obvious facts can only be because that bureaucracy wants to justify its useless existence with make-work.

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Update on launch schedule for India’s manned space program

10:59 am

According to the head of India’s space agency ISRO, V Narayanan, the first unmanned Gaganyaan orbital mission is now targeting a launch in the last quarter of this year, followed by two more unmanned test flights in 2026 and the manned mission of one to three days flying in the first quarter of 2027.

This schedule appears more firm than any previously announced. When first proposed back in 2018, ISRO’s goal was to launch the first manned mission in 2022. And like all government projects, the launch date kept getting pushed back again and again. ISRO officials will blame the COVID panic for these delays, but that’s hogwash. While ISRO shut down for almost two years out of fear of a only slightly more potent illness than the flu, others did not, and ended up stealing almost all of ISRO’s commercial business as a result.

The delays in Gaganyaan also stem from the unrealistic goals first put forth by ISRO. For example, initially the program did not include these unmanned test flights, a lack that was foolish and later corrected.

Based on all reports in the past year, however, it appears that this newest schedule probably reflects reality, and will take place more or less as described.

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Stratolaunch completes first hypersonic test flight for Pentagon

9:58 am

The military this week confirmed that Stratolaunch had successfully completed its first two hypersonic test flights for the Pentagon in December and March.

The hypersonic vehicle named Talon A2 exceeded Mach 5—the threshold for hypersonic speed—in two Pentagon-backed test flights conducted in December 2024 and March 2025, the Defense Department confirmed May 5.

The flights mark the first time since the X-15 program, which ended in 1968, that the U.S. has conducted reusable hypersonic testing.

At the moment the military’s hypersonic test program is really getting its money’s worth from private enterprise. Stratolaunch is doing tests using a reusable vehicle. Rocket Lab is doing suborbital flights using a revised version of its Electron rocket’s first stage. Varda will do hypersonic tests with its capsule when it returns from orbit. And startups Ursa Major and Radian have won contracts to do their own test flights.

For literally decades the military’s hypersonic test program had limped along, barely able to do tests more than once every few years. Then however it was run entirely by the government. Now that the military has stopped trying to be the designer and builder but simply a customer, it is getting what it needs fast and with a great deal of variety.

Ain’t freedom and competition and private enterprise wonderful?

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Australia’s first rocket company continues to be blocked by red tape

9:40 am

Australian commercial spaceports
Australia’s commercial spaceports. Click for original map.

The first rocket launch by Gilmour Space, Australia’s first rocket company, from its Bowen spaceport on the east coast of Australia has apparently been blocked by continuing bureaucratic regulatory red tape.

In February the company had announced a planned launch date in March, based on what appeared to be the issuance (after more than a year’s delay) of its launch licence. That launch however never happened, with no public explanation, until now. From the link above:

In an update on Sunday, the Queensland-based firm said it had received approval from CASA and is now waiting for final clearance from the Australian Space Agency.

…It had planned for an inaugural blast-off in April 2024 but faced a lengthy delay in obtaining its final permit from the Australian Space Agency.

In other words, the launch license had only been promised, but then was not issued, leaving the company stranded for several more months, with that license still buried in the government’s byzantine operations.

The article at the link says the Australian government is now moving to streamline its space regulatory system, but don’t believe it. The elections this week saw a resounding victory for the leftist coalition with the conservative party defeated handily. With the left now in firm control, expect the regulation to increase, not decrease. Leftwing governments almost never reduce regulation. It goes against their power-hungry genetics.

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ESA’s issues a non-reaction to Trump’s proposed NASA cuts

9:23 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday issued its first reaction to Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA’s Artemis program, including cancellation of the Orion capsule and Lunar Gateway station that ESA is building major components, and essentially said nothing.

NASA has briefed ESA about the Budget Request, and while some questions still remain about the full repercussions, follow-up meetings are already taking place with NASA. ESA remains open to cooperation with NASA on the programmes earmarked for a reduction or termination but is nevertheless assessing the impact with our Member States in preparation for ESA’s June Council.

ESA and NASA have a long history of successful partnership, particularly in exploration – a highly visible example of international cooperation – where we have many joint activities forging decades of strong bonds between American and European colleagues. Space exploration is an endeavour in which the collective can reach much farther than the individual. Thus, ESA has strong partnerships with space agencies from around the globe and is committed to not only being a reliable partner, but a strong and desirable partner.

Basically ESA is holding off any major response until they get more information from NASA and the Trump administration. It also notes that any more detailed response must wait until it holds its own meetings scheduled for June and later.

ESA’s problem is that it tied its manned space effort to NASA’s Orion capsule and Gateway station. On Orion it is building the service module, and has a number under construction that now might be unneeded if only two more Orions fly. As for Gateway, Europe is building major components of the station’s central habitation module. It is also building, in partnership with Japan, a second habitation module for their use. The cancellation of Gateway leaves these modules hanging with nowhere to go.

Though we should expect some pushback from Europe in an attempt to save Lunar Gateway, I expect these events will end up doing more for Europe’s nascent commercial launch industry. What the continent really needs is a private competitive aerospace industry making money in space. If it gets that, it will no longer have to rely on NASA, or ESA for that matter.

And based on the recent policy actions by ESA’s major partners (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK) to shift from a government-run centralized space program run by ESA’s Arianespace to encouraging the development of an independent competing private launch industry, I predict Europe will shift even more focus in this direction when they finally respond to the Trump cuts.

Expect European to call for more autonomy and European-built rockets and spacecrafts that do not rely on NASA or American proposals. This will not necessarily end its space partnership with the U.S., but it will be less beholden to it.

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It only took $22 billion and 19 years: Lockheed Martin proudly announces the completion of the first Orion capsule capable of manned flight

10:56 am

Orion's damage heat shield
Damage to Orion’s heat shield caused during re-entry in 2022,
including “cavities resulting from the loss of large chunks”.
Nor has this issue been fixed.

My heart be still. On May 1, 2025 Lockheed Martin proudly announced that it had finally completed assembly and testing of the first Orion capsule capable of taking human beings into space.

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has completed assembly and testing of NASA’s Orion Artemis II spacecraft, transferring possession to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team today. This milestone is a significant step for NASA and the Artemis industry team, as they prepare to launch a crew of four astronauts to further the agency’s mission in establishing a human presence on the Moon for exploration and scientific discovery. It will also help build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Orion is the most advanced, human-rated, deep space spacecraft ever developed. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor to NASA for Orion and built the crew module, crew module adaptor and launch abort system. “This achievement is a testament to our employees and suppliers who have worked tirelessly to get us to this important milestone,” said Kirk Shireman, vice president of Human Space Exploration and Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin. “The Orion spacecraft completion for Artemis II is a major step forward in our nation’s efforts to develop a long-term lunar presence. It’s exciting to think that soon, humans will see the Earth rise over the lunar horizon from our vehicle, while also traveling farther from Earth than ever before.”

What disgusting hogwash. First of all, Lockheed Martin was issued the contract to build two capsules, one for testing and one for manned flight, in 2006. It only took the company 19 years to build both. Second, that 2006 contract was supposed to only cost $3.9 billion. Instead, NASA has forked out more than $22 billion.

And what have we gotten? Two capsules, plus a handful of prototype test versions. Worse, this first capsule will be the first to ever carry the life support systems that keep humans alive, as Lockheed Martin admits in its press release:
» Read more

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SpaceX launches a record 29 Starlink satellites

9:53 am

SpaceX early this morning successfully launched 29 Starlink satellites (the most yet on a single launch), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

52 SpaceX
23 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 52 to 40.

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Local voters approve establishing the town of Starbase at Boca Chica

8:37 pm

By a vote of 212 to 6 (out of about 300 eligible voters), the residents at the previously unincorporated coastal land strip at Boca Chica have approved a proposal to create the town of Starbase, with a mayor and two city commissioners.

The three candidates were all running unopposed for those positions. All three either work at SpaceX now, have worked there in the past, or have relatives employed by the company.

The mayor will be Robert “Bobby” Peden, 36. He has worked for SpaceX for the past dozen years, first at its MacGregor engine test site and now at Starbase as a vice president of test and launch. The two council members are Jenna Petrzelka and Jordan Buss. Petrzelka, 39, worked for SpaceX from 2012 to 2024 as an engineer. Her husband, Joe Petrzelka, is presently a SpaceX vice president. Buss, 40, started working for SpaceX in 2023 as a senior director of environmental health and safety.

The vote shifts much of the civil management away from the larger local county to the residence who live in the town itself. It is quite evident they will establish this city with the needs of SpaceX in mind. It also appears that the residents are fully in support of this.

As for launches here, I will still refer to it as Boca Chica. The town might be named Starbase, but the actual location is still Boca Chica.

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Space Force awards twelve companies satellite development contracts worth $237 million

9:38 am

Capitalism in space: The Space Force yesterday announced that it has awarded twelve different aerospace companies contracts worth a total of $237 million for developing a variety of smallsat technologies to be used in future military satellite constellations.

The list of selected companies, announced May 1, includes defense and aerospace firms Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Atomics, as well as specialized space firms such as Blue Canyon Technologies, Loft Orbital Federal, Spire Global, Terran Orbital, and York Space Systems. Also named were Axient, Lynk Global, Orbit Systems, Turion Space, and the Utah State University-affiliated Space Dynamics Lab.

…Under the contract, vendors will build and integrate small satellite buses capable of carrying a variety of military experiments and sensors. These buses, often the size of a microwave or small refrigerator, serve as standardized platforms that can be customized to carry diverse payloads.

These contracts are part of the Trump administrations push to get the military to rely on the private sector for its needs. Though the private sector would general build things in the past for the Pentagon, often the design, construction, and even ownership was held entirely by the government. The companies didn’t have anything they could sell elsewhere. Now the design work is being left entirely to the companies, so that what they develop they will own, and will have the ability to market it to others.

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Ursa Major wins contract for hypersonic test flight of its Draper rocket engine

9:29 am

The rocket engine startup Ursa Major has now won a $28.5 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to do a hypersonic test flight using its Draper rocket engine.

The contract, announced May 1, covers both the flight demonstration and integration of the engine into a test vehicle, with work scheduled through early 2027. The project aims to advance U.S. capabilities in hypersonic weapons, a category of defense systems that has become a top Pentagon priority amid competition with China and Russia.

The Draper engine is designed to produce 4,000 pounds of thrust and was developed by Ursa Major with U.S. Air Force funding. Its key differentiator is its use of storable, non-cryogenic propellants — specifically a kerosene and hydrogen peroxide combination — that remain liquid at ambient temperatures. This contrasts with traditional rocket engines that rely on liquid oxygen, which must be kept at ultra-low temperatures and handled with complex cooling infrastructure.

It certainly does appear that the Pentagon is ramping up its hypersonic research with a slew of contracts to many different new commercial space startups. In addition to this deal, Rocket Lab, Varda, and Stratolaunch have won contracts for similar hypersonic testing, with Rocket Lab winning the most. No wonder a new company like Radian (see previous post) is switching its focus toward this research.

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Rocket startup Radian now also building commercial reentry capsule

9:20 am

The rocket startup Radian Aerospace, which is attempting to build an orbital spaceplane that takes off and lands from a runway, has announced that it is also building a commercial reentry capsule that can be used for hypersonic testing.

The Seattle based company announced April 29 its intent to develop the Radian Reusable Reentry Vehicle (R3V), a spacecraft for hypersonics testing or returning payloads from space that also gives Radian flight experience in key technologies for its future Radian One spaceplane.

Livingston Holder, chief technology officer of Radian, said in an interview that the company was looking was ways to test Dur-E-Therm, the thermal protection system it is creating for Radian One. The company had recently completed tests of the system in a lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. “But, testing in a non-flight environment only gets you so far, so we were crafting how to test it in a more relevant environment.”

It appears the company has recognized that its spaceplane will take years to develop, and more years before it can bring in any revenue. An orbital capsule however can be developed much more quickly, and it also appears there are a lot of commercial and military customers for it.

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Startup that builds maneuverable surveillance satellites raises $260 million in private investment capital

9:27 am

The startup True Anomaly has raised $260 million in private investment capital in order to fully develop its Jackal maneuverable satellite, designed to travel and inspect other orbiting satellites for the military.

The Colorado-based company announced April 30 that it closed a Series C round that combines equity and debt financing. Venture firm Accel led the round, with participation from Meritech Capital and several existing backers including Eclipse, Riot Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Narya. Stifel Bank is providing the debt portion of the raise.

Only founded in 2022, True Anomaly has already flown two test missions of Jackel. With these new funds, it plans four more flights in the next year and a half.

There are already a number of other companies building maneuverable satellites. Most however are focused on providing tug services for commercial satellites or for finding and removing space junk. True Anomaly is instead targeting the military as its customer, which appears a smart move because no one else has, up to now.

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Chinese crew returns safely after six months in space

9:36 am

A Chinese crew of three safely landed in northern China today after completing a six month mission on China’s Tiangong-3 space station.

The return capsule of the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship, carrying astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Wednesday. The three astronauts are all in good health condition, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Lots of pictures of the landing and recovery at the link, but that’s pretty much the entire text of the press release from China’s state-run press. As that state-run press does routinely, it repeats that same text as the caption under every picture, over and over again, changing it only slightly for the close-up pictures of each astronaut.

A new crew took over for this one on Tiangong-3, beginning their own six month mission. At the moment China has completed three years of continuous occupation out of a planned ten-year mission.

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