France buys two manned missions from space station startup Vast

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

In a major deal that solidifies its future space station plans, the space station startup Vast yesterday announced that the French government had agreed to fly two Vast manned missions, first to ISS and then to its Haven-1 single module space station scheduled for launch in 2027.

Today at the Choose France Summit, created by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, Vast announced its commitment to establish its European headquarters in Paris and an agreement with the Government of France, for two missions involving two French astronauts: the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station and the Haven-1 test flight, the first crewed mission to Vast’s Haven-1 commercial space station scheduled to launch in 2027.

…Both missions are expected to last approximately two weeks and are planned for 2027, with transportation provided by SpaceX on a Dragon spacecraft launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

For the ISS mission, the astronaut will be rookie Arnaud Prost. For the Haven-1 mission, the astronaut will be veteran Thomas Pesquet, who has flown twice to ISS with a cumulative total of just under 400 days in space.

Vast had previously signed preliminary deals with Lithuania, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Japan, the Czech Republic, and the Maldives, but none of those deals had committed to a manned mission. I had speculated that these nations were waiting for Haven-1 to launch and be declared operational. France has decided not to wait.

This deal is also a major coup for Vast over its space station competitor Starlab, which had previously signed a deal with the European Space Agency and Airbus in an effort to position itself as Europe’s future space station. That deal however had not included any actual missions.

UPDATE: Vast appears to have also signed an agreement with the United Kingdom to fly one of its astronauts to Haven-1. And in this case the astronaut, John McFall, is a former paralympian who lost one leg in a motorcycle accident. This would would make him the first person with disabilities ever to fly in space.

My present ranking of the five stations under development, with Vast now in the lead and Starlab and Axiom tied for second.
» Read more

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Blue Origin CEO: “We will fly again before the end of this year.”

New Glenn launchpad damage
New Glenn launchpad damage. Click for
video source.

In a tweet on X late yesterday, Blue Origin’s CEO David Limp gave a generally positive report of the damage to the launchpad and facilities after last week’s explosion during a static fire test of its New Glenn rocket.

The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced. The booster “Never Tell Me The Odds” [first stage] and the three GS-2s [upper stages] that were onsite in the integration facility also look good.

…In addition, we had already been working for some time on eliminating our transporter-erector in favor of an alternative vertical conop, and we’ll now go directly to that; so we don’t need a new transporter-erector.

He added that they will proceed quickly in launching the present design of New Glenn, instead of upgrading to the proposed more powerful version, as some in the space community have speculated. He then said what I quote above: “We will fly again before the end of this year.”

While many in the space community appear skeptical of this possibility, I am not. Getting the launchpad rebuilt and workable again based on this report does not seem a gigantic challenge. If the Russians can rebuild their Soyuz pad in just over three months there is no doubt an American company with the financial and technical resources of Blue Origin can do as well if not better. Moreover, except for the replacing the strongback with a vertical mobile transporter, the rest of the work requires no redesign.

The big question however will be tracing the cause of the explosion and fixing that. But even here, I can’t see this taking more than seven months. I might have said so three years ago, before Limp took over from Blue Origin’s previous very bad CEO, but Limp has made a decided effort to quicken Blue Origin’s operational pace. I think he will make this happen.

I also think there is a potential very bright silver lining to this failure. If Limp does what he should, Blue Origin is going to recover from this incident a much better company. By forcing quick action, Limp is going to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff in his staffing, and weed out the bad eggs in the company.

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FAA releases more information about SpaceX’s proposed Starfall recoverable capsule

Back in July 2025 it was reported that SpaceX was developing its own recoverable capsule design — dubbed Starfall and comparable in concept to Varda’s capsules.

Under the plan, internally called Starfall, SpaceX’s Starship rocket would bring products such as pharmaceutical components to space in small, uncrewed capsules, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.

Starship would then deploy the capsules, which would spend time in orbit before reentering the atmosphere, where they could be recovered back on Earth, the person added.

Starfall concept

The FAA has now released an environmental assessment of the design that provides more information, including the first proposed demo missions. The graphic to the right is from that assessment, and provides a simplified illustration of the capsule’s size and shape.

The FAA decision approves two reentries of Starfall capsules in the Pacific Ocean about 1,300 kilometers off the coasts of California and Mexico. The capsules would launch on either Falcon 9 or Starship vehicles, going into orbit before reentry or flying a direct suborbital trajectory to the landing zone.

The capsules are disk-shaped, 0.75 meters tall and 3.1 meters in diameter at the top. The capsules have cold-gas attitude control thrusters but no other propulsion system and do not have the ability to deorbit on their own. The vehicle consists of two parts: a top plate and a heat shield. The top plate is an aluminum structure partially wrapped in an unspecified thermal protection material and weighs 1,400 kilograms. The heat shield is a carbon-fiber structure covered in thermal protection material and also contains nitrogen gas bottles used for the thrusters and other systems. It weighs about 700 kilograms.

The vehicle would slow its descent using a single main parachute, along with pilot and drogue parachutes, with the heat shield jettisoned before splashdown. The FAA documents state that SpaceX will use boats to recover all elements of the spacecraft after splashdown.

No timeline for these tests was provided. It appears SpaceX wants to manufacture and fly these in large numbers, using Starship. It also appears it would be in direct competition with Varda and a host of other startups that have raised capital and are developing their own capsules. In the U.S. Varda, Inversion Space, and Sierra Space have raised money for doing such orbital work. In Europe, The Exploration Company in France, Atmos in Germany, PLD in Spain, Genesis in Croatia, and Space Cargo in Luxembourg have also raised capital. So far, Varda is the only company to successfully fly capsules.

Because all would be depended on other rocket companies to launch their capsules, including SpaceX, Starfall raises some legitimate antitrust questions. SpaceX’s ability to undercut its rivals in this area, as both capsule and rocket provider, would be unmatched, and could easily wipe out all competition.

The competitive need for more launch providers at low cost is becoming increasingly critical.

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Space Force awards SpaceX a $4.16 billion satellite contract, the second this week

The Space Force yesterday awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract to build a satellite constellation to track all flying objects, in addition to the $2.29 billion contract it awarded the company earlier in the week for a different data/communications constellation.

The $4.16 billion Other Transaction Authority agreement is for the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) program, which aims to develop and field a network of satellites carrying sensors that can continuously detect and follow airborne targets. The deal will allow the Space Force to field an AMTI constellation by 2028, Space Systems Command said in a press release.

Space Force officials also noted that this contract is only the first, and that it does not intend to rely just on SpaceX for this tracking constellation. It intends to use “a highly diversified pool of traditional and non-traditional vendors, each bringing various capabilities” to the system.

Regardless, SpaceX’s satellite division this week won two Pentagon contracts worth more than $6 billion. Not bad work if you can get it.

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SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites

SpaceX this morning 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 22nd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

64 SpaceX
30 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 64 to 55.

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ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket launches 29 Leo satellites for Amazon

ULA this evening successfully placed 29 more Leo satellites into orbit for Amazon, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

ULA is in the process of retiring the Atlas-5 rocket. It now has only seven Atlas-5 rockets left in stock, with one reserved for Leo launches and six for Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule (though there is a good chance some if not all of the Starliner launches will be switched to other payloads). Because its Vulcan rocket, intended to replace Atlas-5, is presently grounded, the company appears to be accelerating Atlas-5 launches, with the last few launches space only about a month apart.

With this launch, Amazon now has 331 Leo satellites in orbit, out of the 1,616 it needs to launch by July to meet its FCC license requirement. It is not going to meet that requirement, because two of the five rockets it contracted for launches are presently grounded (ULA’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn), and only one launch is presently scheduled before July, by Arianespace’s Ariane-6. Furthermore, ULA has only one more Atlas-5 scheduled for Leo, and the ten launches Amazon had purchased from SpaceX are not scheduled. For these reasons, Amazon has asked for a time extension, which the FCC is presently considering.

As this was only the fourth launch by ULA in 2026, the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:

63 SpaceX
30 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 63 to 54.

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SpaceX launches another 29 Starlink satellites

SpaceX this morning successfully placed 29 more Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Florida. The first stage completed its 16th flight (57 days after its last flight), landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

63 SpaceX
30 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 63 to 53.

ULA has an Atlas-5 launch scheduled for this evening to launch 29 Leo satellites for Amazon, but at the moment the weather does not look promising.

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South Korean rocket startup Innospace signs up another American satellite launch manager

Less than five seconds after launch
Hanbit-Nano less than five seconds after launch and
just prior to its failure in December 2025.

The South Korean rocket startup Innospace has signed a deal with the American company Ensemble Commercial Services to help obtain satellite contracts and manage the integration and deployment of these payloads.

This marks INNOSPACE’s second launch service distribution agreement in the U.S., following its agreement signed in August last year with Texas-based Arrow Science and Technology, LLC. By securing multiple local partners in the U.S., INNOSPACE plans to enhance customer accessibility in the North American market and accelerate its efforts to identify satellite launch demand and expand sales activities.

Under the agreement, Ensemble will identify potential customers in the U.S., including satellite companies, space startups and research institutions, and connect them with launch service opportunities offered by INNOSPACE for small satellites. Ensemble will also provide regular market updates on the U.S. satellite industry, launch demand trends and potential customer activities, supporting INNOSPACE’s sales activities in the U.S. market.

…With this agreement, INNOSPACE has now secured launch service distribution partners across nine companies in seven countries, including Taiwan, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, the U.S., Germany and the United Kingdom.

Innospace has made one failed attempt in December 2025 to launch its Hanbit-Nano rocket. It hopes to try again in the third quarter of this year.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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More opposition to the EU’s new space law, this time from European companies

The European Union
This label would be more accurate if it read
“NOT made in the European Union”

At a conference this week officials from a number of European aerospace companies expressed strong opposition to the European Union’s (EU) space law, adding their voice to the opposition that already exists from a number of European nations, at least one left-leaning think tank, and the U.S.

Speaking at SmallSat Europe, panelists said they did not oppose regulation itself or the idea behind a common European framework. However, the words most frequently used to describe the first and second drafts of the EU Space Act were “monopoly,” “slow,” “rigid” and “micromanaging.”

Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace, argued the current draft misunderstands how fast-moving commercial space operates. “The idea of having an EU Space Act is absolutely good. The problem is the proposal currently on the table,” Manfletti said during a panel. “If it takes 12 months to get a license, that is ancient history for the commercial space sector.”

A recurring concern among panelists was that Europe already moves more slowly than the United States and that the proposed legislation could institutionalize additional delays.

My sense of the situation is that there is enough opposition that in a rational world the EU would scrape the present draft of this law and start over. Sadly, European governments — especially the EU — no longer function rationally. There is no way to predict what its bureaucrats and power-seeking political leaders will do.

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FAA grounds Starship/Superheavy pending completion of SpaceX’s investigation

According to an announcement yesterday by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Starship and Superheavy are presently grounded pending the completion of SpaceX’s investigation of the engine failures in the Superheavy booster.

After a thorough assessment of the operation, the FAA has determined the May 22 SpaceX Starship Flight 12 launch resulted in a mishap. The mishap involved the Super Heavy booster as it flew back to the Gulf of America after stage separation. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property. 

The FAA is requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation. The FAA will oversee the SpaceX-led investigation, be involved in every step of the process, and approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions.

The propaganda press will make of more this than it should. Based on the FAA’s procedures since Trump took over from Biden, the agency is not going to slow things down. It mostly just observes closely the investigation after any mishap, and as soon as the company is itself satisfied with the solution and has instigated its planned fixes, the FAA issues its stamp of approval and allows flights to proceed immediately.

For example, it acted in this manner for the Starship/Superheavy tests in 2025. It also did the same for Blue Origin in its investigation of its recent New Glenn failure. In both cases there were no delays waiting for the agency to retype the company’s conclusions. The approval was immediate. Expect the same now.

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Space Force awards SpaceX $2.29 billion contract for military data constellation

In what is intended as an upgrade to the Starshield military variation of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, the Space Force yesterday awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract to launch a “data transport constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) for the Space Data Network (SDN), which the service is developing as its central communications network to link sensors to shooters.”

Under the Other Transaction Authority agreement, the company is to deliver “a fully operational prototype capability by the end of 2027,” Space Systems Command (SSC) said in a press release.

The SDN Backbone, formerly known as MILNET and based on SpaceX’s Starshield militarized variant of its commercial Starlink constellation, will serve as the backhaul data transport layer for the broader SDN. While the award to SpaceX is thus not a surprise, the size of the contract is.

It appears that the Pentagon has been so satisfied with its use of both Starlink and Starshield that it was quite willing to give SpaceX this new larger contract.

The good part of this story is that SpaceX is providing good service to the American people, through the Pentagon. The bad part of this story is that it is getting so little competition from the rest of the aerospace industry. This was work that Amazon could have won, had its Leo constellation been operational and competitive. It is not, as yet, and so it loses business. As the saying goes, “He who hesitates is lost.” And sadly a lot of old and even new aerospace companies have been hesitating.

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A review of what happened and what’s next for Starship/Superheavy

Link here. This article is a very nice and thorough review of what happened during SpaceX’s 12th test flight of Starship/Superheavy last week. What I like about it most is that it outlines what happened with very little speculation. No one outside of SpaceX is in a position to do this properly, and some speculation has been I think over the top. The article at the link avoids this.

It also provides a quick and reasonable summary about what is likely to happen next:

Next up will be Booster 20 and Ship 40 for Flight 13. This mission may launch in the July-August timeframe, pending testing and any mitigation efforts relating to the issues found during Flight 12. The launch pad appears to be in good shape, removing it from being a potential bottleneck to Booster 20’s Static Fire test, although that is not expected for weeks.

The article also provided this added news item that SpaceX revealed during last week’s test flight that has mostly fallen under the radar among news outlets (including here):

SpaceX also revealed plans for a lunar Starlink constellation using laser-linked relay satellites and confirmed that Fram2 commander Chun Wang has signed up for Starship’s first crewed interplanetary mission — a two-year Mars flyby. Wang will first fly with Dennis and Akiko Tito on the previously contracted crewed lunar flyby, potentially as early as 2034.

That’s two Starship missions apparently paid for by Wang, one around the Moon followed by a Mars fly-by. With the lunar fly-by targeting 2034, the Mars fly-by is likely a decade away, at the earliest.

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German rocket startup signs deal with Nova Scotia spaceport

Proposed Canadian spaceports
Proposed Canadian spaceports

The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace, which has not yet had a successful launch, has now signed a launch agreement with Maritime Launch Services, the company that has been trying to create a spaceport in Nova Scotia for more than a decade without success.

Space company Isar Aerospace and Spaceport operator Maritime Launch Services (MLS), have signed a Letter of Intent to advance sovereign orbital launch readiness from Nova Scotia, Canada. The agreement brings together Isar Aerospace’s orbital launch system and MLS’s launch site, Spaceport Nova Scotia, which is strategically located for launches to support reliable access to mid- to high-inclination and polar orbits for Earth observation and communication satellites and constellations, supporting commercial and government missions

Isar’s Spectrum rocket failed seconds after launch in its first attempt in 2025, launching from Norway’s Andoya spaceport. Since January the company has tried again several times but was forced to scrub each time. At present the launch is tentatively scheduled for June.

MLS’s history is even more convoluted. Initially a decade ago it partnered with a Ukrainian rocket company to offer launch services at Spaceport Nova Scotia. After years of delays that deal ended for good when Russia invaded the Ukraine. Since then MLS has tried to interest both satellite and rocket companies, all to no avail. This new deal was probably made possible due to financial help from the Canadian government, which in March 2026 signed a 10 year deal with MLS worth $200 million, with the intent to encourage a “sovereign orbital capability” for Canada. Since there are no rocket companies in Canada capable of doing this, it appears that capability will now come from Germany.

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NASA outlines new program of unmanned missions to Moon

NASA's Moon base plans as of May 2026
NASA’s Moon base plans as of May 2026.

NASA officials today outlined its new reshaped program of unmanned missions to Moon, designed it says to lay the first groundwork for the manned lunar base to follow.

You can watch the press conference here. The map to the right comes from one viewgraph during that conference, and apparently shows the planned lunar base area, which officials said could cover about 100 square miles. Though officials said this is in the south pole region, I have not been able to identify the precise location, using the global map produced by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The large crater northeast of the base does not appear to be Shackleton Crater.

The schedule includes four already planned missions, two new missions awarded to Blue Origin in a $188 million contract to deliver two new rovers, and a new hopper mission mission to be delivered by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander. The schedule is as follows:
» Read more

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NASA approves lunar habitation module design from Italy’s space agency

While the American company Redwire appears in the lead to win a European contract to build its lunar lander’s robot arm, it appears the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has gotten NASA’s preliminary approval to begin work on its Multi-purpose Habitation module (MPH) for the lunar base.

The Italian Space Agency [ASI] announced on 22 May that its Multi-Purpose Habitation (MPH) module had been cleared by a NASA review board to progress toward a Preliminary Design Review in 2027. The first MPH module is expected to launch in 2033.

…With the successful completion of the SDR [System Definition Review] and SRR [System Requirements Review], ASI and Thales Alenia Space can now prepare for the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), which will assess whether the module’s preliminary design is mature enough to meet NASA’s requirements before the programme advances into detailed design and hardware development.

It should be noted that the MPH appears to be a revision of the habitable module that ESA and Thales Alenia were building for the now dead Lunar Gateway station. This new deal is likely NASA’s effort to give ESA comparable work to make up for the loss of its Gateway contribution.

At the same time, ASI will face heavy competition from American companies for this work, as it isn’t the only one proposing habitable modules for the American lunar base. In March 2026 Voyager Technologies and Max Space announced a partnership to build their own inflatable habitable lunar modules. Just as ESA can only make rare exceptions when it gives work to American companies, NASA is obliged to do the same with its European contracts.

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Redwire completes testing on robot arm prototype for ESA

The European division of the American space manufacturing company Redwire last week delivered to the European Space Agency (ESA) a full developed and tested robot arm prototype, as per a 2024 contract.

The project is being led by Redwire’s Luxembourg team, which recently completed several project milestones including preliminary design and performance assessment.

Before successful delivery, the MANUS Breadboard Model underwent a comprehensive test campaign to verify the functionality and performance of the manipulator and tool-changer subsystems, and to demonstrate operational scenarios aligned with system requirements. All planned operations, including payload handling, end-effector actuation with wireless data and power transfer, range extender manipulation, and automatic deployment, were executed successfully, confirming overall system readiness. Functional testing validated safe and reliable mechanical performance, demonstrating strong joint-space accuracy and stable interaction among subsystems.

The arm is intended for ESA’s Argonaut lunar lander, allowing it to unload cargo from the lander to the lunar surface. ESA’s 2024 development contract was issued to both Redwire and the Polish company PIAP. PIAP however has not even built the actual prototype. It appears ESA is now moving forward on the full contract phase for the entire rover, and it appears Redwire’s Luxembourg division is in the best position to win the robot arm contract portion.

Not surprisingly, Redwire’s stock surged by 24% following this announcement.

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Voyager wins $16.5 million DARPA contract to give solid-fueled rockets variable thrust

The space station startup Voyager Technologies announced today that DARPA has awarded it a $16.5 million contract to develop a technology for use by all solid-fueled rocket manufacturers that will allow those rockets to have variable thrust while firing.

Until now, once you light a solid-fueled rocket motor (SRM) it works like a firecracker, burning at the same high thrust until it runs out of fuel. The goal is to introduce ways to change that thrust along the way, if need be.

During the 20-month contract, Voyager will combine its expertise with complex system modeling and controls with the propellant and manufacturing specialized to develop and validate proof-of-concept systems, culminating in tailorable SRM hot-fire demonstrations.

The program also focuses on manufacturing scalability and post-manufacturing control architectures, including the integration of structural health monitoring systems to support real-time health monitoring and performance. These activities are intended to prepare the technology for rapid industrial transition across multiple weapon systems, enabling flexible weapons procurement and large-scale production and stockpiling.

The vagueness in this description likely comes from two reasons. First, the technology is likely difficult and still uncertain. Two, when developed this technology is certainly going to be classified, since solid-fueled rockets are used extensively by the War Department in missiles. It will be made available to multiple American manufacturers, but only to them.

Whether this technology can become operational in less than two years remains a large question. We shall see. Nonetheless, as a company Voyager continues to expand its reach, diversifying its effort beyond its Starlab space station.

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SpaceX launches another 24 Starlink satellites

SpaceX this morning successfully launched 24 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its sixth flight (32 days after its previous flight), landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

62 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 62 to 52.

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The geology of the Moon’s far side, revealed in pictures taken during Artemis-2

A sample of Andrew McCarthy's work
A sample of Andrew McCarthy’s work. Click for original.

When Artemis-2 commander Reid Wiseman took pictures as his Orion capsule swung around the far side of the Moon, he did so as per the instructions of astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, thus producing enhanced-color photographs capable of distinguishing the lunar geology with more detail.

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy is known for turning the moon into something it decidedly isn’t to the naked eye; a colorful, mineral-rich landscape that looks more like a geological survey than the grey orb hanging in the night sky. His technique relies on stacking hundreds or thousands of images together to suppress noise and amplify the subtle spectroscopic differences between different surface materials. The result is both scientifically accurate and visually arresting.
Linking up with Artemis

As Space.com details, just weeks before the Artemis II launch window, McCarthy DM’d mission commander and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman with a proposal: could Wiseman shoot the moon the same way McCarthy shoots the moon? It turns out he could. “He was immediately onboard,” McCarthy said. “It was a dream come true, obviously, for me, but I saw it as this very unique opportunity.”

McCarthy worked up a plan alongside Wiseman and NASA’s lunar photography team, the same group that had trained the Orion crew on their camera kit. As regular readers will already know, the primary workhorse was a Nikon D5 DSLR paired with an 80–400 mm Nikkor lens, a decade-old body chosen specifically for its exceptional high-ISO performance. Wiseman shot burst sequences at varying exposures throughout the flyby, generating a dataset McCarthy could stack back on Earth.

The picture to the right is a small sample of McCarthy’s work.

Hat tip to reader Ferris Akel.

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