SpaceNews.com
• Jeff Foust
DARPA has awarded contracts to three companies to study lunar-mission concepts aimed at searching for water ice from very low orbits. The effort targets improved sensing/operations profiles for locating lunar volatiles and refining where future measurements and missions should focus.
By Spaceflight Now: SpaceX is kicking off the month of May by launching a batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday afternoon.
Payload
• Douglas Gorman
By Payload: The space nuclear industry, sees the FY27 budget bill as potentially kick-starting their wildest dreams, with funds towards multiple missions.
European Spaceflight
• Andrew Parsonson
By European Spaceflight: ESA has completed sterilisation of the ExoMars parachute that will slow the Rosalind Franklin rover’s descent for a safe touchdown on the Red Planet.
SpaceWatch Global
• Torsten Kriening
By SpaceWatch Global: Torsten Kriening on the EU Space Act after Colorado Springs: competence questions, equivalence failures, and a narrowing window before the Irish presidency.
SpaceWatch Global
• Joshua Faleti
By SpaceWatch Global: The European Union and Swiss Confederation have signed a broad package of agreements aimed at strengthening their bilateral cooperation.
NASA Spaceflight
• Haygen Warren
By NASA Spaceflight: Russia’s brand new Soyuz-5 rocket made its first flight on Saturday, lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday on a suborbital demonstration mission with a dummy payload that will pave the way for its entry into service.
SpaceNews.com
• Sandra Erwin
By SpaceNews.com: GTON — The U.S. Space Force plans to use satellites built by K2 Space to test a critical but unresolved piece of future missile-defense systems: how to move large volumes of data quickly between spacecraft and down to Earth.
