We are cutting through the orbital debris for you. In other words, we’re keeping an eye on space news on the web so you don’t have to.
Here is our round-up of the most important, and interesting, space news stories of May (space orders can also be found in another post):
Notable re-entries and landings
While its fate worried some Soviet-era spacecraft deemed ‘likely’ to have re-entered Earth’s atmosphere
Varda W3 re-entry test capsule lands in Australia
Anomalies, delays and failures
Engine change delays ispace-built lunar lander mission
Intuitive Machines explains what made its IM-2 lunar lander crash land
SpaceX says Starship IFT-8 flight failure was triggered by Raptor engine hardware
NASA Psyche asteroid mission switched to back up propellant line after issue
Inversion completes first flight of reentry vehicle, but without reentry – because of a propulsion system malfunction
Human space
ISS uses Progress MS-30 engines to avoid old Long March rocket debris
NASA female astronauts conduct ISS spacewalk on 1 May
India’s Gaganyaan programme approaches test flights with human flight planned for 2027
Space exploration
Blue Origin shows off lunar propellant transporter design for use with Blue Moon Mk 2 human lander
As the Lunar Gateway space station faces cancellation, Payload Space looks at its history
Things are starting to look bleak for NASA Viper rover’s prospects of running on Moon
Space science
X class solar flare affects HF radio communications on Earth
Space agencies and international relations
Jared Isaacman has his nomination for NASA administrator ended by the White House
Both Indian and UK aerospace sectors to benefit from trade deal
The Trump administration decides to retain the US National Space Council for its own reasons
Norway joins up to Artemis Accords
Space technology
Lunar rovers need clever tech so wheels can survive in very cold temperatures
Proba-3 mission creates artificial solar eclipse in space
While not exactly hot on SpaceX heels, Chinese rocket firm is now testing vertical splashdown landing
Venus Aerospace test flies innovative rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE)
Dawn Aerospace starts taking orders for its suborbital Aurora spaceplanes
Interlune reveals lunar regolith extractor for Helium-3 mining
For the first time Kepler Communications successfully demonstrated optical data links between a prototype satellite in LEO and a partner’s ground station
Military space
China can fight wars in space USA tells UK
USA sanctions Chinese satellite firm CGSTL for allegedly helping Houthi rebels to target shipping
US Space Force cuts 14% of its civilian workers
SpaceX receives swapped launch order for GPS III 08 in March before getting into orbit in May
Pentagon notes hypersonic Talon-A test flights using Stratolaunch as carrier aircraft
German defense contractor Rheinmetall will start manufacturing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites with Finnish operator Iceye in 2026. As part of the deal, Rheinmetall will own 60% of a joint venture aiming to set up a satellite production facility in Neuss, Germany
Space companies
Spire Global to Help Speed Up Space Missions With New U.S. Defence Contract – eligible for contracts to develop buses/components
Starlab space station partner Voyager Technologies files to go public
SI Imaging Services offers Korea’s Spaceeye-T satellite for periodic lease
Eutelsat loses US Department of Defence revenue and gets new leader as it plots software defined replacement OneWeb satellites
SpaceX Starbase in Texas gets FAA approval for 25 annual launches but it does not get control of Boca Chica Beach
Starlink and Oneweb face new challenges in India, after the nation’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announced 29 additional regulations and rules for satellite connectivity
Industry
The global space economy will reach US$944 billion by 2033, according to a new report from Novaspace
India wants its space economy to be worth US$44 billion by then
Annual global satellite industry revenues rose by 3% to US$293 billion in 2024
Tariffs
Canadian MDA Space has managed to avoid the economic blows of Trump’s tariffs
Exolaunch is helping non-US customers to reclaim most of the money spent on new tariffs (for deploying their satellites through SpaceX)
Fundraising
EnduroSat, a microsatellite specialist based in Bulgaria, raised US$49 million to significantly ramp up its production of larger satellites – it hopes to build 60 satellites a month by the end of 2025
Northrop Grumman puts US$50 million Series D funding into Firefly Eclipse medium rocket
German firm OroraTech raised an extra EUR€12 million (US$13.3 million) in a Series B round led by the BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund. The company will use the money to speed up the development of its wildfire-monitoring constellation
Reflect Orbital raised US$20 million Series A to fund satellite constellation to reflect sunlight down to solar power farms
X-Bow Systems raised an extra US$35 million (led by Lockheed Martin) – bringing its Series B round total to US$105 million. The startup builds solid rocket motors.
Astronstone, a Chinese commercial launch startup, has raised more than CNY100 million (US$13.9 million) for the development of AS-1: a stainless steel, methane-liquid oxygen reusable launch vehicle modeled on SpaceX’s Starship system, complete with a “chopsticks” recovery system
M&A
European regulators have started an investigation into SES-Intelsat merger plans
Canadian firm MDA Space has upped its offer for Israeli chipmaker SatixFy by 43%
In a rare acquisition, SpaceX bought Akoustis, a speciality RF filter firm on the brink of bankruptcy, for US$30.2 million
IonQ, a quantum computing company, plans to acquire Capella Space, the first US firm to launch a commercial radar imaging satellite
Rocket Lab bought Geost, a IR sensor developer, for US$275 million
Sources include Cision, BBC, CNBC, msn.com, NASA, Orbitaltoday, Payload, phys.org, Politico, scmp.com and SpaceNews with links provided to each story.
