LOCKHEED MARTIN JOINS COLLABORATION WITH FIREFLY AEROSPACE AND SEAGATE FOR OFF-SHORE LAUNCHES - Lockheed Martin is joining in the effort to support a sea-based approach for launching Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket. The 29.48-meter-tall (96.7 ft) rocket currently only launches from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. On Monday, Jonathan Caldwell, the vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Strategic and Missile Defense Systems, announced Lockheed Martin’s participation in this proposal in a post on his LinkedIn profile on May 4.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)

SPACEX LAUNCHES 24 STARLINK SATELLITES ON FALCON 9 ROCKET FROM VANDENBERG SFB - SpaceX launched its second Starlink mission in the month of May, this time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The Starlink 17-29 mission sent another 24 broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit, adding to a constellation of more than 10,000 spacecraft. SpaceX’s first Starlink launch of the month was from Cape Canaveral on May 1.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)

WATCH SPACEX STARLINK TRAIN CIRCLE EARTH IN AMAZING SATELLITE VIDEO - A video captured by a newly launched SpaceX Starlink satellite shows us what it's like to zoom above our beautiful blue planet. The 3.5-minute-long video was posted on X on Monday (May 4) by Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX. It features footage from one of the 29 satellites that launched to orbit on May 1 atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 6)

CHILLING SPACE CRISIS THREATENS THE WORLD AS SATELLITE SWARM - When it all begins, we’ll be five days and 12 hours from disaster. But that unstoppable calamity would unfold over the course of decades. Some 600km above Earth is a rapidly intensifying cloud of satellites. They’re already indispensable. They enable our smartphones to navigate, research, and think for us. They control remote-controlled farming and mining machinery. They watch the ground to analyse everything from bugs to floods.   More
(Source: News.com.au - May 5)

FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND SATELLITE BY INDIAN START-UP FLIES ON SPACEX ROCKET - An Indian start-up, GalaxEye, rode on a SpaceX rocket this morning to launch a first of its kind satellite that is meant to fill a long-standing gap in space imaging. The satellite, aptly called Drishti, is equipped to take optical images, very much like a normal camera, as well as radar-generated images of the same place at the same time, something that has not been tried before.   More
(Source: The Indian Express - May 5)

SPACEX LAUNCHES SOUTH KOREAN EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE, PLUS 44 MORE PAYLOADS ON MIDNIGHT FALCON 9 RIDESHARE MISSION - SpaceX launched 45 payloads on an overnight rideshare mission aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Station early Sunday morning. The mission, dubbed CAS500-2, is named for the primary payload called Compact Advanced Satellite 500-2 from the Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI). It’s the second of two satellites that KAI calls Phase 1 of its CAS500 program, which is designed for “precision ground-based observation.”   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 4)

SPACEX ROCKET DEBRIS COULD SLAM INTO THE MOON: HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - Earth's moon is to be on the receiving end of a spent rocket stage in early August - the leftovers from a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch last year. Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched on Jan. 15, 2025 and performed the first fully successful commercial lunar landing on March 2 at the moon's Mare Crisium. That lander went on to mark the longest commercial operation on the moon to date.   More
(Source: Space.com - May 3)

NASA, PARTNERS UPDATE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 2026 FLIGHT PLAN - After reviewing the International Space Station flight schedule, NASA and its partners are adjusting launch opportunities for several upcoming missions. This update to the schedule better aligns mission planning, logistics, and timing for upcoming flights to support space station operations.    More
(Source: NASA - May 2)

LOW-EARTH ORBIT IS A 'HOUSE OF CARDS' THAT IS JUST 2.8 DAYS FROM A CATASTROPHIC COLLISION - The phrase “house of cards” gets used a lot for politics and drama, but its original meaning is simpler and scarier: a system that looks stable right up until the moment it isn’t. Low Earth orbit used to be big and mostly empty, at least in practical terms. Mega-constellations changed that. When you pack thousands of satellites into similar altitude bands and orbital shells, you don’t need anything dramatic to create risk – you just need time.   More
(Source: Earth.com - May 2)

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