Today's Aerospace Pulse
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes, halting Moon‑base plans
A catastrophic explosion during a static‑fire test destroyed New Glenn’s sole launch pad (LC‑36) and will delay flights for months. The setback jeopardizes NASA’s Moon Base 1 lander and the scheduled 2026 launch of Amazon’s Leo broadband satellite constellation. No injuries were reported.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Disciplined Growth Acquisition Corp raises $150M in IPO
Hermeus’ Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 Completes First Supersonic Flight
Hermeus successfully completed the first supersonic flight of its Quarterhorse Mk 2.1, reaching Mach 1.21. The flight, the aircraft's third test, took place at Spaceport America over White Sands Missile Range. The milestone follows less than three months after the Mk 2.1’s inaugural flight and comes a year after a $60 million USAF partnership was signed. Hermeus is already building Mk 2.2 and plans additional models to accelerate high‑speed military capability.
Poland’s WZE Receives Patriot Missile Motors Order From L3Harris
Polish state‑run defence firm Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne (WZE) has received a purchase order from L3Harris Technologies to supply Attitude Control Motors (ACMs) for the U.S. Army’s Patriot PAC‑3 missile system. The order follows a series of joint readiness reviews and...
AST SpaceMobile Gains $10 B Market Value as SpaceX IPO Sparks Satellite‑Mobile Rally
AST SpaceMobile’s stock surged 17% on May 26, adding almost $10 billion in market value after SpaceX’s pending IPO filing ignited a sector‑wide rally. The jump follows the company’s FCC approval for its BlueBird service and more than $1.2 billion in carrier commitments,...
Hanwha Aerospace Starts Korea’s First Dual‑Use Turbofan Engine Project with KASA
Hanwha Aerospace announced the launch of South Korea’s first domestically built dual‑use turbofan engine project, partnering with the Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA). The 4,500‑pound‑force class engine, slated for delivery by 2029, is designed for both civilian aircraft and next‑generation unmanned...
Blue Origin’s Moon Lander Update
Blue Origin announced its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lunar lander series will support NASA’s Moon Base at the lunar South Pole, beginning with the MK1‑101 Endurance mission slated for launch no earlier than fall 2026. The lander will touch down on...
Archer Aviation Stock Debate Heats Up as eVTOL Prospects Stall
Archer Aviation’s shares hover around $6 as the company completes FAA phase‑three certification and eyes pilot operations in 2026, but investors remain split over a $5 bn market cap versus a $1.8 bn cash pile and $180 m quarterly burn. The debate mirrors...
Cathay Pacific, Air China Cargo Top up Orders for Airbus A350 Freighter
Cathay Pacific exercised options for two additional Airbus A350 freighters, raising its commitment to eight aircraft, while Air China Cargo placed a firm order for four more, bringing its total to ten A350Fs. The A350F can haul up to 120 tons...
NASA Unveils HPSC Processor Delivering up to 500× Performance Boost for Spacecraft
NASA announced the High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor, a multicore system‑on‑a‑chip that delivers more than 100 times, and in early tests up to 500 times, the performance of existing radiation‑hardened processors. Developed with Microchip Technology and JPL, the chip...
NASA Targets Lunar Trucks and Hopping Drones for First Permanent Moon Base
NASA unveiled three initial moon‑base missions this year that will deliver cargo, lunar trucks and hopping drones to the lunar south pole, marking a decisive shift from orbital Gateway to surface mobility. The plan, aimed at supporting the Artemis IV...
NASA Will Reveal the Artemis 3 Astronauts on June 9
NASA will announce the four‑person Artemis 3 crew on June 9, 2024, during a live event at Johnson Space Center. The mission, slated for a mid‑2027 launch, will shift focus to testing Orion’s rendezvous and docking with SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s...
Firefly Aerospace Wins $75M Contract to Deliver Drones to Lunar South Pole
Firefly Aerospace secured a $75 million subcontract from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to deliver four autonomous drones to the Moon’s south pole. The drones, built by JPL, will be launched aboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft on a 45‑day trajectory, targeting a launch...
NASA Awards Contracts to Blue Origin, Astrolab and Lunar Outpost for Lunar Lander and Rover Work
NASA awarded contracts to Blue Origin, Astrolab and Lunar Outpost on Tuesday, tasking them with building robotic landers, hopping drones and lunar terrain vehicles for the agency’s Phase 1 Moon Base missions. The awards, part of a $20 billion lunar outpost plan,...
NASA Awards Hundreds of Millions in Contracts for Moon Base Landers, Rovers and Drones
NASA announced contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Astrolab and Lunar Outpost for landers, lunar terrain vehicles and drones. The hardware is slated to arrive before the Artemis III crewed landing targeted for 2028,...
ThinkOrbital Preps for First On-Orbit X-Ray Scans
ThinkOrbital is preparing its ThinkX system to conduct the first on‑orbit X‑ray scans, capable of imaging spacecraft from distances up to 10 km. The demonstration will launch the receiver in July aboard Argo Space’s water‑propelled satellite, with the X‑ray source slated...
SITAEL Accelerates Growth in Space: New Missions, Industrial Capacity and a Trajectory Towards 2031
Italian space firm SITAEL unveiled a growth plan aiming for about $216 million in revenue by 2031, up from roughly $65 million today, backed by a backlog over $162 million. The strategy includes nine scheduled launches through 2030, notably serving as prime contractor...
Artemis Base to Span Hundreds of Square Miles with Drones
Artemis moon base will cover 'hundreds of square miles' with hopping drones and new lunar rovers, NASA says https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/artemis-moon-base-will-cover-hundreds-of-square-miles-with-hopping-drones-and-new-lunar-rovers-nasa-says
American Airlines Joins Rivals to Install Starlink by 2027
D.C. Memo: @AmericanAir, Joining Rivals @united and @SouthwestAir, Agrees to Install @Starlink in 2027 | https://t.co/xsLyegXNjC
NASA Details Its Plan to Build a Lunar Base at the Moon’s South Pole
NASA unveiled a three‑phase roadmap to establish a permanent lunar base at the Moon’s south pole, beginning with an intensive robotic exploration period from 2026 to 2029. The first phase will see at least 25 missions and 21 landings, including...
27 Space Conferences in June 2026: The Complete List You Can’t Miss (UK, USA & Worldwide)
June 2026 will host an unprecedented 27 space conferences spanning six continents, from defense‑satellite talks in London to the first IAF climate summit in Kigali. The United Nations’ COPUOS session in Vienna will address the next iteration of international space...
The Road to Space Runs Through the Poles
The Arctic and Antarctic are becoming pivotal nodes in the global space ecosystem because high‑latitude ground stations and launch sites enable efficient access to polar and sun‑synchronous orbits. Norway’s SvalSat station on Svalbard, the world’s highest civilian ground station, underpins...
GE’s LEAP Engines Shipped Today Should Match Durability of the Venerable CFM56, Company Says
GE Aerospace announced that the latest batch of CFM International LEAP engines shipped this week meet the durability benchmark set by the long‑standing CFM56 family. The company says the LEAP now achieves the 20,000‑cycle service life that airlines have relied...
NASA’s First Human Outpost on the Moon Starts Now – SpaceX on Deck
NASA unveiled a three‑phase Moon Base plan that will establish a permanent outpost near the lunar south pole by the early 2030s. The first three missions—Moon Base I, II and III—are slated for launch before the end of 2026, using...
Viasat Hosts First Satellite-Enabled Phone Comms in Uzbekistan
Viasat demonstrated the first in‑country satellite‑enabled direct‑to‑device (D2D) messaging in Uzbekistan, sending native SMS between two Android smartphones—one via satellite and one on a terrestrial network. The trial, conducted with Uzbekistan's Ministry of Digital Technologies, UZ‑SAT and Uztelecom, used Viasat’s...
Ultra-Fast Asteroid Rotation Threatens Space-Mining Missions
Researchers using HiPERCAM on the Gran Telescopio Canarias measured near‑Earth asteroid 2022 OB 5 rotating every 1.542 minutes, classifying it as an ultra‑fast rotator. Published in Icarus, the study shows such rapid spin is common among small, low‑delta‑v NEAs and places the...
How Satellite Services Are Used by Autonomous Weapons
Satellite services are becoming the connective tissue for autonomous weapons, delivering command‑and‑control data, navigation, timing, imagery, and weather intelligence. A 2025 Starlink outage that paused two dozen U.S. Navy unmanned surface vessels highlighted how communication links, not the weapon itself,...
A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned
Researchers at Tohoku University have demonstrated that applying distributed micro‑roughness (DMR) to a surface can reduce aerodynamic drag by up to 43.6%, overturning the century‑old belief that smoother surfaces always yield lower drag. The DMR technique uses ultra‑fine, random irregularities...
When NASA’s 77-Tonne Skylab Station Fell Out of Orbit in 1979 and Scattered Debris Across Western Australia, the Shire of...
In July 1979 the U.S. Skylab space station re‑entered Earth’s atmosphere uncontrolled, scattering debris across a sparsely populated stretch of Western Australia. The Shire of Esperance humorously issued NASA a $400 littering ticket, knowing it was a joke rather than...
Altera Advances Reconfigurable Optical Modem Development for DIU’s RAZORBAC Initiative
Altera Corp. is teaming with the Defense Innovation Unit to build a reconfigurable coherent free‑space optics (FSO) modem prototype for the RAZORBAC program. The effort leverages Altera’s Agilex FPGA and a multi‑chip package (MCP) to create a flexible, high‑bandwidth optical...
USSF Gives SpaceX $2.29 Billion for ‘Backbone’ of New Data Network
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Data Network (SDN) will serve as a low‑Earth‑orbit backbone for joint‑force data transport. Space Systems Command awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract to build the SDN backbone, using its militarized Starshield satellites derived from Starlink. The...
An Era of Relatively Benign Fuel Assumptions Has Given Way to a More Complex and Volatile Landscape
The aviation sector is moving into a structurally volatile era as jet fuel prices diverge sharply from crude oil, driven by geopolitical shocks and limited refining capacity. While passenger demand stays relatively resilient, airlines face higher operating costs and supply‑chain...
Lufthansa Reinforces Commitment to the A350 Family with a Firm Order for 10 Additional Airbus A350-900
Lufthansa Group placed a firm order for ten additional Airbus A350‑900 jets, bringing its total A350 family fleet to 75 aircraft, including 15 A350‑1000s. The order coincides with the carrier’s 100‑year anniversary and underscores its long‑term commitment to modern, fuel‑efficient...
DARPA's Robotic Servicing Satellite Set for 2026 Launch
DARPA confirmed that its Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) demonstrator will launch as early as summer 2026. The mission will test a highly dexterous robotic suite that can refuel, repair, and relocate GEO satellites, addressing fuel limits and space‑debris...
Author Correction: Satellite Megaconstellations Will Threaten Space-Based Astronomy
Nature published a correction to its December 2025 study on satellite megaconstellations, revealing that the original analysis used an incorrect Earth‑limb angle for the ARRAKIHS space telescope. The corrected minimum limb angle of 55.7° reduces the projected average satellite trails per...
When the Galileo Spacecraft’s Main Antenna Failed to Unfurl on the Way to Jupiter, Engineers Salvaged the Mission by Rewriting...
NASA’s Galileo probe lost its 4.8‑metre high‑gain antenna in 1991, threatening the mission’s data return. Engineers responded by rewriting spacecraft software, adding aggressive data compression, and re‑architecting the Deep Space Network to combine multiple dishes. The low‑gain antenna, originally meant...
NASA’s Moon Base Plan Adds Two Rovers for Its Astronauts
NASA has awarded contracts worth about $220 million each to Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab to build next‑generation lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs). The two rovers, each about one metric ton, will transport two astronauts and can navigate 20‑degree slopes, with autonomous...
SpaceX Just Won a $2 Billion Contract to Make Satellites for the Space Force
SpaceX has been awarded a $2.29 billion fixed‑price contract by the U.S. Space Force to build satellites for its Space Data Network Backbone. The program envisions a low‑Earth‑orbit constellation that could number in the hundreds or thousands, delivering high‑speed communications to...
NASA to Announce Artemis III Crew, Provide Mission Progress Update
NASA will host a live event on June 9 at 11 a.m. EDT from Johnson Space Center to announce the four astronauts selected for the Artemis III test flight. The announcement will be streamed on NASA+ and YouTube, with limited in‑person and virtual...
This Airline Has The World's Final Unfulfilled Order For The Passenger Boeing 777-300ER
Boeing’s legacy 777‑300ER program is winding down, with only five passenger orders left— all tied to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and widely regarded as unlikely to be fulfilled. The last 777‑300ER was delivered in 2024 to leasing firm Altavair, which...
NASA Outlines New Program of Unmanned Missions to Moon
NASA unveiled an aggressive, unmanned lunar program designed to lay the groundwork for a future crewed base. The plan calls for up to 25 landings by 2029, beginning with four missions this year and adding new contracts for Blue Origin,...
Nasa Unveils Next Steps to Build Permanent Moon Base
NASA unveiled the next phase of its Ignition Moon Base program, outlining a roadmap that includes robotic landers, hopping drones, and crew transport vehicles to establish a permanent lunar outpost by 2032. The agency awarded contracts to Blue Origin, Intuitive...
Investors Flock to SpaceX IPO as Starlink Valuation Rockets Toward $1.75 Trillion
SpaceX filed its S‑1 this week, seeking a $1.75 trillion valuation that would make it the largest U.S. IPO ever. The filing highlights Starlink’s expanding broadband footprint, a $28.5 trillion addressable market and a $90 billion stake held by Antonio Gracias. Investors are...
SpaceX Secures $2.29 B Space Force Data Network Contract
SpaceX Reportedly awarded $2.29B contract from US Space Force for space data network development - $SPCX
ZIPAIR Returns with Nonstop Flights to Tokyo
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority announced that ZIPAIR will resume nonstop passenger service between Orlando International Airport (MCO) and Tokyo Narita (NRT), adding three open‑passenger charter flights on August 8, 13 and 18. The flights follow a highly successful inaugural February‑March run, the...
NASA Selects Lunar Outpost to Deliver Next-Gen Crewed Lunar Terrain Vehicle for Artemis Astronauts and Moon Base
NASA has chosen Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus Lunar Terrain Vehicle as one of two providers under its High Achievability Mission task order, part of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract. The two‑seat, autonomous‑capable rover will support Artemis crews at the Moon’s...
NTSB Calls For FAA Update To Runway Condition Matrix
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to revise its Runway Condition Assessment Matrix (RCAM) to better reflect braking performance during heavy rainfall. The recommendation follows an investigation of 11 runway overrun accidents and...
Canadian Student Teams Head to Utah for the University Rover Challenge
From May 27‑30, four Canadian university teams will travel to Utah’s Mars Desert Research Station to compete in the 2026 University Rover Challenge. The competition gathers 38 finalists from 18 countries, each tasked with completing four rover missions worth a...
A2Z Drone Delivery Partners with Alatau Advance Air Group Ltd. On Kazakhstan’s Next Generation Integrated Urban Air Mobility Project
A2Z Drone Delivery announced a partnership with Kazakhstan’s Alatau Advance Air Group to supply its AirDocks and Longtail multi‑mission drones for the UAM Test Center Eurasia, the hub of the Alatau City smart‑city project. The collaboration will demonstrate BVLOS operations,...
With the US Army Watching, Defense Industry Operators Turned a Logistics Drone Into a Flying Rocket Launcher
The U.S. Army observed a test at Fort Rucker where Survice Engineering’s TRV 150 logistics drone was fitted with BAE Systems’ 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rocket launcher. The autonomous drone, capable of carrying up to 150 lb, successfully...
Skyfront Wins U.S. Army Contract for Perimeter 8 Long Endurance Drone Training and Integration
Skyfront secured a U.S. Army contract to field its Perimeter 8 long‑endurance hybrid‑electric drone, integrating it with armored vehicles and existing command‑and‑control networks. The award includes flight operations, C2 integration, soldier training, and sustainment, with the first phase completed during a...
NASA Picks Astrolab, Lunar Outpost; Blue Origin to Deliver Rovers
At the NASA Moon Base event, NASA announced it selected Astrolab and Lunar Outpost for LTV (lunar rover) awards and Blue Origin to deliver those rovers to the Moon on its Blue Moon lander.