Plus: Several countries joined the Artemis Accords
Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, Rocket Lab announced the company's largest launch contract to date, three countries signed the Artemis Accords, the schedule for Artemis 3 may be slipping and more.
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OUR TOP STORY
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By Jeff Foust Rocket Lab announced May 7 the largest launch contract in the company’s history as it also moves to acquire a space robotics company.
As part of its first-quarter earnings announcement, Rocket Lab said it signed a contract with a confidential customer for five launches of its Neutron medium-lift rocket and Electron launches. Those launches are scheduled for 2026 to 2029.
In an earnings call, Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s chief executive, said the contract value exceeds the company’s previous record, a $190 million contract for 20 launches of Electron’s suborbital variant, HASTE, announced in March.
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CIVIL
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More than two months after NASA announced revised plans for the Artemis 3 mission, the agency has provided few details about the mission itself amid signs its schedule may be slipping.
Two European countries, Ireland and Malta, signed the Artemis Accords at separate events May 4 as part of a surge of countries joining in the wake of the Artemis 2 mission.
Osvaldo Almirón Riveros, head of the Paraguayan Space Agency, signed the Accords in a ceremony in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, attended by a U.S. Embassy official and a representative of the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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MILITARY
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Rocket Lab said May 7 it won new Pentagon-related defense business tied to the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative and to the expanding U.S. push to accelerate hypersonic weapons testing.
Speaking May 6 at the GEOINT Symposium, director of the National Reconnaissance Office Christopher Scolese framed workforce challenges as a central issue for the agency he has led for nearly seven years and is expected to leave later this year.
The startup, based in Ashburn, Virginia, announced May 6 it received an Air Force contract to study how space-based solar power could provide power to military installations, particularly in remote locations. |
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COMMERCIAL
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Indian launch startup Skyroot Aerospace has raised $60 million in a funding round that gives the company a valuation of more than $1 billion. The funding brings the total raised by Skyroot to $160 million.
As SpaceX prepares for the first flight of version 3 of its Starship vehicle, the company is facing a new legal challenge from local residents who claim its launches damage their homes.
Loft Orbital began with what the industry called a “condosat” model, in which multiple customers shared a single spacecraft and each controlled their own payload. The company is now tapping demand from governments and private firms seeking sovereign constellations without taking on the cost and complexity of spacecraft development, procurement and operations. |
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SPONSORED CONTENT
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Missile defense at machine speed: On May 13, join SpaceNews and Wind River for a discussion that explores the mission assurance challenges behind missile defense initiatives, examining what military organizations must consider to ensure the software backbone connecting these systems remains resilient, interoperable and trusted in high-consequence environments. Register now. |
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Latest Press Releases
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