Thursday, May 14, 2026

GNSS Heading for LEO Missions

Patented spoofing + jamming protection from U.S.-made OEM GNSS systems.
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌


More details on Artemis 3

Plus: A Chinese rocket returns to flight
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

05/14/2026

READ IN BROWSER

SpaceNews logo
SpaceNext First Up newsletter logo

In our May issue: Artemis 2 returned. The next missions are underway. What comes next as the United States races back to the moon? Read the magazine.

SPONSORED BY

Sponsored by ST Engineering

By Jeff Foust


In today's edition: House appropriators advance a bill with flat NASA funding, NASA shares more details on Artemis 3, China's Zhuque-2 rocket returns to flight and more. 


If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday. Have thoughts or feedback? You can hit reply to let me know.


SPONSORED

ST Engineering MRAS is a leading manufacturer of complex aerostructures including nacelle systems and critical airframe components. Operating from a 2 million sq ft site near Baltimore, Maryland, the company houses design, engineering, manufacturing, and MRO operations under one roof. MRAS has been involved in the space industry since the 1960s, when it contributed components for the Gemini spacecraft as part of Martin Marietta Corporation. Today, MRAS applies its composite materials expertise to produce fuselage sections, external panels, heat shields, and technologies for reusable rocket structures and in-space satellite panels, supporting various space programs and projects. Read more.

Top Stories


House appropriators advanced a spending bill Wednesday that keeps overall NASA funding flat for fiscal year 2027. The committee approved the commerce, justice and science spending bill on a 32-28 vote, sending it to the full House. The bill provides $24.438 billion for NASA, the same as the agency received in 2026 and rejecting a proposed 23% cut. The report accompanying the bill provided some additional details, such as calling for continued funding of several science missions slated for cancellation in the proposal. It also requires NASA to continue SLS and Orion until a commercial alternative that meets or exceeds their capabilities is proven. [SpaceNews]


NASA provided some more details Wednesday about plans for the next Artemis mission. The agency said that the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for next year, will launch into low Earth orbit on an SLS without an upper stage. NASA will instead use an inert "spacer" with the same dimensions as the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) flown on the first two SLS launches. That allows NASA to save the final ICPS for Artemis 4 in 2028, giving it more time to adapt the Centaur upper stage that will be used on later SLS missions. The Orion spacecraft will rendezvous with lunar lander prototypes from Blue Origin and SpaceX, although NASA is still working out details such as whether astronauts will enter those landers after docking. Artemis 3 will spend more time in space than Artemis 2, which spanned a little more than nine days. [SpaceNews]


Northrop Grumman is adapting technologies developed for the James Webb Space Telescope into a smaller navigation system for cislunar operations. Northrop said it developed a spacecraft navigation system called LR-450 that allows a vehicle to calculate its position, movement and orientation without relying on external signals such as GPS. The LR-450 system is based on technology it developed for JWST, which operates at the Earth-sun L2 Lagrange point. The system could also support applications intended to complement or back up traditional positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, systems. [SpaceNews]


AST SpaceMobile may use United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket for some of its direct-to-device satellites. In an earnings call this week, company executives said that five of its BlueBird satellites could launch on a single Vulcan, compared to eight on New Glenn and three on Falcon 9. The company had not previously disclosed plans to use Vulcan, and declined during the call to confirm it has a contract, stating only that it has been "developing other heavy launch providers for some time." New Glenn has been grounded since a failed launch in April carrying a BlueBird satellite, but AST SpaceMobile said it expected the company to resume launches soon. Vulcan launches are also on hold because of a solid rocket booster anomaly in February. ULA said this week it has started stacking the Vulcan rocket for its next mission, carrying Amazon Leo satellites, while the investigation continues. [SpaceNews]


Other News


China's Zhuque-2 rocket returned to flight Wednesday night. The Zhuque-2E methane-liquid oxygen rocket, built by Landspace, lifted off at 11 p.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, placing a 2,800-kilogram test payload into polar orbit. It was the first launch of the Zhuque-2E since an August 2025 failure blamed on a voltage issue affecting the second stage, triggering a self-destruct. Landspace has incorporated improvements into the Zhuque-2E that allow it to place up to 4,000 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbit and 6,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit. [SpaceNews]


Weather caused a last-minute scrub of a Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon cargo spacecraft Wednesday. SpaceX called off the launch about half a minute before the scheduled 6:50 p.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, citing violations of weather constraints. The launch of the CRS-34 cargo mission to the International Space Station is now scheduled for 6:05 p.m. Eastern Friday. [NASA]


OHB is partnering with Dassault Aviation on a spaceplane. The companies announced this week that OHB will provide a service module for Dassault's VORTEX spaceplane. Dassault announced last year it was developing a subscale prototype, VORTEX-D, with some funding from the French military. Dassault and OHB said the VORTEX-S would follow that prototype and is intended to provide cargo transportation to the International Space Station or future commercial space stations as part of an ESA program. [European Spaceflight]


A Canadian private astronaut is funding the creation of a space institute. Concordia University in Montreal announced that Mark Pathy is donating 15 million Canadian dollars for the Mark Pathy Space Institute at the university. The institute will support research and student training in space engineering. Pathy flew to the ISS in 2022 on Axiom Space'x Ax-1 mission. [Concordia Univ.]


Unique Cooperation


"The United States makes space for others to join, especially in the space program — uniquely right now in the space program."


– Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman during comments at an event Wednesday in Ottawa. [Canadian Press]


FROM SPACENEWS

See the full line up for the SpaceNews Defense Stage at SmallSat Europe

Full agenda online now: Join us in Amsterdam May 26-28 at SmallSat Europe 2026 — 180 exhibitors, 2,000+ attendees and the most expansive smallsat program in Europe. As official partner and producer of the Defense Stage, SpaceNews is bringing military leaders and industry executives together for critical conversations on launch, AI, resilient comms, orbital threats and more. Your registration also gets you access to three days of Business Stage and Technical Program conversations. Learn more and register now.

Subscribe to SpaceNews



GNSS Heading for LEO Missions

Patented spoofing + jamming protection from U.S.-made OEM GNSS systems.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ...