Plus: A House spending bill would preserve TraCSS funding
Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, SpaceX filed for an IPO, a House Appropriations Committee would preserve funding for TraCSS, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman predicted China will accomplish a crewed lunar flyby in 2027 and more.
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OUR TOP STORY
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By Jeff Foust SpaceX filed documents for an initial public offering of stock May 20, revealing the company’s finances and enormous ambitions.
The company filed its S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the markets closed. That document is a step towards one of the most anticipated IPOs in recent memory, expected to take place on the Nasdaq exchange by mid-June.
The S-1 form did not include details such as the number of shares the company plans to sell or pricing, details that are frequently excluded in the initial filing of the document and updated closer to the IPO. SpaceX is seeking to raise up to $80 billion at a valuation of around $2 trillion, according to numerous reports.
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CIVIL
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Jared Isaacman warned a space industry audience during a May 19 keynote at the ASCEND conference that the next people to fly around the moon would be Chinese.
The commerce, justice and science spending bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee on May 13 included $50 million for the Office of Space Commerce within the Commerce Department. The bill’s report included language supporting continued work on the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS.
The U.S. Senate voted 46-43 along party lines to confirm Matt Anderson as NASA’s deputy administrator on May 18, the second-in-command of the space agency. |
MILITARY
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The U.S. Space Force is preparing to launch multiple spacecraft to geostationary orbit in 2027 for two separate in-space services demonstrations: one to test satellite refueling and another to test whether a servicing vehicle can dock with and maneuver another spacecraft.
The acting director of the Space Development Agency, Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, has been appointed to a dual role overseeing both the agency and a new U.S. Space Force acquisition office responsible for missile-warning satellite procurements.
The U.S. Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to build a prototype communications satellite intended to demonstrate anti-jamming technologies for military operations in contested environments, the Space Systems Command said May 15. |
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COMMERCIAL
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Varda Space Industries completed its latest reentry mission May 18 as the company balances supporting pharmaceutical research and hypersonic testing.
A new report from supply-chain intelligence firm Altana quantifies the extent to which the U.S. commercial space industry remains dependent on components sourced from Chinese suppliers. At the same time, space companies face mounting pressure to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers viewed as security risks by the Pentagon.
As SpaceX prepares for its next Starship test flight, a prospectus the company filed May 20 underlines how critical that vehicle is to its ambitions. SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion on the Starship program, including $3 billion in 2025 and nearly $900 million in the first quarter of 2026. |
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Latest Press Releases
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