 | Top Stories
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane made its final commercial flight Saturday as the company moves on to a new generation of vehicles. Unity, attached to its VMS Eve aircraft, took off from Spaceport America at 10:31 a.m. Eastern and was released from the plane nearly an hour later. Unity climbed to an altitude of 87.5 kilometers before gliding to a landing back at the spaceport. The vehicle carried three private astronauts and a Turkish researcher. The flight was the seventh commercial spaceflight for Unity and twelfth overall, but also the last as the company will retire Unity to devote its resources to the new Delta class of vehicles intended to fly more frequently and less expensively than Unity. Virgin Galactic says it is on track to start flying Delta vehicles commercially in 2026. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force's Space Rapid Capabilities Office has selected 20 companies for a contract vehicle valued at $1 billion to develop ground systems software. The indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract is for the Rapid Resilient Command and Control (R2C2) program, focused on developing a next-generation ground system built on a commercial cloud architecture. The 20 companies selected for the R2C2 contract, part of a small-business set-aside, will compete for task orders for elements of the program over five years. [SpaceNews]
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is encouraging the companies developing satellites for it to work with a broader base of suppliers. The SDA is pushing companies working on those satellites to diversify their suppliers amid fears of supply chain shortfalls that could delay the agency's ambitious schedule for deploying a new proliferated architecture in low Earth orbit. The SDA is telling companies they need a "different mentality" for working with suppliers, including ordering parts earlier and finding different suppliers. [SpaceNews]
NASA has selected seven companies to work on alternative concepts for the agency's Mars Sample Return (MSR) program. The companies received study contracts worth up to $1.5 million each to work on new architectures for returning samples from Mars or on specific elements of the current architecture, like a revised vehicle for launching the samples from the surface of Mars into orbit. The industry studies, as well as internal efforts, will look for new approaches that could reduce the cost of MSR and accelerate the schedule for returning samples. The industry studies will kick off in July and be completed in October. [SpaceNews]
Planet's first hyperspectral satellite is ready for launch. The Tanager-1 satellite is slated to launch as soon as next month on a SpaceX rideshare mission, the company said in earnings results last week. Planet sees strong interest in hyperspectral data from governments and commercial areas such as agriculture and oil and gas, although the company cautioned those markets are still in the early stages of development. The company reported record quarterly revenues in its most recent quarter, up 15% year over year, driven by strong growth in government contracts. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
SpaceX conducted two Starlink launches about 11 hours apart Friday night and early Saturday. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 9:56 p.m. Eastern Friday, placing 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. The booster landing on that launch was the 300th such landing. Another Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:58 a.m. Eastern Saturday and placed 20 Starlink satellites into orbit, including 13 with direct-to-cell payloads. [Florida Today | Noozhawk]
Rocket Lab will conduct its 50th Electron launch later this month. The company announced Friday it set a launch date of no earlier than June 18 for the launch, which will carry five satellites for French company Kinéis as part of its 25-satellite Internet of Things constellation. The launch is the first of five Rocket Lab will conduct for Kinéis. [Rocket Lab]
ESA and Vast have signed an agreement to study collaboration on future commercial space stations. Under the agreement, signed last week at the ILA Berlin air show, ESA and Vast will examine potential use of Vast's future commercial space stations by ESA, as well as use of European components and cargo and crew transportation vehicles to support those stations. ESA is the first international partner to formally signal its interest in the stations Vast is developing, starting with the Haven-1 module that Vast plans to launch in the second half of next year. [SpaceNews]
Former ESA astronaut Tim Peake could return to space next year on a commercial mission. Peake, who retired from ESA after a single long-duration flight to the ISS, is expected to be named commander of an all-British commercial mission in the coming weeks. That mission would launch as soon as next year through Axiom Space, and Peake said it would likely include John McFall, who has been training with ESA as the first "para-astronaut" with a physical disability. [The Observer]
Bill Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous "Earthrise" photo, has died. Anders died Friday at the age of 90 when the T-34 airplane he was piloting crashed in Washington state. Anders was an Air Force pilot selected by NASA as an astronaut. His only spaceflight was Apollo 8, during which he captured the iconic view of the Earth rising above the moon as the spacecraft orbited the moon. He left NASA in 1969 and later served as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and CEO of General Dynamics, among other roles. [collectSPACE]
| |  | The Week Ahead
Monday-Thursday: Monday-Friday: Tuesday: - Washington: Women in Aerospace hosts a talk by Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
- Washington: The Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee marks up its portion of the National Defense Authorization Act in a closed session.
Tuesday-Wednesday: - Washington/Online: The Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Academies holds its spring meeting, including sessions on NASA space technology and planetary missions.
Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday: Wednesday-Thursday: Wednesday-Friday: - Washington: The Senate Armed Services Committee marks up the full National Defense Authorization Act in a closed session.
Thursday: - International Space Station: Scheduled spacewalk by NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick outside the International Space Station starting at 8 a.m. Eastern.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 11 p.m. Eastern.
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