| Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, SpaceX's ninth Starship test flight ended in failure, China successfully launched its Tianwen-2 asteroid-exploring mission, Rocket Lab seeks to become a "disruptive, nontraditional prime" and more.
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| | | | | OUR TOP STORY
| | By Jeff Foust SpaceX's Starship suffered a loss of attitude control after reaching space on its latest test flight May 27, leading to an uncontrolled reentry and a third consecutive failure. Starship lifted off from SpaceX's test site at Starbase, Texas, at 7:36 p.m. Eastern.
This mission, Flight 9, sought to avoid the engine problems on the previous two test flights in January and March that caused the loss of the Starship upper stage during its ascent. All eyes were on the performance of the Starship's six Raptor engines during a burn lasting nearly six and a half minutes.
Unlike those earlier flights, the engines appeared to operate normally, shutting down as expected after placing the vehicle in its planned suborbital trajectory. Video from the vehicle immediately after engine shutdown, though, appeared to show the vehicle venting propellants and in a slow roll.
SpaceX confirmed about 30 minutes after liftoff that Starship suffered a problem.
| | | | | MILITARY
| | The Space Force awarded Raytheon a $379.7 million contract extension to continue development of the long-delayed Next Generation Operational Control System, a critical software upgrade for the GPS infrastructure now more than eight years behind schedule. The extension follows a $196.7 million award in November and adds another year of work as the Space Force targets operational readiness by 2026.
The U.S. Space Force has ordered two additional Global Positioning System satellites from Lockheed Martin. The $509.7 million contract covers GPS III satellites 21 and 22, which are part of the advanced GPS III Follow-on constellation designed to provide enhanced positioning, navigation and timing services to both civilian and military users worldwide. | | | | | COMMERCIAL
| | Rocket Lab's $275 million acquisition of satellite payload provider Geost is just the latest move in a broader campaign to establish itself as a serious contender for U.S. military satellite contracts. The company, once focused narrowly on launching small satellites, is now positioning itself as what CEO Peter Beck calls a "disruptive, nontraditional prime" — a full-spectrum defense contractor capable of building and deploying entire satellite systems for military customers.
The companies announced that Northrop would invest $50 million in Firefly, joining a $175 million Series D round that valued Firefly at more than $2 billion. The investment will go towards development of a launch vehicle formerly known as MLV and now known as Eclipse, designed to place up to 16,300 kilograms into low Earth orbit. | |
LAUNCH
| | Chinese rocket maker Sepoch has carried out a first vertical liftoff and splashdown landing ahead of a potential orbital launch attempt later this year. Video of the test shows the Yuanxingzhe-1 (YXZ-1) verification rocket soaring vertically from a launch pad, before shutting down its engines at around 2.5 kilometers in altitude. The engines relight during free descent during free descent and the rocket performs a controlled, propulsive vertical descent and soft splashdown.
China launched its second planetary exploration mission Wednesday, sending Tianwen-2 to sample a near Earth asteroid and later survey a main belt comet. | | | | | | | SPONSORED |  | | Interview with Chiara Pertosa, CEO of SITAEL
At SmallSat Europe 2025 in Amsterdam, Italy's SITAEL unveiled Empyreum, its next-generation small satellite platform equipped with the company's proprietary Spark electric propulsion system. In this exclusive interview, Chiara Pertosa – CEO of SITAEL and a second-generation leader of Angel Holding – explains what makes Empyreum unique, how Italy is expanding its satellite manufacturing capabilities, and why achieving European technological independence is more urgent than ever. | | | | | | | OPINION
| | By Justin du Plessis In the evolving landscape of space technology, a pivotal transformation is quietly taking shape: the development of spacecraft autonomy. While launch capabilities often dominate headlines, the real innovation frontier lies in what happens after they get there.
Think of autonomous spacecraft as the space equivalent of self-driving cars. For a decade, we've watched autonomous vehicles navigate our roads. Yet remarkably, despite the technology being available for years, fully autonomous spacecraft remain largely theoretical. This technological conservatism isn't due to capability limitations — it's driven by understandable risk aversion.
The hesitation is understandable. When missions cost hundreds of millions of dollars and failure means total loss, conservatism becomes the default. However, this cautious approach is increasingly unsustainable in the rapidly evolving space economy.
| | By Jaume Sanpera
By Tom Jackson
By Sarah Mineiro
| | SpaceNews is committed to publishing our community's diverse perspectives. Whether you're an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send your arguments and viewpoints to opinion@spacenews.com to be considered for publication online or in our next magazine. The perspectives shared in these op-eds are solely those of the authors.
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