Starship launch scrubbed, and Rocket Lab wins a GEO satellite order
By Jeff Foust
In this today's edition: SpaceX scrubs its first Starship V3 launch attempt, Space Force is on track to double by 2030, Rocket Lab wins a GEO satellite order, and more.
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Top Stories
Problems with ground equipment forced SpaceX to scrub the first attempt to launch its new version of Starship on Thursday. SpaceX scrubbed the launch after holding at the T-40 second mark for the 7:30 p.m. Eastern launch. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said that a hydraulic pin for a tower arm on the launch pad did not retract as planned. SpaceX could attempt another launch as soon as 6:30 p.m. Eastern today pending repairs to the pad. This will be the first flight of version 3 of Starship, which includes numerous improvements to the vehicle to enhance performance and reliability. SpaceX plans to use this version of Starship for orbital launches, including deployments of Starlink satellites and for NASA's Artemis program. During the launch webcast, SpaceX announced that Chun Wang, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur who flew on the Fram2 private astronaut mission in 2025, would go on a Starship circumlunar flight and, later, a Starship Mars flyby mission. SpaceX did not reveal schedules for either mission. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force plans to nearly double the size of its active-duty force by the end of the decade. Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, told lawmakers this week that the service plans to add 2,800 active-duty personnel and 2,000 civilian employees in fiscal year 2027, putting the service on a path to grow from roughly 10,000 active-duty Guardians today to about 20,000 by 2030. Saltzman said growing mission demands are now forcing the service to expand more rapidly. Members of both House and Senate committees supported the proposed Space Force budget of $71 billion in 2027, more than double 2026 levels, and some even asked whether the Space Force could grow even faster. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab won a Space Force contract for two space surveillance satellites that will operate in geostationary orbit. The $90 million contract announced Thursday will fund the two satellites that will carry electro-optical sensor payloads previously ordered by the Space Systems Command under a separate $80.7 million contract with Geost, a payload manufacturer Rocket Lab acquired in 2025 and folded into Rocket Lab Optical Systems. The satellites will be built on Rocket Lab's Lightning spacecraft bus, a satellite platform the company is using for missile-tracking satellites it is producing for the Space Development Agency as well as for commercial constellations. The satellites will be the first GEO spacecraft built by Rocket Lab. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab also launched a Japanese radar imaging satellite on Friday. An Electron lifted off from the company's New Zealand launch site at 5:33 a.m. Eastern, deploying the StriX satellite into low Earth orbit nearly an hour later. This was the ninth launch Rocket Lab has performed for Synspective, a Japanese company developing a constellation of at least 30 satellites. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Varda Space Industries completed its sixth mission with a capsule landing in Australia. The capsule for the W-6 mission landed successfully in the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia on Wednesday. The mission, funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory through its Prometheus program, carried hypersonic testing payloads. Varda developed its spacecraft for both hypersonics testing and microgravity research, primarily for pharmaceuticals. Varda announced an agreement earlier this month with pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics to study development of novel formulations of drugs in microgravity, with the first tests in space planned for next year. [SpaceNews]
Starfish Space will attempt to dock a spacecraft to an Australian satellite. Starfish announced this week it reached an agreement with Gilmour Space to use the ElaraSat spacecraft as the docking target for Starfish's Otter Pup 2 spacecraft. Otter Pup 2 will approach ElaraSat and maneuver around it before attempting to dock using an electrostatic mechanism. The two spacecraft launched on the same rideshare mission last June, although Otter Pup 2 originally planned to dock with a D-Orbit Ion spacecraft. [GeekWire]
Commercial space station company Starlab Space has raised money from investment firm 1789 Capital. Starlab, a joint venture led by Voyager Technologies, announced on Thursday a "strategic investment" of undisclosed size from 1789 Capital to support its development of the Starlab commercial station. 1789 Capital includes Donald Trump Jr. as one of its partners. [Starlab Space]
An unusual moon of Neptune might be a survivor of a catastrophe. A study published this week said Nereid, a small moon in a highly eccentric orbit, may be an original moon of the planet that was not ejected when Triton, Neptune's largest moon and an object thought to have originally formed in the Kuiper Belt, flew by Neptune and was captured into orbit. That capture likely would have swept away any other moons the planet had at the time. The study noted that Nereid has a different color than Kuiper Belt objects, and modeling showed that Nereid could have survived in its current orbit if Triton moved into a circular orbit within a million years or so of being captured. That could be accomplished by Triton colliding with one or more objects. [New York Times]
Note: FIRST UP will not publish on Monday in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. We will be back on Tuesday.
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Smells of Space
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"I came from the submarine force, and the similarity between a submarine and the space station is dramatic. A lot of the technology that is on board space station originated in the submarine force. Unfortunately, my first time I crossed over on STS-126, it even smelled like a submarine, which is not a nice thing to say about any place."
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– NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen discussing his experiences on the International Space Station during a panel at the AIAA ASCEND conference Thursday.
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