Companies that one competed for the Google Lunar X Prize now expect to fly their first lunar landers in the next two years to serve the needs of commercial and government customers, including NASA. SpaceNews.com

Virgin Orbit’s campaign to design, build and fly LauncherOne, its air-launched rocket for small satellites, relies heavily on manufacturing software. SpaceNews.com

A new policy President Trump will sign May 24 will implement a series of regulatory reforms to support commercial space recommended by the National Space Council earlier this year. SpaceNews.com

PASADENA — NASA intends to begin buying rides on small commercial lunar landers by the end of the year and start looking for miniature instruments for those flights. “We have a strong push to get a lander service to the Moon as quickly as possible,” James Reuter, NASA deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission […] SpaceNews.com

As the U.K. continues to wrangle with the EU over Galileo, there is growing speculation that the country could seek to develop its own independent global navigation system with Australia — or even Japan. SpaceNews.com

Bombastic and colorful, Rogozin’s international profile shot up significantly in 2014 when, in response to the first round of Western sanctions against Moscow for its annexation of Crimea, he tweeted that NASA could use a trampoline to reach the International Space Station. SpaceNews.com

Technological advances have opened up a wide range of propulsion options for satellites, but companies developing those systems don’t expect a single approach to become dominant. SpaceNews.com

ICEYE raised $34 million in a Series B investment round, bringing the Finnish company’s total funding to $53 million, ICEYE announced May 24. SpaceNews.com

PASADENA, California — Satellite manufacturers and operators attending the Space Tech Expo here offered contrasting views on how long satellites should continue to work in orbit. For years, government and commercial operators sought to extend the life of satellites by sending them into orbit with plenty of fuel and components designed to withstand 15 years […] SpaceNews.com

In his first congressional testimony since becoming NASA administrator a month ago, Jim Bridenstine sought to reassure Senate appropriators about the status of several agency programs threatened with cancellation, as well as his own views on climate change. SpaceNews.com

A major challenge facing companies planning to perform on-orbit servicing will be ensuring satellite operators do not view their activities as potential threats. SpaceNews.com

The U.S. Air Force's plans to respond to emerging threats by launching constellations of satellites. That strategy has important implications for spacecraft manufacturing and testing. SpaceNews.com

A cooling problem with a key instrument on a weather satellite launched less than three months ago could degrade its performance for at least part of each day, with potential but still undetermined effects on weather forecasts, officials said May 23. SpaceNews.com

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission rejected a Eutelsat application for a satellite that would use the same spectrum as one planned by Intelsat. SpaceNews.com

An NBN executive estimated the business service will use 15 percent of the capacity on the Sky Muster satellite system. SpaceNews.com

U.K. Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Hillier says the cost-effective technology with its short development cycles would enable the military to always take advantage of the latest technological developments, unlike the traditional slow-paced military satellite projects. SpaceNews.com

AGI, in partnership with a Canadian company, announced May 23 that it has established the first commercial radar system capable of tracking objects in geostationary orbit and beyond. SpaceNews.com

In the future, the U.S. Air Force will launch satellites of all different sizes for customers with varying degrees of risk tolerance. SpaceNews.com

As SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 with a previously-flown first stage May 22, both the company and its competitors are seeing a growing acceptance of reusable vehicles in the overall market. SpaceNews.com

The launch industry is facing a shakeout in the coming years that could result in the failure of the vast majority of companies developing new vehicles, industry executives warned at a conference. SpaceNews.com