As NASA works to develop a plan for an accelerated human return to the moon, a top White House official emphasized the need for long-term sustainability that will require both a Gateway and a lunar base. SpaceNews.com

Kitay: Actions in space “will directly affect the outcome of future conflicts or crises." SpaceNews.com

ÅAC Microtec subsidiary Clyde Space plans to build and begin operating in 2020 two cubesats equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers for Orbcomm in a contract valued at 54 million Swedish Krona ($5.9 million). SpaceNews.com

Iridium CEO Matt Desch said April 23 the company expects to finalize a multi-year renewal of its Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) contract with the Defense Department in the next 30 days. SpaceNews.com

Chinese startup Linkspace succeeded with a vertical takeoff and landing test late last month on the same day fellow private launch firm OneSpace failed to reach orbit with its OS-m rocket. Also that week, two other Chinese companies declared success with engine tests as they push to develop new launch vehicles. SpaceNews.com

Polish space industry startup KP Labs has awarded an order to Scottish cubesat manufacturer Clyde Space which will act as a subcontractor for the company’s Intuition-1 project SpaceNews.com

Relativity announced April 23 it has secured a contract to launch a low Earth orbit satellite for Thai startup mu Space. SpaceNews.com

Colorado Springs was the home of U.S. Space Command from the day it was activated in 1985 until Secretary Rumsfeld reorganized it under Strategic Command in 2002. Today, Colorado Springs remains the epicenter of the U.S. national security space enterprise. SpaceNews.com

After placing more than 60 satellites into orbit on a single Falcon 9 last year, Spaceflight says it will focus on launching smaller numbers of satellites at a time on more launches this year. SpaceNews.com

NASA is moving ahead with plans to launch a cargo version of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station next week as the investigation into an explosion of a Crew Dragon spacecraft continues. SpaceNews.com

Griffin has scoffed at SDA naysayers. “I’m not personally trying to shake up anybody or anything." SpaceNews.com

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft suffered what the company said was an “anomaly” during static fire tests of its abort engines April 22, dealing a setback to the company’s plans to fly a crewed test flight later this year. SpaceNews.com

The WGS-11 satellite is being funded with money that Congress inserted into the fiscal year 2018 budget. SpaceNews.com

Italian startup Leaf Space wants to triple the number of ground station locations it has by late next year, citing customer demand for providing communications services to small satellites. SpaceNews.com

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Goldfein: 'Our goal is to prevent and deter conflict' SpaceNews.com

Rocket Lab is preparing to launch in late April or early May three U.S. military satellites including the Army Harbinger mission, a test to show whether an inexpensive commercial satellite equipped with a synthetic aperture radar can quickly deliver Earth imagery to soldiers. SpaceNews.com

Virgin Galactic’s chief pilot believes the company will be able to go through the remainder of its SpaceShipTwo test program fairly quickly once test flights of the suborbital spaceplane resume. SpaceNews.com

Fleet operator Intelsat said its first high throughput satellite, Intelsat-29e, is a “total loss” after attempts to save the malfunctioning satellite proved unsuccessful. SpaceNews.com

The European Space Agency’s 22 member states agreed April 17 to a workaround to get Ariane 6 production in full swing despite a dearth of public sector launch contracts. SpaceNews.com