The venture arm of Lockheed Martin has invested in small launch startup ABL Space Systems, the second such company the aerospace giant has taken a stake in. SpaceNews.com

Maxar Technologies plans to install a NASA sensor to monitor air pollution over North America on a commercial communications satellite scheduled for launch to geostationary orbit in 2022. SpaceNews.com

OneWeb Satellites, the joint venture of Airbus and OneWeb, formally opened its Florida factory that will soon be producing satellites for OneWeb’s constellation at the rate of two per day. SpaceNews.com

India successfully launched its Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and lunar surface spacecraft Monday, a week after the first launch attempt was scrubbed due to an issue with the launch vehicle. SpaceNews.com

As NASA celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first crewed landing on the moon, the agency released new details about how it will procure landers to enable humans to return to the moon in the 2020s. SpaceNews.com

NASA and the White House used the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing to mark the latest achievement in the development of the Orion spacecraft and reaffirm plans to use it to return humans to the moon by 2024. SpaceNews.com

The SDA is preparing to host its first public meeting with space industry contractors as it tries to reassure skeptics. SpaceNews.com

Indeed, we were witnessing “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Nevertheless, my maternal grandmother who lived with us and was born in Eastern Europe in 1890, exclaimed, “I don’t believe it and will never believe it.” SpaceNews.com

Fifty years after Apollo 11, we are in a far better position, and so much closer, to return to the moon and send humans to Mars than we ever have been in the past. There are still many technical challenges to overcome, but the biggest challenge remains the political will to do so. SpaceNews.com

Satellite and rocket hardware provider Ruag Space signed a contract with Firefly Aerospace to provide payload adapters for its small launch vehicles. SpaceNews.com

During the decades since the cancellation of the Apollo program, some have used the Chinese treasure fleets of the early 1400s as a cautionary tale. SpaceNews.com

Rocket Lab passed a milestone in the production of its Electron rocket as the company gears up for its next launch and continues work on a new launch facility. SpaceNews.com

The Connect Bidco consortium told the British government that for at least three years it would keep Inmarsat’s core network operations center and skilled engineering resources in the country once the merger, expected to close late this year, is complete.  SpaceNews.com

China carried out the controlled deorbiting of its Tiangong-2 space lab into the South Pacific, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced Friday. SpaceNews.com

Kevin O’Connell, director of the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce, said the repository, called the Unified Data Library, is the first step in the transfer of some space situational awareness responsibilities as requested by the White House last year.  SpaceNews.com

The story of the Apollo program, the many heroes in the headlines and those behind-the-scenes, the unprecedented crisis and tragedies that were overcome to fulfill a martyred President’s bold promise, is a story as compelling as any great novel or Greek myth. SpaceNews.com

NASA has decided to extend the lifetimes of all eight astrophysics missions up for review, from large space telescopes to an instrument on the International Space Station. SpaceNews.com

The U.K. will invest $34 million in small satellites, will increase support for the Combined Space Operations Center. SpaceNews.com

History is now repeating itself. President Trump has declared he wants to send astronauts to the moon by 2024 and then Mars by 2033. But, in other words, NASA is saying to Trump the same thing it said to Bush: “You can’t do your program until you do my program.” SpaceNews.com

Virgin Galactic’s merger with a publicly-traded investment company is likely a one-off event based on the company and people involved, and not a sign of more fundamental changes in the industry, investors argue. SpaceNews.com