The Air Force will begin a sole-source negotiation with Northrop Grumman in anticipation of a GBSD contract. SpaceNews.com

Small launch vehicle company Vector filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Dec. 13 as part of an agreement that could see some of its satellite technology assets sold to Lockheed Martin. SpaceNews.com

As the fiscal year 2020 appropriations process approaches its endgame, NASA leadership says it will find ways to keep efforts to return humans to the moon by 2024 on track even if the agency doesn’t get all the funding it’s requested. SpaceNews.com

The Department of Energy, whose interaction with the space industry has largely been in nuclear power systems, is working to broaden its role by emphasizing its overall research capabilities. SpaceNews.com

SpaceNews announced the winners of its third annual SpaceNews Awards for Excellence & Innovation at a Dec. 10 awards luncheon in Washington. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and U.S. Air Force Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, commanders of U.S. Space Command and Air Force Space Command, were in attendance to accept government leader of the year awards.   SpaceNews.com

NASA announced Dec. 12 that it has selected the site on a near Earth asteroid where a spacecraft will touch down and collect samples, a task that has become more difficult than mission planners originally expected. SpaceNews.com

The European Space Agency estimates that 60-plus years of space flight has left more than 34,000 objects greater than 10 centimeters in orbit, each one of them moving at around six miles per second. SpaceNews.com

On the wish list for the next round of SBIR bids are technologies for operations far beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit, near the moon's orbit. SpaceNews.com

NASA gave its approval Dec. 12 to proceed with the launch later this month of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station. SpaceNews.com

Isar Aerospace, a German startup developing a small launch vehicle, has raised $17 million in a Series A round led by Airbus Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital.  SpaceNews.com

The U.S. Air Force will be the first customer for a Rocket Lab Electron launching in 2020 from a new launch site in Virginia, the company announced Dec. 12. SpaceNews.com

Kepler Communications on Dec. 11 said it booked 400 kilograms of rideshare capacity with SpaceX  in order to launch an unspecified number of its Internet of Things cubesat next year. SpaceNews.com

Northrop Grumman announced Dec. 12 that Saturn Satellite Networks, a startup satellite manufacturer, will be the customer for the first OmegA launch in 2021. SpaceNews.com

A House committee is finalizing its version of a NASA authorization bill that will cover many of the same topics as a Senate bill, but do so in different ways. SpaceNews.com

NASA will seek continued access to Earth observation data gathered by commercial satellite constellations after a pilot program proved the value of those observations. SpaceNews.com

Reps. Jim Cooper and Mike Rogers were the original proponents of a space service. It was not Trump's idea. SpaceNews.com

Pete Muend said the NRO wants to understand the capabilities of a variety of commercial vendors. SpaceNews.com

Maxar Technologies completed a $291 million property sale in Palo Alto, California. SpaceNews.com

Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle made its first flight in more than seven months Dec. 11 as the company inches closer to flying people to the edge of space. SpaceNews.com

SAN FRANCISCO – The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released an updated plan for U.S. Earth observation Dec. 9 calling for improved coordination, greater engagement with the private sector and efforts to assess the value of the data. “We really want to emphasize this is a national Earth-observation plan, not a federal […] SpaceNews.com