NASA has contracted with Axiom Space to acquire a seat aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 for a NASA astronaut to launch to the orbiting science lab on April 9.

Nine hours after a SpaceX team in Texas landed a full-scale Starship prototype for the first time, colleagues in Florida launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 more satellites for the company’s high-speed internet service system. 

SpaceX’s March 3 high-altitude test of a full-scale Starship prototype managed a soft landing—unlike two previous test vehicles—but then exploded 3 min. after touching down at the company’s facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.

Thales Alenia Space (TAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed the expected contract for six satellites in the second generation of the EU’s Galileo navigation constellation, after the Court of Justice of the European Union lifted a suspension.

Startup Venus Aerospace plans to proceed with the development, testing and production of a small hypersonic aircraft capable of  transporting a dozen passengers or time-critical payloads between major continental destinations in an hour.

Spire Global, a Luxembourg-registered nanosatellite operator for cloud-enabled data analytics, will become a publicly traded company after a reverse-merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has been hunting for aerospace and defense targets, NavSight Holdings.

Rocket Lab will become a publicly traded company with $750 million in cash to develop a new medium-lift launcher, grow its end-to-end space business including through acquisitions, and continue to target U.S. government customers.

Virgin Galactic does not expect to resume flight tests of its suborbital passenger vehicle until May due to potential electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues from a new flight control computer, CEO Michael Colglazier said during a Feb. 25 call with investors.