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We are heavy on science this week with some satellite imagery related updates in both commerce and defense. Also, read about who owns what is dug up on the Moon.

Hope you enjoy this Space!

4 May, 2026

NISAR, the joint NASA–ISRO radar mission launched in July 2025, has produced new measurements showing rapid land subsidence across Mexico City, one of the world’s fastest‑sinking capitals. Preliminary L‑band radar data collected between October 2025 and January 2026 mapped areas sinking by more than half an inch per month, with Benito Juarez International Airport and surrounding districts among the most affected. The city’s long‑running subsidence stems from groundwater extraction and the compaction of its ancient lakebed, documented since 1925 and historically reaching 35 centimeters per year.

NASA officials said the early results confirm NISAR’s (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) ability to track subtle ground motion in challenging environments, including densely vegetated coastal regions facing both sinking land and rising seas. The mission’s dual‑frequency radar, the first of its kind, surveys Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days using a 12‑meter reflector. Scientists expect global discoveries as NISAR’s coverage expands.

4 May, 2026

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducted a high‑power test of a lithium vapor‑fed magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster on February 24, marking the first U.S. firing of an electric propulsion system at 120 kilowatts, above any power level previously reached domestically. The prototype, developed with Princeton University and NASA’s Glenn Research Center, produced five ignitions inside JPL’s condensable‑metal vacuum chamber, heating its tungsten electrode to more than 2,800°C / 5,000°F.

The MPD design uses high electrical currents and magnetic fields to accelerate lithium plasma, offering 25 times the power of the thrusters on current electric systems such as those on NASA’s Psyche mission, which over time accelerates the spacecraft to 124,000 mph. NASA aims to scale the technology toward 500‑kilowatt to 1‑megawatt operation, a requirement for nuclear‑powered transport stages supporting human Mars missions needing multiple thrusters running more than 23,000 hours. The effort is funded through NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project, part of the agency’s broader megawatt‑class electric propulsion program for crewed deep‑space missions.

MPD thrusters occupy a middle ground between high-thrust chemical engines and the gentle, efficient electric systems (ion and Hall thrusters) used on deep space missions like Dawn and Psyche. Their advantage is power: paired with nuclear sources, they can operate at hundreds of kilowatts or more, making them candidates for moving heavy payloads and crewed stages on Mars-class missions where neither chemical brute force nor low-thrust electric propulsion is ideal.

4 May, 2026

Astronomers have detected an atmosphere around an object beyond Neptune, (612533) 2002 XV93, marking the first confirmed exosphere, i.e., a thin atmosphere on such a small Kuiper belt body and the only one known beyond Pluto. The 500‑kilometer‑wide trans-Neptunian plutino was observed during a Jan. 10, 2024 stellar occultation from telescopes in Kyoto, Nagano, and Fukushima in Japan using professional and amateur telescopes.

During the occultation, instead of an abrupt disappearance, the background star’s gradual dimming indicated a surface pressure of 100–200 nanobars, 5 to 10 million times thinner than Earth’s atmosphere and far below Pluto’s 10‑millibar exosphere, likely composed of methane, nitrogen, or carbon monoxide.

The finding challenges assumptions that small icy bodies at Pluto‑like distances are inert. JWST has not detected surface ices capable of sublimating at the object’s 40–50‑kelvin temperatures, leaving the atmosphere’s origin unresolved. Researchers propose two explanations: a persistent atmosphere supplied by cryovolcanic venting of volatile gases, or a temporary atmosphere generated by a recent impact. If impact‑driven, the atmosphere may dissipate within years; seasonal or long‑term persistence would favor internal replenishment. The discovery is an example of the dynamism of distant trans‑Neptunian objects, which include dwarf planets Pluto and Eris, and expands the range of bodies known to sustain atmospheric processes. The findings, published May 4 in Nature Astronomy, by a team made of professional and amateur astronomers, led by Ko Arimatsu of the Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), challenge assumptions about atmospheric retention on small outer solar system bodies.

4 May, 2026

In February, NASA formally shifted Artemis 3 to a late‑2027 crewed Earth‑orbit test, replacing the previously planned 2028 lunar landing with a rendezvous between Orion and one or both commercial Human Landing System (HLS) landers. The change positions Artemis 4 in late 2028 as the earliest lunar surface mission and places schedule pressure on SpaceX and Blue Origin, which must demonstrate key capabilities before the 2027 docking milestone.

SpaceX reported completing 49 subsystem and operations milestones for its Starship HLS variant, including life‑support work, Raptor engine cold‑start and throttle tests, debris‑mitigation systems, and elevator and airlock demonstrations. The company is preparing the first flight of the larger Starship V3, equipped with new Raptor engines, while still needing to achieve orbital insertion, on‑orbit docking, and a propellant‑transfer (refueling) demonstration between two Starship upper stages, which are requirements that demand a high launch cadence and multiple tanker flights per mission.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin is advancing its stepwise approach, beginning with the uncrewed Blue Moon MK1 cargo lander, which completed thermal‑vacuum testing in NASA Johnson’s Chamber A and is slated to launch later this year on New Glenn, currently grounded after a launch anomaly. MK1 will demonstrate precision landing, cryogenic propulsion, and autonomous navigation, and will carry two NASA CLPS payloads to the lunar South Pole. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Congress that both companies have committed to readiness for the late‑2027 rendezvous, with NASA prepared to fly whichever lander is ready first.

5 May, 2026

ESA’s Space Rider program advanced two major pre‑flight milestones as Europe prepares its first reusable orbital vehicle for launch later this decade. Engineers completed extreme‑environment testing of the spacecraft’s thermal protection system and finished assembly of a full‑scale drop‑test article that will validate the vehicle’s guided landing architecture. Space Rider is designed to spend about two months in low Earth orbit conducting microgravity research, technology demonstrations and on‑orbit validation before returning experiments to Earth. Unlike capsule splashdowns, the lifting‑body vehicle will descend under a steerable parafoil, a wing‑shaped fabric canopy that generates lift like an airfoil, allowing a spacecraft or payload to glide and maneuver during descent, for a runway‑style landing.

The newly assembled drop model incorporates full avionics, including autonomous guidance, navigation and control software to steer the parafoil in real time. ESA plans multiple helicopter drop tests over the Salto di Quirra range in Sardinia later this year to assess the final phase of flight, though the campaign will not simulate orbital reentry. The work marks a transition from component‑level qualification to integrated mission‑profile testing as ESA moves toward operational reuse.

5 May, 2026

An international team led by researchers at Leiden University has released more than 2.5 petabytes of data from the FLAMINGO cosmological simulations, one of the largest publicly available datasets ever produced for modeling the universe’s evolution. The release, equivalent to 500,000 hd movies, described in a paper submitted April 28 to Astronomy & Computing, provides large‑volume “virtual universes” that track the growth of structure from shortly after the Big Bang to the present, incorporating dark matter, ordinary matter and dark energy in a single framework. FLAMINGO, which stands for Full-hydro Large-scale structure simulations with All-sky Mapping is designed to bridge detailed galaxy‑formation modeling with the billion‑light‑year scales required for precision cosmology, complementing smaller projects such as COLIBRE.

FLAMINGO simulates enormous cosmological volumes, billions of light‑years across, to study the growth of the cosmic web, while COLIBRE targets the small‑scale physics inside galaxies, modeling star formation, gas chemistry, dust evolution, black hole growth and feedback processes at far higher resolution but in much smaller simulation boxes.

The FLAMINGO simulations were run with the SWIFT code on the COSMA8 supercomputer in the United Kingdom. To support broad use, the team built an online platform that allows researchers to access targeted subsets of the dataset without handling full files. The simulations have already supported dozens of studies since 2023.

6 May, 2026

A new study from India’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre reports that space debris in low Earth orbit loses altitude significantly faster during periods of elevated solar activity, identifying a threshold near two‑thirds of peak sunspot levels where orbital decay accelerates. Researchers analyzed 36 years of trajectories for 17 debris objects launched in the 1960s, all orbiting between 600 and 800 kilometers, and linked their descent rates to long‑term records of sunspots and solar radio and extreme‑ultraviolet emissions maintained by the German Research Centre for Geosciences. The findings show that increased Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) output during solar maxima heats and expands the thermosphere, raising atmospheric density and drag on non‑maneuvering objects.

The authors said the results have implications for satellite operators, noting that spacecraft launched near solar maximum may require more frequent orbit corrections and fuel reserves. They added that the historic debris continues to serve as a useful tracer of long‑term solar‑atmospheric interactions. The findings of the new study were published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

8 May, 2026

The U.S. Pentagon released 161 newly declassified UAP case files on May 8, marking the first public tranche mandated by a February directive from President Trump. The archive includes investigative reports, eyewitness accounts, including statements from several Apollo astronauts, and nearly 30 videos captured by U.S. military sensors between 2024 and 2025. One U.S. Central Command submission shows a five‑second full‑motion‑video clip from Syria depicting a “misshapen and uneven ball of white light,” while Indo‑Pacific Command contributed infrared footage of a football‑shaped object with three radial projections. Another 100‑second infrared sequence shows a bright point moving through a field of wind turbines.

The Pentagon emphasized that none of the materials include analytical conclusions and that “unidentified” does not imply extraterrestrial origin, citing possible explanations ranging from drones to sensor artifacts. Officials said the cases remain unresolved due to insufficient data and encouraged private‑sector analysis. Additional declassified files will be released on a rolling basis in the coming weeks.

4 May, 2026

SpaceX is preparing the first launch of its upgraded Starship v3 as early as May 12 while facing a new lawsuit from residents near its Starbase, Texas, site who allege previous flights damaged their homes. Airspace advisories list daily launch windows through May 18 for Flight 12, the vehicle’s 12th suborbital test and the first mission since October 2025. This would also be its first using the v3 Super Heavy booster and upper stage. The flight remains suborbital but is considered a key step toward future orbital missions supporting next‑generation Starlink deployments and NASA’s Artemis program.

The schedule follows delays stemming from a November test incident that damaged a booster and subsequent shifting public estimates by CEO Elon Musk. The campaign comes as dozens of residents of Port Isabel and South Padre Island filed an April 30 lawsuit alleging previous Starship launches caused structural damage from engine noise, overpressure and sonic booms. Researchers recorded peak noise above 110 decibels recorded up to 35 kilometers away and return‑flight sonic-boom overpressures exceeding five pounds per square foot within 15 kilometers during a 2024 launch.

The complaint seeks unspecified economic and non‑economic damages. Similar noise and overpressure concerns were cited in a 2025 environmental assessment for SpaceX’s planned Starship site at Cape Canaveral.

4 May, 2026

Russian satellites COSMOS 2581 and 2583 conducted a close‑proximity maneuver on April 28, approaching within roughly 3 meters, according to COMSPOC analysis of LeoLabs radar data. According to COMSPOC or Commercial Space Operations Center, a provider of space situational awareness (SSA) and space domain awareness (SDA) software, analytics, and data services, COSMOS 2583 executed multiple fine maneuvers to maintain the tight configuration, while COSMOS 2582 trailed the formation at under 100 kilometers. A previously deployed subsatellite, Object F, passed within 15 kilometers of COSMOS 2582 and 10 kilometers of COSMOS 2581 without maneuvering.

COMSPOC noted the same spacecraft performed earlier three‑object RPO (rendezvous and proximity operations) activity from late  2025 onward. Russia has previously operated inspector satellites, and similar close‑approach capabilities have been observed from U.S. and Chinese spacecraft.

These maneuvers matter because they demonstrate advanced precision‑flying capabilities, allow satellites to inspect or characterize other spacecraft up close, and signal operational maturity with potential military relevance. Close‑approach operations can support intelligence gathering, on‑orbit servicing or rehearsal of counterspace techniques, and they test the ability of tracking networks to monitor tightly coordinated movements.

As more nations conduct similar rendezvous and proximity operations, these activities have become an important indicator of strategic intent and technical sophistication in orbit. Other major space powers field similar capabilities, with U.S. and Chinese satellites also observed conducting close approaches to foreign spacecraft in orbit.

The commercial satellite sector is generating more imagery than ever, but the military's (specifically U.S. and allied) challenge has shifted from collection to delivery, i.e., getting the data to the right user before the moment passes. Four developments this week, most unveiled at the GEOINT Symposium, trace that problem from procurement to plumbing to the frontline.

5 May, 2026

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office awarded contracts to EarthDaily Analytics, ICEYE, and India-based Pixxel under its Strategic Commercial Enhancements program, announced May 4 at the GEOINT Symposium. Each received a $300,000 base contract for modeling and simulation, with $900,000 options for data purchases. EarthDaily provides multispectral imagery, ICEYE adds radio-frequency geolocation to its existing SAR work, and Pixxel contributes hyperspectral sensing. The NRO also disclosed a three-tier cybersecurity classification system for commercial vendors, with ICEYE elevated to "industrial standard provider" status.

The contracts arrive as the U.S. military struggles to exploit the data it already has. Divergent Space Technologies, a Reston, Va., startup founded by former NRO mission integration official Philip Brooks, is building a software platform called GEOx that treats multiple commercial constellations as a pooled resource. The system anticipates satellite overpasses, automatically places orders across vendors, and can issue parallel tasking requests when an initial detection occurs, replacing what is currently a sequential, largely manual process. Brooks said the bottleneck is not sensor availability but retasking speed, estimating that 95 percent of the time, the collection window has already closed by the time a tasking solution is created. The platform is already in use by some U.S. and allied military organizations, though it cannot yet directly task satellites.

Two field experiments showed what faster delivery looks like in practice.

In a Vantor (formerly Maxar Intelligence) experiment, Ukrainian forces used handheld devices to task commercial imaging satellites directly, bypassing the centralized intelligence workflows that typically delay delivery to the battlefield. Software stitched together satellite tasking, imagery delivery, data integration, and analysis into a single workflow accessible at the tactical level. Units identified targets, executed strikes, and retasked satellites for battle damage assessment in a continuous loop. The imagery was shared simultaneously with units operating hundreds of kilometers apart, enabling distributed targeting coordination. Vantor is now testing tools to compress the full cycle, from satellite tasking to data delivery, to under 15 minutes, though large products like 3D imagery must be scaled down to function over constrained tactical networks.

Separately, U.S. Special Operations Command is testing a software platform from Austin-based SkyFi that delivers unclassified commercial satellite imagery directly to operators via a plugin for the Android Tactical Assault Kit, the handheld app already used across SOCOM for maps, drone feeds, blue-force tracking, and mission data. SkyFi operates as a marketplace aggregating imagery and analytics from some 150 commercial remote sensing providers rather than owning satellites itself. The platform automatically matches requests to whichever provider can respond fastest, and SkyFi's CEO said existing government mechanisms for obtaining unclassified imagery can take days or weeks, while their system delivers in minutes to hours. Bandwidth remains the central constraint, rather than pushing large volumes, the system delivers localized data tied to an operator's specific area of operations.

Pixxel partners with Sarvam on an AI pathfinder to test onboard processing; Anthropic signs major compute deal with SpaceX.

4 May, 2026

Bengaluru-based Pixxel will develop a 200‑kilogram pathfinder satellite to test orbital data‑center technology capable of processing hyperspectral imagery directly in space, aiming for launch before year‑end. The demonstrator will host data‑center‑class processors and onboard language models provided by Indian AI firm Sarvam, enabling real‑time analysis rather than downlinking raw data. The mission builds on Pixxel’s existing six Firefly satellites (deployed last year across two SpaceX rideshare missions), which capture more than 135 spectral bands at five‑meter resolution, and precedes deployment of higher‑fidelity Honeybee spacecraft extending into shortwave infrared.

Pixxel said orbital compute could reduce latency and bypass terrestrial constraints on energy and land use. The satellite will be built at the company’s new Gigapixxel facility, designed to scale production to 100 units.

6 May, 2026

Meanwhile, Anthropic will purchase the full 300‑megawatt capacity of SpaceX’s Colossus 1 terrestrial data center under a May 6 agreement that also gives the AI developer access to SpaceX’s planned orbital data‑center network. Anthropic said the deal is intended to address compute demand growing far faster than expected, with usage and revenue running at an annualized rate 80 times higher than last year.

SpaceX, which in January outlined plans for up to one million satellites to host AI compute in orbit, said orbital platforms could provide power and cooling at scales terrestrial sites cannot meet. The Anthropic agreement is the first indication the company will offer that capacity to external customers.

The deal follows SpaceX’s merger with xAI and its plan to build a Terafab chip‑manufacturing facility to support the constellation.

Orbital computing systems can draw on abundant solar power and avoid many of the physical and regulatory limits facing terrestrial data centers. Other firms pursuing orbital compute include Starcloud, which raised $170 million for a planned 88,000‑satellite network, and Blue Origin, which filed plans for its 51,600‑satellite Project Sunrise. SpaceX argues its launch cadence and manufacturing scale position it to field such systems sooner than competitors. However, significant technical and commercial challenges remain.

IonQ debuts InSAR; SatVu releases thermal data; Space42, JSAT and Open Cosmos push hybrid Earth Observation‑satcom architectures.

4 May, 2026

IonQ introduced a commercial product, InSAR, that uses Capella Space radar satellites to detect millimeter‑scale ground changes, expanding access to a technique traditionally limited by manual processing and long collection timelines. The company, which acquired Capella in 2025, will task its eight Acadia spacecraft in mid‑inclination and sun‑synchronous orbits to gather repeat‑pass radar data for automated interferometric analysis.

IonQ said the service uses Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, or InSAR, which compares repeat radar measurements over the same location to detect small changes on the ground. The company is presenting an already established technique as a more accessible, on‑demand commercial product.

IonQ said customers can schedule collections through its console and API without new satellite deployments. In a 2025 Mexico City study, the system measured deformation rates above 70 centimeters per year using 18 acquisitions over seven weeks, a dataset that typically requires months to assemble.

Meanwhile, Space42 expanded its Foresight low Earth orbit constellation to five satellites as part of a broader push to merge communications and sensing capabilities following the merger of Yahsat and Bayanat. The UAE operator, which deployed its first Finnish Iceye‑built SAR satellite in 2024, plans two more SAR spacecraft in 2027 and is pursuing HAPS (high-altitude platform stations) and blended optical‑radar systems for national security, commercial and autonomous‑vehicle applications. The company reported a 39% revenue decline in its Smart Solutions unit to $124 million in 2025.

Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT advanced a similar strategy with a $230 million order for 10 Planet Pelican optical satellites launching in 2027, and, through Space Compass, its joint venture with NTT, a contract for its first commercial GEO optical data‑relay satellite.

Separately, Open Cosmos, the British small satellite manufacturer outlined a ConnectedCosmos broadband and IoT constellation linking with its OpenConstellation EO network via inter‑satellite links for near‑real‑time data delivery.

Data relay, hosted payloads and multi‑orbit mesh networks are the primary drivers of satcom–Earth Observation convergence, including efforts such as Aalyria’s Spacetime platform and Eutelsat–Skynopy ground‑segment partnerships. The big trend isn’t that communications companies are buying / owning imaging satellites, but that they’re becoming the data highways that Earth‑observation satellites depend on. As low‑Earth‑orbit sensing constellations grow, take more images and produce more data, someone has to move all that data quickly and securely. Satcom operators are stepping into that role, building networks that link many types of satellites and ground systems so information can flow faster and reach users in near real time.

7 May, 2026

SatVu, the British thermal intelligence company, released first‑light imagery from HotSat‑2, its second high‑resolution thermal satellite, marking the company’s transition to operational service after HotSat‑1 failed six months post‑launch. HotSat‑2, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and launched on a SpaceX Transporter mission in March, captured activity at three major energy sites: Cuba’s Hermanos Díaz refinery restarting domestic crude processing, reduced output at India’s Jamnagar refinery during the Strait of Hormuz disruption, and 24‑hour operations at Australia’s Gorgon LNG project.

SatVu said the data provides independent verification of facility utilization in politically or logistically difficult regions, offering insight unavailable from optical or radar sensors. A 2025 investment round is funding continued constellation growth, including HotSat‑3, slated to launch by year‑end.

Astranis (US), Scout Space (US), Nayuta Space (China), Lunar Outpost (US), Skyroot (India) And Creotech (Poland) Announce New Funding

6 May, 2026

San Francisco-based Astranis raised $450 million in new funding to expand production of its small geostationary communications satellites and position for rising U.S. military demand. The package includes a $300 million Series E round led by Snowpoint Ventures and Franklin Templeton, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock‑managed funds, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, BAM Elevate, Nimble Partners and Friends & Family Capital, plus $155 million in delayed‑draw loan commitments from Trinity Capital. The deal values the company at $2.8 billion.

Astranis, which builds micro‑GEO satellites at a 153,000‑square‑foot facility in Northern California, plans to accelerate commercial production and scale for anticipated Space Force procurements in fiscal 2027. The company has five satellites on orbit serving markets including the Philippines and Mexico, with additional systems planned for Taiwan and Oman. Executives said demand is growing for dedicated GEO capacity and that recent Space Force acquisition changes are enabling faster commercial participation.

Scout Space closed an $18 million Series A round led by Washington Harbour Partners, with participation from VIPC, Noblis Ventures, Decisive Point, Fusion Fund and other existing investors. The Reston, Va.–based company said the funding will support upcoming missions and expand manufacturing, including a 2,600‑square‑foot facility in Northern Virginia.

Founded in 2019, Scout develops optical sensors and autonomous onboard software for detecting, tracking and characterizing objects in orbit. Its platform‑agnostic systems are designed to integrate onto host spacecraft rather than operate as standalone satellites. Scout is working with Blue Origin to fly its Owl sensor on the inaugural Blue Ring mission and holds U.S. Space Force contracts.

Chinese launch startup Nayuta Space completed a series of Pre‑A financing rounds to advance development of its Xuanniao‑R or Black Bird-R reusable rocket, the company said April 24. The undisclosed funding will support second‑stage static‑fire tests, scaled aerodynamic‑deceleration flights, wind‑tunnel campaigns and recovery‑technology demonstrations. The two‑stage, 70‑meter‑long launcher uses a novel “bellyflop” aerodynamic‑deceleration and horizontal‑landing approach, with a debut test flight targeted for the first half of 2027 to validate orbital insertion and controlled recovery.

Nayuta Space claims that its aerodynamic‑deceleration method can lessen reliance on engine reignition, propulsive braking and high‑precision control needed for vertical recovery, but the approach requires new aerodynamic structures that introduce added mass and complexity.

Nayuta had previously explored a chopstick‑style recovery similar to SpaceX’s Starship Super Heavy booster. The stainless‑steel Black Bird‑R first stage will use 13 Canglong‑1 methalox engines from Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Technology. The company’s plans come amid rapid growth in China’s commercial launch sector driven by government backing, megaconstellation demand and provincial support.

7 May, 2026

Lunar Outpost raised $30 million in an oversubscribed Series B round led by Industrious Ventures, with participation from Type One Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Promus Ventures, Reliable Equity and others. The company is redesigning its rover architecture after NASA’s March 24 Ignition event, which directed Lunar Outpost, Astrolab and Intuitive Machines to propose simpler vehicles deliverable by 2028 instead of advancing their Lunar Terrain Vehicle concepts. Lunar Outpost is developing a new rover, Pegasus, reusing 72% of its Eagle design and incorporating elements from Apollo and its MAPP platform. The funding will support long‑lead procurement, facility expansion and broader NASA and Pentagon robotics programs.

Indian space tech startup, Skyroot Aerospace raised $60 million in a round co‑led by Sherpalo Ventures and Singapore’s GIC, with participation from new and existing investors including funds managed by BlackRock. The investment values the Hyderabad‑based launch startup at $1.1 billion, making it India’s first space unicorn and bringing total funding to $160 million.

Skyroot is preparing the first launch of Vikram‑1, a three‑stage solid‑fuel small launcher with a liquid kick stage capable of placing 350 kilograms into LEO. The vehicle has been shipped to the Satish Dhawan Space Center for final tests ahead of a planned launch later this year. Funding will scale Vikram‑1 production and support development of Vikram‑2, a cryogenic‑upper‑stage vehicle targeted for 2027. Ram Shriram of Sherpalo will join the company’s board.

Creotech Instruments, a Polish aerospace and advanced electronics company, announced plans for a $118 million fundraise to open a new satellite production facility in Poland by 2029, aiming to expand annual manufacturing capacity to about 40 satellites. CEO Grzegorz Brona said the company recorded 146 million złoty ($40.4 million) in space‑sector revenue last year and achieved net profitability, with a current order backlog of roughly 600 million złoty. Existing programs include the Mikroglob military Earth‑observation microsatellite effort and the €52 million ($61 million) CAMILA national‑constellation initiative.

Creotech plans to shift from microsatellites to larger minisatellite platforms, with Seagull launching in 2028, the SWAN line debuting in 2029 and the EMU platform targeted for 2032. The company also participates in a Three Seas regional hybrid‑constellation initiative.

NASA is using public money to help a private company develop commercial extraction capabilities for a resource, whose primary market is terrestrial, not exploration-support.

By Maharshi Bhattacharya

NASA has awarded Seattle-based Interlune a $6.9 million contract to develop a payload that will, for the first time, attempt to extract gases from lunar soil while on the Moon's surface. The 18-month project, funded through a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III award, aims to build and test hardware for a 2028 robotic lander mission called Prospect Moon.

The technology itself is straightforward in concept, if demanding in execution. Prospect Moon will use a robotic arm and scoop to collect lunar regolith (the loose rock and dust covering the Moon), and feed it into a processing unit. There, samples will be heated to release volatile gases implanted by billions of years of solar wind exposure, primarily helium-3 and hydrogen. A mass spectrometer derived from NASA's MSOLO instrument (Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations; an instrument designed to identify and quantify low-molecular-weight gases, specifically water, on the Moon's surface), which was proven on the Intuitive Machines 2 mission to the lunar south pole in 2025, will measure the concentrations of those gases. Other samples will undergo mechanical processing, such as size sorting, agitation, and crushing, to test different extraction methods.

The payload will also include a multi-spectral camera to estimate helium-3 concentrations by identifying mineral markers in the regolith. Interlune says the system will be ready for lander integration by fall 2027, with a launch targeted for 2028.

This isn't Interlune's first lunar hardware. The company is also flying a camera called Crescent Moon on Astrolab's FLIP rover, scheduled for later this year on Astrobotic's Griffin-1 mission. That camera is designed to identify ilmenite concentrations, which is a mineral that correlates with helium-3 deposits based on Apollo-era sample analysis. These two missions together form a logical sequence: map promising regolith first, then test whether useful gases can actually be extracted from it.

Helium-3 is extremely scarce on Earth but believed to be relatively abundant on the Moon. It has applications in quantum computing (as a coolant for dilution refrigerators that keep quantum processors near absolute zero), medical imaging, neutron detection for weapons security, and potentially fusion energy. Interlune says it has secured nearly $500 million in binding purchase orders from the U.S. Department of Energy and quantum computing firms including Maybell Quantum and Bluefors.

Although the commercial demand exists, the logistics remain daunting. By Interlune's own estimates, extracting just three liters of helium-3 would require processing enough regolith to fill a large swimming pool. CEO Rob Meyerson has acknowledged that commercial-scale lunar operations won't begin until the early 2030s at the earliest. In the meantime, the company is developing terrestrial extraction methods, pulling trace amounts of helium-3 from commercially available industrial-grade helium, to start fulfilling contracts that require deliveries as early as 2028.

NASA presents this contract as supporting in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for Artemis, technologies that let astronauts use what's already on the Moon rather than shipping everything from Earth. And that framing isn't entirely wrong. The data from Prospect Moon will inform surface operations, and the extraction techniques could eventually support a lunar base.

Interlune's actual business model, however, has more to do with selling helium-3 to terrestrial customers than about supporting astronauts. And Meyerson has been straightforward about the fact that Interlune's mining operations probably won't be located near NASA's planned south pole base, because the company prefers equatorial regions for operational and solar energy reasons.

So what NASA is funding, in practice, is a proof-of-concept for a commercial mining operation whose primary market is back on Earth. That's not necessarily a problem, dual-use technology development is a feature, not a bug, of NASA's commercial partnerships. But it does raise a question that the press releases don't address: under what legal framework does a private company claim the right to extract and sell resources from the Moon?

The answer depends on who you ask, and there's no binding international ruling that settles it.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which the U.S., Russia, China, and most spacefaring nations have ratified, prohibits "national appropriation" of celestial bodies "by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means" (Article II). But it doesn't explicitly address whether extracting and selling resources counts as appropriation.

The U.S. interprets the treaty to mean that you can mine resources without claiming to own the land they came from, a distinction between territorial sovereignty and resource rights. U.S. Congress codified this position in the 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which explicitly grants U.S. citizens the right to own and sell space resources they extract. Luxembourg passed similar legislation in 2017, and the UAE followed in 2020.

Russia and China, among others, have pushed back on this interpretation. They argue that commercial extraction and sale of celestial resources is functionally indistinguishable from appropriation. The 1979 Moon Agreement, which attempted to declare lunar resources the "common heritage of mankind" and establish an international regime to govern extraction, would have resolved this ambiguity, but neither the U.S., Russia, nor China ever ratified it, and it remains largely a dead letter.

Into this legal vacuum step the Artemis Accords, a set of bilateral agreements between the U.S. and (as of now) over 60 partner nations. The Accords establish principles around transparency, interoperability, resource extraction, and "safety zones" around lunar operations. Section 10 specifically affirms that extracting space resources does not constitute national appropriation, essentially locking in the U.S. interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty among signatory nations.

The strategic significance of the Accords is less about what they say than how they work. The traditional forum for negotiating space governance is COPUOS, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which operates by consensus among all member states. COPUOS is where the Outer Space Treaty itself was negotiated. It's multilateral, slow, and gives every nation a voice, including those that disagree with the U.S. position on resource rights.

The Artemis Accords bypass that process entirely. Instead of seeking consensus through COPUOS, the U.S. built a coalition of like-minded nations through bilateral agreements, establishing norms around resource extraction outside the body where those norms would face the most resistance. Russia and China are not signatories, and they are building their own International Lunar Research Station with a separate set of partners.

This matters because international law can form through custom: if enough states behave a certain way for long enough and treat it as legally binding, it becomes law. The Artemis Accords strategy looks like a deliberate effort to accelerate that process, i.e., to create enough precedent and enough signatories that the U.S. interpretation of resource rights becomes the de facto international norm before COPUOS can reach a different consensus.

Whether you view this as pragmatic leadership or as undermining multilateral governance depends on your perspective. But the structural effect is clear: by the time contracts like the Interlune deal produce actual extracted resources on the lunar surface, the legal and political framework for that activity will already have been shaped, not through the UN, but through a coalition built around U.S. commercial interests and U.S. interpretations of treaty law.

The 2028 Prospect Moon mission is a proof-of-concept, not a mine. But it's a proof-of-concept with $500 million in purchase orders behind it and a clear commercial roadmap to the early 2030s. The technical question, that is, can helium-3 be efficiently extracted from lunar regolith in situ,is important, but it's not the only one. The governance question — who decides the rules for commercial resource extraction beyond Earth, and through what process? — may prove to be the more consequential one.

Despatch Out. 👽🛸