Estes Industries, famous among model rocket enthusiasts for the company’s solid propellant motors, has spun off a new company sporting lineage to Aurora Flight Sciences that aims to provide engineering support for larger launchers.

Congress can anticipate a detailed cost and schedule assessment for NASA’s efforts to return human explorers to the Moon under the Biden administration’s version of the Artemis initiative to establish a sustained human lunar presence and prepare for expeditions to Mars by the end of this year, agency Administrator Bill Nelson says.

The U.S. Space Development Agency is poised to send its first five small experimental satellites and payload on orbit, with the intent to validate space-based laser communications, battle management and target custody technology.

Procter and Gamble is working with NASA to develop a space version of its Tide detergent to clean the clothing and fabrics of astronauts assigned to future missions to the Moon and Mars that could double as a more environmentally friendly cleanser for use on Earth.

The European Space Agency and the European Commission on June 22 signed a long-sought financial framework partnership agreement for 2021-27, formalizing a relationship they intend to make tighter.

Xuntian will be similar to the Hubble Space Telescope but with a field of view 300 times larger, according to the director of the National Astronomical Observatories at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

The U.S. Export-Import Bank on June 21 reported its first satellite-related export financing deal since 2015, backing SpaceX’s expected launch of Hispasat’s planned Amazonas Nexus satellite so that rival Arianespace did not win the business with European export credit agency support.

Intuitive Machines (IM), one of NASA’s early Commercial Lunar Services Payload Services providers, announced plans on June 21 to place a communications satellite in orbit around the Moon to provide a data link to Earth as part of its second lunar mission planned for late 2022.