NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts initiative has awarded $5 million in grants to seven innovators, among them a Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher investigating the possible construction of a lunar far side radio telescope using wire mesh embedded in an impact crater by small climbing robots.

Rocket Lab plans to conduct its second parachute-assisted booster splashdown next month, as it works to evolve the Electron small satellite launch vehicle into a reusable rocket, the company said on April 8.

The U.S. Space Force intends to establish a Space Systems Command this summer, pending the nomination and Senate confirmation of a three-star commander.

The launch of the Luna-25 automatic lander planned for October will mark Russia’s return to lunar exploration.

Philippe Baptiste, an engineer by training with experience in science, industry and politics, is to succeed Jean-Yves Le Gall at the helm of French space agency CNES after the country’s parliament approved the nomination.

SpaceX on April 7 completed its eighth mission of the year to deploy its Starlink broadband network, boosting the constellation to about 1,400 spacecraft.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft completed a final 6-hr., close-up, image-gathering session over the rocky surface of the asteroid Bennu early April 7.

Swedish-British small satellite manufacturer AAC Clyde Space this month entered a conditional agreement to buy privately owned Omnisys Instruments, a Swedish developer and manufacturer of sensors for space projects, in a deal worth about $8.7 million.