June 8-14, 2026 | Vol 45, Week 23 | Hawai`i Island, USA
LUNAR NEWS
SpaceX likely will go public at a multiple of the combined market capitalization of all other space companies. | FAA requires an investigation into uncontrolled landing of SpaceX Super Heavy booster on Starship Flight 12. | Blue Origin mission schedule is said by others to be set back a year or more because of explosion, but CEO Dave Limp stated Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lunar lander will launch this year, and 2 missions for NASA—initial award US$188M—will deliver LTVs to Moon South Pole by 2028. | Blue Origin will build 77,000 sq m factory in Florida for upper-stage manufacturing. | NASA 5 directorates reduced to 3, with Exploration Systems and Space Ops merging to Human Spaceflight; other 2 are Research & Technology and Science. | Jackson Brougher of Baylor Center for Space Medicine calls for human health research to be specified in RFIs for sustained Moon visits. | Texas A&M Space Institute to open this fall next to NASA Johnson with 2-1/2 acre simulated Moon surface. | Venturi Space has announced a €250-M, 200-job, 10,000-sq m lunar mobility facility for Toulouse, France. | Chang’E-5 regolith studies have been published. | Voyager of Colorado, builder of Starlab space station, is buying Astrobotic of Pensylvannia, builder of Griffin lander for Moon Base 2. | DARPA has given 3 concept awards for locating water ice from very low orbit. | NASA Moon Base program shifts NASA procurement landscape and goals. | NASA and Administrator Isaacman are amenable to Blue Moon landers being carried by a rocket other than New Glenn. Image Credits: ILOA, NASA, Astrolab)
Singapore: Space Faculty Nurtures Next Gen, NSAS Funds Space Technology
Space Faculty of Singapore will host Axiom Space CTO Astronaut Koichi Wakata (R) on June 12 for a discussion on “Commercial Developments in Today’s Access to Space“. Space Faculty CEO Lynette Tan (L) fosters her organization’s “Galactic Mindset”; it produces International Space Challenge—thousands of participants from 50+ countries, and works with JAXA and ESA for ISS experiments. Singapore established National Space Agency of Singapore, NSAS, April 1st with mission statement “Advance space capabilities to strengthen how Singapore and the world lives, moves, connects and thrives.” It supersedes Office for Space Technology & Industry and seeks to develop industry, technology, capability, talent and workforce for space, and to join the international space community via partnerships and in determining policy and governance. Singapore has ~2,000 professionals and researchers working in ~70 space companies, and at National University, Nanyang Tech U and its Satellite Research Centre, A*STAR, polytechnic schools and DSO National Laboratories. Singapore’s Space Technology Development Programme, funded with S$210M, has focus areas including Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), optical Earth observation and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Singapore participates in UN COPUOS, ASEAN Sub-Committee on Space Technology and Applications, Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum and has signed the Artemis Accords. Singapore’s first ground station and satellite were in 1971 and 1998, respectively. (Image Credits: Space Faculty)
HUMANS IN SPACE
☆ International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 74 seven crew members are examining how bacteria responds to weightlessness, measuring how cartilage grows in space, harvesting stem cells, studying molecular structure of metals with an electron microscope, watering plants, and monitoring their own blood pressure and cardiac function. They also are maintaining plumbing and ventilation systems, cleaning heat exchangers for the station HVAC system, observing how various fluids boil / condense / flow in microgravity, and analyzing air samples for ammonia / carbon dioxide / other substances to determine station air quality. (Image Credits: NASA)
☆ Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Three Shenzhou-23 Taikonauts, who are currently adjusting to life in orbit and testing fibers derived from Chang’E-5 regolith samples, are expected to stay aboard TSS for either six months or one year. Two will return after six months, while the other will fulfill a one-year mission. The final decision on the stay durations will be made later based on their physical and psychological health assessments. Commander Zhu Yangzhu was an associate professor of aerospace engineering. Li Jiaying is the first Taikonaut from Hong Kong, where she was a Police Force Chief Inspector. Pilot Zhang Zhiyuan had been a pilot in the air force. (Image Credits: CNSA)
Near-Earth Objects Close Approaches – Tue June 9: Amor Asteroid 2026 KM3 (0.015 AU) | Fri June 12: Apollo Asteroid 530520 2011 LT17 (0.041 AU) | Sat June 13: Amor Asteroid 2026 JR3 (0.055 AU) | Sun June 14: Apollo Asteroid 2013 BO27 (0.069 AU)
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