Top Stories

Rocket Lab Secures 5-Launch Neutron Contract, Targets Q4 2026 Debut

Rocket Lab has announced a five-launch deal for its Neutron rocket while holding to a no-earlier-than Q4 2026 first flight. The debut mission will not attempt reuse — stage recovery is planned for the second flight, using a landing barge.

The schedule shift follows a first stage tank test failure earlier this year. Neutron is Rocket Lab’s medium-lift reusable vehicle designed to compete in the 13,000 kg to LEO class. The contract gives the program commercial commitment before the rocket has flown.

Read the full story: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX Booster 19 Fires All 33 Engines; Ship 39 Rollout Next

Booster 19 completed a full-duration, full-thrust 33-engine static fire on May 7, 2026. Ship 39 is now preparing for rollout to the orbital launch site at Starbase.

This is the standard qualification sequence before a Starship integrated flight test. If Ship 39 follows the same path as recent vehicles, rollout and stacking onto Booster 19 would come within days of this firing.

Read the full story: NASASpaceFlight

Pentagon Releases Nearly 30 Declassified UAP Videos

The Department of Defense released a new batch of UAP files on May 8, including close to 30 videos. Objects described in the release range from a “football-shaped body” to a “misshapen and uneven ball of white light.”

For KeepTrack users, many historical UAP reports originate from sensor systems that also track orbital objects. Cross-referencing UAP event timestamps against satellite catalog data can help rule out — or confirm — known orbital objects as explanations.

Read the full story: Space.com

Poland First to Sign EU SAFE Loans, Unlocking $51B+ for Defense

Poland signed the first EU SAFE loan agreement, putting it on track to receive over $51 billion in EU-backed defense financing. The deal cleared after domestic political obstacles were resolved.

The SAFE instrument is the EU’s new mechanism for pooling defense borrowing across member states. Poland has been among the highest defense spenders in NATO by GDP percentage, and this funding accelerates planned military modernization.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Turkey Contracts First 20 KAAN Fighter Jets from TAI

The Turkish Air Force placed its first contract for 20 Block 10 KAAN aircraft from Turkish Aerospace Industries. TAI CEO Mehmet Demiroglu confirmed the order and said additional batches are expected over time.

KAAN is Turkey’s domestically developed fifth-generation fighter. The contract converts the program from a development effort into a production program, though Block 10 configuration details and delivery timelines were not disclosed.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Pentagon’s $350B Reconciliation Play Faces Congressional Uncertainty

The Pentagon is banking on a $350 billion reconciliation package for defense modernization, but the path through Congress is unclear. A second reconciliation bill currently in play focuses on immigration enforcement funding, leaving defense allocations unresolved.

The stakes include munitions stockpiles and procurement timelines across multiple programs. If the reconciliation strategy fails, the Defense Department faces hard choices on which modernization programs absorb cuts.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Black Hole Collisions with OB Stars Proposed as Source of Fast Blue Transients

A new study proposes that Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients — powerful short-duration blue flashes seen across the cosmos — may result from black holes or neutron stars colliding with OB-class stars, the hottest and most massive stellar type.

LFBOTs are poorly understood and have resisted clean classification. The compact-object collision model would explain both their energy output and rapid timescales. The hypothesis is still under review and has not been confirmed observationally.

Read the full story: Space.com

Satellite of the Day

WILDFIRE 9

WILDFIRE 9 is a compact satellite operated by the Space Development Agency (SDA), a U.S. Department of Defense organization focused on building resilient military space capabilities. Manufactured by TYVAK and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Division, this 300-kilogram spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on September 2, 2023, from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The satellite carries the SDA-0B TPL payload and is part of the broader effort to establish a proliferated, resilient constellation architecture for national defense and space domain awareness.

With its distinctive box-plus-solar-panel design (1m × 0.4m core with 2.5m panel span), WILDFIRE 9 operates in a highly inclined polar orbit, making it one of many small satellites deployed to support SDA’s vision of distributed, redundant space systems. These smaller, more affordable platforms are designed to reduce the consequences of individual satellite loss while increasing overall constellation robustness—a key shift in how the U.S. military approaches space infrastructure.

Track this satellite in real-time: Track WILDFIRE 9

Upcoming Space Launches

May 11

• Long March 7 | Tianzhou-10:
  • Unknown Payload from Wenchang Space Launch Site, People’s Republic of China (00:05 UTC) Ninth cargo delivery mission to the Chinese space station. Launch Preview

May 11–12

• Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-172:
  • NROL-172 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (22:28 UTC) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the NROL-172 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office — the 12th mission supporting the agency’s proliferated architecture, believed to consist of Starshield satellites. Booster B1103, on its second flight, will land on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. Watch Live

May 12

• Long March 6A | Unknown Payload:

  • Unknown Payload from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People’s Republic of China (11:49 UTC) Details to be determined.

• Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-34:

  • Dragon CRS-34 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (23:16 UTC) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch NASA’s 34th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon spacecraft (tail number C209), flying for a sixth time, will deliver thousands of pounds of science experiments and supplies, arriving at the station after a roughly 38-hour transit. Watch Live

May 13

• Zhuque-2E | Unknown Payload:
  • Unknown Payload from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People’s Republic of China (02:52 UTC) Details to be determined. Zhuque-2E is LandSpace’s enhanced methane-fueled medium-lift rocket, capable of lifting up to 6,000 kg to low Earth orbit.

May 15

• Kinetica 1 | Unknown Payload:

  • Unknown Payload from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People’s Republic of China (04:24 UTC) Details to be determined. Kinetica 1 (Lijian-1) is a Chinese solid-propellant light launch vehicle developed by CAS Space, capable of delivering approximately 2,000 kg to low Earth orbit.

• Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-37:

  • Starlink Group 17-37 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (14:00 UTC) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of 24 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. Booster B1097, on its ninth flight, will land on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. Watch Live Launch Preview

• Starship | Flight 12:

  • Starship Flight 12 from SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA (22:30 UTC) SpaceX Starship will conduct its 12th integrated flight test and the first launch of the version 3 rocket configuration, flying as a suborbital mission. The vehicle will use Ship 39 as the upper stage and Booster 19 as the first stage.

May 17

• Falcon 9 Block 5 | Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 (x 9):
  • Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (12:50 UTC) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch nine second-generation Globalstar refresh satellites to replenish the company’s low Earth orbit mobile communications constellation at 1,410 km altitude. The satellites were built by MDA with buses and dispensers supplied by Rocket Lab under a contract signed in early 2022. Watch Live

May 19

• Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-42:

  • Starlink Group 17-42 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (02:11 UTC) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of 24 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. Booster B1097, on its ninth flight, will land on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. Watch Live

• Vega-C | Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE):

  • SMILE from Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana (03:52 UTC) An Avio Vega-C rocket will launch the SMILE satellite, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The spacecraft will operate in a highly elliptical Earth orbit for three years, studying how Earth’s magnetosphere responds to the solar wind using four science instruments to improve understanding of space weather and geomagnetic storms. Watch Live

May 21

• GSLV Mk II | GISAT-1A (EOS-05):
  • GISAT-1A from Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India (03:15 UTC) India’s GEO Imaging Satellite-1A will operate from geostationary orbit to provide continuous observation of the Indian subcontinent, enabling rapid monitoring of natural hazards and disasters.

May 22

• Atlas V 551 | Amazon Leo (LA-07):

  • Amazon Leo LA-07 from Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (00:00 UTC) A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket will launch a batch of 29 Amazon Kuiper broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit. This is the penultimate Amazon Leo mission booked on an Atlas V rocket.

• Electron | Viva La StriX (StriX Launch 9):

  • Viva La StriX from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (09:30 UTC) A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch the ninth StriX synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japan-based company Synspective, deploying it into a 572 km circular orbit at 44.8 degrees inclination.

May 31

• Electron | The Grain Goddess Provides (iQPS Launch 7):
  • The Grain Goddess Provides from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (00:00 UTC) A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch a synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.

Schedule Changes

• Kinetica 1 | Unknown Payload was newly added to the manifest, scheduled for May 15 at 04:24 UTC from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China (status: Go for Launch).
• Falcon 9 Block 5 | Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 (x 9) was newly added to the manifest, scheduled for May 17 at 12:50 UTC from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (status: Go for Launch).

Note: Launch dates and times are subject to change due to technical or weather considerations.