Latest Developments

SpaceX’s biggest headline this week is a $2.29 billion Space Force contract to build the backbone of a military space data network, cementing the company’s role as America’s primary defense connectivity provider. That news lands alongside Starship Version 3’s debut flight, which already has SpaceX teams preparing for a rapid follow-up mission. On the civil side, NASA formalized plans to add six additional Commercial Crew missions to SpaceX’s existing contract — a direct consequence of Boeing’s ongoing Starliner certification struggles. With 10,397 Starlink satellites actively working across a constellation of 10,413 in orbit from 12,032 launched to date, the network underpinning all of these programs has never been larger or more commercially active.

Space Safety

The current Starlink conjunction threat picture reveals one HIGH risk event within the next week, with STARLINK-36370 facing a critical close approach to GESAT GEN1 on May 30, 2026 at 00:34 UTC with a minimum range of only 7 meters and maximum collision probability of 1.0. Two MODERATE risk events are also tracked, primarily involving non-operational debris, while seven additional LOW risk conjunctions are distributed across the analysis period. Concurrently, five Starlink satellites are predicted to reenter Earth’s atmosphere between May 26–29, 2026, with decay windows ranging from 5 to 48 hours, representing a near-term operational impact on constellation availability.

Detailed Coverage

Musk: Military Suicide Drones Used Starlink Without Authorization

In the most pointed controversy of the week, Elon Musk publicly stated that U.S. military suicide drones — loitering munitions — were operated over Starlink connectivity in violation of SpaceX’s own terms of service. Musk argued the correct channel for lethal military applications is Starshield, SpaceX’s government-facing, hardened derivative of Starlink, and placed blame on the military contractor involved rather than the armed services directly. The incident raises immediate questions about how effectively SpaceX can enforce end-use restrictions on a constellation that now spans over 10,000 active satellites and serves an enormous diversity of government and commercial customers simultaneously.

From a satellite-tracking perspective, distinguishing Starlink from Starshield terminals in the field is essentially impossible at the orbital level — both draw from overlapping satellite infrastructure, making policy enforcement a ground-side problem rather than a space-side one. The episode is likely to accelerate calls in Washington for clearer statutory boundaries around commercial satellite connectivity and autonomous weapons systems.

Read the full story: Ars Technica

SpaceX Wins $2.29 Billion Space Force Space Data Network Contract

SpaceX has been awarded a $2.29 billion contract to develop the backbone of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Data Network — the military’s next-generation architecture for routing data between space assets, ground stations, and warfighters. The contract is one of the largest single awards SpaceX has received from the defense sector and signals that the Pentagon is moving decisively toward commercial low-Earth-orbit infrastructure as the connective tissue of future military space operations.

The win deepens SpaceX’s already substantial footprint in national security space, where Starshield contracts have been accumulating quietly for several years. For KeepTrack users, this development matters because a significant portion of the satellites that will relay this military data traffic are physically indistinguishable from the broader Starlink constellation until their orbital planes and operational signatures are analyzed in detail.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

NASA Expands SpaceX Crew Contract as Boeing Starliner Certification Stalls

NASA has filed a procurement notice declaring its intent to add six post-certification missions to SpaceX’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, with up to three ordered immediately and three held in reserve through the end of the International Space Station program. The agency made no effort to obscure the reason: Boeing’s Starliner remains unable to achieve certification, leaving NASA with a single certified crew vehicle and mounting scheduling pressure for ISS rotation missions.

The move is as much a statement about the state of Boeing’s human spaceflight program as it is a vote of confidence in SpaceX. Crew Dragon has now completed more crewed orbital missions than any other American capsule in the post-Shuttle era, and with this contract expansion, it will almost certainly extend that record considerably before any competitor reaches operational status.

Read the full story: TESLARATI

Starship Version 3 Makes Its Debut Flight; Follow-Up Already in Preparation

Starship Version 3 flew for the first time this week, marking a significant design milestone in SpaceX’s iterative development program. NASASpaceFlight reports that the mission accomplished several objectives tied to the V3 configuration, and that SpaceX teams are already moving toward a follow-up flight to build on the data gathered. The V3 vehicle incorporates structural and propulsion refinements that SpaceX intends to carry forward as the production-standard configuration for lunar and deep-space applications.

The debut is particularly significant in the context of NASA’s Artemis program, where Starship serves as the Human Landing System. With the lunar outpost framework now taking shape — see the Moon Base story below — having a verified V3 flight cadence becomes critical path for crewed surface missions later this decade.

Read the full story: NASASpaceFlight

American Airlines Signs On, Giving Starlink Three of the Big Four U.S. Carriers

American Airlines announced it will equip more than 500 narrowbody aircraft with Starlink connectivity beginning in Q1 2027, making it the third of the four major U.S. carriers to adopt the service. The deal covers Airbus narrowbodies in American’s fleet and represents a major commercial expansion for Starlink Aviation at a time when in-flight connectivity has become a genuine competitive differentiator for domestic carriers.

The aviation vertical is now one of Starlink’s fastest-scaling market segments, with the low-latency, high-throughput characteristics of the Gen2 constellation making it technically superior to legacy Ku-band inflight systems for most passenger use cases. With three of the Big Four now contracted, United Airlines is the remaining major carrier that has yet to publicly commit to Starlink.

Read the full story: TESLARATI

Battery-Powered Starlink Mini Appears Imminent Based on Firmware Strings

Firmware researcher Jinwei Zhao identified strings in a May Starlink firmware release strongly suggesting an integrated-battery version of the Starlink Mini dish is in development. The code references a “DishBatteryStats” message structure with fields including state_of_charge, implying active battery management logic rather than a placeholder. A self-powered Mini would remove the last significant portability barrier for the device, enabling fully untethered deployment for emergency responders, off-grid users, and mobile operators who currently must source external battery solutions.

For KeepTrack’s user base, an untethered Mini would be directly relevant to portable satellite observation and tracking setups in the field. If the firmware evidence translates to a product launch, it would also represent Starlink’s most consumer-accessible hardware form factor to date, potentially accelerating subscriber growth in segments that have been constrained by power infrastructure requirements.

Read the full story: The Verge

NASA Names SpaceX Among Vendors for First Permanent Lunar Outpost

NASA has announced the roster of rovers, landers, and industry partners that will contribute to America’s first permanent Moon Base, with SpaceX named as a key participant in the architecture. The selection marks a transition from the exploration-focused framing of early Artemis to an outpost-building phase that implies sustained human presence, logistical resupply cycles, and surface infrastructure development over a multi-year horizon.

SpaceX’s role as the Human Landing System provider through Starship means it sits at the center of any crewed surface access architecture, but the broader vendor ecosystem named alongside it suggests NASA is deliberately distributing the outpost’s supply chain across multiple contractors. Starship V3’s successful debut this week adds practical momentum to what has until now been a largely programmatic and contractual framework.

Read the full story: TESLARATI

Constellation Status

There have been no changes to the Starlink constellation since the last check. The constellation currently consists of 12,032 total launched satellites, with 10,413 remaining in orbit, 10,397 of which are actively working, and 1,619 that have decayed from orbit.

• Total Launched: 12032
• Total On Orbit: 10413
• Total Working: 10397

Track Starlink satellites in real-time: Track Starlink