SPACE.HAUS · WEEKLY INTEL BRIEFING

Space Industry Weekly Briefing — Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Weekly intelligence briefing for the commercial space industry, week ending Tuesday, May 19, 2026. 19 stories across 6 categories including Funding Rounds & Investment Activity, Contracts, Awards & Government Activity, Mergers, Acquisitions & Partnerships, Launch Activity & Mission Milestones, Industry Context, Additional Updates. AI-curated by space.haus from 50+ industry sources.

Sources scanned: 50
Companies with news: 16
Funding activity: $275M+
Top story: Star Catcher raises $65M Series A

Funding Rounds & Investment Activity

Star Catcher — N/A

FUNDING

May 19 — Star Catcher raised $65 million in Series A funding to build the first power grid in space, enabling orbital power beaming capabilities. Source

Tomorrow.io — N/A

FUNDING

May 19 — Tomorrow.io extended its Series F funding round to $210 million with additional investment from Pitango and Harel Insurance, supporting its weather intelligence satellite constellation. Source

Contracts, Awards & Government Activity

Northrop Grumman — Falls Church, VA

CONTRACT

May 18 — Space Force's Space Systems Command awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million firm-fixed price contract to develop and build an Enhanced Protected Tactical Satellite Communications-Prototype (PTS-P). Source

Astrolab — Hawthorne, CA

CONTRACT

May 18 — Astrolab's first lunar rover FLIP will carry four NASA payloads on a mission planned to launch later this year under NASA's lunar exploration program. Source

Lynk Global — Falls Church, VA

CONTRACT

May 19 — Lynk Global secured FCC regulatory approval to test direct-to-device (D2D) satellite communications for private utility networks using terrestrial spectrum from Anterix in the United States. Source

Skynopy — N/A

CONTRACT

May 18 — Skynopy won a contract from Toulouse-based U-Space to provide ground station services for the operation of two small satellites. Source

NASA — Washington, DC

CONTRACT

May 18 — The U.S. Senate confirmed Matt Anderson as NASA's deputy administrator on May 18, making him the second-in-command of the space agency. Source

Mergers, Acquisitions & Partnerships

York Space Systems — Denver, CO

M&A

May 19 — York Space Systems announced plans to acquire Solestial, a radiation-resistant solar technology company, strengthening its satellite manufacturing capabilities. Source

European Space Agency (ESA) — Paris, France

PARTNERSHIP

May 18 — ESA and French space agency CNES signed off on a three-year, $1.16 billion investment in Europe's Guiana Space Center spaceport to maintain and upgrade launch infrastructure. Source

Launch Activity & Mission Milestones

European Space Agency (ESA) — Paris, France

LAUNCH

May 19 — ESA's SMILE mission, developed jointly with China, successfully launched aboard a Vega C rocket from French Guiana at 04:52 BST to study Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind interactions. Source

SpaceX — Hawthorne, CA

LAUNCH

May 18 — SpaceX delayed the first Starship V3 test flight (Flight 12) by one day, now targeting Wednesday, May 20, from Starbase in Texas. The new Starship V3 design represents the latest iteration of the megarocket. Source

NASA — Washington, DC

LAUNCH

May 18 — NASA released video footage showing the Artemis 2 Orion capsule's separation from its service module just before the spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere on April 10, 2026. Source

Industry Context

Pentagon / Golden Dome — Washington, DC

OPS UPDATE

May 18 — Pentagon officials overseeing Golden Dome are courting commercial space founders, venture investors, and software companies to build missile defense as a modern technology platform rather than a traditional weapons system. Source

European Earth Observation Companies — Europe

OPS UPDATE

May 18 — European Earth-observation firms are moving to fill the gap left by U.S. satellite imagery companies that have pulled back from sharing visuals of Iran and the broader Gulf conflict area. Source

Additional Updates

Vast — Long Beach, CA

OPS UPDATE

May 19 — Vast launched a new satellite bus business line, expanding beyond its commercial space station development activities. Source

iDirectGov — Herndon, VA

OPS UPDATE

May 18 — iDirect Government released WCore, a new virtualization tool supporting 16 waveforms designed for rapid waveform deployment, scaling, and management in government satcom applications. Source

Starlink — Hawthorne, CA

OPS UPDATE

May 18 — Starlink raised prices across its U.S. satellite internet plans, with the 100Mbps Residential plan increasing from $50 to $55/month and the 200Mbps plan rising from $80 to $85/month. Source

KVH — Middletown, RI

OPS UPDATE

May 18 — Maritime connectivity provider KVH reported that Starlink and OneWeb now represent 45% of revenue (up from 30% a year ago), with 3,100 units shipped in Q1 2026. Source

SpaceX — Hawthorne, CA

OPS UPDATE

May 18 — OSHA is investigating a worker death at SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas, the latest safety issue at a site with a higher injury rate than all other SpaceX locations. Source