Space News for Wednesday, May 20, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:20) Isaacman expects Chinese crewed mission around the moon in 2027(00:59) SDA director Sandhoo takes on broader Space Force missile warning portfolio(01:44) Portal Space taps Quindar for ground mission support of its maneuvering spacecraft(01:56) Vast announces line of high-power satellite buses(02:12) SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 launch from California(02:52) Astroscale and SKY Perfect JSAT Alliance Signals Shift to In-Orbit Maintenance Economy(03:31) Intuitive Machines Secures Prime Contracts to Operate Key NASA and KARI Lunar Imaging Instruments(04:10) iDirect Government Launches WCore to Virtualize Military Satellite Modems(04:41) Lightpath Expands Dense Northeast Fiber Infrastructure Across 2,400 Macro Cell Towers(05:20) Fire Chars Santa Rosa Island(05:42) Launch Preview: Falcon 9, Electron, and Vega C launch missions alongside Starship Flight 12(06:26) From Design Reviews to Decision Intelligence: CoLab Rewires Engineering Workflows(07:05) CSF Forecasts Launch Supply Running Low(07:30) Vast Launches Satellite Bus Business Line(08:16) York Space Systems to Acquire Solestial(09:04) Lasers in moon craters could create a lunar GPS system(09:41) Worker dies at SpaceX's Starbase in leadup to Starship V3 megarocket launch(10:23) NASA satellite will test orbital 'gas station' tech to help astronauts reach the moon and Mars