Nominal

Nominal raises $80M, lands $53M Air Force contract

Hardware testing platform Nominal closed Series B-2 at $1B valuation, then secured $53M Air Force IDIQ to standardize DoD test infrastructure, the real inflection point.

EarthDaily deploys six satellites, Atlas V ties record for Amazon

EarthDaily Analytics launched six Earth observation satellites May 3; the same week, Atlas V set a payload record lifting 18 tons for Amazon's constellation, which now totals 270 satellites.

AST wins 248-satellite license as its prime launch partner gets grounded

The FCC authorized AST SpaceMobile's full 248-satellite constellation on April 21, but three days earlier New Glenn suffered an upper-stage failure that will ground the rocket, the vehicle designed to deploy most of AST's satellites by 2026.

USDA Launches National Proving Grounds Network for AgTech

The USDA announced NPG-Ag on April 7, 2026, a nationwide testing program to validate AI and precision agriculture technologies under real farm conditions, with pilots starting this year and Grand Farm as national manager.

Artemis II breaks Apollo 13 record as four astronauts reach lunar flyby

NASA's Artemis II crew will surpass Apollo 13's distance record tomorrow at 1:56 p.m. EDT, reaching 252,757 miles from Earth. The mission is the first crewed translunar injection since 1972 and the highest-stakes systems test before lunar landing attempts.

Artemis II Crew Boards for Moon Launch Today; Heat Shield Untested at Reentry

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Jeremy Hansen, are boarding Orion for a crewed lunar flyby launch at 6:24 p.m. EDT today—the first humans beyond low Earth orbit in 54 years, and the first real test of a redesigned heat shield that failed post-flight analysis on the uncrewed Artemis I.