Posted: Sat, May 16 9:36 AM ET (1336 GMT)
The general leading development of Golden Dome said a recent $1.2 trillion cost estimate for the system is inaccurate. Speaking at a conference Thursday, Gen. Michael Guetlein said the Congressional Budget Office's estimate released earlier this week is "not estimating what we're building." The Pentagon has not released details of its current Golden Dome architecture. Guetlein argued the report extrapolated from older defense acquisition models rather than the emerging commercial space manufacturing and launch systems his office expects to leverage. He acknowledged, though, that affordability remains the decisive issue for space-based interceptors and defended previous comments that the Pentagon will abandon the concept if it cannot be produced cheaply enough and at sufficient scale.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Air and Space Forces Magazine article
•  ViaSatellite article
•  Aerospace America article

Posted: Sat, May 16 9:33 AM ET (1333 GMT)
Cowboy Space has filed plans with the FCC to deploy 20,000 orbital data center satellites. The company, previously known as Aetherflux, filed an application with the FCC this week for the Stampede constellation, but provided few details about the system other than that the satellites would be in dusk-dawn sun-synchronous orbits to provide continuous solar power. The company announced earlier this week a $275 million funding round for the system, which includes development of a launch vehicle whose upper stage would serve as the computing platforms. While massive by historical standards, Stampede is smaller than SpaceX's plan for up to one million satellites, Starcloud's 88,000-satellite system and Blue Origin's 51,600-satellite Project Sunrise.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Space.com article
•  TechCrunch article
•  Cowboy Space press release

Kinetica-1 launches five satellites
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:30 AM ET (1330 GMT)
A Chinese commercial rocket launched five satellites Friday. The Lijian-1, or Kinetica-1, rocket lifted off from Jiuquan, China, at 12:33 am EDT (...

House appropriators keep overall NASA funding flat
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:28 AM ET (1328 GMT)
House appropriators advanced a spending bill Wednesday that keeps overall NASA funding flat for fiscal year 2027. The committee approved the commerce, justice and science...

Zhuque-2 returns to flight
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:26 AM ET (1326 GMT)
China's Zhuque-2 rocket returned to flight Wednesday night. The Zhuque-2E methane-liquid oxygen rocket, built by Landspace, lifted off at 11:00...