Posted: Sat, Jun 7 10:55 AM ET (1455 GMT)
A lunar lander by Japanese company ispace likely crashed during its landing attempt Thursday. Resilience was scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris region of the moon at 3:17 pm EDT (1917 GMT), but telemetry from the lander was lost about a minute and 45 seconds before the scheduled touchdown. That telemetry appeared to show the lander traveling at a far higher speed than planned. The company said several hours later that an issue with a laser rangefinder on the spacecraft kept the lander from slowing down in time, and thus Resilience "likely performed a hard landing." Company executives said they still needed to investigate the root cause of the failure, adding it appeared to be different from the software problem that caused ispace's first lander to crash in 2023. Resilience was carrying payloads from several Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university, as well as a rover built by ispace's European subsidiary. Shares in ispace fell nearly 30% in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
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Posted: Sat, Jun 7 10:50 AM ET (1450 GMT)
A feud between Elon Musk and President Trump Thursday included threats to cancel SpaceX contracts and decommission spacecraft. A series of heated exchanges between the two, stemming from Musk's criticism of a Trump-backed budget reconciliation bill, included a statement by Trump suggesting that the government cancel contracts with Musk's companies. Musk responded by stating that SpaceX would "begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately." That spacecraft is a key means for transporting crews and cargo to the International Space Station. There was no sign, though, that the government was moving to cancel any contracts, and Musk said Thursday night that SpaceX would not decommission Dragon. Earlier in the day, Trump said he didn't think it was "appropriate" that Jared Isaacman be NASA administrator, calling him a Democrat. Trump said he has asked Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to identify a new NASA administrator nominee.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Washington Post article
•  New York Times article
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•  Aviation Week article

Senate seeks to add $10 billion to NASA human spaceflight programs
Posted: Sat, Jun 7 10:46 AM ET (1446 GMT)
The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is seeking $10 billion for NASA in a budget reconciliation bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released Thursday...

China launches broadband satellites
Posted: Sat, Jun 7 10:43 AM ET (1443 GMT)
China launched the fourth group of satellites for a broadband megaconstellation Thursday. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 4:45 pm EDT (2045...

Isaacman links withdrawn NASA nomination to Trump-Musk fallout
Posted: Sat, Jun 7 10:42 AM ET (1442 GMT)
Jared Isaacman says he thinks his nomination to be NASA administrator was pulled because of people in the Trump administration with "axes to grind" about...