NASA details Artemis III plans as SpaceX prepares Starship V3 and Cowboy Space announces $275 million round

NASA has outlined plans for a four-person Artemis III mission in low-Earth orbit in 2027 as SpaceX prepares the first flight of Starship Version 3. Separately, Cowboy Space has announced $275 million in financing for a proposed system combining its own rocket with orbital data centers.

Artemis III and Starship preparations

NASA plans an Earth-orbit test before a lunar landing

NASA’s preliminary Artemis III plan calls for four astronauts to launch aboard Orion on the Space Launch System and test rendezvous and docking with commercial lunar-lander prototypes. The agency continues to target 2027, following its February decision to add a test mission ahead of the Artemis IV lunar landing.

Instead of an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, the rocket would carry a spacer without propulsion. NASA says it will maintain the upper stage’s overall dimensions and interface connection points. Orion’s European-built service module would circularize the spacecraft’s orbit. The configuration would preserve the final remaining Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for Artemis IV.

The mission could involve SpaceX’s Starship human landing system pathfinder, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 pathfinder, or both. NASA says the landers’ capabilities will inform mission operations. Astronauts could enter at least one lander test article, but that activity and other flight objectives remain unsettled.

SpaceX targets May 19 for Starship Version 3

SpaceX is targeting no earlier than May 19 for the first flight of Starship Version 3 from Starbase in South Texas. The taller, more powerful vehicle has been stacked for testing. Its flight would be the 12th full-scale Starship and Super Heavy test and the first since October 2025.

During a May 11 countdown rehearsal, teams loaded more than 11 million pounds of methane and liquid oxygen into the rocket. At that stage, a Federal Aviation Administration launch license was still pending, and preparations still included installing flight-termination hardware, which required separating the ship from its booster.

SpaceX plans to use Version 3 for initial in-orbit refueling experiments. Orbital propellant transfer is needed for Starship’s lunar-lander role in NASA’s Artemis program.

Cowboy Space announces funding for orbital data centers

Cowboy Space Corporation, founded in 2024 as Aetherflux by Robinhood Markets co-founder Baiju Bhatt, announced its new name and a $275 million Series B financing round on May 11. The company says Index Ventures led the round at a $2 billion valuation.

Aetherflux initially pursued satellites that would collect solar energy and beam it to Earth. Cowboy Space now says it is developing launch vehicles, space-based power systems and computing payloads for use in orbit. Its proposed rocket upper stage and data-center payload would form a single vehicle, with the upper stage remaining in orbit as the satellite.

Bhatt expects the rocket’s first launch before the end of 2028.

Private launch vehicles and European spacecraft

Skyroot prepares Vikram-1 for an orbital debut

Skyroot Aerospace chief executive Pawan Kumar Chandana says Vikram-1, the company’s first orbital rocket, could launch within the next couple of months. The Hyderabad-based company recently raised $60 million in a funding round valuing it at $1.1 billion.

Chandana and fellow former Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Naga Bharath Daka founded Skyroot in June 2018. India opened a formal pathway for private companies to build and launch rockets in 2020, including access to government facilities.

Skyroot named its Vikram vehicles after Indian space-program pioneer Vikram Sarabhai. Its Vikram-S suborbital test vehicle flew in November 2022. The larger Vikram-1 has three solid-fueled stages and is intended to carry roughly half a metric ton to low-Earth orbit.

Italy completes an air-launch demonstration

Italy’s National Research Council, CNR, says the Aviolancio program completed an air-launch demonstration on April 22. A Dornier Alpha Jet carried the HAX25 sounding rocket from Houston Spaceport for operations over the Gulf of Mexico. T4i developed the rocket, and GMV supplied its avionics.

The program previously conducted a ground-launched sounding-rocket test in February 2022. Project manager Lucia Paciucci identified an altitude target of 80 to 100 kilometers in a September 2025 CNR update. CNR’s May 7 flight announcement did not disclose whether the April demonstration reached that altitude.

Dassault and OHB propose Vortex-S to ESA

Dassault Aviation and Germany’s OHB announced on May 11 that they would propose the reusable Vortex-S spaceplane to the European Space Agency. Dassault would lead the vehicle’s architecture and integration, while OHB would develop and integrate its service module. The companies envisage transport to space stations and autonomous orbital missions.

Dassault targets 2028 for Vortex-D, a subscale suborbital demonstrator preceding Vortex-S. The proposed family also includes a later Vortex-C cargo vehicle, with a reported mass of roughly 8 to 9 metric tons, and longer-term crewed versions.

ESA canceled its earlier Hermes spaceplane project in 1992. It has also contracted The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space to develop cargo transport services to and from the International Space Station.

Military and national security launches

Russia claims a successful Sarmat test

Russia announced a successful RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile test on May 12. Russian officials said the missile reached the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula about half an hour after launch. The claimed test results have not been independently verified.

President Vladimir Putin set an end-of-2026 target for operational deployment. Sarmat, designated SS-29 Satan II by NATO, is a silo-launched, liquid-fueled missile intended to carry nuclear warheads and replace the Soviet-era R-36M2.

The program has experienced repeated delays and test failures. A successful launch in April 2022 was followed by a reported failure in February 2023. A September 2024 test destroyed the test silo at Plesetsk, and another failure in November 2025 was captured on video.

NRO identifies a ground-target tracking role

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-172 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on May 11. The NRO says its proliferated satellite architecture, together with its other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, supports ground moving target indication. The agency describes hundreds of satellites across its systems.

Aircraft including the E-8C Joint STARS previously performed ground-target surveillance; that fleet flew its final operational mission in September 2023. The Space Force is separately developing a space-based system to track airborne targets.

Chinese rocket and space station missions

LandSpace announces a successful Zhuque-2E flight

LandSpace says its Zhuque-2E rocket completed a successful flight on May 14 from the Dongfeng commercial launch site, carrying a 2.8-metric-ton test payload to a 900-kilometer orbit. The mission followed a second-stage failure in August 2025.

Zhuque-2E is an upgraded version of Zhuque-2, which became the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit in July 2023. LandSpace lists the newer vehicle’s height at about 55.9 meters, liftoff thrust at approximately 745,000 pounds and low-Earth-orbit payload capacity at 6 metric tons.

The company’s larger, reusable Zhuque-3 reached its intended orbit on its December 3, 2025 debut, but its first-stage recovery attempt failed. LandSpace has said it plans another recovery attempt.

Tianzhou 10 delivers station supplies

China launched the Tianzhou 10 cargo spacecraft aboard a Long March 7 from Wenchang on May 11, Beijing time. It docked with the Tiangong space station about five hours later.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation says the shipment carried about 6.2 metric tons of supplies, including crew provisions, propellant, experimental equipment and a spacewalking suit. The station’s Shenzhou 21 crew launched in October 2025.

Recent launch and reported targets

The CRS-34 cargo launch listed for May 15 has taken place. The other entries below are reported launch targets and remain subject to change. Starlink 17-37’s earlier May 16 slot was revised on May 15.