The fifth attempt succeeded: SpaceX successfully completed a high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype from its Starbase in Texas yesterday. It was the fifth attempt of a high-altitude test of Starship and the first one that did not end up with an explosion.

The Spanish satellite telecommunications operator Sateliot takes the lead to develop a low Earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellite constellation offering 5G coverage and a secure quantum key information exchange system. Sateliot is leading a consortium of a dozen companies and the Spanish Ministry of Defense, as a potential user, to deploy the nanosat constellation, the company said.

Have a seat: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin offers one seat in the New Shepard maiden flight which is planned for the 20 July, the company said. “On July 20th, New Shepard will fly its first astronaut crew to space. We are offering one seat on this first flight to the winning bidder of Blue Origin’s online auction,” Blue Origin said.

Firefly Aerospace completed a $75 million series A financing round, valuing the company at more than $1 billion, the company said. The interest “far exceeded” the $75 million equity being offered, Firefly said. Its seed investor, Noosphere Ventures, therefore sold “approximately $100 million of its holdings.

More spectrum: The German Government and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) support Isar Aerospace with €11 million contract through its C-STS programme run by the European Space Agency (ESA), Isar Aerospace said. The programme is designed to strengthen commercial space transportation services in Europe.

One for Eutelsat, one for Atos: the satellite operator said it was chosen by Global Eagle to increase its mobility capabilities over North America. Under this multi-year agreement, Eutelsat provides Global Eagle for its entire North-American coverage with extensive additional capacity to augment the company’s connectivity services for mobility customers, Eutelsat said.

The former Aerojet Rocketdyne executive Frank Slazer is the new President and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, the organization said. The American non-profit organization engages in “reinforcing the value and benefits of human space exploration and space science” in the U.S.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is building a deep space dish in Australia and an asteroid telescope in South America. ESA cooperates with the Australian Space Agency to construct a second 35-metre, deep space dish antenna at its existing ground station in New Norcia, Western Australia

Following complaints by competitors, the U.S. space agency NASA suspended SpaceX’s work on the Human Landing System (HLS). Pursuant to protests of Blue Origin and Dynetics to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), NASA “instructed SpaceX that progress on the HLS contract has been suspended”, NASA said.

Luxembourg, 3 May 2021. – Lithuania becomes an Associate Member of the European Space Agency (ESA), the agency announced. The Association Agreement between ESA and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania builds on “the successful results achieved under the previous frameworks of cooperation and will enter into force for a duration of seven years”, ESA said.