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NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), who has a 20% share of the program and its costs, will conclude the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) mission, after a successful eight years of science, NASA announced. The observatory will end operations by the end of September this year.

The second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program launching Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is targeted for 19th May, Boeing said. During OFT-2, the company will test Starliner's and Atlas V’s capabilities from launch to docking and re-rentry operations.

China is planning to set up a lunar communication and navigation satellite constellation around the Moon to aid future operations on the lunar surface, CNSA said. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced that China will take the lead in demonstrating a lunar relay satellite system.

Crew Dragon Freedom has successfully docked to the ISS, carrying ESA astronaut and mission specialist Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts  Kjell Lindgren (commander), Robert Hines (pilot) and Jessica Watkins (mission specialist). The crew has begun a six-month-long science mission as part of Expedition 67 and later Expedition 68.

Axiom-1, the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), successfully returned to Earth. American commander and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, pilot Larry Connor, Israeli mission specialist Eytan Stibbe, and Canadian mission specialist Mark Pathy landed off the coast of Florida yesterday.

Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) won the 2022 round of the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) microlauncher competition with a prize value of €11 million, RFA announced. As a result, the German government became an anchor customer of the RFA One launch service.

The United States and India signed a Space Situational Awareness arrangement bound by common strategies interests, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) said. The cooperation comprises defense, climate, science, technology, trade, and public health. The delegation discussed humanitarian assistance efforts and

Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States commits not to conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing, to set a new international benchmark for responsible behavior in space. The Vice President called on other nations to follow in the US’ footsteps as such efforts benefitted humankind. 

A Shenzhou spacecraft landed safely in northern China carrying three taikonauts, about 9 hours after departing from the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station. The “rapid return” procedure employed by the Chinese for the first time, cut the number of orbits from 11 down to five.

Canoo Technologies is supplying NASA’s Artemis II crew with a new fleet of transportation vehicles that will be used to take the astronauts to Launch Pad 39B for their historic ride aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, NASA announced. The fleet of three vehicles is designed to accommodate the fully suited astronauts, the support team, and their equipment.