Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who announced his candidacy for president last week on a Twitter Spaces event hosted by Elon Musk, signed on Thursday (May 25) a spaceflight liability law that further protects SpaceX. Boeing and other space companies from being sued in the event people are injured or killed during spaceflights that launch from Florida.

Welcome to Biz Briefs! In today’s edition, Pixxel and Satellite Vu raise funds, the Pentagon will pay for SpaceX Starlink service in Ukraine, Viasat completes its acquisition of Inmarsat, Sierra Space powers up Dream Chaser, and much more.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ. In this edition, Terran Orbital’s stock is double downgraded, Virgin Galactic plans to issue more stock to key personnel, BlackSky will monitor U.S. coal power plant inventory, Intuitive Machines moves its landing site to the lunar south pole, Rocket Lab wins a launch contract, Planet Labs partnered to monitor biodiversity, Momentus will deliver a Lunasonde satellite to orbit, and Satixfy appointed an interim CEO.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, a new crew led by a veteran astronaut on his fourth spaceflight arrived at China’s Tiangong space station for a six-month mission on Tuesday (May 30).

A software glitch and a change in destination combined to cause ispace’s commercial HAKUTO-R lunar lander to crash into the Moon last month as it attempted a soft landing on the surface on April 26, according to new details shared by the company on Thursday (May 26).

Welcome to Biz Briefs. Inmarsat orders three small GEO satellites, the European Commission approves Inmarsat’s merger with Viasat, Maritime Launch Services signs a multi-mission agreement, Fleet Space and GITAI raise funds, China and Europe eye commercial cargo services, and other industry news.

Mojave, California-based Stratolaunch will use the Boeing 747 that it is acquiring from bankrupt Virgin Orbit to double its fleet of aircraft dedicated to conducting flight tests of hypersonic vehicles, the company said on Thursday (May 25).

With a successful flight on Thursday (May 25), Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) completed SpaceShipTwo’s 13-year-long flight test program, paving the way for the start of commercial suborbital crewed flights in late June.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ. This week, we say goodbye to Virgin Orbit, sister company Virgin Galactic prepares for its first launch in nearly two years, BlackSky and Spire Global team up to track ships, AST SpaceMobile will join two Russell indexes, Planet Labs announces two artificial intelligence partnerships, Redwire wins a contract to develop a 3D bioprinter, and SatixFy’s beam-hopping communications system is launched into orbit.

Rocket Lab said on Tuesday that it will use the manufacturing facility and equipment it acquired from bankrupt Virgin Orbit to accelerate the development of its new Neutron rocket. The company has no plans to integrate Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket into its line of launch vehicles, however, indicating the booster will likely never fly again.

The Spaceport Company announced that it launched four sounding rockets from a floating platform in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, marking the first time commercial boosters have been launched from US territorial waters.

Richard Branson’s bankrupt launch provider Virgin Orbit (OTCMKTS: VORBQ), which spent more than $1 billion developing the capability to launch satellites from a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, auctioned off its assets to Rocket Lab, Launcher, Stratolaunch, and a fourth company called INLIPER for just under $36.5 million on Monday, according to a court filing.