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.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (May 22), bringing four astronauts on Axiom Space’s second private mission to the orbiting facility. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson commands the eight-day Ax-2 mission, which was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceX has filed a motion in US Federal District Court to intervene as a defendant in a lawsuit that environmental groups filed against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in an attempt to void the agency’s approval for the company to launch Starship/Super Heavy rockets from Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX launched Axiom Space’s second private mission to the International Space Station on Sunday (May 22), which included two Americans and a pair of Saudi astronauts, including the first female astronaut from the kingdom.

SpaceX’s first attempt to launch its Starship (the company’s Super Heavy launch vehicle) ended with a spectacular explosion over the Gulf of Mexico last month. While the enormous worldwide attention that the Starship project and its recent test launch garnered might have rendered Starship synonymous with the concept of a Super Heavy in the minds of some, a small startup in the Pacific Northwest named Stoke Space is also pursuing a fully reusable launch vehicle designed for rapid turnaround, but with a different design.

AST SpaceMobile (NAS: ASTS) reported significant technical progress on its satellite-to-smartphone service while reporting zero revenue during the first quarter of 2023. Revenue was $2.4 million during the same period last year.

Welcome to Biz Briefs. In this edition, EnduroSat and Orbital Outpost X succeed in raising new funds, Satelantis took a controlling interest in SuperSharp, Swedish Space Corporation received two contracts and established a subsidiary in Italy, Quub signs up for Phantom Space launches, construction began on Sutherland Spaceport in Scotland, and much more.