Starship’s ninth Integrated Flight Test (IFT-9) did not go as planned, but it got further than the last two attempts.  IFT-7 and IFT-8 exploded over the Caribbean.  IFT-9 made it past that milestone, but then experienced fuel leaks on its way over to the Indian Ocean and began spinning. SpaceX lost contact and it broke apart — another Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly or RUD. Reuse of a Super Heavy booster for the first time was mostly a success, however.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 25-31, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess except for pro forma sessions.

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SpaceX said today it plans to launch the ninth Starship Integrated Flight Test, IFT-9, on Tuesday, May 27.  The flight follows two successive failures of the Starship second stage. Both exploded over the Caribbean leading the FAA to expand the hazard warning area for this flight. SpaceX also is reflying a Super Heavy first stage for the first time. They plan to conduct several flight experiments and will direct it to splash down in the Gulf rather than returning to the launch pad. No “catch” this time.

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One day after President Trump received a draft plan for the Golden Dome missile defense system, the House passed the reconciliation bill that includes the first tranche of funding, $25 billion. Trump assigned U.S. Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein to lead the project, a layered defense system that will include space-based interceptors. At the same time, however, the head of the Space Force is warning that the service already is under-resourced.

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President Trump appointed U.S. Space Force’s Gen. Michael Guetlein today to lead the Golden Dome missile defense shield project.  In a televised Oval Office meeting, Trump projected Golden Dome will take three years and $175 billion to complete, a much lower cost and shorter timeframe than others have estimated.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 18-24, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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Earth-threatening asteroids have been in the news recently and Congress is paying attention. At a House hearing today, they got the good news that NASA’s NEO Surveyor asteroid-hunting telescope is ahead of schedule. Launch is expected in late 2027, several months earlier than the date NASA committed to several years ago. Broad bipartisan support for planetary defense — protecting Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids — was on full display at the hearing, though concerns were raised about the future of NASA’s space science program under the skinny budget proposed by the Trump Administration.

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The space community is still trying to grasp the implications of the Trump Administration’s proposal to slice almost 25 percent out of NASA’s budget, adding money for Moon-to-Mars and cutting it everywhere else. Details are pending and some hope the proposal never becomes reality once a NASA Administrator is in place and Congress weighs in, but for now the proposal is the plan. One former NASA official wonders if it signals a seismic shift, from the bright space future envisioned in Star Trek to the darker world of Frank Herbert’s Dune.

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Intuitive Machines’ second lunar lander, IM-2, landed on its side near the Moon’s South Pole because of altimeter interference and lighting conditions according to the company’s president and CEO. During an earnings call this morning, Steve Altemus expressed confidence that the next mission, IM-3, will land upright and ready to operate.

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The Trump Administration reportedly plans to keep the National Space Council as the White House mechanism for coordinating U.S. space policy.  Created by Congress in 1989, some presidents have used a Space Council and others have not, but President Trump did in his first term and apparently will again. By law, the Space Council is chaired by the Vice President, so it will be JD Vance in charge this time with a full plate of civil, commercial, and national security space issues to coordinate across multiple government agencies.

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