January 18, 2026

CesiumAstro Expands Texas Operations (Source: Cesium Astro)
After securing a historic $200 million financing package from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), CesiumAstro will acquire a 270,000-square-foot facility in Texas for full-rate, domestic manufacturing at scale. Supported by Texas’ continued investment in space and advanced manufacturing, the expansion represents a more than $500 million total investment over the next 5 years to consolidate design, manufacturing, assembly, and test into a single U.S.-based production ecosystem. CesiumAstro plans to increase its Texas workforce by 215% by 2030, adding more than 500 high-skill jobs, while expanding to over 1,000 employees globally. (1/15)

Florida Legislature Considers Public Records Exemption for Space Florida (Sources: SPACErePORT, Florida Trident)
Senate Bill 1514, currently before the Florida Legislature for its 2026 legislative session, would provide to Space Florida an exemption from public records requirements for information which is " trade secret". The bill provides that portions of meetings of Space Florida’s board of directors during which such confidential and exempt information is discussed, can be closed to the public and exempt from public meetings requirements. SB1514 is referred to three committees in the Senate, beginning with Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security. (1/16)

Space Florida is not alone in seeking such exemptions. This year, there are roughly 40 proposals before the Florida Legislature seeking to create exemptions to public records. Historically, the state has been considered a national leader in making its system of government accessible to its citizens — but no more. Open government advocates are dismayed by the many new attempts at whittling down the state’s transparency. “The sheer number is remarkable,” says Caroline Klancke, executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute. (1/16)

SHIELD List Grows to 2440, Poised to Develop Golden Dome (Source: SPACErePORT)
The Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD multiple award IDIQ contract will allow the rapid assignment of task orders for development of the Golden Dome. I have refrained from passing along the news of individual companies being added to the SHIELD contract list, as the number has risen to 2,440 companies. The latest tranche of companies, 340 of them, was announced on January 15. (1/17)

Hegseth Drops a Bomb on 8(A) Contracting (Sources: Forbes, SPACErePORT)
Lumping minority contracting programs in with DEI, SecDef Pete Hegseth on Friday announced the agency would substantially weaken its 8(a) contracting. 8(a) refers to the Small Business Administration’s program to assist small disadvantaged businesses owned by a socially disadvantaged individual or tribe. 8(a) contracts have for decades been a tool for promoting the development of small minority-owned businesses, and have turned some Native American contractors into aerospace powerhouses. According to Hegseth:

"The Department of War has the biggest chunk of 8(a) spending by far, 10 times more than any other agency. So our cleanup. It’s gonna be 10 times tougher. It’s a two-stage mission. First, if a contract doesn’t make us more lethal, it’s gone. We have no room in our budget for wasteful DEI contracts that don’t help us win wars, period. Full stop.

"Second, we’re doing away with these pass-through schemes. We’ll make sure that every small business getting a contract is the one actually doing the work, and not just some shell company funneling your money to a giant consulting firm. This approach is, of course, not meant to hurt small businesses, and that’s not the point." (1/17)

China Unveils World’s First Timekeeping Software for the Moon, Where Clocks Tick Faster (Source: SCMP)
Chinese researchers have released the world’s first software for lunar timekeeping, a tool designed to support precise navigation and landings as a new global race to the moon gathers pace. Clocks tick faster on the moon than on Earth due to weaker gravity – by about 56 millionths of a second per day. The effect, predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, is tiny but accumulates over time, making Earth time increasingly unreliable for lunar operations. (1/12)

SpainSat NG 2, Insured for $400M, Likely a Total Loss; Owner Indra Group/Hisdesat Prepares for a Replacement (Source: Space Intel Report)
The large SpainSat NG 2 military telecommunications satellite launched in October remains stuck in its transfer orbit, apparently unable to move, raising the likelihood of a total loss of mission, industry officials said. The failure will trigger an insurance claim of $400 million, attributed to space underwriters’ 2025 accounts, and turn what would have been a nicely profitable 2025 into a less-profitable one. (1/16)

CesiumAstro Secures $200M Government Financing (Source: Payload)
In its push to double down on its national security and defense clientele, spacecom firm CesiumAstro has secured $200M in government financing. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and JP Morgan jointly provided the batch of financing. According to CesiumAstro, this financing is near the top of the list of US government investment in space manufacturing, and it’s the largest single commitment to date from EXIM’s Make More in America Initiative. (1/16)

Senators Introduce Legislation to Streamline Satellite Licensing (Source: Via Satellite)
Senators introduced bipartisan legislation this week aimed at streamlining the application process for new satellites. Senators Ted Cruz, R-TX, and Peter Welch, D-VT, introduced the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act on January 14 which would set a one-year deadline for the FCC to make a decision on a license application. (1/16)

China Launches AlSat-3A for Algeria, Ceres-1 Sea Launch Adds to Tianqi Constellation (Source: Space News)
China conducted its third and fourth launches of 2026 with Long March 2C and Ceres-1 rockets lifting off from Jiuquan and a sea platform respectively. Long March 2C is one of China's workhorse rockets and this was the first under a contract with Algeria for two optical remote-sensing satellites. Galactic Energy's commercial Ceres-1 successfully inserted four Tianqi satellites (numbers 37-40) into 850-km orbits. (1/16)

Can a Planet Orbit a Binary Star System in a Figure Eight? (Source: New Scientist)
In theory, it could happen – one of the very first solutions to the three-body problem was this scenario. But it is very unlikely to be stable over time. You need the stars to have near equal mass and the star system to have nothing else going on, like the presence of other planets. The problem comes when your planet crosses the X and goes from orbiting one star to orbiting the other. This is near the inner Lagrange point between the stars, where gravity between them cancels out – any tiny nudge here can just send your planet flying off because neither star has a good hold on it. (1/14)

A New Atlas of the Milky Way’s Ghost Particles (Source: Universe Today)
When scientists do manage to capture neutrinos, these invisible messengers offer a direct window into the nuclear furnaces burning at the hearts of stars. Now researchers have created the first complete map showing exactly how many neutrinos all the stars in our Milky Way generate and where in the Galaxy they originate. The map combines advanced stellar models with data from ESA’s Gaia telescope to reveal which regions of our Galaxy produce the strongest neutrino signal. The results point decisively toward the galactic center. (1/15)

Nigeria Gives Amazon Leo a Boost (Source: Business Insider)
Nigeria, Africa’s largest telecom market, is opening its skies to more satellite internet providers as Amazon Leo  secures approval to operate across the country. The move positions Amazon alongside Starlink, Elon Musk’s SpaceX service, offering Nigerians new choices for high-speed connectivity and signaling a new phase in the continent’s digital expansion. (1/16)

For Stars, It’s Not Easy Being Green (Source: Scientific American)
Betelgeuse and Rigel in Orion and Aldebaran in nearby Taurus aren’t just bright; they’re also colorful, standing out against the standard white appearance of most other stars in the sky. Betelgeuse is red-orange, Aldebaran is orange, and Rigel is sapphire blue. Although astronomical photographs can be a bit tricky to interpret, the star colors in them are usually pretty representative.

What you won’t see, though, are green ones. The reason for this is both a fault in the stars and in ourselves: we don’t see them as green because of the way stars emit light and the way our eyes see colors. We have three kinds of cones in our eyes, each attuned to either red, green or blue light. So if an object emits or reflects red light, red cones send a strong signal to the brain while the other two kinds don’t, and we perceive that object as red. (1/16)

More Russian Drones Spotted with Starlink (Source: Kyiv Post)
Russia is reportedly equipping more drones with Starlink satellite terminals to extend their range. Russia’s use of Starlinks – owned by US firm SpaceX – has long been a source of concern. Space X has denied operating in Russia and enforces geolocation restrictions blocking access there. However, Ukrainian mil-blogger Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov wrote on Thursday that more Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now being spotted with the terminals. (1/16)

Voyager Technologies Secures Patent for In-Orbit Manufacturing of Crystals for Optical Communications (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Voyager Technologies has won a patent for an extraterrestrial manufacturing method that produces larger, purer crystals essential to high-performance optical communications – the backbone of Earth’s data centers and the AI-driven global economy. By harnessing microgravity, the patented process delivers material performance beyond what is possible on Earth. (1/16)