January 22, 2026

Blue Origin Plans TeraWave Broadband Constellation (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin plans to develop its own broadband constellation with more than 5,400 satellites. On Wednesday, the company announced TeraWave, a system with 5,280 satellites in low Earth orbit and 128 in medium Earth orbit, equipped with optical and radio-frequency communications links. TeraWave would provide up to six terabits per second of capacity for enterprise, data center and government customers, rather than for consumer markets. The company plans to cap the service at 100,000 customers. Blue Origin also said growing AI workloads and cloud-based services are driving demand for higher-capacity, more resilient links for data centers and other high-capacity users. The company said it expects to start launching TeraWave satellites in the fourth quarter of 2027, pending FCC approval. (1/22)

D-Orbit Raises $128 Million (Source: Space News)
Space logistics company D-Orbit has raised $128 million to allow the Italian company to expand its in-orbit transportation services and build out its orbital logistics infrastructure. The company currently operates a series of ION tugs that fly on rideshare missions, deploying satellites. The funding will also support "further strategic acquisitions" that the company did not disclose. Italy-based Azimut Group is investing $53 million directly in D-Orbit in addition to buying out an existing D-Orbit investor as part of the round. (1/22)

Rocket Lab Neutron Propellant Tank Ruptures During Test (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab suffered a testing setback during preparations for the first launch of its Neutron rocket. The company said late Wednesday that a first-stage propellant tank ruptured during pressure testing. Rocket Lab said it is evaluating the effect of the incident on the schedule for the first Neutron launch and will provide more details in an earnings call next month. Rocket Lab said last November it was pushing back the first launch of the medium-lift rocket into 2026 after previously working towards a launch by the end of 2025. The company said then it planned to have the first vehicle on the pad in the first quarter of 2026 with a launch some time thereafter. (1/22)

Exploration Company Plans to Acquire Orbex (Source: Space News)
The Exploration Company is in talks to acquire small launch vehicle company Orbex. The companies said Wednesday that they had signed a letter of intent to explore a potential acquisition, but did not disclose details, such as the value of the potential deal. The Exploration Company is developing Nyx, a line of spacecraft to provide cargo delivery services to and from low Earth orbit with plans for later lunar spacecraft as well as a crewed version of Nyx.

Orbex has been working on Prime, but the schedule for its first launch has slipped by years and the company is reportedly struggling financially. The U.K. government provided only limited funding to Orbex in ESA's European Launcher Challenge, electing to leave most of its contribution to the program unallocated. ESA officials said earlier this month that the U.K. would need to allocate its funding before the agency could sign contracts with the five companies in the program. (1/22)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission on Thursday From California (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX performed its first West Coast launch of Starlink satellites for 2026 early Thursday morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the ninth Falcon 9 mission so far this year. (1/22)

Musk Plans for SpaceX IPO by July (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to take SpaceX public by July. The company plans to select bankers to lead its IPO in the near future as Musk pushes to take the company public, which could raise tens of billions of dollars for SpaceX and value the company at $1.5 trillion. Musk, who had long said he wanted to keep SpaceX private to avoid the issues he faced at publicly traded Tesla, changed his mind because of a desire to pursue orbital data centers for artificial intelligence. (1/22)

France Picks Loft Orbital to Build Radar Imaging Satellite (Source: Breaking Defense)
The French government has selected Loft Orbital to build a radar imaging satellite. The contract issued by the French military acquisition agency DGA and the French space agency CNES covers a single demonstration satellite built by Loft Orbital, with a synthetic aperture radar payload provided by Thales Alenia Space and TEKEVER. The satellite could be the precursor for a French SAR constellation. The French military has relied on SAR imagery from a German system, SAR-Lupe, in exchange for optical imagery from French satellites. (1/22)

Artemis 2 Orion to Carry Wright Flyer Fabric (Source: NASA)
Several historical items will be flying to the moon on Artemis 2. The items carried inside the Orion spacecraft include a small swatch of fabric from the Wright Flyer aircraft built by the Wright Brothers. Also on board will be one American flag that flew on both the first and last shuttle missions, and stayed on the International Space Station until it was returned by the SpaceX Demo-2 mission, while another American flag was produced for the unflown Apollo 18 mission. (1/22)

Lawmakers Want Golden Dome Budget Details (Source: Air & Space Forces)
Lawmakers have pressed the Pentagon for more details on spending for the Golden Dome missile defense project. The Pentagon has not provided details such as cost and schedule for the project, which has a projected budget of $175 billion over three years, and lawmakers have directed War Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit a comprehensive spending plan. (1/21)

Thales Alenia Space to Develop Radar Payload for DESIR (Source: Defense Post)
Thales Alenia Space will develop the radar payload for France's DESIR program, which aims to improve military radar imaging. The program, expected to be operational by early 2029, involves a consortium including Loft Orbital and Tekeever and supports dual-use missions such as environmental monitoring and crisis response. (1/21)

FSGC Invites Continued Florida University Participation in DoD/NASA Cubesat Program (Source: FSGC)
The Florida Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-supported multi-university partnership based at UCF, encourages Florida universities to participate in the annual summer design competition for innovative cubesat and nanosat mission designs. Over the past three years, UCF, USF, Florida Tech, UF, UNF, and FAU have been selected for this program. Click here. (1/21)

Blue Origin to Launch AST SpaceMobile Satellite in February at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Blue Origin)
Blue Origin today announced that New Glenn’s next mission, New Glenn-3 (NG-3), will carry AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellite to low Earth orbit. The launch is scheduled for no earlier than late February from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. AST SpaceMobile selected Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch vehicle in November 2024 as part of its launch campaign for its cellular broadband network. (1/22)

Rocket Lab Launches its 1st Mission of 2026, Sending 2 Satellites to Orbit From New Zealand (Source: Space.com)
An Electron rocket carrying two satellites for the European company Open Cosmos lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Jan. 22. Electron's "kick stage" deployed the two spacecraft into a circular orbit 1,050 kilometers above Earth as planned about 70 minutes after liftoff. This was Rocket Lab's first dedicated mission for Open Cosmos, a company that designs, builds and operates satellites and also offers data-sharing and data-analysis services. (1/22)

UK Space Delegation Readies for Space Week with Titusville Reception (Source: SPACErePORT)
A couple dozen UK space industry representatives from 17 companies, agencies, and universities will be in Central Florida for Space Week, including a Jan. 27 reception at the Playalinda Brewing Co. in Titusville, beginning at 4:00 p.m. Local space industry folks are encouraged to stop by to raise a pint for the Brits. (1/22)

Congress To Consider FAA Budget Bill (Source: Aviation International)
U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers released plans for a $22.2 billion budget for the FAA in fiscal year 2026 under a comprehensive funding package that combines full-year appropriations for multiple government agencies. (1/22)

FAA Safety Alert Focuses on Space Launches (Source: NBAA)
The FAA is alerting operators about safety issues that can arise from the rapid growth of space launch operations in the U.S. As space launches become more frequent, the agency’s guidance underscores that the safe integration of space and traditional air traffic operations hinges on collaboration, careful preflight planning and inflight awareness among pilots and operators, and real-time responsiveness.

SAFO 26001 focuses on the airspace management challenges that accompany these activities, especially the potential for catastrophic failures that produce debris fields capable of endangering aircraft. The alert encourages operators to proactively consider how launch operations might disrupt planned routes and day-of-operation traffic flows. In cases where an anomaly occurs – such as a launch failure – air traffic control may activate a DRA, reroute aircraft away from danger and broadcast alerts to affected flights. (1/20)

Colorado Springs Leaders Done Fighting Over Space Command (Source: Gazette)
Colorado Springs and El Paso County officials say they are ready to move on from the fight over Space Command. While the Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser intends to keep suing President Donald Trump’s administration over his decision to move Space Command headquarters to Huntsville, the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC president and CEO Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer said Wednesday the community will formally oppose the legal fight in a legal filing called an amicus brief. (1/21)

Space Force Southern HQ Opens in Arizona (Source: KVOA)
The U.S. Military has activated Space Forces Southern at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, establishing the unit in Tucson. This move provides the branch with direct representation for U.S. Southern Command. Davis-Monthan is now the headquarters for U.S. Space Force operations in South America, the Caribbean and parts of Central America. The new unit is providing a homecoming for one local family. (1/21)

More Lawsuits Allege Workforce Safety Lapses at Starbase in Texas (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
Another Starbase worker has sued SpaceX over safety issues at the South Texas Starship rocket factory and test site. It's the second personal injury suit filed against Elon Musk's space firm in as many weeks. A lawsuit filed in Cameron County on Monday alleges negligence against SpaceX and W&W Erectors over a November incident in which a subcontractor was hurt by a bucket of industrial-sized bolts while working on one of the Starship launch pads.

Earlier this month, attorneys for Sergio Ortiz of Brownsville filed suit over a 2024 mishap where he was hit by falling debris while working in an elevator shaft at Starbase. A state legal database shows 21 civil lawsuits against SpaceX for injuries or damages since 2020, with 14 filed since March 2024. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t appear to be investigating the bolt incident, but on Tuesday, the regulator hit SpaceX with a $115,850 fine for safety violations related to a June crane collapse at Starbase’s Massey test site. (1/21)

A Safety Management System Requirement for Spaceports? (Source: SPACErePORT)
Airports that meet certain criteria are required by law to implement Safety Management Systems (SMS). These are proactive approaches to minimizing and mitigating workforce and passenger safety risks. The SMS approach has been adopted by many air carriers too, and increasingly among non-aviation transport modes, like trucking and maritime shipping.

Michael O'Donnell, a former senior executive at FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, led a USDOT webinar on Jan. 22 on the SMS system. He said some spaceports have expressed interest in the SMS approach, but there currently is no requirement for them to do so. Furthermore, launch service companies feel they are already required to comply with multiple federal safety regulations.

But the SMS approach would provide a more holistic and measurable system that would provide competitiveness benefits across the space transportation industry, including lower costs for insurance, as has been true at airports. O'Donnell said he anticipates that USDOT/FAA leadership will push for SMS requirements for spaceports. Former AST director George Nield was a proponent and in 2015 approved an SMS manual for space transportation. There are two SMS training courses being offered in February and April in Destin, Florida. (1/22)

Arianespace Enters 2026 with Ambitious Targets (Source: Space News)
The maiden launch of the newly configured Ariane 6 in its Ariane 64 version — scheduled for Feb. 12 from Kourou — will mark the company's first commercial client on Ariane 6 and its first launch carrying payloads for Amazon Leo constellation. Thirty-two satellites are confirmed for February, with room for more thanks to upgraded solid rocket boosters being added later this year. The numbers don't stop there. Arianespace plans seven to eight launches in 2026 — roughly double its 2025 cadence — ramping up to 10 launches per year by 2027, with four reserved for institutional customers. That's one launch approximately every five weeks.

But who will get those slots when IRIS² arrives in 2029? Arianespace currently expects roughly 10 to 15 launches for IRIS², possibly over 18 to 24 months. That means IRIS² alone could eat up five to seven launches per year between 2029 and 2031. Add the four annual institutional missions Ariane is targeting, and suddenly how much room is left for commercial customers? (1/21)

Iridium NTN Direct Prepares to Enter Beta as Testing Continues (Source: Iridium)
Iridium Communications announced successful on-air testing of Iridium NTN Direct, including two-way message transmission over its low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network. This milestone marks a significant step forward as Iridium prepares for beta testing and commercial service of Iridium NTN Direct in 2026. Iridium NTN Direct is being developed as the world’s first truly global, standards-based NB-IoT and direct-to-device (D2D) non-terrestrial network (NTN) service. (1/21)

Starfighters Completes Wind Tunnel Testing for STARLAUNCH 1 (Source: Starfighters Space)
Starfighters Space, owner and operator of the world’s largest fleet of commercial supersonic aircraft, announced the successful completion of wind tunnel testing for STARLAUNCH 1, a key technical milestone in the company’s air-launched rocket development efforts. The test campaign evaluated separation of the STARLAUNCH 1 vehicle from the Starfighters’ aircraft platform across both subsonic and supersonic conditions, using a combination of computational fluid dynamics analysis and experimental wind tunnel testing. Across all test conditions, clean separation was demonstrated with no adverse aerodynamic interactions observed. (1/21)