January 9, 2026

Hubble Network Collaborates With Texas Instruments on Bluetooth Connectivity (Source: Via Satellite)
Hubble Network, the startup working to build a Bluetooth network via satellite, is working with Texas Instruments (TI) to integrate its network into TI Bluetooth chips. Hubble announced the collaboration with Texas Instruments this week during CES 2026, demonstrating the integration at the show. The Hubble network is integrated into select TI wireless microcontrollers including the CC2340 and CC2755x. (1/8)

Satellogic Secures 7-Figure Imagery Deal for Monitoring (Source: Via Satellite)
Satellogic has signed a seven-figure contract with an unnamed customer for satellite imagery to support high-frequency site monitoring. Under the contract, Satellogic has agreed to provide daily revisit, high-resolution coverage. The agreement is structured to provide satellite imagery for ongoing visibility and predictable data availability versus tasking based on specific events. Satellogic did not specify the customer or region, but said this type of consistent coverage has use cases for defense and security, civil and environmental monitoring, infrastructure protection, and commercial operations. (1/8)

ESA Strikes New Deal with NASA for Its CSOC Commitments for the ISS (Source: European Spaceflight)
After canceling a call for proposals in December for a commercial cargo mission to the ISS that was intended to meet its obligations related to the station’s Common System Operations Costs (CSOC), ESA has outlined a revised barter arrangement with NASA. Under the CSOC framework, all ISS partners have a shared responsibility to contribute to the station’s general upkeep, including cargo and crew transportation. In the past, ESA has met its obligations through cargo transportation services using the Automated Transfer Vehicle and, more recently, by supplying service modules for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. (1/8)

ESA “Waiting for Spring” to Launch Themis Reusable Rocket Demonstrator (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA has revealed that, with the launch facility in Sweden currently “under snow,” it is “waiting for spring” to launch an initial hop test of its Themis reusable rocket booster demonstrator. ESA began work on the Themis project in 2019 as a means of maturing reusable rocket technology for future European launch systems. In June 2025, the first Themis demonstrator was transported by ArianeGroup, the project’s prime contractor, from its facility in Les Mureaux to the Esrange Space Centre in northern Sweden.

In September, ArianeGroup announced that the 28-metre-tall demonstrator has been transferred to the launch pad ahead of a combined test campaign that would represent the final step before an initial low-altitude hop test. Since then, however, there have been no further updates on the progress toward that first flight. Toni Tolker-Nielsen, acting Director of ESA’s Space Transportation programme, was asked about the status of the initial test flight of Themis. In response, Tolker-Nielsen explained that the weather had been the determining factor. “It’s in Kiruna and it’s under snow today,” he explained. “So we are waiting for spring.” (1/8)

How Donald Trump Tried to Ground NASA’s Science Missions (Source: The Atlantic)
The mission to retrieve the chest inside Perseverance was, until recently, the largest, most important project at JPL. About 1,000 people there were working on it. But it’s no longer moving forward, and may never happen. Last spring, President Donald Trump bluntly expressed his vision for science at NASA in his first budget request. Along with extensive layoffs, he called for 40 of the agency’s 124 science missions, including Mars Sample Return, to be defunded, and for the surviving missions to make do with less.

Among NASA scientists, the request was demoralizing; within months, its major science centers lost thousands of staffers to buyouts and cutbacks. A senior scientist at JPL had told me that he’d never seen the place so empty and lifeless, so drained of enthusiasm. But I was a guest in the Mars Yard, and my hosts were dutifully chipper, even when the little autonomous rover got stuck on a sand dune, even when they explained that it isn’t currently slated to visit any other worlds.

Only the governments of rich countries send robotic explorers to other planets. And only the United States has sent them past the asteroid belt to Jupiter and beyond. For decades, this has been a part of America’s global cultural role: to fling the most distant probes into the solar system, and to build the space telescopes that see the farthest into the cosmos. The U.S. has led an unprecedented age of cosmic discovery. Now Trump is trying to bring that age to an end, and right at the moment when answers to our most profound existential questions finally seem to be within reach. (1/8)

Europe's Launchers Ready for 2026 (Source: Space News)
Isar Aerospace is expected to attempt its second two-stage Spectrum vehicle test flight, a key step after its first, partially successful liftoff in 2025. In parallel, Spain’s PLD Space and its Miura-5 remain the second contender — after Isar — for the European Launcher Challenge, a competition that increasingly looks like Europe’s closest analogue to NASA’s early COTS era. In the meantime, Ariane 64 is expected to fly after being postponed from 2025 and Vega-C is officially targeting three to four launches. (1/8)

Former CEO of Google Spearheads 4 Next-Gen Telescopes — 3 on Earth and 1 in Space (Source: Space.com)
On Wednesday, scientists made a major announcement at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society: Four next-gen telescopes have secured private funding, and they should roll out at a very rapid pace. Three are ground-based arrays and one is a space observatory named Lazuli that would have 70% more collecting area than the Hubble Space Telescope. If all goes to plan, Lazuli could launch as soon as 2029. "We're going to do it in three years, and we're going to do it for a ridiculously low price," Pete Klupar, executive director of the Lazuli project, said during the conference. The announcement comes from Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic organization forged by Wendy Schmidt and Eric Schmidt, the latter of whom was CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011. (1/8)

Global Orbital Launch Rate Jumped 25% In 2025 (Source: Aviation Week)
The number of orbital launch attempts worldwide last year surpassed the record 2024 flight rate by 25%, with SpaceX and China accounting for the bulk of the launch activity. Including three near-orbital flight tests of SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy launch system, the number of orbital launch attempts worldwide reached 329 last year, an annual analysis of global launch and satellite activity by Jonathan’s Space Report shows. Of those 329 attempts, 321 reached orbit or marginal orbits. (1/7)

Four Vendors Are Set To Build New LEO Missile-Tracking Constellation (Source: Aviation Week)
The U.S. Space Development Agency is broadening its industrial base with recent contract awards that bring launch company Rocket Lab into missile defense while reinforcing commitments to established primes. As it continues to build and field its nascent constellation, the Space Development Agency (SDA) has selected four companies—L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab—to build the next generation of missile-warning and tracking satellites. First launches are expected in fiscal 2029. Sierra Space was bumped after the SDA received 15 bids for the new contracts.

Each vendor is set to produce 18 satellites for the Tranche 3 Tracking Layer within the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) in low Earth orbit. That architecture is intended to provide global data connectivity through the Transport Layer as well as persistent missile warning, tracking and defense sensing via the Tracking Layer. Tranche 3 Tracking satellites are slated to launch in fiscal 2029. (1/8)

India Plans to Send Astronauts to Moon by 2040 (Source: Economic Times)
India plans to land its astronauts on the Moon by 2040, former ISRO chief A S Kiran Kumar said here on Wednesday. Kumar, who is currently the chairman of the management council of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), was speaking at the inauguration of the 5th Astronomical Society of India (ASI) Symposium. (1/7)

Canada Risks Falling Behind Without Major Overhaul of Space Procurement (Source: SpaceQ)
In a new position paper, Space Canada offers several recommendations including that the government should enact policies that will enable the building of a resilient Canadian defense space industrial base. The recommendations: Build a resilient Canadian defense space industrial base; Modernize procurement to accelerate the adoption of commercial space capabilities for defense; Modernize defense space R&D programs to strengthen the competitiveness of Canada’s industrial base; and Increase export promotion activities to grow Canadian space exports while supporting allies abroad. (1/7)

TPS Evaluations Taking Place at Starbase on Next Two Ships to Fly (Source: NSF)
SpaceX continues to accelerate production of its next-generation Starship vehicles at the Starfactory facility in Starbase, Texas. With vehicles up to Ship 48 in various stages of assembly and preparation, attention is now focused on the first two Block 3 vehicles slated to fly in 2026. Both are undergoing detailed inspections of their Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles, a critical component for surviving the intense heat of atmospheric reentry, with returns to the launch site for a tower catch expected early in the Block 3 era. (1/7)