Satellogic Partners with SynMax to
Build Intelligence Services Around Upcoming Merlin Constellation (Source:
Space News)
Earth observation company Satellogic is partnering with analytics firm
SynMax to develop AI-powered intelligence products built around the
company’s new Merlin satellite constellation. The technology is aimed
at defense and intelligence customers that want continuous monitoring
rather than individual satellite images. (6/23)
New Model Could Help Scientists Home
In on Habitable Exoplanets (Source: Space.com)
A new planetary habitability model could make the search for aliens
more efficient by quickly identifying rocky worlds unlikely to sustain
the atmospheres needed for life as we know it. The software, called the
Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM), allows astronomers to
screen exoplanets before committing valuable telescope time to detailed
observations. The model assesses whether a rocky planet can build and
retain an atmosphere over billions of years — a prerequisite for life
as we know it. (6/23)
Loft Orbital to Test AI Models on
Spacecraft for Earth Observation (Source: Space News)
Loft Orbital is expanding its collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) to test advanced artificial intelligence software
directly on commercial spacecraft. By utilizing onboard computers
rather than traditional ground processing, the agencies aim to improve
Earth science monitoring and remote sensing. (6/23)
SpaceX Has Lofted More Satellites Than
Everyone Else in History, Combined (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX just notched a remarkable launch-dominance milestone. Elon
Musk's company has now lofted more spacecraft than the rest of humanity
combined — and its lead is likely to grow over the coming months and
years. Investor and former space-industry executive Christian Keil
highlighted the achievement in a June 12 X post, which noted that
SpaceX had launched 15,262 satellites as of that date. The combined
total for all other companies and organizations since the dawn of the
space age in 1957 was 15,138, according to Keil. (6/22)
NASA-Funded Studies Yield Advanced
Aircraft Concepts For The 2050s (Source: Aviation Week)
In 2010, U.S. industry completed a series of studies that set NASA’s
aeronautics research agenda for the next two decades: hybrid wing
bodies, truss-braced wings, hybrid-electric propulsion and high-rate
composites. As industry prepares to select technologies for a
next-generation single-aisle airliner to enter service in the
mid-2030s, NASA has shifted its focus to the horizon to identify
concepts and technologies for aircraft entering service in 2050 and
beyond. (6/23)
Faster, Higher, Farther – Experts
Chart the Next Era of High-Speed Civil Flight (Source: AIAA)
Industry and government leaders describe a high-speed aviation sector
that is technically close to commercial reality yet still constrained
by economics, regulation, and environmental concerns. Across supersonic
jets, rocket-powered point-to-point concepts and low-boom
demonstrators, panelists arrived at a shared conclusion: the technology
is largely ready. The questions now involve financing, markets,
standards, and proof that high-speed travel can be economically viable
while remaining environmentally and socially acceptable. (6/23)
ESA Selects Florida-Based NUVIEW’s
‘Moonraker’ Mission for Lunar Terrain Mapping with LiDAR
(Sources: Spacewatch Global, Florida Politics)
ESA has selected NUVIEW's Moonraker mission for a Phase A study - a
LiDAR spacecraft to generate high-resolution 3D terrain maps of the
Moon's polar regions for future landing sites. NUVIEW is an Orlando
company aiming to map every inch of Earth in 3D — and Leonardo DiCaprio
is an investor. The lunar mapping study is led by the company’s German
arm, NUVIEW GmbH.
“Moonraker is a direct extension of our commercial LiDAR architecture
into lunar orbit,” said Katie Graumann, who the company lists as CEO of
its German entity. “By adapting the systems we are deploying for Earth
observation, we can provide reliable, mission-critical terrain data
that helps reduce risk for future lunar landings and surface
operations.” (6/22)
PLD, Rocket Factory Augsburg,
MaiaSpace: 3 European Launcher Challenge players Update Their Inaugural
Flight Plans (Source: Space Intel Report)
Three of the four startup launch service providers competing in the
European Launcher Challenge (ELC) managed by the European Space Agency
(ESA) — PLD Space, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) and MaiaSpace provided
updates on their development status. The ELC mandates that each rocket
conduct at least one successor orbital launch by 2027, and then
demonstrate its path toward producing a larger version of its rocket.
PLD Space (Spain) plans its inaugural MIURA 5 flight from its launch
site in Kourou, with plans to initiate commercial operations in 2027.
MaiaSpace (France) is readying its Maia mini-launcher with an
"aero-spike" and a reusable first stage. The company is preparing to
launch a "minimum viable product" configuration to reach space, aiming
for a full first-stage booster recovery by 2028.
Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) (Germany) is targeting a maiden test
flight this summer for its RFA ONE rocket. The initial test flight,
slated to carry several satellites coordinated by the German Aerospace
Center (DLR), will launch from the SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland.
(6/22)
Melroy Joins Gilmour Board
(Source: Gilmour Space)
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy is joining the board of
Gilmour Space. The Australian launch vehicle and satellite manufacturer
announced Tuesday that Melroy, NASA's deputy administrator in the Biden
administration and a former astronaut, was joining its board of
directors. The company said they hoped Melroy would help the company as
it seeks to expand internationally. Gilmour launched its first Eris
rocket last year, which failed shortly after liftoff, and has not
announced a date for its next launch attempt. (6/23)
3I/ATLAS is About 12 Billion Years Old
(Source: Science)
An interstellar comet that passed through the solar system last year
was extremely old. Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope,
published Monday, showed that 3I/ATLAS formed about 12 billion years
ago, or less than two billion years after the Big Bang. Scientists
reached that conclusion based on the composition of the comet,
including low amounts of a carbon isotope and presence of "semiheavy"
water that forms in high-radiation regions common in the early
universe. (6/23)
US Needs Space War Framework
(Source: Space News)
A report finds that the U.S. military needs a framework for responding
to hostile acts in space. A study by the Mitchell Institute for
Aerospace Studies, based on a January workshop, found that conflict in
space is more complex than workshop participants expected due to the
nature of the domain and a "lack of policy clarity." Participants
concluded that the United States is already engaged in a sustained
"gray-zone" competition with China in space and must prepare for
conflict beyond simply protecting its satellite networks. The report
argues that Washington needs a broader range of military response
options, clearer rules for responding to hostile actions in space and
greater investment in capabilities for space superiority. (6/23)
Rocket Lab Performs Responsive Launch
From Virginia (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab performed an unannounced launch on short notice for a Space
Force responsive space exercise. The Electron launch Friday at 6:19
a.m. Eastern was not announced in advance by the company or the Space
Force and only confirmed on Monday, two days after a payload and upper
stage from the launch appeared in a Space Force catalog. The launch
took place less than 17 hours after the Space Force issued a formal
launch order, beating the program's 24-hour requirement. The spacecraft
launched by Rocket Lab, called Victus Haze Puma, is expected to conduct
rendezvous and proximity operations with Jackal-004, a True Anomaly
spacecraft already in orbit. (6/23)
NASA and Boeing Unsure of Starliner
Return-to-Flight (Source: Space News)
NASA and Boeing are still uncertain when the Starliner spacecraft will
make its next flight. At a meeting Monday of the Aerospace Safety
Advisory Panel, members said that NASA and Boeing are continuing to
work through technical problems from Starliner's last flight two years
ago, as well as implementing organizational changes recommended by an
independent report released in February.
There is no scheduled launch date for Starliner-1, an uncrewed test
flight that was previously expected to take place this year, and the
panel's chair said the mission is now expected to launch sometime "in
the next year or so." The panel said Boeing assured them of their
commitment to the program, although NASA announced last month it plans
to buy more SpaceX commercial crew flights because of Starliner delays.
(6/23)
Executive Order Directs NASA to Focus
on Quantum Innovation (Source: Space News)
A White House executive order on quantum technologies includes work for
NASA. The "Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation" order,
signed by President Trump Monday, gives NASA 120 days to submit a
five-year plan for "developing and extending civilian quantum sensing
and networking for space applications."
The order also directs the Pentagon to identify at least three
next-generation quantum sensor projects within 60 days to prioritize
for fielding by September 2028. That order, and a separate one on
quantum cryptography, came the same day as U.S.-based quantum
technology firm Infleqtion announced America's Quantum Space
Initiative, an industry coalition aiming to advance demonstrations to
operational capability. (6/23)
China's Spaceplane Releases Object in
Orbit (Source: Space News)
A Chinese spaceplane has released an object in orbit. Space
surveillance firm LeoLabs said Monday that its radars tracked the
release of an object from the Shenlong spaceplane earlier that day. The
spaceplane has been in low Earth orbit since its launch in February on
its fourth mission. The detection of the object follows a pattern of
China's spaceplane releasing subsatellites after reaching orbit. The
spaceplane's second and third orbital missions included the main
spacecraft appearing to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations
with the released objects. (6/23)
China Launches Commsat on Long March
7A (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a communications test satellite Monday. A Long March 7A
rocket lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport at 10:10 p.m. Eastern and
placed in orbit the Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing 26A spacecraft.
Chinese media said the satellite will be used for video and data
communications and related testing. (6/23)
China Procurement Filing Suggests New
7-Meter Diameter Rocket in Development (Source: Space News)
China appears to be working on reusable rockets seven meters in
diameter. Procurement filings by China Aerospace Science and Technology
Corporation show the company is obtaining equipment needed to make
stainless steel components for rockets seven meters across. The moves
correlate with a development recommendation circulated in May 2023, in
which a presentation slide suggested developing rockets of 5 meters, 7
meters and 10 meters in diameter. The smallest and largest diameters
correspond to the Long March 10 and Long March 9, respectively, but
there has been no public discussion of a rocket seven meters in
diameter, which would be similar to Blue Origin's New Glenn. (6/23)
'Let's Not Fool the Public': Why Moon
Art Should Be More Realistic in the Artemis Age (Source:
Space.com)
The moon is in need of good and accurate artists! As NASA's Artemis
program hits its stride, and in a few years "reboots" our moon with a
human presence, there's an urgent need to guard against artistic
misrepresentations of the lunar landscape, experts say. We've all seen
those alluring lunar renderings of vehicles and astronauts bounding
about while setting up equipment and putting in place a moon base.
"We are telling the public the moon is easy — it is not!" That's the
matter-of-fact warning from Daniel Britt, the Pegasus Professor of
Astronomy and Planetary Sciences in the Department of Physics at the
University of Central Florida. He's also the director of the Center for
Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science. (6/22)
Report: Kennedy Space Center Not Ready
for Era of Super Heavy Rockets (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA’s infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center, the crown jewel of US
spaceports, is aging and approaching its limit due to increased demand
from private companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, a new NASA
Inspector General report finds. "NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated
and often does not provide the capacity to meet the growing demands of
the agency and its partners," it states.
The report covers NASA’s launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. However, the most
noteworthy information in the report concerns the Florida spaceport,
where demand from SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch
vehicles is expected to stress NASA.
NASA only has a handful of launch pads at Kennedy. Launch Complex 39A
is currently leased by SpaceX for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches,
and also houses a new launch facility that will soon support Starship
launches. Launch Complex 39B is home to NASA’s Space Launch System
rocket, and Launch Complex 39C has not been used due to its proximity
to this pad. Finally, NASA has built a 10-acre site, Launch Complex 48,
that it may lease to small launch vehicle companies. (6/22)
Starlink Denied Entry as Namibia
Rebuffs 624 Appeals for License (Source: Bloomberg)
Namibia rejected more than 600 appeals against its decision to deny
trillionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink a license to operate in the country,
including a challenge brought by the satellite internet provider. Of
the 624 reconsideration requests, only two met the jurisdictional
threshold for review, the Communications Regulatory Authority of
Namibia said Monday. Neither presented sufficient legal or factual
grounds to change the original decision, it said. (6/22)
Northwood Unveils New Antenna,
Expanded Network Capacity (Source: Payload)
Northwood Space unveiled a new satellite ground antenna today—called
Prism—as part of an effort to significantly increase its ground station
network capacity over the coming years. The new hardware comes amid
Northwood’s rapid global expansion of its physical ground station
footprint, and will allow the company to support more data downlinks
over a wider range of frequencies. (6/22)
America is About to Cede Africa’s
Space Industry to China (Source: Space News)
Africa's emerging space industry offers a strategic, high-leverage
avenue for an "America First" foreign policy. By focusing on space
technology, the U.S. can tap into an area where it still holds a
decisive competitive advantage, securing long-term influence and
economic partnerships across the continent.
If the Trump administration is serious about executing its “America
First in Africa” policy and transforming American engagement on the
continent, it needs to pivot foreign aid toward strategic,
business-driven collaborations. Satellite data, telecommunications
infrastructure, and Earth observation yield tangible, mutual benefits
for American contractors and African nations.
While ambitious, investing in launch infrastructure presents
immense long-term value. High upfront costs for these sites and
associated vehicle ecosystems make alternative replacement systems
economically impractical, ensuring deep and lasting alliances. (6/22)
Austrian Space Forum Trains Six New
Analog Astronauts for its Mars Mission Simulation (Source:
Spacewatch Global)
The Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) recently presented their Analog
Astronaut Class of 2026, comprising six researchers (four women and two
men) from six different European countries. They are currently
undergoing intensive training for the AMADEE-27 Mars analog mission,
which will be staged in the Monsaraz region of Portugal in early 2027.
The crew, selected from across Europe, consists of specialists in
medicine, physics, engineering, and research. (6/22)
Firefly Aerospace Expected to Secure
$110 Million US EXIM Loan (Source: Reuters)
Rocket and spacecraft maker Firefly Aerospace (FLY.O), opens new tab is
expected to secure a $110 million U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) loan
that would help fund the company's expansion of spacecraft production
facilities in Texas, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. The
bank's three board members are poised for a Tuesday morning vote on the
loan, which is part of an EXIM initiative to help U.S. firms compete
globally with foreign companies in artificial intelligence, space and
other areas, according to the document. (6/23)
Could We Actually Terraform Mars?
Scientists are Trying to Find Out (Source: Space.com)
Scientists are engaged in research with an eye toward transforming the
cold climes of Mars into a far more habitable place for Earthlings in
the future. One notion proposed is the dispersion of an aerosol meant
to help warm up Mars' atmosphere. The idea is projected to be a first
step toward terraforming the Red Planet. Also emerging recently as a
new field of study is "applied astrobiology," which seeks to appraise
what would be needed to create sustainable habitats and biospheres
beyond Earth.
Scientists have drawn up a research blueprint for assessing the
viability of warming the Red Planet, outlining what it might take to
make Mars a place in space where life can thrive. Importantly, that
roadmap does not presuppose that warming Mars is desirable. Rather, its
purpose is to identify what is required for Mars to be warmed, what it
would cost and what could go wrong. (6/22)
German Satellite Maker OHB Launches
Share Sale with KKR (Source: Reuters)
German satellite maker OHB is launching a share sale with KKR to bring
in new investors and seek a higher valuation as interest in space
stocks rises after Elon Musk's blockbuster SpaceX listing.
The combined offering would more than triple OHB's free float and imply
a market value of 6.3 billion euros, positioning the company to
capitalize on a surge in investor appetite for the sector.
OHB said it will issue up to 1.7 million new shares at 300 euros each,
raising up to 510.7 million euros. KKR-owned Orchid Lux HoldCo will
sell up to 1.23 million existing shares, according to a bookrunner for
the deal. (6/22)
Seasoned Leadership Could Help Quantum
Space’s IPO Take Off (Source: The Hill)
Quantum Space will initiate an IPO by merging with the special purpose
acquisition company, Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. VI. The deal is
supposed to close later this year. Quantum Space was founded several
years ago with a proposed line of spacecraft called Ranger. Ranger
would operate from low Earth orbit to cis-lunar space in a variety of
roles.
Quantum Space is headquartered in Maryland, close to Washington, D.C.,
where most of its potential customers are located. It has a
manufacturing plant in Hawthorne, California, an integration facility
in Huntsville, and a new parts and large tanks manufacturing facility
being built in Tulsa. Last month, Quantum Space named former NASA
Administrator Jim Bridenstine as its CEO. Bridenstine brings a lot of
education and experience to the role.
After leaving NASA, Bridenstine returned to his home in Tulsa, where he
founded the Artemis Group, an aerospace-focused consulting and lobbying
firm. Bridenstine’s education, experience and knowledge of space
issues, as well as his contacts in Washington, will be important once
Ranger becomes operational. (6/21)
SpaceX Declines for a Third Day After
Announcing Bond Sale (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX shares slipped for a third straight day after the Elon Musk-led
company said it is selling investment-grade bonds for the first time,
part of what’s expected to be a massive borrowing spree to fund its
artificial-intelligence ambitions. The stock fell as much as 13% Monday
in New York, shedding more than $300 billion in market value and
briefly dropping below the level it closed at on the first day of
trading. The drop follows a retreat of more than 8% over Wednesday and
Thursday. SpaceX shares were down another 7% in early trade on Monday.
SpaceX shareholders and potential investors should be aware that the
end of lockup periods could cause further price declines. Lockup
periods prevent early investors and employees who've been granted stock
options from sell their shares right away. SpaceX shares have a
staggered schedule for their lockup periods: 20% to 30% of shares will
come off their lockup before the first earnings report in July or
August. An additional 7% of the stock will be available after either
70, 90, 105, 120, or 135 days beyond the IPO date. A further 28% of the
stock will leave its lockup period after the second-quarter report. The
rest will be available 180 days after the IPO date. The traditional
lockup period is 180 days. This staggered schedule is unusual. (6/22)
Financing the Final Frontier: Ledger
or Lens? (Source: Space Review)
A recent $1.25 trillion cost estimate for Golden Dome caused some
sticker shock. Bharath Gopalaswamy and Daniel Dant discuss how the
total cost is less important than how the program, including its
space-based elements, is financed. Click here.
(6/22)
A History of the APAS Docking System
(Source: Space Review)
A docking system developed for Apollo-Soyuz evolved over the years for
use on Mir and the International Space Station. Maks Skiendzielewski
charts the history of the APAS docking system. Click here.
(6/22)
Yellow Fleets: Stranded Ships in Suez
and the Persian Gulf (Source: Space Review)
The conflict in the Middle East has kept many ships trapped in the
Persian Gulf for months. Dwayne Day and Harry Stranger describe a
similar incident in the Suez Canal more than a half-century ago that
was monitored by spy satellites. Click here.
(6/22)
Space Autonomy Needs an Authority
Architecture Before 2027 (Source: Space Review)
Threats to space assets mean a greater reliance on autonomy to protect
them from attack. Burak Oktenli argues this means taking decisions now
on what measures spacecraft can take autonomously and who will be
responsible for their effects. Click here.
(6/22)
June 22, 2026
‘Space Gun’ Startup Hopes to Offer
Affordable Hypersonic Weapon Testing (Source: Aerospace America)
Executives at Longshot Space Technologies typically pitch the company as an alternative launch provider building a “space gun” to shoot payloads into orbit. However, upcoming tests of its launcher will further a different application: hypersonics testing. Longshot plans to build increasingly large multi-injection guns, or light gas guns. Depending on the size of these tube-shaped launchers, payloads could be fired at hypersonic speeds for military target practice or — theoretically — at high enough speeds to reach low-Earth orbit. (6/19)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket Just Had Its Invisible Pollution Studied For The First Time Ever (Source: BGR)
In February of 2025, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket caused a bit of a public stir when its engine failed, causing an uncontrolled re-entry back to Earth. It was supposed to land in the Pacific Ocean, but instead, parts of Europe were pelted with rocket debris. There was even large debris landing within town limits in Poland, putting people at risk. This allowed a unique study of the atmospheric pollution the Falcon 9 rocket caused.
As the rocket broke apart in the atmosphere, it released a plume of lithium vapor that drifted more than 1,000 miles across the European continent. Scientists used the event as a unique opportunity to study how re-entering spacecraft can introduce pollutants into the upper atmosphere and potentially alter its chemical composition.
Researchers detected lithium levels about 10 times higher than normal in the upper atmosphere for about 20 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket re-entered over Europe. By modeling atmospheric winds, they were able to trace the lithium plume back to the rocket's flight path, providing what they say is the first direct evidence of upper-atmosphere pollution caused by re-entering space debris. The study was published in Nature in 2026. (6/21)
Rocket Launches are Set to Skyrocket Soon at Vandenberg SFB (Source: KMPH)
Vandenberg Space Force Base on California's Central Coast has been a quiet outpost for decades, averaging less than 10 rocket launches per year for almost the past 50 years. But that has changed big time in the past couple of years, and last year was their busiest year ever: 66 rocket launches. That trend will continue, as the Air Force authorized up to 100 launches per year from Vandenberg last October. Most of those will be a mid-sized rocket from Space-X - the Falcon 9. But Vandenberg now has authorization for up to 5 much bigger Falcon Heavy launches. (6/20)
French Labor Unions Demand CNES Cancel ISS & Vast Space Flights (Source: Douglas Messier)
Four labor unions are calling for CNES to cancel plans to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and Vast Space’s commercial Haven-1 station as the French space agency faces €330 million in budget cuts.
“The surprise announcement of a contract (with a figure kept confidential) with the American start-up Vast—intended to support and finance a space tourism business model at the expense of the CNES’s [Corporate Social Responsibility] commitments, environmental concerns, science, and French industrial sovereignty—is unacceptable. Trade unions are demanding the cancellation of this arrangement and genuine consultation regarding the objectives and methods of French space exploration,” the CNES Joint Union Committee said in an announcement. (6/22)
Solid Rocket Motor Makers Open to Increased Production Commitments (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman said it and other companies are able to significantly increase production of solid rocket motors provided the government makes long-term procurement commitments. The Pentagon has warned that shortages of solid rocket motors could constrain plans to sharply increase missile production.
Manufacturers are responding to those concerns and are prepared to increase output, but annual appropriations and shorter-duration contracts make it difficult to make the long-term investments needed to support sustained growth. While the Pentagon has embraced multiyear authority for munitions contracts, Northrop noted that still depends on annual appropriations.
Editor's Note: Space Coast-based Vaya seeks to diversify its hybrid-motor space launch technology to address the need for missile motors. The company is designing versions of its hybrid motors for use in missiles. (6/22)
SpaceX Launches Sunday Starlink Mission From California (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Sunday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:39 p.m. Eastern carrying 24 Starlink satellites. The launch was the 33rd flight of this Falcon 9 booster, two short of the company's current record for Falcon 9 booster reuse. (6/22)
Roman Telescope Arrives in Florida for Launch (Source: Spaceflight Now)
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived in Florida for launch preparations. A barge carrying Roman arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Sunday, about a week after leaving Baltimore. Roman will undergo final preparations at KSC for its launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket currently scheduled for as soon as Aug. 30. (6/22)
Blue Origin May Use Former Space Perspective Facility at Space Coast Airport (Source: Florida Today)
Blue Origin is interested in taking over a building in Florida that had been used by a stratospheric ballooning company. Blue Origin is in talks to purchase the 200-meter-long structure at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville that had been used by Space Perspective to manufacture balloons. Space Perspective planned to fly capsules carrying tourists to altitudes of about 30 kilometers, but ran into financial problems last year. Airport officials did not disclose what Blue Origin was planning to use that building for. (6/22)
Northstar to Provide Space Surveillance for Canada's Military (Source: Northstar Earth and Space)
Northstar Earth and Space won a contract to provide space surveillance services for the Canadian military. The company announced last week an award from the Royal Canadian Air Force's 3 Canadian Space Division worth 40 million dollars Canadian ($28.2 million) to provide space surveillance capabilities for the next 12 months. The Montréal-based company announced plans in April to go public through a SPAC merger. (6/22)
Flyby Provides Details on Donaldjohanson Asteroid (Source: Scientific American)
Observations by a NASA spacecraft revealed the unusual nature of a main-belt asteroid. A paper published last week summarized observations made by NASA's Lucy spacecraft when it flew by the asteroid Donaldjohanson in April 2025. The asteroid has two lobes connected by a "neck" of material with few large craters. Planetary scientists believe Donaldjohanson formed about 155 million years ago from debris when a larger asteroid shattered in a collision. The lack of craters in the neck connecting the lobes may be linked to landslides as the asteroid's rotation period slowed. Lucy flew by Donaldjohanson on its way to study Trojan asteroids that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit. (6/22)
ESA Astronaut Tests European Spacesuit Prototype Aboard ISS (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot has tested a European intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit prototype aboard the ISS. In addition to testing in space, a second prototype has undergone a water survival test campaign in Marseille. The EuroSuit project was initiated by the French space agency CNES in December 2023, with its development led by a consortium that includes Spartan Space, the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES), and sporting goods retailer Decathlon. (6/22)
Parker Solar Probe Flew Through Solar Corona and Found a Unpredicted Source of High-Energy Particles (Source: Space Daily)
When NASA’s Parker Solar Probe passed through the solar corona during perihelion encounters at the heliospheric current sheet, its instruments recorded energetic protons at energies far above what existing models of particle acceleration at that location could account for. The team identified magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet as the mechanism responsible. The proton energies detected were, in the study’s framing, approximately a thousand times greater than the available magnetic energy per particle that models of this process had predicted. (6/20)
Canada Acquires BAE Radar System to Monitor Arctic (Source: CBC)
In 2026, Canada finalized a $2.5-billion agreement with Australia and BAE Systems Australia for the acquisition of the Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar system. Signed by Secretary of State Stephen Fuhr and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the deal reflects a collaborative approach under Canada's Defense Industrial Strategy. The agreement marks the first of two planned radar units, with the second to be located further north, and is part of a broader effort to improve Arctic surveillance and security. (6/21)
Microgravity Rounds the Heart (Source: Space Daily)
Spend long enough in orbit and your own body starts to change shape. With gravity no longer pulling on it in the usual way, an astronaut’s heart can grow slightly more spherical, and their spine can stretch enough that they return to Earth measurably taller than when they left. Both changes are real, both are temporary, and both come down to the same thing: a body built for gravity, briefly relieved of it. (6/21)
Selling Deeds for Moon Property (Source: Space Daily)
Dennis Hope walked into a county clerk’s office in 1980 and filed a claim of ownership over the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, and every other solid body in the solar system except Earth. He was broke, recently divorced, and driving a beat-up car when the idea hit him. Forty-five years later, his company Lunar Embassy has reportedly sold more than 2.5 million lunar deeds at around $20 to $30 an acre, to customers including three former U.S. presidents and a long list of Hollywood celebrities. Every one of those deeds is, under international law, worth precisely nothing. (6/19)
Executives at Longshot Space Technologies typically pitch the company as an alternative launch provider building a “space gun” to shoot payloads into orbit. However, upcoming tests of its launcher will further a different application: hypersonics testing. Longshot plans to build increasingly large multi-injection guns, or light gas guns. Depending on the size of these tube-shaped launchers, payloads could be fired at hypersonic speeds for military target practice or — theoretically — at high enough speeds to reach low-Earth orbit. (6/19)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket Just Had Its Invisible Pollution Studied For The First Time Ever (Source: BGR)
In February of 2025, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket caused a bit of a public stir when its engine failed, causing an uncontrolled re-entry back to Earth. It was supposed to land in the Pacific Ocean, but instead, parts of Europe were pelted with rocket debris. There was even large debris landing within town limits in Poland, putting people at risk. This allowed a unique study of the atmospheric pollution the Falcon 9 rocket caused.
As the rocket broke apart in the atmosphere, it released a plume of lithium vapor that drifted more than 1,000 miles across the European continent. Scientists used the event as a unique opportunity to study how re-entering spacecraft can introduce pollutants into the upper atmosphere and potentially alter its chemical composition.
Researchers detected lithium levels about 10 times higher than normal in the upper atmosphere for about 20 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket re-entered over Europe. By modeling atmospheric winds, they were able to trace the lithium plume back to the rocket's flight path, providing what they say is the first direct evidence of upper-atmosphere pollution caused by re-entering space debris. The study was published in Nature in 2026. (6/21)
Rocket Launches are Set to Skyrocket Soon at Vandenberg SFB (Source: KMPH)
Vandenberg Space Force Base on California's Central Coast has been a quiet outpost for decades, averaging less than 10 rocket launches per year for almost the past 50 years. But that has changed big time in the past couple of years, and last year was their busiest year ever: 66 rocket launches. That trend will continue, as the Air Force authorized up to 100 launches per year from Vandenberg last October. Most of those will be a mid-sized rocket from Space-X - the Falcon 9. But Vandenberg now has authorization for up to 5 much bigger Falcon Heavy launches. (6/20)
French Labor Unions Demand CNES Cancel ISS & Vast Space Flights (Source: Douglas Messier)
Four labor unions are calling for CNES to cancel plans to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and Vast Space’s commercial Haven-1 station as the French space agency faces €330 million in budget cuts.
“The surprise announcement of a contract (with a figure kept confidential) with the American start-up Vast—intended to support and finance a space tourism business model at the expense of the CNES’s [Corporate Social Responsibility] commitments, environmental concerns, science, and French industrial sovereignty—is unacceptable. Trade unions are demanding the cancellation of this arrangement and genuine consultation regarding the objectives and methods of French space exploration,” the CNES Joint Union Committee said in an announcement. (6/22)
Solid Rocket Motor Makers Open to Increased Production Commitments (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman said it and other companies are able to significantly increase production of solid rocket motors provided the government makes long-term procurement commitments. The Pentagon has warned that shortages of solid rocket motors could constrain plans to sharply increase missile production.
Manufacturers are responding to those concerns and are prepared to increase output, but annual appropriations and shorter-duration contracts make it difficult to make the long-term investments needed to support sustained growth. While the Pentagon has embraced multiyear authority for munitions contracts, Northrop noted that still depends on annual appropriations.
Editor's Note: Space Coast-based Vaya seeks to diversify its hybrid-motor space launch technology to address the need for missile motors. The company is designing versions of its hybrid motors for use in missiles. (6/22)
SpaceX Launches Sunday Starlink Mission From California (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Sunday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:39 p.m. Eastern carrying 24 Starlink satellites. The launch was the 33rd flight of this Falcon 9 booster, two short of the company's current record for Falcon 9 booster reuse. (6/22)
Roman Telescope Arrives in Florida for Launch (Source: Spaceflight Now)
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived in Florida for launch preparations. A barge carrying Roman arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Sunday, about a week after leaving Baltimore. Roman will undergo final preparations at KSC for its launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket currently scheduled for as soon as Aug. 30. (6/22)
Blue Origin May Use Former Space Perspective Facility at Space Coast Airport (Source: Florida Today)
Blue Origin is interested in taking over a building in Florida that had been used by a stratospheric ballooning company. Blue Origin is in talks to purchase the 200-meter-long structure at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville that had been used by Space Perspective to manufacture balloons. Space Perspective planned to fly capsules carrying tourists to altitudes of about 30 kilometers, but ran into financial problems last year. Airport officials did not disclose what Blue Origin was planning to use that building for. (6/22)
Northstar to Provide Space Surveillance for Canada's Military (Source: Northstar Earth and Space)
Northstar Earth and Space won a contract to provide space surveillance services for the Canadian military. The company announced last week an award from the Royal Canadian Air Force's 3 Canadian Space Division worth 40 million dollars Canadian ($28.2 million) to provide space surveillance capabilities for the next 12 months. The Montréal-based company announced plans in April to go public through a SPAC merger. (6/22)
Flyby Provides Details on Donaldjohanson Asteroid (Source: Scientific American)
Observations by a NASA spacecraft revealed the unusual nature of a main-belt asteroid. A paper published last week summarized observations made by NASA's Lucy spacecraft when it flew by the asteroid Donaldjohanson in April 2025. The asteroid has two lobes connected by a "neck" of material with few large craters. Planetary scientists believe Donaldjohanson formed about 155 million years ago from debris when a larger asteroid shattered in a collision. The lack of craters in the neck connecting the lobes may be linked to landslides as the asteroid's rotation period slowed. Lucy flew by Donaldjohanson on its way to study Trojan asteroids that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit. (6/22)
ESA Astronaut Tests European Spacesuit Prototype Aboard ISS (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot has tested a European intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit prototype aboard the ISS. In addition to testing in space, a second prototype has undergone a water survival test campaign in Marseille. The EuroSuit project was initiated by the French space agency CNES in December 2023, with its development led by a consortium that includes Spartan Space, the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES), and sporting goods retailer Decathlon. (6/22)
Parker Solar Probe Flew Through Solar Corona and Found a Unpredicted Source of High-Energy Particles (Source: Space Daily)
When NASA’s Parker Solar Probe passed through the solar corona during perihelion encounters at the heliospheric current sheet, its instruments recorded energetic protons at energies far above what existing models of particle acceleration at that location could account for. The team identified magnetic reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet as the mechanism responsible. The proton energies detected were, in the study’s framing, approximately a thousand times greater than the available magnetic energy per particle that models of this process had predicted. (6/20)
Canada Acquires BAE Radar System to Monitor Arctic (Source: CBC)
In 2026, Canada finalized a $2.5-billion agreement with Australia and BAE Systems Australia for the acquisition of the Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar system. Signed by Secretary of State Stephen Fuhr and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the deal reflects a collaborative approach under Canada's Defense Industrial Strategy. The agreement marks the first of two planned radar units, with the second to be located further north, and is part of a broader effort to improve Arctic surveillance and security. (6/21)
Microgravity Rounds the Heart (Source: Space Daily)
Spend long enough in orbit and your own body starts to change shape. With gravity no longer pulling on it in the usual way, an astronaut’s heart can grow slightly more spherical, and their spine can stretch enough that they return to Earth measurably taller than when they left. Both changes are real, both are temporary, and both come down to the same thing: a body built for gravity, briefly relieved of it. (6/21)
Selling Deeds for Moon Property (Source: Space Daily)
Dennis Hope walked into a county clerk’s office in 1980 and filed a claim of ownership over the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, and every other solid body in the solar system except Earth. He was broke, recently divorced, and driving a beat-up car when the idea hit him. Forty-five years later, his company Lunar Embassy has reportedly sold more than 2.5 million lunar deeds at around $20 to $30 an acre, to customers including three former U.S. presidents and a long list of Hollywood celebrities. Every one of those deeds is, under international law, worth precisely nothing. (6/19)
June 21, 2026
No One Wants AI Data Centers on Earth.
Do They Make Sense in Space? (Source: CNBC)
Engineering and technical issues are being solved and SpaceX now has considerably more capital, but economically, the concept remains challenging even as rocket launches become cheaper, though Jeff Bezos and Google are also chasing it. Long-term, the best argument for data centers in space may be that the cost of building them on Earth is likely to go up over time — while land use, water use, and electricity use all remain points of tension with the public — and all while the cost of building in space may come down.
Some investors contend the company has no choice but to make the idea work if it hopes to justify its public market valuations over time. “The company comes down to data centers in space,” Duncan Davidson, a partner at Bullpen Capital, said on CNBC’s “The Exchange” the week before the IPO. “That is the big, long-term play.”
SpaceX is hardly alone in what has become a race to compute in space. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has voiced similar aspirations for his rocket and AI ventures, Blue Origin and Prometheus, respectively. In March, Blue Origin submitted plans to the FCC to launch 51,600 data center satellites into low Earth orbit. Alphabet’s search giant Google has entered the race through a collaboration with Earth observation satellite maker Planet Labs on Project Suncatcher, an orbital data center initiative. (6/21)
SpaceX's Starfall Disk Capsule Bets on Orbital Manufacturing Scale (Source: Tech Times)
SpaceX is preparing to fly its first Starfall prototype on Tuesday, June 23, in a low-profile demo that could upend the economics of an entire emerging industry. The disk-shaped reentry capsule is designed to return up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo from orbit. The company has said nothing publicly about the vehicle. What is known comes almost entirely from regulatory filings with the FAA and the FCC.
The significance of Tuesday's test reaches well beyond a single flight. Every orbital manufacturing company currently operating — including Varda Space Industries, which has built the market from scratch over six missions — uses SpaceX's own Falcon 9 rideshares to get their capsules to orbit. If Starfall works, SpaceX will be competing for the cargo return contracts of customers who already depend on it for launch.
Starfall is not a scaled-down Dragon. It abandons the conical geometry that has defined reentry capsules since Apollo and replaces it with a flat, circular disk — 3.1 meters in diameter and just 0.75 meters tall. The total dry mass is approximately 2,100 kilograms, split between a 1,400-kilogram aluminum top plate and a 700-kilogram carbon-fiber heat shield. Competitors in the space-return market currently bring back dozens of kilograms per mission. Starfall, at a minimum, represents a 30-fold increase in single-flight return capacity. (6/20)
Texas Supreme Court Denies Request to Save Beach From SpaceX (Source: Independent)
SpaceX can keep closing a Texas beach to launch rockets from the company’s nearby Starbase, according to the state’s Supreme Court. The state’s highest court rejected claims brought by environmental groups that barring public access to Boca Chica Beach violated the state’s constitution. Friday’s unanimous, 24-page opinion overruled an appeals court that had sided with environmental groups and reinstated a trial judge’s decision to throw out their lawsuit.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton, who intervened in the case, praised the ruling on social media. “Texas law allows for portions of a beach to be secured for Texans’ safety, which is exactly what’s needed to ensure SpaceX has a safe and operational launch site,” wrote Paxton, who defeated Republican Sen. John Cornyn in last month’s GOP Senate primary with the help of President Donald Trump. (6/21)
Astrobotic's Sale to Voyager to Allows Rapid Scale-Up (Source: Space News)
Lunar lander developer Astrobotic decided to sell to Voyager Technologies so it could quickly scale up to meet the projected demands of NASA’s lunar base initiative. John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said the decision to sell the company to Voyager came after concluding that it was the fastest approach to scaling up the company to meet NASA’s needs after the agency announced its lunar base plans at the Ignition event in March.
“The alternate path would have been raise some money, maybe try to go IPO after that. That probably takes 18 months all in,” he said. “With the partnership with Voyager, we basically have access to public markets imminently when we close. That gives us an ability to scale now.” (6/20)
Wright-Patt AFB Set to Grow More with New Space Force Facility (Source: WDTN)
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is already the single largest employer in the state, and now it is set to generate even more jobs through a massive new investment. The base will be the home of a newly announced $370 million Space Force intelligence facility. (6/19)
Keeping Track of Human Spaceflight Numbers (Source: Space Daily)
The total number of human beings who have left Earth’s atmosphere across the entire history of spaceflight is, by current estimates, approximately 700. NASA has contributed roughly 360 of these. The Soviet and subsequent Russian programs have contributed approximately 135. The European Space Agency, JAXA in Japan, the Canadian Space Agency, the Chinese taikonaut program, and several smaller national programs account for most of the rest. The 120 commercial civilians who have flown since 2021 represent approximately 17 percent of this cumulative total, almost none of them with the professional training that defined every previous generation of spacefarer. (6/20)
South Korea Seeks Site for Second Spaceport (Source: AJP)
South Korea will open a nationwide search for the site of a second spaceport, the country's space agency said, as it prepares for an expected surge in launches driven by reusable rockets. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) announced Sunday it would invite bids from local governments until August 6 to host the facility, which is intended to support more than 10 reusable-rocket launches a year from the mid-to-late 2030s. The agency aims to complete the second center by 2034 on a site of about 5.6 million square meters, comparable in scale to the existing Naro Space Center, equipped with launch, landing and maintenance facilities for reusable vehicles. (6/21)
Arianespace Counts on Ariane 6 for Launch Industry Comeback (Source: Financial Times)
Ariane had a successful launch on Wednesday using its most powerful version yet to transport 36 satellites for the tech giant, showcasing the rocket’s precision and reliability. It hopes the flight will entice new customers and bolster its reputation as a homegrown option for Europe. The sceptics it wants to win back include governments in its own back yard that fund Ariane through the European Space Agency but have also used SpaceX rockets, which can be half the price.
SpaceX gained further ground as Ariane 6 production delays left the continent without a launcher for a year, forcing the EU in 2023 to pay the US company to send its Galileo satellite navigation system to space. Ariane 6 has successfully completed all its eight flights since its first mission in July 2024 after replacing its retired predecessor, a feat that executives are eager to highlight, given that SpaceX’s main launch vehicle, Falcon 9, managed just four flights in its first two years. (6/21)
Starlink Satellites are Doing a Lot More Than Providing Internet (Source: SlashGear)
Rogers Communications, a major Canadian media conglomerate, teamed up with Starlink to help spot these fires as quickly as possible, even in the most remote of regions. Starlink doesn't directly detect these wildfires, however it does connect specialized detection equipment, like Pano AI cameras, to authorities. These Pano AI devices take 360-degree pictures in short intervals and are programmed to look for signs of a fire, like smoke.
Swarm, which was acquired by Starlink in 2021, has been used by conservation organizations like Rainforest Connection, which monitors the Amazon for illegal logging operations. Using cutting-edge audio sensors, the sounds of wood cutting machines and engines are picked up in remote areas of the jungle, then transmitted over Starlink to nearby intervention teams. (6/20)
New Mexico Incentives Fuel BlackVe Expansion in Albuquerque (Source: KOB4)
New Mexico and Albuquerque will put more than $1.5 million into aerospace company BlackVe’s expansion, a project officials said will bring 152 high-paying jobs. BlackVe plans to expand its Albuquerque headquarters and add jobs over the next 10 years. The state will provide $1 million through the New Mexico Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) fund, and the City of Albuquerque will add $250,000 in local LEDA funds plus a 20-year Industrial Revenue Bond.
BlackVe also received up to $295,000 through the state’s Job Training Incentive Program to hire and train nine employees. Officials said the expansion is expected to create more than $228 million in total economic impact for New Mexico. They said BlackVe will receive the money as it meets construction and hiring benchmarks, and the city will act as fiscal agent. BlackVe, founded in 2024, makes multi-mission spacecraft and uses advanced production technology to speed up how satellites are designed, built and operated. (6/19)
Port Officials Concerned About LC-51 Development at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Hometown News)
The proposed Launch Complex 51 would occupy a 50-acre site with supporting infrastructure and buildings. Operations from Launch Complex 46 would move there to place them farther from Blue Origin’s Launch Complex 36 blast zone, where a recent catastrophic explosion damaged the pad. However, the new complex’s location could still affect port activity.
At the June Canaveral Port Authority meeting, Port Canaveral CEO John Murray said, “It will be the closest active launch facility to the port. So, we’re looking at launch-related safety and exclusion zones that could temporarily or intermittently restrict navigation.” Murray said the port’s concerns include potential impacts on commercial, cruise and military vessel traffic, as well as disruption to the Canaveral Sand Bypass project. No decision will be made until studies address local impacts, environmental concerns and wetlands issues. Editor's Note: Development of LC-51 would clear the way for Blue Origin to develop a second launch pad at the Cape, on property currently used by the Navy and Space Florida at LC-46. (6/19)
All-Male NASA Artemis Crew Creates Backlash as Priorities Shift (Source: Bloomberg)
When NASA unveiled the four-person crew of its Artemis III mission last week, it didn’t take long for the general public to notice a common feature of the group: all four astronauts were men. NASA said the selection was not political. But it triggered a wave of disappointment from former NASA officials, space industry insiders and enthusiasts invested in the agency’s effort to put US astronauts back on the moon for the first time in more than half a century — and their hope that one of them will be a woman.
“Do I think this was chosen maliciously? Obviously no,” Emily Calandrelli, a science author who flew to space with Blue Origin, wrote on Instagram. “Do I think those in the selection process had a bias and ultimately when there were four men selected no one in the room thought it was a ‘big enough’ issue to try to correct? Yes.” Whether deliberate or by coincidence, the irony of the omission was immediately glaring. (6/19)
Do We Need a Lunar Building Code to Build Moon Bases Safely? (Source: Space.com)
Here on Earth, centuries of accumulated engineering knowhow, hard-learned lessons, and societal evolution have shaped a robust framework of building standards that govern how we build and maintain buildings today. But now, as humanity prepares to put in place a "sustained presence" on the moon, how do we guarantee the safety and integrity of structures built in an environment for which no such tradition exists?
At the 26th Space Resources Roundtable held June 2-5 on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines, one expert says what's needed is a lunar building code, the development of specific design criteria for the moon. Both NASA and China's space agency are planning to build habitats, landing pads, equipment shelters, and tall towers on the moon. But all that construction could be off to a shaky start, suggests Nerma Caluk. Caluk said there's a need to leverage terrestrial building experiences. (6/20)
Engineering and technical issues are being solved and SpaceX now has considerably more capital, but economically, the concept remains challenging even as rocket launches become cheaper, though Jeff Bezos and Google are also chasing it. Long-term, the best argument for data centers in space may be that the cost of building them on Earth is likely to go up over time — while land use, water use, and electricity use all remain points of tension with the public — and all while the cost of building in space may come down.
Some investors contend the company has no choice but to make the idea work if it hopes to justify its public market valuations over time. “The company comes down to data centers in space,” Duncan Davidson, a partner at Bullpen Capital, said on CNBC’s “The Exchange” the week before the IPO. “That is the big, long-term play.”
SpaceX is hardly alone in what has become a race to compute in space. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has voiced similar aspirations for his rocket and AI ventures, Blue Origin and Prometheus, respectively. In March, Blue Origin submitted plans to the FCC to launch 51,600 data center satellites into low Earth orbit. Alphabet’s search giant Google has entered the race through a collaboration with Earth observation satellite maker Planet Labs on Project Suncatcher, an orbital data center initiative. (6/21)
SpaceX's Starfall Disk Capsule Bets on Orbital Manufacturing Scale (Source: Tech Times)
SpaceX is preparing to fly its first Starfall prototype on Tuesday, June 23, in a low-profile demo that could upend the economics of an entire emerging industry. The disk-shaped reentry capsule is designed to return up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo from orbit. The company has said nothing publicly about the vehicle. What is known comes almost entirely from regulatory filings with the FAA and the FCC.
The significance of Tuesday's test reaches well beyond a single flight. Every orbital manufacturing company currently operating — including Varda Space Industries, which has built the market from scratch over six missions — uses SpaceX's own Falcon 9 rideshares to get their capsules to orbit. If Starfall works, SpaceX will be competing for the cargo return contracts of customers who already depend on it for launch.
Starfall is not a scaled-down Dragon. It abandons the conical geometry that has defined reentry capsules since Apollo and replaces it with a flat, circular disk — 3.1 meters in diameter and just 0.75 meters tall. The total dry mass is approximately 2,100 kilograms, split between a 1,400-kilogram aluminum top plate and a 700-kilogram carbon-fiber heat shield. Competitors in the space-return market currently bring back dozens of kilograms per mission. Starfall, at a minimum, represents a 30-fold increase in single-flight return capacity. (6/20)
Texas Supreme Court Denies Request to Save Beach From SpaceX (Source: Independent)
SpaceX can keep closing a Texas beach to launch rockets from the company’s nearby Starbase, according to the state’s Supreme Court. The state’s highest court rejected claims brought by environmental groups that barring public access to Boca Chica Beach violated the state’s constitution. Friday’s unanimous, 24-page opinion overruled an appeals court that had sided with environmental groups and reinstated a trial judge’s decision to throw out their lawsuit.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton, who intervened in the case, praised the ruling on social media. “Texas law allows for portions of a beach to be secured for Texans’ safety, which is exactly what’s needed to ensure SpaceX has a safe and operational launch site,” wrote Paxton, who defeated Republican Sen. John Cornyn in last month’s GOP Senate primary with the help of President Donald Trump. (6/21)
Astrobotic's Sale to Voyager to Allows Rapid Scale-Up (Source: Space News)
Lunar lander developer Astrobotic decided to sell to Voyager Technologies so it could quickly scale up to meet the projected demands of NASA’s lunar base initiative. John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said the decision to sell the company to Voyager came after concluding that it was the fastest approach to scaling up the company to meet NASA’s needs after the agency announced its lunar base plans at the Ignition event in March.
“The alternate path would have been raise some money, maybe try to go IPO after that. That probably takes 18 months all in,” he said. “With the partnership with Voyager, we basically have access to public markets imminently when we close. That gives us an ability to scale now.” (6/20)
Wright-Patt AFB Set to Grow More with New Space Force Facility (Source: WDTN)
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is already the single largest employer in the state, and now it is set to generate even more jobs through a massive new investment. The base will be the home of a newly announced $370 million Space Force intelligence facility. (6/19)
Keeping Track of Human Spaceflight Numbers (Source: Space Daily)
The total number of human beings who have left Earth’s atmosphere across the entire history of spaceflight is, by current estimates, approximately 700. NASA has contributed roughly 360 of these. The Soviet and subsequent Russian programs have contributed approximately 135. The European Space Agency, JAXA in Japan, the Canadian Space Agency, the Chinese taikonaut program, and several smaller national programs account for most of the rest. The 120 commercial civilians who have flown since 2021 represent approximately 17 percent of this cumulative total, almost none of them with the professional training that defined every previous generation of spacefarer. (6/20)
South Korea Seeks Site for Second Spaceport (Source: AJP)
South Korea will open a nationwide search for the site of a second spaceport, the country's space agency said, as it prepares for an expected surge in launches driven by reusable rockets. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) announced Sunday it would invite bids from local governments until August 6 to host the facility, which is intended to support more than 10 reusable-rocket launches a year from the mid-to-late 2030s. The agency aims to complete the second center by 2034 on a site of about 5.6 million square meters, comparable in scale to the existing Naro Space Center, equipped with launch, landing and maintenance facilities for reusable vehicles. (6/21)
Arianespace Counts on Ariane 6 for Launch Industry Comeback (Source: Financial Times)
Ariane had a successful launch on Wednesday using its most powerful version yet to transport 36 satellites for the tech giant, showcasing the rocket’s precision and reliability. It hopes the flight will entice new customers and bolster its reputation as a homegrown option for Europe. The sceptics it wants to win back include governments in its own back yard that fund Ariane through the European Space Agency but have also used SpaceX rockets, which can be half the price.
SpaceX gained further ground as Ariane 6 production delays left the continent without a launcher for a year, forcing the EU in 2023 to pay the US company to send its Galileo satellite navigation system to space. Ariane 6 has successfully completed all its eight flights since its first mission in July 2024 after replacing its retired predecessor, a feat that executives are eager to highlight, given that SpaceX’s main launch vehicle, Falcon 9, managed just four flights in its first two years. (6/21)
Starlink Satellites are Doing a Lot More Than Providing Internet (Source: SlashGear)
Rogers Communications, a major Canadian media conglomerate, teamed up with Starlink to help spot these fires as quickly as possible, even in the most remote of regions. Starlink doesn't directly detect these wildfires, however it does connect specialized detection equipment, like Pano AI cameras, to authorities. These Pano AI devices take 360-degree pictures in short intervals and are programmed to look for signs of a fire, like smoke.
Swarm, which was acquired by Starlink in 2021, has been used by conservation organizations like Rainforest Connection, which monitors the Amazon for illegal logging operations. Using cutting-edge audio sensors, the sounds of wood cutting machines and engines are picked up in remote areas of the jungle, then transmitted over Starlink to nearby intervention teams. (6/20)
New Mexico Incentives Fuel BlackVe Expansion in Albuquerque (Source: KOB4)
New Mexico and Albuquerque will put more than $1.5 million into aerospace company BlackVe’s expansion, a project officials said will bring 152 high-paying jobs. BlackVe plans to expand its Albuquerque headquarters and add jobs over the next 10 years. The state will provide $1 million through the New Mexico Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) fund, and the City of Albuquerque will add $250,000 in local LEDA funds plus a 20-year Industrial Revenue Bond.
BlackVe also received up to $295,000 through the state’s Job Training Incentive Program to hire and train nine employees. Officials said the expansion is expected to create more than $228 million in total economic impact for New Mexico. They said BlackVe will receive the money as it meets construction and hiring benchmarks, and the city will act as fiscal agent. BlackVe, founded in 2024, makes multi-mission spacecraft and uses advanced production technology to speed up how satellites are designed, built and operated. (6/19)
Port Officials Concerned About LC-51 Development at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Hometown News)
The proposed Launch Complex 51 would occupy a 50-acre site with supporting infrastructure and buildings. Operations from Launch Complex 46 would move there to place them farther from Blue Origin’s Launch Complex 36 blast zone, where a recent catastrophic explosion damaged the pad. However, the new complex’s location could still affect port activity.
At the June Canaveral Port Authority meeting, Port Canaveral CEO John Murray said, “It will be the closest active launch facility to the port. So, we’re looking at launch-related safety and exclusion zones that could temporarily or intermittently restrict navigation.” Murray said the port’s concerns include potential impacts on commercial, cruise and military vessel traffic, as well as disruption to the Canaveral Sand Bypass project. No decision will be made until studies address local impacts, environmental concerns and wetlands issues. Editor's Note: Development of LC-51 would clear the way for Blue Origin to develop a second launch pad at the Cape, on property currently used by the Navy and Space Florida at LC-46. (6/19)
All-Male NASA Artemis Crew Creates Backlash as Priorities Shift (Source: Bloomberg)
When NASA unveiled the four-person crew of its Artemis III mission last week, it didn’t take long for the general public to notice a common feature of the group: all four astronauts were men. NASA said the selection was not political. But it triggered a wave of disappointment from former NASA officials, space industry insiders and enthusiasts invested in the agency’s effort to put US astronauts back on the moon for the first time in more than half a century — and their hope that one of them will be a woman.
“Do I think this was chosen maliciously? Obviously no,” Emily Calandrelli, a science author who flew to space with Blue Origin, wrote on Instagram. “Do I think those in the selection process had a bias and ultimately when there were four men selected no one in the room thought it was a ‘big enough’ issue to try to correct? Yes.” Whether deliberate or by coincidence, the irony of the omission was immediately glaring. (6/19)
Do We Need a Lunar Building Code to Build Moon Bases Safely? (Source: Space.com)
Here on Earth, centuries of accumulated engineering knowhow, hard-learned lessons, and societal evolution have shaped a robust framework of building standards that govern how we build and maintain buildings today. But now, as humanity prepares to put in place a "sustained presence" on the moon, how do we guarantee the safety and integrity of structures built in an environment for which no such tradition exists?
At the 26th Space Resources Roundtable held June 2-5 on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines, one expert says what's needed is a lunar building code, the development of specific design criteria for the moon. Both NASA and China's space agency are planning to build habitats, landing pads, equipment shelters, and tall towers on the moon. But all that construction could be off to a shaky start, suggests Nerma Caluk. Caluk said there's a need to leverage terrestrial building experiences. (6/20)
June 20, 2026
Kilowatts on the Moon (Source:
Autonocion)
In a memo signed on July 31, 2025, then-acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy, who is also the Secretary of Transportation, ordered the agency to design, build, and launch a reactor putting out at least 100 kilowatts of electric power and ready to fly by the end of 2029. The deadline did not come from NASA’s engineers. It came from the top. The 100 kilowatt requirement was a big jump. The program had been targeting a 40-kilowatt class reactor, enough to run roughly 30 households. A 100-kilowatt reactor is closer to powering 80 homes.
Then the politics caught up. On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority” that put deploying reactors on the Moon and in orbit on the official priority list, including a lunar surface reactor ready for launch by 2030, alongside a goal of returning Americans to the Moon by 2028.
The January memorandum between NASA and the DOE is the paperwork that turns all of that into a joint program with money and responsibilities attached. The DOE handles the nuclear side, including supplying roughly 400 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for ground tests and the flight reactor, according to SpaceNews. NASA runs and funds the program. (6/19)
What the Satellite Servicing Economy Can Borrow From Carbon Credits (Source: Space News)
Larger megaconstellations mean more hardware that's destined to inevitably reenter the Earth's atmosphere. To protect the environment and especially the ozone layer from the toll of mass-injection events, researcher Savanna McNamara proposes an orbital chemistry credit system, borrowing from the overall logic of the carbon credit system that's meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
McNamara argues that using a credit system to limit the number of reentries and compensating companies that extend the lifetime of their spacecraft would create a new economy centered around keeping space sustainable and mitigating the impact space activity has on Earth.
"This is not a tax, nor a prohibition; it’s an invitation by design," McNamara wrote. Operators who design around mass reentry will "participate as credit buyers or fund contributors rather than penalized actors. They’ll capitalize the very infrastructure that will eventually make their satellites serviceable cheaper, faster and with more competitive technology. Every participant in the system is contributing to a U.S. orbital servicing industry that did not previously exist." (6/19)
The Mars Delusion (Source: Noema)
For decades, space evangelists have promoted Martian settlement as an insurance policy, a “lifeboat” should human folly or a planet-killing asteroid bring about Earth’s 6th great extinction event. Some have viewed the ambition in more hazy terms, as a logical next step in our species’ evolutionary impulse to expand into uncharted territories. Others have seemed content to echo the less philosophical sentiments of Jeff Bezos, who said, in 2016: “We should, because it’s cool.”
Egged on by SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s conspicuous if zany advocacy, these advances have renewed optimism that humans will land on the Red Planet and potentially establish a permanent colony in the foreseeable future. In 2024, Musk, who has said he hopes to die on Mars, set out a timeline that seemed suspiciously aligned with his own probable lifespan: “Less than 5 years for uncrewed, less than 10 to land people, maybe a city in 20 years, but for sure in 30, civilization secured.”
Detractors might scoff at Musk’s ambition to die on Mars, but at least the dying part would be easy. The Martian air is 95% carbon dioxide. Breathing this air would suffocate the average human in a few seconds. The surface air pressure is six millibars, roughly equivalent to the pressure 22 miles above Earth. Were Musk to very inadvisably step out onto the Martian surface in his “Occupy Mars” T-shirt and sandals, all the water in his body would vaporize in an instant, making it difficult to predict what would kill him faster: asphyxiation or a kind of total bodily implosion. (6/18)
Friends in High Places: Texas Supreme Court Rejects Attempt to Block Beach Closures for SpaceX Launches (Source: Texas Tribune)
Siding with SpaceX and the General Land Office, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that environmental groups did not have a right to sue to preserve public access to a beach that has been closed during rocket launches. The unanimous ruling said a trial judge properly dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the groups could not refile it with changes. The dispute began in 2021 when then environmental group SaveRGV sued the Texas General Land Office, Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and Cameron County, arguing Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 — the only access road — had been improperly closed for SpaceX launches. (6/19)
Where Might We Find Life in Our Solar System? (Source: National Geographic)
Humans have pondered the question of life beyond our planet for millennia. Only in the past few decades, however, has musing given way to observation. Mars was the obvious target for humanity’s first efforts in “boots on the ground” astrobiological exploration, but it is not our solar system’s only body of interest. Venus is something of an anti-Mars, its mean surface temperature a scorching 464°C (867°F), maintained by a runaway greenhouse atmosphere. Some, however, propose that earlier in its history, Venus was more temperate, perhaps a potential abode for life. Click here. (6/19)
Saltzman Sports New Space Force Mess Dress Uniform (Source: Air and Space Forces)
When Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman addressed the graduating class of the Air Force Weapons School on June 13, he quietly put on display the new Space Force mess dress uniform. The new black-tie formal garb will begin wear tests this fall, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Volunteers for the wear tests recently completed fittings. (6/19)
The Exploration Company Unveils Storm High Thrust Engine (Source: The Exploration Company)
Storm is The Exploration Company’s (TEC) high thrust rocket engine program, designed to advance Europe’s capabilities in modern propulsion through disciplined, hardware driven development. Built around a full-flow staged combustion cycle and fueled by liquid oxygen and bio-methane, Storm will deliver up to 180t of sea-level thrust. It is designed for reusable launcher concepts and forms a practical foundation for future heavy European launch systems. (6/19)
ESA Names Belgian Jean-Luc Trullemans as New Strategy Director (Source: Belga)
Belgian Jean-Luc Trullemans is set to become the new Director of Strategy, Legal and External Affairs at ESA. The appointment was announced by Vanessa Matz, the minister responsible for Belgium's space portfolio. According to Matz, Trullemans' appointment to the agency's top management reflects the important role Belgium plays within ESA. Last year, Belgium committed 1.109 billion euros in funding for ESA over the coming years, making it the agency's sixth-largest contributor. (6/18)
Space Force Official Visits Maui to Assess Infrastructure for Space Surveillance (Source: USSF)
The Space Base Delta 1 commander, U.S. Space Force Col. Kenneth Klock conducted a site visit to Maui June 8-9 to meet with leadership from the 15th Space Surveillance Squadron, assess infrastructure requirements, and observe mission operations at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex. Headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, SBD 1 provides installation support and real property management for Space Force operations on Maui, including facilities supporting the operations of 15th SPSS and research for the Air Force Research Laboratory. (6/18)
NASA Chief Bought Millions in SpaceX-Linked Stock Before IPO, While Pushing SpaceX's Agenda (Source: Sludge)
In 2021, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman brokered a deal making his Shift4 company the official payment processor for SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service. In May he bought up to $50 million in stock in Shift4 Payment—just weeks before SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history. Isaacman oversees SpaceX’s NASA contracts and has been leading a federal push to develop the nuclear technology that SpaceX says it needs to colonize Mars.
Isaacman made two separate purchases of Shift4 Class A common stock on May 11 and May 12, each worth between $5 million and $25 million, according to a periodic transaction report filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) this week. He also purchased up to $71 million worth of the stock across multiple transactions in February and March, disclosed in a filing submitted to the OGE in April. (6/18)
The Average SpaceX Buyer Post-IPO is Almost Under Water After Two-Day Slide (Source: CNBC)
The average investor who bought SpaceX shares in the open market after its debut has seen nearly all of their gains disappear as a sharp pullback erased a large chunk of the stock’s post-IPO surge. Shares of SpaceX fell 3.6% Thursday to just under $184.98 a share. The stock’s five-day volume-weighted average price, or VWAP, is $181.71 a share. The move suggests the average post-IPO buyer is now approximately breaking even. (6/18)
SpaceX Bankers Prepare for Bond Sale of at Least $20 Billion (Source: Bloomberg)
Bankers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX are preparing to hold calls with investors as soon as next week to discuss a potential bond offering on the heels of the company’s record IPO, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The bond is expected to be at least $20 billion, and the calls may kick off on Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Plans and timing may change, they said. (6/18)
Obama Presidential Center Opens with Astronaut Jacket on Display (Source: CollectSpace)
Among the artifacts now on display in the newly-opened Barack Obama Presidential Center is a jacket that was only worn for a few minutes. Found in the "Science and Innovation" exhibit on the fifth level of the South Side of Chicago museum, the iconic "NASA blue" flight garment is of the type that astronauts wear when training on jets and while making public appearances. This coat, though, has a name tag that reads "President of the United States."
Gifted to Obama in the Oval Office in November 2011, the jacket is adorned by mission patches that represent astronauts that he worked with and key spaceflights that occurred during the first of his two terms as the country's leader. (6/19)
Germany's Rheinmetall, and US's Vantor Plan Joint ISR Venture for Bundeswehr (Source: Breaking Defense)
German defense behemoth Rheinmetall and US imagery provider Vantor announced today that they have inked an agreement on a joint venture to provide “spatial intelligence” to the German military. The new entity will support Germany’s “sovereign defence requirements” from offices within the country, “as well as existing and emerging European intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) programs,” the press release said. (6/18)
Sirius Space Selected to Fill Launch Facility Vacancy Left by MaiaSpace at Kourou (Source: European Spaceflight)
The French space agency CNES has selected Sirius Space Services to fill a vacancy at the Guiana Space Centre’s new multi-user commercial launch facility. The space became available after MaiaSpace shifted its planned launch operations to the spaceport’s former Soyuz launch facility. In 2021, CNES opened a call for interest in a new commercial launch facility that it would build on the grounds of the old Diamant launch site at the Guiana Space Center.
On 25 July 2025, the agency announced seven companies that had been shortlisted: HyImpulse, Isar Aerospace, PLD Space, Rocket Factory Augsburg, Latitude, MaiaSpace, and Avio. Since that announcement, Avio and HyImpulse have been removed from the list, with CNES offering no explanation. MaiaSpace voluntarily gave up its space after CNES, in September 2024, selected the company to assume control of the former Soyuz launch facility, now renamed ELM2. (6/18)
Anomaly Delays Full-Scale Space Rider Drop Test Until October (Source: European Spaceflight)
A full-scale drop test of ESA’s Space Rider spaceplane in early May was aborted after an anomaly during the captive ascent phase, the agency said. In August 2024 and June 2025, ESA completed Space Rider drop test campaigns using a 3,000-kilogram mass simulator. In early 2026, the agency planned to move forward with a final set of drop tests using the Descent and Landing Test Model, a full-scale mock-up of the Space Rider’s Re-entry Module that simulates its size, mass, aerodynamic shape, and landing gear.
In November 2025, Space Rider program manager Dante Galli told European Spaceflight that the agency was targeting February or March 2026 to conduct this final drop test campaign. However, during a June 17 press briefing following the 347th ESA Council meeting, weeks after the aborted attempt occurred, ESA’s head of strategy and institutional launches for space transportation, Lucía Linares, explained that the agency could not provide a concrete date for the final drop test, stating only that it would take place after the summer and before the end of the year. (6/19)
Germany Breaks Ground on One of Two GOVSATCOM Hub Locations (Source: European Spaceflight)
Germany has broken ground on a GOVSATCOM Hub facility in Cologne, with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia committing to investing up to €50 million in the project. The European Union’s GOVSATCOM system officially became operational in January 2026 and is designed to provide sovereign, reliable, secure, and cost-effective satellite communications services for European government and military users. (6/18)
Mars Mission: A Stress Test for the Search for Life (Source: MPS)
Starting in 2030, ESA’s rover Rosalind Franklin will search for traces of life on Mars. The MPS is contributing a scientific instrument to the mission. The instrument determines, among other things, a crucial property of organic molecules: their chirality. This reveals whether the molecules were ever part of a living organism. In preparation, researchers have successfully used this principle for the first time to analyze two particularly relevant chemical compounds in meteorite samples. The measurements also reveal evidence that meteorites “collect” remnants of fossil fuels as they plunge through the Earth’s atmosphere. (6/18)
ElevationSpace Secures $40 Million, Bringing Total Raised to $63.5 Million (Source: Space News)
ElevationSpace, a company developing Space-to-Earth transportation as well as a Space Environment Utilization and Recovery Platform, has raised a total of $40 million in the largest funding round in the company’s history. The close of the funding round brings the total amount raised since its founding to $63.5 million, demonstrating the growing attention and confidence in the space transportation and low-Earth orbit (LEO) utilization markets. (6/19)
Ambani’s Jio Weighs India Satellite Network to Rival Starlink (Source: Bloomberg)
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio Platforms Ltd. is weighing plans to build its own satellite constellation, as it seeks to cement control over the nation’s communications infrastructure while Elon Musk’s Starlink faces hurdles. The company is evaluating the deployment of a low-orbit satellite network for India. It is also partnering to lease capacity from global providers so that “we can accelerate service availability while building our own long-term sovereign capability.” (6/19)
Satellite Reveals Immense Scale of GPS Signal Tampering (Source: Space.com)
An experimental satellite has mapped the scale of GPS jamming across Europe and the Middle East from space for the first time. The data surprised the team behind the project and indicated that satellites orbiting far from Earth aren't the only ones that experience degradation of their positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals, which could affect their performance and the safety of their operations. The new measurements were made by Pulsar-0, the first satellite of the novel Pulsar navigation constellation developed by California-based Xona Space Systems. (6/18)
Congo Set to Acquire ‘RDC-SAT’ Earth Observation Satellite from SPACEBEL (Source: Spacewatch Global)
SPACEBEL has signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo to supply RDC-SAT, an Earth observation satellite for independent monitoring of its territory, borders, and environment. (6/18)
In a memo signed on July 31, 2025, then-acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy, who is also the Secretary of Transportation, ordered the agency to design, build, and launch a reactor putting out at least 100 kilowatts of electric power and ready to fly by the end of 2029. The deadline did not come from NASA’s engineers. It came from the top. The 100 kilowatt requirement was a big jump. The program had been targeting a 40-kilowatt class reactor, enough to run roughly 30 households. A 100-kilowatt reactor is closer to powering 80 homes.
Then the politics caught up. On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority” that put deploying reactors on the Moon and in orbit on the official priority list, including a lunar surface reactor ready for launch by 2030, alongside a goal of returning Americans to the Moon by 2028.
The January memorandum between NASA and the DOE is the paperwork that turns all of that into a joint program with money and responsibilities attached. The DOE handles the nuclear side, including supplying roughly 400 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for ground tests and the flight reactor, according to SpaceNews. NASA runs and funds the program. (6/19)
What the Satellite Servicing Economy Can Borrow From Carbon Credits (Source: Space News)
Larger megaconstellations mean more hardware that's destined to inevitably reenter the Earth's atmosphere. To protect the environment and especially the ozone layer from the toll of mass-injection events, researcher Savanna McNamara proposes an orbital chemistry credit system, borrowing from the overall logic of the carbon credit system that's meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
McNamara argues that using a credit system to limit the number of reentries and compensating companies that extend the lifetime of their spacecraft would create a new economy centered around keeping space sustainable and mitigating the impact space activity has on Earth.
"This is not a tax, nor a prohibition; it’s an invitation by design," McNamara wrote. Operators who design around mass reentry will "participate as credit buyers or fund contributors rather than penalized actors. They’ll capitalize the very infrastructure that will eventually make their satellites serviceable cheaper, faster and with more competitive technology. Every participant in the system is contributing to a U.S. orbital servicing industry that did not previously exist." (6/19)
The Mars Delusion (Source: Noema)
For decades, space evangelists have promoted Martian settlement as an insurance policy, a “lifeboat” should human folly or a planet-killing asteroid bring about Earth’s 6th great extinction event. Some have viewed the ambition in more hazy terms, as a logical next step in our species’ evolutionary impulse to expand into uncharted territories. Others have seemed content to echo the less philosophical sentiments of Jeff Bezos, who said, in 2016: “We should, because it’s cool.”
Egged on by SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s conspicuous if zany advocacy, these advances have renewed optimism that humans will land on the Red Planet and potentially establish a permanent colony in the foreseeable future. In 2024, Musk, who has said he hopes to die on Mars, set out a timeline that seemed suspiciously aligned with his own probable lifespan: “Less than 5 years for uncrewed, less than 10 to land people, maybe a city in 20 years, but for sure in 30, civilization secured.”
Detractors might scoff at Musk’s ambition to die on Mars, but at least the dying part would be easy. The Martian air is 95% carbon dioxide. Breathing this air would suffocate the average human in a few seconds. The surface air pressure is six millibars, roughly equivalent to the pressure 22 miles above Earth. Were Musk to very inadvisably step out onto the Martian surface in his “Occupy Mars” T-shirt and sandals, all the water in his body would vaporize in an instant, making it difficult to predict what would kill him faster: asphyxiation or a kind of total bodily implosion. (6/18)
Friends in High Places: Texas Supreme Court Rejects Attempt to Block Beach Closures for SpaceX Launches (Source: Texas Tribune)
Siding with SpaceX and the General Land Office, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that environmental groups did not have a right to sue to preserve public access to a beach that has been closed during rocket launches. The unanimous ruling said a trial judge properly dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the groups could not refile it with changes. The dispute began in 2021 when then environmental group SaveRGV sued the Texas General Land Office, Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and Cameron County, arguing Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 — the only access road — had been improperly closed for SpaceX launches. (6/19)
Where Might We Find Life in Our Solar System? (Source: National Geographic)
Humans have pondered the question of life beyond our planet for millennia. Only in the past few decades, however, has musing given way to observation. Mars was the obvious target for humanity’s first efforts in “boots on the ground” astrobiological exploration, but it is not our solar system’s only body of interest. Venus is something of an anti-Mars, its mean surface temperature a scorching 464°C (867°F), maintained by a runaway greenhouse atmosphere. Some, however, propose that earlier in its history, Venus was more temperate, perhaps a potential abode for life. Click here. (6/19)
Saltzman Sports New Space Force Mess Dress Uniform (Source: Air and Space Forces)
When Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman addressed the graduating class of the Air Force Weapons School on June 13, he quietly put on display the new Space Force mess dress uniform. The new black-tie formal garb will begin wear tests this fall, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Volunteers for the wear tests recently completed fittings. (6/19)
The Exploration Company Unveils Storm High Thrust Engine (Source: The Exploration Company)
Storm is The Exploration Company’s (TEC) high thrust rocket engine program, designed to advance Europe’s capabilities in modern propulsion through disciplined, hardware driven development. Built around a full-flow staged combustion cycle and fueled by liquid oxygen and bio-methane, Storm will deliver up to 180t of sea-level thrust. It is designed for reusable launcher concepts and forms a practical foundation for future heavy European launch systems. (6/19)
ESA Names Belgian Jean-Luc Trullemans as New Strategy Director (Source: Belga)
Belgian Jean-Luc Trullemans is set to become the new Director of Strategy, Legal and External Affairs at ESA. The appointment was announced by Vanessa Matz, the minister responsible for Belgium's space portfolio. According to Matz, Trullemans' appointment to the agency's top management reflects the important role Belgium plays within ESA. Last year, Belgium committed 1.109 billion euros in funding for ESA over the coming years, making it the agency's sixth-largest contributor. (6/18)
Space Force Official Visits Maui to Assess Infrastructure for Space Surveillance (Source: USSF)
The Space Base Delta 1 commander, U.S. Space Force Col. Kenneth Klock conducted a site visit to Maui June 8-9 to meet with leadership from the 15th Space Surveillance Squadron, assess infrastructure requirements, and observe mission operations at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex. Headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, SBD 1 provides installation support and real property management for Space Force operations on Maui, including facilities supporting the operations of 15th SPSS and research for the Air Force Research Laboratory. (6/18)
NASA Chief Bought Millions in SpaceX-Linked Stock Before IPO, While Pushing SpaceX's Agenda (Source: Sludge)
In 2021, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman brokered a deal making his Shift4 company the official payment processor for SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service. In May he bought up to $50 million in stock in Shift4 Payment—just weeks before SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history. Isaacman oversees SpaceX’s NASA contracts and has been leading a federal push to develop the nuclear technology that SpaceX says it needs to colonize Mars.
Isaacman made two separate purchases of Shift4 Class A common stock on May 11 and May 12, each worth between $5 million and $25 million, according to a periodic transaction report filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) this week. He also purchased up to $71 million worth of the stock across multiple transactions in February and March, disclosed in a filing submitted to the OGE in April. (6/18)
The Average SpaceX Buyer Post-IPO is Almost Under Water After Two-Day Slide (Source: CNBC)
The average investor who bought SpaceX shares in the open market after its debut has seen nearly all of their gains disappear as a sharp pullback erased a large chunk of the stock’s post-IPO surge. Shares of SpaceX fell 3.6% Thursday to just under $184.98 a share. The stock’s five-day volume-weighted average price, or VWAP, is $181.71 a share. The move suggests the average post-IPO buyer is now approximately breaking even. (6/18)
SpaceX Bankers Prepare for Bond Sale of at Least $20 Billion (Source: Bloomberg)
Bankers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX are preparing to hold calls with investors as soon as next week to discuss a potential bond offering on the heels of the company’s record IPO, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The bond is expected to be at least $20 billion, and the calls may kick off on Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Plans and timing may change, they said. (6/18)
Obama Presidential Center Opens with Astronaut Jacket on Display (Source: CollectSpace)
Among the artifacts now on display in the newly-opened Barack Obama Presidential Center is a jacket that was only worn for a few minutes. Found in the "Science and Innovation" exhibit on the fifth level of the South Side of Chicago museum, the iconic "NASA blue" flight garment is of the type that astronauts wear when training on jets and while making public appearances. This coat, though, has a name tag that reads "President of the United States."
Gifted to Obama in the Oval Office in November 2011, the jacket is adorned by mission patches that represent astronauts that he worked with and key spaceflights that occurred during the first of his two terms as the country's leader. (6/19)
Germany's Rheinmetall, and US's Vantor Plan Joint ISR Venture for Bundeswehr (Source: Breaking Defense)
German defense behemoth Rheinmetall and US imagery provider Vantor announced today that they have inked an agreement on a joint venture to provide “spatial intelligence” to the German military. The new entity will support Germany’s “sovereign defence requirements” from offices within the country, “as well as existing and emerging European intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) programs,” the press release said. (6/18)
Sirius Space Selected to Fill Launch Facility Vacancy Left by MaiaSpace at Kourou (Source: European Spaceflight)
The French space agency CNES has selected Sirius Space Services to fill a vacancy at the Guiana Space Centre’s new multi-user commercial launch facility. The space became available after MaiaSpace shifted its planned launch operations to the spaceport’s former Soyuz launch facility. In 2021, CNES opened a call for interest in a new commercial launch facility that it would build on the grounds of the old Diamant launch site at the Guiana Space Center.
On 25 July 2025, the agency announced seven companies that had been shortlisted: HyImpulse, Isar Aerospace, PLD Space, Rocket Factory Augsburg, Latitude, MaiaSpace, and Avio. Since that announcement, Avio and HyImpulse have been removed from the list, with CNES offering no explanation. MaiaSpace voluntarily gave up its space after CNES, in September 2024, selected the company to assume control of the former Soyuz launch facility, now renamed ELM2. (6/18)
Anomaly Delays Full-Scale Space Rider Drop Test Until October (Source: European Spaceflight)
A full-scale drop test of ESA’s Space Rider spaceplane in early May was aborted after an anomaly during the captive ascent phase, the agency said. In August 2024 and June 2025, ESA completed Space Rider drop test campaigns using a 3,000-kilogram mass simulator. In early 2026, the agency planned to move forward with a final set of drop tests using the Descent and Landing Test Model, a full-scale mock-up of the Space Rider’s Re-entry Module that simulates its size, mass, aerodynamic shape, and landing gear.
In November 2025, Space Rider program manager Dante Galli told European Spaceflight that the agency was targeting February or March 2026 to conduct this final drop test campaign. However, during a June 17 press briefing following the 347th ESA Council meeting, weeks after the aborted attempt occurred, ESA’s head of strategy and institutional launches for space transportation, Lucía Linares, explained that the agency could not provide a concrete date for the final drop test, stating only that it would take place after the summer and before the end of the year. (6/19)
Germany Breaks Ground on One of Two GOVSATCOM Hub Locations (Source: European Spaceflight)
Germany has broken ground on a GOVSATCOM Hub facility in Cologne, with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia committing to investing up to €50 million in the project. The European Union’s GOVSATCOM system officially became operational in January 2026 and is designed to provide sovereign, reliable, secure, and cost-effective satellite communications services for European government and military users. (6/18)
Mars Mission: A Stress Test for the Search for Life (Source: MPS)
Starting in 2030, ESA’s rover Rosalind Franklin will search for traces of life on Mars. The MPS is contributing a scientific instrument to the mission. The instrument determines, among other things, a crucial property of organic molecules: their chirality. This reveals whether the molecules were ever part of a living organism. In preparation, researchers have successfully used this principle for the first time to analyze two particularly relevant chemical compounds in meteorite samples. The measurements also reveal evidence that meteorites “collect” remnants of fossil fuels as they plunge through the Earth’s atmosphere. (6/18)
ElevationSpace Secures $40 Million, Bringing Total Raised to $63.5 Million (Source: Space News)
ElevationSpace, a company developing Space-to-Earth transportation as well as a Space Environment Utilization and Recovery Platform, has raised a total of $40 million in the largest funding round in the company’s history. The close of the funding round brings the total amount raised since its founding to $63.5 million, demonstrating the growing attention and confidence in the space transportation and low-Earth orbit (LEO) utilization markets. (6/19)
Ambani’s Jio Weighs India Satellite Network to Rival Starlink (Source: Bloomberg)
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio Platforms Ltd. is weighing plans to build its own satellite constellation, as it seeks to cement control over the nation’s communications infrastructure while Elon Musk’s Starlink faces hurdles. The company is evaluating the deployment of a low-orbit satellite network for India. It is also partnering to lease capacity from global providers so that “we can accelerate service availability while building our own long-term sovereign capability.” (6/19)
Satellite Reveals Immense Scale of GPS Signal Tampering (Source: Space.com)
An experimental satellite has mapped the scale of GPS jamming across Europe and the Middle East from space for the first time. The data surprised the team behind the project and indicated that satellites orbiting far from Earth aren't the only ones that experience degradation of their positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals, which could affect their performance and the safety of their operations. The new measurements were made by Pulsar-0, the first satellite of the novel Pulsar navigation constellation developed by California-based Xona Space Systems. (6/18)
Congo Set to Acquire ‘RDC-SAT’ Earth Observation Satellite from SPACEBEL (Source: Spacewatch Global)
SPACEBEL has signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo to supply RDC-SAT, an Earth observation satellite for independent monitoring of its territory, borders, and environment. (6/18)
June 19, 2026
Artemis III Backup Astronaut in Prime
Spot to be Chosen for Moon Landing Mission (Source: Orlando
Sentinel)
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were backup crew for Apollo 8. Their next flight made them the first two men to step foot on the moon. The role of backup has traditionally set up astronauts to be named prime crew for successive NASA’s missions, something that bodes well for Air Force Col. Bob “Farmer” Hines, who was designated the sole backup for all four astronauts assigned to fly on next year’s Artemis III mission.
One of those four is Andre Douglas, himself most recently NASA’s backup astronaut for this year’s Artemis II lunar flyby mission. While Artemis III will be a low-Earth orbit flight to test out the Orion spacecraft’s ability to dock with lunar landers, Artemis IV looks to return humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. That could mean Hines may be among the front runners to fly on Artemis IV, and may be among those chosen to venture down to lunar surface, although that crew won’t be named until after the completion of Artemis III. (6/19)
Scientists Spent 13 Years Bouncing Radar Off Europa. Here’s What They Found (Source: Gizmodo)
The findings suggest that the way Europa’s surface scatters radio waves is distinctly different from those seen on rocky worlds. Overall, the data is consistent with the major radar study of Europa, which took place between the 1980s and the 1990s. However, the latest observations are “more numerous and cover a much broader rotational phase of Europa,” explained Tunhui Xie.
The new study looked at 13 years worth of data collected between 2011 and 2024. One fascinating observation concerned Europa’s radar albedo, which is a measure of how bright the moon appears to radar. Specifically, Europa’s radar albedo was much higher than that of planets and rocky worlds. The way Europa scattered the radar signal highly resembled a “hallmark of multiple scattering inside clean, porous ice,” explained the NRAO. (6/18)
Redwire vs. Rocket Lab: Which Space Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026? (Source: Motley Fool)
While both companies operate within the same broader sector, they offer different entry points into the space economy. Redwire focuses on the hardware and infrastructure that keep satellites running, while Rocket Lab provides the vehicles to get them there, along with its own satellite platforms. Comparing these two requires a deep dive into their growth rates, financial stability, and market positions in the 2026 landscape. Click here. (6/18)
Space Startups Seek Insurance for Orbital AI Data Centers (Source: Reuters)
Blue Origin and a host of space startups, including Orbital, Starcloud, Lonestar Data Holdings and Cowboy Space, have also signaled their intention to launch space-based data centers. Reuters spoke to four brokers and underwriters and three space firms who said talks had taken place about orbital data center coverage, although they remain preliminary.
Insurance broker Marsh said several companies have approached insurers to understand what future coverage for orbital data centers might entail, without naming the firms. "We're already starting to see companies that are focused on data centers and companies that are focused on digital infrastructure looking to the insurance community for support," said Patton Kline, U.S. aviation and space practice leader at Marsh. (6/18)
MDA Space to Acquire Blue Canyon (Source: MDA Space)
MDA Space is buying smallsat manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies. MDA Space announced Friday morning it reached an agreement to acquire Blue Canyon for $620 million from Raytheon. The transaction is expected to close by the end of year, subject to regulatory approvals. Blue Canyon produces small satellites and components and was a standalone company before being acquired by Raytheon in 2020. MDA Space, based in Canada, said the acquisition will give it more access to U.S. market opportunities. (6/19)
Hammett Departs Space RCO as Office Considered for Elimination (Source: Space News)
The director of the Space Force's rapid acquisition office has moved to another post. Kelly Hammett, the former head of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), was named Thursday executive director of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. Space RCO appears close to being shuttered as a standalone organization under the Space Force's acquisition overhaul, and House and Senate defense authorization bills would eliminate the office's separate statutory status.
Space RCO was established in 2018 amid concern that traditional Pentagon acquisition programs were struggling to keep pace with technological advances and emerging threats from China and Russia. The office was created as an independent organization and was allowed to operate outside the processes that govern larger acquisition programs. (6/19)
NASA Asks Northrop Grumman to Stop Working on Lunar HALO Module (Source: Ars Technica)
Three months ago, NASA announced that it was shifting the focus of its lunar plans from an orbital space station to a Moon base on the surface. As part of this, officials said work would be paused on the Lunar Gateway planned to orbit the Moon. Of the two elements that were furthest along, NASA also revealed that one of them—the Power and Propulsion Element—would be repurposed to serve as a core module for a nuclear-electric propulsion demonstration in deep space. (6/19)
NASA Picks DAPHNE Mission to Study Space Weather (Source: Space News)
NASA has selected a space science mission for development. NASA announced Thursday the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer, or DAPHNE, mission will proceed into the next phase of development, with a launch planned for no earlier than 2029. DAPHNE will fly two identical satellites with instruments to study conditions in the thermosphere, allowing scientists to examine the interaction of space weather with Earth's atmosphere. The mission, led by the University of Colorado, has a cost cap of $250 million. NASA's heliophysics division recently announced a change in strategy, shifting toward more applied science applications. (6/19)
Chinese University Plans 2029 Astreroid Mission (Source: Space News)
A Chinese university is planning a mission to the asteroid Apophis as it makes a close approach to Earth in 2029. The Student-led Threatening Asteroid Reconnaissance of Tsinghua, or START, mission is a low-cost smallsat led by a team of more than 20 undergraduate students at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The spacecraft will maneuver to a high Earth orbit to allow it to make a high-speed flyby of Apophis when the asteroid flies very close to the Earth in April 2029. The payload suite includes narrow and wide-field cameras plus dual visible-to-near-infrared hyperspectral imagers, aimed at achieving a peak resolution of 8 centimeters per pixel. (6/19)
China's Spark Space Raises $14.8 Million for Launch Vehicle Development (Source: Space News)
Chinese startup Spark Space has raised funding for the world's largest rocket using engines with electric pumps. The company is developing the Jinhua-1, or Evolution-1, rocket, powered by its Lieyan-2 electric-pump-fed engine. The startup announced a Pre-A round of nearly 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) at the beginning of June and later said it raised tens of millions of yuan in additional funding. Spark Space said it successfully tested in March the Lieyan-2 engine, which produces 10 tons of thrust, about four times that of Rocket Lab's Rutherford engine that also uses electric pumps. (6/19)
SpaceX Launches NRO Mission From California on Friday (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched a National Reconnaissance Office mission early today. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:50 a.m. Eastern on the NROL-179 mission. The NRO later said this was the 14th launch of its "multi-phenomenology proliferated architecture" of hundreds of satellites, and third this year. (6/19)
Austria's Gate Space Wins European Investment of $7.2 Million for Propulsion Tech (Source: Space News)
Austrian satellite propulsion startup Gate Space has raised funding from an accelerator program backed by the European Commission. The company said Friday it won 6.3 million euros ($7.2 million) in funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator program. It was the only space company out of 38 selected in the latest round of that program. Gate Space said the funding will accelerate the industrialization of chemical propulsion technology it is developing. That system will be tested in space next year on BeaconSat, Austria's first military satellite. (6/19)
Space Coast-Based Mu-g Plans Business-Jet Microgravity Operations (Source: Space News)
A startup is working to provide parabolic flight services. Mu-g Technologies recently took delivery of a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet it plans to use to fly research and technology demonstration payloads, providing brief periods of microgravity as the aircraft flies parabolic arcs. The company is looking to fill a gap in such services after Zero-G Corporation's Boeing 727 stopped flying last year. Mu-g said its flights should complement, rather than compete, with NASA's planned use of a larger 737 jet.
Mu-g is collaborating with supersonic test operator Starfighters Space at Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas. Future plans include the potential acquisition of an Airbus A321 to further expand capacity. Editor's Note: Based on NASA and Air Force work in the 1950s and 1960s, the Starfighter F-104 was determined to be capable of flying parabolas that provide more than 60 seconds of microgravity. NASA's and Zero-G aircraft typically are limited to 30 seconds of microgravity. (6/19)
NASA Awards Modification Contract for Reduced Gravity Test Aircraft (Source: NASA)
NASA selected Denmar Technical Services of Nevada to provide aircraft modifications, maintenance, and testing services to the Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The award is a firm-fixed-price contract and will be time and material for any over and above and unforeseen work. This contract has a maximum potential value of $8.4 million, which runs through Feb. 1, 2027. The contractor will modify a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to perform lunar-gravity parabolic flights to test NASA space equipment. (6/1)
NASA Picks 14 Companies for Satellite Data Contracts (Source: NASA)
NASA awarded commercial satellite data contracts to 14 companies Thursday. The awards are part of NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program, where NASA buys Earth science imagery and other data from companies for use by NASA-supported researchers. The 14 companies include six who had previous contracts in the program and eight new providers. (6/19)
SpaceX Opposes European Spectrum Plan (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX offered formal criticism of proposed European satellite spectrum plans. Those plans, announced last month by the European Commission, would reserve two-thirds of the two-gigahertz spectrum band to providers within the EU, with the remaining third available to companies based outside the EU. SpaceX complained the proposal would split the spectrum into "virtually unusable sub-divided parts" and warned that it could interfere with Starlink services provided in Ukraine. (6/19)
James Webb Space Telescope Finds a Salty Surprise on Famous 'Pink Planet' (Source: Space.com)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that the well-known "Pink Planet" harbors a salty surprise and an exotic atmospheric chemistry. The discovery marks an advancement in the study of cold objects beyond the solar system. Initially discovered in 2013, GJ504b orbits a sun-like star located around 57 light-years from Earth. With a mass around 25 times that of Jupiter, this Pink Planet may not be a planet at all despite its moniker. It may instead be a brown dwarf, a failed star that formed like a star but was unable to gather enough mass to achieve the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in its core. (6/19)
Sweden's EQT to Acquire Germany's Exolaunch (Source: EQT)
EQT will acquire Exolaunch for an undisclosed sum. Headquartered in Germany, Exolaunch enables access to space for global satellite operators. The company has successfully deployed over 790 satellites across 47 missions for over 200 commercial and government customers from North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
EQT said it will support Exolaunch in scaling its global operations and investing into the development of new satellite launch and deployment technologies. EQT will also help drive the expansion into additional services across the satellite mission lifecycle and resources to expand the dedicated and rideshare launch offerings, both with existing partners and newly emerging launch providers. (6/18)
Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation Awarded $1 Million by the Canadian Space Agency for Studies to Inform Future Canadian Lunar Investments (Source: CSMC)
Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) has been awarded $1 million by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for studies that will help inform future Canadian lunar investments. Of the total amount, the company's subsidiary CSMC Nuclear has been awarded $500,000 to conduct a study on lunar power generation and distribution, while subsidiary CSMC Labs has been awarded $500,000 to conduct a parallel study on lunar mining and resource utilization on the moon.
The two studies are part of the CSA's Lunar Surface Exploration Initiative (LSEI), a strategic program designed to define Canada's highest-value contributions to the NASA-led Artemis campaign, the international effort to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. Each study will map the technical and functional requirements for its respective capability area, identify the key gaps that Canada must address and assess the full socioeconomic benefits of Canadian leadership in lunar infrastructure. (6/9)
Head of Nation Congratulates Asgardians on Unity Day (Source: Asgardia)
Today, our Space Nation of Asgardia, uniting over a million people from nearly 200 countries on planet Earth, celebrates one of its national holidays—Unity Day. This day reminds us that Asgardia has originated not from a common birthplace, language, or family background, which are beyond our control, but from the free choice of people who went for uniting around a common idea—a peaceful future for humanity in space.
Over the years of Asgardia's existence, technologies have changed, our community has grown, and state institutions have evolved, but the essentials have stayed the same - the inspiration to build a society that has no earthly borders, artificial divisions, acts of war or religious conflicts. On 12 October 2026, Asgardia will celebrate the tenth anniversary, remaining the youngest nation on planet Earth. Ahead of this nationwide celebration, I announce the beginning of the development of a unified digital ecosystem — the Asgardia Nation Super App and the Asgardia Space Bank (ASB – Asgardia Space Bank) — as the basis of our digital cosmocratic sovereignty. (6/18)
Ranked: SpaceX vs. The Largest Public Space Companies (Source: Visual Capitalist)
SpaceX’s $2.46 trillion market cap is larger than the combined value of the next 20 biggest public space companies, which together are worth about $235 billion. Rocket Lab ranks a distant second at $68.6 billion, while no other pure-play space company is worth more than $35 billion. SpaceX’s post-IPO surge has turned a once-private industry leader into one of the world’s most valuable companies. (6/17)
Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional (Source: New York Times)
A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said. The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables.
A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak. A comprehensive medical review into his death is underway to determine the cause, according to the Air Force.
In the weeks since Mr. Hegseth’s vaccine policy took effect on April 21, only about 40 percent of Air Force trainees have opted to take the vaccine, which had previously been mandatory, an Air Force official said. In the aftermath of the outbreak, the Air Force issued an exception to the voluntary vaccine policy, requiring that all recruits at Lackland get flu shots — part of a broader effort to stem the virus’s spread. (6/18)
Boeing Advances Space-Based Quantum Networking with Q4S Demonstration (Source: Space News)
Boeing has successfully demonstrated high-fidelity entanglement swapping using a compact quantum networking payload, marking a key step toward deploying its Q4S satellite for an on-orbit demonstration planned in 2027. The test shows that advanced quantum networking capabilities can function on space-ready hardware, advancing efforts to build a global quantum internet. (6/18)
True Anomaly's Jackal Completes Mission X-3, Advancing Space Defense Capabilities (Source: Payload)
True Anomaly's autonomous orbital vehicle Jackal has successfully completed its most complex test campaign, Mission X-3, demonstrating key capabilities for space-domain awareness and orbital operations. The milestone clears the way for upcoming U.S. Space Force contracts and positions the company to scale delivery of space superiority systems. (6/18)
Crypto-Agile Infrastructure Enables Decision Superiority for Golden Dome (Source: Modern Integrated Warfare)
Today, cryptography exists primarily as an overlay, in the form of firewalls and other security add-ons. These can be difficult to scale and often require manual updates and maintenance. They also introduce opportunities for attack that can compromise the efficacy and security of an entire system simply by taking one device offline.
Upgrading to network-embedded protection can mean bringing operations to a halt while new infrastructure is established. As a new ecosystem, Golden Dome presents an opportunity to establish crypto-agile network infrastructure that can scale and evolve without impacting decision velocity. “Building directly into the network infrastructure turns cryptography from a deployment constraint to a maneuver advantage, enabling forces to adapt and keep operating even when networks are contested or degraded,” says Tom Broadwell. (6/17)
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were backup crew for Apollo 8. Their next flight made them the first two men to step foot on the moon. The role of backup has traditionally set up astronauts to be named prime crew for successive NASA’s missions, something that bodes well for Air Force Col. Bob “Farmer” Hines, who was designated the sole backup for all four astronauts assigned to fly on next year’s Artemis III mission.
One of those four is Andre Douglas, himself most recently NASA’s backup astronaut for this year’s Artemis II lunar flyby mission. While Artemis III will be a low-Earth orbit flight to test out the Orion spacecraft’s ability to dock with lunar landers, Artemis IV looks to return humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. That could mean Hines may be among the front runners to fly on Artemis IV, and may be among those chosen to venture down to lunar surface, although that crew won’t be named until after the completion of Artemis III. (6/19)
Scientists Spent 13 Years Bouncing Radar Off Europa. Here’s What They Found (Source: Gizmodo)
The findings suggest that the way Europa’s surface scatters radio waves is distinctly different from those seen on rocky worlds. Overall, the data is consistent with the major radar study of Europa, which took place between the 1980s and the 1990s. However, the latest observations are “more numerous and cover a much broader rotational phase of Europa,” explained Tunhui Xie.
The new study looked at 13 years worth of data collected between 2011 and 2024. One fascinating observation concerned Europa’s radar albedo, which is a measure of how bright the moon appears to radar. Specifically, Europa’s radar albedo was much higher than that of planets and rocky worlds. The way Europa scattered the radar signal highly resembled a “hallmark of multiple scattering inside clean, porous ice,” explained the NRAO. (6/18)
Redwire vs. Rocket Lab: Which Space Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026? (Source: Motley Fool)
While both companies operate within the same broader sector, they offer different entry points into the space economy. Redwire focuses on the hardware and infrastructure that keep satellites running, while Rocket Lab provides the vehicles to get them there, along with its own satellite platforms. Comparing these two requires a deep dive into their growth rates, financial stability, and market positions in the 2026 landscape. Click here. (6/18)
Space Startups Seek Insurance for Orbital AI Data Centers (Source: Reuters)
Blue Origin and a host of space startups, including Orbital, Starcloud, Lonestar Data Holdings and Cowboy Space, have also signaled their intention to launch space-based data centers. Reuters spoke to four brokers and underwriters and three space firms who said talks had taken place about orbital data center coverage, although they remain preliminary.
Insurance broker Marsh said several companies have approached insurers to understand what future coverage for orbital data centers might entail, without naming the firms. "We're already starting to see companies that are focused on data centers and companies that are focused on digital infrastructure looking to the insurance community for support," said Patton Kline, U.S. aviation and space practice leader at Marsh. (6/18)
MDA Space to Acquire Blue Canyon (Source: MDA Space)
MDA Space is buying smallsat manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies. MDA Space announced Friday morning it reached an agreement to acquire Blue Canyon for $620 million from Raytheon. The transaction is expected to close by the end of year, subject to regulatory approvals. Blue Canyon produces small satellites and components and was a standalone company before being acquired by Raytheon in 2020. MDA Space, based in Canada, said the acquisition will give it more access to U.S. market opportunities. (6/19)
Hammett Departs Space RCO as Office Considered for Elimination (Source: Space News)
The director of the Space Force's rapid acquisition office has moved to another post. Kelly Hammett, the former head of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), was named Thursday executive director of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. Space RCO appears close to being shuttered as a standalone organization under the Space Force's acquisition overhaul, and House and Senate defense authorization bills would eliminate the office's separate statutory status.
Space RCO was established in 2018 amid concern that traditional Pentagon acquisition programs were struggling to keep pace with technological advances and emerging threats from China and Russia. The office was created as an independent organization and was allowed to operate outside the processes that govern larger acquisition programs. (6/19)
NASA Asks Northrop Grumman to Stop Working on Lunar HALO Module (Source: Ars Technica)
Three months ago, NASA announced that it was shifting the focus of its lunar plans from an orbital space station to a Moon base on the surface. As part of this, officials said work would be paused on the Lunar Gateway planned to orbit the Moon. Of the two elements that were furthest along, NASA also revealed that one of them—the Power and Propulsion Element—would be repurposed to serve as a core module for a nuclear-electric propulsion demonstration in deep space. (6/19)
NASA Picks DAPHNE Mission to Study Space Weather (Source: Space News)
NASA has selected a space science mission for development. NASA announced Thursday the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer, or DAPHNE, mission will proceed into the next phase of development, with a launch planned for no earlier than 2029. DAPHNE will fly two identical satellites with instruments to study conditions in the thermosphere, allowing scientists to examine the interaction of space weather with Earth's atmosphere. The mission, led by the University of Colorado, has a cost cap of $250 million. NASA's heliophysics division recently announced a change in strategy, shifting toward more applied science applications. (6/19)
Chinese University Plans 2029 Astreroid Mission (Source: Space News)
A Chinese university is planning a mission to the asteroid Apophis as it makes a close approach to Earth in 2029. The Student-led Threatening Asteroid Reconnaissance of Tsinghua, or START, mission is a low-cost smallsat led by a team of more than 20 undergraduate students at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The spacecraft will maneuver to a high Earth orbit to allow it to make a high-speed flyby of Apophis when the asteroid flies very close to the Earth in April 2029. The payload suite includes narrow and wide-field cameras plus dual visible-to-near-infrared hyperspectral imagers, aimed at achieving a peak resolution of 8 centimeters per pixel. (6/19)
China's Spark Space Raises $14.8 Million for Launch Vehicle Development (Source: Space News)
Chinese startup Spark Space has raised funding for the world's largest rocket using engines with electric pumps. The company is developing the Jinhua-1, or Evolution-1, rocket, powered by its Lieyan-2 electric-pump-fed engine. The startup announced a Pre-A round of nearly 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) at the beginning of June and later said it raised tens of millions of yuan in additional funding. Spark Space said it successfully tested in March the Lieyan-2 engine, which produces 10 tons of thrust, about four times that of Rocket Lab's Rutherford engine that also uses electric pumps. (6/19)
SpaceX Launches NRO Mission From California on Friday (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched a National Reconnaissance Office mission early today. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:50 a.m. Eastern on the NROL-179 mission. The NRO later said this was the 14th launch of its "multi-phenomenology proliferated architecture" of hundreds of satellites, and third this year. (6/19)
Austria's Gate Space Wins European Investment of $7.2 Million for Propulsion Tech (Source: Space News)
Austrian satellite propulsion startup Gate Space has raised funding from an accelerator program backed by the European Commission. The company said Friday it won 6.3 million euros ($7.2 million) in funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator program. It was the only space company out of 38 selected in the latest round of that program. Gate Space said the funding will accelerate the industrialization of chemical propulsion technology it is developing. That system will be tested in space next year on BeaconSat, Austria's first military satellite. (6/19)
Space Coast-Based Mu-g Plans Business-Jet Microgravity Operations (Source: Space News)
A startup is working to provide parabolic flight services. Mu-g Technologies recently took delivery of a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet it plans to use to fly research and technology demonstration payloads, providing brief periods of microgravity as the aircraft flies parabolic arcs. The company is looking to fill a gap in such services after Zero-G Corporation's Boeing 727 stopped flying last year. Mu-g said its flights should complement, rather than compete, with NASA's planned use of a larger 737 jet.
Mu-g is collaborating with supersonic test operator Starfighters Space at Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas. Future plans include the potential acquisition of an Airbus A321 to further expand capacity. Editor's Note: Based on NASA and Air Force work in the 1950s and 1960s, the Starfighter F-104 was determined to be capable of flying parabolas that provide more than 60 seconds of microgravity. NASA's and Zero-G aircraft typically are limited to 30 seconds of microgravity. (6/19)
NASA Awards Modification Contract for Reduced Gravity Test Aircraft (Source: NASA)
NASA selected Denmar Technical Services of Nevada to provide aircraft modifications, maintenance, and testing services to the Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The award is a firm-fixed-price contract and will be time and material for any over and above and unforeseen work. This contract has a maximum potential value of $8.4 million, which runs through Feb. 1, 2027. The contractor will modify a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to perform lunar-gravity parabolic flights to test NASA space equipment. (6/1)
NASA Picks 14 Companies for Satellite Data Contracts (Source: NASA)
NASA awarded commercial satellite data contracts to 14 companies Thursday. The awards are part of NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program, where NASA buys Earth science imagery and other data from companies for use by NASA-supported researchers. The 14 companies include six who had previous contracts in the program and eight new providers. (6/19)
SpaceX Opposes European Spectrum Plan (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX offered formal criticism of proposed European satellite spectrum plans. Those plans, announced last month by the European Commission, would reserve two-thirds of the two-gigahertz spectrum band to providers within the EU, with the remaining third available to companies based outside the EU. SpaceX complained the proposal would split the spectrum into "virtually unusable sub-divided parts" and warned that it could interfere with Starlink services provided in Ukraine. (6/19)
James Webb Space Telescope Finds a Salty Surprise on Famous 'Pink Planet' (Source: Space.com)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that the well-known "Pink Planet" harbors a salty surprise and an exotic atmospheric chemistry. The discovery marks an advancement in the study of cold objects beyond the solar system. Initially discovered in 2013, GJ504b orbits a sun-like star located around 57 light-years from Earth. With a mass around 25 times that of Jupiter, this Pink Planet may not be a planet at all despite its moniker. It may instead be a brown dwarf, a failed star that formed like a star but was unable to gather enough mass to achieve the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in its core. (6/19)
Sweden's EQT to Acquire Germany's Exolaunch (Source: EQT)
EQT will acquire Exolaunch for an undisclosed sum. Headquartered in Germany, Exolaunch enables access to space for global satellite operators. The company has successfully deployed over 790 satellites across 47 missions for over 200 commercial and government customers from North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
EQT said it will support Exolaunch in scaling its global operations and investing into the development of new satellite launch and deployment technologies. EQT will also help drive the expansion into additional services across the satellite mission lifecycle and resources to expand the dedicated and rideshare launch offerings, both with existing partners and newly emerging launch providers. (6/18)
Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation Awarded $1 Million by the Canadian Space Agency for Studies to Inform Future Canadian Lunar Investments (Source: CSMC)
Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) has been awarded $1 million by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for studies that will help inform future Canadian lunar investments. Of the total amount, the company's subsidiary CSMC Nuclear has been awarded $500,000 to conduct a study on lunar power generation and distribution, while subsidiary CSMC Labs has been awarded $500,000 to conduct a parallel study on lunar mining and resource utilization on the moon.
The two studies are part of the CSA's Lunar Surface Exploration Initiative (LSEI), a strategic program designed to define Canada's highest-value contributions to the NASA-led Artemis campaign, the international effort to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. Each study will map the technical and functional requirements for its respective capability area, identify the key gaps that Canada must address and assess the full socioeconomic benefits of Canadian leadership in lunar infrastructure. (6/9)
Head of Nation Congratulates Asgardians on Unity Day (Source: Asgardia)
Today, our Space Nation of Asgardia, uniting over a million people from nearly 200 countries on planet Earth, celebrates one of its national holidays—Unity Day. This day reminds us that Asgardia has originated not from a common birthplace, language, or family background, which are beyond our control, but from the free choice of people who went for uniting around a common idea—a peaceful future for humanity in space.
Over the years of Asgardia's existence, technologies have changed, our community has grown, and state institutions have evolved, but the essentials have stayed the same - the inspiration to build a society that has no earthly borders, artificial divisions, acts of war or religious conflicts. On 12 October 2026, Asgardia will celebrate the tenth anniversary, remaining the youngest nation on planet Earth. Ahead of this nationwide celebration, I announce the beginning of the development of a unified digital ecosystem — the Asgardia Nation Super App and the Asgardia Space Bank (ASB – Asgardia Space Bank) — as the basis of our digital cosmocratic sovereignty. (6/18)
Ranked: SpaceX vs. The Largest Public Space Companies (Source: Visual Capitalist)
SpaceX’s $2.46 trillion market cap is larger than the combined value of the next 20 biggest public space companies, which together are worth about $235 billion. Rocket Lab ranks a distant second at $68.6 billion, while no other pure-play space company is worth more than $35 billion. SpaceX’s post-IPO surge has turned a once-private industry leader into one of the world’s most valuable companies. (6/17)
Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional (Source: New York Times)
A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said. The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables.
A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak. A comprehensive medical review into his death is underway to determine the cause, according to the Air Force.
In the weeks since Mr. Hegseth’s vaccine policy took effect on April 21, only about 40 percent of Air Force trainees have opted to take the vaccine, which had previously been mandatory, an Air Force official said. In the aftermath of the outbreak, the Air Force issued an exception to the voluntary vaccine policy, requiring that all recruits at Lackland get flu shots — part of a broader effort to stem the virus’s spread. (6/18)
Boeing Advances Space-Based Quantum Networking with Q4S Demonstration (Source: Space News)
Boeing has successfully demonstrated high-fidelity entanglement swapping using a compact quantum networking payload, marking a key step toward deploying its Q4S satellite for an on-orbit demonstration planned in 2027. The test shows that advanced quantum networking capabilities can function on space-ready hardware, advancing efforts to build a global quantum internet. (6/18)
True Anomaly's Jackal Completes Mission X-3, Advancing Space Defense Capabilities (Source: Payload)
True Anomaly's autonomous orbital vehicle Jackal has successfully completed its most complex test campaign, Mission X-3, demonstrating key capabilities for space-domain awareness and orbital operations. The milestone clears the way for upcoming U.S. Space Force contracts and positions the company to scale delivery of space superiority systems. (6/18)
Crypto-Agile Infrastructure Enables Decision Superiority for Golden Dome (Source: Modern Integrated Warfare)
Today, cryptography exists primarily as an overlay, in the form of firewalls and other security add-ons. These can be difficult to scale and often require manual updates and maintenance. They also introduce opportunities for attack that can compromise the efficacy and security of an entire system simply by taking one device offline.
Upgrading to network-embedded protection can mean bringing operations to a halt while new infrastructure is established. As a new ecosystem, Golden Dome presents an opportunity to establish crypto-agile network infrastructure that can scale and evolve without impacting decision velocity. “Building directly into the network infrastructure turns cryptography from a deployment constraint to a maneuver advantage, enabling forces to adapt and keep operating even when networks are contested or degraded,” says Tom Broadwell. (6/17)
June 18, 2026
Can Hong Kong Make a Giant Leap to
Commercial Space Insurance? (Source: SCMP)
In many ways, space insurance mirrors maritime insurance. In the early days of commercial space launch, the US turned to Lloyd’s of London – the undisputed king of global maritime insurance. In 1965, Lloyd’s wrote the world’s first space policy: a pre-launch insurance policy for the world’s first commercial communication satellite, Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird. The explosive growth of China’s commercial space business, combined with geopolitical realities, gives Hong Kong a captive market. (6/17)
Gateway Cancel Leads to Tucson Job Cuts (Source: Phoenix Business Journal)
Paragon Space Development Corp. is laying off dozens of employees at its Tucson headquarters in the wake of a Northrop Grumman contract termination for NASA’s Lunar Gateway program. Paragon Space on June 12 filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act with Arizona’s Department of Economic Security stating it will cut 77 jobs at its Tucson facility. (5/17)
NASA Picks Relativity to Develop Mars Mission (Sources: Tech Crunch, Space News)
Relativity Space plans to launch a Mars orbiter mission in 2028 with a NASA instrument suite. The company's Interplanetary Sciences Program is an effort to enable low-cost space science missions, beginning with a Mars orbiter with a radar instrument for studying subsurface ice and geology as well as Aeolus, a set of instruments provided by NASA's Ames Research Center for monitoring the planet's atmosphere. The spacecraft will launch on the company's Terran R rocket that is still in development.
Aeolus, as the mission is dubbed, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, winds, and temperature in its atmosphere. The agency said that data will make it safer for landers and, someday, astronauts, to visit the surface of the Red Planet.
The mission is set to launch in 2028—a rapid pace that will require Relativity to design and build the spacecraft to carry the Aeolus instruments, and finish building the rocket that will carry it to space, all on a tight timeline. NASA did not disclose how much it is paying Relativity for the mission. If Relativity’s Aeolus launches on schedule, it could be the first private mission to reach the Red Planet. (6/18)
Texas Venture Capitalist Dies in Plane Crash (Source: Texas Monthly)
Joshua Baer, the irrepressible and monumentally influential cofounder and CEO of Austin-based start-up incubator/venture capital firm/coworking office Capital Factory, died Tuesday night when a small Austin-bound plane owned by the company NetJets crashed on a highway in Laredo. He was among the major investors in Firefly Aerospace and other aerospace startups. (6/17)
Is SpaceX’s Mars Mission Based On An Unproven—And Dangerous—Premise? (Source: Aviation Week)
The mission of SpaceX and founder Elon Musk is to make humanity multiplanetary by settling a “fully self-sustaining civilization on Mars.” Musk envisions a flotilla of several thousand Starships launching at roughly two-year intervals to transport Martian colonizers to settle the new world. Yet very little public thought or research has addressed the biological, technical and ethical problems of creating a “self-sustaining civilization”—a goal that necessitates reproducing and raising children on a planet that is hostile to all forms of life.
Indeed, SpaceX’s plans to settle more than a million humans on Mars may be based on a faulty premise: that the short-term survival of highly trained astronauts in space proves that humans can live and reproduce on Mars. This load-bearing assumption, if it collapsed, would likely change the calculus for SpaceX investors and for early space settlers motivated by founding a new civilization—some of whom Musk says “will probably die in the beginning.” (6/18)
Paso Robles is One Step Closer to Getting a Spaceport. What’s Next? (Source: The Tribune)
The city of Paso Robles took the next step to making its spaceport a reality Tuesday. According to a city news release, Paso Robles is now looking for proposals to progress its FAA Commercial Spaceport License application to create a horizontal space launch facility at the Paso Robles Municipal Airport. The last time the city discussed the Spaceport and Technology Corridor project was in March after the City Council unanimously directed staff to prepare a request for proposals to receive its licensing. (6/17)
Eutelsat Secures First Order Under French Defense Agreement (Source: Via Satellite)
Eutelsat has won a slew of new deals including an order under an agreement with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans, and an agreement for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) services in Angola. Eutelsat signed a capacity contract through the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), as part of the Centaure contract, marking the first call-off contract under the 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) NEXUS framework agreement, signed a year ago. (6/16)
U.S. astronaut Christina Koch wins Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (Source: El Pais)
Christina Koch, the first woman to travel to the Moon, has been awarded the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord. The jury of the prestigious Spanish prize announced its decision on Wednesday, citing the U.S. astronaut’s scientific career and work in space exploration. Koch, one of the four crew members of Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the Moon in over half a century. Koch holds the longest continuous female record for time spent in space. (6/17)
Space Weather Forecasting: Momentus Secures Commercial Payload Contract for Vigoride-9 OSV (Source: SatNews)
Commercial space transportation provider Momentus Inc. has secured a new contract with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Under the agreement, Momentus will integrate and operate LASP’s upcoming Occultation Wave Limb Sounder (OWLS) mission aboard the company’s next-generation Vigoride-9 Orbital Service Vehicle (OSV). The scientific research mission is scheduled to launch into low-Earth orbit (LEO) in 2027. (6/17)
Bezos Earth Fund Invests in FireSat Constellation Build-Out (Source: Via Satellite)
Jeff Bezos’ philanthropic organization the Bezos Earth Fund is joining the investment coalition for the wildfire-monitoring FireSat constellation. Bezos Earth Fund announced a $26 million investment in the non-profit Earth Fire Alliance and its FireSat program on Wednesday. The Earth Fire Alliance is a nonprofit coalition supported by Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and others. This is the largest contribution to Earth Fire Alliance to date, and said to be the largest single philanthropic grant to wildfire detection. (6/17)
Scientists Hail MAVEN's Legacy as NASA Retires Red Planet Orbiter (Source: Space.com)
Following months of unsuccessful recovery efforts, NASA has officially begun decommissioning the MAVEN orbiter, bringing to a close an 11-year mission that transformed scientists' understanding of Mars and became one of the agency's most valuable assets at the Red Planet. For more than a decade, MAVEN circled Mars in a highly elliptical orbit, measuring particles escaping into space and observing how the atmosphere responded to solar activity. Among its most significant findings was evidence that solar storms can dramatically accelerate the loss of atmospheric gases, helping explain how Mars evolved from a potentially habitable world into the cold, barren planet seen today. (6/17)
Quantum Space Picked for DoD Satellite Propellant Transfer Project (Source: Space News)
Quantum Space won a Pentagon contract to develop a spacecraft capable of transferring propellant to satellites in geostationary orbit. The company said Thursday the contract, whose value was not disclosed, covers production of an orbital refueling vehicle using its Ranger platform, a maneuverable spacecraft designed for missions including satellite servicing, space logistics and other operations. The contract is funded by the Department of Defense's Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund, or OECIF. The spacecraft will be ready for launch in 2028. (6/18)
Blue Origin Begins Launch Complex Re-Build (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin has started to rebuild the New Glenn pad damaged in an explosion last month. Speaking at the VivaTech conference in Paris on Wednesday, CEO Dave Limp said workers have finished cleaning up debris at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36 from a May 28 explosion of a New Glenn rocket during a static-fire test. Reconstruction of the pad started Tuesday, he said, with plans to be ready to resume New Glenn launches there by the end of the year. Neither he nor company founder Jeff Bezos provided details at the conference about what caused the explosion. (6/18)
Ariane 6 Launches 36 Amazon Leo Satellites (Source: Space News)
An upgraded version of the Ariane 6 rocket launched three dozen Amazon Leo satellites Wednesday. The Ariane 64 lifted off at 8:21 a.m. Eastern from Kourou, French Guiana, and successfully deployed 36 Amazon Leo satellites. This was the first launch of the Ariane 64 to use upgraded P160C solid rocket boosters, which increase the vehicle's payload capacity to low Earth orbit by more than two metric tons. That allowed this launch to carry 36 Amazon Leo satellites, versus the 32 on previous launches.
This was the third Ariane 6 launch this year, with Arianespace planning seven to eight missions this year. European Space Agency officials said Wednesday they were studying options to increase the vehicle's launch rate, reviewing scenarios of between 12 to 20 launches a year. That would require significant infrastructure improvements, and ESA expects to decide by the end of this year what increase it would be willing to support. (6/18)
China's Kuaizhou-11 Launch Was a Success (Source: Xinhua)
China says a Kuaizhou-11 launch whose outcome was in doubt was successful. The rocket lifted off Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, but a lack of updates led to speculation the launch had failed. Chinese media reported more than 24 hours after the launch that the rocket successfully deployed a payload of CentiSpace navigation satellites into low Earth orbit, but provided no other details about the launch. (6/18)
France to Use OneWeb for Secure Comms (Source: European Spaceflight)
The French government will use the OneWeb constellation for secure communications. The French defense procurement agency DGA announced a contract this week with Eutelsat worth 138 million euros ($158 million) over four years to use OneWeb for secure communications for the French armed forces. The contract could grow to 350 million euros over eight years. The contract is intended to be a gapfiller until the IRIS² constellation is ready around 2030. (6/18)
Russian Cosmonaut Smokutyaev Passes at 56 (Source: Collect Space)
A Russian cosmonaut who flew on two International Space Station missions has died. Aleksandr Samokutyaev died Wednesday at the age of 56, Roscosmos announced, but did not disclose the cause of his death. Samokutyaev flew on two ISS missions, the first in 2011 and the second in 2014-25, spending a combined 331 days in space. He is the first member of an ISS expedition to pass away. (6/18)
DHS Promotes Latest Space Cybersecurity Research in SPARTA (Source: Via Satellite)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has revealed details of the latest space cybersecurity research to help protect critical infrastructure. Through the Aerospace SPARTA framework, S&T has published key resources, including Indicators of Behavior, published in April 2025, and Prioritized Countermeasures, published in March 2026. These resources are meant to enable onboard threat detection and provide actionable information for implementing space cybersecurity. (6/17)
ESA Seeks to Increase Ariane and Vega Launch Cadence (Source: Space Intel Report)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is examining ways to increase the launch rates of its Ariane 6 heavy-lift and Vega-C medium-lift rockets to capture what’s almost certain to be a surge in demand starting now and continuing through the end of the decade. Ariane 6, which conducted its eighth straight successful flight on June 17, carrying 36 Amazon Leo satellites into low Earth orbit, launched four times in 2025. Launch service provider Arianespace is targeting 7-8 launches this year as it ramps capacity. (6/17)
The Private Space Race is Spurring a Luxury Hotel Land Grab for Florida Oceanfront Property (Source: CNBC)
The rise of the private space industry, with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, has spurred demand for commercial real estate on Florida’s space coast. A new $420 million Westin Cocoa Beach Resort & Spa is set to open next year complete with a conference center. Once the Westin opens, Miami-based Driftwood Capital will control about 62% of the beachfront hotel inventory in the region, according to executive chairman Carlos Rodriguez Sr.
Rodriguez says the area is attracting senior corporate leaders and scientists who travel to watch launches and support new facilities. He points to companies such as Amazon establishing operations at the Kennedy Space Center, alongside broader momentum from the U.S. Space Force and increasing commercial interest in space-related ventures. (6/17)
UK's Instinct Space Unveils Plans for Low-Cost Lunar Landers (Source: Payload)
Instinct Space announced a significant pivot today from helping lunar surface missions find their way to getting in on the surface action itself. The London-based startup joined Y Combinator in 2025 with the aim of developing a lunar-orbiting GPS constellation. Now, the company has shifted its vision, unveiling plans to build low-cost lunar landers, which will be capable of reaching the lunar surface from LEO.
Instinct is scheduled to fly its first lunar mission in late 2028, where its dishwasher-sized lunar lander will carry 20 kg of payload to the Moon for about $550,000 per kg. The vehicle will weigh ~650 kg when fully fueled. It will rely on an electric pump-fed engine and four small attitude thrusters, running on a mix of hydrogen peroxide and kerosene, which can provide 6 km/s of Delta-v—enough to bring 20 kg of payload from LEO to the Moon. The same prop system will perform the landing burn on the lunar surface. (6/17)
Tackling the Launch Capability Bottleneck (Source: Space News)
One theme that’s already emerging for the second half of the year? Launch capability. That term doesn’t simply mean finding rockets to take satellites to orbit but also for the United States to have the infrastructure needed to get tens of thousands of new satellites to orbit. There are growing concerns about launch demand straining capacity at both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral.
Policymakers could be forced to consider “non-traditional” launch sites, including inland and sea-based spaceports, to relieve pressure on the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and Vandenberg Space Force Base. Long viewed as a technically difficult niche with a history of commercial failure, companies and defense officials are giving offshore launch a second look as they search for ways to expand United States launch capacity.
The Commercial Space Federation and Rational Futures report, "SCRUBBED: America’s Launch Capacity Challenge," identifies a critical infrastructure bottleneck as satellite launches are projected to exceed 7,000 annually by the mid-2030s. Current U.S. launch infrastructure and regulatory pipelines are operating at capacity, requiring modernized facilities and streamlined FAA processes to maintain competitive dominance. (6/17)
NASA Seeks Alternative Launcher for Blue Moon Landers (Source: Mach 33)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated publicly on June 5, 2026 that the agency is evaluating alternative launch vehicles for Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo lander after the May 28 explosion of a New Glenn rocket. Speaking at the CNBC CEO Council Summit, Isaacman said that in terms of heavy-lift options, the agency is likely looking at "Falcon Heavy land," per Gizmodo reporting. The Blue Moon Mark 1 uncrewed cargo lander had been contracted to fly on New Glenn as early as fall 2026 to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar surface. (6/11)
Third Time’s the Charm for a Row of Faint Galaxies Without Dark Matter (Source: Yale)
Astronomers have followed a faint, cosmic trail of gas to a third galaxy that has no dark matter. Yale astronomers found a dwarf galaxy located 67 million light-years from Earth — called NGC 1052-DF9 — that appears to have formed in a straight line with nine other galaxies. Two of those other galaxies, DF2 and DF4, were previously shown to lack dark matter — an invisible, theorized material that gives shape to the universe and is thought by most astronomers to be essential to galaxy formation. Now, DF9 has joined the no-dark-matter club. (6/16)
Could Earth Have Sent Life to Jupiter's Moon Europa? (Source: Phys.org)
Zaza Osmanov calculates the chance that dust particles containing living bacteria were ejected from Earth's gravitational well and traveled to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, where they could have landed undestroyed and made their way through cracks in Europa's ice. Osmanov calls this the "reverse panspermia problem" and calculated that "in 5 billion years dust grains can travel in the interstellar medium at distances of the order of hundreds of parsecs."
Also, given the distribution of stars in the Milky Way, "particles emitted by every single planet will reach as many as 105 stellar systems." Moreover, Osmanov found that from a single planet, life can be transported to about a thousand star systems. (6/16)
No More Woke Science Wanted At NASA (Source: NASA Watch)
NASA put out Amendment 59: Several Updates to the ROSES-25 Summary of Solicitation. BOTH of the official documents cited in this notice issued by NASA contain blatantly political rhetoric such as: “This lack of transparency, accountability, and proper oversight became increasingly clear between 2021 and 2024. Federal awards were often used during those years to promote a “woke” policy agenda that did not reflect the values of the vast majority of the American public.” (6/16)
Five Uncrewed Starship Rockets are Projected to Launch Toward Mars During the Brief Window in Late 2026 (Source: Space Daily)
Every 26 months, the orbits of Earth and Mars align in a particular geometric configuration that allows spacecraft to travel between them with the lowest possible fuel expenditure. The window lasts approximately one month. Miss it, and the next opportunity is more than two years away. The next such window opens in November 2026 and closes in December. SpaceX has been preparing for this specific window for years.
Elon Musk has publicly committed to launching up to five uncrewed Starship V3 vehicles toward Mars during the 2026 window, carrying cargo, scientific experiments contracted by the Italian Space Agency, and a small fleet of Optimus humanoid robots built by Tesla. The robots are intended to demonstrate operational capability on the Martian surface — the first robotic ambassadors of a private company on another planet, if the mission succeeds. (6/17)
At Least Two Trillion Galaxies Fill the Observable Universe (Source: Space Daily)
The paper states it plainly. There are “at least 2 × 10¹² (two trillion) galaxies in the currently visible universe, the vast majority of which cannot be observed with present day technology as they are too faint.” In other words, the count is less a tally of dots in our images than an estimate of how many dots the images are missing. The team did not add up galaxies one by one. Instead they used galaxy stellar mass functions, which describe how many galaxies of each mass exist in a given slice of space. They measured these at many points in cosmic history, reaching back to within roughly 650 million years of the Big Bang. (6/16)
SpaceX vs. Blue Origin, Rocket Lab: What The Numbers Show (Source: Trefis)
At least five companies, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and two Chinese state-backed programs, now have reusable hardware flying or about to fly. What’s driving all of them is the same underlying demand: satellite megaconstellations that need thousands of repeat launches over their lifetime, not a single mission. That kind of recurring demand is what turns a one-time technology lead into a market large enough to support several winners at once.
The numbers that matter to an investor are reuse, payload, and cadence, because together they determine how cheaply and how often a company can put mass into orbit. On reuse, SpaceX still leads by a wide margin: it had roughly 400 orbital booster recoveries by April 2026, dwarfing China’s combined total of a few dozen and Blue Origin’s single-digit count. Each successful recovery is effectively a rehearsal that lowers the odds of failure on the next one. That makes this gap also a reliability gap and not just a volume one. It also shows up directly in price.
On payload, which is simply how much mass a rocket can lift to orbit in one flight, Blue Origin’s New Glenn actually beats Falcon 9, though it hasn’t flown nearly often enough to prove that capacity translates into reliable, repeatable service. Rocket Lab’s Neutron sits in a smaller payload class entirely, built for satellites that don’t need a heavy-lift vehicle, and is targeting a launch price of around $50 million once it debuts, a figure roughly in line with what Falcon 9 charges commercial customers today. The gap that matters most right now is cadence. (6/16)
Italy Leads UN COPUOS (Source: Space Economy Institute)
Italy will lead the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) for the 2026–2027 term. An important achievement for the Italian space sector: Teodoro Valente, President of the Italian Space Agency, has been elected to lead one of the world’s key international bodies for space governance.
At a time when space is becoming increasingly strategic for economic growth, scientific progress and international cooperation, COPUOS will play a central role in addressing major challenges such as sustainable space activities, satellite traffic management, orbital debris mitigation and equitable access to space. (6/16)
July 29 GSA Webinar: Building Spaceports for Performance and Growth (Source: GSA)
Join the Global Spaceport Alliance for an engaging discussion led by BRPH’s aerospace and infrastructure experts on the planning, design, and development strategies shaping the next generation of spaceports. As spaceports evolve into hubs for transportation, manufacturing, innovation, and economic growth, successful development requires more than launch infrastructure alone. This webinar will explore how spaceports can be designed to support operational performance, attract aerospace tenants, and scale for future transportation systems. Click here. (6/16)
In many ways, space insurance mirrors maritime insurance. In the early days of commercial space launch, the US turned to Lloyd’s of London – the undisputed king of global maritime insurance. In 1965, Lloyd’s wrote the world’s first space policy: a pre-launch insurance policy for the world’s first commercial communication satellite, Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird. The explosive growth of China’s commercial space business, combined with geopolitical realities, gives Hong Kong a captive market. (6/17)
Gateway Cancel Leads to Tucson Job Cuts (Source: Phoenix Business Journal)
Paragon Space Development Corp. is laying off dozens of employees at its Tucson headquarters in the wake of a Northrop Grumman contract termination for NASA’s Lunar Gateway program. Paragon Space on June 12 filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act with Arizona’s Department of Economic Security stating it will cut 77 jobs at its Tucson facility. (5/17)
NASA Picks Relativity to Develop Mars Mission (Sources: Tech Crunch, Space News)
Relativity Space plans to launch a Mars orbiter mission in 2028 with a NASA instrument suite. The company's Interplanetary Sciences Program is an effort to enable low-cost space science missions, beginning with a Mars orbiter with a radar instrument for studying subsurface ice and geology as well as Aeolus, a set of instruments provided by NASA's Ames Research Center for monitoring the planet's atmosphere. The spacecraft will launch on the company's Terran R rocket that is still in development.
Aeolus, as the mission is dubbed, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, winds, and temperature in its atmosphere. The agency said that data will make it safer for landers and, someday, astronauts, to visit the surface of the Red Planet.
The mission is set to launch in 2028—a rapid pace that will require Relativity to design and build the spacecraft to carry the Aeolus instruments, and finish building the rocket that will carry it to space, all on a tight timeline. NASA did not disclose how much it is paying Relativity for the mission. If Relativity’s Aeolus launches on schedule, it could be the first private mission to reach the Red Planet. (6/18)
Texas Venture Capitalist Dies in Plane Crash (Source: Texas Monthly)
Joshua Baer, the irrepressible and monumentally influential cofounder and CEO of Austin-based start-up incubator/venture capital firm/coworking office Capital Factory, died Tuesday night when a small Austin-bound plane owned by the company NetJets crashed on a highway in Laredo. He was among the major investors in Firefly Aerospace and other aerospace startups. (6/17)
Is SpaceX’s Mars Mission Based On An Unproven—And Dangerous—Premise? (Source: Aviation Week)
The mission of SpaceX and founder Elon Musk is to make humanity multiplanetary by settling a “fully self-sustaining civilization on Mars.” Musk envisions a flotilla of several thousand Starships launching at roughly two-year intervals to transport Martian colonizers to settle the new world. Yet very little public thought or research has addressed the biological, technical and ethical problems of creating a “self-sustaining civilization”—a goal that necessitates reproducing and raising children on a planet that is hostile to all forms of life.
Indeed, SpaceX’s plans to settle more than a million humans on Mars may be based on a faulty premise: that the short-term survival of highly trained astronauts in space proves that humans can live and reproduce on Mars. This load-bearing assumption, if it collapsed, would likely change the calculus for SpaceX investors and for early space settlers motivated by founding a new civilization—some of whom Musk says “will probably die in the beginning.” (6/18)
Paso Robles is One Step Closer to Getting a Spaceport. What’s Next? (Source: The Tribune)
The city of Paso Robles took the next step to making its spaceport a reality Tuesday. According to a city news release, Paso Robles is now looking for proposals to progress its FAA Commercial Spaceport License application to create a horizontal space launch facility at the Paso Robles Municipal Airport. The last time the city discussed the Spaceport and Technology Corridor project was in March after the City Council unanimously directed staff to prepare a request for proposals to receive its licensing. (6/17)
Eutelsat Secures First Order Under French Defense Agreement (Source: Via Satellite)
Eutelsat has won a slew of new deals including an order under an agreement with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans, and an agreement for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) services in Angola. Eutelsat signed a capacity contract through the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), as part of the Centaure contract, marking the first call-off contract under the 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) NEXUS framework agreement, signed a year ago. (6/16)
U.S. astronaut Christina Koch wins Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (Source: El Pais)
Christina Koch, the first woman to travel to the Moon, has been awarded the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord. The jury of the prestigious Spanish prize announced its decision on Wednesday, citing the U.S. astronaut’s scientific career and work in space exploration. Koch, one of the four crew members of Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the Moon in over half a century. Koch holds the longest continuous female record for time spent in space. (6/17)
Space Weather Forecasting: Momentus Secures Commercial Payload Contract for Vigoride-9 OSV (Source: SatNews)
Commercial space transportation provider Momentus Inc. has secured a new contract with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Under the agreement, Momentus will integrate and operate LASP’s upcoming Occultation Wave Limb Sounder (OWLS) mission aboard the company’s next-generation Vigoride-9 Orbital Service Vehicle (OSV). The scientific research mission is scheduled to launch into low-Earth orbit (LEO) in 2027. (6/17)
Bezos Earth Fund Invests in FireSat Constellation Build-Out (Source: Via Satellite)
Jeff Bezos’ philanthropic organization the Bezos Earth Fund is joining the investment coalition for the wildfire-monitoring FireSat constellation. Bezos Earth Fund announced a $26 million investment in the non-profit Earth Fire Alliance and its FireSat program on Wednesday. The Earth Fire Alliance is a nonprofit coalition supported by Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and others. This is the largest contribution to Earth Fire Alliance to date, and said to be the largest single philanthropic grant to wildfire detection. (6/17)
Scientists Hail MAVEN's Legacy as NASA Retires Red Planet Orbiter (Source: Space.com)
Following months of unsuccessful recovery efforts, NASA has officially begun decommissioning the MAVEN orbiter, bringing to a close an 11-year mission that transformed scientists' understanding of Mars and became one of the agency's most valuable assets at the Red Planet. For more than a decade, MAVEN circled Mars in a highly elliptical orbit, measuring particles escaping into space and observing how the atmosphere responded to solar activity. Among its most significant findings was evidence that solar storms can dramatically accelerate the loss of atmospheric gases, helping explain how Mars evolved from a potentially habitable world into the cold, barren planet seen today. (6/17)
Quantum Space Picked for DoD Satellite Propellant Transfer Project (Source: Space News)
Quantum Space won a Pentagon contract to develop a spacecraft capable of transferring propellant to satellites in geostationary orbit. The company said Thursday the contract, whose value was not disclosed, covers production of an orbital refueling vehicle using its Ranger platform, a maneuverable spacecraft designed for missions including satellite servicing, space logistics and other operations. The contract is funded by the Department of Defense's Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund, or OECIF. The spacecraft will be ready for launch in 2028. (6/18)
Blue Origin Begins Launch Complex Re-Build (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin has started to rebuild the New Glenn pad damaged in an explosion last month. Speaking at the VivaTech conference in Paris on Wednesday, CEO Dave Limp said workers have finished cleaning up debris at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36 from a May 28 explosion of a New Glenn rocket during a static-fire test. Reconstruction of the pad started Tuesday, he said, with plans to be ready to resume New Glenn launches there by the end of the year. Neither he nor company founder Jeff Bezos provided details at the conference about what caused the explosion. (6/18)
Ariane 6 Launches 36 Amazon Leo Satellites (Source: Space News)
An upgraded version of the Ariane 6 rocket launched three dozen Amazon Leo satellites Wednesday. The Ariane 64 lifted off at 8:21 a.m. Eastern from Kourou, French Guiana, and successfully deployed 36 Amazon Leo satellites. This was the first launch of the Ariane 64 to use upgraded P160C solid rocket boosters, which increase the vehicle's payload capacity to low Earth orbit by more than two metric tons. That allowed this launch to carry 36 Amazon Leo satellites, versus the 32 on previous launches.
This was the third Ariane 6 launch this year, with Arianespace planning seven to eight missions this year. European Space Agency officials said Wednesday they were studying options to increase the vehicle's launch rate, reviewing scenarios of between 12 to 20 launches a year. That would require significant infrastructure improvements, and ESA expects to decide by the end of this year what increase it would be willing to support. (6/18)
China's Kuaizhou-11 Launch Was a Success (Source: Xinhua)
China says a Kuaizhou-11 launch whose outcome was in doubt was successful. The rocket lifted off Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, but a lack of updates led to speculation the launch had failed. Chinese media reported more than 24 hours after the launch that the rocket successfully deployed a payload of CentiSpace navigation satellites into low Earth orbit, but provided no other details about the launch. (6/18)
France to Use OneWeb for Secure Comms (Source: European Spaceflight)
The French government will use the OneWeb constellation for secure communications. The French defense procurement agency DGA announced a contract this week with Eutelsat worth 138 million euros ($158 million) over four years to use OneWeb for secure communications for the French armed forces. The contract could grow to 350 million euros over eight years. The contract is intended to be a gapfiller until the IRIS² constellation is ready around 2030. (6/18)
Russian Cosmonaut Smokutyaev Passes at 56 (Source: Collect Space)
A Russian cosmonaut who flew on two International Space Station missions has died. Aleksandr Samokutyaev died Wednesday at the age of 56, Roscosmos announced, but did not disclose the cause of his death. Samokutyaev flew on two ISS missions, the first in 2011 and the second in 2014-25, spending a combined 331 days in space. He is the first member of an ISS expedition to pass away. (6/18)
DHS Promotes Latest Space Cybersecurity Research in SPARTA (Source: Via Satellite)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has revealed details of the latest space cybersecurity research to help protect critical infrastructure. Through the Aerospace SPARTA framework, S&T has published key resources, including Indicators of Behavior, published in April 2025, and Prioritized Countermeasures, published in March 2026. These resources are meant to enable onboard threat detection and provide actionable information for implementing space cybersecurity. (6/17)
ESA Seeks to Increase Ariane and Vega Launch Cadence (Source: Space Intel Report)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is examining ways to increase the launch rates of its Ariane 6 heavy-lift and Vega-C medium-lift rockets to capture what’s almost certain to be a surge in demand starting now and continuing through the end of the decade. Ariane 6, which conducted its eighth straight successful flight on June 17, carrying 36 Amazon Leo satellites into low Earth orbit, launched four times in 2025. Launch service provider Arianespace is targeting 7-8 launches this year as it ramps capacity. (6/17)
The Private Space Race is Spurring a Luxury Hotel Land Grab for Florida Oceanfront Property (Source: CNBC)
The rise of the private space industry, with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, has spurred demand for commercial real estate on Florida’s space coast. A new $420 million Westin Cocoa Beach Resort & Spa is set to open next year complete with a conference center. Once the Westin opens, Miami-based Driftwood Capital will control about 62% of the beachfront hotel inventory in the region, according to executive chairman Carlos Rodriguez Sr.
Rodriguez says the area is attracting senior corporate leaders and scientists who travel to watch launches and support new facilities. He points to companies such as Amazon establishing operations at the Kennedy Space Center, alongside broader momentum from the U.S. Space Force and increasing commercial interest in space-related ventures. (6/17)
UK's Instinct Space Unveils Plans for Low-Cost Lunar Landers (Source: Payload)
Instinct Space announced a significant pivot today from helping lunar surface missions find their way to getting in on the surface action itself. The London-based startup joined Y Combinator in 2025 with the aim of developing a lunar-orbiting GPS constellation. Now, the company has shifted its vision, unveiling plans to build low-cost lunar landers, which will be capable of reaching the lunar surface from LEO.
Instinct is scheduled to fly its first lunar mission in late 2028, where its dishwasher-sized lunar lander will carry 20 kg of payload to the Moon for about $550,000 per kg. The vehicle will weigh ~650 kg when fully fueled. It will rely on an electric pump-fed engine and four small attitude thrusters, running on a mix of hydrogen peroxide and kerosene, which can provide 6 km/s of Delta-v—enough to bring 20 kg of payload from LEO to the Moon. The same prop system will perform the landing burn on the lunar surface. (6/17)
Tackling the Launch Capability Bottleneck (Source: Space News)
One theme that’s already emerging for the second half of the year? Launch capability. That term doesn’t simply mean finding rockets to take satellites to orbit but also for the United States to have the infrastructure needed to get tens of thousands of new satellites to orbit. There are growing concerns about launch demand straining capacity at both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral.
Policymakers could be forced to consider “non-traditional” launch sites, including inland and sea-based spaceports, to relieve pressure on the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and Vandenberg Space Force Base. Long viewed as a technically difficult niche with a history of commercial failure, companies and defense officials are giving offshore launch a second look as they search for ways to expand United States launch capacity.
The Commercial Space Federation and Rational Futures report, "SCRUBBED: America’s Launch Capacity Challenge," identifies a critical infrastructure bottleneck as satellite launches are projected to exceed 7,000 annually by the mid-2030s. Current U.S. launch infrastructure and regulatory pipelines are operating at capacity, requiring modernized facilities and streamlined FAA processes to maintain competitive dominance. (6/17)
NASA Seeks Alternative Launcher for Blue Moon Landers (Source: Mach 33)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated publicly on June 5, 2026 that the agency is evaluating alternative launch vehicles for Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo lander after the May 28 explosion of a New Glenn rocket. Speaking at the CNBC CEO Council Summit, Isaacman said that in terms of heavy-lift options, the agency is likely looking at "Falcon Heavy land," per Gizmodo reporting. The Blue Moon Mark 1 uncrewed cargo lander had been contracted to fly on New Glenn as early as fall 2026 to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar surface. (6/11)
Third Time’s the Charm for a Row of Faint Galaxies Without Dark Matter (Source: Yale)
Astronomers have followed a faint, cosmic trail of gas to a third galaxy that has no dark matter. Yale astronomers found a dwarf galaxy located 67 million light-years from Earth — called NGC 1052-DF9 — that appears to have formed in a straight line with nine other galaxies. Two of those other galaxies, DF2 and DF4, were previously shown to lack dark matter — an invisible, theorized material that gives shape to the universe and is thought by most astronomers to be essential to galaxy formation. Now, DF9 has joined the no-dark-matter club. (6/16)
Could Earth Have Sent Life to Jupiter's Moon Europa? (Source: Phys.org)
Zaza Osmanov calculates the chance that dust particles containing living bacteria were ejected from Earth's gravitational well and traveled to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, where they could have landed undestroyed and made their way through cracks in Europa's ice. Osmanov calls this the "reverse panspermia problem" and calculated that "in 5 billion years dust grains can travel in the interstellar medium at distances of the order of hundreds of parsecs."
Also, given the distribution of stars in the Milky Way, "particles emitted by every single planet will reach as many as 105 stellar systems." Moreover, Osmanov found that from a single planet, life can be transported to about a thousand star systems. (6/16)
No More Woke Science Wanted At NASA (Source: NASA Watch)
NASA put out Amendment 59: Several Updates to the ROSES-25 Summary of Solicitation. BOTH of the official documents cited in this notice issued by NASA contain blatantly political rhetoric such as: “This lack of transparency, accountability, and proper oversight became increasingly clear between 2021 and 2024. Federal awards were often used during those years to promote a “woke” policy agenda that did not reflect the values of the vast majority of the American public.” (6/16)
Five Uncrewed Starship Rockets are Projected to Launch Toward Mars During the Brief Window in Late 2026 (Source: Space Daily)
Every 26 months, the orbits of Earth and Mars align in a particular geometric configuration that allows spacecraft to travel between them with the lowest possible fuel expenditure. The window lasts approximately one month. Miss it, and the next opportunity is more than two years away. The next such window opens in November 2026 and closes in December. SpaceX has been preparing for this specific window for years.
Elon Musk has publicly committed to launching up to five uncrewed Starship V3 vehicles toward Mars during the 2026 window, carrying cargo, scientific experiments contracted by the Italian Space Agency, and a small fleet of Optimus humanoid robots built by Tesla. The robots are intended to demonstrate operational capability on the Martian surface — the first robotic ambassadors of a private company on another planet, if the mission succeeds. (6/17)
At Least Two Trillion Galaxies Fill the Observable Universe (Source: Space Daily)
The paper states it plainly. There are “at least 2 × 10¹² (two trillion) galaxies in the currently visible universe, the vast majority of which cannot be observed with present day technology as they are too faint.” In other words, the count is less a tally of dots in our images than an estimate of how many dots the images are missing. The team did not add up galaxies one by one. Instead they used galaxy stellar mass functions, which describe how many galaxies of each mass exist in a given slice of space. They measured these at many points in cosmic history, reaching back to within roughly 650 million years of the Big Bang. (6/16)
SpaceX vs. Blue Origin, Rocket Lab: What The Numbers Show (Source: Trefis)
At least five companies, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and two Chinese state-backed programs, now have reusable hardware flying or about to fly. What’s driving all of them is the same underlying demand: satellite megaconstellations that need thousands of repeat launches over their lifetime, not a single mission. That kind of recurring demand is what turns a one-time technology lead into a market large enough to support several winners at once.
The numbers that matter to an investor are reuse, payload, and cadence, because together they determine how cheaply and how often a company can put mass into orbit. On reuse, SpaceX still leads by a wide margin: it had roughly 400 orbital booster recoveries by April 2026, dwarfing China’s combined total of a few dozen and Blue Origin’s single-digit count. Each successful recovery is effectively a rehearsal that lowers the odds of failure on the next one. That makes this gap also a reliability gap and not just a volume one. It also shows up directly in price.
On payload, which is simply how much mass a rocket can lift to orbit in one flight, Blue Origin’s New Glenn actually beats Falcon 9, though it hasn’t flown nearly often enough to prove that capacity translates into reliable, repeatable service. Rocket Lab’s Neutron sits in a smaller payload class entirely, built for satellites that don’t need a heavy-lift vehicle, and is targeting a launch price of around $50 million once it debuts, a figure roughly in line with what Falcon 9 charges commercial customers today. The gap that matters most right now is cadence. (6/16)
Italy Leads UN COPUOS (Source: Space Economy Institute)
Italy will lead the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) for the 2026–2027 term. An important achievement for the Italian space sector: Teodoro Valente, President of the Italian Space Agency, has been elected to lead one of the world’s key international bodies for space governance.
At a time when space is becoming increasingly strategic for economic growth, scientific progress and international cooperation, COPUOS will play a central role in addressing major challenges such as sustainable space activities, satellite traffic management, orbital debris mitigation and equitable access to space. (6/16)
July 29 GSA Webinar: Building Spaceports for Performance and Growth (Source: GSA)
Join the Global Spaceport Alliance for an engaging discussion led by BRPH’s aerospace and infrastructure experts on the planning, design, and development strategies shaping the next generation of spaceports. As spaceports evolve into hubs for transportation, manufacturing, innovation, and economic growth, successful development requires more than launch infrastructure alone. This webinar will explore how spaceports can be designed to support operational performance, attract aerospace tenants, and scale for future transportation systems. Click here. (6/16)
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