September 24, 2026

KSC Issues RFI to Bolster Research Portfolio (Source: NASA)
Under longstanding NASA policy, Kennedy Space Center through the 1990s and early 2000s was officially relegated to launch operations, with a few minor exceptions for launch and Space Station-oriented topics. Much to the chagrin of state officials seeking to diversify its role beyond launch operations, the Center had to be very careful about straying from its launch-only mandate, with other NASA centers objecting when they thought their research turf was being encroached. Basically, KSC was an "operational" center while most of the others were "R&D" centers.

It was controversial when KSC and Florida Space Research Institute conspired to build the Space Life Sciences Lab (where I now sit) at the spaceport (during the GW Bush administration), and a big victory when KSC was allowed to establish its "Swamp Works" innovation lab in 2013, under President Obama. The Center was evolving to acquire broader flavors of research funding within the agency's budget. That trend continues today, as KSC has released an RFI for "KSC Research and Collaboration".

"The KSC Research and Technology (R&T) vision is to establish KSC as a leading hub for space technology innovation to align with the NASA Human Space Mission Directorate (HSMD) Artemis Mission. Central to this vision is the expansion of partnerships with academia, private industry, and other government agencies, particularly with institutions whose technical expertise complements KSC’s existing capabilities." Click here. (9/23)

Corps of Engineers Seeks Collaborations for Future Infrastructure at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Corps of Engineers)
The US Army Corps of Engineers  is seeking industry partners to support the Space Port of the Future Infrastructure (SPOTFi) Campus at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The opportunity is designed to advance infrastructure supporting the nation’s growing space enterprise and invites qualified businesses to submit innovative solutions. Click here. (9/23)

Unprecedented: SpaceX Given Unique Access to Classified DoD Space Tracking Data to Support Company's Stargaze Project (Source: Breaking Defense)
In an unprecedented move, the Defense Department has agreed to give SpaceX exclusive access to the government’s most classified space tracking data, according to a dozen government and industry sources. One of the sources, a Space Force official, said a “contractual agreement” has been signed between SpaceX and the Space Force’s Joint Commercial Operations Cell (JCO), trading company access to US Space Command’s (SPACECOM) most detailed version of its High Accuracy Catalog (HAC) of on-orbit objects in exchange for SpaceX giving the JCO data from its Stargaze star-tracking cameras. (9/23)

Space Force Relaunches Commercial Accelerator, Prepares to Welcome New Cohort (Source: Aerospace America)
The U.S. Space Force’s commercial software laboratory is preparing to host its first participants since undergoing an extensive overhaul. The changes — which include a new name, longer program timelines and rotating focus areas — are intended to create a more effective pipeline for bringing participants’ software into operational use. Under the old model, the SDA TAP Lab — short for Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab — ran three-month programs, during which companies developed products, ideas and research to address specific Space Force software challenges. The last cohort concluded its work in March.

Under the new model, first announced in July, the BMC3I TAP Lab has a broader focus on finding innovative software for battle management, command, control, communications and space intelligence capabilities. It sits within the Space Force’s Kronos program, which focuses on these same topics and is also led by Lt. Col. Collin Greiser. (9/23)

Astronomers Detect Radio Signals Coming From an Exoplanet (Source: Phys.org)
Exoplanets are exotic worlds orbiting distant stars far beyond our solar system. Ever since the first ones were discovered in the 1990s, astronomers have turned their attention to these distant worlds to understand more about them. Now, for the first time, scientists have detected radio signals coming directly from one of these planets, a massive gas giant named β Pictoris b.

Previous radio detections from exoplanetary systems couldn't be traced directly to the planet itself because astronomers couldn't tell whether the signal came from the star or the planet. And no, this isn't evidence of alien life communicating with each other. The radio waves come from auroras linked to the planet's powerful magnetic field. (9/22)

Can Startups Turn India Into a Global Space Power? (Source: DW News)
India’s space program was once almost entirely led by the government. Now, a new generation of private companies is building rockets, satellites and other space technology. Click here. (9/23)

Boeing, GoGo Test Satellite-Linked Military Drone in Challenge to Starlink (Source: Reuters)
Boeing's ​drone subsidiary Insitu and aviation Wi-Fi provider Gogo have successfully ‌tested a military drone using satellite communications, the companies said on Tuesday, underscoring growing efforts by governments and defense firms to reduce reliance on Elon Musk's Starlink.
Gogo Special Missions, ​the military and government arm of Gogo and Insitu integrated a ​modified version of Gogo's Galileo HDX antenna onto Insitu's Integrator ⁠drone, a mid-sized uncrewed aircraft used by military customers for surveillance and ​reconnaissance missions. (9/22)

UK Military Jamming Other Nations' Satellites to Defend Itself (Source: BBC)
The British military has been jamming or blocking satellites from other countries in order to defend itself from hostile threats, the BBC has been told. The RAF has been using a ground-based system for the past year, which a defense source said had already been used "to deter our adversaries". It is understood the system could be used to prevent a hostile nation's satellites from tracking the movement of the UK's nuclear armed submarines or other sensitive military operations, such as those involving special forces. (9/23)

Firefly Just Quadrupled Its Ability to Build Moon Landers (Source: CBS Austin)
It was a giant leap for the new commercial space race in Texas. Firefly Aerospace just opened a new cleanroom at its Cedar Park campus to build lunar landers and orbiters — four times bigger than its existing one. "This is a really exciting day for Cedar Park," said Mayor Jim Penniman-Morin. Combined with its original cleanroom, Firefly can now build and test 12 spacecraft at the same time. (9/23)

NASA Selects Far-Infrared Telescope as First in New Mission Class (Source: NASA)
NASA announced Wednesday a mission to explore the history and evolution of the universe, PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics), is advancing to the next phase of development. This space telescope is the first in a new class of NASA astrophysics missions, called Probe Explorers, within the agency’s longstanding Explorers Program. (9/23)

Unmanned Systems: Without PNT, They’re Not Going Anywhere (Source: Inside GNSS)
Before unmanned systems can realize their full potential, we must know what PNT systems will be available across the nation and how reliable they’ll be. A small pilotless craft races through the surf and delivers flotation to a swimmer in trouble. Drones inspect and spray cleaning fluid on high tension electrical lines more quickly and safely than a conventional helicopter. Driverless trucks travel farther and safer than when a human is behind the wheel.

Unmanned systems have nearly limitless potential to benefit society. But they must know where and when they are. It’s clear unmanned systems have created a new paradigm. While they support existing, sometimes ancient, modes of transportation and functions, remotely controlled and autonomous systems demand new approaches to ensure safe, secure and efficient operations. One of the most significant is their need for robust and resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). (9/22)

ClearSpace Signs ESA Contract to Advance Phoenix GEO Life Extension Mission (Source: Space News)
Luxembourg-based in-orbit servicing venture ClearSpace signed a contract Sept. 23 with the European Space Agency to help mature technologies for Phoenix, a mission aiming to extend the life of a geostationary satellite due to retire between 2028 and 2030. (9/23)

China's Space Epoch Raises $343 Million for Reusable Launcher (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch startup Space Epoch has raised $343 million as it prepares for the first launch of a reusable rocket. The company recently announced it had completed a B++ funding round, bringing the total raised across its B series to more than $343 million (2.3 billion yuan) over the past half year.  Space Epoch said the financing will be primarily used for mission support for the first flight of the Yuanxingzhe-1 rocket, verification of recovery and reuse, and development of commercial delivery capabilities. The company says the rocket will be ready for its first flight by the end of the year. The reusable Yuanxingzhe-1 is a 4.2-meter-diameter, stainless steel methane-liquid oxygen rocket and is designed to place up to 13,800 kilograms into low Earth orbit. (9/23)

Vast Establishes Lunar Division (Source: Space News)
Commercial space station developer Vast has plans for the moon. The company announced Wednesday it has created a lunar program division that will offer infrastructure to support NASA's lunar base plans. Vast plans leverage capabilities for its Haven series of commercial space stations for a lunar power system, airlock and lunar habitation modules. Vast announced in May plans to develop high-power satellites and the company now says it wants to use those satellites to provide communications and navigation services at the moon. Several other companies working on commercial space stations, including Axiom Space, Blue Origin and Voyager Technologies, are also developing lunar systems. (9/23)

Impulse Space to Fly Domain Awareness Satellite for Space Force (Source: Space News)
Impulse Space won a contract from the U.S. Space Force for a mission using its Mira spacecraft. The $31.2 million contract is for a 2029 space domain awareness mission using an optical sensor in low Earth orbit to monitor objects as far away as geosynchronous orbit. Mira will carry a government-furnished optical payload built by MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The award is the latest expansion of an existing Space Systems Command contract that began with two tactically responsive space demonstrations and has grown to cover five Mira spacecraft for several military missions. Mira is a small spacecraft powered by chemical thrusters and designed to host or deploy payloads while making relatively rapid changes to its orbit. (9/23)

Chamber Supports Space Force Acquisition Reform (Source: Space News)
A business group is advocating for Space Force acquisition reform. A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls for multiyear funding for major space programs, a strategic reserve of critical satellite components, more launch providers and infrastructure, and procurement rules that make the Pentagon justify building capabilities that are already available commercially. The Chamber report, though, questions whether bringing organizations such as the Space Development Agency into a more centralized Space Force acquisition structure will spread their faster buying practices across the service, or instead smother what made them different in the first place. (9/23)

NASA Moves Crew Mission to Oct. 1 (Source: NASA)
NASA has rescheduled the next crewed mission to the International Space Station to next week. The agency said Tuesday it is targeting no earlier than 11:10 a.m. Eastern on Oct. 1 for the launch of the Crew-13 mission. That Crew Dragon mission was scheduled to fly in mid-September but postponed because of oxidizer leak in the spacecraft. The mission will deliver a crew from NASA, Roscosmos and the Canadian Space Agency to the station for a six-month mission. (9/23)

European Regulator Pledges Fairness for Proposed Megamerger (Source: Bloomberg)
A European antitrust regulator says the proposed joint venture of three European space companies will not get special treatment. Teresa Ribera, an executive vice president of the European Commission who oversees antitrust regulations, said the proposed Project Bromo will still be subject to reviews even after the commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, endorsed the joint venture in a speech earlier this month. Von der Leyen's comments prompted criticism from other European politicians who feared the commission would be "rubber-stamping" the merger. Bromo would combine the space divisions of Airbus, Leonardo and Thales Alenia Space. (9/23)

ESA's JUICE Flies By Earth En Route to Jupiter (Source: ESA)
ESA's JUICE mission will swing by Earth next week on its way to Jupiter. JUICE, or the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, will pass 8,640 kilometers from the Earth's surface during the Sept. 28 flyby, part of a series of gravity-assist maneuvers to send the spacecraft to Jupiter. One more Earth flyby will take place in early 2029 before JUICE makes it to Jupiter, entering orbit in 2031. (9/23)

TMT Decides Against Canary Island Location (Source: Science)
A proposed large observatory has rejected an offer to build the telescope in the Canary Islands. The Spanish government offered 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) in incentives for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) if the consortium planning the observatory built it atop La Palma in the Canary Islands. However, the Astrophysics Institute of the Canaries said the consortium, which includes several universities and national agencies, could not reach the consensus needed to accept the proposal. TMT was planned for Mauna Kea in Hawaii but has faced opposition there from native Hawaiians, and the project has also struggled to raise the money needed to build the massive telescope. (9/23)

China Continues Rapid Launch Cadence with Long March 2D, Kinetica-1 Launches (Source: Space News)
China launched 13 satellites across two missions over the weekend, including commercial radar satellites and a nine-satellite rideshare featuring on-orbit computing and communications testbeds. (9/23)

Starcloud Wants to Mine Bitcoin in Space, if it Can Figure Out How to Cool the Hardware (Source: TechSpot)
Bitcoin miners have spent years chasing cheap electricity around the planet, but will leaving our atmosphere reap better results? Nvidia-backed Starcloud wants to take cryptomining into orbit, putting dedicated mining hardware aboard its second spacecraft. The startup believes abundant solar power could make space an attractive home for an industry notorious for its energy consumption. CEO Philip Johnston says Starcloud will be the first company to mine Bitcoin in space, with ASICs riding aboard Starcloud-2 when it's expected to launch in early 2027. (9/22)

Artemis 2 Set Out to Prove Orion Could Handle Deep Space. Here’s How It Delivered (Source: Gizmodo)
On April 1, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, propelling the Orion spacecraft to orbit. The capsule carried the most precious cargo any spacecraft can harbor: human lives—the first astronauts charged with returning to the Moon in over 50 years. This mission, Artemis 2, was Orion’s first crewed test flight. The stakes couldn’t have been higher.

Orion had never flown with full life support and human-rated systems, and the capsule needed to keep its crew alive for 10 days as it journeyed around the Moon and back again. Over the course of the flight, Orion successfully performed all of its deep-space operations, life support checks, and its manual proximity operations demonstration, but there would be one last test before its mission came to an end. (9/23)

Air, Space Forces Pick Up Research Pace for Orbital Cargo Delivery, Shifting Focus From Rockets to Reentry Vehicles (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Air and Space Forces over the past year have been picking up the pace of their multi-tiered research initiative aimed at developing an unusual idea seemingly straight from science fiction: the capability to rapidly deliver cargo into global hot zones by launching it through space. But while the Pentagon was originally looking primarily at using large, reusable rockets for the delivery of goods, the military is now shifting its attention towards smaller reentry capsules.

The bi-service effort to leverage commercial capabilities for point-to-point delivery via space is somewhat confusing because it encompasses different programs with money in different budget pots — some funded jointly and some through service-specific spending. The mother of them all, however, was the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) high-priority Vanguard program called Rocket Cargo, which began in June 2021 and focused on launching rockets filled with 30 tons of logistical supplies from the United States, into space, and down on far-flung bases and battlefields.

While that program is being phased down — the Air Force zeroed out funds in its fiscal 2026 budget and the Space Force gave it only a few million dollars in FY26 and FY27 — the children of Rocket Cargo live on and prosper today. An AFRL spokesperson revealed that reason for the shift in focus towards reentry capsules is because of several promising advantages. (9/23)

NASA Chief: I’m Only Interested in “Good Deals” from International Partners (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA must be more selective in the way it forges international partnerships as the race to the Moon transforms from a battle for national prestige between the United States and China into a high-stakes competition for extraterrestrial real estate and resources, the agency’s administrator said.

Jared Isaacman, now in his 10th month at the helm of the world’s largest civilian space agency, told a gathering of military leaders and defense contractors last week near Washington, DC, that the 21st-century race to the Moon is more than a battle of ideologies. The sweet spot for a Moon base, Isaacman said, is a relatively small region near the lunar south pole, and there are tangible implications for who gets there first. (9/22)

Italy to Spend Over $5 Billion to Send Two Astronauts to the Moon (Source: European Spaceflight)
According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Italy has committed more than $5 billion to the development of a lunar habitat for the agency’s Moon Base program. In return, the country has secured spots for two Italian astronauts on future missions to the surface of the Moon. Isaacman cited Italy’s contribution to NASA’s lunar exploration program as an example of what he described as a “good deal” with an international partner.

The centerpiece of that contribution is the Multi-Purpose Habitat (MPH), a pressurized lunar habitat module being developed by Thales Alenia Space under an Italian Space Agency (ASI) contract for future long-duration missions to the Moon. The MPH module is expected to measure three meters in width and six meters in length, with a mass of roughly 15 tonnes. It was designed to accommodate two astronauts for missions lasting between seven and 30 days. It will be equipped with wheels for precise positioning on the lunar surface. (9/23)

September 23, 2026

Public Trust in Government Down to 27% (Source: FNN)
While Americans’ trust in government remains persistently low, public approval ratings of federal employees are showing some positive signs. In its latest research on public trust in government, the Partnership for Public Service found that for 2026, just 27% of Americans said they trust the federal government, down six percentage points since this time last year. At the same time, public trust in civil servants is at 44%, considerably higher than trust in government overall. (9/22)

Europe’s Ariane 6 Targets Annual Flight Rates of 12, Then 15 and Beyond (Source: Space Intel Report)
Europe’s launch sector will convene in Brussels on Sept. 23 for the second EU Access to Space Conference, where Ariane 6’s path to higher annual flight rates is expected to take center stage. The meeting highlights the policy and industrial decisions needed to expand Europe’s launch capacity. (9/23)

CybExer to Test Security of EU’s IRIS² Satellite Connectivity System (Source: Via Satellite)
Estonian cybersecurity company CybExer will play a key role in testing the security of IRIS², the European Union’s future secure satellite connectivity system. The appointment highlights the cybersecurity requirements attached to the EU’s planned space-based communications infrastructure as the program moves toward implementation. (9/23)

ClearSpace Signs ESA Contract To Mature Phoenix Geostationary Satellite Life-Extension Mission (Source: Space News)
Luxembourg-based ClearSpace will help the European Space Agency mature technologies for Phoenix, an in-orbit servicing mission designed to extend the operating life of a geostationary satellite otherwise due to retire between 2028 and 2030. The contract marks a development step for commercial satellite servicing capabilities. (9/23)

Astrolab and Interstellar Mapping Partner to Hunt Lunar Water (Source: Payload)
Astrolab and Interstellar Mapping are partnering to identify and map water resources on the Moon. The collaboration highlights growing commercial efforts to characterize lunar resources, information that could support future exploration and surface operations. (9/23)

Outpost to Launch In-Space Manufacturing Service, Targeting 2028 StarFiber Mission (Source: Payload)
Outpost plans to make its Space Factory platform the first dedicated user of the company’s in-space manufacturing service. The platform is expected to produce StarFiber, a next-generation metal fluoride optical fiber, during a mission targeted for no earlier than 2028. (9/23)

AstroForge Plans Fully Autonomous Asteroid-Mining Mission for 2027 (Source: Space.com)
AstroForge plans to launch what it describes as the first fully autonomous asteroid-mining mission in 2027. The mission could mark a significant step for commercial space exploration by demonstrating whether spacecraft can independently conduct an asteroid-focused operation without direct human control. (9/23)

Refocused Sentinel ICBM Program Advances (Source: Aviation Week)
The US Air Force's Sentinel program is nearing completion of a two-year restructuring to address program cost overruns. The restructuring, expected to conclude within three months, has clarified the program's scope and importance, said Northrop Grumman Vice President Amanda Davis. The program has made progress in testing, including a vertical stacking of the inert missile and a structural trial of the payload re-entry system. (9/23)

RAF Forms Space Squadron to Counter Orbital Threats (Source: AeroTime)
The Royal Air Force has established its first space squadron, the No. III Space Effects Squadron, to counter hostile activities in orbit and protect satellites crucial to national security. The squadron will utilize advanced technology to disrupt enemy activities. Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smith emphasized the increasing dangers in space and the need to protect UK interests. (9/23)

Retired NASA Launch Director Explains Weight Behind "Go or No Go" Decisions (Source: Florida Today)
In the U.S. human spaceflight program, the final launch decision rests with one person: the launch director. I wanted to know what it feels like to be that person. The one who decides when a rocket can fly and commits people to the most dangerous thing they’ll ever do. During his 11 years as shuttle launch director from August 2000 through the final liftoff on July 8, 2011, Mike Leinbach launched 37 crewed missions and more than 240 astronauts into orbit. Seven of those astronauts never came home.

“You’re not bound to launch this vehicle on a particular day,” said Leinbach, who retired from NASA in 2011. “You have to be convinced, as an individual, that you’ve done everything possible for the safety of that crew — and don’t give a go until you’re convinced.” A launch director might seem like the ultimate engineering job, and engineering helped get Leinbach to the Firing Room's top seat. But it was judgment that kept him there. (9/23)

Navy Plans Rail Hub for Missile Components at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
A U.S. Navy railhead transfer facility for shipments of missile motors and components is slated for construction at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, improving transport access for final delivery to the Naval Ordnance Test Unit at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Missile motors and components arrive at KSC via Florida East Coast Railway.

Beginning in early 2030, the Navy's new transfer facility would begin receiving rail shipments inside Department of War-approved boxcars. Workers would offload cargo into specialized road vehicles for final delivery to NOTU, about a 22-mile drive away at the southern reaches of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (9/23)

From a Turkey Vulture to a Boat: What Could Scrub a Rocket Launch (Source: Florida Today)
A ballpoint pen. A turkey vulture. And a boat. Those aren't the beginning of a joke. They're the kinds of things that can scrub a rocket launch. Retired Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach encountered all three while working in Kennedy Space Center's Firing Room.

He oversaw 37 space shuttle launches from August 2000 until the program's end in 2011. Before that, as a NASA test director, he was responsible for everything happening on the launch pad. Some — like the pen — were one-time launch-day surprises. Others, including weather and boats, remain familiar challenges for Florida launches today.

As NASA prepared to launch a space shuttle mission, the launch team discovered a ballpoint pen had been dropped on top of one of the ground support structures — the tail service mast — near the orbiter. Any kind of debris on the launch pad was never good. Immediately, the team began to consider: when the shuttle roared to life, what would happen to the pen? Could it be blown somewhere, causing damage? (9/23)

Space Force Could Utilize Lasers to Take Down Drones Over Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
One day soon, the Space Force could use lasers to down unauthorized drones over Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Col. Brian Chatman, who commands Space Launch Delta 45, said to expect upcoming increased drone security, as the government invests millions of dollars into counter-drone technology. 

Lattice is an AI-powered software platform that combines data from military radars and sensors into one 3D picture, helping detect, track and respond to unauthorized drones automatically. "We’re also bringing on a directed-energy system that can do a kinetic kill against UASs (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) that are coming into the area that are having nefarious intent," he said. (9/22)

SpaceX Falcon 9 Sets Fairing Reuse Record On 40th Flight During Starlink Mission (Source: Tesla North)
SpaceX set another reuse record on Saturday night, and this time it belongs to the humble nose cone. Hours after a Falcon 9 lifted off from California carrying 27 Starlink satellites, the company announced that one of the flight’s two fairing halves had just completed its 40th trip to space and back, the first time any fairing half has reached that mark.

The record-setting hardware is fairing half SN155, an active half that first flew in February 2024, according to tracking by the spaceflight community. In roughly two and a half years of Starlink launches, it has worked its way from newcomer to fleet leader, passing earlier record holders along the way. At 40 flights, it is now the most reflown piece of rocket hardware ever to reach space. (9/20)

Musk Says Each Gen3 Starlink Satellite Will Carry a Vera Rubin NVL72 (Source: Mach 33)
Elon Musk said on X on September 19, 2026 that each Gen3 Starlink satellite will draw 250 kW of power and carry a SpaceXAI-designed Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 computer. He put the connectivity of each satellite at about 10 Tbps in both directions, with a path to more than 100 Tbps. (9/18)

Hubble Network Raises $200 Million at $1.6 Billion Valuation for Space-Based Bluetooth (Source: Geekwire)
Satellite startup Hubble Network raised $200 million, reaching a $1.6 billion valuation as it develops a spacecraft network designed to provide global Bluetooth connectivity. The funding makes Hubble the latest commercial space company to attract significant capital for satellite-enabled communications services. (9/23)

A Rocket Supply Crunch Is Making It Harder to Hitch a Ride to Space (Source: Wall Street Journal)
There is a rush to secure flights as SpaceX winds down its flagship vehicle and rivals try to ramp up. Companies are hunting for new ways to get satellites and spacecraft deployed, while many rockets under development are behind schedule. Some executives are pursuing costly strategies to ensure they can fly, like building their own rockets or potentially acquiring a rocket company. Prices for many missions are rising. (9/21)

The James Webb Space Telescope is Helping Astronomers Become Alien Weather Forecasters (Source: Space.com)
Before astronomers can issue weather forecasts for worlds beyond our solar system, they need to know what drives the atmospheres of those planets and whether their weather follows recognizable patterns. And in a new study based on James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data, researchers studied SIMP 0136, a world about 20 light-years away, and traced much of its atmospheric variability to two factors: temperature differences and changes in the vertical structure of its clouds. (9/22)

Coming to Terms With the End of the Falcon 9 (Source: Space Review)
The Falcon 9 has been one the most successful launch vehicles in the history of the Space Age, but it won’t fly forever. Jeff Foust reports on how the space industry is coming to grips with the looming end of that rocket for commercial missions, even as demand for launch continues to grow. Click here. (9/22)
 
To E-3 or not to E-3: the Liminal Samos E-3 Program (Source: Space Review)
In the early 1960s, the US Air Force launched nearly a dozen Samos satellites with varying designations. Dwayne Day examines what happened to one class of satellite, Samos E-3, that never launched. Click here. (9/22)
 
The Orbit is the Territory: Rethinking Spacepower in a Domain Where Nothing Stays Still (Source: Space Review)
Strategists have tried to apply concepts from the theories of air power and sea power to space. Michael Uhall discusses why spacepower requires rethinking concepts like territory in a regime where everything is in motion. Click here. (9/22)
 
A Crater of Our Own Making: What the SpaceX Lunar Impact Reveals About the Future of Moon Governance (Source: Space Review)
A Falcon 9 upper stage hit the Moon last month, creating a small crater. Rachita Agrawal says the bigger impact of the incident should be thinking about how to prevent similar incidents in the future as activity on the Moon increases. Click here. (9/22)
 
The Gulf States Did Not Buy Imagery Independence (Source: Space Review)
The conflict in the Persian Gulf has caused some countries there to take steps to improve access to satellite imagery. Kelevitch argues that those measures fall short of what is needed for true satellite imagery independence. Click here. (9/22)
 
The Letters Tsiolkovsky Asked For (Source: Space Review)
An archive of letters and manuscripts belonging to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was digitized years ago, but not easily searchable. Vladimir Beskorovainyi describes his project to create a machine readable version of the archive. Click here. (9/22)

September 22, 2026

Space Force Starts to Craft Satellite Communications Integration Contract (Source: Washington Technology)
Space Force has begun to study the market landscape for informing its work on a new contract to hire a system integrator that can help the service branch operate an enterprise satellite communications management platform. That platform supports functions such as satellite mission planning, satellite resource management, electromagnetic interference tracking, terminal and service provider management, and operational status monitoring. (9/21)

Republicans Push $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget (Source: Breaking Defense)
Republican lawmakers continue their campaign for a historic $1.5 trillion defense budget, but the legislative path remains uncertain. With the House having adjourned until after the 2026 midterm elections, Pentagon leaders are left navigating an unpredictable timeline for securing future funding. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg and Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst have met with the House Armed Services Committee to discuss future funding. (9/21

The Era of Cheap, Price-Per-Kilo Launch is Over, Launchers Say (Source: Via Satellite)
Space launch competitors think it’s time for a new model of pricing in the launch market. Against the backdrop of SpaceX winding down the Falcon 9 launch program, other launchers say the market is on the verge of a reset. “The customer got comfortable with a high reliability and a low price, that frankly did not support the launch market,” Firefly Aerospace Vice President of Strategy Michael Creech said. “You’re seeing launchers move away to developing solutions with better revenue. This tells you this subsidized cost-per-kilo model wasn’t supporting launch companies, which led to the current day crisis of a supply shortage.

Creech said the industry will “reset” over the next six months to two years. “Hopefully the new normal will be a growth environment for launch technologies and not another race to the bottom on price,” he added. “If and when our cadence aspirations come true, the players on this stage 10 years from now [we] won’t be talking about price-per-kilogram — they’ll be talking about a whole different orbital logistics model,” said Jordan Charles of Blue Origin. (9/17)

Judge Declines to Block Texas Starbase Land Swap to Benefit SpaceX (Source: New York Times)
A federal judge has declined to block a land swap between SpaceX and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involving the company's Starbase, Texas, site. A district court judge ruled Monday that the swap can proceed, rejecting a request for a preliminary injunction filed by environmental groups. The transfer would give SpaceX 715 acres of land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to Starbase, while SpaceX would hand over 683 acres of land elsewhere in south Texas, some of which would be added to a separate wildlife refuge. The judge concluded that the environmental groups would not suffer irreparable harm if the exchange goes forward. Those groups said they may appeal the ruling. (9/22)

Roscosmos Sees Record Interest in Cosmonaut Recruitment (Source: TASS)
The head of Roscosmos says the agency has seen record interest in its latest cosmonaut class. Dmitry Bakanov, CEO of Roscosmos, said Monday that the agency received 12,000 applications in its latest call for candidates to join the Roscosmos cosmonaut corps, of which 350 have passed through an initial screening. He did not disclose how many cosmonauts Roscosmos plans to eventually select but said the new cosmonauts would be announced later this year. (9/22)

ESA and ISRO Agree on Space Collaboration, Including Human Spaceflight (Source: ESA)
ESA is expanding its cooperation with the Indian space agency ISRO. ESA announced Monday it signed a new cooperative agreement with ISRO earlier this month during the International Space Summit. The latest agreement, which runs to the beginning of 2032, adds human space exploration and space weather studies as topics of collaboration, in addition to existing cooperation in Earth and space science, navigation and mission support. (9/22)

SDA Invites Industry Proposals for Ground Stations (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency is seeking industry proposals for a contract worth up to $369 million for ground stations. SDA issued a request for proposals last week for what it calls Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking LEO Ground Entry Points, or GEPs. The contractor would develop, install, integrate, test and maintain ground sites at multiple locations around the world, according to the solicitation. SDA envisions five to eight new GEP locations and upgrades to one to four existing sites to support its missile-warning and tracking satellite constellation. SDA already has a sizable ground systems contract with General Dynamics Mission Systems, which has served as the primary integrator of the ground architecture serving the constellation. (9/22)

Australia's HEO Raises $25 Million for Space Object Imaging (Source: Space News)
HEO, an Australian company that uses satellites to take images of other space objects, has raised $25 million. The company announced the Series B round Monday led by Beaten Zone Venture Partners, an Australian venture fund that supports defense and space companies. HEO leases capacity on Earth imaging satellites operated by other companies, using them for observing spacecraft and debris. HEO plans to use the funding to expand its system, currently focused on low Earth orbit, to geostationary orbit. HEO said it had booked its first two GEO launches, beginning later this year, that would provide "reliable, repeatable GEO imaging coverage" starting in 2027. (9/22)

Space Force Considers Short-Notice Satellites for In-Space Inspection Missions (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is studying satellites that could be launched on short notice to inspect other spacecraft. Space Systems Command's Space Safari office issued a request for information Friday seeking spacecraft that could be stored and called up for missions beginning in fiscal year 2029. The vehicles would need to maneuver extensively after launch and conduct rendezvous and proximity operations, including potentially docking with other objects in orbit. The market research follows Victus Haze, the Space Force's most ambitious test to date of what it calls tactically responsive space, with a spacecraft launched on less than 24 hours' notice to rendezvous with another spacecraft. The new request suggests the Space Force is looking beyond individual Victus demonstrations toward having maneuverable spacecraft available when an unexpected military need arises. (9/22)

European Teams Get ESA Study Contracts for Dual-Use Earth Observation (Source: Space News)
Two teams of European companies have received study contracts for a dual-use Earth observation satellite system. Iceye and Leonardo each signed contracts valued at 5 million euros ($5.7 million) last week for studies of the proposed Earth Observation Governmental Service, or EOGS, system. The companies are leading separate consortia of firms that will study the architecture of the proposed system. EOGS would include optical and radar imaging satellites designed for civil and security applications. The studies will be part of ESA's European Resilience from Space–Earth Observation, or ERS-EO, initiative approved by ESA member states at the agency's ministerial conference in November 2025. ERS-EO is intended to help prepare for EOGS, which will be led by the European Union. (9/22)

Albania Joins Artemis Accords (Source: Space News)
Albania is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. The country's minister for European and foreign affairs signed the accords Monday at NASA Headquarters. Albania is the 73rd country to sign the Artemis Accords and the 14th so far this year. Artemis Accords signatories will meet next month at the International Astronautical Congress to discuss implementing aspects of the accords as well as NASA's interest in using the accords to coordinate international cooperation in its lunar exploration plans. (9/22)

Louisiana Residents Worried About SpaceX Plans (Source: NPR)
Residents in the area of nearby Pecan Island are concerned. Kim Nehrbass, who has a hunting and fishing camp on Pecan Island, said the coastal marsh is a "paradise." ... "[Landry] is thanking everybody for making it happen. He didn't ask anybody if they wanted to do it, the people of the state," Nehrbass said. "He just ramrodded it through."

Outdoor educator Gabe Giffin said he's worried about the environmental impact of the rocket launches, especially on the millions of migratory birds on the Mississippi Flyway, the migration path south for the winter. "Where we're at, this is the last ledge before they leap off, if you will," Giffin said, looking out over the coastal wetlands. "They're going to feed up, power up on those beaches, and fly to Central or South America next." (9/20)

ESA Acknowledges Ariane 6 Delays Following Reports of Turbopump Issue (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA has confirmed that it is aware of delays affecting the Ariane 6 launch schedule following reports of an engine turbopump anomaly. La Tribune first reported an issue with an unspecified Ariane 6 component on 17 September. According to the report, the additional checks were expected to disrupt Arianespace’s planned Ariane 6 launch cadence for the remainder of 2026. Reporting from Peter de Selding later identified the component as an engine turbopump, with the anomaly reportedly discovered during ground evaluations in August. (9/21)

Trump’s Questionable Social Media Posts on Space Deserve Context (Source: The Hill)
Two recent social media posts by Trump have been perplexing. The first was a graphic of proposed uniforms for members of the U.S. Space Force. The problem with the proposal is that the uniforms resembled something worn in “Star Wars” by the crew of the evil Galactic Empire’s Death Star — obviously not a good look for an American military service.

The post has sparked a lot of mockery on social media. It also suggests that science fiction may not be the appropriate model for fashioning a look for America’s space military service. Some may think that it detracts from the Space Force’s role as a serious military branch that operates in a realm increasingly important to the defense of the U.S. and the free world.

The other Trump space social media post that has caused consternation is a graphic of the moon with the Earth in the distance, bearing the caption, “The Moon is Ours” with an American flag. The post is being widely interpreted as Trump declaring the moon to be sovereign American territory, an act prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. On the other hand, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) proposed making the moon a U.S. state during his 2012 campaign for the presidency. (9/20)

China Cultivates 14 Plant Species Aboard Space Station (Source: Xinhua)
China has now cultivated more than 20 varieties spanning 14 plant species in orbit -- a milestone that lays the groundwork for large-scale crop production aboard the space station, according to the Astronaut Center of China. The breakthrough was highlighted at an aerospace medical engineering conference in Tianjin Municipality in north China, where Zhang Hongzhang, an astronaut from the Shenzhou-21 crewed mission, shared photos and videos of a flourishing "space garden" aboard China's Tiangong space station, featuring crops such as lettuce, carrot, sunflower, potato and wheat. (9/20)

Traditional Chinese Medicine Supports China's Crewed Space Missions (Source: Xinhua)
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played a significant role in supporting China's crewed space missions over the past decade and could offer comprehensive health protection for astronauts in the future, experts said at an aerospace medical engineering conference in Tianjin Municipality in north China. The conference brought together experts and scholars from fields including aerospace medicine, human factors engineering and life sciences to discuss the medical engineering challenges of future deep space exploration. (9/22)

India Wants to Launch 50 Rockets a Year to Space by 2030 (Source: India Today)
India has set itself an ambitious space target: 50 launches every year by 2030. But with just three Indian orbital launches so far in 2026, two by Isro and one by private company Skyroot, the scale of expansion required over the next four years is enormous. The target was set out by ISRO Chief Dr V Narayanan and supported by IN-SPACe Chairman Pawan Goenka, who said India would need government and private industry to build launch capacity together because the scale cannot be achieved by one organization alone. (9/21)

Explore Spaceport America During its Free Open House (Source: KTSM)
Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport, will have an open house this coming weekend. The event will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sep. 26. Attendees can learn about the site, its tenants and its operations. Spaceport America is located about 20 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences. (9/20)

HEO Raises $25 Million to Expand Satellite Imaging Capabilities to GEO (Source: Via Satellite)
HEO has raised $25 million to expand its satellite imaging capabilities into geostationary orbit, increasing the company’s ability to collect and deliver imagery from a strategically important orbital regime. (9/21)

Katalyst to Demonstrate Orbital Power-Beaming System Under Pentagon’s ASGARD Program (Source: Via Satellite)
Katalyst will develop and launch a robotic spacecraft under the Pentagon’s Advanced Scalable Growth Architecture for Robotic Deployment program. The spacecraft is intended to assemble a large-format power-beaming system in orbit and transmit energy back to Earth, testing a defense-backed approach to space-based power delivery. (9/21)

Europe Pushes Faster Space-Defense Procurement as Ukraine Raises Institutional Urgency (Source: Via Satellite)
European space and defense leaders say Ukraine has accelerated efforts to strengthen the region’s space-defense capabilities, but consensus-building, procurement reform and integration of dual-use systems remain significant obstacles to moving from strategic urgency to deployable capability. (9/21)

Aerospacelab Reaches Profitability Ahead of $2.75 Billion Iris2 Contract (Source: Space Intel Report)
Belgian satellite manufacturer Aerospacelab returned to profitability early this year after reporting a €17.75 million loss on €14.6 million in 2025 sales. CEO Benoit Deper attributed the improvement to diverse component contracts and limited production of complete satellites, ahead of its potential role in the €2.5 billion Iris2 program. (9/21)

Deloitte Projects a $566 Billion Lunar Economy by 2050, but Infrastructure Must Come First (Source: Payload)
The return to the Moon could support a lunar economy worth $566 billion by 2050, according to Deloitte. Reaching that figure will require building the transportation, surface systems and other infrastructure needed to make sustained lunar activity commercially viable. (9/21)

Canada and France Task Agencies with Developing Shared Space-Launch Infrastructure (Source: Bloomberg)
Canada and France will ask their space agencies and defense departments to develop and share infrastructure, including space-launch systems, Prime Minister Mark Carney said during a visit to French territory near Newfoundland and Labrador. The initiative signals closer bilateral cooperation spanning civil space and defense capabilities. (9/20)

Cape Canaveral Study Shows Launches Feel Louder Than Decibel Readings Show (Source: Palm Beach Post)
Mere decibel readings don't tell the whole story about how loud — or rumbly — a rocket launch sounds to people living on Florida's Space Coast, said Whitney Coyle, who chairs the Rollins College physics department. Coyle and a team of student researchers from the Winter Park university set up sensors at five sites within the city of Cape Canaveral to collect sound-energy data from 34 launches and sonic booms from booster landings between October 2025 and May 2026.

The team produced an 85-page report packed with acoustical statistics and graphs detailing sound levels, rooftop-structural vibration, window and window-frame acceleration, and outdoor air quality. "The City is one of the first to independently commission a study of this type before any rule required it. Published launch-noise research is drawn mostly from instruments at the pad; measurements taken where people live are rare, and researchers studying Starship have called for exactly this kind of data," a community handout said.

On a decibel scale, the Rollins College researchers found launches are not especially “loud” within the city — a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is perceived like a conversation, while a bigger Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is like a busy road. But Coyle said that does not match what residents feel. (9/21)

Ohio Makes Pitch for New Space Force Academy (Source: Cincinnati Enquirer)
Ohio, the birthplace of aviation and astronauts, is making a bid to land the yet-to-be created United States Space Force Academy. Ohio is currently home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and NASA's Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky. Ohio is expecting competition from other states with clout and experience in space exploration, such as Alabama, Florida and Texas. (9/21)

September 21, 2026

USDOT Unveils New Intradepartmental ‘SPACE’ Task Force (Source: AASHTO)
Sean Duffy, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, recently launched the Space Policy Administration, Coordination, and Execution or “SPACE” Task Force – an intradepartmental body that will coordinate a “unified commercial space transportation strategy” to strengthen national security, bolster American economic competitiveness, and spur technological innovation.

The SPACE Task Force – chaired by Ryan McCormack, USDOT undersecretary – will also bring together experts from the several USDOT offices, including: the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of General Counsel, Office of Research and Technology, Office of Transportation Policy, Office of Multimodal Freight Policy, and Office of Aviation and International Affairs. (9/18)

Expanding Europe’s Access to Space with Offshore Launch (Source: GSA)
Europe’s next launch site may not be on land at all. For countries with geographic, population, or safety constraints, building a traditional terrestrial spaceport can present significant challenges. Offshore launch offers another possibility: move the launch infrastructure to the sea and position it where the mission needs it. For Italy, that possibility carries strategic importance.

Andrea Lorenzoni  is working within  the Italian industrial consortium, named Maritime Blue Launch Spaceport, to develop a mobile maritime launch platform designed to support small orbital launch vehicles. The concept could provide Italy with a path toward more independent access to space while introducing a new type of launch infrastructure for Europe. (9/21)

Canadian Rocket Startup Plans Engine Component Hot-Fire Tests in December (Source: Aerospace America)
Toronto-based Canada Rocket Company is readying this year for hot-fire testing of engine components for its R-2 rocket. The startup is one of three Canadian companies that earlier this year received $8.3 million from the government for launch vehicle development, as part of an effort to establish a domestic launch capability. CRC is targeting a medium-lift design, capable of launching up to 15,000 kilograms to low-Earth orbit. The others, Nordspace of the Toronto area and Reaction Dynamics of the Montreal area, are pursuing small-lift designs of under 1,100-kg. The first CRC test, planned for December, will focus on a gas generator for turbine ignition. (9/21)

ESA Acknowledges Ariane 6 Delays Following Reports of Turbopump Issue (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed that it is aware of delays affecting the Ariane 6 launch schedule following reports of an engine turbopump anomaly. French news outlet La Tribune first reported an issue with an unspecified Ariane 6 component on 17 September. (9/21)

FAA Tees Up $875M AI Tool to Help Manage Air Traffic Congestion (Source: Ars Technica)
An AI tool is set to start advising air traffic controllers on managing air traffic in the congested airspace above the Washington, DC, area. The expected launch would be the first step toward a planned nationwide rollout covering the 29 million square miles of US national airspace overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration. (9/21)

SiriusXM Commissions SXM-11 Satellite into Commercial Service as Fleet’s Most Powerful Broadcast Platform (Source: SatNews)
On Sep. 15, 2026, satellite audio operator SiriusXM confirmed that its SXM-11 geostationary communications satellite completed in-orbit testing and entered full commercial service. (9/21)

Space Force to Prototype New Software to Fuse Commercial, Military Space Tracking Data (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force is planning to develop new prototype software designed to automate the integration of commercial and military space tracking data to provide more timely and more accurate information. Col. Barry Croker, who heads up the service’s Mission Delta 2, said Thursday that the plan is to launch the prototype “software environment” later this fall and to build a “minimum viable product” that can be up and running quickly.

Mission Delta 2 is responsible for organizing, training and equipping Guardians to undertake space domain awareness operations. (9/18)

Cape Canaveral is Building up its Counter-Drone Defenses, Space Force Says (Source: Defense One)
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will get new defenses against small drones in coming weeks, part of a “whole-of-government” effort to better protect the nation’s spaceports as the White House pushes for hundreds more launches per year. The new gear will come from Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Pentagon’s counterdrone task force, Space Force Col. Brian Chatman told Defense One on the sidelines of the annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference here. Chatman commands Space Launch Delta 45, which oversees all East Coast launch missions. (9/18)

GEO Comsats See Increase (Source: Space News)
There are early signs of a resurgence in communications satellites destined for commercial customers in GEO. A total of 14 orders have been announced this year, according to Novaspace, more than the 10 recorded for all of 2025. That is the highest level in a decade other than the 18 ordered in 2020 as part of a C-band replacement cycle in the United States. Three of the 14 ordered this year are likely tied to a separate plan to auction upper C-band next year as SES plans seven satellites total for the transition. While the resurgence is welcomed by manufacturers, they said they don't expect the market to return to levels from more than a decade ago when 20 or more satellite orders per year was the norm. (9/21)

Canada's GHGSat Plans More-Sensitive Methane Monitoring Satellite (Source: Space News)
Canadian company GHGSat says a second-generation methane-monitoring satellite will be twice as sensitive as earlier spacecraft. GHGSat's Gen2 satellite, scheduled for launch in early 2028, will be able to detect methane emissions at a rate of 50 kilograms per hour compared to the 100 kilograms per hour of its current satellites. With the second generation, GHGSat's daily coverage per satellite will double from 10,000 to 20,000 square kilometers. Data will continue to be delivered to customers within 24 hours. (9/21)

Trump Political Committee Planned to Approve/Veto Research (Source: New York Times)
The White House has begun drafting a new executive order that could further cement President Trump’s ability to control billions of dollars in scientific grants and expand the administration’s pressure campaign against elite universities. Discussed at a highly contentious meeting at the White House on Friday, the order aims to create a new external committee with the power to veto awards in the National Institutes of Health’s vast research portfolio that do not conform to Mr. Trump’s political agenda, according to people with knowledge of the effort.

During the meeting, Mr. Trump repeatedly complained about his administration’s failure to bring Harvard University in particular to heel. The administration has been unable to hammer out a deal with the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, a central plank of his broader push against “woke” ideology in higher education. The White House has also lost a pair of lawsuits to Harvard, including one ruling that blocked cuts to the university’s existing federal research grants. The government has said it plans to appeal. Some of Mr. Trump’s top lieutenants have expressed frustration about a perceived slowdown in the administration’s attempt to force conservative cultural changes on academia. (9/20)

Political Appointee Turnover at Unprecedented Levels Under Trump Administration (Source: FNN)
Political appointments made under the Trump administration have reached unprecedented levels, while at the same time those appointees are leaving in record numbers, and often after short tenures. Nearly 1,000 political appointees who don’t require Senate confirmation left their posts within the first 18 months of the administration, new research from the Partnership for Public Service shows. That represents about 25% of all non-Senate-confirmed appointees during President Donald Trump’s second term so far.

Close to half of political appointees who have already separated from government served less than one year, and about a quarter served for under six months, creating high levels of turnover governmentwide. Editor's Note: Claude tells me NASA has 29 political appointee positions, while the FAA has eight. (9/18)

New Details on Testosterone Screening for Space Force Men (Source: FNN)
The Defense Health Agency rolled out the clinical guidelines military medical providers will use to begin screening men for low testosterone each year. The guidance directs medical professionals to ask male troops over age 30, as well as new recruits, about symptoms and risk factors that could be linked to testosterone deficiency. If their answers raise red flags, medical providers can move on to blood tests and possible diagnosis and hormone therapy.

It offers the first concrete details of how the new policy would work, two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced it in July in a brief video titled “The High T Department of War” that raised eyebrows inside the military and beyond. “By proactively identifying and treating suboptimal hormone levels, the department continues to invest in the health of its warfighters, strengthen their performance and maximize force readiness,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. (9/18)

NASA’s New $4 Billion Space Telescope Just Saw Starlight for the First Time (Source: Gizmodo)
The road to launch was long and arduous, but NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope finally got to space in late August. While Roman is still on its way to its final destination, it reached a major milestone on Thursday: first light. NASA reported that Roman’s technical team successfully activated the telescope’s Wide Field Instrument, the 300-megapixel infrared camera slated to take wide, high-res images of the deep cosmos. As a treat to the public, the team shared the first several test images taken by the camera, which show the first photons of starlight to reach Roman’s extremely sensitive sensor. (9/17)

Hop Aero Plans Point-to-Point Launches for Cargo Delivery (Source: Hop Aero)
Operating from California and Oklahoma's Infinity One Spaceport, Hop Aero intends deliver cargo via rocket to austere places on Earth within minutes — point-to-point, at hypersonic speed. "The next conflict will be decided by who can move fastest. We are building the future logistics backbone for the U.S. and our allies: for the situations when minutes decide outcomes." (9/20)

ArtPrize Top Winner Will be Sent to Space (Source: WOOD)
The piece that wins the ArtPrize 2026 public vote grand prize will go to space. Not the entire physical work: Rather, it will be digitized, placed on a laser-engraved plaque and sent into low-Earth orbit with California-based aerospace startup Reflect Orbital. After a Reflect satellite launches sometime next year, it will spin through the sky 500 kilometers above Earth at 18,000 mph. (9/18)

Where Do Paso Robles Candidates Stand on City’s Spaceport Push? (Source: The Tribune)
Paso Robles is taking major steps to transform its Airport Road area into a major technology and aerospace hub. With its pending application to be one of the nation’s 15 spaceports and nearly approved renderings for an $800 million community hub build, the Paso Robles region might soon be known not only for its world-class wine, but also its advances in space exploration. Click here. (9/19)

China Advances Lunar Spacesuit, Bed Rest Research for 2030 Moon Landing Mission (Source: Xinhua)
China has advanced its push for a crewed moon landing by 2030, with its lunar spacesuit and a bed rest experiment for long-term space stays both progressing, the country's astronaut center said. The development of China's moon-landing spacesuit Wangyu, meaning "gazing into the cosmos," is progressing smoothly, with dozens of key technologies now in place, said Zhang Wanxin, an expert at the Astronaut Center of China, at an aerospace medical engineering conference in Tianjin.

Since the development began in 2020, efforts on Wangyu have focused on meeting the demands of complex lunar-surface operations and extreme environmental challenges, Zhang said, noting that the lunar spacesuit is designed to be lightweight, miniaturized, highly efficient and safe. Beyond spacesuit development, China is also advancing astronaut health research, having completed the "Dixing-3" bed rest experiment to address physiological protection challenges for long-term space stays and crewed lunar landing missions. (9/19)

September 20, 2026

HawkEye 360 Establishes First European Subsidiary in Luxembourg (Source: HawkEye 360)
HawkEye 360 announced the establishment of its first European subsidiary, HawkEye 360 Luxembourg, marking an important step in the Company's expansion of operations in the European Union and reinforcing its long-term commitment to European customers, allies and industry partners amid an increasingly complex security environment. (9/15)

Astroscale France and HEMERIA Join Forces to Develop Sovereign GEO Capability for Global Markets (Source: Astroscale)
Astroscale France and HEMERIA announced plans to establish a strategic partnership to develop and export a French solution for operations in geostationary orbit (GEO). The collaboration will combine the companies’ complementary expertise to address growing international demand for agile and capable GEO solutions across defense, sovereign and dual-use markets.

HEMERIA will provide its proven experience in the design and manufacture of agile microsatellite platforms for demanding defense and institutional missions, including heritage from the YODA program. Astroscale France will contribute its advanced, flight-proven RPO expertise and associated payload capabilities. By combining an established platform with proven RPO technology, the companies aim to offer customers a faster and more cost-effective route to operational GEO capability than traditional large-scale programs. (9/15)

Babin, Cruz: U.S. Space Academy Belongs in Texas (Source: Babin & Cruz)
House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Brian Babin (TX-36) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) released the following joint statement expressing support for Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to submit a proposal for Texas to host the U.S. Space Academy. (9/15)

Voyager Delivers Launch-Critical Infrastructure for Next-Gen Rocket (Source: Voyager)
Voyager Technologies announced the successful delivery and integration of quick disconnect (QD) plates for ESA's In-Flight Demonstrator (IFD). Voyager performed the work under contract to Avio under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The milestone solidifies Voyager’s role as a global provider of launch-critical infrastructure. Voyager designed, built and integrated a dual-interface QD system: the flight QD, installed internally, and the ground QD, mounted to the rocket’s external surface. These critical interface components connect internal fuel systems to ground infrastructure and are designed to safely detach during launch operations. (9/14)

Isar Aerospace Signs Multiple Launch Service Agreement with US-Based SEOPS for Five Additional Launches (Source: SEOPS)
Isar Aerospace has signed a Multiple Launch Service Agreement with SEOPS for five dedicated launches. The missions will be launched with Isar Aerospace’s launch vehicle Spectrum between 2028 and 2030 from the company’s dedicated launch complex at Andøya Space and Spaceport Nova Scotia. The contract brings the 2028 manifest of Isar Aerospace close to full and underscores growing customer confidence following the company’s successful flight, while also expanding SEOPS’ Waymaker program with European rideshare launches. (9/15)

Eight African Nations Signed the Artemis Accords. Now Give Them a Path to the Moon (Source: Space News)
African nations and the African Space Agency (AfSA) have built serious momentum in their funding and support of space programs. That momentum makes now the perfect time to further solidify the United States' relationship with spacefaring African nations, according to Scott Firsing at CesiumAtro, and Zolana João of Angola’s National Space Program. That comes from offering real support beyond signatures, they argue, such as a path to the moon.

"African governments are not choosing one geopolitical camp over another. They are choosing partners that help them advance their own interests. This is a natural instinct, which Washington should expect. The question is whether the American offer is durable enough to stand out, not for a signing ceremony or a press release, but over the life of a program." (9/19)

Sedaro Gets $45 Million in Space Force Funding to Expand Mission Analysis Software (Source: Space News)
Space software company Sedaro will receive up to $45 million in government funding to expand a platform that helps the U.S. Space Force analyze how different satellites, sensors and other capabilities perform together. (9/18)

New ESA-Pokemon Partnership Sends the Electric Mouse to the ISS (Source: Space.com)
Pikachu is one of Earth's newest outer space ambassadors, thanks to a new partnership. ESA and The Pokémon Company International (TPCI) have teamed up to honor World Space Week 2026, which runs from Oct. 4 through Oct. 10. A Pikachu toy floated aboard the International Space Station from April 11 to June 17, enjoying 67 days in orbit and completing 1,040 trips around our big blue marble. (9/18)

Louisiana Wants to Build a U.S. Space Academy in New Orleans (Source: 4WWL)
Louisiana is planning to bring a new national U.S. Space Force academy to New Orleans, where students would receive hands-on technical education focused on leadership and public service. The U.S. Space Academy is designed to prepare graduates for careers in the U.S. military, civil and broader space enterprise through hands-on technical education focused on leadership and public service, according to The White House. (9/17)

September 19, 2026

Ghana Must Set Clear Goal for Space Exploration (Source: Ghana Web)
Veteran Japanese astronaut and Axiom CTO Koichi Wakata has urged Ghana to set a clear goal for its space exploration program and work with other countries to expand its presence in space exploration. He said Ghana has significant potential in space technology and could benefit from stronger international cooperation in developing a human space program. (9/18)

Black Astronauts Tout Space Exploration (Source: Maryland Matters)
There have been fewer than 20 Black astronauts in NASA history, but two of them were on a Washington stage Friday for a discussion as part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference.

Jeanette Epps and Victor Glover were on hand for “Ad Astra: African Americans in Space Exploration,” hosted by Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-4th), honorary co-chair of the 55th annual conference this year. Ivey, whose district includes the Goddard Space Flight Center, said the panel was to not only tout space exploration, but to encourage younger Blacks to enter what Ivey called a multitrillion-dollar industry “that’s just going to keep growing.” (9/18)

Will SpaceX's Orbiting Data Centers Rain Debris Over Earth? (Source: PC Mag)
SpaceX already retires aging Starlink satellites by burning them up in the Earth’s atmosphere. But what happens when you try to disintegrate an even larger, orbiting data center? The company has told the FCC that some debris from a disposed orbiting data center could survive and land on the Earth, but expects the fragments to be harmless.

On Thursday, SpaceX discussed the issue in a 12-page letter to the FCC after the Commission asked for more details about the “Starmind” satellites, and if they could survive atmospheric re-entry following disposal. “Based on this analysis, no portion of the spacecraft will impact the surface of the Earth with a kinetic energy above 15 joules: the Commission’s limit under which a re-entering object presents no risk to humans.” Each Starmind satellite will have a mass up to 4,000kg (4 metric tons). (9/18)

Is Space Force Pivoting Too Soon? (Source: Real Clear Defense)
In 2009, after spending roughly $18 billion, the Army cancelled Future Combat Systems before its replacement concepts had matured, leaving modernization gaps that still affect the force today. In the early 2010s, NASA made a similar mistake when the Space Shuttle retired before commercial crew became operational. The United States spent nearly a decade relying on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to reach the ISS. Both examples illustrate the danger of assuming tomorrow's architecture will arrive on schedule and perform exactly as planned.

The U.S. Space Force should avoid making a similar mistake as it modernizes America's missile warning enterprise. To its credit, the Space Force is pursuing exactly the right long-term vision: a resilient, multi-layered architecture combining geosynchronous (GEO), medium-Earth orbit (MEO), and proliferated low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites tied together through the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) command-and-control network. The question is not whether this architecture is correct. It is whether the Space Force is allowing enthusiasm for the future architecture to diminish the importance of completing the GEO layer first. (9/18)

Northrop Grumman to Deliver New Space Domain Awareness Prototype Satellite (Source: Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman has been selected to deliver a commercially derived prototype for the Department of War Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance (GHOST-R) mission. This award expands the company’s role in commercial, low-cost, proliferated space systems and builds on the success of the Northrop Grumman-built Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP). (9/18)

Europe’s Space Tracking Program Sees Growing Support, Interest (Source: Breaking Defense)
With the future of the US Commerce Department’s Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) in limbo, US and European industry officials said the European Union is now poised to take the lead in setting policy, standards and licensing requirements for safety measures that satellite operators around the world. While TraCSS could still work out long term, the officials said there is a growing interest in the EU’s dual-use space traffic management program, known as the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking Partnership (EU SST). (9/18)

SpaceX Scores Another $950 Million from NASA for 3 More Crewed Flights to ISS (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX has expanded its contract with NASA and will conduct an additional three crewed Dragon flights to the ISS through 2030, netting the company up to $946 million upon completion. The award for flight support brings SpaceX’s total missions under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract to 17 operational flights. (9/18)

Tired of Winning: SpaceX Signals Wind-Down of Falcon and Dragon (Source: SPACErePORT)
SpaceX has been sending strong signals that the end is near for its Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules, sending shockwaves through the payload community and giving hope to beleaguered competitors. Based on comments from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, the company seems inclined to loosen its grip on markets it has dominated for the past decade, encouraging competitors to step up and take advantage of the opportunity. (9/19)

Minimizing Aerospace Tariff Exposure (Source: SCWTC)
To avoid the Trump administration's stiff import tariffs, a foreign payload can enter the US through Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) 136, a non-contiguous, moveable zone encompassing multiple pre-launch processing sites on and around the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. "Exporting" the payload via launch into space then fully exempts the payload from its US import tariffs. But is launching into space truly an export? Orbit is not a country of ultimate destination; there's no foreign port to receive the payload; and control of the payload in orbit is a commercial arrangement not a shipment delivery.

FTR § 30.2 requires an Electronic Export Information filing for goods shipped from the US to a foreign country. A typical launch does not meet that condition. But does payload delivery to a foreign space station module qualify? Or to foreign GEO orbital slot? Should the payload owner declare a consumption-entry to the US Customs Territory and launch it into orbit as per the Export Administration Regulations, or file an export declaration per other regulations?

Using 'privileged foreign status' potentially conferred by an FTZ entry, the owner can freeze the classification and tariff rates of imported components according to the date of import, allowing those rates to be applied instead of the rate for the finished payload. This can result in complete avoidance of Section 301 duties, up to 10% of the payload's value. Confused? The Space Coast World Trade Council plans an Oct. 23 working session to clarify how aerospace companies can minimize their tariff exposure. Contact Bill Cantillon at bcantillon@bellsourth.net. (9/19)

Pentagon Releases Sixth Batch of UFO Files, Details Secret Military Program (Source: CBS News)
Yesterday's drop comprises 71 files dating from 1952 to 2025. Several documents examine a secretive military initiative that ran from 2008 to 2012 to anticipate future aerospace threats. The memos explore the possibility of warp drives, wormholes, antigravity, negative mass propulsion, and invisibility cloaking. Another document details unintended injury to humans by anomalous advanced aerospace systems, including hair loss and signs of cancerous cell growth. (9/18)

Rocket Lab Launches 96th Electron Mission (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab Corporation (Nasdaq: RKLB), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today successfully launched the latest Earth-observation satellite to space for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) company, Synspective. The ‘Owl By The Dozen’ mission launched from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on September 19, 2026 and delivered the 12th StriX satellite directly into an exact 572km low Earth orbit for Synspective’s Earth-monitoring constellation. (9/19)

AST SpaceMobile Faces Lawsuit Over Its Competitiveness With Starlink Mobile (Source: PC Mag)
The satellite-to-phone provider AST SpaceMobile is facing a class action lawsuit from an investor, who claims the company overstated its ability to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile. The lawsuit comes from a company shareholder named Edward Hunter, who is accusing AST SpaceMobile of violating federal securities laws by making “materially false and misleading” claims about the company’s business operations.

Courthouse News Service first reported on the lawsuit, which was filed in a US district court this week. In the 39-page complaint, Hunter’s lawyers specifically allege the company “overstated the durability of AST’s competitive position in the satellite D2C (direct to cell) market,” which involves using orbiting satellites to deliver communications services to phones on the ground. (9/18)

DLR’s MAPHEUS-17 Suborbital Mission Targets Launch From Sweden as Early as Oct. 1 (Source: European Spaceflight)
Germany’s DLR is preparing to launch the MAPHEUS-17 suborbital research mission from Esrange Space Center in Sweden as early as Oct. 1. The flight will support DLR’s ongoing use of suborbital missions for scientific and technology research, although no further payload or schedule details were provided. (9/19)

European Spacesuit Prototype Tested on ISS, but ESA Astronaut Says Design Still Needs Refinement (Source: Space.com)
A European-designed spacesuit prototype has undergone testing aboard the International Space Station, with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot saying the system remains at the beginning of its development journey. The evaluation is identifying design issues that must be resolved before the suit can advance toward operational use. (9/18)

China Seeks SpaceX’s Raptor 3 Engine (Source: Ars Technica)
China is reportedly interested in SpaceX’s Raptor 3 engine, underscoring the strategic importance of the company’s propulsion technology as SpaceX prepares for a significant Starship test. The developments highlight both the widening competitive interest in advanced launch systems and SpaceX’s growing influence in the global space sector.

The Chinese launch startup Space Pioneer, which has raised nearly $1 billion, showcased a new design for its Tianhuo-21 methane-liquid oxygen engine this week, which was subsequently shared on social media. From outward appearances, the engine looks strikingly similar to SpaceX’s Raptor 3 engine. Its thrust, 2,450 kN at sea level, is also virtually identical to that of the Raptor 3.

Would it be difficult to replicate? … In response to Space Pioneer’s engine design, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said copying Raptor 3 would not be easy. “I would recommend against a new company trying to make Raptor 3,” he said on X. “While it appears simple on the outside (necessary to survive extreme heat without a heat shield), the inside has very complex geometry that can only be manufactured using highly modified 3D metal printing.” (9/18)

French Company Test-Fires New Rocket Engine (Source: European Spaceflight)
French launch startup Sirius Space Services has successfully test-fired a complete prototype of its STAR-1 rocket engine for the first time, European Spaceflight reports. The company announced the milestone on Sunday, stating that it had conducted the first hot-fire tests of the complete STAR-1 engine at Airborne Engineering’s propulsion test facility in southern England. (9/18)

Avio Seeks to Cash In on Falcon 9 Retreat (Source: Ars Technica)
Italian launch services provider Avio has seen an influx of customers who were unable to secure launch opportunities with SpaceX, European Spaceflight reports. “I can tell you SpaceX has already gone captive because we have a whole bunch of customers coming to us and saying, ‘Oh my God, can you fly us?’” Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said during the company’s September 10 earnings call. In recent months, SpaceX told multiple prospective customers that it was no longer accepting new orders for commercial Falcon 9 launches. (9/18)

September, 18, 2026

USSF Establishes Squadron for Space-Based MTI Satellites (Source: Aviation Week)
The US Space Force has established the 77th Space Surveillance Squadron to focus on space-based moving target indication as it prepares to launch air and ground moving target indicator satellites. Northrop Grumman is developing the Resilient Radar System/Ground constellation with the Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. (9/16)

Russian Satellite Imagery Assists Iranian Targeting of U.S. Military Facilities (Source: SatNews)
On Sep. 17, defense intelligence assessments revealed that Russian Earth observation and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellations are actively providing high-resolution imagery to Iranian military forces to assist in targeting U.S. and allied installations across the Middle East. (9/18)

Space Leaders Say AI is Moving from Tool to Autonomous Decision-Maker (Source: Via Satellite)
New AI tools are opening the opportunity for more people to get involved when it comes to AI and space. Over the past year, AI has moved from a specialized analytical tool in the hands of the few to an embedded tool in the hands of many, Eutelsat Chief Data and Information Officer Mariam Kaynia said in a discussion Wednesday. (9/18)

ESA Awards €20M in Contracts to Study Future IRIS2 Services (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency has awarded 18 contracts worth a combined €20 million to study potential future evolutions of the European Union’s IRIS2 secure communications service. Signed on 17 September, the contracts bring together nearly 80 European companies to study new satellite-based secure connectivity services and associated mission concepts. According to ESA, the solutions will have applications in secure government broadband, maritime operations and aviation, data relaying and satellite tasking.

The studies will focus on the Low-LEO layer of the IRIS2 constellation. This layer will operate below approximately 750 kilometers, compared with the main IRIS2 LEO-High component at around 1,200 kilometers, which will account for the bulk of the constellation’s LEO satellites. (9/18)

South Korea's Satrec Offers 10-Centimeter Imagery (Source: Space News)
South Korean company Satrec Initiative is working with parent company Hanwha Systems to provide 10-centimeter satellite imagery. Satrec currently acquires 25-centimeter optical imagery with SpaceEye-T, launched in 2025. To complement Hanwha's planned 64-satellite radar constellation, designed to provide 30-minute revisit by 2031, Satrec plans to manufacture and launch four satellites to gather 10-centimeter-class optical imagery. The combination of high-resolution optical and radar imagery will open up new opportunities for defense and intelligence customers. In addition, customers will have access to artificial intelligence-based satellite imagery analysis from Satrec Initiative subsidiary SI Analytics. (9/18)

Icarus Robotics Flies Parabolas in Canada, Citing Lack of US Capability (Source: Space News)
Space robotics startup Icarus Robotics went to Canada to perform parabolic flight tests ahead of a mission to the International Space Station. A lack of U.S. facilities for parabolic aircraft flights, which provide brief periods of microgravity, led the company to fly on a Canadian aircraft to test its Joy robotics system. The testing demonstrated the performance of Joy's flight controller, sensor suite and manipulation capabilities.

Editor's Note: Canadian and Swiss providers are offering parabolic rides on small jets, meeting the need for microgravity science after Zero-G Corp. ended flights last year. Florida-based Mu-g Technologies is developing a similar capability now, and Starfighters Space offers a similar, but highly specialized capability with their F-104 jets. NASA is considering plans to activate a larger aircraft for some Artemis-linked requirements. (9/18)

Astra Targets Early 2027 for Virginia Launch (Source: Space News)
Astra is targeting early next year for the first flight of its Rocket 4.0 vehicle. Astra CEO Chris Kemp said at World Space Business Week that the launch is planned for January or February from Wallops Island, Virginia. It will be the first launch for Astra since a failed flight of the smaller Rocket 3.3 in mid-2022. Rocket 4.0 is designed to place up to one ton into low Earth orbit for $5 million, and Astra plans quarterly launches of the vehicle next year and then increasing cadence thereafter. Astra sees opportunities for the vehicle in a market where demand for satellite launch is outstripping capacity, a problem exacerbated by the expected end of SpaceX rideshare missions in a couple years. Editor's Note: This may signal that Astra no longer plans to operate from LC-46 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (9/18)

SpaceX Rideshare Planned for NASA Astronomy Smallsat (Source: NASA)
NASA will use a SpaceX rideshare mission to launch an astronomy smallsat. NASA announced Thursday it selected SpaceX to launch the StarBurst spacecraft, flying it on a Bandwagon mid-inclination mission in 2028. StarBurst, part of the Astrophysics Pioneers line of smallsat and balloon missions, will investigate neutron star mergers and the origins of short gamma-ray bursts. NASA used its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract to acquire the launch and did not disclose the value of the deal. (9/18)

SpaceX Delay's Starship Launch to Sep. 28 (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX has further delayed the next Starship launch. The company said Thursday the flight 14 launch, which had been scheduled for Sep. 22, had been pushed back to Sep. 28. The company did not give a reason for the delay. Flight 14 is slated to be the first orbital flight of the vehicle, placing a set of Starlink satellites into orbit. (9/18)

DoD Must Prepare for Lunar Conflict (Source: Defense News)
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the military needs to be prepared not just for conflict in orbit but also at the moon. Speaking at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference this week, Gen. Dan Caine said the military needs to be prepared to fight "from the seabed to cislunar space." He did elaborate on what fighting might take in cislunar space. A Space Force general said at the conference that the 18th and 19th Space Defense Squadrons are sharing responsibility for monitoring activity in cislunar space and that the Outer Space Treaty did not limit military activities there. (9/18)

Texas A&M Wants to Run NASA JPL (Source: Texas A&M Battalion)
Texas A&M University will bid to take over management of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The university's board of regents formally agreed earlier this month to submit a bid to NASA to manage JPL. The lab has been run by Caltech since before NASA was established in 1958, but the agency said earlier this year it would compete bids for the next contract to manage JPL when the current contract expires in 2028. Texas A&M is currently building the Texas Space Institute, a facility adjacent to the Johnson Space Center funded by the Texas Space Commission. Several universities and organizations are likely to bid on the JPL contract. (9/18)

Launch Vehicle Availability Poses Challenge for Government and Industry (Source: Aerospace America)
The shortage of available launch vehicles is a growing challenge for government and commercial customers seeking to launch spacecraft, panel members said Wednesday during the Glenn Space Technology Symposium. The problem, panelists said, is not necessarily a shortage of rockets, but the increasing difficulty of getting a ride on one. SpaceX is pivoting away from its Falcon 9 workhorse amid its effort to begin commercial flights with the Starship-Super Heavy design. Meanwhile, Blue Origin halted New Glenn launches after one of the rockets exploded on the pad in May, and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur was grounded in February after a solid rocket booster anomaly.

Companies planning lunar lander missions for NASA’s Moon Base initiative have also faced booking challenges, said Trent Martin, an executive at Intuitive Machines, which is slated to launch its third lander early next year. “I’m telling people, ‘I have money to buy rockets right now. Can you sell me a rocket?’ And sometimes I’m running into trouble with that, and so that has been a big challenge,” Martin said. At some point, NASA may want to address the problem more directly, said Ray Allensworth, vice president of spacecraft at Firefly Aerospace, whose second lunar lander mission is scheduled for 2027. (9/17)

Blue Origin Expands Partnership with Air Force Research Laboratory to Access Advanced Rocket Engine Technology (Source: Blue Origin)
Blue Origin and the Rocket and Space Propulsion Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards Air Force Base announced an expanded private-public partnership (PPP) to develop new rocket propulsion technologies. Together, they have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to transfer advanced rocket propulsion hardware and engineering artifacts from AFRL's historic Hydrocarbon Boost (HCB) and Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator (IPD) programs.

Decades ago, the HCB and IPD programs pioneered oxygen-rich and full-flow staged combustion technologies to advance liquid rocket propulsion capabilities in the U.S. Blue Origin will study this hardware and data to inform its commercial engine development. (9/14)

Air Force Readiness At Risk Without Full Budget, Leaders Say (Source: Washington Examiner)
US Air Force leaders have warned that force readiness could be compromised if Congress fails to approve the proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027. The budget includes a $350 billion reconciliation boost for priorities such as the Golden Dome missile shield, munitions and the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group. "If we don't get a full $1.5 trillion budget for all of DOW, whether it's in the base or the reconciliation, the American people should expect an Air Force that's not as ready as it needs to be, should expect an Air Force that's not as modern as it should be, and again, it's not modernizing at a pace as it should be," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach says. (9/15)

SDA Director: Decision-Making Authority Key Amid Uncertainty (Source: Defense Scoop)
Space Development Agency Director Gurpartap Sandhoo has expressed concerns about the agency's future, amid legislative proposals that could dissolve it and transfer its authorities to the US Space Force. Sandhoo emphasized the importance of retaining the agency's unique decision-making authorities to maintain its rapid decision-making capabilities. "If we keep those, then that doesn't change anything. Then, it's just a name change," Sandhoo says. "But if you lose some of those, then there'll be some challenges we'll have to navigate." (9/15)

Unseenlabs and Airbus to Develop France’s Future Military Signal Intelligence Satellites (Source: Unseenlabs)
On the sidelines of the International Space Summit, Catherine Vautrin, France’s Minister for the Armed Forces and Veterans’ Affairs, announced that the Directorate-General for Armament (DGA) had awarded the CASSIOPÉE contract to Airbus Defence and Space as the lead contractor and its co-contractor Unseenlabs, thereby initiating the renewal of France’s space-based signal intelligence (SIGINT) capability.

Unseenlabs will bring its expertise in mission planning, ground and on-board processing, will deliver the ground segment, and supply an innovative payload. Airbus will act as the system integrator and provide the ground segment and control centre as well as a satellite solution based on its latest-generation S250 platform, which has been used most recently for the CO3D constellation. (9/17)

Airbus to Build SpainSat NG-III as Spain Replaces Lost Secure Communications Satellite (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Hisdesat has contracted Airbus to build SpainSat NG-III, replacing SpainSat NG-II and completing Spain’s secure communications architecture. The award underscores continued European investment in sovereign satellite communications infrastructure and follows broader regional activity around secure connectivity networks. (9/17)

Europe’s Space Sector Needs Durable Markets, Not More Projects (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Europe has demonstrated that it can fund ambitious space initiatives, but globally competitive companies require more than project financing. Standards, public procurement and sustained strategic continuity are needed to turn fragmented programs into a durable commercial market capable of supporting international-scale businesses. (9/17)

Galileo Demonstrates Authenticated Positioning as Spoofing Concerns Rise (Source: Flight Global)
Galileo has demonstrated authenticated civil positioning and ranging for the first time in civil tests, with five satellites transmitting encrypted signal components. The capability is intended to help users verify that navigation data is genuine as spoofing threats increasingly challenge confidence in satellite-based positioning. (9/17)

NASA Plans More Boeing Starliner Missions and Support for Certification of Vulcan or New Glenn (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA intends to order additional Boeing Starliner missions and help certify a new rocket, signaling continued agency support for the crew capsule despite its troubled development. The approach would preserve Starliner as part of NASA’s human-spaceflight and transportation architecture while requiring further certification work. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the space agency shared some of the blame for Starliner's problems.

The space agency will provide some funding—it’s not clear how much—to Boeing to resolve the propulsion system issues experienced by the spacecraft in its last two flights. Critically, NASA will also help pay to certify an additional launch vehicle for Starliner. The Atlas V is near retirement. There will likely be a competition for a new launch vehicle, which will almost certainly come down to United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn vehicles.

The potential to fly Starliner on Blue Origin’s New Glenn is real—and potentially valuable to the company beyond launch contracts. Were Boeing to decide to fly Starliner on New Glenn, it would essentially give Blue Origin a “free” certification of its rocket for human missions, which can be a costly and time-consuming process. Boeing and NASA would also need to build a crew launch arm and other facilities for human missions, which Blue Origin could also use for its Space Vehicle in the future. (9/17)

SpaceX Signals Ending for Dragon Program (Source: Ars Technica)
After long signaling it privately, SpaceX has begun to publicly confirm its intentions to wind down the Dragon program, a remarkable move given that the vehicle began flying humans just six years ago. However, the company is seeking to pivot toward its much larger Starship rocket, with the intent of launching its more lucrative Starlink satellites and a new megaconstellation focused on orbital data centers.

This week, on the All-In Podcast, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell was asked if the company would respond to demand for Crew Dragon and keep flying the vehicle “for some time.”

Shotwell would not commit to that. “We’re not retiring it today, for sure,” she replied. Then Shotwell suggested that Boeing should really step up and deliver. “There is another provider,” she said. “Boeing has been paid, I think, probably more than we have been paid to develop their human capsule. So we’re just gonna let them have some business. They should fly their capsule. The government paid a lot of money for that.” (9/17)

Rep. George Whitesides Launches YouTube Show Where Politicians Answer Questions Over Hot Wings (Source: LA Daily News)
It’s not unusual for members of Congress to find themselves in the hot seat. But now, Rep. George Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce, is taking that experience to a new level. The Los Angeles County lawmaker just launched “Capitol Heat,” a show on YouTube where he asks fellow members of Congress wide-ranging questions as both guest and host chow down on — you guessed it — spicy foods. Whitesides was formerly with Virgin Galactic and served as NASA chief of staff. (9/15)

ULA Ramps Up Vulcan Centaur Production in Alabama (Source: Washington Times)
United Launch Alliance has ramped up production of its Vulcan Centaur rocket at a 2.4 million-square-foot facility in Decatur, Ala. ULA aims to build up to 25 rockets annually for the US Space Force and commercial clients such as Amazon. ULA's Dan Caughran and Gary Wentz detail the manufacturing process and the economic impact on the region, highlighting a $300 million investment and the creation of nearly 1,000 jobs. (9/15)

Blue Origin Rapidly Rebuilds Florida Launch Complex (Source: The Sentinel)
Blue Origin's CEO Dave Limp has highlighted "incredible progress" in the reconstruction of the company's launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after a rocket explosion in May caused significant damage. Cleanup was completed in nine days, and Blue Origin has since revised its launch method, eliminating the need for a transporter erector. The company aims to resume launches before the end of the year, crucial for NASA's Artemis program. (9/16)

UCF, SpaceWERX Sign Agreement to Establish East Coast Innovation Gateway (Source: Team Orlando News)
The University of Central Florida (UCF) and SpaceWERX formally partnered Sept. 9 to establish the SpaceWERX East Coast Innovation Gateway, creating a new connection between the U.S. Space Force’s innovation enterprise and Central Florida’s researchers and technology ecosystem. The partnership was celebrated during a signing ceremony at UCF’s Morgridge International Reading Center, where UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright, Ph.D., and Arthur Grijalva, director of SpaceWERX, signed the partnership agreement in the presence of Team Orlando leaders.

SpaceWERX serves as the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force, working with startups, small businesses, nontraditional companies, academia, investors and defense stakeholders to accelerate the development and transition of new technologies. The East Coast Innovation Gateway expands SpaceWERX’s national innovation network into Central Florida and strengthens connections among government, academia, industry and entrepreneurs. (9/16)

FAA Invites Public Comment for Planned Marine Reentries in US Waters (Source: FAA)
The FAA is announcing the availability of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment for Reentry Vehicle Operations in the Marine Environment. FAA is the lead agency of the Draft PEA, to evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with vehicle operator licenses or experimental permits for up to 70 reentries in the Pacific Ocean per year, 22 reentries in the Gulf of America per year, and 10 reentries in the Atlantic Ocean per year. These will include corresponding airspace closures to ensure reentry operations are conducted safely. Click here.

Editor's Note: Space Coast companies like Operator Solutions had previously supported reentry operations in the Gulf and Atlantic, and Space Florida had been planning for 'spaceport territories' in South Florida and on the Gulf Coast to support reentry splashdowns and post-reentry processing. But then in 2024, debris concerns caused SpaceX to move all Dragon reentry splashdowns off the coast of southern California. (SpaceX's move didn't appear to be in response to an FAA directive.) Multiple companies, including SpaceX, are developing new reentry pods or capsules for space-produced goods. (9/17)