What Is The Oldest Artificial
Satellite Still Orbiting Earth? (Source: Slashgear)
The oldest one still orbiting Earth went up in 1958 and
was actually the second successful satellite put into service by
the United States. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory built Vanguard 1
for the International Geophysical Year, an 18-month multinational Earth
study. Vanguard 1's mission was to collect scientific data on Earth's
atmosphere and how space would affect satellites.
It was also designed to demonstrate new technology, becoming the first
orbital satellite powered by solar cells. The batteries on Vanguard 1
only lasted 20 days, but the solar cells continued to provide power
until 1964. This marked a major milestone in the early days of U.S.
space exploration and an important stage in the evolution of solar
energy. (7/8)
NASA is Creating a Fifth State of
Matter on the ISS (Source: Live Science)
A new upgrade to the International Space Station's (ISS) quantum
laboratory is enabling NASA to probe the behavior of atoms further than
ever before, the space agency has announced.
Combining the ISS's newly upgraded "Cold Atom Laboratory" with the near
zero-gravity of low Earth orbit, scientists are attempting to
understand the properties of so-called "ultracold" atoms in an
environment impossible to replicate on Earth. The aim of the mission is
to study how clouds of atoms behave at temperatures close to absolute
zero (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius)
— the coldest possible temperature in the universe, where atoms lose
all their energy of motion. (7/10)
Researchers Design Crash-Resistant
Locator Beacons for Nuclear Spacecraft (Source: Aerospace
America)
Nuclear fission has emerged as an attractive option for propelling deep
space missions to Mars and beyond. However, launching such spacecraft
from Earth poses a potential safety risk — and a group of Chinese
researchers believes it may have a solution. Researchers described
their concept for a “Micro Black Box,” or MBB, that combines a
satellite locator beacon and a flight data recorder.
This 4.5-kilogram device, they wrote, would allow space agencies to
quickly track down nuclear materials lost in such incidents before the
substances leak into the wider environment or harm people. And they are
confident of its impact resistance because they have been firing
prototypes into dirt and water using a piece of recoil-less weaponry
called a Davis gun. (7/9)
Rocket Lab's Approach to Fairing Reuse
(Source: Motley Fool)
Rocket Lab's approach, built for its upcoming medium-lift Neutron
rocket, is different. The two fairing halves are hinged to the top of
the first stage and never detach. Once the rocket climbs high enough,
the halves swing open like a set of jaws -- the reason engineers
nicknamed it the Hungry Hippo -- release the second stage and payload,
then snap shut again in about 1.5 seconds. (7/11)
Could Permanent Magnets Protect
Astronauts From Solar Storms? (Source: Phys.org)
Shielding astronauts from the deadly radiation they face is a central
challenge for any designer of a deep-space crewed mission. Even
relatively low levels of exposure over long periods can lead to
everything from central nervous system damage to cancer. But current
solutions, such as passive water shells or active superconducting
magnets, have their own limitations.
To get around those, a team of researchers from Italy and Germany looks
at the feasibility of using a permanent magnet (and its associated
permanent magnetic field) to potentially block some of that radiation
without the costs of competing technologies. They require continuous
cryogenic cooling and a constant power supply for both the cooling
system and the magnets themselves. (7/11)
National Space Intelligence Center
Welcomes New Commander Amid Growing Threats (Source: Dayton
Daily News)
The National Space Intelligence Center welcomed its third commander
Thursday, July 9, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Col. Patrick
Hamlin, a former squadron commander at the National Air and Space
Intelligence Center (also at Wright-Patterson), took command of the
NSIC during a change-of-command ceremony at the National Museum of the
U.S. Air Force. (7/9)
In-Space Manufacturers Chart the Path
to an Industrial Future (Source: Aerospace America)
Six companies gathered at an ISS National Laboratory technical session
at ASCEND 2026 to describe their progress in in-space manufacturing,
commercial space station development, and the computing and logistics
infrastructure that will underpin a low Earth orbit (LEO) economy.
Taken together, their presentations reflected an ecosystem still being
built — but one with real hardware, real data, and real customers.
Click here.
(7/9)
AT&T May Be Left Out of the
Starlink Deal Everyone Wants (Source: The Street)
For decades, the U.S. wireless market has operated like a private club.
Three companies own the national networks, and everybody else, from
Mint Mobile to your cable company’s phone plan, pays rent to get on
them. That rent flows through a mobile virtual network operator
agreement, known in the industry as an MVNO. The host carrier collects
wholesale fees, and the renter gets nationwide coverage without
spending tens of billions of dollars on spectrum and cell towers.
The unwritten rule of the club is simple. You rent to partners, never
to predators. That rule is now being stress-tested by SpaceX. Wall
Street has started handicapping which of the three landlords blinks
first. On July 8, Wells Fargo gave its answer. The bank initiated
coverage of AT&T with an underweight rating and an $18 price
target, calling the carrier the least likely of the big three to cut a
deal with SpaceX’s Starlink, and the most exposed if the satellite
giant decides to compete head-on instead. (7/9)
SpaceX Announces Date for 13th
Starship Launch (Source: KRGV)
SpaceX has set a date for its next target launch of Starship from
Starbase in Texas. The target date for the 13th flight test is
Thursday, July 16. As part of the test, SpaceX will set up a safety
zone perimeter in coordination with law enforcement. That will include
temporary closures of Highway 4 and Boca Chica Beach. The 90-minute
launch window will open at 5:45 p.m. (7/11)
Startup Auriga Space Plans to Catapult
Satellites Into Space (Source: Forbes)
Auriga Space which is developing a linear electromagnetic accelerator
to catapult rockets to high altitudes, where their engines kick in to
bring them to orbit. It essentially replaces the typical first stage of
a rocket. Auriga has raised more than $12 million from investors and
Department of Defense grants. Earlier this month, the company announced
that it’s going to market with its Prometheus accelerator–not for
bringing payloads into space, but for testing materials at hypersonic
speeds. Axiom Materials has signed on as a pilot customer.
Auriga is also developing its technology for defense purposes, such as
anti-drone weapons. And in the long run, Auriga aims to build a
multi-kilometer accelerator that can deliver small satellites into
orbit. (7/10)
Churn at Vaya Space with Workforce
Layoffs (Source: SPACErePORT)
Space Coast-based Vaya has been developing hybrid-fuel rocket motor
technology as the basis for its Dauntless launch vehicle that will
launch from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, sharing Launch Complex 13
with Phantom Space, but also pursuing offshore and inland launch sites.
The company recently has pivoted toward military missile motor
production, having won DoD SBIR work for hypersonic propulsion. Last
month the company laid off over a dozen engineering and leadership
personnel. (7/10)
Scientists Sounding the Alarm Over
Hidden Objects Threatening Critical Satellites (Source: The
Debrief)
For many years, scientists have been tracking even the tiniest
fragments of space debris orbiting our planet to keep tabs on whether
these small leftovers from decades of spaceflight might become a
problem, whether for astronauts or for populations here on Earth. Now,
in new research, scientists say they have uncovered dozens of
previously undetected fragments of space debris orbiting high above
Earth, revealing a hidden population of tiny objects that some liken to
a “potential minefield” in space that could pose a growing hazard to
some of the world’s most important satellites.
Close to 80 percent of these newly detected objects had been absent
from catalogs available to the public that track such debris, meaning
that there could be even more unrecognized leftovers from past space
missions circling the Earth than experts realize. (7/9)
LEGO Reveals Hubble Space Telescope
Icons Set Coming August 1 (Source: CollectSpace)
The Hubble Space Telescope has been revealing the building blocks of
the cosmos for more than 35 years. Now, it is its turn to be made up of
toy bricks. The LEGO Icons Hubble Space Telescope is a 1,252-piece kit
aimed at adult LEGO fans. Set to be released on Aug. 1 for $139.99, the
set creates a desktop model roughly to scale with the included
astronaut minifigure. (7/10)
The High Financial Stakes Behind the
Modern Super Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles (Source: SpaceQ)
“It is too early to tell if the SHL launch vehicle will result in a
boom for an audacious space race or a bust for a space economy where
existing and more agile rockets succeed,” concludes an Aerospace Corp.
report on super-heavy-lift launchers, including Starship and New Glenn.
If these oversized rockets prove financially viable, they might
catalyze new markets that impact everyday life. To ensure their cargo
holds stay full, rocket builders are relying heavily on the deployment
of vast satellite internet networks. Amazon has already secured up to
27 launches on Blue Origin’s New Glenn for its internet constellation.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has tied the future of Starship to an ambitious
expansion of its space network. The company is planning a constellation
of up to one million satellites to operate enormous orbital data
centers.
The report compares this strategy to the shipping and commercial
aviation industries. Ultra-large container ships successfully lowered
the cost of moving ocean freight because they integrated perfectly into
standardized global supply chains across land, rail, and sea. By
contrast, the Airbus A380 jumbo jet struggled because its enormous size
introduced unexpected operational complexities and costs.
Point-to-point air travel replaced the hub-and-spoke model, leaving the
giant planes with few profitable routes. (7/10)
SpaceX Brands Data Center Satellites
As Starmind (Source: Aviation Week)
SpaceX plans to operate its future data center satellites under the
name Starmind. The company detailed its plans for the data center
constellation in late January in a regulatory filing, saying it may
deploy as many as 1 million satellites into low Earth orbit as part of
the project. (7/10)
SpaceX Launches Friday Starlink
Mission From California (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites Friday night
from Vandenberg Space Force Base using its second most-flown Falcon 9
first stage booster. The Starlink 17-48 mission added another 24
broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit
constellation. SpaceX currently has more than 10,700 spacecraft within
its constellation. (7/11)
The Space Industry is Weighing
Ambitious Hiring Against Heritage (Source: Space News)
But now a growing swell of young ventures is attracting millions of
dollars to pioneer some of the most ambitious space markets — some with
little or even no prior space experience. Take Orbital, a Los
Angeles-based startup founded by electric scooter entrepreneur Euwyn
Poon earlier this year. The company recently raised $5 million for
plans to deploy more than 100,000 orbital data centers. Poon has no
space experience, though he plans to assemble a team of experts from
SpaceX and others who have built and flown spacecraft at scale.
“Hiring from legacy companies is indeed a key way to acquire heritage
indirectly,” said Gabriel Deville, a manager at research firm
Novaspace. Deville pointed to how Blue Origin hired extensively out of
United Launch Alliance and other legacy space companies to acquire
knowledge, while former SpaceX engineers have seeded many others.
“Still, acquiring talent is only the first step of developing a
company’s own knowledge base, before the slow process of development
and production leading to heritage and credibility,” he said. Heritage
is widely regarded as key for most space markets, Analysys Mason
principal analyst Dallas Kasaboski said, especially if hardware is
involved and particularly for the high-stakes launch sector. (7/10)
Space Capitalism Needs More Than a
Bull Market (Source: Space News)
By most measures, commercial space is thriving. Washington produced a
flurry of activity over the past year: two major executive orders, a
raft of directives, and “space superiority” elevated to official
doctrine. More recently, Wall Street answered in kind when SpaceX went
public in the largest initial offering in history. The public and
private sectors agree that the commercial space age has arrived.
But there are still major barriers to space capitalism. Despite capital
owners’ confidence and the government’s directives, the rules of the
game are not settled. Policy changes mean little until and unless they
result in durable institutional change. And market optimism is no
substitute for long-term strategic thinking.
Consider the policy record. Last August’s executive order streamlines
licensing for launch and reentry. That’s genuinely good. It clears
regulatory underbrush, lowering costs at the margin. However, we need
legislation, not executive discretion, to secure lasting gains.
December’s order did well to emphasize space as a strategic imperative.
But that was already obvious to anyone paying attention. The binding
constraints — especially security of celestial property rights and
ambitions to develop the space industrial base — haven’t moved much.
(7/10)
Supreme Court Ruling on Mail-in
Ballots Ensures Astronauts Can Vote From Space — or Anywhere Else
(Source: Space.com)
A new ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court protecting voter rights could
extend to astronauts living and working in space and training
internationally, their families, and the multitude of NASA workers who
travel to support their missions.
On Monday (June 29), the Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots can
be counted toward a total vote even if they arrive after election day,
as long as they are postmarked by election day. The ruling followed
efforts by the Trump Administration to place restrictions on mail-in
voting. In a new statement, the nonpartisan activist organization
Astronauts for America spoke out in support of the Supreme Court's
decision, which supports absentee voting. (7/10)
Earth Observation Satellites Pass
Telecom in European Space Industry Sales (Source: Space News)
European space industry sales rebounded in 2025 after a contraction in
2024, Eurospace reported in its latest Facts and Figures report,
presented July 7. The growth is driven in large part by military
acquisition of Earth observation satellites, which are now the largest
revenue-producing space sector for the continent. (7/10)
NASA Selects Seven Companies To
Enhance Mobility On Mars (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA has selected seven companies eligible for contract awards to
advance robotic surface mobility on Mars under the Mars Exploration
Program's Science Transport and Robotic Innovation for Deployment and
Exploration (STRIDE) initiative. Under STRIDE, the agency seeks to
support the development of innovative robotic mobility systems that may
enable future Mars missions to access more challenging terrain, travel
greater distances, and investigate scientifically valuable regions that
are difficult to reach with current mobility systems.
The STRIDE awards have a total potential value of approximately $17
million with a period of work targeted to begin in Fall of 2026.
Contract awardees are: AeroVironment, Arlington, Virginia; Astrobotic,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Venturi Astrolab (Astrolab), Hawthorne,
California; Ground Control Robotics, Atlanta, Georgia; Honeybee
Robotics, Longmont, Colorado; Intuitive Machines, Houston, Texas; and
MEI Technologies, Webster, Texas. (7/10)
An Orbiting Disco Ball Gave Einstein’s
Theory its Most Precise Test Yet (Source: Ars Technica)
Measuring how much the Earth twists spacetime as it rotates has been
much more challenging because our pale blue dot of a planet is millions
of times lighter than a typical black hole and rotates rather slowly.
But now, a team of astronomers reports the most accurate measurement of
the terrestrial Lense-Thirring effect to date. Their work brings our
uncertainty down from a few percentage points to just 0.2 percent. And
they did it with a satellite that looks like a cross between a golf
ball and a disco globe. (7/10)
ESA’s First Chemical Propulsion Lab
Now Operational (Source: ESA)
ESA has officially kicked off testing at its new Chemical Propulsion
Laboratory (CPL). The CPL is ESA’s first dedicated facility for testing
small propulsion systems for space missions. The CPL is a combined
green propellant chemistry lab and engine test cell that will support
the growing need for safe and accessible propulsion testing
infrastructure and training. Designed specifically for propulsion
systems used on small satellites and other small missions rather than
large launch vehicle engines, the facility offers rapid-turnaround
testing in a safe and regulated environment. (7/8)
Starship Booster 20 Completes Record
Duration Static Fire (Source: NSF)
SpaceX ignited all 33 engines on Booster 20 for a record 24 seconds.
With the static fire completed, SpaceX is pushing hard to fly Flight 13
as soon as possible, with notices popping up for next week and the week
after. Booster 20 is now expected to rollback, before both the booster
and Ship 40 head out to the launch site to join forces for launch.
The previous record duration for a Superheavy Booster static fire was
on August 11, 2022, when Booster 7 static-fired a single engine for 20
seconds. That static fire was without a water deluge system and was
used to test the brand-new autogenous pressurization system. Going
straight to a 33-engine static fire on only the second Block 3 booster
shows the confidence SpaceX now has in its hardware and software for
the booster and the launch pad. (7/10)
JAXA Successfully Lands Test Rocket
for Future Reuse (Source: Jiji.com)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, successfully landed a
small test rocket on Saturday, with the goal of reusing rockets in the
future. At its Noshiro testing center in northeastern Japan, the RV-X
test rocket slowly landed after rising about 11 meters and moving
horizontally while maintaining a vertical position during its 40-second
flight. JAXA found no major issues with the test rocket after the
landing. (7/11)
Gaganyaan: The Mission That Could
Change How the World Sees India’s Space Ambitions (Source: WION)
India is preparing to launch its first human spaceflight that could
place India among a select group of nations that have independently
sent humans into space. So far, only the United States, Russia and
China have achieved that milestone. While a rocket carrying a satellite
only needs to protect a machine, a spacecraft carrying astronauts has
to ensure human lives remain safe. Having a significance far beyond the
launch pad, Gaganyaan is a test of whether India can move from
mastering robotic missions to building the much more demanding
ecosystem required to keep humans alive beyond Earth.
The mission, approved by the Union Cabinet in 2018 with an initial
budget of ₹9,023 crore, aims to send Indian astronauts into a low Earth
orbit of around 400 kilometers and bring them back safely. The
spacecraft will be launched using India’s heaviest operational rocket,
the human-rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3), after extensive testing
and validation. (7/10)
Starlink Deployments on Record Pace (Source:
The Verge)
SpaceX is currently ahead of last year’s record-setting pace for
Starlink satellite deployments. SpaceX launched 1,589 Starlink
satellites into low-Earth orbit in the first half of 2026, compared to
1,489 satellites deployed at the same point in 2025. To put these
numbers into perspective, Amazon’s fledgling Leo service has only
deployed about 400 satellites over the last 15 months, en route to a
total planned constellation of 3,232 satellites. In other words,
SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket is capable of deploying one Leo-sized
space internet constellation every year. (7/9)
Fire Damages NASA Langley
Waste-to-Energy Facility in Virginia (Source: WAVY)
An overnight two-alarm fire damaged the NASA Steam Plant in Hampton,
and officials are still investigating to determine its cause. “We will
not have a definitive answer today, but we hope that there may be more
information to report on Friday,” the Hampton Division of Fire and
Rescue said Thursday afternoon. The roof of the steam plant was burned
through and will most likely have to be replaced, and the cranes were
badly damaged, though it is not known at this point whether they will
have to be completely replaced.
The Hampton/NASA Steam Plant is an award-winning facility that serves
Hampton residents, the City of Poquoson, five federal installations,
and the private sector. Completed in 1980 in a partnership with the
federal government, the plant burns municipal trash to generate steam,
and has conserved millions of gallons of fuel oil, acres of landfill
space, and saved the city millions of dollars in disposal costs. (7/9)
ESA Calls for Ideas to Give Space
Robots Embodied Intelligence (Source: ESA)
Launched on 30 June 2026 through the Open Space Innovation Platform
(OSIP), the campaign invites researchers and industry to submit
early-stage concepts, feasibility studies, enabling technologies and
mission concepts that bring embodied intelligence to autonomous space
robotics. The campaign targets three scenarios where this kind of
autonomy is needed.
The first is autonomous exploration: long-traverse science missions,
surveys of permanently shadowed regions, and opportunistic science that
requires a robot to spot something interesting and act on it without
waiting for instructions. The second is fully autonomous in-situ
resource utilization (ISRU), covering everything from prospecting and
excavating regolith to coordinating teams of specialized robots
building surface infrastructure. The third is support for long-term
human presence, where robots work alongside astronauts – inspecting
habitats, maintaining life-support systems, and operating safely in
close proximity to people. (7/10)
Russian Fregat Upper Stage Delivered
to Vostochny Spaceport (Source: TASS)
Roscosmos announced that the Fregat upper stage has been airlifted to
the Vostochny spaceport for subsequent testing. An AN-124-100 aircraft
transported the Fregat to Vostochny’s airport, after which it will be
moved to the spacecraft assembly and testing facility. There, it will
be installed at its designated workstation for further evaluation.
(7/10)
On the Brink: Ukraine War Weakening
Russia's Space Program Along with Economy (Source: SPACErePORT)
Russia’s war in Ukraine has significantly weakened its civil space
program. Western sanctions have cut Roscosmos off from critical
electronics, manufacturing equipment, and commercial customers. Reduced
revenues and wartime budget priorities have delayed programs such as
GLONASS modernization, lunar exploration, and scientific missions.
The war has accelerated Russia’s technological isolation and reduced
its role in the global space market. Cooperation with Europe on
projects such as ExoMars has ended, Soyuz launches from French Guiana
have stopped, and Russia has become more dependent on domestic
suppliers and partners such as China. While Moscow continues to invest
in military space capabilities supporting the war, its civil space
ambitions and commercial competitiveness have declined sharply.
The broader economic effects of the war have placed additional pressure
on Russia’s industrial base. Defense spending has drawn resources away
from civilian sectors, while sanctions have limited access to advanced
technologies, foreign investment, and global markets. Although energy
revenues and wartime production have helped sustain the economy in the
short term, the conflict has contributed to inflation, labor shortages,
reduced productivity, and long-term challenges to Russia’s ability to
modernize high-technology industries such as aerospace. (7/11)
Ketcham Retires From Space Florida
(Source: SPACErePORT)
After 18 years with Space Florida and more than 45 years contributing
to America's space program on the Space Coast, Dale Ketcham has retired
from Space Florida. As Vice President for Government and Community
Relations, Ketcham played a pivotal role in helping transform Florida
from a government-led launch center into the nation's premier
commercial spaceport, while supporting the state's transition into a
national leader in aerospace industry development.
His career spanned positions with Rockwell International, the U.S.
Congress, Enterprise Florida, the University of Central Florida, and
ultimately Space Florida, where was a recognized voice for the
commercial space industry. Ketcham indicated he intends to remain
engaged in advancing Florida's space future. (7/11)
July 11, 2026
FCC Approves Giant Mirror Satellite
Designed To Beam Sunlight to Earth After Dark (Source: TechSpot)
Remember the California startup that was developing a constellation of satellites with giant Mylar mirrors to beam sunlight back to Earth after dark? Despite the plan generating a slew of controversy, those satellites have passed another hurdle toward becoming a reality after the FCC approved them.
Back in July 2025, Reflect Orbital submitted an application to launch Eärendil-1, a demonstration satellite designed to test whether sunlight can be redirected from orbit onto specific locations on Earth. The FCC has now granted the satellite permission to operate its radio equipment. The regulator also rejected calls to block the project over its enormous reflective surface, arguing that the mirror itself falls outside the FCC's authority because the agency primarily regulates communications spectrum. (7/10)
Taffing the Moon Base: How Many Astronauts Should Live in NASA’s Lunar Outpost? (Source: Space.com)
The success of NASA's future moon base depends in large part on mission design, which should allow astronauts to work together well in a way independent from psychological training, a new study asserts. The goal of the study was to identify "specific conditions" for mission success and to look for any "red flags" that may stand in the way, said lead investigator Anamaria Berea. The study team considered scenarios for how many astronauts would be on the moon base and how often resupply missions would occur.
In an "initial case," for example, the assumed mission duration was three months, with a single resupply run at Month 2 with food, water, air and a fresh group of astronauts. Using a complex probability analysis known as a Monte Carlo simulation, the model astronauts in this scenario showed a productivity rate of about 20% against their expected tasks, "which is acceptable for a typical manufacturing process," the authors noted. "The worst-case scenario consists of four astronauts on the moon at one time, only one month resupply window between Earth and moon, and moderate to high adverse environmental probabilities."
NASA tracks productivity a little differently on the International Space Station (ISS). The agency uses a metric called "utilization," which largely refers to the amount of crew time and number of scientific investigations that are performed on the space station during an increment or expedition. As of 2014, the ISS program suggested that ideal utilization should be 35 hours per crew per week when there are three people working on the U.S. part of the space station, and 68.5 hours if there are four or more. (The Russian side of the ISS works largely independently in this respect.) (7/8)
Huge Galactic Structure Is 23 Million Light-Years Long, And We Can't Comprehend It (Source: Science Alert)
There are plenty of mind-bendingly large structures in our Universe. But when it comes to galaxies, two discoveries over the past five years have given the word 'massive' a whole new meaning. Case in point, one of the biggest structures of galactic origin detected by humans in radio waves: Porphyrion.
Named after the king of giants in Greek mythology, Porphyrion is 7.5 billion light-years away, so it's not exactly in our galactic neighborhood. It was first detected in 2024, when researchers picked up radio signals from a pair of jets being blasted out by the black hole presumably at the galaxy's center. (7/11)
US’ New Weapon Can Blast Enemy Satellites with Beams of Electromagnetic Radiation (Source: Interesting Engineering)
The U.S. Space Force has got a new capability to make enemy satellites almost inactive and disrupt their signals without physically damaging them. Meadowlands is a critical upgrade to the Counter Communications System (CCS) 10.2 and it can detect, deny, disrupt, and degrade adversary’s use of the electromagnetic spectrum — such as radio waves. The electromagnetic warfare’s system reversible and non-reversible capabilities further secures the invisible frontline on the electromagnetic spectrum. (7/9)
The EU Wants to Control Your Speed Via Satellite (Source: The Drive)
It has been a wild couple of weeks for the Big Brother news beat—wild enough that a particularly alarming item managed to slip beneath just about everybody‘s radar. According to the Daily Mail, the European Commission wants the power to force cars to obey speed limits with help from GPS.
European cars already leave the factory with speed monitoring systems installed, and no, I don’t just mean speedometers. Starting in 2024, the EU mandated that all new cars come equipped with a GPS-based system that tracks the current speed limit and alerts the driver audibly if it is exceeded. These “Intelligent Speed Assist” systems are often installed on cars sold outside the EU as well, though the warning component is often optional or disabled. (7/9)
We Should Establish an Inland Spaceport in the American West (Source: Christian Keil)
All US spaceports today are coastal — meaning they're within ~12 nautical miles of international waters, or <60 seconds downrange for a ship/sub-based missile. In peacetime, this allows for easy surveillance, both of national security rocket launches and the sites themselves. But in wartime our launch sites might not survive the first minute of a major conflict.
Part 1 of the solution is to do what China has done: establish inland launch sites that are further from international borders and therefore easier to defend. Part 2 of the solution is to do the *opposite* of what China has done: America should not fly experimental missions over land, or drop rockets full of hypergolic fuel onto rural villages. Inland launch sites should only be used for reusable rockets that have a track record of success.
America needs a launch pad in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, or Montana, and landing pads ~500 km north and/or east. We already have similar infrastructure that exists today (White Sands, UTTR, NTTR, Spaceport America). Adding one more such site would secure our access to space even on a very bad day. (7/9)
Blue Origin Files Plans for New Construction on Space Coast (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
Blue Origin plans new storage and manufacturing structures on 11 acres in Brevard County as part of continued expansion, despite recent setbacks. The aerospace company is working with the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority to establish outdoor storage and manufacturing, eyeing the former Space Perspective location at the Space Coast Regional Airport. (7/9)
NASA Small Satellite Could Make Global Positioning More Precise (Source: NASA)
A NASA satellite the size of a suitcase, which aims to merge different observing systems and lead to more accurate mapping of Earth, launched July 7 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard SpaceX’s Transport-17 mission.
This novel CubeSat, known as the Geodetic Reference Instrument Transponder for Small Satellites, or GRITSS, will demonstrate the feasibility of a new technique for connecting three independent observing systems: the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) stations, which use radio telescopes; GPS receivers, which use navigation satellites; and Satellite Laser Ranging, which relies on lasers to measure a distance from the ground to a retroreflector in space. (7/9)
Scientists Say Some Black Holes Are Born From Other Black Holes (Source: Gizmodo)
Since LIGO’s Nobel-winning discovery of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime—the U.S.-based detector has been picking up on hundreds of signals from black hole mergers. And, after a decade of studying gravitational waves, researchers believe a significant fraction of black holes may come from cosmic chain reactions.
A recent paper describes an analysis of 155 pairs of binary black holes, identified by LIGO and its sisters, Virgo and KAGRA, in Italy and Japan, respectively. According to the study, about 14% of merging black holes may be what’s called “second-generation black holes,” or black holes that form from previous mergers of two smaller black holes. This “hierarchical” backstory is vastly different from the textbook version of how black holes emerge from the explosive death of a star. (7/9)
Democratic Texas AG Candidate Claims $110m in Gants for Elon Musk’s Starlink ‘sure Looks’ Like Corruption (Source: The Guardian)
The Texas Democrat nominee to become the state’s attorney general has said he will investigate SpaceX if elected, saying it “sure looks like” corruption was involved in a deal he said handed the world’s richest person $110 million of taxpayers’ money dedicated to providing internet access in remote areas. Nathan Johnson called for greater legislative scrutiny of state grants funneled to SpaceX for its Starlink satellite program. He said the award by Texas Republicans of 99% of the available grant funds to a company led by billionaire Musk, a Donald Trump ally, was lopsided.
“I am not declaring that corruption was at work in this instance. I am saying that it sure looks like it,” Johnson, a state senator, told the Dallas News. “Public confidence in the bidding process has been undermined.” During his primary campaign, Johnson promised to overhaul the office of the Texas attorney general, a position currently held by Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden hardline Republican recently nominated by his party to run for the US Senate in November’s midterms.
He has said he will work closely with the state comptroller to audit how government contracts are awarded. The Starlink grants, signed off by the Republican Texas governor, Greg Abbott, after his office reportedly revised rules to favor low-Earth-orbit satellite providers in bids to provide rural internet access, have become a particular source of controversy. (7/10)
ICEYE Establishes National Headquarters in Portugal and Germany (Source: Spacewatch Global)
ICEYE has established two new European offices in Portugal and Germany, appointing Rui Costa and Philipp Herkelmann as the respective CEOs of ICEYE Portugal and ICEYE Germany. This comes just weeks after the company's expansion of its wildfire intelligence capabilities to Canada, aiming to cement its position as a global wildfire intelligence provider, following its EUR 450 million Series F funding round raise. (7/10)
NASA Sure Seems to be Asking an Awful Lot of Private Space Stations (Source: Ars Technica)
So what do the private companies—the key players are Axiom Space, Vast Space, Voyager, Blue Origin, and possibly SpaceX—think about the new document? There are two main feelings: relief and concern. The relief is easy to explain. A government-sponsored core module was widely disliked and seen as an effort by NASA JSC, which operates the ISS, to remain in the business of operating a space station. Now that worry is gone.
But there are multiple reasons for concern. One is lost time. The private companies expected phase two to begin at least a year or two ago, and they are struggling to raise funding and support growing workforces in the interim. NASA rules for human safety in orbit will drive the designs the private companies ultimately build. So companies really need to know exactly what NASA wants, and how much it is willing to pay to move forward. (7/10)
China Unveils Members of State-Backed Commercial Space Consortium (Source: Space News)
A Chinese government body has published a national commercial space consortium membership list. The published roster gives investors, prime contractors, and suppliers a clearer read on which firms China’s state apparatus is formally positioning as “established players” in commercial space. Consortium membership can signal near-term access to government-backed coordination, partnership pathways, and priority engagement across program opportunities. (7/10)
FCC Approves Reflect Orbital Demo Satellite to Test Redirecting Sunlight (Source: Via Satellite)
The FCC issued approval for startup Reflect Orbital to launch a demonstration satellite that will test a solar reflector in orbit that’s designed to reflect sunlight back to Earth. The company is preparing to launch a Earendil-1 satellite with “deployable, highly specular thin-film reflector” designed to redirect sunlight from orbit to specific locations on Earth. Reflect Orbital said it expects the mission to launch later this year, and it will be the first of several test missions. (7/10)
Japan's ElevationSpace Looks to Europe Space Cargo Unlimited for Reentry (Source: Space News)
Japanese startup ElevationSpace signed an agreement with a European company for its reentry vehicle. ElevationSpace said Thursday it will work with Space Cargo Unlimited to study how to fly that company's microgravity experiment platforms on its spacecraft. ElevationSpace is developing ELS-R, a free-flyer spacecraft with a reentry capsule to conduct microgravity research and manufacturing, as well as a version intended to return experiments from space stations. ElevationSpace recently raised $40 million ahead of a test flight of ELS-R in 2027. A company executive said at a conference Thursday that he believes there is room for his company's vehicle alongside SpaceX's much larger Starfall reentry vehicle. (7/10)
Limited Public Shares Make SpaceX Stock Volatile (Source: Space News)
Volatility is the name of the game when it comes to SpaceX stock. Only a small amount of SpaceX stock is available for public trading, making the shares susceptible to big swings as insiders remain subject to lockups. Some expect volatility to remain part of the company's stock market story in the short term, particularly because of an unusually large retail allocation that brings in buyers more likely to chase the IPO's momentum, or retreat quickly on negative headlines. (7/10)
Pulse Space Wins $40 Million Space Force Contract for Laser Tech (Source: Space News)
Pulse Space, a startup developing laser technology designed to transmit power and data between spacecraft, won a $40 million Space Force contract. The award will support development of its laser-based technology but the company did not specify what military applications will be demonstrated under this agreement. Pulse Space is developing laser systems that can wirelessly transmit electrical power and data between spacecraft, technology that could support space networks by allowing satellites to share power and communicate through optical links. (7/10)
Xona Partners to Prep LEO Constellation (Source: Space News)
Navigation satellite startup Xona Space Systems has announced partnerships with companies developing equipment compatible with its planned constellation. Xona unveiled the Pulsar Verified program Thursday, giving companies a technical path to validate the compatibility of receivers and simulation equipment with Xona's Pulsar constellation. Xona has been working for years with industry partners including the largest commercial manufacturers of Global Navigation Satellite System chipsets to ensure their equipment can work with the Pulsar low Earth orbit system. Xona plans to begin in-space beta testing later this year after the launch of six satellites. (7/10)
Remember the California startup that was developing a constellation of satellites with giant Mylar mirrors to beam sunlight back to Earth after dark? Despite the plan generating a slew of controversy, those satellites have passed another hurdle toward becoming a reality after the FCC approved them.
Back in July 2025, Reflect Orbital submitted an application to launch Eärendil-1, a demonstration satellite designed to test whether sunlight can be redirected from orbit onto specific locations on Earth. The FCC has now granted the satellite permission to operate its radio equipment. The regulator also rejected calls to block the project over its enormous reflective surface, arguing that the mirror itself falls outside the FCC's authority because the agency primarily regulates communications spectrum. (7/10)
Taffing the Moon Base: How Many Astronauts Should Live in NASA’s Lunar Outpost? (Source: Space.com)
The success of NASA's future moon base depends in large part on mission design, which should allow astronauts to work together well in a way independent from psychological training, a new study asserts. The goal of the study was to identify "specific conditions" for mission success and to look for any "red flags" that may stand in the way, said lead investigator Anamaria Berea. The study team considered scenarios for how many astronauts would be on the moon base and how often resupply missions would occur.
In an "initial case," for example, the assumed mission duration was three months, with a single resupply run at Month 2 with food, water, air and a fresh group of astronauts. Using a complex probability analysis known as a Monte Carlo simulation, the model astronauts in this scenario showed a productivity rate of about 20% against their expected tasks, "which is acceptable for a typical manufacturing process," the authors noted. "The worst-case scenario consists of four astronauts on the moon at one time, only one month resupply window between Earth and moon, and moderate to high adverse environmental probabilities."
NASA tracks productivity a little differently on the International Space Station (ISS). The agency uses a metric called "utilization," which largely refers to the amount of crew time and number of scientific investigations that are performed on the space station during an increment or expedition. As of 2014, the ISS program suggested that ideal utilization should be 35 hours per crew per week when there are three people working on the U.S. part of the space station, and 68.5 hours if there are four or more. (The Russian side of the ISS works largely independently in this respect.) (7/8)
Huge Galactic Structure Is 23 Million Light-Years Long, And We Can't Comprehend It (Source: Science Alert)
There are plenty of mind-bendingly large structures in our Universe. But when it comes to galaxies, two discoveries over the past five years have given the word 'massive' a whole new meaning. Case in point, one of the biggest structures of galactic origin detected by humans in radio waves: Porphyrion.
Named after the king of giants in Greek mythology, Porphyrion is 7.5 billion light-years away, so it's not exactly in our galactic neighborhood. It was first detected in 2024, when researchers picked up radio signals from a pair of jets being blasted out by the black hole presumably at the galaxy's center. (7/11)
US’ New Weapon Can Blast Enemy Satellites with Beams of Electromagnetic Radiation (Source: Interesting Engineering)
The U.S. Space Force has got a new capability to make enemy satellites almost inactive and disrupt their signals without physically damaging them. Meadowlands is a critical upgrade to the Counter Communications System (CCS) 10.2 and it can detect, deny, disrupt, and degrade adversary’s use of the electromagnetic spectrum — such as radio waves. The electromagnetic warfare’s system reversible and non-reversible capabilities further secures the invisible frontline on the electromagnetic spectrum. (7/9)
The EU Wants to Control Your Speed Via Satellite (Source: The Drive)
It has been a wild couple of weeks for the Big Brother news beat—wild enough that a particularly alarming item managed to slip beneath just about everybody‘s radar. According to the Daily Mail, the European Commission wants the power to force cars to obey speed limits with help from GPS.
European cars already leave the factory with speed monitoring systems installed, and no, I don’t just mean speedometers. Starting in 2024, the EU mandated that all new cars come equipped with a GPS-based system that tracks the current speed limit and alerts the driver audibly if it is exceeded. These “Intelligent Speed Assist” systems are often installed on cars sold outside the EU as well, though the warning component is often optional or disabled. (7/9)
We Should Establish an Inland Spaceport in the American West (Source: Christian Keil)
All US spaceports today are coastal — meaning they're within ~12 nautical miles of international waters, or <60 seconds downrange for a ship/sub-based missile. In peacetime, this allows for easy surveillance, both of national security rocket launches and the sites themselves. But in wartime our launch sites might not survive the first minute of a major conflict.
Part 1 of the solution is to do what China has done: establish inland launch sites that are further from international borders and therefore easier to defend. Part 2 of the solution is to do the *opposite* of what China has done: America should not fly experimental missions over land, or drop rockets full of hypergolic fuel onto rural villages. Inland launch sites should only be used for reusable rockets that have a track record of success.
America needs a launch pad in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, or Montana, and landing pads ~500 km north and/or east. We already have similar infrastructure that exists today (White Sands, UTTR, NTTR, Spaceport America). Adding one more such site would secure our access to space even on a very bad day. (7/9)
Blue Origin Files Plans for New Construction on Space Coast (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
Blue Origin plans new storage and manufacturing structures on 11 acres in Brevard County as part of continued expansion, despite recent setbacks. The aerospace company is working with the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority to establish outdoor storage and manufacturing, eyeing the former Space Perspective location at the Space Coast Regional Airport. (7/9)
NASA Small Satellite Could Make Global Positioning More Precise (Source: NASA)
A NASA satellite the size of a suitcase, which aims to merge different observing systems and lead to more accurate mapping of Earth, launched July 7 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard SpaceX’s Transport-17 mission.
This novel CubeSat, known as the Geodetic Reference Instrument Transponder for Small Satellites, or GRITSS, will demonstrate the feasibility of a new technique for connecting three independent observing systems: the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) stations, which use radio telescopes; GPS receivers, which use navigation satellites; and Satellite Laser Ranging, which relies on lasers to measure a distance from the ground to a retroreflector in space. (7/9)
Scientists Say Some Black Holes Are Born From Other Black Holes (Source: Gizmodo)
Since LIGO’s Nobel-winning discovery of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime—the U.S.-based detector has been picking up on hundreds of signals from black hole mergers. And, after a decade of studying gravitational waves, researchers believe a significant fraction of black holes may come from cosmic chain reactions.
A recent paper describes an analysis of 155 pairs of binary black holes, identified by LIGO and its sisters, Virgo and KAGRA, in Italy and Japan, respectively. According to the study, about 14% of merging black holes may be what’s called “second-generation black holes,” or black holes that form from previous mergers of two smaller black holes. This “hierarchical” backstory is vastly different from the textbook version of how black holes emerge from the explosive death of a star. (7/9)
Democratic Texas AG Candidate Claims $110m in Gants for Elon Musk’s Starlink ‘sure Looks’ Like Corruption (Source: The Guardian)
The Texas Democrat nominee to become the state’s attorney general has said he will investigate SpaceX if elected, saying it “sure looks like” corruption was involved in a deal he said handed the world’s richest person $110 million of taxpayers’ money dedicated to providing internet access in remote areas. Nathan Johnson called for greater legislative scrutiny of state grants funneled to SpaceX for its Starlink satellite program. He said the award by Texas Republicans of 99% of the available grant funds to a company led by billionaire Musk, a Donald Trump ally, was lopsided.
“I am not declaring that corruption was at work in this instance. I am saying that it sure looks like it,” Johnson, a state senator, told the Dallas News. “Public confidence in the bidding process has been undermined.” During his primary campaign, Johnson promised to overhaul the office of the Texas attorney general, a position currently held by Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden hardline Republican recently nominated by his party to run for the US Senate in November’s midterms.
He has said he will work closely with the state comptroller to audit how government contracts are awarded. The Starlink grants, signed off by the Republican Texas governor, Greg Abbott, after his office reportedly revised rules to favor low-Earth-orbit satellite providers in bids to provide rural internet access, have become a particular source of controversy. (7/10)
ICEYE Establishes National Headquarters in Portugal and Germany (Source: Spacewatch Global)
ICEYE has established two new European offices in Portugal and Germany, appointing Rui Costa and Philipp Herkelmann as the respective CEOs of ICEYE Portugal and ICEYE Germany. This comes just weeks after the company's expansion of its wildfire intelligence capabilities to Canada, aiming to cement its position as a global wildfire intelligence provider, following its EUR 450 million Series F funding round raise. (7/10)
NASA Sure Seems to be Asking an Awful Lot of Private Space Stations (Source: Ars Technica)
So what do the private companies—the key players are Axiom Space, Vast Space, Voyager, Blue Origin, and possibly SpaceX—think about the new document? There are two main feelings: relief and concern. The relief is easy to explain. A government-sponsored core module was widely disliked and seen as an effort by NASA JSC, which operates the ISS, to remain in the business of operating a space station. Now that worry is gone.
But there are multiple reasons for concern. One is lost time. The private companies expected phase two to begin at least a year or two ago, and they are struggling to raise funding and support growing workforces in the interim. NASA rules for human safety in orbit will drive the designs the private companies ultimately build. So companies really need to know exactly what NASA wants, and how much it is willing to pay to move forward. (7/10)
China Unveils Members of State-Backed Commercial Space Consortium (Source: Space News)
A Chinese government body has published a national commercial space consortium membership list. The published roster gives investors, prime contractors, and suppliers a clearer read on which firms China’s state apparatus is formally positioning as “established players” in commercial space. Consortium membership can signal near-term access to government-backed coordination, partnership pathways, and priority engagement across program opportunities. (7/10)
FCC Approves Reflect Orbital Demo Satellite to Test Redirecting Sunlight (Source: Via Satellite)
The FCC issued approval for startup Reflect Orbital to launch a demonstration satellite that will test a solar reflector in orbit that’s designed to reflect sunlight back to Earth. The company is preparing to launch a Earendil-1 satellite with “deployable, highly specular thin-film reflector” designed to redirect sunlight from orbit to specific locations on Earth. Reflect Orbital said it expects the mission to launch later this year, and it will be the first of several test missions. (7/10)
Japan's ElevationSpace Looks to Europe Space Cargo Unlimited for Reentry (Source: Space News)
Japanese startup ElevationSpace signed an agreement with a European company for its reentry vehicle. ElevationSpace said Thursday it will work with Space Cargo Unlimited to study how to fly that company's microgravity experiment platforms on its spacecraft. ElevationSpace is developing ELS-R, a free-flyer spacecraft with a reentry capsule to conduct microgravity research and manufacturing, as well as a version intended to return experiments from space stations. ElevationSpace recently raised $40 million ahead of a test flight of ELS-R in 2027. A company executive said at a conference Thursday that he believes there is room for his company's vehicle alongside SpaceX's much larger Starfall reentry vehicle. (7/10)
Limited Public Shares Make SpaceX Stock Volatile (Source: Space News)
Volatility is the name of the game when it comes to SpaceX stock. Only a small amount of SpaceX stock is available for public trading, making the shares susceptible to big swings as insiders remain subject to lockups. Some expect volatility to remain part of the company's stock market story in the short term, particularly because of an unusually large retail allocation that brings in buyers more likely to chase the IPO's momentum, or retreat quickly on negative headlines. (7/10)
Pulse Space Wins $40 Million Space Force Contract for Laser Tech (Source: Space News)
Pulse Space, a startup developing laser technology designed to transmit power and data between spacecraft, won a $40 million Space Force contract. The award will support development of its laser-based technology but the company did not specify what military applications will be demonstrated under this agreement. Pulse Space is developing laser systems that can wirelessly transmit electrical power and data between spacecraft, technology that could support space networks by allowing satellites to share power and communicate through optical links. (7/10)
Xona Partners to Prep LEO Constellation (Source: Space News)
Navigation satellite startup Xona Space Systems has announced partnerships with companies developing equipment compatible with its planned constellation. Xona unveiled the Pulsar Verified program Thursday, giving companies a technical path to validate the compatibility of receivers and simulation equipment with Xona's Pulsar constellation. Xona has been working for years with industry partners including the largest commercial manufacturers of Global Navigation Satellite System chipsets to ensure their equipment can work with the Pulsar low Earth orbit system. Xona plans to begin in-space beta testing later this year after the launch of six satellites. (7/10)
July 10, 2026
Space Force Acquisition Branch Plans
Hiring Push (Source: FNN)
The top civilian overseeing the Space Force’s acquisition branch says the command aims to hire 100 employees each month as it rebuilds following last year’s civilian purge. “We’re doing a full-court press,” Natalie Riedel, executive director of Space Systems Command, said in a release Wednesday. “It’s an aggressive goal, but we have to get there.” The Space Force has been hit hard by the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce and its contractor support. Civilians make up about one-third of the Pentagon’s smallest service, more than in any other branch of the military. (7/9)
Consortium Unites Florida Universities to Promote Space Research (Source: FSRC)
The Florida Space Research Consortium (FSRC) brings together Florida’s leading research universities to better align the state’s academic strengths with its central role in space. By connecting expertise across institutions and linking it more directly to Florida’s space infrastructure, the Consortium strengthens the state’s ability to contribute to — and help shape — civil, commercial and national security space activities.
It provides a clearer, more coordinated way for partners across government, industry, and academia to engage with the full breadth of capabilities at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida A&M University, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University, Florida State University, UCF, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. Click here. (7/9)
ISS Test Finds That Moon Dust Could be Effective as a Lunar Building Material (Source: Brighterside News)
Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months bolted to the outside of the International Space Station, exposed to vacuum, radiation and constant temperature swings. When they came back, some were stronger than matching samples kept on Earth. The team is working with geopolymers, a cement-like material that can be made by chemically binding clay-rich powders into a solid. In this case, the powders were simulated lunar and Martian regolith, stand-ins for the dusty surface material found on those worlds. (7/7)
China Recovers Long March 10B First Stage (Source: Douglas Messier)
China became the second nation to recover an orbital class rocket for reuse on Friday Long March 10B first stage was caught by wires on an sea-based platform. The rocket lifted off on its inaugural flight at 12:15 p.m. local time. The first stage landed on the platform a short time later. This was a flight test of the rocket; it’s not clear whether it was carrying a payload.
It was China’s third attempt to land the first stage of a rocket. The first stage of LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 rocket came very close to a successful landing on Dec. 3, 2025. Twenty days later a Long March 12A rocket’s first stage failed during its descent. Long March 10B is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of placing 16,000 kg in a 200-km high orbit or 11,000 kg into a 900 km high orbit. (7/10)
US Air Force Picks Longshot to Test Hypersonic Tech with Ground-Based Launcher (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Longshot announced on July 8 that it has joined the U.S. Air Force’s new AEDC Velocity Alliance. This gives the kinetic space launch startup a chance to help modernize America’s hypersonic testing infrastructure. The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) and the Air Force Test Center created the consortium to boost the nation’s testing abilities for next-generation defense technologies. The kinetic launch startup will help the Air Force expand hypersonic testing using a reusable accelerator designed to cut costs and increase test frequency. (7/9)
Russia Tries to Jam Starlink Systems to Counter Ukrainian Drones (Source: Reuters)
Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian "mid-strike" drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots told Reuters. Kyiv's development of "mid-strike" drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometers behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine. (7/8)
Environmental Groups Urge FCC to Pause Orbital Data Center Applications (Source: Space.com)
Environmental and scientific organizations are banding together to demand federal environmental reviews of space-based data center projects, which plan to put more than a million new satellites in Earth orbit over the coming years. "Allowing a million orbiting data centers with no environmental review isn’t just irresponsible — it’s reckless," Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said in a statement. (7/9)
ArianeGroup Tests Upgraded Ariane 6 Upper Stage Rocket Engine (Source: European Spaceflight)
Details of a previously unannounced test campaign involving an upgraded Ariane 6 rocket engine have emerged in the 2025 annual accounts of ArianeGroup SAS, the group’s French entity. The filings describe the testing of a 200-kilonewton version of the rocket’s Vinci upper stage engine at DLR’s Lampoldshausen facility in Germany. The upgrade increases the engine’s thrust by around 11%, from 180 kilonewtons. The testing was “conducted throughout the year” and included a long-duration test in October that lasted 570 seconds. (7/9)
DoD, Silicon Valley Now are Betting on Solar Power Beaming (Source: Breaking Defense)
“While we have been informally researching the topic for a few years, Space Operational Energy is a growing focus for us,” an Air Force spokesperson said. “We hope to host industry days and create avenues for collaboration with industry partners in the near future.” The Pentagon’s renewed interest in such a capability is being buoyed by research over the past five years that has brought some of the underlying technologies to fruition, as well as its war on Iran, which showed how US adversaries can easily target Earth-based fuel logistics tails.
In May, the Air Force contracted Virginia-based startup Overview Energy for a year-long study on the use cases in which space-based solar power could supply electricity “in constrained and contested logistics environments.” (7/9)
Pentagon Accelerates Directed-Energy (Sources: Aviation Week)
The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin and nLIGHT Defense contracts to transition high-energy laser weapon systems into field-ready, production-oriented platforms to defeat drones and cruise missiles. Separately, the Space Force funded Pulse Space’s $40 million effort for laser-based power beaming and orbital tracking. The Space Force also finalized an acquisition-structure reform creating nine mission-area portfolio acquisition executives. (7/9)
Auxilium Biotechnologies Demonstrates Scalable Bioprinting of Multiple Organ Tissues on ISS (Source: Payload)
Auxilium Biotechnologies said it has created multiple types of organ tissues aboard the International Space Station, a milestone toward scalable in-orbit bioprinting. The company positioned the results as enabling future bioprinting use cases in space, building toward broader orbital manufacturing and medical applications. (7/9)
China Announces Plan to Build Early-Warning System for Dangerous Asteroids (Source: Space.com)
China has announced that it wants to develop a "space-ground" asteroid early-warning network, while providing few details on what it could look like. But recent papers and presentations to the United Nations provide clues as to what the country has in mind for planetary defense. (7/9)
Boys Club: Isaacman Flew Acting AG Blanche in Controversial DC Mall Flyover (Source: CBS)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew private military jets over Washington, D.C., in a July 4 flyover with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as a passenger — despite safety objections from the FAA. In an unusual move, a senior adviser to the NASA administrator petitioned the FAA on behalf of Isaacman's private jet company, JDI Holdings, to participate in the aerial demonstrations over the National Mall during the America 250 celebrations in Washington. (7/8)
Embry‑Riddle Professor Takes on Key U.S. Role in International Astronomy Organization (Source: ERAU)
Dr. Terry Oswalt, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, has been elected to represent the United States in the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an organization often described as the “United Nations of Astronomy.” Oswalt will serve a three-year term on the U.S. National Committee (USNC) for the IAU, the body responsible for coordinating U.S. participation in the international organization that helps shape collaboration among astronomers worldwide. (7/1)
Space Force Completes Procurement Reorganization (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has completed the largest acquisition-organization overhaul since the service’s creation, replacing its prior structure with nine mission-focused Portfolio Acquisition Executives. The executives will oversee buying, integration, and modernization of military space capabilities. (7/9)
Shotwell Donates $325 Million to "Trump Accounts" (Source: Business Insider)
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to thank SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell for her and her husband's stock donation to Trump Accounts, which he said was worth $325 million. "Thank you to the brilliant and highly respected Gwynne Shotwell, and her husband, Robert, for their extreme generosity in helping children to attain the ever magnificent American dream!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
A Trump Account (officially a 530A IRA) is a federally established, tax-advantaged investment account for U.S. citizens under age 18. Designed to build long-term wealth, the U.S. Treasury seeds eligible children's accounts with a $ $1,000 pilot deposit. (7/9)
Wally Funk, a Texas Aviation Pioneer and Former Record Holder, Dies at 87 (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Texas resident, icon of the aviation world, and former record holder Wally Funk died on Wednesday evening in Grapevine, Texas. She was 87 years old. Born on Feb. 1, 1939 in Las Vegas, Funk had several "firsts" under her belt. She served as the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board; the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector. She reportedly trained more than 3,000 people to fly and logged thousands of flight hours over her lifetime.
Funk was also one of NASA's First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, or the "Mercury 13") in the 1960s. Unfortunately, none of the 13 women ever went to space with NASA. Funk applied to be an astronaut multiple times and was rejected. However, Funk eventually achieved her dream of reaching space in 2021. She was an "honored guest" on Jeff Bezos-founded spaceflight company Blue Origin's first passenger spaceflight ever, out of Van Horn, Texas. (7/9)
Astronomers Scrutinize Exoplanet That Survived the Death of its Star (Source: Reuters)
Researchers now have made detailed observations of a Jupiter-like exoplanet that has lived on for billions of years after the death of its sun-like star. It's located 81 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. WD 1856 b, is about eight times greater than that of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. Its atmospheric temperature — about 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) — is unexpectedly warm. (7/9)
Vantor Offers Regularly Refreshed Whole-Earth 3D Maps (Source: Space Daily)
Vantor, the American Earth-observation company formerly known as Maxar, is now rebuilding chosen stretches of the planet as three-dimensional models and delivering them within a day of imaging — a commercial first, the company says, and one aimed as much at autonomous machines as at the analysts and militaries who have always been its customers. The service, called WorldView 3D, went live on July 1. It draws on a fleet of 10 satellites imaging Earth’s surface at 12-inch (30-centimeter) resolution. (7/9)
MDA Space Acquiring 70% Stake in French Earth Observation Company CLS (Sources: Globe and Mail, Via Satellite)
MDA Space announced July 8 it would acquire 70% of Collecte Localisation Satellites, or CLS, for 567 million euros ($648 million) in cash. The acquisition complements MDA Space’s EO business from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Radarsat constellation. MDA Space is also preparing to launch the next-generation, Chorus constellation, which is currently expected to launch in late 2026. (7/9)
Eight NATO Allies to Create New Satellite Mega-Constellation (Source: Breaking Defense)
Eight NATO countries plan to link their military satellites into a “mega-constellation” to enable “high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking,” the alliance announced on Tuesday at its Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, in a move that joins a number of other a new initiatives aimed at improving NATO space capabilities.
Connecting multiple national satellites will “overcome the cost, time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets,” a NATO press release said. The new network, called the Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space (HALO), initially will involve Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey. (7/8)
Starlink to Private Jet Owners: Our Prices Are Doubling (Source: PC Mag)
Starlink is doubling the monthly cost of internet service for private and business jet operators. On Tuesday, SpaceX updated the Starlink.com support page for its Business Aviation plans. The company used to charge $10,000 per month for the Aviation Jet Unlimited tier. However, the tier, now called Aviation Global Unlimited, will now cost $20,000. (7/8)
Bridenstine Questions Artemis Lunar Lander Plans (Source: Space.com)
The former head of NASA is questioning the agency's plans to return astronauts to the moon, asking whether the crewed landers selected for the Artemis program are the right vehicles to get the job done. Jim Bridenstine voiced skepticism about the architecture of NASA's Artemis moon landers, both of which are trailing in development compared to the Orion spacecraft with which they're being designed to fly. "The architecture is extraordinarily complicated," Bridenstine said. He compared the Artemis plan unfavorably to NASA's approach during the Apollo program, which he argued was much less complex. (7/8)
New Entrant to DoD's Launch Competition Isn't a Launcher (Source: Ars Technica)
The addition of Impulse Space to DoD's Phase 3 launch contract was something of a surprise. The company specializes in building spacecraft for in-space operations, rather than launching from Earth. “I think it’s fair to say that Phase 3 did not contemplate this,” said Eric Romo, president and chief operating officer of Impulse Space, in an interview. “However, the Space Force has been really clear that they’ve got a lot of demands for high-energy launch, especially at GEO, and they don’t have a lot of supply.”
Phase 3 refers to the third iteration of the military’s launch program, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3. It allows companies to bid on “task orders” for launches between the period of 2025 and 2029. Launches typically take place one to three years after a contract is awarded. To further complicate things, there are two lanes of this program. (7/8)
The top civilian overseeing the Space Force’s acquisition branch says the command aims to hire 100 employees each month as it rebuilds following last year’s civilian purge. “We’re doing a full-court press,” Natalie Riedel, executive director of Space Systems Command, said in a release Wednesday. “It’s an aggressive goal, but we have to get there.” The Space Force has been hit hard by the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce and its contractor support. Civilians make up about one-third of the Pentagon’s smallest service, more than in any other branch of the military. (7/9)
Consortium Unites Florida Universities to Promote Space Research (Source: FSRC)
The Florida Space Research Consortium (FSRC) brings together Florida’s leading research universities to better align the state’s academic strengths with its central role in space. By connecting expertise across institutions and linking it more directly to Florida’s space infrastructure, the Consortium strengthens the state’s ability to contribute to — and help shape — civil, commercial and national security space activities.
It provides a clearer, more coordinated way for partners across government, industry, and academia to engage with the full breadth of capabilities at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida A&M University, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University, Florida State University, UCF, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. Click here. (7/9)
ISS Test Finds That Moon Dust Could be Effective as a Lunar Building Material (Source: Brighterside News)
Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months bolted to the outside of the International Space Station, exposed to vacuum, radiation and constant temperature swings. When they came back, some were stronger than matching samples kept on Earth. The team is working with geopolymers, a cement-like material that can be made by chemically binding clay-rich powders into a solid. In this case, the powders were simulated lunar and Martian regolith, stand-ins for the dusty surface material found on those worlds. (7/7)
China Recovers Long March 10B First Stage (Source: Douglas Messier)
China became the second nation to recover an orbital class rocket for reuse on Friday Long March 10B first stage was caught by wires on an sea-based platform. The rocket lifted off on its inaugural flight at 12:15 p.m. local time. The first stage landed on the platform a short time later. This was a flight test of the rocket; it’s not clear whether it was carrying a payload.
It was China’s third attempt to land the first stage of a rocket. The first stage of LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 rocket came very close to a successful landing on Dec. 3, 2025. Twenty days later a Long March 12A rocket’s first stage failed during its descent. Long March 10B is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of placing 16,000 kg in a 200-km high orbit or 11,000 kg into a 900 km high orbit. (7/10)
US Air Force Picks Longshot to Test Hypersonic Tech with Ground-Based Launcher (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Longshot announced on July 8 that it has joined the U.S. Air Force’s new AEDC Velocity Alliance. This gives the kinetic space launch startup a chance to help modernize America’s hypersonic testing infrastructure. The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) and the Air Force Test Center created the consortium to boost the nation’s testing abilities for next-generation defense technologies. The kinetic launch startup will help the Air Force expand hypersonic testing using a reusable accelerator designed to cut costs and increase test frequency. (7/9)
Russia Tries to Jam Starlink Systems to Counter Ukrainian Drones (Source: Reuters)
Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian "mid-strike" drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots told Reuters. Kyiv's development of "mid-strike" drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometers behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine. (7/8)
Environmental Groups Urge FCC to Pause Orbital Data Center Applications (Source: Space.com)
Environmental and scientific organizations are banding together to demand federal environmental reviews of space-based data center projects, which plan to put more than a million new satellites in Earth orbit over the coming years. "Allowing a million orbiting data centers with no environmental review isn’t just irresponsible — it’s reckless," Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said in a statement. (7/9)
ArianeGroup Tests Upgraded Ariane 6 Upper Stage Rocket Engine (Source: European Spaceflight)
Details of a previously unannounced test campaign involving an upgraded Ariane 6 rocket engine have emerged in the 2025 annual accounts of ArianeGroup SAS, the group’s French entity. The filings describe the testing of a 200-kilonewton version of the rocket’s Vinci upper stage engine at DLR’s Lampoldshausen facility in Germany. The upgrade increases the engine’s thrust by around 11%, from 180 kilonewtons. The testing was “conducted throughout the year” and included a long-duration test in October that lasted 570 seconds. (7/9)
DoD, Silicon Valley Now are Betting on Solar Power Beaming (Source: Breaking Defense)
“While we have been informally researching the topic for a few years, Space Operational Energy is a growing focus for us,” an Air Force spokesperson said. “We hope to host industry days and create avenues for collaboration with industry partners in the near future.” The Pentagon’s renewed interest in such a capability is being buoyed by research over the past five years that has brought some of the underlying technologies to fruition, as well as its war on Iran, which showed how US adversaries can easily target Earth-based fuel logistics tails.
In May, the Air Force contracted Virginia-based startup Overview Energy for a year-long study on the use cases in which space-based solar power could supply electricity “in constrained and contested logistics environments.” (7/9)
Pentagon Accelerates Directed-Energy (Sources: Aviation Week)
The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin and nLIGHT Defense contracts to transition high-energy laser weapon systems into field-ready, production-oriented platforms to defeat drones and cruise missiles. Separately, the Space Force funded Pulse Space’s $40 million effort for laser-based power beaming and orbital tracking. The Space Force also finalized an acquisition-structure reform creating nine mission-area portfolio acquisition executives. (7/9)
Auxilium Biotechnologies Demonstrates Scalable Bioprinting of Multiple Organ Tissues on ISS (Source: Payload)
Auxilium Biotechnologies said it has created multiple types of organ tissues aboard the International Space Station, a milestone toward scalable in-orbit bioprinting. The company positioned the results as enabling future bioprinting use cases in space, building toward broader orbital manufacturing and medical applications. (7/9)
China Announces Plan to Build Early-Warning System for Dangerous Asteroids (Source: Space.com)
China has announced that it wants to develop a "space-ground" asteroid early-warning network, while providing few details on what it could look like. But recent papers and presentations to the United Nations provide clues as to what the country has in mind for planetary defense. (7/9)
Boys Club: Isaacman Flew Acting AG Blanche in Controversial DC Mall Flyover (Source: CBS)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew private military jets over Washington, D.C., in a July 4 flyover with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as a passenger — despite safety objections from the FAA. In an unusual move, a senior adviser to the NASA administrator petitioned the FAA on behalf of Isaacman's private jet company, JDI Holdings, to participate in the aerial demonstrations over the National Mall during the America 250 celebrations in Washington. (7/8)
Embry‑Riddle Professor Takes on Key U.S. Role in International Astronomy Organization (Source: ERAU)
Dr. Terry Oswalt, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, has been elected to represent the United States in the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an organization often described as the “United Nations of Astronomy.” Oswalt will serve a three-year term on the U.S. National Committee (USNC) for the IAU, the body responsible for coordinating U.S. participation in the international organization that helps shape collaboration among astronomers worldwide. (7/1)
Space Force Completes Procurement Reorganization (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has completed the largest acquisition-organization overhaul since the service’s creation, replacing its prior structure with nine mission-focused Portfolio Acquisition Executives. The executives will oversee buying, integration, and modernization of military space capabilities. (7/9)
Shotwell Donates $325 Million to "Trump Accounts" (Source: Business Insider)
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to thank SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell for her and her husband's stock donation to Trump Accounts, which he said was worth $325 million. "Thank you to the brilliant and highly respected Gwynne Shotwell, and her husband, Robert, for their extreme generosity in helping children to attain the ever magnificent American dream!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
A Trump Account (officially a 530A IRA) is a federally established, tax-advantaged investment account for U.S. citizens under age 18. Designed to build long-term wealth, the U.S. Treasury seeds eligible children's accounts with a $ $1,000 pilot deposit. (7/9)
Wally Funk, a Texas Aviation Pioneer and Former Record Holder, Dies at 87 (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Texas resident, icon of the aviation world, and former record holder Wally Funk died on Wednesday evening in Grapevine, Texas. She was 87 years old. Born on Feb. 1, 1939 in Las Vegas, Funk had several "firsts" under her belt. She served as the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board; the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector. She reportedly trained more than 3,000 people to fly and logged thousands of flight hours over her lifetime.
Funk was also one of NASA's First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, or the "Mercury 13") in the 1960s. Unfortunately, none of the 13 women ever went to space with NASA. Funk applied to be an astronaut multiple times and was rejected. However, Funk eventually achieved her dream of reaching space in 2021. She was an "honored guest" on Jeff Bezos-founded spaceflight company Blue Origin's first passenger spaceflight ever, out of Van Horn, Texas. (7/9)
Astronomers Scrutinize Exoplanet That Survived the Death of its Star (Source: Reuters)
Researchers now have made detailed observations of a Jupiter-like exoplanet that has lived on for billions of years after the death of its sun-like star. It's located 81 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. WD 1856 b, is about eight times greater than that of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. Its atmospheric temperature — about 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) — is unexpectedly warm. (7/9)
Vantor Offers Regularly Refreshed Whole-Earth 3D Maps (Source: Space Daily)
Vantor, the American Earth-observation company formerly known as Maxar, is now rebuilding chosen stretches of the planet as three-dimensional models and delivering them within a day of imaging — a commercial first, the company says, and one aimed as much at autonomous machines as at the analysts and militaries who have always been its customers. The service, called WorldView 3D, went live on July 1. It draws on a fleet of 10 satellites imaging Earth’s surface at 12-inch (30-centimeter) resolution. (7/9)
MDA Space Acquiring 70% Stake in French Earth Observation Company CLS (Sources: Globe and Mail, Via Satellite)
MDA Space announced July 8 it would acquire 70% of Collecte Localisation Satellites, or CLS, for 567 million euros ($648 million) in cash. The acquisition complements MDA Space’s EO business from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Radarsat constellation. MDA Space is also preparing to launch the next-generation, Chorus constellation, which is currently expected to launch in late 2026. (7/9)
Eight NATO Allies to Create New Satellite Mega-Constellation (Source: Breaking Defense)
Eight NATO countries plan to link their military satellites into a “mega-constellation” to enable “high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking,” the alliance announced on Tuesday at its Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, in a move that joins a number of other a new initiatives aimed at improving NATO space capabilities.
Connecting multiple national satellites will “overcome the cost, time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets,” a NATO press release said. The new network, called the Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space (HALO), initially will involve Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey. (7/8)
Starlink to Private Jet Owners: Our Prices Are Doubling (Source: PC Mag)
Starlink is doubling the monthly cost of internet service for private and business jet operators. On Tuesday, SpaceX updated the Starlink.com support page for its Business Aviation plans. The company used to charge $10,000 per month for the Aviation Jet Unlimited tier. However, the tier, now called Aviation Global Unlimited, will now cost $20,000. (7/8)
Bridenstine Questions Artemis Lunar Lander Plans (Source: Space.com)
The former head of NASA is questioning the agency's plans to return astronauts to the moon, asking whether the crewed landers selected for the Artemis program are the right vehicles to get the job done. Jim Bridenstine voiced skepticism about the architecture of NASA's Artemis moon landers, both of which are trailing in development compared to the Orion spacecraft with which they're being designed to fly. "The architecture is extraordinarily complicated," Bridenstine said. He compared the Artemis plan unfavorably to NASA's approach during the Apollo program, which he argued was much less complex. (7/8)
New Entrant to DoD's Launch Competition Isn't a Launcher (Source: Ars Technica)
The addition of Impulse Space to DoD's Phase 3 launch contract was something of a surprise. The company specializes in building spacecraft for in-space operations, rather than launching from Earth. “I think it’s fair to say that Phase 3 did not contemplate this,” said Eric Romo, president and chief operating officer of Impulse Space, in an interview. “However, the Space Force has been really clear that they’ve got a lot of demands for high-energy launch, especially at GEO, and they don’t have a lot of supply.”
Phase 3 refers to the third iteration of the military’s launch program, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3. It allows companies to bid on “task orders” for launches between the period of 2025 and 2029. Launches typically take place one to three years after a contract is awarded. To further complicate things, there are two lanes of this program. (7/8)
July 9, 2026
Golden Dome Generates Potential
Spinoff Opportunities (Source: Space News)
The proposed Golden Dome missile-defense system has companies looking for new business opportunities. The prospect of deploying hundreds or even thousands of satellites for missile warning, tracking, communications and even interception missions has prompted companies to search for opportunities beyond the spacecraft themselves. That includes areas such as satellite refueling, orbital transportation, communications relay networks and in-space servicing, as companies argue those services will be essential to Golden Dome's satellite constellations. However, the Pentagon, which has disclosed few details about the Golden Dome architecture, has not indicated its interest in those other services. (7/9)
SpaceX Sets Booster Reuse Record After Thursday Launch From Florida (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX set a booster reuse record on its latest Starlink mission. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:25 am Eastern Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the 36th flight of this Falcon 9 booster, designated B1067, which made its first flight five years ago. (7/9)
Starlink Now Used to Track Pets (Source: Space News)
The latest application for Starlink is dog tracking. Pet technology company Fi launched a dog tracker Wednesday that uses T-Mobile's Starlink-enabled T-Satellite service to remain connected across the United States, even outside the telco's terrestrial network. The company said Fi Ultra marks the first consumer product outside smartphones to ship with Starlink Direct-to-Cell as a core feature. The company expects a "meaningful share" of its customer base to upgrade to the Starlink-enabled tracker, especially those in rural regions or who travel in remote areas. (7/8)
Cosmic Rays Could Help Detect Orbital Nukes (Source: Science News)
Cosmic rays could help detect orbiting nuclear weapons. A study published this week discussed how a satellite could determine if another satellite had a nuclear weapon by approaching it with a neutron detector. A surge of neutrons would be a telltale sign that the spacecraft had a nuclear weapon, as cosmic rays would interact with the bomb's fissile material creating the neutrons. Experts caution, though, that the satellite with detectors would have to come very close to the spacecraft to detect the neutron, which would raise concerns. (7/9)
Australian Beach Debris Likely From Launch Vehicles (Source: New York Times)
Spherical tanks that washed ashore on an Australian beach likely came from a launch vehicle. The metallic tanks, about a meter across, washed ashore over the weekend on beaches in Queensland. The Australian Space Agency said it concluded the tanks are pressure vessels from a launch vehicle. It added it believes it has identified the source of the tanks but did not disclose it, saying it was in discussions with international authorities to confirm the source of the tanks. (7/9)
Loft Orbital Books Multiple Launches Aboard MaiaSpace Rockets (Source: European Spaceflight)
US-based satellite operator Loft Orbital has signed a multi-launch agreement with ArianeGroup subsidiary MaiaSpace. Although the announcement provided few details, it did share that the first flight was expected in 2028. (7/9)
New Singapore Space Agency Seeks to Build Up the Country’s Space Industry (Source: Space News)
Singapore's new space agency has signed a cooperative agreement with Japan. At the Spacetide conference this week, the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS) signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Japanese space agency JAXA covering potential joint work in areas ranging from space technology to industry development. The agreement is the first signed by NSAS since it began operations April 1. The agency has several mandates, which include growing the country's space industry and developing a national space law. (7/8)
New Horizons Wakes Up 6 Billion Miles Beyond Jupiter (Source: Space.com)
NASA's New Horizons probe has woken up in good health nearly 6 billion miles away beyond Pluto after spending nearly a year in hibernation. Traveling such vast distances between our solar system's most remote objects means New Horizons often cruises for months at a time with little to do other than passively collect data. During these periods, the probe goes into a hibernation mode in which its instruments still collect data, but most other systems power down. (7/8)
Starlink Halts New Sign-ups in Seven Counties as Capacity Exhausted (Source: Business Daily Africa)
Starlink has suspended new customer sign-ups in seven countries including Nairobi, Kiambu, Mombasa, and Machakos after surging demand exhausted available network capacity, signaling mounting pressure on its rapidly expanding connectivity services. (7/8)
Payloads Used to Dictate the Terms of Launch. That’s Finally Changing (Source: Ars Technica)
It wasn’t easy to find anyone outside of SpaceX clamoring for a rocket like Starship just 10 years ago. Today, the space industry can’t wait for Starship to finally deliver. With a payload capacity of more than 100 metric tons (220,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit, SpaceX’s new rocket is changing the thinking of just about everyone in the space industry. With the unrealized but potentially game-changing benefits of refueling, Starship could carry the same amount of payload to higher orbits, the Moon, or Mars.
Some US satellite manufacturers are adapting for the substantial capacity of the world’s most powerful rocket. This is a reversal of how things usually go in the balance of supply and demand between launch vehicles and satellite operators. Rocket designs have long engineered their vehicles to match trends in the satellite industry. They designed for their customers’ needs, or at least for what their customers were telling them they needed. But in 2026, a new era of abundant super-heavy-lift launch promises to unlock entirely new applications for satellites. (7/9)
Oklahoma's Infinity One Spaceport: Heritage in Motion (Source: Global Spaceport Alliance)
Like many first-generation commercial spaceports, Oklahoma’s facility arrived ahead of the market. The early 2000s brought optimism about commercial spaceflight, but vehicles, regulatory frameworks, and sustainable business models lagged behind early enthusiasm. For years, the spaceport symbolized potential not yet realized, underscoring the gap between infrastructure and market readiness.
Today, that story is shifting. Recently rebranded as Infinity One Oklahoma Spaceport, the site is aligning itself with the realities and growth of the NewSpace era. The name reflects the “Infinity One” flight corridor, a strategic pathway enabling high-inclination orbital access, a clear reminder that geography still matters in spaceflight. More importantly, it signals a transition from aspiration to action. Click here. (7/7)
World's First Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine to Surge Production (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Houston-based Venus Aerospace has raised $91 million in Series B funding to expand production of its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE), a propulsion technology that could reshape future hypersonic weapons, reusable launch systems and high-speed aircraft. The investment comes a little over a year after the company completed what it describes as the first U.S. flight of a high-thrust RDRE, validating an engine concept that aerospace engineers have pursued for decades. Venus will use the fresh capital to move the technology from flight testing toward full-rate manufacturing for defense and space customers. (7/8)
Exploration Company Expands to Houston (Source: Douglas Messier)
The Exploration Company (TEC) has opened a Rapid Innovation lab in Houston, Texas and acquired a spacecraft propulsion company as it continues to develop its Nyx crew and cargo vehicles to serve space stations in Earth orbit. A full-scale mockup of the company’s Nyx crew capsule sits at the center of the new lab, which is located near NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
TEC aims to provide crew and cargo services to commercial space stations now in development in the United States. The Franco-German company is planning to launch a Nyx cargo freighter to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2028. TEC recently completed a parachute drop test with a Nyx capsule in the Mojave Desert. The test focused the transition from drogue parachutes to the main parachutes that bring the vehicle safely to the ground. (7/9)
Unseenlabs Announces its Second Generation of Satellite for RF Detection Dedicated to Multi-domain Awareness (Source: Unseenlabs)
Unseenlabs announces the deployment of its new generation of satellites (Gen 2), scaling up its space-based radio frequency (RF) detection capabilities from focused maritime domain awareness to broader multi-domain awareness including maritime, land and space. This new generation expands Unseenlabs’ ability to provide actionable data and intelligence services, supporting customers worldwide to make informed decisions in increasingly complex operational and geopolitical environments. (7/8)
Sweden and Oman Compete for Small-Launch Traffic (Source: Space News)
It has been an interesting couple of weeks for spaceport geopolitics. Spaceports, considered the second bottleneck for space access after launchers, have been increasingly debated at the ESA level. The question is a sophisticated one: Does Europe need to finance multiple spaceports, with different sizes and characteristics, to create a system in which Kourou can be complemented by smaller, decentralized spaceports?
On the commercial side, however, the question seems to have a different tone. With the exception of PLD Space, private and smaller launcher operators seem to have already decided to invest in the smaller bets. U.S. company Firefly Aerospace is targeting the first launch of its Alpha rocket from Esrange in Sweden, in 2028. And again, both Germany’s HyImpulse and France’s Latitude signed agreements to use Oman's Etlaq Spaceport.
There is a fair amount of wishful thinking in all this. None of these companies have flown an orbital rocket yet, and signing MoUs is not the same as reaching orbit. Still, it would be interesting and slightly worrying if, after so much bureaucratic debate over “spaceports yes” or “spaceports no,” Oman takes the lead on something Europe could have arranged by itself. (7/8)
Venus Aerospace Raises $91 Million for Hypersonic Engine Development (Source: Space News)
Hypersonic propulsion startup Venus Aerospace has raised $91 million. The company said the new capital will fund engine development and manufacturing as it seeks to scale production of its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) from flight testing toward operational deployment. The reusable, throttleable engine is intended for a range of missions, including munitions, space launch vehicles, orbital transfer vehicles and lunar landers. (7/8)
Italy's D-Orbit to Support Japan's ArkEdge with Launch Logistics (Source: Space News)
Italian space logistics specialist D-Orbit will provide a series of launches aboard its ION Satellite Carrier for Japanese startup ArkEdge Space. D-Orbit will send ArkEdge satellites to sun-synchronous orbit in 2027 and 2028 on an undisclosed number of missions, the companies announced Tuesday. D-Orbit's ION has completed 23 missions with the most recent ION launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission Tuesday. (7/8)
The Government’s Options to Address Strained Spaceports (Source: Space News)
Industry officials are offering a range of options to deal with strained launch sites. The concepts range from additional funding for spaceport infrastructure improvements to more cooperation among government agencies in dealing with launch site upgrades. The ideas are, in many cases, not new but are getting more attention after the Blue Origin New Glenn pad explosion in May. (7/8)
Apolink Deploys 3U Cubesat to Test S-Band Intersatellite Links (Source: Space News)
Among the payloads on Transporter-17 was the first satellite for data-relay startup Apolink. The 3U cubesat will test intersatellite links in S-band using a novel experimental license from the FCC. That license allows Apolink's cubesat to receive S-band signals from designated partner satellites on an unprotected and non-interference basis, before storing and forwarding them to approved ground stations. The IPoS-TDsM, or Interoperability Protocol over Satellite – Technology Demonstration Mission, is designed to close low-power links at distances of up to about 150 kilometers during line-of-sight passes. (7/8)
Orbit Fab Gets New CEO, New Investment for In-Orbit Fueling (Source: Space News)
Satellite refueling company Orbit Fab has a new CEO and additional funding as it moves from technology development to commercial operations. The company announced Tuesday it hired Peter Shaper, a former CEO of satellite services companies CapRock Communications and Speedcast, while lead investor Stride Capital is providing more than $25 million in interim financing as it works closing a Series B round.
Shaper said he is tasked with taking Orbit Fab's technology to refuel satellites in orbit, with three demo missions planned in the next 18 to 24 months, and turning it into a commercial service with the U.S. government as a likely initial customer. (7/8)
Space Systems Command Awards SES 5-Year Blanket Purchase Agreement (Source: Via Satellite)
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded SES Space and Defense a five-year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for global Ku-band connectivity, including a number of managed connectivity services. (7/8)
VSFB Announces ‘Spaceport of the Future' Industry Day to Drive Large-Scale Infrastructure Modernization (Source: USSF)
Space Launch Delta 30 is scheduled to host a "Spaceport of the Future" Industry Day on July 29 at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Industry Day aims to align government and industry partners on a large-scale infrastructure recapitalization effort designed to transform the base into a high-capacity spaceport.
The Industry Day will gather executive-level decision-makers, site leads, and organizations specializing in large-scale infrastructure, power grid expansion, environmental planning, logistics, and venture capital. Topics of discussion will include streamlining contract procurement timelines, exploring public-private collaboration models, and implementing shared-use infrastructure strategies. (7/6)
Blue Origin Reportedly Raising $10B at $130B Valuation (Source: Tech Crunch)
Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space rocket company Blue Origin is raising $10 billion at a $130 billion pre-money valuation from Coatue Asset Management, Bezos himself, and other large investors. Coatue is expected to invest about $4 billion in the round, which would be Blue Origin’s first external fundraise. Bezos is said to be committing $2 billion, and the other investors will account for the remaining funds, according to the report. (7/8)
AST SpaceMobile Adds Three More BlueBird Satellites to LEO (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile has deployed three additional BlueBird satellites into low Earth orbit, moving ahead of its plan to build a space-based cellular broadband network. The company is targeting deployment of 45 to 60 satellites by the end of the year as it scales capacity in-orbit. (7/8)
Component Anomaly Delays Thaicom 9, Affecting Other Astranis Satellites Too (Source: Space Intel Report)
Thaicom says its Thaicom 9 satellite—previously scheduled for launch in 2024—has been delayed to March 2027 following a power system anomaly identified on one of the four other Astranis Space Technologies micro-GEO satellites that were sharing a SpaceX launch. The issue drives a multi-satellite schedule slip for the cluster. (7/8)
CesiumAstro Files FCC Application for 737-Satellite “Synchronicity” Reconfigurable Connectivity Constellation (Source: Via Satellite)
CesiumAstro submitted an FCC filing for a 737-satellite constellation called Synchronicity to provide reconfigurable connectivity to fixed and mobile satellite users. CesiumAstro, which is based in Austin, Texas, builds software-defined radios and phased arrays and processor systems, and has moved into end-to-end missions. Last year the company announced its Element reconfigurable satellite platform, but this is the first indication it plans to launch its own constellation. (7/7)
The proposed Golden Dome missile-defense system has companies looking for new business opportunities. The prospect of deploying hundreds or even thousands of satellites for missile warning, tracking, communications and even interception missions has prompted companies to search for opportunities beyond the spacecraft themselves. That includes areas such as satellite refueling, orbital transportation, communications relay networks and in-space servicing, as companies argue those services will be essential to Golden Dome's satellite constellations. However, the Pentagon, which has disclosed few details about the Golden Dome architecture, has not indicated its interest in those other services. (7/9)
SpaceX Sets Booster Reuse Record After Thursday Launch From Florida (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX set a booster reuse record on its latest Starlink mission. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:25 am Eastern Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the 36th flight of this Falcon 9 booster, designated B1067, which made its first flight five years ago. (7/9)
Starlink Now Used to Track Pets (Source: Space News)
The latest application for Starlink is dog tracking. Pet technology company Fi launched a dog tracker Wednesday that uses T-Mobile's Starlink-enabled T-Satellite service to remain connected across the United States, even outside the telco's terrestrial network. The company said Fi Ultra marks the first consumer product outside smartphones to ship with Starlink Direct-to-Cell as a core feature. The company expects a "meaningful share" of its customer base to upgrade to the Starlink-enabled tracker, especially those in rural regions or who travel in remote areas. (7/8)
Cosmic Rays Could Help Detect Orbital Nukes (Source: Science News)
Cosmic rays could help detect orbiting nuclear weapons. A study published this week discussed how a satellite could determine if another satellite had a nuclear weapon by approaching it with a neutron detector. A surge of neutrons would be a telltale sign that the spacecraft had a nuclear weapon, as cosmic rays would interact with the bomb's fissile material creating the neutrons. Experts caution, though, that the satellite with detectors would have to come very close to the spacecraft to detect the neutron, which would raise concerns. (7/9)
Australian Beach Debris Likely From Launch Vehicles (Source: New York Times)
Spherical tanks that washed ashore on an Australian beach likely came from a launch vehicle. The metallic tanks, about a meter across, washed ashore over the weekend on beaches in Queensland. The Australian Space Agency said it concluded the tanks are pressure vessels from a launch vehicle. It added it believes it has identified the source of the tanks but did not disclose it, saying it was in discussions with international authorities to confirm the source of the tanks. (7/9)
Loft Orbital Books Multiple Launches Aboard MaiaSpace Rockets (Source: European Spaceflight)
US-based satellite operator Loft Orbital has signed a multi-launch agreement with ArianeGroup subsidiary MaiaSpace. Although the announcement provided few details, it did share that the first flight was expected in 2028. (7/9)
New Singapore Space Agency Seeks to Build Up the Country’s Space Industry (Source: Space News)
Singapore's new space agency has signed a cooperative agreement with Japan. At the Spacetide conference this week, the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS) signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Japanese space agency JAXA covering potential joint work in areas ranging from space technology to industry development. The agreement is the first signed by NSAS since it began operations April 1. The agency has several mandates, which include growing the country's space industry and developing a national space law. (7/8)
New Horizons Wakes Up 6 Billion Miles Beyond Jupiter (Source: Space.com)
NASA's New Horizons probe has woken up in good health nearly 6 billion miles away beyond Pluto after spending nearly a year in hibernation. Traveling such vast distances between our solar system's most remote objects means New Horizons often cruises for months at a time with little to do other than passively collect data. During these periods, the probe goes into a hibernation mode in which its instruments still collect data, but most other systems power down. (7/8)
Starlink Halts New Sign-ups in Seven Counties as Capacity Exhausted (Source: Business Daily Africa)
Starlink has suspended new customer sign-ups in seven countries including Nairobi, Kiambu, Mombasa, and Machakos after surging demand exhausted available network capacity, signaling mounting pressure on its rapidly expanding connectivity services. (7/8)
Payloads Used to Dictate the Terms of Launch. That’s Finally Changing (Source: Ars Technica)
It wasn’t easy to find anyone outside of SpaceX clamoring for a rocket like Starship just 10 years ago. Today, the space industry can’t wait for Starship to finally deliver. With a payload capacity of more than 100 metric tons (220,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit, SpaceX’s new rocket is changing the thinking of just about everyone in the space industry. With the unrealized but potentially game-changing benefits of refueling, Starship could carry the same amount of payload to higher orbits, the Moon, or Mars.
Some US satellite manufacturers are adapting for the substantial capacity of the world’s most powerful rocket. This is a reversal of how things usually go in the balance of supply and demand between launch vehicles and satellite operators. Rocket designs have long engineered their vehicles to match trends in the satellite industry. They designed for their customers’ needs, or at least for what their customers were telling them they needed. But in 2026, a new era of abundant super-heavy-lift launch promises to unlock entirely new applications for satellites. (7/9)
Oklahoma's Infinity One Spaceport: Heritage in Motion (Source: Global Spaceport Alliance)
Like many first-generation commercial spaceports, Oklahoma’s facility arrived ahead of the market. The early 2000s brought optimism about commercial spaceflight, but vehicles, regulatory frameworks, and sustainable business models lagged behind early enthusiasm. For years, the spaceport symbolized potential not yet realized, underscoring the gap between infrastructure and market readiness.
Today, that story is shifting. Recently rebranded as Infinity One Oklahoma Spaceport, the site is aligning itself with the realities and growth of the NewSpace era. The name reflects the “Infinity One” flight corridor, a strategic pathway enabling high-inclination orbital access, a clear reminder that geography still matters in spaceflight. More importantly, it signals a transition from aspiration to action. Click here. (7/7)
World's First Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine to Surge Production (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Houston-based Venus Aerospace has raised $91 million in Series B funding to expand production of its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE), a propulsion technology that could reshape future hypersonic weapons, reusable launch systems and high-speed aircraft. The investment comes a little over a year after the company completed what it describes as the first U.S. flight of a high-thrust RDRE, validating an engine concept that aerospace engineers have pursued for decades. Venus will use the fresh capital to move the technology from flight testing toward full-rate manufacturing for defense and space customers. (7/8)
Exploration Company Expands to Houston (Source: Douglas Messier)
The Exploration Company (TEC) has opened a Rapid Innovation lab in Houston, Texas and acquired a spacecraft propulsion company as it continues to develop its Nyx crew and cargo vehicles to serve space stations in Earth orbit. A full-scale mockup of the company’s Nyx crew capsule sits at the center of the new lab, which is located near NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
TEC aims to provide crew and cargo services to commercial space stations now in development in the United States. The Franco-German company is planning to launch a Nyx cargo freighter to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2028. TEC recently completed a parachute drop test with a Nyx capsule in the Mojave Desert. The test focused the transition from drogue parachutes to the main parachutes that bring the vehicle safely to the ground. (7/9)
Unseenlabs Announces its Second Generation of Satellite for RF Detection Dedicated to Multi-domain Awareness (Source: Unseenlabs)
Unseenlabs announces the deployment of its new generation of satellites (Gen 2), scaling up its space-based radio frequency (RF) detection capabilities from focused maritime domain awareness to broader multi-domain awareness including maritime, land and space. This new generation expands Unseenlabs’ ability to provide actionable data and intelligence services, supporting customers worldwide to make informed decisions in increasingly complex operational and geopolitical environments. (7/8)
Sweden and Oman Compete for Small-Launch Traffic (Source: Space News)
It has been an interesting couple of weeks for spaceport geopolitics. Spaceports, considered the second bottleneck for space access after launchers, have been increasingly debated at the ESA level. The question is a sophisticated one: Does Europe need to finance multiple spaceports, with different sizes and characteristics, to create a system in which Kourou can be complemented by smaller, decentralized spaceports?
On the commercial side, however, the question seems to have a different tone. With the exception of PLD Space, private and smaller launcher operators seem to have already decided to invest in the smaller bets. U.S. company Firefly Aerospace is targeting the first launch of its Alpha rocket from Esrange in Sweden, in 2028. And again, both Germany’s HyImpulse and France’s Latitude signed agreements to use Oman's Etlaq Spaceport.
There is a fair amount of wishful thinking in all this. None of these companies have flown an orbital rocket yet, and signing MoUs is not the same as reaching orbit. Still, it would be interesting and slightly worrying if, after so much bureaucratic debate over “spaceports yes” or “spaceports no,” Oman takes the lead on something Europe could have arranged by itself. (7/8)
Venus Aerospace Raises $91 Million for Hypersonic Engine Development (Source: Space News)
Hypersonic propulsion startup Venus Aerospace has raised $91 million. The company said the new capital will fund engine development and manufacturing as it seeks to scale production of its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) from flight testing toward operational deployment. The reusable, throttleable engine is intended for a range of missions, including munitions, space launch vehicles, orbital transfer vehicles and lunar landers. (7/8)
Italy's D-Orbit to Support Japan's ArkEdge with Launch Logistics (Source: Space News)
Italian space logistics specialist D-Orbit will provide a series of launches aboard its ION Satellite Carrier for Japanese startup ArkEdge Space. D-Orbit will send ArkEdge satellites to sun-synchronous orbit in 2027 and 2028 on an undisclosed number of missions, the companies announced Tuesday. D-Orbit's ION has completed 23 missions with the most recent ION launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission Tuesday. (7/8)
The Government’s Options to Address Strained Spaceports (Source: Space News)
Industry officials are offering a range of options to deal with strained launch sites. The concepts range from additional funding for spaceport infrastructure improvements to more cooperation among government agencies in dealing with launch site upgrades. The ideas are, in many cases, not new but are getting more attention after the Blue Origin New Glenn pad explosion in May. (7/8)
Apolink Deploys 3U Cubesat to Test S-Band Intersatellite Links (Source: Space News)
Among the payloads on Transporter-17 was the first satellite for data-relay startup Apolink. The 3U cubesat will test intersatellite links in S-band using a novel experimental license from the FCC. That license allows Apolink's cubesat to receive S-band signals from designated partner satellites on an unprotected and non-interference basis, before storing and forwarding them to approved ground stations. The IPoS-TDsM, or Interoperability Protocol over Satellite – Technology Demonstration Mission, is designed to close low-power links at distances of up to about 150 kilometers during line-of-sight passes. (7/8)
Orbit Fab Gets New CEO, New Investment for In-Orbit Fueling (Source: Space News)
Satellite refueling company Orbit Fab has a new CEO and additional funding as it moves from technology development to commercial operations. The company announced Tuesday it hired Peter Shaper, a former CEO of satellite services companies CapRock Communications and Speedcast, while lead investor Stride Capital is providing more than $25 million in interim financing as it works closing a Series B round.
Shaper said he is tasked with taking Orbit Fab's technology to refuel satellites in orbit, with three demo missions planned in the next 18 to 24 months, and turning it into a commercial service with the U.S. government as a likely initial customer. (7/8)
Space Systems Command Awards SES 5-Year Blanket Purchase Agreement (Source: Via Satellite)
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded SES Space and Defense a five-year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for global Ku-band connectivity, including a number of managed connectivity services. (7/8)
VSFB Announces ‘Spaceport of the Future' Industry Day to Drive Large-Scale Infrastructure Modernization (Source: USSF)
Space Launch Delta 30 is scheduled to host a "Spaceport of the Future" Industry Day on July 29 at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Industry Day aims to align government and industry partners on a large-scale infrastructure recapitalization effort designed to transform the base into a high-capacity spaceport.
The Industry Day will gather executive-level decision-makers, site leads, and organizations specializing in large-scale infrastructure, power grid expansion, environmental planning, logistics, and venture capital. Topics of discussion will include streamlining contract procurement timelines, exploring public-private collaboration models, and implementing shared-use infrastructure strategies. (7/6)
Blue Origin Reportedly Raising $10B at $130B Valuation (Source: Tech Crunch)
Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space rocket company Blue Origin is raising $10 billion at a $130 billion pre-money valuation from Coatue Asset Management, Bezos himself, and other large investors. Coatue is expected to invest about $4 billion in the round, which would be Blue Origin’s first external fundraise. Bezos is said to be committing $2 billion, and the other investors will account for the remaining funds, according to the report. (7/8)
AST SpaceMobile Adds Three More BlueBird Satellites to LEO (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile has deployed three additional BlueBird satellites into low Earth orbit, moving ahead of its plan to build a space-based cellular broadband network. The company is targeting deployment of 45 to 60 satellites by the end of the year as it scales capacity in-orbit. (7/8)
Component Anomaly Delays Thaicom 9, Affecting Other Astranis Satellites Too (Source: Space Intel Report)
Thaicom says its Thaicom 9 satellite—previously scheduled for launch in 2024—has been delayed to March 2027 following a power system anomaly identified on one of the four other Astranis Space Technologies micro-GEO satellites that were sharing a SpaceX launch. The issue drives a multi-satellite schedule slip for the cluster. (7/8)
CesiumAstro Files FCC Application for 737-Satellite “Synchronicity” Reconfigurable Connectivity Constellation (Source: Via Satellite)
CesiumAstro submitted an FCC filing for a 737-satellite constellation called Synchronicity to provide reconfigurable connectivity to fixed and mobile satellite users. CesiumAstro, which is based in Austin, Texas, builds software-defined radios and phased arrays and processor systems, and has moved into end-to-end missions. Last year the company announced its Element reconfigurable satellite platform, but this is the first indication it plans to launch its own constellation. (7/7)
July 8, 2026
Uranus and Neptune May Not be ‘Ice
Giants’ After All (Source: Science)
t’s time to revisit our idea of Neptune and Uranus, too—for the so-called ice giants likely contain very little ice. The term is “a little bit misleading,” says Ravit Helled, a planetary scientist at the University of Zürich. “We really don’t know what these planets are made of.” She and her colleagues do, however, have ideas, ranging from magma oceans to soups of icy methane. (7/7)
New UCF Study Links Microgravity, Space Radiation to Accelerated Aging (Source: UCF)
What happens to the human body in space may help scientists create new anti-aging therapies. UCF’s Michal Masternak and his team have identified molecular changes in the liver that happen when space travelers experience radiation and microgravity. These changes – that resemble accelerated aging – provide new insight into how prolonged space missions may increase health risks for astronauts and reveal potential targets for therapies that could combat age-related diseases on Earth. (7/7)
SpaceX Transporter-17 Deploys Four Canadian Satellites Deployed on Transporter-17 Mission (Source: SpaceQ)
SpaceX successfully launched the Transporter-17 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday morning, deploying 81 payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO), including four Canadian payloads from GHGSat, EarthDaily Analytics, and the University of Victoria. (7/7)
With SpaceX Starship, Japan's ispace Provides Ride-Share to the Moon (Source: Reuters)
Japanese moon transport company ispace plans a new, lower-cost lunar cargo business using SpaceX's Starship heavy rocket and moon lander. Tokyo-based ispace has bought 500 kg (1,102 lb) of capacity for $50 million on a Starship that would land on the moon as soon as 2030, and will build a lunar surface vehicle that can host payloads from clients worldwide sharing their ride on Starship to the moon, it said. (7/8)
Kennedy Space Center Offers 'Celebrate USA 250' Ticket Discounts (Source: Florida Today)
In honor of America's 250th anniversary, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is offering $17.76 in savings on one-day admission tickets through Aug. 31. The discounted pricing brings adult admission to $59.24, and child admission to $49.24. (7/4)
NASA Acquisition Workforce Losses: Opportunity Amid Challenges (Source: FNN)
Across the government, agencies face a pronounced loss of historical knowledge as retirements and federal workforce reductions levy widespread impact. The shift marks a pivotal moment for countless departments and teams, including those at NASA.
While the changes create hurdles and pressures, also emerging are opportunities to reassess and reimagine how work gets done – particularly in the federal acquisition workforce. This is especially significant as the work of acquisition itself faces increasing complexity, said NASA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Procurement Marvin Horne.
“With high retirements, it’s removing people who know how to execute complex source evaluation boards, historical knowledge of certain contract structures – why they were successful or why they failed – historical knowledge of contractor negotiation strategies, even the informal stakeholder engagement that ensures strong procurement and program collaboration,” Horne said. “The true concern is not about replacement of staff; it’s about replacing judgment cultivated over a 25- to 30-year career. (6/30)
NASA Seeks Industry Input to Accelerate Lunar Surface Technologies (Source: NASA)
Long-term lunar exploration requires technology, infrastructure, and operations that function together cohesively on the surface of the Moon. To accelerate the development of key lunar surface systems and reduce risk, NASA and industry must work together in the design, development, testing, and evaluation of innovative solutions that support U.S. space priorities.
NASA is seeking feedback on a draft solicitation for the Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator, an effort to help develop emerging capabilities in surface power, in-situ resource utilization, advanced manufacturing, and innovative nanomaterials. The draft is available for review by U.S. organizations, including industry, educational institutions, and non-profits. (6/29)
Firefly Aerospace Awarded $13 Million JPL Contract for SkyFall Mars Mission Aeroshell (Source: Telemetry Today)
Firefly Aerospace has received a $13 million subcontract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to manufacture, test, and deliver the aeroshell for NASA's SkyFall mission to Mars, which is currently targeted for launch in late 2028. The SkyFall mission, managed by JPL, will deploy three Mars helicopters derived from the Ingenuity technology demonstrator to conduct scientific investigations, perform airborne subsurface mapping, and prospect for resources that could support future human missions to Mars.
The mission will use a new "SkyFall Maneuver," in which the helicopters are released during descent and fly themselves to the Martian surface, eliminating the need for a traditional landing platform. (7/7)
U.S. Eyes Offshore Spaceports With First-Ever Call for Industry Input (Source: G Captain)
The Trump administration is taking its first formal step toward evaluating whether federal offshore waters could support commercial space launches and spacecraft recovery operations. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday announced it will publish a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public and industry feedback on the potential use of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for offshore space launch, re-entry and recovery infrastructure.
The RFI, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 8, opens a 30-day public comment period through Aug. 7. BOEM said it is looking for technical, environmental, operational and safety information that could help shape future planning and coordination for offshore space activities. (7/7)
First SaxaVord Rocket Launch Could Take Place in August (Source: Shetland News)
The first rocket test flight could take place at SaxaVord Spaceport in Unst between August and early September. A launch window will be in place at the site, having been agreed with international, national and local authorities and regulators. Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) said earlier this year it was aiming for a launch after 1 July, with the first and second stages of its ONE launch vehicle delivered to Unst in March. (7/7)
Paso Robles is Full Steam Ahead on Spaceport — and a Local Aerospace Company Took Notice (Source: The Tribune)
Even if Paso Robles might not yet have its spaceport license, aerospace company Zone 5 Technologies is already seeing its potential. That’s why it’s expanding its manufacturing operations to the Paso Robles Municipal Airport this summer. Zone 5 Technologies is San Luis Obispo-based with its only location currently being right near the SLO County Regional Airport on Buckley Road. (7/7)
ULA’s Last Six Atlas Vs Can’t Launch Anything Besides Boeing’s Starliner (Source: Ars Technica)
The final flight of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket is still several years off, but an important era for the once-dominant launch company came to a close last week. The final flight of an Atlas V for the Amazon Leo broadband constellation lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport last Thursday, sending 29 satellites to orbit to move the network closer to providing initial services.
There are six more Atlas Vs in ULA’s inventory to launch Boeing’s Starliner crew capsules to the ISS under contract to NASA. But it is not certain today that Boeing will use all six of those Atlas Vs. Last year, NASA reduced the number of guaranteed missions in Boeing’s commercial crew contract from six to four after chronic delays in the program. The next Starliner flight will haul cargo to the ISS, expending one of the remaining Atlas Vs.
So what happens to the Atlas Vs left in ULA’s inventory if Boeing doesn’t need to use them all? One idea would be to repurpose the rockets for other missions, perhaps to add launch capacity for the Amazon Leo network. But there’s a catch. The Starliner spacecraft flies in an exposed configuration during launch, meaning the launch last week was the last time an Atlas V will fly with a payload fairing. Even if Boeing gave up some of the Atlas Vs under its contractual control, ULA would not be able to easily retrofit any of the leftover Atlas Vs for other missions. (7/7)
UC Santa Cruz Researchers Make Breakthrough on Solar Enigma (Source: UCSC)
Researchers are closer to unraveling a long-standing solar mystery surrounding the extreme thinness of the Sun’s tachocline layer of strong shearing motion—a region believed to be critical for creating the violent eruptions of high-energy particles and radiation from the Sun known as “space weather.”
Their study reveals new insights into how magnetic fields keep the solar tachocline so thin, and more generally, how tachoclines in other solar-type stars may contribute to stellar “spin down”—the mysterious process by which stars are observed to slow their overall rotation rates, or “spins”, as they slowly evolve. The new simulations suggest a holistic interplay between rotation, magnetism, and tachoclines in solar-like stars. (7/7)
To Aid Aging KSC Infrastructure, Florida Senator Pitches 'Space Ready Act' (Source: Florida Today)
With the number of launches increasing on Florida’s Space Coast while the infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center shows its age – and on the heels of a warning from NASA’s top watchdog — a Florida senator proposed a solution to the Cape's woes.
Senator Ashley Moody visited Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on July 7 to announce the Space Ready 2.0 Act. While it will not provide new funding, the Space Ready 2.0 Act aims to give NASA a new vehicle to accept contributions from commercial partners. It would be a pilot program. (7/7)
Investment in Russia’s Private Space Sector Could Exceed $1.3 Billion by 2030 (Source: TASS)
Investment in private companies within the rocket and space industry could exceed 100 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) by 2030, Roscosmos Deputy General Director Grigory Maximov said. "We recognize that, beyond any altruistic motivations, the private players entering this field understand how the market will take shape and what it will look like and, consequently, how the associated revenues and expenditures will ultimately flow back into their business operations," he said. (7/7)
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute Increases Investment in Giant Magellan Telescope (Source: Giant Magellan)
The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to the Giant Magellan Telescope through a new investment that brings its total contribution to nearly $110 million (USD), strengthening the Republic of Korea’s leadership as the project’s third-largest partner. (7/7)
Space Force Adds Relativity, Impulse Space to National Security Launch Program (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force is widening the field of companies eligible to compete for national security launch contracts, adding launch startup Relativity Space and orbital transportation company Impulse Space to a roster of commercial providers as it looks to diversify how military satellites reach orbit. Impulse Space plans to provide GEO rideshare missions using its Helios tug. (7/8)
Arianespace Opens Door to GEO Rideshare Opportunities From 2029 (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Infinite Orbits and Arianespace have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework for future collaboration on multiple direct-to-geostationary orbit (GEO) launch services. The partnership unites Arianespace’s decades of launch heritage with Infinite Orbits’ next-generation in-orbit servicing capabilities.
Direct access to geostationary orbit allows Infinite Orbits to deploy servicing spacecraft more rapidly, supporting satellite inspection and life-extension missions with greater operational flexibility. By identifying these future launch requirements, the French New Space company reaffirms its commitment to European launch capabilities while supporting the timely development of sovereign access to geostationary orbit. (7/8)
SpaceX Launches Transporter-17 Amid Concerns About Rideshare Program’s Future (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched the latest in its Transporter series of rideshare missions July 7 as industry concerns about the program’s future reach what one rival company executive called a panic. SpaceX launched 81 payloads on the latest launch in its rideshare series. But SpaceX is not accepting Transporter reservations beyond late 2028. (7/8)
Starfighters Space Welcomes FAA Supersonic Rulemaking (Source: Starfighters Space)
Starfighters Space expressed its support for the FAA's proposed revision of regulations that currently prohibit civil/commercial supersonic flight in US airspace. The FAA proposal would replace the current ban on supersonic flight with a "performance-based certification framework that reflects advances in aircraft technology and noise mitigation."
"As the operator of the world's only commercial fleet of flight-ready Mach 2+ aircraft, we view this proposal as an important milestone for the future of high-speed aviation," said Tim Franta, CEO of Starfighters Space. "We commend the Administration and the FAA for advancing policies that encourage American space innovation while maintaining a strong commitment to safety." (7/8)
SpaceX Just Launched the 1st-Ever Nuclear-Powered Commercial Satellite (Source: Space.com)
The world's first commercially built nuclear-powered satellite has reached orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) satellite, built by Florida-based company City Labs, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare mission.
BOHR is a novel cubesat testing out its proprietary "NanoTritium" betavoltaic micropower source in space for the first time. Similar to how spacecraft like NASA's Voyager probes' radioisotope thermoelectric generators produce power from the heat emitted from their plutonium cores, City Lab's NanoTritium device harnesses the beta particles emitted from the radioactive decay of tritium, which can be converted directly to electricity using a semiconductor. (7/7)
Skyroot Prepares for First Orbital Launch Attempt (Source: Space News)
Indian launch startup Skyroot Aerospace is preparing for its first orbital launch attempt as soon as July 12, with plans to quickly scale up to monthly launches. The Vikram-1 rocket, designed to carry small satellites into low-Earth orbit, will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota between July 12 and Aug. 4, the company said. (7/7)
'Once Upon a Time in Space' Series to Tell Florida's Space Story (Source: Florida Today)
Coming as America celebrates its 250th birthday, as well as the 15th anniversary of the final NASA space shuttle flight, Florida’s historic space story is getting a spotlight in a new PBS documentary series. Starting July 14, WUCF will present Once Upon a Time in Space, a new four-part PBS documentary series that tells America’s space story through the voices of astronauts, people behind the missions, and their families. (7/7)
Two Asteroid Rendezvous in One Weekend (Source: Douglas Messier)
Last weekend there was not one but two rendezvous with distant asteroids conducted by Chinese and Japanese spacecraft. After a voyage of 1 billion kilometers and more than 400 days, China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrived at asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (a.k.a., 2016 HO3). Chinese officials released an image of the near-Earth object taken from a distance of 20 kilometers.
Tianwen-2 will study the asteroid for nine months before departing for Earth with a sample for scientists to examine. It is China’s first mission to explore an asteroid.Kamoʻoalewa is a small Apollo-type near-Earth object that has been estimated to be 40–100 meters in diameter based on ground observations. Tianwen-2’s data will allow scientists to determine its exact dimensions.
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has conducted a flyby of asteroid 98943 Torifune. The near-Earth object resembles a peanut in the form of two rubble piles. It also appears similar to 486958 Arrokoth, a Kuiper belt object whose two lobes formed independently before gently merging together. Asteroid 98943 Torifune has been estimated to be 450 meters in diameter based on ground observations. Hayabusa2’s has a fixed camera that was not designed for a rapid flyby. So, the spacecraft’s capacity to return images was limited. (7/7)
Apophis to Pass Within GEO Ring (Source: Space Daily)
On 13 April 2029, an asteroid the size of a large skyscraper, roughly 375 meters across and named Apophis, will sweep past Earth closer than many telecommunications satellites orbit. And for once, we will be able to watch. Under clear, dark skies, an estimated two billion people across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia should be able to see it cross the night sky with the naked eye.
The single most important thing to say about that is also the most reassuring: it is a close pass, not a threat. Apophis will not hit Earth. The numbers are startling. Apophis will pass about 31,600 kilometers above Earth’s surface, which is roughly one tenth of the distance to the Moon and only about five times the radius of the Earth itself. Crucially, that is inside the ring of geostationary satellites, the ones sitting some 36,000 kilometers up that relay much of our television and communications. An asteroid this large will actually pass beneath them. (7/6)
Trapped in Orbit: China's Approach to Emergency Action on TSS (Source: Futura)
A small crack in a spacecraft window set off a complex chain of events aboard China's Tiangong space station last year. The episode began in November 2025 and only fully resolved this past May 2026, spanning nearly seven months. The incident thoroughly tested China's emergency contingency planning for crewed spaceflight. It ultimately concluded with a successful, improvised rescue that drew unusually open commentary from a normally guarded space program.
China’s human spaceflight program manages this risk through a strict standing contingency policy known as “one launch, one on standby.” Under this framework, engineers maintain a backup Shenzhou spacecraft and a Long March 2F rocket on hand at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The China Manned Space Agency activated this emergency protocol, accelerating the launch timeline of the Shenzhou 22 vehicle by roughly six months to send it up uncrewed as a dedicated lifeboat. (7/5)
Audit: Starliner Costs Lower Than Full Reliance on SpaceX (Source: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
Boeing's Starliner faces delays and cost overruns, but it remains a less expensive option for NASA than relying solely on SpaceX, according to an audit by the NASA Office of Inspector General. The audit highlights unresolved issues such as helium leaks and thruster problems, which could delay human-rating certification to 2027. NASA has spent nearly $10 billion on the Commercial Crew Program, with Boeing's contract now valued at $3.7 billion and SpaceX's at $4.9 billion. (7/6)
Europe’s Space Sovereignty Will Depend on How It Scales Optical Connectivity (Source: Astrolight)
The recent European Commission’s move to prioritize European operators in allocating spectrum for direct-to-device connectivity services, the development of Europe’s IRIS² constellation, and Germany’s planned €35 billion investment in defense space capabilities are all part of Europe’s strategic push to reduce its reliance on foreign space services.
Experts argue, however, that building infrastructure is only part of the challenge: for sovereign space networks to remain competitive, they have to utilize and scale optical communication. Global satellite connectivity demand will increase more than 11 times between 2024 and 2034. At the same time, less than 10% of all data generated in orbit currently reaches Earth, largely because of limited downlink bandwidth and scarce spectrum availability in conventional communication systems. (7/6)
Famous Study in Error: the Universe Isn’t Anisotropic (Source: Big Think)
Here in our Universe, we’ve drawn the conclusion that it’s been expanding and cooling for 13.8 billion years: ever since the hot Big Bang first began. In all directions, the same cosmic structures emerge: stars, galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies, a network of interconnected filaments, with vast cosmic voids separating these matter-rich structures. At distances near and far, and in all directions and all locations, the Universe appears not identical, but similar: with the same densities, galaxy counts, and types of structures found everywhere.
Our cosmological picture, however, only makes sense — and exhibits self-consistency — if the Universe is both homogeneous and isotropic: the same in all locations and the same in all directions. The underlying equations we use to govern the expanding Universe on the largest of cosmic scales, the Friedmann equations, require both of these assumptions to be true.
Thus far, the large-scale structure data seems to agree with these assumptions, including from the largest surveys of all: the 2dF galaxy redshift survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey have all supported this consensus picture. However, in a new study published in Nature at the end of June 2026, coauthors Francesco Sylos Labini and Marco Galoppo argue that the DESI data actually supports an anisotropic Universe. (7/6)
t’s time to revisit our idea of Neptune and Uranus, too—for the so-called ice giants likely contain very little ice. The term is “a little bit misleading,” says Ravit Helled, a planetary scientist at the University of Zürich. “We really don’t know what these planets are made of.” She and her colleagues do, however, have ideas, ranging from magma oceans to soups of icy methane. (7/7)
New UCF Study Links Microgravity, Space Radiation to Accelerated Aging (Source: UCF)
What happens to the human body in space may help scientists create new anti-aging therapies. UCF’s Michal Masternak and his team have identified molecular changes in the liver that happen when space travelers experience radiation and microgravity. These changes – that resemble accelerated aging – provide new insight into how prolonged space missions may increase health risks for astronauts and reveal potential targets for therapies that could combat age-related diseases on Earth. (7/7)
SpaceX Transporter-17 Deploys Four Canadian Satellites Deployed on Transporter-17 Mission (Source: SpaceQ)
SpaceX successfully launched the Transporter-17 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday morning, deploying 81 payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO), including four Canadian payloads from GHGSat, EarthDaily Analytics, and the University of Victoria. (7/7)
With SpaceX Starship, Japan's ispace Provides Ride-Share to the Moon (Source: Reuters)
Japanese moon transport company ispace plans a new, lower-cost lunar cargo business using SpaceX's Starship heavy rocket and moon lander. Tokyo-based ispace has bought 500 kg (1,102 lb) of capacity for $50 million on a Starship that would land on the moon as soon as 2030, and will build a lunar surface vehicle that can host payloads from clients worldwide sharing their ride on Starship to the moon, it said. (7/8)
Kennedy Space Center Offers 'Celebrate USA 250' Ticket Discounts (Source: Florida Today)
In honor of America's 250th anniversary, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is offering $17.76 in savings on one-day admission tickets through Aug. 31. The discounted pricing brings adult admission to $59.24, and child admission to $49.24. (7/4)
NASA Acquisition Workforce Losses: Opportunity Amid Challenges (Source: FNN)
Across the government, agencies face a pronounced loss of historical knowledge as retirements and federal workforce reductions levy widespread impact. The shift marks a pivotal moment for countless departments and teams, including those at NASA.
While the changes create hurdles and pressures, also emerging are opportunities to reassess and reimagine how work gets done – particularly in the federal acquisition workforce. This is especially significant as the work of acquisition itself faces increasing complexity, said NASA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Procurement Marvin Horne.
“With high retirements, it’s removing people who know how to execute complex source evaluation boards, historical knowledge of certain contract structures – why they were successful or why they failed – historical knowledge of contractor negotiation strategies, even the informal stakeholder engagement that ensures strong procurement and program collaboration,” Horne said. “The true concern is not about replacement of staff; it’s about replacing judgment cultivated over a 25- to 30-year career. (6/30)
NASA Seeks Industry Input to Accelerate Lunar Surface Technologies (Source: NASA)
Long-term lunar exploration requires technology, infrastructure, and operations that function together cohesively on the surface of the Moon. To accelerate the development of key lunar surface systems and reduce risk, NASA and industry must work together in the design, development, testing, and evaluation of innovative solutions that support U.S. space priorities.
NASA is seeking feedback on a draft solicitation for the Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator, an effort to help develop emerging capabilities in surface power, in-situ resource utilization, advanced manufacturing, and innovative nanomaterials. The draft is available for review by U.S. organizations, including industry, educational institutions, and non-profits. (6/29)
Firefly Aerospace Awarded $13 Million JPL Contract for SkyFall Mars Mission Aeroshell (Source: Telemetry Today)
Firefly Aerospace has received a $13 million subcontract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to manufacture, test, and deliver the aeroshell for NASA's SkyFall mission to Mars, which is currently targeted for launch in late 2028. The SkyFall mission, managed by JPL, will deploy three Mars helicopters derived from the Ingenuity technology demonstrator to conduct scientific investigations, perform airborne subsurface mapping, and prospect for resources that could support future human missions to Mars.
The mission will use a new "SkyFall Maneuver," in which the helicopters are released during descent and fly themselves to the Martian surface, eliminating the need for a traditional landing platform. (7/7)
U.S. Eyes Offshore Spaceports With First-Ever Call for Industry Input (Source: G Captain)
The Trump administration is taking its first formal step toward evaluating whether federal offshore waters could support commercial space launches and spacecraft recovery operations. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday announced it will publish a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public and industry feedback on the potential use of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for offshore space launch, re-entry and recovery infrastructure.
The RFI, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 8, opens a 30-day public comment period through Aug. 7. BOEM said it is looking for technical, environmental, operational and safety information that could help shape future planning and coordination for offshore space activities. (7/7)
First SaxaVord Rocket Launch Could Take Place in August (Source: Shetland News)
The first rocket test flight could take place at SaxaVord Spaceport in Unst between August and early September. A launch window will be in place at the site, having been agreed with international, national and local authorities and regulators. Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) said earlier this year it was aiming for a launch after 1 July, with the first and second stages of its ONE launch vehicle delivered to Unst in March. (7/7)
Paso Robles is Full Steam Ahead on Spaceport — and a Local Aerospace Company Took Notice (Source: The Tribune)
Even if Paso Robles might not yet have its spaceport license, aerospace company Zone 5 Technologies is already seeing its potential. That’s why it’s expanding its manufacturing operations to the Paso Robles Municipal Airport this summer. Zone 5 Technologies is San Luis Obispo-based with its only location currently being right near the SLO County Regional Airport on Buckley Road. (7/7)
ULA’s Last Six Atlas Vs Can’t Launch Anything Besides Boeing’s Starliner (Source: Ars Technica)
The final flight of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket is still several years off, but an important era for the once-dominant launch company came to a close last week. The final flight of an Atlas V for the Amazon Leo broadband constellation lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport last Thursday, sending 29 satellites to orbit to move the network closer to providing initial services.
There are six more Atlas Vs in ULA’s inventory to launch Boeing’s Starliner crew capsules to the ISS under contract to NASA. But it is not certain today that Boeing will use all six of those Atlas Vs. Last year, NASA reduced the number of guaranteed missions in Boeing’s commercial crew contract from six to four after chronic delays in the program. The next Starliner flight will haul cargo to the ISS, expending one of the remaining Atlas Vs.
So what happens to the Atlas Vs left in ULA’s inventory if Boeing doesn’t need to use them all? One idea would be to repurpose the rockets for other missions, perhaps to add launch capacity for the Amazon Leo network. But there’s a catch. The Starliner spacecraft flies in an exposed configuration during launch, meaning the launch last week was the last time an Atlas V will fly with a payload fairing. Even if Boeing gave up some of the Atlas Vs under its contractual control, ULA would not be able to easily retrofit any of the leftover Atlas Vs for other missions. (7/7)
UC Santa Cruz Researchers Make Breakthrough on Solar Enigma (Source: UCSC)
Researchers are closer to unraveling a long-standing solar mystery surrounding the extreme thinness of the Sun’s tachocline layer of strong shearing motion—a region believed to be critical for creating the violent eruptions of high-energy particles and radiation from the Sun known as “space weather.”
Their study reveals new insights into how magnetic fields keep the solar tachocline so thin, and more generally, how tachoclines in other solar-type stars may contribute to stellar “spin down”—the mysterious process by which stars are observed to slow their overall rotation rates, or “spins”, as they slowly evolve. The new simulations suggest a holistic interplay between rotation, magnetism, and tachoclines in solar-like stars. (7/7)
To Aid Aging KSC Infrastructure, Florida Senator Pitches 'Space Ready Act' (Source: Florida Today)
With the number of launches increasing on Florida’s Space Coast while the infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center shows its age – and on the heels of a warning from NASA’s top watchdog — a Florida senator proposed a solution to the Cape's woes.
Senator Ashley Moody visited Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on July 7 to announce the Space Ready 2.0 Act. While it will not provide new funding, the Space Ready 2.0 Act aims to give NASA a new vehicle to accept contributions from commercial partners. It would be a pilot program. (7/7)
Investment in Russia’s Private Space Sector Could Exceed $1.3 Billion by 2030 (Source: TASS)
Investment in private companies within the rocket and space industry could exceed 100 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) by 2030, Roscosmos Deputy General Director Grigory Maximov said. "We recognize that, beyond any altruistic motivations, the private players entering this field understand how the market will take shape and what it will look like and, consequently, how the associated revenues and expenditures will ultimately flow back into their business operations," he said. (7/7)
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute Increases Investment in Giant Magellan Telescope (Source: Giant Magellan)
The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to the Giant Magellan Telescope through a new investment that brings its total contribution to nearly $110 million (USD), strengthening the Republic of Korea’s leadership as the project’s third-largest partner. (7/7)
Space Force Adds Relativity, Impulse Space to National Security Launch Program (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force is widening the field of companies eligible to compete for national security launch contracts, adding launch startup Relativity Space and orbital transportation company Impulse Space to a roster of commercial providers as it looks to diversify how military satellites reach orbit. Impulse Space plans to provide GEO rideshare missions using its Helios tug. (7/8)
Arianespace Opens Door to GEO Rideshare Opportunities From 2029 (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Infinite Orbits and Arianespace have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework for future collaboration on multiple direct-to-geostationary orbit (GEO) launch services. The partnership unites Arianespace’s decades of launch heritage with Infinite Orbits’ next-generation in-orbit servicing capabilities.
Direct access to geostationary orbit allows Infinite Orbits to deploy servicing spacecraft more rapidly, supporting satellite inspection and life-extension missions with greater operational flexibility. By identifying these future launch requirements, the French New Space company reaffirms its commitment to European launch capabilities while supporting the timely development of sovereign access to geostationary orbit. (7/8)
SpaceX Launches Transporter-17 Amid Concerns About Rideshare Program’s Future (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched the latest in its Transporter series of rideshare missions July 7 as industry concerns about the program’s future reach what one rival company executive called a panic. SpaceX launched 81 payloads on the latest launch in its rideshare series. But SpaceX is not accepting Transporter reservations beyond late 2028. (7/8)
Starfighters Space Welcomes FAA Supersonic Rulemaking (Source: Starfighters Space)
Starfighters Space expressed its support for the FAA's proposed revision of regulations that currently prohibit civil/commercial supersonic flight in US airspace. The FAA proposal would replace the current ban on supersonic flight with a "performance-based certification framework that reflects advances in aircraft technology and noise mitigation."
"As the operator of the world's only commercial fleet of flight-ready Mach 2+ aircraft, we view this proposal as an important milestone for the future of high-speed aviation," said Tim Franta, CEO of Starfighters Space. "We commend the Administration and the FAA for advancing policies that encourage American space innovation while maintaining a strong commitment to safety." (7/8)
SpaceX Just Launched the 1st-Ever Nuclear-Powered Commercial Satellite (Source: Space.com)
The world's first commercially built nuclear-powered satellite has reached orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) satellite, built by Florida-based company City Labs, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare mission.
BOHR is a novel cubesat testing out its proprietary "NanoTritium" betavoltaic micropower source in space for the first time. Similar to how spacecraft like NASA's Voyager probes' radioisotope thermoelectric generators produce power from the heat emitted from their plutonium cores, City Lab's NanoTritium device harnesses the beta particles emitted from the radioactive decay of tritium, which can be converted directly to electricity using a semiconductor. (7/7)
Skyroot Prepares for First Orbital Launch Attempt (Source: Space News)
Indian launch startup Skyroot Aerospace is preparing for its first orbital launch attempt as soon as July 12, with plans to quickly scale up to monthly launches. The Vikram-1 rocket, designed to carry small satellites into low-Earth orbit, will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota between July 12 and Aug. 4, the company said. (7/7)
'Once Upon a Time in Space' Series to Tell Florida's Space Story (Source: Florida Today)
Coming as America celebrates its 250th birthday, as well as the 15th anniversary of the final NASA space shuttle flight, Florida’s historic space story is getting a spotlight in a new PBS documentary series. Starting July 14, WUCF will present Once Upon a Time in Space, a new four-part PBS documentary series that tells America’s space story through the voices of astronauts, people behind the missions, and their families. (7/7)
Two Asteroid Rendezvous in One Weekend (Source: Douglas Messier)
Last weekend there was not one but two rendezvous with distant asteroids conducted by Chinese and Japanese spacecraft. After a voyage of 1 billion kilometers and more than 400 days, China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrived at asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (a.k.a., 2016 HO3). Chinese officials released an image of the near-Earth object taken from a distance of 20 kilometers.
Tianwen-2 will study the asteroid for nine months before departing for Earth with a sample for scientists to examine. It is China’s first mission to explore an asteroid.Kamoʻoalewa is a small Apollo-type near-Earth object that has been estimated to be 40–100 meters in diameter based on ground observations. Tianwen-2’s data will allow scientists to determine its exact dimensions.
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has conducted a flyby of asteroid 98943 Torifune. The near-Earth object resembles a peanut in the form of two rubble piles. It also appears similar to 486958 Arrokoth, a Kuiper belt object whose two lobes formed independently before gently merging together. Asteroid 98943 Torifune has been estimated to be 450 meters in diameter based on ground observations. Hayabusa2’s has a fixed camera that was not designed for a rapid flyby. So, the spacecraft’s capacity to return images was limited. (7/7)
Apophis to Pass Within GEO Ring (Source: Space Daily)
On 13 April 2029, an asteroid the size of a large skyscraper, roughly 375 meters across and named Apophis, will sweep past Earth closer than many telecommunications satellites orbit. And for once, we will be able to watch. Under clear, dark skies, an estimated two billion people across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia should be able to see it cross the night sky with the naked eye.
The single most important thing to say about that is also the most reassuring: it is a close pass, not a threat. Apophis will not hit Earth. The numbers are startling. Apophis will pass about 31,600 kilometers above Earth’s surface, which is roughly one tenth of the distance to the Moon and only about five times the radius of the Earth itself. Crucially, that is inside the ring of geostationary satellites, the ones sitting some 36,000 kilometers up that relay much of our television and communications. An asteroid this large will actually pass beneath them. (7/6)
Trapped in Orbit: China's Approach to Emergency Action on TSS (Source: Futura)
A small crack in a spacecraft window set off a complex chain of events aboard China's Tiangong space station last year. The episode began in November 2025 and only fully resolved this past May 2026, spanning nearly seven months. The incident thoroughly tested China's emergency contingency planning for crewed spaceflight. It ultimately concluded with a successful, improvised rescue that drew unusually open commentary from a normally guarded space program.
China’s human spaceflight program manages this risk through a strict standing contingency policy known as “one launch, one on standby.” Under this framework, engineers maintain a backup Shenzhou spacecraft and a Long March 2F rocket on hand at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The China Manned Space Agency activated this emergency protocol, accelerating the launch timeline of the Shenzhou 22 vehicle by roughly six months to send it up uncrewed as a dedicated lifeboat. (7/5)
Audit: Starliner Costs Lower Than Full Reliance on SpaceX (Source: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
Boeing's Starliner faces delays and cost overruns, but it remains a less expensive option for NASA than relying solely on SpaceX, according to an audit by the NASA Office of Inspector General. The audit highlights unresolved issues such as helium leaks and thruster problems, which could delay human-rating certification to 2027. NASA has spent nearly $10 billion on the Commercial Crew Program, with Boeing's contract now valued at $3.7 billion and SpaceX's at $4.9 billion. (7/6)
Europe’s Space Sovereignty Will Depend on How It Scales Optical Connectivity (Source: Astrolight)
The recent European Commission’s move to prioritize European operators in allocating spectrum for direct-to-device connectivity services, the development of Europe’s IRIS² constellation, and Germany’s planned €35 billion investment in defense space capabilities are all part of Europe’s strategic push to reduce its reliance on foreign space services.
Experts argue, however, that building infrastructure is only part of the challenge: for sovereign space networks to remain competitive, they have to utilize and scale optical communication. Global satellite connectivity demand will increase more than 11 times between 2024 and 2034. At the same time, less than 10% of all data generated in orbit currently reaches Earth, largely because of limited downlink bandwidth and scarce spectrum availability in conventional communication systems. (7/6)
Famous Study in Error: the Universe Isn’t Anisotropic (Source: Big Think)
Here in our Universe, we’ve drawn the conclusion that it’s been expanding and cooling for 13.8 billion years: ever since the hot Big Bang first began. In all directions, the same cosmic structures emerge: stars, galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies, a network of interconnected filaments, with vast cosmic voids separating these matter-rich structures. At distances near and far, and in all directions and all locations, the Universe appears not identical, but similar: with the same densities, galaxy counts, and types of structures found everywhere.
Our cosmological picture, however, only makes sense — and exhibits self-consistency — if the Universe is both homogeneous and isotropic: the same in all locations and the same in all directions. The underlying equations we use to govern the expanding Universe on the largest of cosmic scales, the Friedmann equations, require both of these assumptions to be true.
Thus far, the large-scale structure data seems to agree with these assumptions, including from the largest surveys of all: the 2dF galaxy redshift survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey have all supported this consensus picture. However, in a new study published in Nature at the end of June 2026, coauthors Francesco Sylos Labini and Marco Galoppo argue that the DESI data actually supports an anisotropic Universe. (7/6)
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