June 18, 2026

Can Hong Kong Make a Giant Leap to Commercial Space Insurance? (Source: SCMP)
In many ways, space insurance mirrors maritime insurance. In the early days of commercial space launch, the US turned to Lloyd’s of London – the undisputed king of global maritime insurance. In 1965, Lloyd’s wrote the world’s first space policy: a pre-launch insurance policy for the world’s first commercial communication satellite, Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird. The explosive growth of China’s commercial space business, combined with geopolitical realities, gives Hong Kong a captive market. (6/17)

Gateway Cancel Leads to Tucson Job Cuts (Source: Phoenix Business Journal)
Paragon Space Development Corp. is laying off dozens of employees at its Tucson headquarters in the wake of a Northrop Grumman contract termination for NASA’s Lunar Gateway program. Paragon Space on June 12 filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act with Arizona’s Department of Economic Security stating it will cut 77 jobs at its Tucson facility. (5/17)

NASA Picks Relativity to Develop Mars Mission (Sources: Tech Crunch, Space News)
Relativity Space plans to launch a Mars orbiter mission in 2028 with a NASA instrument suite. The company's Interplanetary Sciences Program is an effort to enable low-cost space science missions, beginning with a Mars orbiter with a radar instrument for studying subsurface ice and geology as well as Aeolus, a set of instruments provided by NASA's Ames Research Center for monitoring the planet's atmosphere. The spacecraft will launch on the company's Terran R rocket that is still in development.

Aeolus, as the mission is dubbed, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, winds, and temperature in its atmosphere. The agency said that data will make it safer for landers and, someday, astronauts, to visit the surface of the Red Planet.

The mission is set to launch in 2028—a rapid pace that will require Relativity to design and build the spacecraft to carry the Aeolus instruments, and finish building the rocket that will carry it to space, all on a tight timeline. NASA did not disclose how much it is paying Relativity for the mission. If Relativity’s Aeolus launches on schedule, it could be the first private mission to reach the Red Planet. (6/18)

Texas Venture Capitalist Dies in Plane Crash (Source: Texas Monthly)
Joshua Baer, the irrepressible and monumentally influential cofounder and CEO of Austin-based start-up incubator/venture capital firm/coworking office Capital Factory, died Tuesday night when a small Austin-bound plane owned by the company NetJets crashed on a highway in Laredo. He was among the major investors in Firefly Aerospace and other aerospace startups. (6/17)

Is SpaceX’s Mars Mission Based On An Unproven—And Dangerous—Premise? (Source: Aviation Week)
The mission of SpaceX and founder Elon Musk is to make humanity multiplanetary by settling a “fully self-sustaining civilization on Mars.” Musk envisions a flotilla of several thousand Starships launching at roughly two-year intervals to transport Martian colonizers to settle the new world. Yet very little public thought or research has addressed the biological, technical and ethical problems of creating a “self-sustaining civilization”—a goal that necessitates reproducing and raising children on a planet that is hostile to all forms of life.

Indeed, SpaceX’s plans to settle more than a million humans on Mars may be based on a faulty premise: that the short-term survival of highly trained astronauts in space proves that humans can live and reproduce on Mars. This load-bearing assumption, if it collapsed, would likely change the calculus for SpaceX investors and for early space settlers motivated by founding a new civilization—some of whom Musk says “will probably die in the beginning.” (6/18)

Paso Robles is One Step Closer to Getting a Spaceport. What’s Next? (Source: The Tribune)
The city of Paso Robles took the next step to making its spaceport a reality Tuesday. According to a city news release, Paso Robles is now looking for proposals to progress its FAA Commercial Spaceport License application to create a horizontal space launch facility at the Paso Robles Municipal Airport. The last time the city discussed the Spaceport and Technology Corridor project was in March after the City Council unanimously directed staff to prepare a request for proposals to receive its licensing. (6/17)

Eutelsat Secures First Order Under French Defense Agreement (Source: Via Satellite)
Eutelsat has won a slew of new deals including an order under an agreement with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans, and an agreement for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) services in Angola. Eutelsat signed a capacity contract through the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), as part of the Centaure contract, marking the first call-off contract under the 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) NEXUS framework agreement, signed a year ago. (6/16)

U.S. astronaut Christina Koch wins Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (Source: El Pais)
Christina Koch, the first woman to travel to the Moon, has been awarded the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord. The jury of the prestigious Spanish prize announced its decision on Wednesday, citing the U.S. astronaut’s scientific career and work in space exploration. Koch, one of the four crew members of Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the Moon in over half a century. Koch holds the longest continuous female record for time spent in space. (6/17)

Space Weather Forecasting: Momentus Secures Commercial Payload Contract for Vigoride-9 OSV (Source: SatNews)
Commercial space transportation provider Momentus Inc. has secured a new contract with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Under the agreement, Momentus will integrate and operate LASP’s upcoming Occultation Wave Limb Sounder (OWLS) mission aboard the company’s next-generation Vigoride-9 Orbital Service Vehicle (OSV). The scientific research mission is scheduled to launch into low-Earth orbit (LEO) in 2027. (6/17)

Bezos Earth Fund Invests in FireSat Constellation Build-Out (Source: Via Satellite)
Jeff Bezos’ philanthropic organization the Bezos Earth Fund is joining the investment coalition for the wildfire-monitoring FireSat constellation. Bezos Earth Fund announced a $26 million investment in the non-profit Earth Fire Alliance and its FireSat program on Wednesday. The Earth Fire Alliance is a nonprofit coalition supported by Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and others. This is the largest contribution to Earth Fire Alliance to date, and said to be the largest single philanthropic grant to wildfire detection. (6/17)

Scientists Hail MAVEN's Legacy as NASA Retires Red Planet Orbiter (Source: Space.com)
Following months of unsuccessful recovery efforts, NASA has officially begun decommissioning the MAVEN orbiter, bringing to a close an 11-year mission that transformed scientists' understanding of Mars and became one of the agency's most valuable assets at the Red Planet. For more than a decade, MAVEN circled Mars in a highly elliptical orbit, measuring particles escaping into space and observing how the atmosphere responded to solar activity. Among its most significant findings was evidence that solar storms can dramatically accelerate the loss of atmospheric gases, helping explain how Mars evolved from a potentially habitable world into the cold, barren planet seen today. (6/17)

Quantum Space Picked for DoD Satellite Propellant Transfer Project (Source: Space News)
Quantum Space won a Pentagon contract to develop a spacecraft capable of transferring propellant to satellites in geostationary orbit. The company said Thursday the contract, whose value was not disclosed, covers production of an orbital refueling vehicle using its Ranger platform, a maneuverable spacecraft designed for missions including satellite servicing, space logistics and other operations. The contract is funded by the Department of Defense's Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund, or OECIF. The spacecraft will be ready for launch in 2028. (6/18)

Blue Origin Begins Launch Complex Re-Build (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin has started to rebuild the New Glenn pad damaged in an explosion last month. Speaking at the VivaTech conference in Paris on Wednesday, CEO Dave Limp said workers have finished cleaning up debris at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36 from a May 28 explosion of a New Glenn rocket during a static-fire test. Reconstruction of the pad started Tuesday, he said, with plans to be ready to resume New Glenn launches there by the end of the year. Neither he nor company founder Jeff Bezos provided details at the conference about what caused the explosion. (6/18)

Ariane 6 Launches 36 Amazon Leo Satellites (Source: Space News)
An upgraded version of the Ariane 6 rocket launched three dozen Amazon Leo satellites Wednesday. The Ariane 64 lifted off at 8:21 a.m. Eastern from Kourou, French Guiana, and successfully deployed 36 Amazon Leo satellites. This was the first launch of the Ariane 64 to use upgraded P160C solid rocket boosters, which increase the vehicle's payload capacity to low Earth orbit by more than two metric tons. That allowed this launch to carry 36 Amazon Leo satellites, versus the 32 on previous launches.

This was the third Ariane 6 launch this year, with Arianespace planning seven to eight missions this year. European Space Agency officials said Wednesday they were studying options to increase the vehicle's launch rate, reviewing scenarios of between 12 to 20 launches a year. That would require significant infrastructure improvements, and ESA expects to decide by the end of this year what increase it would be willing to support. (6/18)

China's Kuaizhou-11 Launch Was a Success (Source: Xinhua)
China says a Kuaizhou-11 launch whose outcome was in doubt was successful. The rocket lifted off Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, but a lack of updates led to speculation the launch had failed. Chinese media reported more than 24 hours after the launch that the rocket successfully deployed a payload of CentiSpace navigation satellites into low Earth orbit, but provided no other details about the launch. (6/18)

France to Use OneWeb for Secure Comms (Source: European Spaceflight)
The French government will use the OneWeb constellation for secure communications. The French defense procurement agency DGA announced a contract this week with Eutelsat worth 138 million euros ($158 million) over four years to use OneWeb for secure communications for the French armed forces. The contract could grow to 350 million euros over eight years. The contract is intended to be a gapfiller until the IRIS² constellation is ready around 2030. (6/18)

Russian Cosmonaut Smokutyaev Passes at 56 (Source: Collect Space)
A Russian cosmonaut who flew on two International Space Station missions has died. Aleksandr Samokutyaev died Wednesday at the age of 56, Roscosmos announced, but did not disclose the cause of his death. Samokutyaev flew on two ISS missions, the first in 2011 and the second in 2014-25, spending a combined 331 days in space. He is the first member of an ISS expedition to pass away. (6/18)

DHS Promotes Latest Space Cybersecurity Research in SPARTA (Source: Via Satellite)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has revealed details of the latest space cybersecurity research to help protect critical infrastructure. Through the Aerospace SPARTA framework, S&T has published key resources, including Indicators of Behavior, published in April 2025, and Prioritized Countermeasures, published in March 2026. These resources are meant to enable onboard threat detection and provide actionable information for implementing space cybersecurity. (6/17)

ESA Seeks to Increase Ariane and Vega Launch Cadence (Source: Space Intel Report)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is examining ways to increase the launch rates of its Ariane 6 heavy-lift and Vega-C medium-lift rockets to capture what’s almost certain to be a surge in demand starting now and continuing through the end of the decade. Ariane 6, which conducted its eighth straight successful flight on June 17, carrying 36 Amazon Leo satellites into low Earth orbit, launched four times in 2025. Launch service provider Arianespace is targeting 7-8 launches this year as it ramps capacity. (6/17)

The Private Space Race is Spurring a Luxury Hotel Land Grab for Florida Oceanfront Property (Source: CNBC)
The rise of the private space industry, with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, has spurred demand for commercial real estate on Florida’s space coast. A new $420 million Westin Cocoa Beach Resort & Spa is set to open next year complete with a conference center. Once the Westin opens, Miami-based Driftwood Capital will control about 62% of the beachfront hotel inventory in the region, according to executive chairman Carlos Rodriguez Sr.

Rodriguez says the area is attracting senior corporate leaders and scientists who travel to watch launches and support new facilities. He points to companies such as Amazon establishing operations at the Kennedy Space Center, alongside broader momentum from the U.S. Space Force and increasing commercial interest in space-related ventures. (6/17)

UK's Instinct Space Unveils Plans for Low-Cost Lunar Landers (Source: Payload)
Instinct Space announced a significant pivot today from helping lunar surface missions find their way to getting in on the surface action itself. The London-based startup joined Y Combinator in 2025 with the aim of developing a lunar-orbiting GPS constellation. Now, the company has shifted its vision, unveiling plans to build low-cost lunar landers, which will be capable of reaching the lunar surface from LEO.

Instinct is scheduled to fly its first lunar mission in late 2028, where its dishwasher-sized lunar lander will carry 20 kg of payload to the Moon for about $550,000 per kg. The vehicle will weigh ~650 kg when fully fueled. It will rely on an electric pump-fed engine and four small attitude thrusters, running on a mix of hydrogen peroxide and kerosene, which can provide 6 km/s of Delta-v—enough to bring 20 kg of payload from LEO to the Moon. The same prop system will perform the landing burn on the lunar surface. (6/17)

Tackling the Launch Capability Bottleneck (Source: Space News)
One theme that’s already emerging for the second half of the year? Launch capability. That term doesn’t simply mean finding rockets to take satellites to orbit but also for the United States to have the infrastructure needed to get tens of thousands of new satellites to orbit. There are growing concerns about launch demand straining capacity at both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral.

Policymakers could be forced to consider “non-traditional” launch sites, including inland and sea-based spaceports, to relieve pressure on the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and Vandenberg Space Force Base. Long viewed as a technically difficult niche with a history of commercial failure, companies and defense officials are giving offshore launch a second look as they search for ways to expand United States launch capacity.

The Commercial Space Federation and Rational Futures report, "SCRUBBED: America’s Launch Capacity Challenge," identifies a critical infrastructure bottleneck as satellite launches are projected to exceed 7,000 annually by the mid-2030s. Current U.S. launch infrastructure and regulatory pipelines are operating at capacity, requiring modernized facilities and streamlined FAA processes to maintain competitive dominance. (6/17)

NASA Seeks Alternative Launcher for Blue Moon Landers (Source: Mach 33)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated publicly on June 5, 2026 that the agency is evaluating alternative launch vehicles for Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo lander after the May 28 explosion of a New Glenn rocket. Speaking at the CNBC CEO Council Summit, Isaacman said that in terms of heavy-lift options, the agency is likely looking at "Falcon Heavy land," per Gizmodo reporting. The Blue Moon Mark 1 uncrewed cargo lander had been contracted to fly on New Glenn as early as fall 2026 to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar surface. (6/11)

Third Time’s the Charm for a Row of Faint Galaxies Without Dark Matter (Source: Yale)
Astronomers have followed a faint, cosmic trail of gas to a third galaxy that has no dark matter. Yale astronomers found a dwarf galaxy located 67 million light-years from Earth — called NGC 1052-DF9 — that appears to have formed in a straight line with nine other galaxies. Two of those other galaxies, DF2 and DF4, were previously shown to lack dark matter — an invisible, theorized material that gives shape to the universe and is thought by most astronomers to be essential to galaxy formation. Now, DF9 has joined the no-dark-matter club. (6/16)

Could Earth Have Sent Life to Jupiter's Moon Europa? (Source: Phys.org)
Zaza Osmanov calculates the chance that dust particles containing living bacteria were ejected from Earth's gravitational well and traveled to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, where they could have landed undestroyed and made their way through cracks in Europa's ice. Osmanov calls this the "reverse panspermia problem" and calculated that "in 5 billion years dust grains can travel in the interstellar medium at distances of the order of hundreds of parsecs."

Also, given the distribution of stars in the Milky Way, "particles emitted by every single planet will reach as many as 105 stellar systems." Moreover, Osmanov found that from a single planet, life can be transported to about a thousand star systems. (6/16)

No More Woke Science Wanted At NASA (Source: NASA Watch)
NASA put out Amendment 59: Several Updates to the ROSES-25 Summary of Solicitation. BOTH of the official documents cited in this notice issued by NASA contain blatantly political rhetoric such as: “This lack of transparency, accountability, and proper oversight became increasingly clear between 2021 and 2024. Federal awards were often used during those years to promote a “woke” policy agenda that did not reflect the values of the vast majority of the American public.” (6/16)

Five Uncrewed Starship Rockets are Projected to Launch Toward Mars During the Brief Window in Late 2026 (Source: Space Daily)
Every 26 months, the orbits of Earth and Mars align in a particular geometric configuration that allows spacecraft to travel between them with the lowest possible fuel expenditure. The window lasts approximately one month. Miss it, and the next opportunity is more than two years away. The next such window opens in November 2026 and closes in December. SpaceX has been preparing for this specific window for years.

Elon Musk has publicly committed to launching up to five uncrewed Starship V3 vehicles toward Mars during the 2026 window, carrying cargo, scientific experiments contracted by the Italian Space Agency, and a small fleet of Optimus humanoid robots built by Tesla. The robots are intended to demonstrate operational capability on the Martian surface — the first robotic ambassadors of a private company on another planet, if the mission succeeds. (6/17)

At Least Two Trillion Galaxies Fill the Observable Universe (Source: Space Daily)
The paper states it plainly. There are “at least 2 × 10¹² (two trillion) galaxies in the currently visible universe, the vast majority of which cannot be observed with present day technology as they are too faint.” In other words, the count is less a tally of dots in our images than an estimate of how many dots the images are missing. The team did not add up galaxies one by one. Instead they used galaxy stellar mass functions, which describe how many galaxies of each mass exist in a given slice of space. They measured these at many points in cosmic history, reaching back to within roughly 650 million years of the Big Bang. (6/16)

SpaceX vs. Blue Origin, Rocket Lab: What The Numbers Show (Source: Trefis)
At least five companies, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and two Chinese state-backed programs, now have reusable hardware flying or about to fly. What’s driving all of them is the same underlying demand: satellite megaconstellations that need thousands of repeat launches over their lifetime, not a single mission. That kind of recurring demand is what turns a one-time technology lead into a market large enough to support several winners at once.

The numbers that matter to an investor are reuse, payload, and cadence, because together they determine how cheaply and how often a company can put mass into orbit. On reuse, SpaceX still leads by a wide margin: it had roughly 400 orbital booster recoveries by April 2026, dwarfing China’s combined total of a few dozen and Blue Origin’s single-digit count. Each successful recovery is effectively a rehearsal that lowers the odds of failure on the next one. That makes this gap also a reliability gap and not just a volume one. It also shows up directly in price.

On payload, which is simply how much mass a rocket can lift to orbit in one flight, Blue Origin’s New Glenn actually beats Falcon 9, though it hasn’t flown nearly often enough to prove that capacity translates into reliable, repeatable service. Rocket Lab’s Neutron sits in a smaller payload class entirely, built for satellites that don’t need a heavy-lift vehicle, and is targeting a launch price of around $50 million once it debuts, a figure roughly in line with what Falcon 9 charges commercial customers today. The gap that matters most right now is cadence. (6/16)

Italy Leads UN COPUOS (Source: Space Economy Institute)
Italy will lead the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) for the 2026–2027 term. An important achievement for the Italian space sector: Teodoro Valente, President of the Italian Space Agency, has been elected to lead one of the world’s key international bodies for space governance.

At a time when space is becoming increasingly strategic for economic growth, scientific progress and international cooperation, COPUOS will play a central role in addressing major challenges such as sustainable space activities, satellite traffic management, orbital debris mitigation and equitable access to space. (6/16)

July 29 GSA Webinar: Building Spaceports for Performance and Growth (Source: GSA)
Join the Global Spaceport Alliance for an engaging discussion led by BRPH’s aerospace and infrastructure experts on the planning, design, and development strategies shaping the next generation of spaceports. As spaceports evolve into hubs for transportation, manufacturing, innovation, and economic growth, successful development requires more than launch infrastructure alone. This webinar will explore how spaceports can be designed to support operational performance, attract aerospace tenants, and scale for future transportation systems. Click here. (6/16)

July 17, 2026

Katalyst Raises $12 Million for Satellite Servicing (Source: Space News)
Satellite servicing startup Katalyst Space Technologies has raised $12 million. The company said Tuesday it closed a funding round led by Geodesic Capital with participation from Fortitude Ventures and other investors. The funds will support work on a satellite servicing demonstration mission called Nexus-1 set to launch next year to geostationary orbit. The company is also preparing to launch Link, a mission that will attempt to raise the orbit of NASA's Swift astrophysics satellite in low Earth orbit. (6/17)

France's Skynopy and Look Up Developing LEO Collision Avoidance Service (Source: Space News)
Two French companies are joining forces on a LEO collision avoidance service. Space surveillance venture Look Up plans to use Skynopy's ground station network to help automate that service. Skynopy will demonstrate integration of ground sites with ATLAS², a service Europe is co-funding to enable satellites to respond in near real time after Look Up's terrestrial radars detect a collision threat. The partnership focuses on the command-and-control link needed to move satellites after Look Up detects a threat with its SORASYS radars. (6/17)

Switzerland Bows Out of Copernicus (Source: Space News)
Switzerland's decision not to contribute to Europe's Copernicus Earth observation system raises questions about that system's free imagery model. The Swiss Federal Council said earlier this month it would not provide funding for Copernicus in the European Union's 2028–2034 funding cycle, citing financial strains as a factor in the decision. Most Copernicus data is freely available to users worldwide, although some services are limited to EU members and other participating countries. Some argue that, for countries outside the EU, the free data is sufficient, giving them little reason to provide funding, especially when there are limited opportunities for outside countries to win contracts to develop satellites for the system. (6/17)

PiLogic Developing AI for Satellite Fault Prediction (Source: Space News)
PiLogic, a startup developing artificial intelligence software to identify faults and predict failures in satellites, will work with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) on its technology. PiLogic said it signed a two-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, focused on spacecraft electrical and power systems. Engineers will use an AFRL cubesat experiment launched in 2022 through the Defense Department's Space Test Program as a platform to evaluate PiLogic's software. The company's software is designed to analyze onboard sensor data, detect anomalies, predict potential failure modes and recommend corrective actions as an alternative to traditional monitoring systems. (6/17)

China Launches Three Rockets From Three Spaceports on Tuesday (Source: Space News)
China conducted three launches on Tuesday, but one may have been unsuccessful. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 5:45 a.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, placing into orbit the Shijian-31 satellite. Chinese media said the satellite will be used for "space environment detection" but the Shijian series of satellites have been used for technology demonstrations and military applications. In addition, a Long March 12 rocket lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport at 10:44 p.m. Eastern, putting into orbit nine satellites for the Guowang constellation. Finally, a Kuaizhou-11 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:40 p.m. Eastern, but there have been no updates on the mission since the launch. That has prompted concerns that the launch of the small solid-fueled rocket may have failed. (6/17)

SpaceX Launches AST BlueBird From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched three satellites for AST SpaceMobile early Wednesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida. The rocket deployed into low Earth orbit AST's BlueBird 8, 9 and 10 satellites, which provide broadband direct-to-device (D2D) services. AST is relying on SpaceX, a competitor in D2D services, to launch its satellites because Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is out of service until at least the end of this year. (6/17)

Dragon Capsule Returns to Earth From ISS (Source: NASA)
A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft returned to Earth from the International Space Station. The CRS-34 Dragon spacecraft undocked from the station at 12:24 p.m. Eastern Tuesday after a short delay linked to a navigation sensor issue. The spacecraft reentered and splashed down off the California coast at about 8:10 a.m. Eastern this morning. The spacecraft, which spent about a month at the ISS, returned with scientific equipment and station hardware. (6/17)

Canada's NordSpace Opens Ontario Rocket Factory (Source: SpaceQ)
Canadian launch Startup NordSpace opened a new factory. The 60,000-square-foot facility in the Toronto suburb of Markham, Ontario, will be devoted to production of the company's planned small launch vehicles and space systems. The company says the factory will be able to produce two of its planned Tundra rockets at once, or one larger Tundra+ rocket. NordSpace has yet to attempt an orbital launch but is planning to launch its Taiga sounding rocket later this year. (6/17)

Historic Vandenberg Launch Complex Readied for SpaceX (Source: USSF)
Tuesday marked the end of an era for a historic Vandenberg launch site. The Space Force performed a controlled demolition of several large structures at Space Launch Complex 6, including its Mobile Service Tower and Fixed Umbilical Tower. Some of the facilities dated back to the 1960s and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program that was canceled, as well as plans in the 1980s to launch the Space Shuttle from the site. United Launch Alliance later used the site for the Delta 4. The demolition will allow SpaceX to convert the site for use by Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. (6/17)

Air Force, Space Force Justify Historic Budget Request (Source: GovCon Wire)
The Department of the Air Force is seeking a historic budget increase for fiscal year 2027, with a $338.8 billion request, including $267.7 billion for the Air Force and $71.1 billion for the Space Force. Leaders cite decades of underinvestment and growing threats as reasons for the boost. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman highlights the necessity for a larger Space Force to counter expanding threats. However, Congress has indicated potential challenges, particularly regarding reconciliation funding and the Golden Dome missile defense initiative. (6/17)

Trump Administration's Proposed NDA Requirement Could Have Negative Impacts (Source: FNN)
The Trump administration’s proposed non-disclosure agreement for federal employees is drawing criticism, as some warn of a potential “chilling effect” across the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management’s draft NDA released last month could pressure federal employees into staying silent instead of reporting important disclosures.

Editor's Note: NASA and DoD have previously worked hard to foster a "see something say something" culture, including for whistleblowers, to prevent dangerous and costly failures, waste, fraud, and abuse. (6/16)

UK's All.Space Moves HQ to Alabama Amid York Space Acquisition Process (Source: Via Satellite)
Satellite terminal developer All.Space has relocated from the U.K. to Alabama, emphasizing its commitment to U.S. defense priorities amid an acquisition by York Space Systems. All.Space was founded in the U.K. and has been headquartered in Reading, Berkshire. The company announced Tuesday it has formally redomiciled to the U.S., selecting Florence-Muscle Shoals, Alabama, for a new technical and manufacturing hub. All.Space already had an office in Baltimore, Maryland, and existing production capability in the U.S.

The company is currently in the process of being acquired by Colorado-based York Space Systems under a $355 million deal announced in late April. AE Industrial Partners, which holds a majority stake in York Space Systems, is developing an aerospace and defense center in that area of Alabama, with Hadrian as an anchor tenant. (6/16)

Space Force Looking Into Architecture For Epoch 3 And Epoch 4 (Source: Defense Daily)
U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC) wants companies to provide insights on the future Epoch 3 and Epoch 4 constellations of the service's coming Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) resilient missile warning and tracking system. "SSC requests industry feedback on a resilient missile warning and tracking (MWT) Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) layer Epochs 3 & 4 (E3&4) production feasibility that will support MWT Full Warfighting Capabilities." (6/16)

China Points to SpaceX Role in Satellite Arms Race (Source: SCMP)
China’s official military newspaper has warned of an arms race over low-Earth satellites, citing developments such as SpaceX’s latest contract with the US Space Force. Low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellations typically operate at 300km to 1,500km (185-930 miles) above the Earth and are becoming increasingly important in areas such as communications and satellite navigation.

PLA Daily warned: “The era of the militarized application of low-orbit constellations arriving at an accelerated pace. It said the “strategic value of space” was becoming “unprecedentedly prominent”, covering areas such as satellite networks, orbital competition and spectrum seizure. (6/15)

Russia Deploys $1.5 Million Mobile Jammer Targeting Starlink Satellites (Source: United 24)
Russia has deployed a specialized electronic warfare system designed to jam Starlink satellite communications on the battlefield, according to Ukrainian military expert and advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov on June 16. The Russian military first attempted to suppress Starlink in 2024 during operations in the Kharkiv direction, but Ukrainian forces quickly neutralized the equipment, Serhii “Flash” noted.

Mass deployment of this technology was not observed again until 2026, following successful Ukrainian mid-range strikes on Russian logistics networks. In response to the renewed electronic warfare threat, Ukraine’s 422nd Separate UAV Battalion recently located and destroyed one of these specialized jamming complexes, the expert stated. The system, designated as Volna Kupol Garant, is manufactured by the Simferopol-based company Russian Kupol.

Mechanically, the system targets the 14 to 14.5 gigahertz reception band, dividing the interference across eight distinct channels to blind the satellite. One complete complex is capable of disrupting communications across an area of approximately 20 square kilometers, according to the advisor. (6/16)

Aerospace Corp. Accelerates Tactically Responsive Missions (Source: Aerospace Corp.)
Space solutions need to move fast. As threats evolve and commercial capabilities expand at unprecedented rates, the ability to rapidly integrate and deliver space capabilities on tactically responsive timelines is essential. Aerospace’s support to the U.S. Space Force’s Space Safari team demonstrates the kind of work Aerospace is uniquely positioned to do by drawing on 65-plus years of corporate memory and technical depth across every aspect of space systems.

That institutional knowledge, combined with world-class laboratory facilities and embedded relationships with both government customers and commercial partners, creates what Aerospace calls "The Convergence Effect"—attributes that cannot be replicated elsewhere and are essential to accelerating capability development in ways that benefit the entire space industrial base. (6/15)

One Texas Town Hopes for Crumbs From the SpaceX Feast (Source: New York Times)
Elon Musk built a huge complex outside the city of Bastrop, population 14,000. Its residents now wonder what the historic SpaceX initial public offering might mean for them. The town’s population has boomed since Elon Musk built a complex of his companies nearby.

Many of the tech bros who swing by Found Fine Art in Bastrop, Texas, are smitten with “Schoolgirl Witchblade,” a bronze statuette of a manga-style character with pigtails (price: $3,200). The preference seems on brand. These bros work for SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, who created a sexy, pigtailed, manga-style digital girlfriend for premium users of his Grok chatbot. (6/16)

SpaceX Surges 20% in Second Day to Add $412 Billion in Value (Source: LA Times)
SpaceX shares jumped in their second day of trading, adding to gains following a blockbuster debut that instantly vaulted it into the ranks of the world’s most valuable public companies. The stock climbed 20%, extending Friday’s 19% rally, to add $412 billion in market value. Shares closed at $192.46 on Monday, more than 42% above their $135 IPO price. The move boosts the company’s market value to more than $2.5 trillion, putting it among the top six largest companies in the world. (6/15)

Pathogens Survive Conditions on Extraterrestrial Locations (Source: Radboud University)
Micro organisms from our planet could survive on celestial bodies where water is present, such as Mars. That is the conclusion of PhD candidate Tommaso Zaccaria after experiments with simulated space conditions. Our immune system reacts less effectively to pathogens that have undergone such a simulated space journey. According to his supervisors, his dissertation provides extraterrestrial insights that are also useful on Earth. (6/15)

Before the Aliens, the Amino Acids (Source: Weizmann Institute)
Before any wrinkled, wide-eyed creature from a distant civilization asks to be taken home, the first success in the search for life beyond Earth might be more prosaic. A clue could emerge from a handful of molecules in a Martian rock, a grain of ice from a moon of Jupiter or Saturn or a plume rising from an ocean sealed beneath a frozen shell. An Israeli-US team led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science has now defined a new kind of life’s signature. It could offer a relatively simple way to address the age-old question: Are we alone?

Amino acids and other compounds can form through entirely nonbiological chemistry. “The key value of our approach is that it offers an easy way to identify organic material that is biological, as opposed to just organic gunk that formed in the early solar system,” says Prof. Itay Halevy. The new approach sidesteps these limitations by relying less on complicated chemistry and more on statistical patterns. It draws on a method that was originally developed by ecologists to characterize the diversity of animal species within habitats. (6/10)

Cleveland Clinic is Tackling Space Travel Health with New Center: Mission Possible (Source: WKYC)
New developments in commercial human spaceflight have inspired Dr. Kenneth Mayuga to launch the Cleveland Clinic Space Health Center. "Why not tap into that depth and breadth of our clinical knowledge and experience, and use that to tackle the challenges of space travel?” Dr. Mayuga said. As missions grow longer, researchers expect more health complications linked to microgravity. The center's initial focus: cardiovascular health.

The center is already contributing to research that could shape future missions. One area of focus: blood clots. NASA researchers have found astronauts can experience stagnant and even reversed blood flow in space. Advances made in space medicine could also improve care on Earth. Dr. Mayuga says that's one of the center's primary goals. The Space Health Center is part of Cleveland Clinic's Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute. Though still new, the program is already expanding into lung health, digestive health, emergency medicine and other specialties. (6/15)

Russia Appears Set to Finally Address Long-Term, Serious Space Station Cracks (Source: Ars Technica)
The problem has been ongoing since 2019, and Russian astronauts have been attempting various fixes, often using a sealant called Germetall-1. These efforts finally appeared to bear fruit early this year, when Roscosmos reported that the leaks had stabilized. They resumed in May, though, and then increased in early June. That prompted Roscosmos to begin work toward a more extensive inspection and structural repair effort on the morning of Friday, June 5.

A bland statement from Roscosmos offered no additional information. But the solution Russian officials proposed on June 5 spooked NASA officials, prompting them to take the extreme step of securing their astronauts inside Dragon in case of a depressurization event on the space station. Later, Russia backed off, citing the need to conduct additional measurements and inspections of areas where leaks were occurring.

In the days since, there has been some additional back-and-forth, but Russia has now told NASA it will decommission the PrK module. Effectively, this means cosmonauts will no longer enter the PrK module or attempt to pressurize it. Progress vehicles will still be able to use the docking port to transfer fluids or perform other functions, but Russia will need to use other ports to move supplies on board the space station. (6/15)

Good News—We Have Extra Time Before the Sun Ends Life on Earth (Source: Ars Technica)
We understand the Sun will brighten as it eventually matures into a red giant that swallows the Earth in a solar furnace. So, where along that 5 billion-year path will life on Earth, in fact, be cooked? This far-future puzzle has been the focus of many model simulations over the past few decades. With a steadily brightening Sun, when does the Earth either get too hot or too CO2-starved for the base of the food chain to survive?

With weak weathering, the world is around 21° C (38° F) warmer 1.5 billion years from now, and it jumps an additional 40° C (72° F) between then and 2 billion years. Even with CO2 remaining at 400 parts per million, those temperatures would wipe out land plants on Earth. Specifically, the physiological limits of most land plants are crossed by 1.68 billion years, and the rest are toast at 1.87 billion. (Boiling off the oceans and losing our water to space wouldn’t be far behind.) (6/15)

New Zealand's Dawn Aerospace Raises Another $25 Million (Source: Payload)
Dawn Aerospace has closed a $25M Series B at a $195M post-money valuation, the company announced Tuesday. The New Zealand-Dutch space transportation company will use the new funds to accelerate development of its Aurora spaceplane, and to conduct an in-space refueling demo. With the new funding, Dawn will attempt to make Aurora the first vehicle to fly above the Kármán line twice in one day. The goal is to begin operations with this Mach 3.7 capability in 2027, as part of Dawn’s $17M partnership with Oklahoma. (6/16)

Alarm Grows Over Vought Plan to Put Cronies in Control of Federal Grant Funding (Source: Common Dreams)
A Trump White House plan to give political appointees more power over federal grant money has sparked alarm among scientists, public health organizations, environmental groups, and others who fear that the proposal amounts to an attempt to subordinate critical funds to the whims of the president and his far-right allies.

More than 300 organizations signed a joint letter on Friday calling on White House budget director Russell Vought, the proposed rule’s architect, to extend the public comment period that’s set to end on July 13, warning that the “scope and impact of [the Office of Management and Budget’s] rule is vast.”

“The test will be a simple one: Are you sufficiently loyal to the president? If the answer is no, it will result in the denial of lifesaving disaster relief, funding for research into cures, the closure of Head Start offices, and more.” (6/13)

Monetizing the Airwaves: EchoStar’s Massive Spectrum Offloads to SpaceX and AT&T Fuel Satellite Sector Rally (Source: SatNews)
The global satellite and telecommunications sectors experienced a major wave of market momentum as EchoStar Corporation finalized a massive structural shift. Long constrained by heavy capital expenditures and impending debt walls, the company has pivoted from building out its own physical wireless infrastructure to aggressively monetizing its prized radiofrequency airwaves.

Driven by an approved $19.6 billion spectrum transaction with SpaceX and a pending $23 billion asset sale to AT&T, EchoStar has set up more than $42 billion in total spectrum monetization. The sheer scale of these deals has ignited a broad risk-on rally across speculative, high-beta space and satellite equities. (6/16)

Among the Large New Rockets Amazon Was Counting On, Only Europe Has Delivered (Source: Ars Technica)
Amazon now has hundreds of flight-ready satellites standing idle in Florida, waiting to join the company’s low-Earth orbit Internet constellation, an Amazon official said Tuesday. “They’re built, and sitting in a payload processing facility waiting for trips to orbit,” said Steve Metayer, vice president of Amazon Leo Production Operations, during a teleconference with reporters. “And we’re currently manufacturing several satellites a day.”

France-based Arianespace has emerged as a critical partner for Amazon, which, to date, has had the majority of its 331 satellites launched on Atlas V rockets. However, Amazon has just one more mission booked on this rocket, which is operated by United Launch Alliance, as the vehicle is slated for retirement.

To launch the majority of its Leo constellation, Amazon booked rides on three large, new rockets four years ago: 18 launches on the Ariane 6 rocket, 12 launches on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, with options for 15 additional launches; and 38 launches of the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. (6/16)

Workforce Strike at Kourou Spaceport Won't Affect Ariane 6 Launch (Source: European Spaceflight)
A strike that saw entrances to the Guiana Space Center barricaded has ended, with Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès saying the labor dispute has not affected tomorrow’s planned Ariane 6 launch from the site. Workers blocked the entrances to the Guiana Space Center, with banners reading, “No to the lack of respect and condescension shown by the prime contractors towards workers and their representatives.”

Following the subsequent meeting, the strike action ended at approximately 09:00 local time on 16 June. According to local media reporting, the union secured a 1.6% increase in social minimums, as well as fuel allowances ranging from €100 to €300. (6/16)

French Government, Industry Uneasy About Germany’s Decision to Throttle Up Space Investment (Sources: Space Intel Report, Payload)
The steep and sudden increase in German space spending, especially military space, was always going to be complicated for France. After so many years leading the European pack and urging that its neighbors do more, the fact that Germany is now Europe’s biggest space spender sits uneasily among French officials, even if they know the new German policy is good for all of Europe.

Germany has committed a staggering €35 billion to space security by 2030. In contrast, France has earmarked €10.2 billion for space defense over the same period, putting the German spending scale nearly three times higher than the French budget.Industrial Competition: The sheer size of the German expenditure is altering the traditional Franco-German defense-industrial relationship.

While Germany is heavily investing, French space budgets at agencies like CNES have faced cuts due to strict domestic fiscal austerity and mounting budget deficits. France must rethink how they interact with Germany in orbit, weighing how to achieve interoperability without seeing French autonomy and influence permanently diminished. (6/16)

JetZero Begins Construction of Huge North Carolina Aerospace Plant (Source: Aviation Week)
One year after announcing its aircraft production site selection, blended wing body developer JetZero has broken ground on its new Z4 manufacturing and assembly facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. The 8 million-ft.2 factory is being built on a 600-acre site that was selected after an exhaustive nationwide competition among 24 locations in 13 states.

The site, announced by JetZero in 2025, forms part of a North Carolina-backed $4.7 billion investment plan designed to create 14,500 aerospace jobs over the next 10 years. North Carolina is supporting the project with a potential $1.57 billion incentive package, making it the largest state-level incentive deal for a startup in U.S. history. (6/16)

Did Rocket Lab Accidentally Launch a Rocket to Orbit? (Source: Gizmodo)
Rocket Lab’s latest mission, named Curveball, has earned its title. The company launched a mysterious payload on its suborbital rocket, and it somehow ended up in orbit. Was this an accident or a flex? On June 11, Rocket Lab’s HASTE vehicle lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on a government mission. A few days after its latest launch, however, the U.S. Space Force spotted the rocket in orbit. It’s not clear how HASTE ended up there, or what happened to its payload.

HASTE, short for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron, is a modified version of the company’s Electron rocket that’s designed to fly at hypersonic speeds up to five times the speed of sound. Another important distinction is that HASTE is a suborbital launch vehicle that has flown seven times without reaching low-Earth orbit. For Curveball, Rocket Lab did not disclose the payload on the mission. Gizmodo reached out to Rocket Lab for clarification but did not receive a response before publication. (6/16)

Artemis 3 Takes Shape (Source: Space Review)
NASA announced last week the astronauts who will fly the Artemis 3 mission next year. Jeff Foust reports the event also provided more details about that mission to test lunar landers in Earth orbit. Click here. (6/16)
 
Hello, Madison! A Top-Secret Cold War Mission Over Wisconsin’s Capitol (Source: Space Review)
During the Cold War, the NRO tested new imaging capabilities for its spy satellites in novel ways. Dwayne Day and Harry Stranger describe how that included stereo imaging of locations in the United States. Click here. (6/16)
 
The Budapest Maneuver: Why Small Nations Need Their Own “Little NASA” (Source: Space Review)
More countries are establishing space agencies, even though they will never be more than a small fraction of the size of major agencies like NASA. Mihail Istvanovics Várdai explains how such agencies can help countries move from a consumer of space services to a partner. Click here. (6/16)
 
Sovereign Capability and Assured Access: a Tension in Europe’s Space Strategy (Source: Space Review)
Europe is working to increase its autonomy in space, including developing additional launch capability. Nicholas Borroz discusses why this means the EU will need to learn to work better with countries outside the union but closely allied with it. Click here. (6/16)
 
Space Race or Space Divide: Orbital AI and the Global South’s Exclusion Crisis (Source: Space Review)
American and Chinese companies are planning large constellations of orbital data center satellites. Maheen Butt argues that such proposals risk denying access to critical low Earth orbits to emerging nations. Click here. (6/16)

Emboldened by SpaceX, Investors Are Piling Into All Things Space (Source: Wall Street Journal)
It isn’t just SpaceX. Encouraged by the Elon Musk-led company’s successes—and steadily climbing valuation—venture capitalists and private-market investors are stepping up bets on space startups, hoping to find the next breakout stars. (6/14)

Pittsburgh’s Second Moonshot Faces One More Test Before Launch (Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Pittsburgh is in the space race. Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One lander is almost ready for its shot at the moon — and if Pittsburgh can land on the moon, Pittsburgh can do anything. Those were Astrobotic CEO John Thornton’s declarations Monday as the space community gathered to send off Griffin for final testing before it hurtles toward the lunar surface later this year. (6/15)

The Extraordinary Physiological Challenges Facing Amputee John McFall in Space (Source: Phys.org)
McFall, who lost his right leg above the knee in a motorcycle accident at 19 and uses a prosthesis, is a former Paralympic sprinter, a practicing NHS surgeon and a qualified European Space Agency (ESA) reserve astronaut. ESA selected him in 2022, and in 2025 he became the first person with such a disability to be medically certified for a long-duration mission. The media have largely framed this as a story about inclusion, but there is more to the story than that. For a physiologist, it raises a different question: what happens to a body that already moves, balances and functions differently under gravity if you remove gravity altogether?

For the first time, we can test a prediction about the effects of weightlessness on a different kind of body. The question of how a differently adapted body copes with the demands of space is one I, as a physiotherapist and physiologist working in spaceflight, would very much like to see resolved. And there is only one way to resolve it: someone like McFall must fly into space.

On the ground, our legs anchor us so our hands are free to work. In orbit, however, the lower limbs do far less and are useful mainly for exercise. Meanwhile, the fluid that gravity normally draws into the legs shifts upward in microgravity, which is thought to contribute to a condition called Sans (spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome), in which fluid pressure builds behind the eyes and can affect vision. McFall has less lower-limb tissue for that fluid to occupy, so it is possible his fluid shift—and any associated effect on his vision—will differ from that of his crewmates. (6/14)

Geospatial Industry Launches Maritime Initiative (Source: Space News)
The race to monitor the world’s oceans from space is driving a wave of investment in maritime surveillance technologies and prompting new industry coordination efforts. A new working group focused on maritime intelligence is seeking participation from satellite operators, analytics firms, government agencies and academic institutions.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) and maritime intelligence firm SynMax are spearheading a working group to coordinate efforts across satellite operators, analytics firms, government agencies, and academia. This collaborative initiative addresses the rapid growth of space-based technologies used to track commercial shipping, naval activity, illegal fishing, and sanctions evasion. (6/16)

Comtech Announces Definitive Agreement to Sell Most of Its Satellite and Space Communications Business to Gilat (Source: Comtech)
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to sell most of its Satellite and Space Communications  segment to Gilat Satellite Networks, and become a focused public safety technology company. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Comtech and Gilat. Gilat will acquire most of the S&S segment for $157.5 million. (6/15)

Rocket Lab To Join The Nasdaq-100 Index on the Back of More than 80 Successful Rocket Launches (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Rocket Lab has announced its inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 Index, placing the company among the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Rocket Lab’s addition to the index will become effective prior to market open on Monday, 22 June, 2026. (6/16)

Maryland Gets Intuitive Machines Expansion with $1M Incentive (Source: WBAL)
Maryland’s growing role in the space industry is getting another boost. Gov. Wes Moore announced a major expansion by a company helping lead America’s return to the moon. A space technology company that’s already played a key role in lunar missions is expanding in Anne Arundel County.

If it moves on the moon, it may soon be coming from Linthicum. Intuitive Machines is expanding into a new 69,000-square-foot facility at BWI Tech Park, growing its Maryland operations and planning to nearly double its workforce to about 100 employees. The company built robotics used on its recent moon missions and is now developing technology for future lunar exploration and communications networks. The state has awarded the company a $1 million grant to help with the expansion. (6/15)

NASA’s Quantum Lab Aboard Space Station Gets Chilly Upgrade (Source: NASA)
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have switched on NASA’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Lab, a one-of-a-kind facility designed to improve how scientists explore the fundamental workings of matter and develop new quantum technologies. By leveraging the unique environment of microgravity in space, the lab can accomplish cutting-edge science impossible to do anywhere else. (6/16)

Friends in High Places: SpaceX Gets DOJ Assist to Toss Air Pollution Lawsuit (Source: CNBC)
Elon Musk’s company is getting an assist from the Department of Justice, which asked a federal court in Mississippi to toss a case against the company brought by the NAACP. The suit was filed in April and claimed that xAI, SpaceX’s artificial intelligence lab, violated the federal Clean Air Act by using dozens of methane gas-burning turbines to power its AI data centers without proper permits or pollution controls. The turbines emit smog-forming pollutants and particulate matter that can lead to increased health risks and an unpleasant odor.

The NAACP more recently asked the court to issue an injunction stopping xAI from using the turbines until a judge can make a decision. SpaceX’s Colossus 1 and 2 data centers in and around Memphis, Tennessee, along with the power plants linked to those facilities, have faced protests for more than a year over issues including air pollution, electricity and water consumption and noise around the facilities.

In a motion filed by the DOJ on June 15, attorneys for the department accused the NAACP of threatening “American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.” (6/16)

New Cape Canaveral Townhomes to Offer Rocket Launch Views (Source: Florida Today)
A Miami-based homebuilder announced plans to build a 94-unit townhome community in Cape Canaveral due to Brevard County's booming aerospace and technology economy. EverHome Living announced plans for a three-story townhouse development off Astronaut Boulevard on the Banana River in Cape Canaveral. Each home will feature a private rooftop terrace with views of rocket launches from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

Housing market analysts have reported that aerospace, manufacturing, biotechnology, and healthcare sectors are all combining to drive home sales in the area, according to Homes.com analytics. The county remains relatively affordable compared to other Florida coastal markets. The median home price in Brevard was $350,000 in March, and townhouses dropped 8.7% year-over-year to $301,000. (6/16)

Union Leader at Spaceport Dies in Airboat Crash (Source: USA Today)
The well-known leader of a union which includes a number of workers at the Kennedy Space Center was killed in an airboat crash in Brevard County on Saturday, June 13, family members confirmed. The man was identified by his wife, Angela Knost, as 63-year-old Bobby Knost, business manager of Union Ironworkers Local 808. The deadly single-vessel incident happened at about 5 p.m. June 13, prompting a response from Brevard County Fire Rescue and Florida Fish and Wildlife crews. (6/15)

Rogue Planet Caught Devouring Dust (Source: Space Daily)
Somewhere in the Chamaeleon constellation, six hundred and twenty years ago, a small dark planet about the size of Jupiter began to do something planets are not supposed to be able to do. It started eating. The material — gas and dust from a disc surrounding it, the same kind of debris field that ordinarily surrounds young stars rather than young planets — began falling onto the planet’s surface at increasingly extreme rates. By the time light from the event reached the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile in mid-2025, the planet was consuming approximately six billion tonnes of gas and dust per second. (6/16)

June 16, 2026

Astrobotic Showcases Griffin-1 Lander Ahead of Environmental Testing in California (Source: Spaceflight Now)
Astrobotic showed off its nearly completed lunar lander, named Griffin-1, as the vehicle prepares to head to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for environmental testing later this month. The robotic lander, which has a 650 kg payload capacity, has been integrated with multiple payloads so far. On exception is Astrolab’s FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover. FLIP will meet its lander down at Cape Canaveral for integration in the final weeks ahead of launch later this year. (6/16)

Key Mission for Europe's Commercial Space Enterprise Scrubbed Again (Source: Ars Technica)
Isar Aerospace still commands top position among a new generation of European rocket startups, but the company’s efforts to launch a critical test flight of its Spectrum rocket continue to encounter roadblocks. The latest delay came Monday, when Isar scrubbed a launch attempt after “detecting off nominal behavior in the vehicle’s fluid systems,” according to a social media post. “The teams are analyzing the new data to isolate the root cause.” (6/16)

Chinese Probe Preps for Approach to Asteroid (Source: Space News)
China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft performed a major engine burn on June 7, followed by a series of small propulsive maneuvers. These fine adjustments, likely using the spacecraft's ion thruster system, have successfully guided the probe into the vicinity of its primary target, the near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa. The Tianwen-2 spacecraft is currently executing its approach maneuvers, lining up for an official rendezvous and close encounter with Kamoʻoalewa in July. (6/16)

AstroForge Preps for Second Attempt at Reaching an Asteroid (Source: Aerospace America)
Roughly 15 months after its first spacecraft was lost, deep-space mining startup AstroForge is readying for a do-over. The California company announced on June 3 it has completed assembly of its DeepSpace-2 spacecraft, slated to be launched aboard Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 lunar lander “this year,” said Matthew Gialich, co-founder and CEO. (6/16)

Japanese Satellite Makes Electricity From Sunlight and Beams it Down to Earth as Microwaves (Source: Autonocion)
The satellite is called OHISAMA, Japanese for “the sun,” and it is roughly the size of a washing machine. It was built by the nonprofit research foundation Japan Space Systems under a contract from the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, it weighs about 180 kilograms, and it is slated to fly during Japan’s fiscal 2026. The entire near-term goal of the mission is to light one LED. That sounds anticlimactic right up until you realize the LED is not the point. The aiming is.

The aiming works through a two-way handshake the engineers call retrodirective beam control. A station on the ground sends a pilot signal up to the satellite. OHISAMA locks onto that signal and routes its microwave beam back down along the exact same path. On a bench in a lab, this is tractable. From orbit it is not, because the transmitter is moving at orbital velocity, the target is a fixed dish on a rotating planet, and the beam has to punch through the ionosphere and a harder vacuum than anything the program has tested so far. (6/14)

Cosmic Rays Cause Light Flashes for Astronauts (Source: Space Daily)
The reports began on Apollo 11. After a period of dark adaptation, with eyes open or closed, crew members saw flashes they described as pinpoints, thin streaks, or small clouds of light. They were almost always colorless. They came at a rate of roughly one-half to two a minute, often enough to be a distraction when someone was trying to sleep.

This was not confined to one crew or one flight. Flashes were reported across the Apollo missions, and later by astronauts on Skylab, on Mir, and on the International Space Station. The phenomenon even had a kind of forecast. As early as 1952, the biophysicist Cornelius Tobias had suggested that people exposed to cosmic radiation in space might see exactly this sort of thing, and the team that investigated the Apollo reports traced them back to that idea. (6/14)

A Satellite Just Learned to Find Things on its Own — Here’s What That Means (Source: Tech Crunch)
For the first time, an Earth observation satellite has found what it was looking for — on its own, without human analysts on the ground. The milestone, which occurred in April, marks the first reported use of a vision-language model in orbit, and offers a glimpse of how AI could fundamentally change what space-based sensors are capable of — and how much they’re worth.

Typically, satellites download large chunks of data to analysts on the Earth below, who use machine learning algorithms or their own eyes to figure out what’s going on. But onboard YAM-9, a spacecraft built by space infrastructure company Loft Orbital, a software package built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory identified areas of interest in response to natural language queries. Google DeepMind’s Gemma 3 — the vision-language model, or VLM, that powered the demonstration — is purpose-built for edge applications, meaning it is designed to run on limited hardware far from a data center. (6/15)

Scientists Propose That Entire Universes Can Form Inside Collapsing Stars (Source: Futurism)
Prevailing models of physics dictate that when an extremely massive star runs out of nuclear fuel, it collapses in on itself, leaving behind a black hole that prevents anything, even light, from escaping. Or maybe not. Physicists are proposing the demise of a large star can lead to something even stranger: a tiny, nascent universe that’s loaded with dark energy pushing outward, preventing the star from collapsing entirely.

Specifically, the new universe would exist at the core of a previously proposed class of objects called “gravastars,” which were already understood to contain a core made up of dark energy, the hypothetical cosmic force that scientists estimate accounts for around 68 percent of the total energy-mass content of the known universe. The conditions as a gravastar comes into being are not unlike the ones present during the Big Bang, the moment at which our own universe seemingly sprang into existence billions of years ago. (6/15)

Sidus Space's LizzieSat Completes Vibration Testing Ahead of Expected Fall Launch (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced that its next LizzieSat has successfully completed vibration testing, a key environmental qualification milestone for SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, currently scheduled for launch no earlier than October 2026. (6/16)

Chinese Team Flags Life-Threatening Weakness in NASA’s Artemis Program (Source: SCMP)
In the 21st century race to the moon, there is a question that engineers must ask: what happens when the main engine fails?
China and the United States are answering this in contrasting ways. Their answers could reveal the value they place on human life. From the Apollo Lunar Module in the 1960s to Nasa’s new Orion spacecraft for the Artemis program, the American architecture relies on a single, powerful main engine to do the heavy lifting.

On the descent stage, one main engine controls the entire fall from lunar orbit to the surface. On the ascent stage, one main engine is the only ticket home. If that one engine fails, there is no backup. This design, to quote a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Chinese Space Science and Technology in March, “contains some glaring weaknesses”. The Chinese lunar lander puts its faith not in one main engine, but in four. (6/16)

Alaska Committed to Protecting Small Business Set-Aside Program (Source: FNN)
In today’s fractured political landscape, consensus and bipartisanship are considered relics of a bygone era. But not in Alaska. Our colleagues in the Alaska state legislature recently sent a resounding message to policymakers in Washington: Maintain the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development program to strengthen American national security and provide the federal government with the elite technical capabilities it requires to meet its most critical missions. Recently, our state legislature worked together in a bipartisan effort to pass House Joint Resolution 44 in support of Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) participation in the 8(a) program. (6/15)

Orbital Edge Accelerator Helps Startups Turn Space R&D Into Commercial Reality (Source: CASIS)
The ISS National Lab’s Orbital Edge Accelerator is now in its second year, helping startups turn space-based R&D into commercial success. Brandon Kortokrax, principal at E2MC Ventures, one of the founding investors in Orbital Edge, said the accelerator aims to reduce barriers and help startups “take something from the science and technology space and start to translate it into the commercial market.”

He explained, “We are just really chipping away at each layer of friction that an early-stage startup faces. […] A good accelerator should compress a company’s roadmap and hopefully take something they’re planning across the next one to two years and accelerate that down into months.” In addition to working closely with companies to get their R&D to space, the program provides mentors who share expertise and experience and help founders establish partnerships to move their businesses forward. (6/15)

China’s Spectrum Squatting Reserves 244,000 Satellite Slots to Combat SpaceX’s LEO Monopoly (Source: SatNews)
While SpaceX dominates the physical reality of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with a staggering 10,653 active satellites, Beijing is playing a high-stakes regulatory chess game to lock the West out of future cosmic real estate. China has aggressively filed for a jaw-dropping 244,000 orbital slot reservations with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The move represents a regulatory reservation footprint that is roughly 128 times the size of China’s actual active presence in orbit—sparking widespread accusations of geopolitical “spectrum squatting.”

Currently, the global space asset distribution remains highly asymmetrical. Out of the nearly 11,000 active satellites bearing a U.S. registration tag, the vast majority belong to Elon Musk’s rapidly expanding Starlink mega-constellation. In contrast, China maintains an operational fleet estimated between just 1,300 and 1,900 hardware assets.

To bridge this operational asymmetry, Beijing is exploiting loopholes in the ITU’s regulatory architecture. Under current, highly lenient international coordination rules, a nation does not need to possess the physical rockets to launch a constellation at the time of filing. The ITU’s current milestone deadlines are highly accommodating, requiring a member state to deploy just 10 percent of their filed constellation within 9 years of the initial application. (6/15)

Chinese Rocket Breaks Apart Dangerously Close to the Starlink Constellation (Source: Ars Technica)
The upper stage from a commercial Chinese rocket that launched last week has broken apart in space, spreading debris in a heavily trafficked part of low-Earth orbit home to the International Space Station and a significant portion of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network. The breakup occurred shortly after the Zhuque-2E rocket reached orbit on June 9 with two satellites providing direct-to-cell communications, perhaps around the time the upper stage was expected to perform a disposal burn. (6/15)

SpaceX Set to Overtake Microsoft, Amazon in Value as Stock Soars (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX shares jumped on Tuesday, putting the firm on track to overtake both Amazon and Microsoft to become the fourth largest publicly traded company in the world just days after its blockbuster debut. Shares rose as much as 17%, extending gains since SpaceX’s record initial public offering. That pushed the market value of Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company to nearly $3 trillion, roughly $300 billion higher than Amazon’s and about $20 billion more than Microsoft’s. (6/16)

SpaceX to Acquire Cursor for $60B in Stock (Source: Tech Crunch)
SpaceX has agreed to acquire AI coding startup Cursor in a $60 billion stock deal, just a few days after the space company’s historic IPO and less than two months after announcing a tie-up between the two. The deal is meant to help SpaceX’s AI division — built around Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, which SpaceX merged with earlier this year — catch up to the major AI labs. Despite being a centerpiece of its IPO promises, SpaceX’s AI division has been in the midst of a restructuring after running into repeated controversies, like allowing users to generate non-consensual deepfakes of women and children. (6/16)

Deep Space Network Antenna Mishap Blamed on Poor Training and Procedures (Source: Space News)
A NASA investigation revealed that $4.1 million to $4.6 million in damage sustained by a 70-meter Deep Space Network antenna at the Goldstone complex was caused by poor training, bypassed safety protocols, and over-reliance on undocumented procedures. (6/16)

Pegasus: The Next-Gen Lunar Rover That Will Leave Apollo Buggy in its Dust (Source: New Atlas)
Built by Lunar Outpost, Pegasus will navigate the harsh, jagged terrain of the lunar south pole autonomously, with an astronaut behind the wheel, or via teleoperation commands beamed from Earth. AJ Gemer, co-founder and CTO of Lunar Outpost, said Pegasus will “extend the range and duration of human activity on the lunar surface in a way that wasn’t possible during Apollo.” It will achieve this by leveraging a state-of-the-art autonomous thermal management system, allowing it to withstand the Moon’s wild swings in temperature. Click here. (6/13)

In Long Beach, Voyager Using AI to Speed Aerospace Production (Source: Space Daily)
Inside a 140,000-square-foot building in Long Beach that the local aerospace crowd calls Space Beach, circuit boards for spacecraft and defense systems are now coming off the line in a matter of weeks — the same boards that used to take years. The people who run the plant are not claiming the engineers suddenly got faster. They are saying something stranger: there are no longer enough engineers to build the hardware the United States has ordered, and a software agent is now doing the parts a person used to do.

The facility belongs to Voyager Technologies, a Denver-based aerospace and defense company that opened the site on March 12, 2026. Its purpose is narrow and blunt — compress the timeline between a defense-electronics design and a working board, using agentic artificial intelligence to do it. That single fact cuts against the loudest story being told about AI everywhere else. In most industries the technology arrives as a way to trim headcount. In aerospace and defense it is arriving because the headcount cannot be filled. (6/15)

Russia’s Satellite Moves Push Europe to Rethink Space Defense (Source: TVP World)
German space officials have warned that the prospect of conflict in orbit is becoming increasingly real, as Russia’s activity raises growing concern among European defense planners. The head of Germany’s Space Command said Moscow may be developing technologies that could allow it to place a nuclear warhead in space. He also pointed to recent maneuvers by Russian Kosmos satellites near ICEYE-36, a radar satellite operated by the Finnish-Polish company ICEYE, whose imagery has supported Ukraine.

The episode has intensified debate over how Europe should protect both military and commercial space assets. Russian satellites moving close to foreign spacecraft can be used to collect intelligence, study how a system operates, interfere with its functions or potentially disable it. Germany has proposed creating a European Space Component Command to coordinate military space operations across the continent. Berlin says it is already in talks with partners, including Poland, about forming a core team with international participation from the outset. (6/14)

Europe’s Iris2 Constellation Adds 66 Early-Delivery Satellites, to Launch in 2029, to Mitigate Delay in Full-Performance Network (Source: Space Intel Report)
Europe’s Iris2 multi-orbit secured connectivity network, facing pressure from European governments to limit it schedule delays, is adding 66 smaller satellites to its low-Earth-orbit component to assure launches starting in 2029, with the full-capacity, 264-satellite system to be launched around 2032, according to European government and industry officials. Both groups of satellites will be launched into the same 1,200-km orbit. The early satellites will not be equipped with the full 5G digital capacity promised but will allow secured communications. (6/15)

Kongsberg “All In” on European Sovereign Space: ISR Constellation with Germany, RF SigInt, Adapting SpinLaunch for Security Needs (Source: Space Intel Report)
Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace does not lack for security-based space ambition. An Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) constellation; maritime AIS and radar, secure satcom, RF signals intelligence — the company is preparing a bouquet of space-based security and defense options, including the use of its KSat global ground station network, for allied governments.

The sovereign space push includes Lithuania-based Kongsberg NanoAvionics, a small satellite platform builder. Kongsberg is based in Norway, which is not an EU member.  In its pivot beyond space launch, SpinLaunch selected Kongsberg NanoAvionics to design and build over 280 microsatellites for is proposed Meridian constellation. Kongsberg provided financial backing (including a $12 million strategic investment) to take a minority stake in SpinLaunch. (6/15)

Unseenlabs’ BRO-22 Successfully Launched Aboard Japan’s H3 Launch Vehicle (Source: Unseenlabs)
Unseenlabs has successfully launched BRO-22, the first satellite operated by a foreign private company to fly aboard Japan’s H3 Launch Vehicle. BRO-22 was launched at 09:53 a.m. (UTC+9) Japan Standard Time on June 12 from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center. The satellite was integrated by Space BD. BRO-22 strengthens Unseenlabs’ space-based RF detection constellation dedicated to maritime surveillance. (6/15)

Lithuania to host European Space Education Resource Office (Source: LRT)
Lithuania will host a European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) under a new agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), the economy and innovation ministry announced.  The office will operate in Lithuania until 2028, funded from Lithuania's contributions to the agency. A selection process for the organization that will run the program is to be announced shortly. ESERO offices operate across many European countries with the aim of using space-related themes to inspire student interest in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, known as STEAM, while providing teachers with modern educational tools. (6/15)

Government Ratchets Up Scrutiny of Small Business Set-Asides (Source: FNN)
The Small Business Administration is expanding its scrutiny of socio-economic contracting programs to now include a review of the women-owned small business program. In an email sent to economically disadvantaged women-owned small businesses earlier this week, SBA is giving these firms until June 30 to respond to a survey and provide the agency with “personal and business tax returns for the last three years.” (6/12)

Embry‑Riddle Worldwide Students Unite for NASA Challenge Success (Source: ERAU)
A team of students working remotely through Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide Campus earned Best Prototype and innovation honors at NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts–Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition, proposing a novel system to store energy on the moon. The team, whose members live across the U.S. and met in person for the first time at the event, was the only fully remote team to present at the competition, which challenges university students to develop bold concepts that push the boundaries of space exploration. (6/10)

Space Force Orders Two More GPS Satellites From Lockheed Martin for $514 Million (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $514 million contract to build Global Positioning System IIIF Space Vehicles 23 and 24, bringing its total GPS IIIF commitment to 14 spacecraft. With legacy spacecraft past their intended design life, this award marks a vital step in continued modernization of the constellation.

The 14 upcoming GPS IIIF satellites will deliver advanced, reliable positioning, navigation and timing capabilities for both military and civilian users. IIIF capabilities include: the Regional Military Protection capability that provides a 63-fold increase in anti-jam capabilities, allowing warfighters to access strong GPS signals in contested environments; additional M-Code-enabled satellites, allowing for secure GPS connection for warfighters; and a digital navigation payload, increasing accuracy and reliability of IIIF spacecraft. (6/15)

Emboldened by SpaceX, Investors Are Piling Into All Things Space (Source: Wall Street Journal)
It isn’t just SpaceX SPCX 19.60%increase; up pointing triangle. Encouraged by the Elon Musk-led company’s successes—and steadily climbing valuation—venture capitalists and private-market investors are stepping up bets on space startups, hoping to find the next breakout stars. (6/14)

SpaceX: To the Moon for Investors or a Bumpy Ride? (Source: CNBC)
“Retail investors bought $100 billion in shares, and you’ve got to ask the question, are some of them going to get panicky if SpaceX misses a few quarters, because this stuff is not easy to do.“ In a now-deleted post on X, Musk said that SpaceX “might be able” to reach approximately $1 trillion in revenue by 2030, and added that he would be “surprised” if revenue is not greater than that figure by 2031. “Investors at SpaceX, I believe, will get pretty grumpy after three or four quarters if he doesn’t meet some of the growth projections that they made in the S1,” Westly added. (6/15)

Having Sex in Space Would Be Tricky, But Having Kids in Space is Riskier (Source: Geekwire)
Last year, researchers found evidence that exposure to space radiation during pregnancy would carry a “significantly higher” risk of producing congenital birth defects. More recently, a different set of researchers reported that zero-G conditions impaired sperm navigation, egg fertilization and embryo development in mammals.

Alex Layendecker, ASRI’s founder and director, said the health effects of exposure to the space environment might not show up until more than a generation later. That conjecture is based on a study of female mice that were flown on the International Space Station, and then brought back to be mated with males on Earth. “The first generation seemed not to have many differences, but when the grandchildren mice were born — and this was a really big smoking gun — the grandchildren mice actually had a significantly altered phenotype,” Layendecker said. “They had differences in mass. They had differences in behavior.” (6/14)

June 15, 2026

DARPA to Explore Ways to Rapidly Rebuild Satellite Networks if Attacked (Source: Space News)
DARPA has released a Request for Information (RFI) titled “Rapid Reconstitution of Space Capabilities”. The agency is seeking technical concepts and operational strategies from the space industry to rapidly restore critical satellite networks and on-orbit services within hours to weeks following an adversarial attack or debris collision. The RFI focuses on highly responsive, cost-effective, and scalable solutions, seeking input across four key technical areas.

These include: Space Vehicles: Concepts for highly modular, "plug-and-play" satellite buses, radiation-hardened payloads, and reconfigurable software-defined satellites; Launch Vehicles: Methods to minimize spacecraft assembly, launch preparation, and deployment times to match rapid-response needs; Integration: Innovative procedures for rapidly integrating and mating the space vehicle with the launch vehicle; and Concept of Operations (CONOPS): New approaches to mission execution, logistics, and on-orbit capabilities that accommodate tactical timelines (hours to weeks) and demand surges. (6/15)

ULA to Launch 29 Amazon Broadband Satellites July 3 (Source: Space Coast Daily)
United Launch Alliance is preparing for a July 3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using an Atlas V 551 rocket to deploy 29 Amazon broadband satellites. The mission, part of Amazon's Project Kuiper, aims to expand global internet coverage. (6/14)
 
Viasat Wins Contract for Space Force Swarm 1 (Source: SatNews)
Viasat has been selected by the US Space Force as a prime contractor for the Swarm 1 Delivery Order under the Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global program. Viasat will manufacture, launch and operate a small, maneuverable geosynchronous satellite for resilient communications. Viasat's dual-band satellite, leveraging technology from the ViaSat-3 fleet, is expected to achieve initial operating capability by 2029. (6/13)

Proposed Elimination of SDA And Space RCO Faces Opposition (Source: Defense Daily)
Congressional defense authorizers' proposal to nix the 2019-established Space Development Agency (SDA) and the 2018-created Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO) may backfire, according to analysts. SDA and Space RCO have together employed between 400 and 500 people, and staffers are unsure what will become of their positions.
(6/12)

NASA X-59 Flies At Mach 1.4 ‘Mission Conditions’ (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA’s X-59 Quesst low-boom supersonic demonstrator achieved Mach 1.4 at 55,000 ft. on June 12, representing the speed and altitude planned for flights over U.S. communities to measure the public response to reduced sonic booms. The first flight to hit “mission conditions” lasted just more than 1 hr. and came only seven days after the X-59 flew supersonically for the first time on June 5, reaching Mach 1.1 on an 81-min. mission from Edwards AFB, California. (6/12)

Other Space Companies Fall During Initial SpaceX IPO Rise (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX's surge came at the expense of many other publicly traded space companies. Shares in companies ranging from AST SpaceMobile to Rocket Lab fell between 6% and 12% in trading Friday, while Virgin Galactic fell 28%. Analysts said the declines may reflect profit-taking after their shares rose in recent weeks as well as a desire to move money into SpaceX. There are also concerns that the stocks may have become overvalued. In the case of Virgin Galactic, some speculate that traders may have confused its stock ticker, SPCE, with that of SpaceX, SPCX. (6/15)

Avanti Sells GEO Broadband for Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT (Source: Space News)
Avanti Communications is selling its newest GEO broadband payload, closing a chapter on the debt-fueled expansion that once defined the British satellite operator. The company announced an agreement last week to sell its Hylas-3 Ka-band hosted payload to Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT, which is in expansion mode and has three new GEO satellites on order. Hylas-3 is on a spacecraft launched in 2019 that also carries the EDRS-C payload for the European Data Relay System.

A Sky Perfect JSAT spokesperson said the satellite, currently at 31 degrees east, would be relocated to cover more of Asia as part of the deal. The Hylas-3 sale follows mounting pressure on regional GEO operators from SpaceX's Starlink and other LEO constellations. Avanti has shifted focus toward partnerships rather than large satellite procurements, including a deal to integrate Telesat's planned Lightspeed LEO network with its GEO services. (6/15)

US Needs More Solid Rocket Motors (Source: Space News)
U.S. production of solid rocket motors is rising, but not fast enough to meet the Pentagon's missile-defense program demands. A new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies says solid rocket motors remain a bottleneck across the U.S. missile industrial base, even as the Pentagon prepares for a sharp increase in interceptor production.

 The study found that the air and missile defense interceptor industrial base isn't configured for a long conflict with high missile-expenditure rates. Shifts away from solid-fuel motors for space launch have also reduced the space sector's role as a stabilizing source of demand for solid motor suppliers. The report calls for stable demand signals, multiyear buying, direct investment in suppliers, requirements reform and broader acceptance of new suppliers. (6/15)

Revised SpaceX and Blue Origin Lunar Plans Revealed (Source: Space News)
As part of the Artemis 3 announcement last week, SpaceX confirmed that its revised Starship lunar lander plans involve docking Starship with Orion in low Earth orbit, instead of around the moon, and using Starship to send Orion to lunar orbit. Doing so, both the company and NASA argue, improves crew safety while also reducing propellant demands on Starship. Blue Origin, meanwhile, is setting aside work on a "transporter" spacecraft for aggregating propellant in Earth orbit and transferring it to lunar orbit, and will instead use transfer stages derived from its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. (6/15)

China's Kinetica-1 Launches Eight Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
A small Chinese rocket launched eight satellites overnight. A Kinetica-1, or Lijian-1, rocket lifted off at 11:44 p.m. Eastern Sunday night from the Jiuquan spaceport. It placed eight high-resolution optical imaging satellites into orbit. This was the 14th launch of the Kintetica-1 solid-fuel rocket, carrying a combined 105 satellites. (6/15)

AI Employed to Help Fill Aerospace Worker Shortage (Source: Space News)
In aerospace and defense, companies are using AI to help fill a worker shortage. Executives in these sectors increasingly see AI not as a replacement for workers but as a necessary tool for helping an overstretched industrial base build faster, scale production and compete with China. It is helping drive a wave of investment into agentic AI systems capable of assisting with engineering, testing, supply-chain management and manufacturing workflows. Companies hope the technology will compress development timelines that have frustrated the Pentagon for years. (6/15)

Orbital Data Centers: Another Worry for Astronomy Interference (Source: Space News)
Astronomers are worried orbital data centers will exacerbate the growing problem of satellite interference. Astronomers have spent the last several years raising concerns about the brightness of satellites in broadband constellations and how they impact groundbased astronomy. At a recent meeting, though, a leading astronomer said both the size of individual data center satellites, with giant solar panels and radiators, along with the sheer numbers of those satellites could make that interference problem much worse.

SpaceX, which has proposed launching up to 1 million orbital data center satellites, provided more details last week about the design of its AI1 satellite, which will be 70 meters long and 20 meters tall when its arrays and radiators are deployed. SpaceX expects to start launching AI1 satellites by the end of next year. (6/15)

T-Minus Barracuda Suffers Anomaly After Launch from Nova Scotia (Source: European Spaceflight)
A single-stage sounding rocket launched by Dutch firm T-Minus Engineering from Spaceport Nova Scotia on 10 June suffered an anomaly late in its flight. The anomaly prompted teams to stand down from a second planned flight. Founded in 2011, T-Minus Engineering develops and operates a range of suborbital rockets for microgravity research and hypersonic experimentation. The largest of its rockets is the Barracuda, a sounding rocket that stands approximately four meters tall and can carry payloads of up to 40 kilograms to altitudes of around 120 kilometers. (6/15)

Spaceport Company Sees Missile Test Backlog, Considers Offshore Capability for Large Orbital Rockets (Source: The Spaceport Company)
The Spaceport Company signed contracts with two commercial companies and is in final negotiations with a third. These signed and potential contracts represent six missile test launches and over $2 million in new revenue, before the end of CY2026. These are in addition to existing missile-related contracts with Lockheed Martin, the Golden Dome project, and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). "MDA continues to be very bullish on The Spaceport Company and has become a solid source of regular revenue."

In response to DoD demand for new medium-large launch capabilities, "The Spaceport has Company received inquiries and in early consultations with U.S. government officials on how to build an offshore site to potentially meet this need." (6/15)

Sustained Maneuver Has a Propulsion Problem (Source: Space News)
For years, space architecture was treated mostly as a question of placement: where to put a spacecraft, and how reliably it could hold position. That framing is now too narrow. A growing number of missions need to reposition, retask, inspect, avoid threats, persist, support logistics or simply preserve options as the operating environment changes. The community is taking maneuver more seriously — and that shift is overdue. (6/15)

Scientists Find Strange Changes on Sun Hours Before a Powerful X9 Solar Flare (Source: Space.com)
Researchers were able to take advantage of an unusually fortuitous dataset that captured the buildup to an X9-class solar flare that erupted on Oct. 3, 2024. Their analysis identified several changes in the sun's atmosphere hours before the explosion, offering new clues about how major flares begin and potentially revealing early warning signs of future events.

The active region that produced the eruption had already generated several powerful flares in the preceding days, prompting scientists to keep multiple solar observatories focused on the area. Among them was NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, a spacecraft designed to study a narrow slice of the sun's atmosphere in extraordinary detail. Because IRIS was already observing the region, researchers obtained nearly five uninterrupted hours of observations before the flare erupted, providing a rare window into the processes unfolding in the sun's atmosphere before the explosion. (6/15)

German Satellite Maker OHB Seeks €500 Million to Fuel Growth (Source: Bloomberg)
German satellite maker OHB SE is kicking off a stock offering to help it contribute to Europe’s space and defense programs as well as increase its free float. The Germany-based firm is selling shares worth around €500 million ($580 million) in a fully marketed offering, according to terms seen by Bloomberg. Private equity group KKR & Co. Inc., which currently owns about 29% of its shares, is also looking to sell shares, although the size of the deal is yet to be confirmed. (6/15)