February 17, 2026

Airbus AALTO Closes on Australian Site for Second Zephyr Aircraft Launch Location, After Kenya (Source: Flight Global)
Airbus subsidiary AALTO hopes by mid-2026 to have begun construction of a new launch and landing site in northern Australia for its solar-powered Zephyr high-altitude platform-station (HAPS), paving the way for the start of operations there later this year. Meanwhile, the UK-headquartered company continues its push to achieve certification from its home regulator while simultaneously improving the Zephyr’s performance and raising output at its Farnborough production site to support full-scale deployment later this decade.

AALTO launched its first Zephyr HAPS mission from a new, purpose-built facility in Kenya. Following a successful 13-day debut flight in January 2025 that tested 4G/5G connectivity payloads at over 60,000 feet, the company plans several additional test flights in 2025 to accelerate commercial operations by 2026. The Kenya facility allows for year-round, high-altitude stratospheric operations. (2/17)

Kepler Plots European Expansion with NanoAvionics Deal (Source: Payload)
Kepler Communications and Kongsberg NanoAvionics have teamed up to put on a laser show for Europe. Kepler announced its selection of NanoAvionics as its preferred satellite bus provider in Europe today, opening the door for hosted payloads onboard NanoAvionics’ buses to tap into Kepler’s optical communications network. (2/17)

Earth Observation Data Provider SatVu Closes £30 Million Funding Round (Source: European Spaceflight)
London-headquartered thermal infrared Earth observation data provider SatVu announced that it has closed a £30 million (approximately €34.3 million) funding round as it prepares to deploy a pair of satellites into orbit. While SatVu does list national security as one of its technology’s potential applications, it has not made a major pivot toward defense, unlike many other European Earth observation data providers, instead focusing on economic monitoring and climate resilience. (2/17)

China’s Space Epoch Raises New Funding, Targets 2026 Launch and Recovery Attempt (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch startup Space Epoch has secured an undisclosed sum of funding as the company moves towards a first orbital launch and recovery attempt late this year. Space Epoch says the funding means Space Epoch has entered a stage of large-scale development. “Three Yuanxingzhe-1 rockets already in production will undergo ground testing in the second half of the year, with the goal of achieving a successful first orbital launch and recovery by year’s end,” Space Epoch said.

Yuanxingzhe-1 (YXZ-1) is a methane-liquid oxygen rocket designed for reusability. Space Epoch says it has a payload capacity of 13,800 kilograms to a 200-kilometer orbit and 9,000 kg to a 1,100 km orbit—the latter altitude being one associated with the national Guowang megaconstellation. It also claims a price of no more than 20,000 yuan per kilogram (about $2,900 per kg), with the rocket designed to be reusable 20 times. (2/17)

How Mars' Toxic Soil Actually Makes Stronger Bricks (Source: Universe Today)
Mars has one local resource that has long been thought of as a negative - perchlorates. These chemicals, which are toxic to almost all life, make up between 0.5-1% of Martian soil, and have long been thought to be a hindrance rather than a help to our colonization efforts for the new planet. But a new paper from researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and the University of Florida shows that, when making the bricks that will build the outpost, perchlorates actually help.

We’ve reported before on efforts to make bricks out of Martian regolith, but one thing we didn’t mention in those reports is that most Martian regolith simulants don’t include perchlorates, as they are a fire hazard. So all of those results, many of which included a form of biocementation process facilitated by bacteria, didn’t include one of the most important components of Martian soil. (2/17)

Artemis Haters, Can We Have a Moment, Please? (Source: Space News)
It’s taking too long. It costs too much. Yet it’s not being talked about enough. It’s not historic enough. It’s not safe enough. I’m talking about Artemis. Or at least what a goodly portion of the space community is saying privately or online, replete with sensationalist interviews and even vomit emojis.

Artemis is a step, if presently halting, toward future lunar missions and a long-term human presence on our companion world, one so important that even SpaceX is setting aside Mars for a greater focus on the Moon, and Blue Origin is setting aside suborbital space tourism for the same. Artemis is not perfect, but just imagine not having any lunar or deep-space program or architecture. Imagine if we were still just presenting slide decks at aerospace conferences. (2/17)

US Seeks Info on Orbital Refueling Services (Source: Aviation Week)
Space Systems Command is seeking companies that can provide refueling services for spacecraft in geostationary orbit by 2030. The command aims to identify vendors capable of operating through standard interfaces previously approved by the service. (2/16)

China Retrieves Long March 10 Booster from South China Sea After Test Flight (Source: Space Daily)
China has carried out its first maritime recovery of a rocket first-stage booster, retrieving the main stage of a Long March 10 heavy-lift carrier rocket from the South China Sea following a key test flight earlier this week. The China Manned Space Agency reported that the booster was recovered on Friday morning from a designated splashdown zone, marking the first time China has recovered major rocket components from the ocean. A crane lifted the stage from the water and placed it on a recovery vessel for transport and subsequent analysis. (2/16)
 
Mars Relay Orbiter Seen as Backbone for Future Exploration (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has set clear goals at Mars: search for evidence of ancient life, understand the planet's climate and geology, and prepare for human exploration. Those objectives depend on a robust link between spacecraft at Mars and mission teams on Earth, with every image and dataset traveling hundreds of millions of kilometers across interplanetary space. Rocket Lab positions its proposed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, or MTO, as the invisible infrastructure that will underpin that communications backbone for the next generation of Mars missions. The company argues that without a capable relay network, Mars missions cannot deliver their full value. (2/17)

Mexican Gxiba-1 CubeSat Starts Mission After Kibo Deployment (Source: Space Daily)
On February 3, 2026, the Mexican CubeSat Gxiba-1 was deployed from the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo on the International Space Station, beginning its on orbit mission. The small satellite was released into space using the Kibo module's robotic arm as Earth passed in the background. Gxiba-1 was built by a team from the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla in Mexico after the university won the sixth round of the KiboCUBE program. (2/16)

Is Dark Energy Actually Evolving? (Source: Universe Today)
Physicists have begun to question whether dark energy might be changing over time, and that would have a huge impact on the universe’s expansion and cosmological physics in general. A new paper explores an alternative possibility that our data is actually just messy from inaccuracies in how we measure particular cosmological features - like supernovae. Supernovae are commonly used in distance measurements at cosmological scales, so getting their brightness down exactly is critical to correctly measuring distance. And Dr. Turyshev, like many other astrophysicists, isn’t sure our current crop of telescopes is up to that task. (2/17)

NASA Working on Response to December Executive Order for Lunar Return (Source: Space News)
NASA is waiting to complete responses to a space policy executive order before moving ahead with some key programs. Some projects, like support for commercial space stations or development of a nuclear reactor for lunar missions, have effectively been on hold since late last year. In a recent interview, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency was working on responding to a White House executive order last December, which called on the agency to develop plans for achieving policy directives in that order, such as returning humans to the moon by 2028. Once those plans are submitted, he said NASA will then publicly announce its intention for moving forward on those programs. (2/17)

Leonardo Plans Earth Observation Constellation (Source: Space News)
Leonardo is developing its own Earth observation satellite system. An executive with Leonardo's space division said the company was investing nearly 500 million euros ($590 million) in the Leonardo EO Constellation, which will have about 20 satellites with radar and optical imaging payloads. The satellites will have optical intersatellite links, with one or more dedicated to communications using lasers to other satellites or to optical ground stations. The constellation, slated to launch in 2027 or 2028, is designed to show Leonardo's end-to-end space capabilities as well as provide proprietary data for its geospatial intelligence business, and could be a model for future European imaging satellite constellations to be funded by ESA and the European Commission. (2/17)

Spain's PLD to Launch Spain's Sateliot Satellites (Source: Space News)
Spanish company Sateliot will launch two satellites with another Spanish company, PLD Space. The companies announced Tuesday a launch contract to fly two of Sateliot's Tritó satellites on a dedicated Miura 5 launch in 2027. Tritó is Sateliot's next-generation satellite announced last fall, capable of both Internet of Things and direct-to-device services. PLD Space is developing Miura 5, a small launch vehicle, with a first launch planned by the end of the year. The companies said the contract was the first fully private Spanish mission. (2/17)

Voyager Partners with Atmos for Space Cargo Downmass (Source: Voyager Technologies)
Voyager Technologies will cooperate with a European company developing reentry vehicles. Voyager announced Monday a partnership with Atmos Space Cargo, providing Atmos with integration and implementation support. Atmos is developing a line of spacecraft with reentry vehicles to return cargo, such as microgravity research and manufacturing payloads, from orbit. (2/17)

China's Orbital Armada (Source: Bloomberg)
If orbital space is the 21st century’s high seas, China looks to be preparing an armada. Government plans submitted late last year to the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, promise a fleet of 203,000 satellites to be deployed by the mid-2030s. That would dwarf the ambitions of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos: SpaceX’s Starlink network has nearly 10,000 orbiters so far, while Amazon.com Inc.’s Leo constellation will top out at just 3,232. (2/16)

Starbase Aims to Triple in Size with Texas Land Annexing (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
SpaceX's Starbase wants to triple in size by annexing land from government and private owners. Starbase, incorporated as a city last year, is seeking to annex 7,100 acres of land, a move to be discussed at a city meeting this week. More than half the land is owned by the federal government and the state, including a federal wildlife refuge, while the rest is owned by SpaceX and other private organizations. Starbase city officials have not commented on why they want to annex the land. (2/17)

Australia Spaceport Establishment Support Grant Takes Off (Source: National Tribune)
The government of Western Australia is seeking to support development of spaceports in the state. The state government is offering 1.75 million Australian dollars ($1.25 million) in grants to prospective spaceport operators to fund site selection and related studies. The government will also fund studies to identify the best potential locations for a spaceport in Western Australia. (2/17)

NASA Adjusts Swift Spacecraft Operations to Prepare for Planned Reboost (Source: NASA)
NASA is scaling back operations of an astronomy satellite ahead of a planned reboost mission. NASA said last week that it temporarily suspended most science observations of the Swift spacecraft, a gamma-ray observatory. The move will allow the spacecraft to maintain an orientation that minimizes atmospheric drag. That will buy time for a mission, scheduled to launch as soon as June, to attach to Swift and raise its orbit. Without the reboost mission, Swift's orbit will decay and the spacecraft will reenter late this year or next year. One instrument on Swift, its Burst Alert Telescope, will continue to operate to detect gamma-ray bursts. (2/17)

Obama Comments on Aliens (Source: AP)
Former President Barack Obama is not saying it's aliens. In a podcast interview published over the weekend, Obama was asked if aliens were real. "They're real," he responded, but added he hasn't seen any evidence of them. After the exchange attracted widespread attention, Obama clarified his comments, saying that "the universe is so vast that the odds are good there's life out there" but that "the chances we've been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!" (2/17)

In the Age of Commercial Space, Who Should Own the Hardware? (Source: Aerospace America)
For most of its history, NASA hired companies to build hardware like the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft. NASA then took full ownership of those vehicles. Today, the agency is increasingly shifting toward purchasing services, not hardware, from its contractors. Since 2014, for instance, NASA has awarded SpaceX nearly $5 billion in contracts to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

These changing roles raise many questions, particularly around the ownership of and responsibility for space hardware. Can NASA ensure the reliability of spacecraft developed for services contracts in the same way it does for spacecraft it owns? Will private companies preserve history-making spacecraft in the same way NASA did with much of the Apollo hardware, transferring ownership to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum? Click here. (2/16)

How to Solve Hubble’s Gyroscope Problem and Give the Telescope New Life (Source: Aerospace America)
When its gyros fail, Hubble struggles to sense its own motion, making it slower and harder to aim precisely for the sharp images scientists need. Their functionality has been a persistent issue. Of the six replacements installed in 2009, only the three enhanced models were operational as of 2018. By mid-2024, NASA began transitioning Hubble to operate routinely in “one gyro mode,” with one additional gyro held in reserve and other sensors such as star trackers, sun sensors and magnetometers taking on more of the pointing workload. NASA estimates that at least one enhanced gyro will remain operational through the 2030s.

Our research team has created an economical and relatively simple solution to save Hubble and extend its operational life by at least two decades, although reaching the 2030s and beyond also depends on addressing orbital decay with a future reboost of the telescope’s altitude. Our concept is straightforward: Deploy four to six nanosatellites, each equipped with state-of-the-art gyroscopes as its primary payload, evenly spaced along a flexible tether that forms a ring with a slightly larger diameter than Hubble’s cylindrical body. (2/13)

China is Being Urged to Integrate Commercial Space Tech with Military Systems (Source: SCMP)
China has been urged to build dual-use satellite application systems to increase the military use of commercial technology. “As commercial satellites become more deeply involved in modern warfare, the traditional boundaries between military and civilian uses are increasingly blurred. Space is rapidly shifting from a domain of strategic deterrence towards one of tactical operations,” an article by researchers from China’s National University of Defence Technology said.

“A military-civil coordination mechanism should be established to integrate the development of military, civilian and commercial space capabilities, and to build a ‘military-civil collaborative’ satellite application system, thereby comprehensively enhancing the resilience and flexibility of China’s space architecture,” they wrote. (2/17)

White House Withholds NASA Science Funds (Source: Politico)
The Office of Management and Budget is withholding money for NASA’s science missions, a move that bucks Congress and goes against a funding bill signed into law. Officials have directed the space agency to pause funds for a host of science missions the White House originally pushed to cancel in its 2026 budget request, according to a letter sent to the agency’s centers from NASA headquarters and obtained by POLITICO.

The letter didn’t explain why the administration is holding the money, which is limited to science missions, but Trump has sought to slash federal funds for scientific research and climate-change-related activities. The missions listed in the letter include key programs that study the Earth, climate-related efforts and programs that study other planets in the universe. (2/11)

LEO Revenues Surge for Eutelsat, Operator Cancels Flexsat GEO Order (Source: Via Satellite)
Revenue from the OneWeb constellation is surging for Eutelsat, and the operator is focusing its future CapEx on Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) assets. This was the key highlight of its six-month results to the end of December, announced, Feb. 13. In the six months to the end of December, Eutelsat generated connectivity revenues via LEO of 110.5 million euro ($131.2 million), up close to 60% compared to the same stage last year. (2/17)