February 5, 2026

Raytheon to Rapidly Increase US Missile Production (Source: Defense News)
Raytheon will significantly boost production of several missile systems, including the Tomahawk cruise missiles, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, and around SM-6, under terms of new Pentagon agreements. The company also plans to boost output of SM-3 IIA and SM-3 IB missile defense interceptors. This acceleration, expected to reach up to four times current production rates, will take place at Raytheon's facilities in Alabama, Arizona, and Massachusetts. (2/4)

Aerospace Program Part of Florida School Funding Package (Source: WFTV)
Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-FL, visited Space Coast Junior/Senior High School in Port St. John, Fla., to highlight federal funding for career and technical education, including more than $2 million for an Aviation Assembly and Fabrication Program. The program aims to provide hands-on training in aircraft maintenance and fabrication, preparing students for aerospace careers with employers such as NASA and other space companies. (1/29)

Europe Seeks Unity of Purpose As Space Projects Mushroom (Source: Aviation Week)
Europe has a new space challenge on its hands: keeping a multitude of military initiatives working in tandem. The latest joke among European space officials is that they have gone from having too little money but plenty of time to having plenty of money but not enough time—all because of the threat from Russia and concerns about the U.S. Now there is a new twist: Europe may have gone from too few programs to too many. (2/5)

Space Force Picks L3Harris to Maintain and Upgrade Space Surveillance Radar and Electro-Optical Sensors (Source: Military Aerospace)
U.S. Space Force space surveillance experts needed to maintain and upgrade three key integrated sensors to keep watch on objects orbiting Earth. They found a solution from L3Harris Technologies Inc. Officials of the Space Systems Command at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo., announced a $62.7 million order to L3Harris in Colorado Springs for engineering sustainment option year seven of these space-observation sensor systems. (2/5)

Vantor Wins $5.3 Million NGA Contract to Spot Terrain Changes Using Commercial Datellite Data (Source: Space News)
Commercial Earth imaging company Vantor won a contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The $5.3 million contract announced Thursday funds work to detect and deliver automated insights on real-time changes to the Earth's landscape. Under the contract, Vantor, formerly Maxar Intelligence, will combine data from its own satellites with third-party electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar systems to identify changes to physical terrain on the ground, including shifts in infrastructure and land use. The award was made under NGA's Luno program, an effort by the agency to draw on unclassified commercial geospatial intelligence, machine learning and artificial intelligence to support U.S. government analysis. (2/5)

FireSat Adds Orbit-visualization Software to Help Firefighters Plan Around Satellite Passes (Source: Space News)
Developers of wildfire-detection satellites are moving beyond raw data delivery, adding tools that show firefighters and researchers when satellites will actually pass over the areas they are watching. The nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance, which is funding the FireSat constellation, last month awarded a contract of undisclosed value to ExoAnalytic Solutions to build software that visualizes satellite orbits and sensor coverage. (2/5)

A 'Cold Earth' Exoplanet Just 146 Light-Years Away Might be in its Star's Habitable Zone — If it Exists (Source: Space.com)
A possible rocky exoplanet referred to as a 'cold Earth' that could orbit on the outer edge of the habitable zone has been found around a star 146 light-years away. Known as HD 137010b, the exoplanet is considered at this stage to be a candidate world, meaning that its existence has yet to be confirmed. The star is a K-type dwarf, meaning it is a little smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun, and HD 137010b would receive just 29% of the heat and light that Earth does from our sun. (2/5)

Logos Space Gets FCC Approval for 4000+ Satellite Boradband Constellation (Source: Space News)
Logos Space Services has secured FCC approval to deploy as many as 4,178 low Earth orbit broadband satellites to serve enterprise and government users. The FCC partially granted the application by Logos, clearing operations in K-, Q- and V-band spectrum under certain conditions while deferring and denying parts of its higher-frequency requests. The satellites would operate across seven orbital shells ranging from 870 kilometers to 925 kilometers above Earth, with inclinations spanning 28 to 90 degrees. Logos raised $50 million last year and plans to deploy its first operational satellite in 2027. The company has, under the FCC approval, seven years to deploy half the constellation with the rest in orbit by 2035. (2/5)

House NASA Authorization Advances (Source: Space News)
The House Science Committee advanced a NASA authorization bill Wednesday. The committee unanimously approved the bill after approving more than 40 amendments to it. The amendments cover a range of topics, from exploration and commercial space activities to science and workforce development. One amendment would direct NASA to study raising the orbit of the International Space Station upon retirement rather than deorbiting it. Another amendment, introduced and then withdrawn, would have directed NASA to study the cost and risks of moving the shuttle Discovery from Virginia to Houston. The committee rejected only one amendment, which would have given NASA authorities to operate counter-drone systems at its facilities, after Republican members argued that was an issue better handled by the House Armed Services Committee. The bill now goes to the full House. (2/5)

Morpheus Raises $15 Million (Source: Space News)
Satellite propulsion company Morpheus has raised $15 million. The additional funding will help Morpheus increase production in a German factory that is currently turning out 100 GO-2 electric propulsion systems annually. The GO-2 thruster provides propulsion for smallsats weighing between 10 and 250 kilograms, and can also be used to provide precise maneuvering for larger spacecraft. (2/5)

Tables Turn on Resilient GPS (Source: Space News)
The Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program illustrates the struggles the Pentagon has had developing alternatives to GPS. The program started two years ago as what the Department of the Air Force called an urgent priority to develop lower-cost satellites that could broadcast civil GPS signals, providing redundancy to existing GPS satellites. R-GPS faced resistance from Congress, though, unconvinced the satellites would improve resilience and noting they would not broadcast M-Code signals. Now, however, the dynamic has reversed, with the Space Force electing not to seek funding to continue the program but Congress adding $15 million for it in the final 2026 spending bill. Space Force officials said they would work with Congress to determine how to best spend the funding provided for R-GPS. (2/5)

Viridian Gets Five Year AFRL CRADA for VLEO (Source: Space News)
Viridian, a startup developing propulsion systems for very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites, signed an agreement with the Air Force Research Lab. The five-year cooperative research and development agreement will give Viridian access to testing facilities and satellite-operations expertise at AFRL's Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The startup is working on an air-breathing electric propulsion system that ingests the atmosphere at an altitude between 200 and 300 kilometers to feed a plasma thruster. (2/5)

Japan Plans Return of Epsilon Launches in 2027 (Source: Jiji Press)
Japan hopes to resume launches of the Epsilon rocket in the next year. The Japanese space agency JAXA said it is looking to start launches of the Epsilon S in the 2026 fiscal year, which starts April 1. The Epsilon S is an improved version of the Epsilon rocket, which failed in its final flight in 2022. The upgraded Epsilon S has been delayed by failures of its solid rocket motors in ground tests in 2023 and 2024. The problems with the Epsilon S forced JAXA last year to purchase two Electron launches from Rocket Lab for technology demonstration smallsats originally planned to launch on Epsilon. (2/5)

Russia Calls for More Cosmonauts (Source: TASS)
The Russian space agency Roscosmos is putting out another call for cosmonauts. Roscosmos said this week it will seek applications for a new cosmonaut class, but did not disclose how many cosmonauts it plans to select. While NASA, ESA and KAXA have seen strong interest in their latest astronaut recruiting efforts, with thousands of applications, the previous Roscosmos effort in 2023 attracted only 296 applicants, with Roscosmos selecting four. (2/5)

US House Takes First Step Toward Creating “Commercial” Deep Space Program (Source: Ars Technica)
Amendment No. 01 to the latest NASA Authorization Act, offered by Chairman Brian Babin (R-TX) ranking member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and three other legislators concerns acquisition powers bestowed upon NASA by Congress, stating in part: “The Administrator may, subject to appropriations, procure from United States commercial providers operational services to carry cargo and crew safely, reliably, and affordably to and from deep space destinations, including the Moon and Mars.”

That language is fairly general in nature, but the intent seems clear. NASA’s initial missions to the Moon, through Artemis V, have a clearly defined architecture: They must use the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and a lander built by either SpaceX or Blue Origin to complete lunar landings. But after that? With this amendment, Congress appears to be opening the aperture to commercial companies. That is to say, if SpaceX wanted to bid an end-to-end Starship lunar mission, it could; or if Blue Origin wanted to launch Orion on New Glenn, that is also an option. (2/4)

China’s Mengzhou is Putting Pressure on NASA’s Lunar Timeline (Source: Spectrum IEEE)
Slow and steady wins the race, or so goes the fable. The China Manned Space Agency, or CMSA, has repeatedly denied any rivalry with the United States akin to the race to the moon in the 1960s. But step-by-step, one element at a time over a period of decades, it has built a human space program with goals that include landing astronauts on the moon by 2030 and starting a base there in the following years. And—partly because launch dates for NASA’s Artemis III moon landing keep slipping toward that same time frame—U.S. space leaders are ratcheting up the space race rhetoric.

China’s lunar hardware is based on a reusable multipurpose crew ship called Mengzhou, with capacity for six or seven astronauts, though as few as three may actually fly on a trip from Earth to low lunar orbit. Mengzhou, according to what the CMSA has shown, includes a crew section in the shape of a truncated cone, with a service module holding power and propulsion systems in the rear. You’ll see a resemblance to the American Artemis or Apollo spacecraft, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, or the yet-to-be-flown European Nyx. Basic aerodynamics make a blunt cone a very efficient shape for safely launching a spacecraft and returning it through Earth’s atmosphere.

The ship would be launched by a new heavy-lift Long March 10 booster, one of two used for a given moon mission. The Long March 10, as configured for lunar flight, would stand 92.5 meters high at launch and generate thrust of 2,678 tonnes. (The rocket for Artemis II is more powerful: 3,992 tonnes.) Mengzhou would leave for the moon after another Long March 10 has launched a Lanyue lunar landing craft. The two would rendezvous and dock in lunar orbit. Two astronauts would transfer to Lanyue and land on the moon; Mengzhou would wait for them in orbit for the trip home. Lanyue has a stated mass of 26 tonnes and could carry a 200-kilogram rover. (2/2)

From Moon Dust to Moon Colonies (Source: Aerospace America)
Blue Origin is preparing for a demonstration this year of a suite of technologies that could provide the foundation for future self-sufficient lunar settlements. Paul Marks spoke to the lead technologist of the effort. In a sprawling laboratory complex in Los Angeles, researchers are developing technologies that could allow future lunar citizens to live off the land. As Vlada Stamenkovic tells it, the instruction he and his colleagues received from their boss, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, was a demanding one: “Show me that this is real, that it’s not just a dream.”

In September, Blue Alchemist, the company’s initial suite of eight lunar resource extraction technologies, passed a critical design review by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA is involved because it has partly funded Blue Alchemist’s development with an award of $34.7 million. “Making unlimited amounts of solar power, transmission cables and oxygen anywhere on the Moon supports both NASA’s lunar sustainability and Blue Origin’s commercial business objectives,” NASA says. (2/5)

EU Commission Expects Galileo PRS Signal Accreditation ‘Soon’ (Source: Space Intel Report)
The European Commission was put on the defensive by a member of the European Parliament for continued delays in the start of the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS), the encrypted, jam- and spoof-resistant signal for government and military use that is still not available. Ten years after the initial Galileo positioning, navigation and timing system started operations, PRS still awaits final authorization by European security agencies. (2/4)

Isar Aerospace Opens Second Test Site at Esrange Space Center (Source: Satellite Evolution)
European space company Isar Aerospace is significantly expanding their testing operations with SSC Space at Esrange Space Center in Sweden, opening a second test site to support the development and production of its ‘Spectrum’ rocket. The new facility will enable testing of 30+ engines per month, along with expanded integrated stage testing capabilities, increasing testing capacity and enabling faster development.

The purpose-built acceptance test facility will enable fully integrated stage acceptance testing, providing Isar Aerospace with greater flexibility and capability to meet growing market demand for launch services. The test sites are fully tailored to Isar Aerospace’s own requirements, supporting the company’s approach of vertically integrating launch vehicle development across design, manufacturing, testing, and operations. (2/4)

Experts Warn of Urgent Need to Address Human Reproduction Risks in Space (Source: Space Daily)
As commercial spaceflight moves closer to routine operations and missions extend in duration, a new expert report argues that reproductive health in space has shifted from a theoretical concern to an urgently practical issue. The authors warn that space is an environment fundamentally hostile to human biology, yet human activity beyond Earth is rapidly expanding without matching standards for managing reproductive risks.

The study, published in Reproductive Biomedicine Online, is authored by nine specialists in reproductive health, aerospace medicine and bioethics. They describe how two once-separate revolutions, human spaceflight and assisted reproductive technologies, are now intersecting as space becomes both a workplace and destination while fertility treatments become more advanced, automated and accessible. (2/4)

Amazon Leo to Provide Internet Connectivity Services to AT&T (Source: Via Satellite)
Amazon Leo said it agreed to supply internet connectivity services to AT&T in a deal that would expand the wireless provider’s service area. In a joint press release with Amazon, AT&T said Amazon Leo’s connectivity services would allow it to serve customers in broader areas. AT&T will use Amazon Leo to deliver fixed broadband services to business customers. (2/4)

Chang'e-6 Lunar Samples Reveal First Discovery of Naturally Formed Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Graphitic Carbon (Source: Global Times)
A Chinese research team recently conducted a systematic analysis of the Chang'e-6 lunar soil samples and, for the first time internationally, discovered and confirmed the presence of naturally formed single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphitic carbon, proving that geological activity on the far side of the moon has been more intense. It is the first to clearly identify graphitic carbon and trace its possible formation and evolutionary processes. It also marks the first international confirmation of the existence of single-walled carbon nanotubes formed naturally, without any artificial intervention, per the report. (1/20)

SpaceX Launches "Stargaze" SSA System to Secure LEO (Source: Mach 33)
SpaceX has launched Stargaze, a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system that leverages data from 30,000 star trackers across its fleet to detect orbital objects. The system processes approximately 30 million transits daily, providing orbit estimates and collision predictions within minutes—orders of magnitude faster than the industry standard of several hours. SpaceX has committed to making this screening data available to the broader satellite operator community free of charge.

This is a quietly important step in derisking SpaceX's “megaconstellations” assets by undertaking an open source ecosystem approach to collision avoidance and tracking. The move points to an operational prerequisite for scale. Stargaze also hints that SpaceX can leverage its orbital assets to serve a secondary market: sensor + network platform that can support government/defense use cases (and potentially third-party SSA services). (1/30)

Starlink Capacity "Sold Out" Across Major African Markets (Source: Mach 33)
Data shared by industry observers reveals that Africa now leads the globe in "sold out" Starlink service areas, with major metropolitan centers marked in red on availability maps. While Starlink has rapidly expanded its footprint, high demand in key African cities has outstripped the current allocated capacity per cell, leading to waitlists in regions previously considered underserved. Starlink’s next growth phase (especially in high-demand cities) increasingly depends on capacity densification: more satellites, smarter spectrum use, local gateways/ground infrastructure, and eventually hybrid approaches where satellite becomes coverage + backhaul rather than the only last-mile. (1/30)