March 14, 2026

Starliner and Artemis: Commercial Label vs. Commercial Discipline (Source: Space News)
Where is the actual line between a government program and a commercial company? CounterFlow Solutions founder Dan Garretson says many of the products, services and missions that are broadly considered to be "commercial" today may not fit the bill, given the trend of companies offering highly customized components or spacecraft for anchor customers in the government.

"Commercial structure is what shows up on paper: a services contract, fixed-price mechanisms, private ownership, multiple providers," Garretson wrote. "Commercial discipline shows up in behavior: the buyer constrains itself to a standard offering; anomalies get driven to root cause; architectures are built for repeatability before demand is proven; and learning compounds because the core system holds. We've spent years celebrating structure while quietly ignoring the need for discipline."

In his view, real commercial success and progress in space developments are tied to discipline on both sides of the contract: with government customers and commercial firms emphasizing the need for standardized, repeatable products. "Commercial markets aren't declared from the top down," he wrote. "They're enforced by competition, repeatability and restraint on both sides of the contract. Without those, expansion stalls. With them, it compounds." (3/10)

SpaceX Launches Pi Day Starlink Mission at Cape Canaveral (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX rang in Pi Day with a rocket launch from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. March 14 is observed by many for representing the mathematical constant Pi − or 3.14. The liftoff occurred at Launch Complex 40. For many watching, the Falcon 9 quickly disappeared into the breaking clouds, only its rumble audible to spectators as it traveled upward. (3/14)

Artemis II Mission: A Day-by-Day Look (Source: Douglas's Substack)
NASA is moving forward with the Artemis II launch as early as April 1. It will be the first crewed flight test of the Orion spacecraft. And the first crewed flight to the vicinity of the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. Here is a day by day description of the upcoming mission. (3/14)

Blue Origin Unveils NEO Hunter: A Hybrid Planetary Defense Concept (Source: NSF)
Blue Origin has unveiled a new mission concept called NEO Hunter, designed to protect Earth from potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) by employing advanced deflection techniques. Developed in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech, the concept leverages the company’s versatile Blue Ring platform as its foundation.

NEO Hunter adopts a hybrid approach to asteroid deflection. It would first deploy CubeSats to characterize the target asteroid’s properties, then position itself nearby to direct a continuous ion beam at the object. This contactless method gradually imparts momentum, subtly altering the asteroid’s trajectory over time to steer it away from a potential collision course with Earth. (3/14)

iMetalX Emerges From Stealth with Technology to Model Resident Space Objects (Source: Space News)
Northern California startup iMetalX Inc. emerged from stealth to announce a collaboration with Psionic, a Hampton, Virginia, company focused on autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments. Pairing Psionic’s Space Navigation Dopper Lidar with iMetalX’s Asgard data and simulation platform offers customers the ability to create accurate 3D models of resident space objects (RSOs). (3/13)

PSIONIC and iMETALX Announce Strategic Collaboration Supporting RPOD, Space Control, and Space Battle Management (Source: iMetalx)
Psionic, a provider of advanced precision navigation and autonomy technologies for national security missions, and iMetalx, a Space Battle Management software company specializing in autonomous space control, announced a strategic collaboration to support Rendezvous Proximity Operations (RPO), Resident Space Object (RSO) Characterization, Obstacle Avoidance, Docking (RPOD), Capture (RPOC), Space Control, and Space Battle Management missions for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and the Space Development Agency (SDA). (2/11)

Canada Takes Its Sovereignty Push to Space (Source: New York Times)
Canada plans to launch hundreds of satellites as part of a national defense agenda that, since President Trump’s trade war began last year, has focused on lessening the country’s reliance on the United States. Telesat, a satellite communications company whose headquarters are in Ottawa, plans to launch about 200 satellites next year and recently signed a deal with the government and another Canadian company, MDA Space, for systems to support the military.

Starlink is the dominant internet provider in Canada’s remote areas and has roughly 500,000 users in Canada, according to the company. Launching domestic satellites would benefit the thousands of Canadians for whom Starlink access has been critical and even life-changing, Dr. Boley said — though he acknowledged that as an astronomer he had mixed feelings about firing more things into space. (3/14)

Firefly Aerospace: Successful Launch Validates Alpha, But The Real Test Is Cadence (Source: Seeking Alpha)
Firefly Aerospace remains a speculative buy after a successful Mission 7 launch, despite a 42% YTD share price drop. FLY's launch success rate is only 43%, with recent mission failures weighing on investor sentiment and share price performance. My price target is $34.77, implying 50% upside, but this is reduced from prior estimates due to higher expected cash burn in 2026. Improved launch cadence and consistent mission success are critical for FLY to enhance financial performance and reduce risk. (3/13)

From Knitting Girdles, to Outfitting Astronauts for Space Travel (Source: WCVB)
It all started with a young David Clark, who left school at 15, learned accounting and took up knitting. In 1935, he founded a company making girdles and undergarments. But by the 1940s, as aviation speeds soared, Clark used his textile expertise to tackle a critical problem: pilots passing out due to G-LOC. His solution? A pressurized, air-bladder G-suit, which became the basis of what pilots still wear today.

David Clark suits have been a constant in American aerospace. The company built Gemini spacesuits, Apollo gear, U-2 spy plane suits, and now, the Orion Crew Survival System suits for NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon. Still based in Worcester, David Clark Co. designs, builds, and pressure-tests all its suits on site. (3/13)

In Space, Regulators Seek To Boldly Go Where No Bureaucrat Has Gone Before (Source: Reason)
Unfortunately, opening new commercial opportunities—even in the depths of outer space—is like ringing the dinner bell for bureaucrats and would-be regulators. "Despite evolving technical capabilities, the international legal framework governing exploitation of the Moon is both very limited and frozen in the Cold War era," the RAND Corporation's Adam Urwick and Jessie Osborne said.

"The pursuit of profit raises paramount scientific and environmental concerns. Astronomers caution that large-scale mining activities could disrupt ongoing research and preservation of the lunar environment, leading to calls for development of comprehensive lunar laws and regulations to manage these activities responsibly."

Earth's moon is a dead place where nobody currently does anything. There is nothing to disrupt, let alone an environment to worry about unless you want to elevate the occasional boot print or tire tread in lunar dust to the status of a problem. The pursuit of profit there should raise no concerns beyond those of investors seeking returns—and investors and space ventures are looking for opportunity, assuming it's not strangled by red tape. (3/13)

Isaacman Reveals Why Pluto Should Be a Planet in Plan To Make It ‘Great Again’ (Source: Daily Mail)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman endorsed the idea of Trump making Pluto a planet again in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail at the John F Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ‘I 100% support President Trump making Pluto great again,’ Isaacman said. (3/13)

A look back at 2025 for Europe’s Spaceport (Source: ESA)
2025 was a particularly memorable year for Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, with a return to a full autonomous launch capability driven by the ramp-up of Ariane 6 launches and the confirmation of a robust return to flight of Vega-C. Click here. (3/13)

German Chancellor Visits Norway Spaceport (Source: DW)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited a spaceport in Norway set to be a launchpad for Bavarian rockets. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been at the Andoya spaceport for talks with his Norwegian counterpart. Bavarian startup Isar plans to use the base to launch rockets carrying satellites. (3/13)

How US Military Space Operators Are Likely Aiding the Fight in Iran (Source: Breaking Defense)
Two top military commanders have praised what they said was the critical role of space operations in the early days of Operation Epic Fury, but they were loathe to say what, exactly, the US military was doing in the highest, at times most secretive domain.

“A note about the Space Force. Our space superiority has been a critical enabler to this fight. Unseen by the world, the Space Force is doing two things. First, they’re degrading Iranian capability and second, they’re helping to protect American forces, and I’ll have to leave it right there,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), said. (3/13)