March 15, 2026

Philippine Space Agency, Local and South Korean Partners Set Rocket Development for Spaceport (Source: Business Mirror)
The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) will develop a framework for rocket development training and experimental launches in partnership with local and international agencies, aiming to establish a Philippine spaceport and position the country as a regional gateway to space. The partnership was made possible through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on March 4 by PhilSA, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), Ascend International Gateway Inc., and Republic of Korea’s Perigee Aerospace Inc. (3/15)

Volunteers Prepare Massive American Flag at Spaceport America for USA’s 250th Anniversary (Source: KVIA)
Volunteers gathered this weekend at Spaceport America to help clean and preserve one of the world’s largest American flags, a massive textile nearly two acres in size that has been part of several notable moments in the nation’s history. Members of the Great American Flag Preservation Group, along with community volunteers and Spaceport staff, spent the weekend unfurling, cleaning and preparing the enormous flag for future displays as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary. (3/14)

Failure of Atomic Clock Cripples ISRO’s NavSat System (Source: The Hindu)
The last atomic clock aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)-1F satellite has failed, ISRO has said in a statement. This further weakens the country’s indigenous ‘GPS’ system, informally called NavIC. Since the first of the eight satellites in the IRNSS system were launched between 2013-2018, the government has encouraged Indian enterprises, including computer manufacturers and electronic goods having timing services, to rely on NavIC for determining the Indian Standard Time. (3/15)

Trump Administration Readies Plans to Dismantle Renowned Science Lab (Source: New York Times)
The Trump administration is reviewing proposals to break up one of the world’s leading climate and weather laboratories, transfer its work to universities and private companies, take away its aircraft, and sell its property in Boulder, Colorado. The laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has been targeted for months by the Trump administration.

Russell Vought, the White House budget director, called the Colorado center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are widely used in forecasting weather events and disasters.

Scientists say the move to dismantle the center would weaken research that is crucial to understanding the atmosphere, space and oceans, air pollution and climate change. It would leave emergency officials and planners less prepared for extreme weather events, critics said. (3/13)

Spaceflight Supercharges Viruses’ Ability to Infect Bacteria (Source: Scientific American)
Bacteria and the viruses that infect them are perpetually at war. Their deadly clashes push both kinds of microbes to evolve new traits that meet the challenges of every environment they inhabit, from the human digestive tract to the seafloor’s hydrothermal vents—and even the harsh conditions of space, where studies found that microgravity enhances the ability of viruses to infect bacteria, suggesting they can adapt to extreme stressors. This ongoing "arms race" drives rapid evolution in both, with viruses exploiting new strategies to infect bacteria. (3/15)

Confidential Settlement for Scuttled Starlink Deal Means Ontarians Kept in Dark on Payout (Source: CBC)
Ontario's payout to Elon Musk's SpaceX over a cancelled Starlink contract will remain a secret after the two sides agreed to a confidential settlement. The province said the kill fee for what was set to be a $100-million deal is "significantly less than the contract value," and the amount paid out was part of a negotiated settlement. When asked about the kill fee earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he didn't know the amount but pledged to confirm it. His office then said the amount could not be publicly released. (3/13)

USSPACECOM Commander Highlights U.S.-India Space Cooperation (Source: USSC)
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, traveled to the U.S. Indo-Pacific area of responsibility March 3-8. They discussed bilateral issues and evolving security dynamics in the space domain, and avenues to enhance collaboration, including joint exercises that integrate the space domain. (3/13)

OSTP Replaces NSC in US Space Policy Leadership (Source: Space News)
In the absence of the National Space Council, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, has taken on a lead role in coordinating national space policy. Following the revocation of the 2021 executive order continuing the National Space Council in December 2025, OSTP has assumed the lead role in coordinating national space policy. The OSTP Director is tasked with overseeing space policy development and interagency coordination. (3/15)

Space Jam: NASA’s MADCAP Team Directs Traffic at the Moon (Source: New York Times)
For the past 15 years, a small team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been keeping track of spacecraft orbiting the moon and Mars and raising alerts when it seems that two of them might cross paths. That effort is known as MADCAP: Multimission Automated Deepspace Conjunction Assessment Process. Think of them as space traffic controllers. (3/13)

Orbital Energy Firm Mantis Space Leaves Stealth With $10M Seed Round (Source: Via Satellite)
Orbital energy startup Mantis Space emerged from stealth this morning with a $10 million seed round of funding, the company said on Thursday. Rule 1 Ventures and Montauk Capital led the round. Mantis Spsvr said it aims to build a constellation that almost continuously generates and transmits solar power to satellites in the Earth’s shadow, allowing them to receive power around the clock. With orbital power infrastructure in place, satellites can remain in revenue-generating mission areas instead of chasing sunlight, it said. (3/13)

Astranis Taps Retired Gen. John Hyten to Lead Advisory Board (Source: SpaceNews)
Astranis, a San Francisco–based operator of small geostationary communications satellites, announced March 12 that retired U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten has joined the company as chairman of a newly formed advisory board. Hyten is a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and spent much of his career overseeing military space programs, including as commander of Air Force Space Command. He has been a prominent critic of the Pentagon’s traditional approach to satellite architecture, which relies on a limited number of large, highly capable spacecraft. (3/13)

How to Build a Moon Base (Source: Scientific American)
China eventually plans to establish the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a two-phased moon base built in partnership with Russia. The initial, uncrewed phase of the ILRS will be led by two autonomous lunar landers, developed and operated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

First, the planned Chang’e 7 mission, launching later this year, will likely land at the Shackleton Crater on the south pole to survey it for water ice and other resources that might be used to support the ILRS. Then, in 2029, Chang’e 8 will visit the region to perform demonstrations of key base-building capabilities, such as making bricks from lunar soil. Ultimately, such “in situ resource utilization” could include processing lunar polar ice into potable water or even rocket fuel. The second ILRS phase could support human occupants for extended surface stays.

NASA’s planned outpost, provisionally called Artemis Base Camp, would be U.S.-led but also include contributions from several other nations and a host of commercial partners. It, too, would be constructed in phases using a mix of robots and human astronauts. And it will, at least to start, be a mess: speaking to the New York Times in February, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman noted that, for perhaps a decade after its foundation, Artemis Base Camp will resemble a “futuristic junkyard with lots of landers and rovers around” before it will eventually gain more “pretty cool infrastructure.” Click here. (3/12)

Leonardo Sees Michelangelo Dome Trials In Ukraine (Source: Aviation Week)
Leonardo plans to demonstrate elements of its new Michelangelo Dome project in Ukraine as early as this year, as it sets its sights on networking air and missile defenses Europe-wide. “The first component of the Michelangelo Dome … is now under construction for our friends in Ukraine,” CEO Roberto Cingolani said.

The effort will focus on the point-defense layer of the architecture to engage low-flying and hard-to-detect threats, such as drone swarms, he noted. NATO trials are due next year, he said. Cingolani said the company’s new Earth-observation constellation it calls Space Guardian will be a key feature of the dome project to spot threats as they are readied to be launched. (3/12)