March 20, 2026

“Are You an Engineer? Do You Work at SpaceX?” Beware Chinese and Russian Spies on the Space Coast! (Source: Vanity Fair)
“The Space Coast is like a small town where big-city things happen,” Rigby Assad said. “The guys, who literally wear their corporate affiliation on their sleeve, share an optimism bias. Why would anyone be interested in me or my company? But the reality is this is a target-rich environment.”

“Florida is home to 21 military installations and three combatant commands, the world’s busiest spaceport, hundreds of cleared defense contractors and theme amusement parks, as well as other critical infrastructure vital to national security.” Put simply, in DCSA’s view, “Florida poses a significant risk to collection from FIEs”—agency argot for foreign intelligence entities. “It’s easy to hide in plain sight here ... Chinese nationals, Russian nationals—people from everywhere. You don’t see that in South Dakota. You see it in Orlando, Titusville, the Space Coast.”

Individuals of Chinese descent were flying drones over restricted sites. They were peering through windows. They were slipping into trees to aim listening devices at defense contractors. They were trying to breach off-limits areas by posing as delivery drivers. The activity wasn’t confined to the Chinese. An immaculately groomed Russian family—straight out of The Americans—appeared at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral complex, presenting themselves as tourists. CFIX later learned the same family had surfaced at a SpaceX facility in California under the guise of sightseeing. Click here. (3/19)

Russia Denies Aiding Iran with US Intel (Source: MSN)
Russia has denied U.S. allegations that it is providing Iran with intelligence [including satellite imagery] on American military assets amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Iran. The denial follows reports from multiple outlets, citing U.S. officials, that Moscow has shared targeting data to help Tehran strike U.S. forces in the Middle East. The dispute has heightened political tensions in Washington, where lawmakers from both parties are criticizing President Trump’s handling of the claims. Trump has publicly downplayed the possibility of Russian assistance to Iran, saying if it occurred, it was not 'helping much.' (3/19)

'Vulnerable' Satellites Guide the World — and its Wars (Source: DW.com)
If you have ever used a smartphone map or watched a delivery vehicle move across a tracking app, you have used GPS. What many people do not realize is that GPS — the US's Global Positioning System — is only one part of a broader family known as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Four global satellite systems circle Earth. They guide aircraft, ships, cars and trucks, or tourists looking for a place to eat. But they also play a central role in war.

GNSS technology is highly accurate and fast. It is deeply embedded in everyday life. But it also comes with a hidden fragility. "Signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems are quite vulnerable," said Dana Goward, President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation. "They are exceptionally weak — meaning that any radio noise near their frequency, accidental or malicious, can interfere with reception." (3/18)

Ursa Major Proves Hypersonic Capability for First Time with Storable Liquid Fuel (Source: Breaking Defense)
Hypersonics are often defined by long timelines, high costs, and exquisite one-offs. The Air Force’s Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator (ARMD) is designed to disrupt such challenges and convention as it was structured to achieve first flight in under a year, which it successfully accomplished just a few weeks ago.

Ursa Major’s Draper storable liquid engine is central to that approach, enabling non-cryogenic storage and powered, throttleable flight profiles for both endo- and exo-atmospheric flight applications. Katrina Hornstein, a Stanford and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) educated engineer and program manager for Ursa Major, breaks down the program and Ursa Major’s prime role. (3/18)

Hermeus Receives Experimental Certification for Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 (Source: Flight Global)
US hypersonic aircraft developer Hermeus has secured experimental type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for its Quarterhorse Mk 2.1, enabling the company to proceed with supersonic flight testing at Spaceport America in New Mexico. (3/19)

Musk Says SpaceX AI, Tesla Will Keep Ordering Nvidia Chips at Scale (Source: Reuters)
Elon Musk said late on Wednesday that his companies ​SpaceX AI and Tesla expect to ‌continue ordering Nvidia chips at scale.Last month, SpaceX acquired xAI in ​an all-stock deal ahead of ​a ⁠potential blockbuster initial public offering for SpaceX later this year. This was Musk's ⁠first ​post referring to the combined entity ​as SpaceX AI. (3/18)

How Russian Electronic Warfare is Forcing Ships to Abandon GPS (Source: The Times)
Russian electronic warfare has routinely made parts of the Baltic Sea “barely navigable” over the past two years, an investigation has found. The interference has often hit ships’ navigation systems so severely that civilian vessels are frequently advised to use ancient navigation methods across parts of the sea and even some countries’ warships have occasionally struggled to plot a course.

At the end of 2023, states in northeastern Europe began detecting signs of widespread GPS “jamming” and “spoofing”, where radio waves are used to block or falsify the satellite-based navigation signals used by ships, aircraft, satnavs and mobile phones. Two Russian sources were swiftly located: a mobile jammer near St Petersburg and a high-powered GT-01 Murmansk-BN stationary electronic warfare system in Kaliningrad, an exclave on the southern Baltic coast between Poland and Lithuania. (3/19)

Dogfighting in Space Won’t Look Like the Movies, But This Company Wants In on It (Source: Ars Technica)
If a battle is fought in space, it will look nothing like those depicted in the Star Wars franchise, with sleek TIE fighters blasting enemy ships with laser cannons and mag-pulses. Instead, these battles will be cerebral and unhurried, somewhat like the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal, a slow-burning political thriller with a plot that somehow mixes tension with clinical precision.

True Anomaly, which emerged from stealth just three years ago, is planning for The Day of the Jackal in space. The startup’s primary hardware product, aptly named Jackal, is a war-ready satellite platform designed for mass production. In nature, jackals are known for their intelligence, adaptability, and hunting prowess. True Anomaly’s Jackal boasts similar traits in space.

The Jackal spacecraft is designed for agility and maneuverability. True Anomaly has launched two Jackal test missions to date, and a third one is planned for launch in the next few months. The spacecraft bus, or chassis, is about the size of a refrigerator. It’s essentially a flying fuel tank with room for thrusters and sensors to rapidly turn, approach, and surveil other objects in orbit. Some day, True Anomaly believes Jackal could be used for orbital combat. (3/19)

K2 to Launch its First High-Powered Satellite for Space Compute (Source: Tech Crunch)
An ambitious satellite builder will launch one of the highest-powered spacecraft ever built in the weeks ahead to demonstrate technology that will be required to build data centers in orbit. K2 Space, founded by brothers and former SpaceX engineers Karan and Neel Kunjur in 2022, has packed its satellite Gravitas into a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket expected to launch as soon as the end of this month.

Gravitas has a mass of two metric tons, with a 40 meter wingspan when its solar panels are unfolded. The point of the big satellite is big power: Gravitas is capable of producing 20 kW of electricity for use by payloads like powerful sensors, transceivers, and computers. (3/19)

Pentagon Eyes Second B-21 Production Line (Source: Air and Space Forces)
The U.S. military struck a $4.5 billion deal last month to increase the rate of production on its new B-21 bomber. Now officials are considering whether they will open up an entire second production line to go even faster in constructing the sixth-generation stealth Raider.

Editor's Note: Northrop Grumman’s Space Coast campus -- its Manned Aircraft Design Center of Excellence -- served as the primary hub for the design, engineering, and development of the B-21. Maybe the company's campus at Melbourne International Airport could accommodate a B-21 production line. (3/18)

Capacity Gap for 9 Specialized Components Gnarls Space Supply Chain (Source: Breaking Defense)
The space manufacturing supply chain faces a number of interlocking challenges, ranging from greatly increased demand to inconsistent US government budgets to outdated specification requirements, according to a new study by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

“We went out to talk to some of the leading space manufacturers across the industry, and we asked them: What are you having difficulty getting your hands on? What might have long lead times? Where are prices really high, and, in some cases, [where is it] you just might not ever be able to get your hands on quality components that are ready to go for spacecraft?” Jordan Tomaszewski said. (3/19)

A Private Space Company Has a Radical New Pan to Bag an Asteroid (Source: Ars Technica)
It may sound fanciful, but a Los Angeles-based company says it has conceived of a plan to fly out to a smallish, near-Earth asteroid, throw a large bag around it, and bring the body back to a “safe” gathering point near our planet. The company, TransAstra, said Wednesday that an unnamed customer has agreed to fund a study of its proposed “New Moon” mission to capture and relocate an asteroid approximately the size of a house, with a mass of about 100 metric tons. (3/19)

U.S. Space Command Forecasts On-Orbit Maneuver In Geosynchronous Orbit As Important (Source: Defense Daily)
U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM) explored the importance of maneuvering satellites, especially those in geosynchronous orbit, in an Apollo Griffin wargame last year, according to U.S. Space Force Maj. Gen. Samuel Keener, the director of joint forces development and training (J-7) at SPACECOM. (3/19)

Satellogic Plans Next-Gen Merlin EO Constellation (Source: Via Satellite)
Satellogic detailed plans for its next-generation ‘Merlin’ satellites, designed to provide one-meter resolution. The company said that Merlin will be differentiated by its ability to provide daily mapping of the entire planet, with one-meter spatial resolution. Satellogic is moving quickly to deploy Merlin, with the first satellite scheduled to launch in October of this year, with full operational capability expected in the first half of 2027. (3/19)

NASA’s Hubble Telescope Spots Comet K1 Exploding Into Fragments (Source: New York Times)
Astronomers on Wednesday announced a stroke of cosmic luck: While using the Hubble Space Telescope, they captured imagery of a comet just as it exploded into fragments. From Nov. 8 to Nov. 10, the comet — known as C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or more casually as K1 — was seen erupting and shattering into four, perhaps five distinct shards, each surrounded by an atmosphere of vaporized ices. (3/19)

'Miracle': Europe Reconnects With Lost Spacecraft (Source: Phys.org)
ESA has re-established communication with a spacecraft that is part of its Proba-3 mission, after losing contact with the satellite a month ago. Proba-3, which launched on a two-year mission in 2024, uses two spacecraft flying in precise formation to simulate a solar eclipse more than 60,000 kilometers above Earth. One satellite has a 1.4-meter (five-foot) shield that plays the role of the moon in blocking the sun's light, while the other observes the corona from the shadow.

However, something happened to the second spacecraft, which has the crucial coronagraph instrument, on February 14. A chain reaction led to the spacecraft losing its orientation, causing its solar panel to face away from the sun, draining the batteries. The spacecraft then entered survival mode—it has been silently floating through space since. However, overnight "some miracle happened because we reconnected with the spacecraft," ESA director Josef Aschbacher said on Thursday. (3/19)

JWST Spies LRDs, a Mysterious Phenomenon (Source: CNN)
Like tiny photobombers, cosmic anomalies resembling small, bright red points show up in almost every snapshot taken by the most powerful space telescope ever made. Astronomers now call them little red dots, or LRDs, but there is no agreement yet on what exactly they are. Since NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope started peering into the universe four years ago, hundreds of the puzzling objects have appeared in its images. Their unknown origins effectively launched a scientific case that hundreds of studies have attempted to crack. (3/17)

An AI Cyberattack Could Trigger a Satellite Apocalypse in the Next 2 Years (Source: Space.com)
AI systems could soon be able to hijack satellites in orbit and cause them to collide with other spacecraft, potentially triggering a dangerous cascade of smash-ups that could render the environment around Earth unsafe for years, according to experts. Cyber security researchers are already using AI to identify so-called zero-day vulnerabilities — yet undiscovered security holes in code — to alert operators and help them patch the problems before hackers could exploit them. But attackers, too, can take advantage of those advanced systems to find those holes more quickly. (3/19)

Even JWST Can’t See Through This Planet’s Massive Haze (Source: Penn State)
Kepler-51d is a giant, ultra-light “super-puff” planet wrapped in an unusually thick haze that’s blocking scientists from seeing what it’s made of. Observations from JWST revealed that this haze may be one of the largest ever detected, possibly stretching as wide as Earth itself. The planet’s low density and close orbit don’t match existing models of how gas giants form or survive. Now, researchers are left with more questions than answers about how such a strange world came to be. (3/18)

There Might be Less Water on the Moon Than We’d Hoped (Source: Scientific American)
Analyzing images of the moon’s darkest areas from ShadowCam, a NASA instrument on the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, the study’s authors determined that, in most of the moon’s darkest craters, water makes up less than about 20 to 30 percent of the material by weight—and that many may have no surface ice at all.

“I think, based on what data we have now..., we are pretty sure there is ice on the surface,” says Shuai Li, lead author of the study. The multibillion-dollar question remains just how abundant that ice is—and thus how much future explorers might rely on it for producing potable water, and manufacturing rocket fuel.

Whatever water ice exists in lunar PSRs wasn’t necessarily deposited there directly by infalling asteroids and comets; rather a process called “cold trapping” could have allowed ice to accumulate on dark, frigid crater floors on the moon via whiffs of impactor- or solar-wind-derived water vapor that wafted in from elsewhere. (3/18)

The Discovery of a Buried Delta on Mars Could Boost the Search for Life (Source: Phys.org)
There's more evidence that water once flowed on Mars with the discovery of an ancient river delta deep below the surface. NASA's Perseverance rover found it more than 35 meters beneath Jezero Crater using ground-penetrating radar. Perseverance was launched in 2020 to search for signs of ancient life on the red planet. Since landing in February 2021, it has been exploring Jezero Crater and collecting rock samples.

The radar identified numerous clinoforms, sloping layers of sediment characteristic of deltas. These structures form when a river enters a standing body of water, such as a lake, and deposits sand and mud. According to the researchers, this buried delta formed between 3.7 billion and 4.2 billion years ago and predates the fan-shaped expanse of sediment visible on the crater floor, known as the Western Delta. (3/19)

SpaceX Launches 29 Starlink Satellites Thursday From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX completed its 29th Starlink mission of the year, which launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Thursday morning. The Starlink 10-33 mission added another 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to the low Earth orbit megaconstellation, which now consists of more than 10,000 spacecraft. (3/18)