March 25, 2026

NASA Makes Big Changes to Artemis (Source: Space News)
NASA rolled out a major revamp of its exploration plans Tuesday, including development of a lunar base. At a day-long event at NASA Headquarters, agency leaders discussed changes to its Artemis architecture that include halting work on the lunar Gateway. In its place, NASA proposed spending $20 billion over the next seven years to start development of a lunar base, including landers, rovers and other infrastructure. The base would leverage some existing programs, although with modifications, along with new projects. NASA also proposed increasing the cadence of crewed and robotic lunar lander missions and developing a nuclear electric propulsion demonstration mission that would launch to Mars in late 2028. (3/25)

NASA Wants SLS and Orion Out After Artemis 3 (Sources: Spectrum News, Payload)
NASA is moving to retire the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after the Artemis III mission to reduce costs, shifting toward commercial alternatives like SpaceX's Starship for lunar missions. The SLS is considered too expensive—roughly $4 billion per launch—and prone to delays, prompting a pivot toward more sustainable commercial partnerships for long-term exploration.

The Trump administration would add $647 million to NASA’s human space exploration budget compared to the fiscal 2025 enacted level. Total spending on crewed lunar exploration would top $7 billion. The plan would also add $1 billion in new investments “for Mars-focused programs.” This is just the first volley in the debate over the fiscal 2026 budget. Congress will draft and consider its own proposals before ultimately approving a spending plan for the next fiscal year. (3/25)

SES Orders 28 Satellites From K2 (Source: Space News)
SES has ordered an initial 28 satellites from manufacturing startup K2 Space for a future medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellation. SES said Tuesday the meoSphere satellites would deliver high-speed broadband, support optical intersatellite links for data relay and enable hosted payloads across commercial and government missions.

SES is co-developing meoSphere with K2, providing payloads built in Luxembourg for integration with K2's satellite bus in California. SpaceX is slated to launch an initial SES-K2 meoSphere pathfinder March 30 on a rideshare mission. The pathfinder, which at 2,200 kilograms would be the same size as the operational spacecraft, includes optical technology designed primarily to test links between satellites and an optical ground station supplied by France's Cailabs. (3/25)

Geopolitics Clouds Space Business Plans (Source: Space News)
Geopolitical shifts are creating new opportunities but also new challenges for satellite operators. As countries increasingly prioritize national security and sovereignty, satellite operators are being forced to rethink a historical push toward globalized supply chains in favor of less efficient, more regionally aligned models. That pressure to adapt is matched by a surge in demand tied directly to geopolitical tensions as space becomes an increasingly strategic domain. That surge in national security demand, though, brings new risks to operators as they potentially become targets. (3/25)

Electronic Warfare a Growing Space Threat (Source: Space News)
Electronic warfare is a growing threat to U.S. space systems. During a threat briefing, U.S. Space Force Chief Master Sergeant Ron Lerch, senior enlisted advisor to the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Intelligence, said China and Russia are developing electronic warfare technologies, such as jamming satellite communications services with drones. Another recent Chinese research paper described a high-power ground-based microwave to target satellites. (3/25)

Russia Docks Progress Cargo Craft to ISS (Source: NASA)
A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the ISS Tuesday. The Progress MS-33 spacecraft, called Progress 94 by NASA, docked with the station's Poisk module at 9:40 a.m. Eastern. Russian cosmonauts on the ISS handled the docking manually after one of the antennas for the spacecraft's automated docking system failed to deploy after launch on Sunday. (3/25)

NASA to Provide Neutron Spectrometer for Indian/Japanese Lunar Lander (Source: NASA)
NASA will provide an instrument for a joint Indian-Japanese lunar mission. NASA said it will provide a neutron spectrometer for the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission being developed by ISRO and JAXA. LUPEX will land near the south pole of the moon in 2028 and deploy a rover to identify and characterize water ice. (3/25)

Payload Processing Scarcity is a Launch Industry Bottleneck (Source: Via Satellite)
At a conference on Tuesday, launch providers reported strains from growing commercial demand from multiple megaconstellation deployments, sovereign launch and ambitious civil space programs. According to Stephanie Bednarek at SpaceX, the launch vehicle is not the only bottleneck. “A unique situation that we’re looking at right now is that rockets don’t seem to be the limiting factor. It’s more about payload processing space,” she said.

Satellite manufacturers that initially contract for launch are posting delays, requiring flexibility on the part of launch providers, Bedneck continued. (3/25)

Kratos Scores $447M Space Force Award for Missile Tracking Ground System (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force has awarded Kratos Technology and Training Solutions a new award worth up to $446.8 million to build the ground system for the service’s medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellation to track ballistic and hypersonic cruise missiles. Kratos Technology and Training Solutions will support launch of the first two iterations of the Space Force’s Resilient Missile Warning Tracking (MWT) architecture in MEO, called Epoch 1 and 2. (3/24)

Space Company Execs Outline Supply Chain Challenges (Source: Defense Daily)
Solar panels, electric propulsion systems, software, and increasing production of subsystems and components are core supply chain challenges for spacecraft companies, industry executives said on Monday. The number of satellites and related hardware that industry is building for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) are beyond anything previously imagined, said Melanie Preisser at York Space Systems. (3/25)

Launchers Cite Busy Manifests as Commercial Demand Grows (Source: Via Satellite)
“Really, really busy.” That’s how launch providers described manifests for the next two years during a conversation on heavy-lift launch competition on Tuesday. SpaceX is looking at a “packed” manifest from 2026 through 2028, and a “very busy” 2029, said Stephanie Bednarek, vice president of Commercial Sales at SpaceX. After launching 165 missions in 2025, the company is continuing to execute on Falcon 9 while working toward operational Starship launches.

At Blue Origin, the company continues to ramp up capacity and cadence on New Glenn. Laura Maginnis anticipates the new super-heavy New Glenn 9×4 will be rolled out “in the coming years,” with four boosters and a larger 8.7-meter fairing to deliver 70 metric tons to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

At ULA, Mark Peller says the company is “burning off” its Atlas V backlog in the early part of this year and working to transition customers from Atlas to Vulcan. “Beyond our initial flights, we’ve been putting a tremendous amount of effort into increasing our capacity,” Peller said. ULA has doubled payload processing infrastructure at its Eastern launch site and will bring its West Coast launch site online later this year with modifications to serve Vulcan, Peller said. (3/25)

Third Indian Spaceport Planned (Source: Times of India)
After Sriharikota spaceport and the upcoming launch port at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, India’s third satellite launch centre is likely to come up in Gujarat.
Gujarat science and technology minister Arjun Modhwadia recently announced in state assembly that a proposed launch site near Gir Somnath district along the Arabian Sea coast has been identified. Modhwadia said the site was identified after consultations with space regulator and promoter Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). (3/25)

Texas Quietly Approves Starbase Expansion (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
State regulators have signed off on SpaceX’s plan to expand its Starbase launch site even farther into the surrounding wetlands amid lawsuits and a record of violations at the complex near Boca Chica Beach. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recently said it had approved the project that would add 21 acres to the launch site. The agency was required to complete a review under the Clean Water Act to certify the project wouldn’t harm state waters as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permitting process. (3/24)

'Fufill That Need': Cecil Spaceport to Expand, Applying to Become a Reentry Site (Source: First Coast News)
Space Florida CEO, Rob Long, says each spaceport serves its own unique purpose. To keep up with the growing demand for more space travel, the Cecil spaceport is working with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority on expanding their facilities eastward.

"The goal for that area is for aerospace-related development," said Cecil Airport and Spaceport Director Matt Bocchino. "So things are not necessarily aviation-centric, like you would see around the rest of the airport, but businesses that will come here because we're a spaceport, that wouldn't come here otherwise."

In addition to the expansion, the spaceport is also in the initial stages of applying to become a reentry site, creating a new pathway from space to right here on the first coast. "There's a huge benefit to the community for the type of payloads that could come through here," said Bocchino. Spaceport leadership says the application process is pretty lengthy and takes around two years to complete. (3/24)

Texas Supreme Court Weighs Constitutional Beach Access in Case Against SpaceX (Source: Texas Standard)
The issue is whether Texas is violating the state constitution by frequently closing Boca Chica Beach to allow SpaceX to conduct rocket launches. This is a constitutional issue because access to beaches is constitutionally protected in the state of Texas. But the Texas Legislature passed a provision that allows beach closures for spaceflight, which is part of what drew SpaceX to set up Starbase.

A lawsuit led by environmentalist and Indigenous groups claims this permission violates the beach access clause in the state constitution. All nine of the Texas Supreme Court justices are Republicans. Joe Pappalardo said it is unclear exactly how that will factor into this case. "They have to weigh the economics, they have to weigh the politics. They have to weigh the fact that NASA is counting on SpaceX to deliver a lander for their lunar lander, for their Artemis program.

“Police power", meaning zoning laws and fire code restrictions and local laws that allow or disallow certain things, is at issue here, says Joe Pappalardo. “How far does that police power go when it comes to economic development, fostering the economy, making sure that the beaches can be used for that greater good or that public good? The public good of economic growth was a direct argument made during this case.” (3/24)

Orbital Data Centers: There’s No Way This is Economically Viable, Right? (Source: Ars Technica)
Instead of being stored in 19-inch racks, the individual server elements would instead be built around—and attached to—a “satellite bus.” This is a spacecraft with large solar arrays to gather energy, thermal systems to manage heat (in a vacuum, heat must be radiated away), propulsion for orbit-keeping and maneuvering, and high-bandwidth communications gear. Historically, building things in space has been enormously expensive. The ISS, which has about the same amount of habitable space as the average American home, cost more than $150 billion to construct in space.

The biggest and most obvious advantage of putting data centers in space is the abundant energy provided by the Sun. Another significant advantage comes on the regulatory side. People on Earth don’t like living near data centers, considering them noisy neighbors that affect local water supplies and electricity prices. The biggest affordability factor is launch costs. Then there’s the cost of the satellites. Starlinks are an order of magnitude cheaper than previous satellites.

A third significant factor is the cost of silicon. Whereas startup companies like Starcloud may seek to use Nvidia chips, SpaceX is likely to develop its own microchips to avoid paying a premium for a name brand. “This is not physically impossible; it’s only a question of whether this is a rational thing to scale up economically,” Andrew McCalip said. “The answer is it’s really close. And if you own both sides of the equation, SpaceX and xAI, it’s not a terrible place to be. I wouldn’t bet against Elon.” Yet betting on Elon also requires a giant leap of faith. (3/24)

Launch Services To Gain From Artemis Moon Mission Revamp (Sources: Aviation Week, Va Satellite)
NASA’s repositioning of the Artemis program and efforts to build a Moon base should be a boon to the rocket industry, launch service executives said shortly after the agency announced changes in plans. “The lunar plans present a great opportunity,” ULA COO Mark Peller said.

Even with tight manifests and soaring demand, launch providers are excited by NASA’s announcement that it would build a $20 billion ‌base on the Moon’s surface over the next seven years. “It is going to require a lot of mass into space, a lot of mass to the surface of the moon,” said Stephanie Bednareck of SpaceX's support for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. (3/24)

NASA Pushes Space Industry to Use the ISS as a Test Ground for Future Stations (Source: Scientific American)
NASA officials announced that a formal request for information would open on March 25, kicking off a race for private space industry players to weigh in on potential future stations. NASA has long said that it will not build another space station itself. It is instead intent on supporting the construction of commercial outposts that NASA astronauts would be able to visit while the agency focuses its efforts on destinations farther in space. But despite a lot of space start-ups aiming to build orbiting habitats, no commercial space station has materialized, and NASA leadership is losing patience.

The agency is expanding its approach to fostering independent stations by considering proposals to build new orbital outposts directly onto the ISS. Once docked, these fledgling stations could be tested thoroughly before they would detach to fly independently. From there, NASA envisions that it will be just one of many customers that will make use of commercial space stations—and that they will allow the agency to retain access to low-Earth orbit beyond the ISS’s lifetime, which is currently set to end in 2030.

Any awardees under the program would presumably join existing partners that are already working with NASA to develop commercial stations. These include Texas-based Axiom Space, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, space industry powerhouse Northrop Grumman and long-standing ISS partner Nanoracks. (3/24)

Space Force Adds Cyber Units to Guard Rocket Launches (Source: Breaking Defense)
Space Force has established two new cyber squadrons to defend against potential cyberattacks during launches, the service’s Space Systems Command (SSC) announced. SSC Space Launch Delta (SLD) 30 at Vandenberg Space Force Base activated 630 Cyberspace Squadron (CYS) March 10 while SLD 45 at Patrick Space Force Base 645 CYS was reassigned from Delta 6 in September. (3/23)

L3Harris Delivers 100,000 Military GPS Units (Source: UK Defense Journal)
L3Harris Technologies has delivered more than 100,000 next-generation military  GPS receivers to U.S. and allied forces under the Modernized GPS User Equipment (MGUE) Increment 1 program, the company stated. The milestone reflects ongoing efforts to modernize positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities as military forces face increasing threats from jamming, spoofing and cyber interference. The receivers use Military-Code (M-Code), designed to provide secure and resilient GPS access in contested electromagnetic environments, according to the company. (3/23)

NASA's '1st Nuclear Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft' Will Send Skyfall Helicopters to Mars in 2028 (Source: Space.com)
Skyfall is happening, and it will get to Mars in a totally new way. Last summer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Virginia company AeroVironment unveiled their Skyfall mission concept, which would send a fleet of tiny helicopters to explore the skies of Mars. NASA announced that it will develop Skyfall for a 2028 launch, and that the mission will journey to the Red Planet on a spacecraft that uses nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) — what NASA is referring to as "the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft." (3/24)

A Rare Active Volcano on Mars May Be Causing the Whole Planet To Spin Faster (Source: Live Science)
Scientists know that Mars spins a little faster each year, but the cause has been a mystery. Now, a new study published Feb. 18 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets suggests the reason may lie deep underground, where a huge plume of buoyant rock could be stirring beneath the Red Planet's crust. This strange plume could help to explain not just Mars' quicker rotation but also how the planet holds on to geologic heat far longer than expected — forcing scientists to rethink how small, rocky worlds cool and die. (3/24)

Chandra Resolves Why Black Holes Hit the Brakes on Growth (Source: Phys.org)
Astronomers have an answer for a long-running mystery in astrophysics: why is the growth of supermassive black holes so much lower today than in the past? A study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray telescopes found that supermassive black holes are unable to consume material as rapidly as they did in the distant past.

Ten billion years ago, there was a period that astronomers call "cosmic noon," when the growth of supermassive black holes (those with millions to billions of times the mass of the sun) was at its peak across the entire history of the universe. Between cosmic noon and now, however, astronomers have seen a major slowdown in how rapidly black holes are growing. (3/24)

Former Astronaut Mae Jemison: 'Space Accessibility Has to Be Expanded' (Source: France 24)
In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first woman of colour to go to space. Three decades later, she looks back on what's changed, how space helps advance research and what is still to be done. Her main concern is making space more accessible, but also including the humanities and social sciences in developing space exploration. 'Space accessibility has to be expanded', Jemison tells FRANCE 24, at an age where going to space is often reduced to billionaires. (3/23)

Ramon Space and Ingrasys Expand Partnership to Deliver Scalable Orbital Data Center Infrastructure (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Ramon Space and Ingrasys are expanding their ongoing collaboration to develop data center infrastructure for space by moving space computing from prototype to production-ready infrastructure. The expanded collaboration aims to build and scale data center capabilities in space to support emerging applications.

As data generated in orbit continues to grow, traditional Earth-based infrastructure faces increasing limitations due to latency, bandwidth constraints, power availability, and environmental challenges. Space-based data centers address these limitations by bringing compute, storage, and connectivity into orbit, enabling a new architecture for processing space data in real-time and at scale, as well as supporting new classes of satellite missions. (3/24)

Parabolic Flight Experiments Delve into Planetary Formation (Source: Universe Today)
To see if these instabilities can form in protoplanetary disks (or, if other conditions keep them from forming), Holly Capelo's team built an instrument called TEMPusVoLa in 2020. It contains high-speed cameras to track the behavior of dust particles in an extremely thin gas under vacuum conditions, and the team built it specifically to fly in microgravity parabolic flights. "On Earth, gravity influences the behavior of the dust and gas," said team member Lucio Mayer from the University of Zurich "Only conditions that simulate the absence of gravity allow us to probe an extremely dilute flow regime, similar to the gas and dust disks orbiting around young stars." (3/23)

SpaceX's Orbiting Data Center Satellites are Huge (Source: PC Mag)
Elon Musk offered a first look at his plans for orbiting data centers this weekend, and they will be longer than the ISS. The satellites stand out for their exceptionally large solar arrays. The SpaceX CEO's presentation didn't give an exact length, but each one is significantly longer than the Starship V3 rocket, which stands at 124.4 meters. The satellites also dwarf the length of the ISS, which spans 109 meters and is visible in the night sky. Musk indicated the satellites can capture plenty of solar energy to power the high-density AI processing inside. The rendering shows "the solar panels and radiator to scale,” he said. (3/23)

From Missions to Systems: The Architecture Enabling a Sustained Lunar Economy (Source: Space News)
At Voyager Technologies, habitation systems, life-support architectures, airlock operations, and orbital infrastructure represent decades of operational experience already validated in space. Platforms such as Starlab — the company’s planned commercial space station for research, manufacturing and long-duration habitation — are intended to support government missions, commercial activity and scientific research in orbit.

Succeeding on the moon requires systems built for constant radiation, extreme temperatures, abrasive regolith, intermittent power and autonomous operation. It also means integrating habitation, logistics, power, computing and mobility into a broader, expandable system — a clear departure from convention.

The company delivers scalable life-support systems, durable airlocks designed to handle regolith contamination or radiation-hardened electronics and in-situ computing designed to minimize dependence on traditional Earth-based operations. The reason: future crews will need to operate with local processing capability comparable to their terrestrial counterparts. (3/24)

Moog Taps Redwire to Provide Solar Arrays for Meteor (Source: Redwire)
Jacksonville-based Redwire has been awarded a $12.8 million contract to deliver Extensible Low-Profile Solar Array (ELSA) wings to Moog. The wings will be integrated with Moog’s METEOR satellite bus in support of a LEO mission for an undisclosed national security customer. This marks the first sale of Redwire’s ELSA, a new high-performance, low-mass solar array product. ELSA expands Redwire’s power technology portfolio to support customers with low to medium-power applications across all orbits, including volume production programs with faster delivery timelines. (3/24)