March 30, 2026

Starcloud Raises $170 Million with $1.1 Billion Valuation (Source: Space News)
Orbital data center startup Starcloud has raised $170 million. The company announced the Series A round Monday, giving the company a $1.1 billion valuation. Starcloud says it is the fastest company in the history of accelerator Y Combinator to reach "unicorn" status, or a private company valued at more than $1 billion. Starcloud plans to use the funding to scale production of Starcloud-3, a three-ton spacecraft that marks a significant increase from the 60-kilogram Starcloud-1 that launched in November and the 450-kilogram Starcloud-2 slated to fly later this year.

Those satellites would launch about 50 at a time on SpaceX Starship vehicles. Starcloud is positioning itself as an orbital data center infrastructure provider. Customers would be able to install their own computing hardware and services, similar to leasing capacity in terrestrial data centers. (3/30)

Rocket Lab Launches Navsats From New Zealand (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab launched a pair of navigation technology demonstration satellites for ESA on Saturday. An Electron lifted off from the company's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 5:14 a.m. Eastern for ESA's Celeste program. The rocket carried two smallsats, one built by GMV and the other by Thales Alenia Space, that will test technologies for future low Earth orbit navigation satellite constellations. (3/30)

Sensor Fusion is Difficult for Commercial Imagery Companies (Source: Space News)
The vision of combining Earth observations from multiple commercial satellites is proving to be difficult to implement. Executives described a gap between what military users want — seamless integration of data from different sources — and how the commercial market actually operates. Military customers want to be able to combine data from multiple sources, called "sensor fusion," and use that to coordinate new observations, or "tipping and cueing." However, most companies operate vertically integrated platforms that collect, process and deliver data through proprietary systems. There is no widely adopted, standardized interface that allows different providers to exchange data or task each other's satellites in real time. (3/30)

FCC Ready for Weird Space Stuff (Source: FCC)
The FCC is all in on "weird space stuff." At a meeting last week, commissioners voted to advance a notice of proposed rulemaking for spectrum access for novel space activities such as satellite servicing and commercial space stations, which the commission collectively dubbed "weird space stuff." The proceeding seeks input on ways to free up spectrum needed for tracking, telemetry and control for those new space applications. Comments on the notice are due within 30 days. (3/30)

Quadruped Robots Have Potential as Astronaut Surface Assistants (Source: Aerospace America)
If human settlements are one day established on Mars, what kind of roving robot could help astronauts with surface science or pinpointing deposits of valuable resources? A wheeled rover? A rotorcraft, perhaps? According to research presented earlier this month at the Human-Robot Interaction conference in Edinburgh, a battery-powered version of man’s best friend, a robotic dog — more formally known by roboticists as a quadruped — is emerging as the strongest contender. (3/30)

Scientists Observe a Comet Reversing its Spin (Source: CBS News)
Astronomers have found archival data showing a one-of-a-kind event where a spinning comet appeared to reverse the direction of its rotation, NASA said in a news release. The comet, named 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, originated in the outer solar system and visits the inner solar system every 5.4 years, NASA said. During a pass around the sun in 2017, its rotation dramatically slowed. A data comparison of its movements showed that in May 2017, it rotated three times more slowly than in March of that year. (3/30)

No One is Happy with NASA's New Idea for Private Space Stations (Source: Ars Technica)
Most elements of a major NASA event this week that laid out spaceflight plans for the coming decade were well received: a Moon base, a focus on less talk and more action, and working with industry to streamline regulations so increased innovation can propel the United States further into space. However, one aspect of this event, named Ignition, has begun to run into serious turbulence. It involves NASA’s attempt to navigate a difficult issue with no clear solution: finding a commercial replacement for the aging International Space Station. (3/27)

Voyager Awarded Contract With Icarus Robotics (Source: Voyager)
Voyager Technologies announced a new mission management contract with Icarus Robotics to test their free-flying robotic platform, Joyride, aboard the ISS. The contract underscores the continued commercial market demand for opportunities in low Earth orbit. Voyager will oversee payload integration, safety certification, launch coordination, on-orbit operations planning and real-time mission execution support. The Joyride demonstration will take place in early 2027 and will focus on validating autonomous navigation, maneuverability and operational performance in a live space station environment. (3/30)

We Could Be Hit By Five Building-Sized Asteroids By The End Of The Century (Source: Universe Today)
Planetary defense researchers at MIT believe decameter-scale asteroids impact the Earth-Moon system roughly every couple of decades, compared to the once in ten million years a larger impactor would hit us. These decameter sized objects are bigger than the ones that have been causing a significant amount of fireballs over US cities. The one that burst over Cleveland a few weeks ago was loud enough to shake houses in the area, but was only around 2 meters in diameter. (3/30)

Solar Activity Could Threaten the Artemis Crew (Source: Universe Today)
The energetic particles that stream from the Sun during an outburst travel through space on the solar wind. Ultimately, the swarm can overtake the spacecraft from all directions, swamping it with radiation. “It’s more like you’re sitting in a bathtub and it’s gradually filling with water,” said Stuart George. Fortunately, the "swarm" doesn't happen all at once. It takes time for the ejected particles to travel from the Sun to Earth, giving the observation teams and the astronauts time to plan. (3/29)

Starfighters Space and Blackstar Orbital Partner on Flight Testing of Reusable Hypersonic Space Systems (Source: Starfighters)
Starfighters Space announced a strategic partnership with Blackstar Orbital, a company pioneering advanced Return-to-Earth satellites to support the development and flight testing of next-generation reusable space systems. This multi-mission program is based on a Technical Interchange Agreement (TIA) focused on integrating Blackstar’s SpaceDrone vehicle with Starfighters’ F-104 aircraft platform. Supersonic captive carries launched from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport could take place by Q4 FY26 and culminate with a high altitude, supersonic release modeling the post reentry flight trajectory of their “microshuttle” platform. (3/30)

ESA Seeks Commercial Provider to Transport Payload to the Moon (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency is seeking a commercial provider to deliver its NILS2 instrument to the Moon to measure negative ions on the lunar surface. On 1 June 2024, ESA’s original Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument touched down on the surface of the Moon aboard China’s Chang’e 6 lunar lander. The instrument was designed to detect and analyze negatively charged ions on the Moon’s surface produced by interactions between the solar wind and the lunar regolith.

Built by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the original NILS instrument operated intermittently throughout the mission, collecting a total of 346 minutes of data. This was the first time the agency had produced scientific data on the Moon’s surface. On 19 March, ESA published a call seeking a commercial operator to deliver the follow-on NILS2 instrument to the Moon, oversee its operation, and facilitate the return of scientific data. (3/30)

Space Is Becoming A New Frontier To Advance Human Health (Source: Forbes)
Achieving space travel has required billions of dollars of investment by numerous governments and organizations focused on researching how to optimize the health and longevity of astronauts. Much of this research has already been helpful for applications on earth. NASA has numerous new and ongoing projects regarding precision health and exploring how the rigors and stressors that space travel places on the human body can impact health. Many of these variables can then be used as a proxy for conditions or events on Earth, in order to better inform treatments and therapies.

Much of this research can be aptly repurposed. As explained by the Trivedi Institute, “Technologies developed for use in the severely resource-constrained circumstances of space travel can be repurposed for use in patients on Earth…these approaches are particularly powerful in settings with limited infrastructure, including disaster response, rural medicine, military operations and humanitarian missions.” Furthermore, the Institute also explains that their mission to explore new bridges between space travel and human health want to leverage the field’s toughest challenges to help inform new breakthroughs. (3/25)