April 17, 2026

L3Harris to Invest $1.27B in Virginia Rocket Motor Site (Source: Reuters)
L3Harris Technologies is moving forward with a $1.27 billion expansion at its Orange County, Va., facility to boost production of solid rocket motors. The company will build new facilities at the site to meet the growing needs of Pentagon programs and address the heightened demand for military supplies due to global conflicts. The expansion complements L3Harris' existing rocket motor production operations in Arkansas and Alabama. (4/15)

Boeing, Millennium Debut Mid-Class Satellite Bus Resolute (Source: Space News)
Boeing and subsidiary Millennium Space Systems have introduced the Resolute mid-class satellite bus, aimed at providing flexibility for commercial and defense clients amid a Pentagon push for faster production. Resolute uses existing components to minimize engineering delays and will be bid-ready this year, with several customers already interested. (4/16)

Slingshot Launches AI-Based Monitoring Platform (Source: Via Satellite)
Slingshot Aerospace has introduced Portal, an AI-supported satellite monitoring and analysis platform that integrates data from the Slingshot Global Sensor Network, government and third-party providers. "Slingshot Portal unifies sensing, intelligence, and action into a single operational process empowering operators to respond faster, make confident decisions and take real-time action," CEO Tim Solms says. (4/16)

US Players See Flaws in EU Space Act (Source: Space News)
American companies and government agencies see a new draft of the EU Space Act as a step backward. Officials said the new draft, released in late March, includes vague language that makes it difficult for companies to comply with. The draft is also in some cases overreaching, requiring companies to provide export-controlled information to European regulators. The draft is scheduled to be discussed at a committee meeting Monday, with many EU member states also opposed to the draft as "beyond the European Union's competence." (4/17)

Taiwan Seeks SatCom Constellation Cooperation (Source: Space News)
Taiwan is seeking to cooperate with other countries on a satellite communications constellation. Jong-Shinn Wu, head of Taiwan's space agency, said at the Space Symposium this week that his country was interested in teaming up with four to six other nations on a constellation to provide communications services, following the model of Europe's IRIS² sovereign broadband constellation. He spoke on a panel with other space agencies that also supported international partnerships of various types. (4/17)

US Missile Defense Seeks Pre-Launch Disruption (Source: Space News)
U.S. government agencies are working with industry to develop tools to disrupt missiles before they take flight. Such "left of launch" capabilities involve a shift to "foundational intelligence," officials said. Effective missile defense will require diverse technologies, policies and strategies, including combining data from a variety of sources. (4/17)

China Launches Earth Science Satellite on Long March 4C (Source: Xinhua)
China launched an Earth science satellite Friday. A Long March 4C lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:10 a.m. Eastern and placed into orbit the Daqi-2 satellite. The spacecraft is designed to study greenhouse gas emissions. [Xinhua]

Chinese Astronauts Perform TSS Spacewalk (Source: Xinhua)
Two Chinese astronauts performed a spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station Thursday. Zhang Lu and Wu Fei spent five and a half hours outside the station on a spacewalk that concluded at 1:36 p.m. Eastern. The spacewalkers installed debris protection devices and inspected other equipment. This was the seventh spacewalk for Zhang, a Chinese record. [Xinhua]

China Conducts Rendezvous Operations on Prototype Cargo Craft (Source: Space News)
China has conducted rendezvous and proximity operations tests involving a prototype cargo spacecraft. The Qingzhou prototype spacecraft launched on CAS Space's first Kinetica-2 last month along with two small companion satellites. Qingzhou approached one of those satellites, New Journey-01, which likely acted as a cooperative navigation target, providing reference signals or tracking features to support approach and departure phases.  The Qingzhou prototype is one of two low-cost space station resupply spacecraft being developed under a program initiated by China's human spaceflight agency, CMSEO, to support Tiangong. (4/17)

India's TakeMe2Space Raising Money for Orbital Data Center (Source: Space News)
Indian startup TakeMe2Space is seeking to raise money for an orbital data center spacecraft. The company, which raised $5 million in a seed round in January, is currently working on a $55 million round to fund a 50-kilowatt spacecraft with advanced processors. The company believes that spacecraft in the range of 50 to 100 kilowatts will serve as the "building block" for future gigawatt-class orbital data centers. TakeMe2Space launched a cubesat in 2024 to test computing systems and is planning to fly a larger cubesat later this year with an Nvidia Jetson module. (4/17)

Artemis II Reentry Image Raises Questions Online About Heat Shield (Source: CBS)
Now that Artemis II has gone up, around and come down again from the moon, there are questions about the heat shield that protected the crew on reentry. Kris Van Cleave reports. NASA is reviewing the Orion capsule’s heat shield after images showed an unusual, though expected, white patch on the charred material. While the shield worked to protect the crew, it used a design with a known cracking issue from Artemis I, prompting a faster, steeper reentry to reduce exposure to extreme heat. (4/15)

Artemis Crew Satisfied with Orion Performance (Source: AP)
The Artemis 2 astronauts say they are happy with the way the Orion spacecraft performed on their mission. At a press conference Thursday, astronauts said the spacecraft met or exceeded their expectations. The spacecraft's heat shield, a subject of concern because of the erosion seen on the Artemis 1 mission, appeared to hold up well, with only minor char loss seen on the edges. The crew said they are still processing the experience of flying around the moon, becoming the humans to travel the furthest from Earth on the nine-day flight. (4/17)

Long-Delayed European Mars Rover Set for 2028 Launch (Source: Douglas Messier)
NASA announced on Friday that the European Space Agency’s long-delayed Rosalind Frank Mars rover is finally set for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket no earlier than late 2028. Under an agreement signed in 2024, NASA agreed to provide the launch, specialized electronics, braking engines for the rover’s lander platform, radioisotope heater units for internal systems, and a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer for the Mars organic molecule analyzer instrument. (4/17)

'NASA Force' Seeks to Recruit Top Talent to NASA (Source: Douglas Messier)
NASA and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) launched the NASA Force website on Friday, opening applications for roles aimed at recruiting the nation’s top engineers and technologists to support America’s air and space program. The partnership will recruit and place high-impact technical talent into mission-critical roles supporting NASA’s exploration, research, and advanced technology priorities. NASA Force is part of a broader US Tech Force initiative established by OPM. (4/17)

Shifting Gears: Space Force Moves to Embrace Space Mobility for Orbital Warfare (Source: Breaking Defense)
After years of open skepticism about US Space Command’s push for development of satellites with the ability to move freely on orbit over long periods of time, the Space Force now is embracing the concept as a foundation for orbital warfare. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said the service is working very closely with SPACECOM on orbital warfare, and to explore the technology and the operational concepts to enable on-orbit maneuverability and satellite refueling as part of its 15-year Objective Force plan. (4/17)

Air Force Secretary Doubles Down on Space-Based Radar Bet Amid Key Aircraft Losses in Iran (Source: Defense One)
Air Force officials are pursuing a space-based system to detect airborne threats and pushing off additional funding for battlespace awareness aircraft in the 2027 budget, even as the service’s fleet of radar planes is in Iran’s sights. A base contract has been awarded for a new space-based airborne moving target communication capability, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said. (4/16)

Ursa Major’s Hadley Rocket Engine Logs 10 Hypersonic Flights with Stratolaunch (Source: AeroTime)
Ursa Major announced on April 16, 2026, that its Hadley liquid rocket engine has completed 10 consecutive flights, including multiple launches at sustained hypersonic speeds. The Colorado-based company said the flights were conducted with Stratolaunch, whose Talon-A test vehicle has now flown at least twice above Mach 5 and been recovered both times. (4/17)

CIRA Tests Space Rider Reentry Performance with Damaged Heat Shield (Source: European Spaceflight)
The Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) has completed key testing of the thermal protection system for the European Space Agency’s Space Rider spacecraft, showing it can withstand reentry even when damaged by micrometeoroids or orbital debris. Space Rider is an eight-meter-long reusable spacecraft designed to carry payloads into orbit for missions of up to two months before returning to Earth. (4/17)

Max Space Unveils New Expandable Space Habitat for the Moon and Beyond: 'We Need Real Estate That is Scalable' (Source: Space.com)
Max Space has unveiled a large sub-scale version of their expandable habitat, giving viewers a real look at how best to offer far greater habitable volume for future space endeavors. "This is more than a model," said Saleem Miyan, co-founder and CEO of Max Space, based in Florida. "It is a physical demonstration of a new approach to space infrastructure, far greater habitable volume, lower launch mass and logistics burden, scalable architecture for commercial low Earth orbit stations, lunar surface systems, and future deep space missions." (4/17)

Iran Used Chinese Spy Satellite to Target US Bases (Source: Japan Times)
Iran secretly ⁠acquired a Chinese spy satellite in late 2024 that allowed it to target U.S. military bases across the Middle East during the recent war, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by Chinese company Earth Eye, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force ‌after it ‌was launched into space from China, the report said, ​citing leaked Iranian military documents. (4/14)

Lawmakers Seek Details, Cost Information From Golden Dome Program Manager (Source: Aerospace America)
House lawmakers on Wednesday pushed for more details and cost estimates on Golden Dome, the Trump administration’s planned missile defense shield. The White House early this month proposed a cumulative $1.5 trillion in defense spending for fiscal year 2027, the largest figure in history. The budget seeks $17.5 billion for Golden Dome, $17.1 billion of which would come from a planned reconciliation package. In fiscal 2026, Golden Dome received $24.4 billion through the Trump administration’s sprawling tax and spending package. (4/16)