April 8, 2026

Space Security Moves to Forefront as Threats to Satellites Spread (Source: Space News)
A new report says space security is shifting from a niche arms-control concern to a central policy issue as reliance on satellites deepens and the tools to disrupt them proliferate. The annual Global Counterspace Capabilities report by the Secure World Foundation, released Wednesday, finds that interference with space systems now carries immediate military, economic and political consequences, while the capabilities to cause that interference grow. While past discussions on counterspace technologies focused largely on the United States, China and Russia, this report says more countries are developing such technologies. (4/8)

Hungary Picks Northrop Grumman to Build CommSat (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman won a contract to build Hungary's first national communications satellite. As part of Vice President JD Vance's visit to Budapest Tuesday, the Hungarian defense and space firm 4iG announced an agreement with Northrop to build a geostationary communications satellite under a program known as HUSAT. The spacecraft, a Ka-band system based on Northrop's GEOStar-3 platform, is scheduled for delivery in 2030 and would provide Hungary with its first domestically controlled satellite communications capability. The HUSAT program combines the geostationary satellite with a planned constellation of eight Earth observation spacecraft that 4iG will develop. Separately, 4iG signed an agreement with Apex to explore establishing a joint venture aimed at building small satellites in Europe and targeting demand for large constellations. (4/8)

Capella Wins $49 Million SDA Contract for SatComm (Source: Space News)
Capella Space won a $49 million contract from the Space Development Agency (SDA) for testing military satellite communications. The firm-fixed-price agreement was issued Tuesday under SDA's Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit, or HALO, an other transaction authority contracting mechanism used to fund rapid, on-orbit experiments. Capella, a California-based operator of a commercial radar imaging constellation and a subsidiary of IonQ, will design and develop two spacecraft equipped with specialized radio frequency payloads to test what SDA called "advanced tactical waveform performance, adaptive beamforming, and secure tactical communications" in LEO. The effort is aimed at showing that satellites in low Earth orbit can support military-grade communications links that remain reliable under interference or jamming. (4/8)

Astroscale's UK Formation Flying Hyperspectral Cubesats Complete Review (Source: Space News)
Astroscale has completed the critical design review for two cubesats for the British military. The U.K. subsidiary of the Japanese on-orbit servicing venture announced the milestone Wednesday for the Orpheus mission, which was fully funded last year under a 5.15 million British pound ($7 million) contract from the U.K.'s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. The mission involves flying a pair of near-identical spacecraft from British small satellite specialist Open Cosmos in close formation for a year in LEO. The spacecraft carry hyperspectral imagers for detecting and characterizing objects of interest. The cubesats will also study space weather. (4/8)

Minotaur 4 Converted ICBM Launches DoD Research Payload From California (Source: Edhat)
A Minotaur 4 launched a mission for the Defense Department's Space Test Program Tuesday. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the STP-S29A mission. The primary payload was STPSat-7, carrying several Space Test Program experiments. Also on board were a pair of U.S. Army cubesats called Rawhide and several other cubesats. (4/8)

China Launches Broadband Constellation Satellites on Long March 8 (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a set of broadband constellation satellites Tuesday. A Long March 8 lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport on the island of Hainan, placing 18 Qianfan satellites into orbit. The Qianfan, or Thousand Sails, satellites are part of a planned broadband constellation ultimately numbering 14,000 satellites. (4/8)

LeoLabs Offers Orbital Threat Notices (Source: Space News)
LeoLabs is expanding beyond tracking satellites and debris into identifying potential threats in orbit. The company announced Wednesday its new Delta system, a software platform designed to detect and characterize unusual satellite behavior. The tool is aimed at military and government operators managing spacecraft in low Earth orbit, where congestion and geopolitical competition are both increasing. Delta is designed to flag behavior such as when a satellite changes its orbit in ways that put it into the same orbital plane as another spacecraft, allowing for repeated approaches. Several allied governments in Europe and Asia are already using Delta. (4/8)

Bulgaria's EnduroSat and UK's Shield Space Team for Inspection Cubesat Development (Source: Space News)
Two European companies are teaming up to develop an inspection cubesat. Bulgarian satellite maker EnduroSat and British defense tech startup Shield Space announced Wednesday plans to deploy a cubesat next year capable of maneuvering near other satellites for inspection. The partnership combines EnduroSat's standardized satellite platform architecture with Shield Space's autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations software, originally developed for drones used in Ukraine.

The first mission under the partnership is slated for the second quarter of 2027 and is dubbed Broadsword, involving an 8U autonomous "chaser" cubesat that would conduct RPO operations with a smaller 3U target satellite launched alongside it. Broadsword is intended as a stepping stone toward a broader architecture centered on a mothership capable of deploying multiple maneuverable spacecraft. (4/8)

Italy Wants Leonardo CEO Replaced (Source: Reuters)
The Italian government is seeking to replace the CEO of space and defense company Leonardo. The government, which owns more than 30% of Leonardo, wants to replace Roberto Cingolani, but has not offered details about why. Leonardo's shares have soared since 2022 and as recently as February Cingolani appeared to be on track to secure a new three-year term as CEO. A potential replacement is Lorenzo Mariani, a former Leonardo executive who is now is now at European missile manufacturer MBDA. Leonardo is in the process of merging its space business with those from Airbus and Thales through a joint venture named Project Bromo. (4/8)

L3Harris Wins $150M Space Force MOSSAIC Contract (Source: GovConWire)
L3Harris Technologies has secured a $150 million contract from the US Space Force to update ground systems under the Maintenance of Space Situational Awareness Integrated Capabilities program. This contract extends L3Harris's ongoing role in supporting military, civil, and commercial applications with advanced space domain awareness solutions. (4/8)
 
Boeing Delivers Satellite for Viasat APAC Expansion (Source: Mobile World)
Boeing has delivered the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite to Viasat, which will enhance the latter's coverage across Asia-Pacific. The satellite, set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, features larger solar arrays and advanced electronics, and will join the F1 and F2 satellites. (4/7)

Stellar Artemis II Photos Taken with Old-Model Nikon Worth About $1,000 (Source: New York Post)
Most of the out-of-this-world photos being beamed home from Artemis II were taken with an old-model Nikon camera that can be bought for about $1,000. NASA traded in the legendary Hasselblad model it used on Apollo missions years ago for the Nikon D5 DSLR — a classic digital single-lens-reflex camera first released in 2016. The Nikon was carefully selected for its proven track record as a workhorse space camera, as well as its extraordinary ability to pick up detail even in extreme darkness, a Nikon official said. (4/7)

ExLabs Pushes Private Sector Role in Planetary Defense as Apophis Asteroid Approaches Earth (Source: ExLabs)
ExLabs will highlight the growing role of private companies in planetary defense ahead of asteroid Apophis’ historic 2029 flyby of Earth, while showcasing its own Apophis EX mission at the upcoming Space Symposium. On April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass approximately 20,000 miles from Earth, closer than many geostationary satellites. The asteroid, which is nearly 1,000 feet wide, will be visible to billions of people around the world and will provide scientists with a rare opportunity to study how a potentially hazardous asteroid responds to Earth’s gravitational forces.

International missions are already being planned. NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX mission is expected to observe Apophis after the flyby, while the European Space Agency’s RAMSES mission aims to rendezvous with the asteroid before its close approach. ExLabs believes commercial missions can significantly expand the amount of data collected and the number of organizations able to participate. (4/7)

Investors Are Already Abuzz About a Tesla-SpaceX Merger (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Elon Musk surprised onlookers with the quick merger between SpaceX and xAI. Now analysts, investors and close Musk observers are debating the merits of what some see as the ultimate combination: SpaceX and Tesla. As SpaceX approaches an initial public offering, some investors are discussing the idea of a mega-Musk merger as a follow-up. Musk has said he thinks his companies are converging, but he hasn’t commented on speculation of a merger. (4/7)

Meet Orpheus - A Hopper Mission Built To Hunt For Life In Martian Volcanoes (Source: Universe Today)
We’ve spent decades scratching the surface of Mars trying to uncover life there. Unlike lava tubes, vents feature sustained heat and circulation that releases volatiles like water vapor and other gases as long as the volcano is active. In other words, they are the most likely spots for internal planetary heat to meet water - just like the vents in Earth’s ocean floor that might have given rise to the first life here.

Orpheus’ team is particularly interested in “Vent #5”, which is about 200 meters across and 50 meters deep. Most notably, it features a diffuse dark streak stretching 400 meters uphill from its rim. Researchers think this streak could be fresh, dark volcanic material that was put there by a recent eruption. Or it could be fresh subsurface material excavated by the wind. Either way, it’s most likely the site of the most recent activity on CT1, and therefore holds the most promise of finding something protected from the surface up until recently. (4/8)

Intel Partners With SpaceX, Tesla to Operate New Chip Plant (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Elon Musk is partnering with Intel INTC on his ambitious Terafab project, which aims to build specially designed chips for SpaceX and xAI as well as for Tesla. In an announcement Tuesday, Intel said it would work with the companies to “design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale.” The company also shared a photo of Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan shaking hands with Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. (4/7)

Planet Details AI-Driven Object Detection Onboard Pelican-4 Satellite (Source: Via Satellite)
Planet recently performed AI-driven object detection directly onboard a Pelican-4 satellite, using the satellite’s onboard Nvidia Jetson Orin module. Planet shared details on Tuesday of the recent tech milestone. On March 25, Planet’s Pelican-4 satellite captured an image of the airport in Alice Springs, Australia, and used the Nvidia Jetson Orin module to run an AI model onboard the satellite, which detected airplanes in the image. (4/7)

As More Nations Seek Counterspace Chops, GPS Jamming Also Rises (Source: Breaking Defense)
As global military interest in obtaining capabilities to neutralize adversary space systems continues to expand, jamming against GPS and other position, navigation and timing satellites as well as communications birds also is on the rise, according to a new report by the Secure World Foundation. The good news for space operators, including the US government, is that so far, “only non-destructive capabilities are actively being used against satellites in current military operations.” The bad news is that a growing number of militaries around the world are seeking counterspace weapons, both non-lethal and lethal, to target space systems. (4/8)

NASA’s Artemis Era May Finally Solve Three Major Moon Mysteries (Source: Scientific American)
Despite the moon being so nearby, we know surprisingly little about it with much certainty. The Apollo astronauts hauled back a bevy of moon rocks and left behind a few short-lived geological experiments, but most of our lunar knowledge today comes from moon-orbiting satellites, telescopic observations from Earth and the handful of sample-return missions undertaken recently by China. Starved of more in situ data, researchers can’t yet scratch a bigger scientific itch; they wish to study the moon as a Rosetta Stone for the origin and evolution of our world and the solar system at large. Click here. (4/7)

Has Artemis II Shown We Can Land on the Moon Again? (Source: BBC)
The mission's first six days have shown that the Orion capsule works as designed with people on board for the first time - something no simulator could prove. Perhaps its greatest achievement, though, is through the actions of the Artemis crew, which have generated hope, agency and optimism for a world appearing to be in desperate need of inspiration. But the bigger question remains - is a Moon landing by 2028, as NASA and President Trump want, now really an achievable goal?

If re-entry goes well, the picture that emerges from Artemis II will be genuinely encouraging. The rocket worked. The spacecraft worked. The crew handled the systems with competence and grace. And Nasa has at last articulated a credible plan to build on this moment rather than wait three years and start again. A Moon landing by 2028 remains a stretch. The question is no longer whether Orion can fly. The question is whether the landers, the cadence, and the political will can keep pace. The spacecraft, at least, has done its part. (4/7)

It’s Unanimous: Space Already Functions as Critical Infrastructure (Source: Via Satellite)
Space may not officially be the United States’ 17th critical infrastructure sector. But in practice, experts across government, academia, and industry say it already functions as one — deeply embedded in the systems that power modern life. From GPS-enabled financial transactions to airline navigation, precision agriculture, emergency response, electric grid synchronization, and military operations, space-based services quietly underpin nearly every other sector formally recognized as critical infrastructure.

"A formal critical infrastructure designation for space really does matter,” concludes Fernandez. “It would push us to look for blind spots in how we address space-based capabilities and the threats to them and force a more holistic view of all the assets that depend on space. Most importantly, it creates an official structure with clearly assigned roles and authorities, so the right organizations can actually act and get the results we need when something goes wrong.” (4/7)

Advocates Ready For NASA Science Funding Fight (Source: Payload)
NASA is facing dramatic cuts to its science program next fiscal year—but advocates say they’re ready to fight for NASA’s space science missions. Once again, the Trump administration has proposed a budget that would make large cuts to science and STEM missions. And—once again—advocates and lawmakers are saying they won’t stand idly by while programs are gutted. The Planetary Society—an advocacy group that organized others to lobby against the proposed science cuts for fiscal 2026—said it’s ready to rally the troops again. (4/7)

A Lunar Base or a Lunar Economy? (Source: Space News)
We applaud the lunar base vision laid out by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on March 24. Placing this stake in the lunar regolith is long overdue. What is missing from the mission architecture, however, is a vision for long-term economic development on the moon. It will be a profound missed opportunity if NASA does not equally commit its lunar base efforts to supporting commercial development of the moon. (4/8)

A Moon Base Is Being Planned Without Understanding the Ground (Source: Roberto Moraes)
For the Artemis lunar base, the primary concern is not architecture or hardware, but the absence of a construction-grade understanding of the ground. The program is advancing without quantified boundary conditions. From an engineering standpoint, that introduces first-order risk. There is no clear evidence of a phased geotechnical investigation program preceding infrastructure decisions. Without in situ characterization, timelines are effectively being defined independently of the controlling parameter, which is the ground.

On a Starship landing without a prepared pad, the question is not whether the vehicle can land, but how the ground will respond. The upper regolith layer is a low-confinement, highly disturbed zone. Under high plume loading, this can lead to rapid degradation of bearing conditions, material ejection, and surface instability. In that context, landing without ground preparation is feasible, but not predictable in performance or repeatability. In short, feasibility is currently being evaluated from the vehicle down. For sustained operations, it needs to be evaluated from the ground up. (4/7)

Our Off-World Bases Will Rely on Nuclear Power. Can We Deliver? (Source: SpaceCom Second Stage)
NASA’s growing focus on crewed missions to the Moon, and then Mars, highlights the daunting challenges of power generation. The Cassini probe contained ~33 kilograms of plutonium to generate 850 watts of continuous electricity, or ~8 megawatt-hours (MWh) per Earth year. Next-generation fission microreactors will need only 150 grams of uranium to produce 114 kilowatts of continuous electricity, or one gigawatt-hour (GWh) per year, enough to power a Mars or Moon base camp.

While designed to be transportable, significant engineering work is needed to support a safe lunar landing at a geotechnically suitable site, and for final reactor assembly and activation. The compressed schedule for Artemis necessitates a challenging learn-as-we-go approach to constructing nuclear-capable infrastructure on an airless world with fractional gravity, little-understood geotechnical properties, and a host of unique environmental risks such as micrometeoroids, lunar dust, solar radiation, thermal swings, and near-surface electrically charged plasma.

And back on Earth, years before a microreactor is tucked into a heavy-lift payload fairing, there is a critical shortage of nuclear-ready processing facilities, causing a uranium and plutonium bottleneck at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. This is a problem that must be addressed to keep Artemis on-schedule while also supporting the growing number of non-Artemis RTG-powered payloads and nuclear propulsion systems moving toward launch. Click here. (4/6)

Experiments Refute Dark Matter Claim (Source: Phys.org)
In 1997, the DAMA/NaI experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy observed a signal whose annual variability was suggestive of dark matter. Despite the follow-up DAMA/LIBRA experiment producing similar results, claims of direct dark matter detection drew skepticism from the physics community.

To test the claims independently, sister experiments ANAIS-112 and COSINE-100 were constructed using the same basic design as DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA. COSINE-100, located at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea, began taking data in 2016. ANAIS-112, located at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) in Spain, began taking data in 2017. Maruyama is the Principal Investigator (PI) and scientific co-spokesperson of COSINE-100.

The data sets from both ANAIS-112 and COSINE-100, each working independently, were found to contain no such variability, tentatively ruling out dark matter as the cause of the earlier observations. Hollick's 2025 thesis combined the data from both ANAIS-112 and COSINE-100, and statistical analysis of the combined dataset showed no significant evidence of annual modulation in the relevant energy regions. This result effectively rules out dark matter as the origin for the DAMA/LIBRA signal. (4/6)

Gravitational Waves May be Responsible for Dark Matter in the Universe (Source: Brighter Side)
Dark matter is thought to exist everywhere, wrapping around galaxies and helping to shape the largest things in the universe. But nobody knows what it is made of. Now, a new theoretical study presents a surprisingly unique situation that could provide some of the missing puzzle pieces. Some of the dark matter may have originated from ancient gravitational waves. These waves travelled through the early universe before stars or galaxies had formed. (4/4)

Plan to Control Sunlight by Launching 50,000 Mirrors Could Wreak Havoc on Earth, Experts Warn: ‘Major Adverse Health Consequences’ (Source: New York Post)
It’s keeping scientists up at night. Scientists around the world are sounding the alarm over an ambitious plan to install thousands of mirrors and myriad satellites in space, claiming that it will impact sleep and various ecosystems on a global level. “The proposed scale of orbital deployment would represent a significant alteration of the natural night-time light environment at a planetary scale,” leaders of the European Biological Rhythms Society (EBRS), the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, the Japanese Society for Chronobiology and the Canadian Society for Chronobiology declared in letters to the US Federal Communications Commission. (4/6)

China’s Gravity-Detecting SQUID Gets Closer to Spotting US Nuclear Submarines (Source: SCMP)
Chinese researchers unveiled a gravity detector with world-leading precision last month, potentially expanding the military applications of the technology. It uses a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) to detect objects by measuring tiny changes in gravity. The team that developed the instrument says it can be used for scientific research and finding underground resources. It also brings the country one step closer to being able to spot patrolling nuclear submarines.

According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the instrument reduces gravity gradient measurement noise – outside effects that can disrupt a gravity detector’s accuracy, such as vibrations from seismic activity – to a level that is second only to gravitational wave detectors built on the kilometer scale. The instrument built by the CAS team is about the size of an office cubicle. Existing submarine detection methods – sonar, magnetic anomaly detection, and radar – can be evaded. However, gravity cannot be masked. (4/3)

Spain’s Xoople Raises $130 Million to Map the Earth for AI (Source: Tech Crunch)
Space data companies have argued for years that the private sector needs their products, but the real uptake has been from government buyers. Now, with artificial intelligence top of mind for business, one Spanish startup is trying to become the go-to source of ground truth for enterprise. Xoople (said like “zoople’) is developing a satellite constellation to collect precise data aimed at deep learning models. The startup was founded in 2019 and has spent the last seven years developing its tech stack around data collected by government spacecraft, and integrating with cloud providers. (4/6)

Proposed $1.7 Trillion DoD Budget Adds $17.5 Billion to This Year's $25 Nillion for Inneffective Golden Dome (Source: Popular Information)
In September 2025, Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute estimated that a system actually capable of neutralizing threats from all countries would cost $3.6 trillion. Among other limitations, a $185 billion system would not be effective against threats from China or Russia, which have thousands of missiles, Harrison argues. Bloomberg’s independent analysis found that an effective system would cost about $1.1 trillion. Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT), a Trump supporter and the founder of the Golden Dome caucus, acknowledged that “[i]t will likely cost in the trillions if and when Golden Dome is completed.”

Some scientists believe that, no matter how much is spent, a space-based missile defense system will not be effective. A February 2025 paper by the American Physical Society (APS) found that to defend against just one North Korean missile would require “a constellation of at least 1600 interceptors.” To defend against 10 missiles fired simultaneously, the United States would need 40,000 space-based interceptors, about three times the number of active satellites currently in orbit.

Even if a multi-trillion-dollar system with tens of thousands of interceptors could be deployed, it could still be defeated with relatively inexpensive countermeasures, like decoys. The White House seems to acknowledge that the missile defense system it is building will not actually defend the country against a missile attack. “The goal is to not create a ‘perfect’ defense, but to provide an increasingly effective shield,” the White House budget document states. (4/7)