June 15, 2026

DARPA to Explore Ways to Rapidly Rebuild Satellite Networks if Attacked (Source: Space News)
DARPA has released a Request for Information (RFI) titled “Rapid Reconstitution of Space Capabilities”. The agency is seeking technical concepts and operational strategies from the space industry to rapidly restore critical satellite networks and on-orbit services within hours to weeks following an adversarial attack or debris collision. The RFI focuses on highly responsive, cost-effective, and scalable solutions, seeking input across four key technical areas.

These include: Space Vehicles: Concepts for highly modular, "plug-and-play" satellite buses, radiation-hardened payloads, and reconfigurable software-defined satellites; Launch Vehicles: Methods to minimize spacecraft assembly, launch preparation, and deployment times to match rapid-response needs; Integration: Innovative procedures for rapidly integrating and mating the space vehicle with the launch vehicle; and Concept of Operations (CONOPS): New approaches to mission execution, logistics, and on-orbit capabilities that accommodate tactical timelines (hours to weeks) and demand surges. (6/15)

ULA to Launch 29 Amazon Broadband Satellites July 3 (Source: Space Coast Daily)
United Launch Alliance is preparing for a July 3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using an Atlas V 551 rocket to deploy 29 Amazon broadband satellites. The mission, part of Amazon's Project Kuiper, aims to expand global internet coverage. (6/14)
 
Viasat Wins Contract for Space Force Swarm 1 (Source: SatNews)
Viasat has been selected by the US Space Force as a prime contractor for the Swarm 1 Delivery Order under the Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global program. Viasat will manufacture, launch and operate a small, maneuverable geosynchronous satellite for resilient communications. Viasat's dual-band satellite, leveraging technology from the ViaSat-3 fleet, is expected to achieve initial operating capability by 2029. (6/13)

Proposed Elimination of SDA And Space RCO Faces Opposition (Source: Defense Daily)
Congressional defense authorizers' proposal to nix the 2019-established Space Development Agency (SDA) and the 2018-created Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO) may backfire, according to analysts. SDA and Space RCO have together employed between 400 and 500 people, and staffers are unsure what will become of their positions.
(6/12)

NASA X-59 Flies At Mach 1.4 ‘Mission Conditions’ (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA’s X-59 Quesst low-boom supersonic demonstrator achieved Mach 1.4 at 55,000 ft. on June 12, representing the speed and altitude planned for flights over U.S. communities to measure the public response to reduced sonic booms. The first flight to hit “mission conditions” lasted just more than 1 hr. and came only seven days after the X-59 flew supersonically for the first time on June 5, reaching Mach 1.1 on an 81-min. mission from Edwards AFB, California. (6/12)

Other Space Companies Fall During Initial SpaceX IPO Rise (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX's surge came at the expense of many other publicly traded space companies. Shares in companies ranging from AST SpaceMobile to Rocket Lab fell between 6% and 12% in trading Friday, while Virgin Galactic fell 28%. Analysts said the declines may reflect profit-taking after their shares rose in recent weeks as well as a desire to move money into SpaceX. There are also concerns that the stocks may have become overvalued. In the case of Virgin Galactic, some speculate that traders may have confused its stock ticker, SPCE, with that of SpaceX, SPCX. (6/15)

Avanti Sells GEO Broadband for Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT (Source: Space News)
Avanti Communications is selling its newest GEO broadband payload, closing a chapter on the debt-fueled expansion that once defined the British satellite operator. The company announced an agreement last week to sell its Hylas-3 Ka-band hosted payload to Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT, which is in expansion mode and has three new GEO satellites on order. Hylas-3 is on a spacecraft launched in 2019 that also carries the EDRS-C payload for the European Data Relay System.

A Sky Perfect JSAT spokesperson said the satellite, currently at 31 degrees east, would be relocated to cover more of Asia as part of the deal. The Hylas-3 sale follows mounting pressure on regional GEO operators from SpaceX's Starlink and other LEO constellations. Avanti has shifted focus toward partnerships rather than large satellite procurements, including a deal to integrate Telesat's planned Lightspeed LEO network with its GEO services. (6/15)

US Needs More Solid Rocket Motors (Source: Space News)
U.S. production of solid rocket motors is rising, but not fast enough to meet the Pentagon's missile-defense program demands. A new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies says solid rocket motors remain a bottleneck across the U.S. missile industrial base, even as the Pentagon prepares for a sharp increase in interceptor production.

 The study found that the air and missile defense interceptor industrial base isn't configured for a long conflict with high missile-expenditure rates. Shifts away from solid-fuel motors for space launch have also reduced the space sector's role as a stabilizing source of demand for solid motor suppliers. The report calls for stable demand signals, multiyear buying, direct investment in suppliers, requirements reform and broader acceptance of new suppliers. (6/15)

Revised SpaceX and Blue Origin Lunar Plans Revealed (Source: Space News)
As part of the Artemis 3 announcement last week, SpaceX confirmed that its revised Starship lunar lander plans involve docking Starship with Orion in low Earth orbit, instead of around the moon, and using Starship to send Orion to lunar orbit. Doing so, both the company and NASA argue, improves crew safety while also reducing propellant demands on Starship. Blue Origin, meanwhile, is setting aside work on a "transporter" spacecraft for aggregating propellant in Earth orbit and transferring it to lunar orbit, and will instead use transfer stages derived from its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. (6/15)

China's Kinetica-1 Launches Eight Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
A small Chinese rocket launched eight satellites overnight. A Kinetica-1, or Lijian-1, rocket lifted off at 11:44 p.m. Eastern Sunday night from the Jiuquan spaceport. It placed eight high-resolution optical imaging satellites into orbit. This was the 14th launch of the Kintetica-1 solid-fuel rocket, carrying a combined 105 satellites. (6/15)

AI Employed to Help Fill Aerospace Worker Shortage (Source: Space News)
In aerospace and defense, companies are using AI to help fill a worker shortage. Executives in these sectors increasingly see AI not as a replacement for workers but as a necessary tool for helping an overstretched industrial base build faster, scale production and compete with China. It is helping drive a wave of investment into agentic AI systems capable of assisting with engineering, testing, supply-chain management and manufacturing workflows. Companies hope the technology will compress development timelines that have frustrated the Pentagon for years. (6/15)

Orbital Data Centers: Another Worry for Astronomy Interference (Source: Space News)
Astronomers are worried orbital data centers will exacerbate the growing problem of satellite interference. Astronomers have spent the last several years raising concerns about the brightness of satellites in broadband constellations and how they impact groundbased astronomy. At a recent meeting, though, a leading astronomer said both the size of individual data center satellites, with giant solar panels and radiators, along with the sheer numbers of those satellites could make that interference problem much worse.

SpaceX, which has proposed launching up to 1 million orbital data center satellites, provided more details last week about the design of its AI1 satellite, which will be 70 meters long and 20 meters tall when its arrays and radiators are deployed. SpaceX expects to start launching AI1 satellites by the end of next year. (6/15)

T-Minus Barracuda Suffers Anomaly After Launch from Nova Scotia (Source: European Spaceflight)
A single-stage sounding rocket launched by Dutch firm T-Minus Engineering from Spaceport Nova Scotia on 10 June suffered an anomaly late in its flight. The anomaly prompted teams to stand down from a second planned flight. Founded in 2011, T-Minus Engineering develops and operates a range of suborbital rockets for microgravity research and hypersonic experimentation. The largest of its rockets is the Barracuda, a sounding rocket that stands approximately four meters tall and can carry payloads of up to 40 kilograms to altitudes of around 120 kilometers. (6/15)

Spaceport Company Sees Missile Test Backlog, Considers Offshore Capability for Large Orbital Rockets (Source: The Spaceport Company)
The Spaceport Company signed contracts with two commercial companies and is in final negotiations with a third. These signed and potential contracts represent six missile test launches and over $2 million in new revenue, before the end of CY2026. These are in addition to existing missile-related contracts with Lockheed Martin, the Golden Dome project, and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). "MDA continues to be very bullish on The Spaceport Company and has become a solid source of regular revenue."

In response to DoD demand for new medium-large launch capabilities, "The Spaceport has Company received inquiries and in early consultations with U.S. government officials on how to build an offshore site to potentially meet this need." (6/15)

Sustained Maneuver Has a Propulsion Problem (Source: Space News)
For years, space architecture was treated mostly as a question of placement: where to put a spacecraft, and how reliably it could hold position. That framing is now too narrow. A growing number of missions need to reposition, retask, inspect, avoid threats, persist, support logistics or simply preserve options as the operating environment changes. The community is taking maneuver more seriously — and that shift is overdue. (6/15)

Scientists Find Strange Changes on Sun Hours Before a Powerful X9 Solar Flare (Source: Space.com)
Researchers were able to take advantage of an unusually fortuitous dataset that captured the buildup to an X9-class solar flare that erupted on Oct. 3, 2024. Their analysis identified several changes in the sun's atmosphere hours before the explosion, offering new clues about how major flares begin and potentially revealing early warning signs of future events.

The active region that produced the eruption had already generated several powerful flares in the preceding days, prompting scientists to keep multiple solar observatories focused on the area. Among them was NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, a spacecraft designed to study a narrow slice of the sun's atmosphere in extraordinary detail. Because IRIS was already observing the region, researchers obtained nearly five uninterrupted hours of observations before the flare erupted, providing a rare window into the processes unfolding in the sun's atmosphere before the explosion. (6/15)

German Satellite Maker OHB Seeks €500 Million to Fuel Growth (Source: Bloomberg)
German satellite maker OHB SE is kicking off a stock offering to help it contribute to Europe’s space and defense programs as well as increase its free float. The Germany-based firm is selling shares worth around €500 million ($580 million) in a fully marketed offering, according to terms seen by Bloomberg. Private equity group KKR & Co. Inc., which currently owns about 29% of its shares, is also looking to sell shares, although the size of the deal is yet to be confirmed. (6/15)