June 19, 2026

Artemis III Backup Astronaut in Prime Spot to be Chosen for Moon Landing Mission (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were backup crew for Apollo 8. Their next flight made them the first two men to step foot on the moon. The role of backup has traditionally set up astronauts to be named prime crew for successive NASA’s missions, something that bodes well for Air Force Col. Bob “Farmer” Hines, who was designated the sole backup for all four astronauts assigned to fly on next year’s Artemis III mission.

One of those four is Andre Douglas, himself most recently NASA’s backup astronaut for this year’s Artemis II lunar flyby mission. While Artemis III will be a low-Earth orbit flight to test out the Orion spacecraft’s ability to dock with lunar landers, Artemis IV looks to return humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. That could mean Hines may be among the front runners to fly on Artemis IV, and may be among those chosen to venture down to lunar surface, although that crew won’t be named until after the completion of Artemis III. (6/19)

Scientists Spent 13 Years Bouncing Radar Off Europa. Here’s What They Found (Source: Gizmodo)
The findings suggest that the way Europa’s surface scatters radio waves is distinctly different from those seen on rocky worlds. Overall, the data is consistent with the major radar study of Europa, which took place between the 1980s and the 1990s. However, the latest observations are “more numerous and cover a much broader rotational phase of Europa,” explained Tunhui Xie.

The new study looked at 13 years worth of data collected between 2011 and 2024. One fascinating observation concerned Europa’s radar albedo, which is a measure of how bright the moon appears to radar. Specifically, Europa’s radar albedo was much higher than that of planets and rocky worlds. The way Europa scattered the radar signal highly resembled a “hallmark of multiple scattering inside clean, porous ice,” explained the NRAO. (6/18)

Redwire vs. Rocket Lab: Which Space Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026? (Source: Motley Fool)
While both companies operate within the same broader sector, they offer different entry points into the space economy. Redwire focuses on the hardware and infrastructure that keep satellites running, while Rocket Lab provides the vehicles to get them there, along with its own satellite platforms. Comparing these two requires a deep dive into their growth rates, financial stability, and market positions in the 2026 landscape. Click here. (6/18)

Space Startups Seek Insurance for Orbital AI Data Centers (Source: Reuters)
Blue Origin and a host of space startups, including ​Orbital, Starcloud, Lonestar Data Holdings and Cowboy Space, have also signaled their intention to launch space-based data centers. Reuters spoke ​to four brokers and underwriters and three space firms who said talks had taken place about orbital data center coverage, although they remain preliminary.

Insurance broker Marsh said several companies have approached insurers to understand what future coverage for orbital data centers might entail, without ​naming the firms. "We're already starting to see companies that are focused on data centers and companies that are ​focused on digital infrastructure looking to the insurance community for support," said Patton Kline, U.S. aviation and space practice leader at Marsh. (6/18)

MDA Space to Acquire Blue Canyon (Source: MDA Space)
MDA Space is buying smallsat manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies. MDA Space announced Friday morning it reached an agreement to acquire Blue Canyon for $620 million from Raytheon. The transaction is expected to close by the end of year, subject to regulatory approvals. Blue Canyon produces small satellites and components and was a standalone company before being acquired by Raytheon in 2020. MDA Space, based in Canada, said the acquisition will give it more access to U.S. market opportunities. (6/19)

Hammett Departs Space RCO as Office Considered for Elimination (Source: Space News)
The director of the Space Force's rapid acquisition office has moved to another post. Kelly Hammett, the former head of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), was named Thursday executive director of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. Space RCO appears close to being shuttered as a standalone organization under the Space Force's acquisition overhaul, and House and Senate defense authorization bills would eliminate the office's separate statutory status.

Space RCO was established in 2018 amid concern that traditional Pentagon acquisition programs were struggling to keep pace with technological advances and emerging threats from China and Russia. The office was created as an independent organization and was allowed to operate outside the processes that govern larger acquisition programs. (6/19)

NASA Asks Northrop Grumman to Stop Working on Lunar HALO Module (Source: Ars Technica)
Three months ago, NASA announced that it was shifting the focus of its lunar plans from an orbital space station to a Moon base on the surface. As part of this, officials said work would be paused on the Lunar Gateway planned to orbit the Moon. Of the two elements that were furthest along, NASA also revealed that one of them—the  Power and Propulsion Element—would be repurposed to serve as a core module for a nuclear-electric propulsion demonstration in deep space. (6/19)

NASA Picks DAPHNE Mission to Study Space Weather (Source: Space News)
NASA has selected a space science mission for development. NASA announced Thursday the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer, or DAPHNE, mission will proceed into the next phase of development, with a launch planned for no earlier than 2029. DAPHNE will fly two identical satellites with instruments to study conditions in the thermosphere, allowing scientists to examine the interaction of space weather with Earth's atmosphere. The mission, led by the University of Colorado, has a cost cap of $250 million. NASA's heliophysics division recently announced a change in strategy, shifting toward more applied science applications. (6/19)

Chinese University Plans 2029 Astreroid Mission (Source: Space News)
A Chinese university is planning a mission to the asteroid Apophis as it makes a close approach to Earth in 2029. The Student-led Threatening Asteroid Reconnaissance of Tsinghua, or START, mission is a low-cost smallsat led by a team of more than 20 undergraduate students at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The spacecraft will maneuver to a high Earth orbit to allow it to make a high-speed flyby of Apophis when the asteroid flies very close to the Earth in April 2029. The payload suite includes narrow and wide-field cameras plus dual visible-to-near-infrared hyperspectral imagers, aimed at achieving a peak resolution of 8 centimeters per pixel. (6/19)

China's Spark Space Raises $14.8 Million for Launch Vehicle Development (Source: Space News)
Chinese startup Spark Space has raised funding for the world's largest rocket using engines with electric pumps. The company is developing the Jinhua-1, or Evolution-1, rocket, powered by its Lieyan-2 electric-pump-fed engine. The startup announced a Pre-A round of nearly 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) at the beginning of June and later said it raised tens of millions of yuan in additional funding. Spark Space said it successfully tested in March the Lieyan-2 engine, which produces 10 tons of thrust, about four times that of Rocket Lab's Rutherford engine that also uses electric pumps. (6/19)

SpaceX Launches NRO Mission From California on Friday (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched a National Reconnaissance Office mission early today. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:50 a.m. Eastern on the NROL-179 mission. The NRO later said this was the 14th launch of its "multi-phenomenology proliferated architecture" of hundreds of satellites, and third this year. (6/19)

Austria's Gate Space Wins European Investment of $7.2 Million for Propulsion Tech (Source: Space News)
Austrian satellite propulsion startup Gate Space has raised funding from an accelerator program backed by the European Commission. The company said Friday it won 6.3 million euros ($7.2 million) in funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator program. It was the only space company out of 38 selected in the latest round of that program. Gate Space said the funding will accelerate the industrialization of chemical propulsion technology it is developing. That system will be tested in space next year on BeaconSat, Austria's first military satellite. (6/19)

Space Coast-Based Mu-g Plans Business-Jet Microgravity Operations (Source: Space News)
A startup is working to provide parabolic flight services. Mu-g Technologies recently took delivery of a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet it plans to use to fly research and technology demonstration payloads, providing brief periods of microgravity as the aircraft flies parabolic arcs. The company is looking to fill a gap in such services after Zero-G Corporation's Boeing 727 stopped flying last year. Mu-g said its flights should complement, rather than compete, with NASA's planned use of a larger 737 jet.

Mu-g is collaborating with supersonic test operator Starfighters Space at Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas. Future plans include the potential acquisition of an Airbus A321 to further expand capacity. Editor's Note: Based on NASA and Air Force work in the 1950s and 1960s, the Starfighter F-104 was determined to be capable of flying parabolas that provide more than 60 seconds of microgravity. NASA's and Zero-G aircraft typically are limited to 30 seconds of microgravity. (6/19)

NASA Awards Modification Contract for Reduced Gravity Test Aircraft (Source: NASA)
NASA selected Denmar Technical Services of Nevada to provide aircraft modifications, maintenance, and testing services to the Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The award is a firm-fixed-price contract and will be time and material for any over and above and unforeseen work. This contract has a maximum potential value of $8.4 million, which runs through Feb. 1, 2027. The contractor will modify a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to perform lunar-gravity parabolic flights to test NASA space equipment. (6/1)

NASA Picks 14 Companies for Satellite Data Contracts (Source: NASA)
NASA awarded commercial satellite data contracts to 14 companies Thursday. The awards are part of NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program, where NASA buys Earth science imagery and other data from companies for use by NASA-supported researchers. The 14 companies include six who had previous contracts in the program and eight new providers. (6/19)

SpaceX Opposes European Spectrum Plan (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX offered formal criticism of proposed European satellite spectrum plans. Those plans, announced last month by the European Commission, would reserve two-thirds of the two-gigahertz spectrum band to providers within the EU, with the remaining third available to companies based outside the EU. SpaceX complained the proposal would split the spectrum into "virtually unusable sub-divided parts" and warned that it could interfere with Starlink services provided in Ukraine. (6/19)

James Webb Space Telescope Finds a Salty Surprise on Famous 'Pink Planet' (Source: Space.com)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that the well-known "Pink Planet" harbors a salty surprise and an exotic atmospheric chemistry. The discovery marks an advancement in the study of cold objects beyond the solar system. Initially discovered in 2013, GJ504b orbits a sun-like star located around 57 light-years from Earth. With a mass around 25 times that of Jupiter, this Pink Planet may not be a planet at all despite its moniker. It may instead be a brown dwarf, a failed star that formed like a star but was unable to gather enough mass to achieve the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in its core. (6/19)

Sweden's EQT  to Acquire Germany's Exolaunch (Source: EQT)
EQT will acquire Exolaunch for an undisclosed sum. Headquartered in Germany, Exolaunch enables access to space for global satellite operators. The company has successfully deployed over 790 satellites across 47 missions for over 200 commercial and government customers from North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

EQT said it will support Exolaunch in scaling its global operations and investing into the development of new satellite launch and deployment technologies. EQT will also help drive the expansion into additional services across the satellite mission lifecycle and resources to expand the dedicated and rideshare launch offerings, both with existing partners and newly emerging launch providers. (6/18)

Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation Awarded $1 Million by the Canadian Space Agency for Studies to Inform Future Canadian Lunar Investments (Source: CSMC)
Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) has been awarded $1 million by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for studies that will help inform future Canadian lunar investments. Of the total amount, the company's subsidiary CSMC Nuclear has been awarded $500,000 to conduct a study on lunar power generation and distribution, while subsidiary CSMC Labs has been awarded $500,000 to conduct a parallel study on lunar mining and resource utilization on the moon.

The two studies are part of the CSA's Lunar Surface Exploration Initiative (LSEI), a strategic program designed to define Canada's highest-value contributions to the NASA-led Artemis campaign, the international effort to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. Each study will map the technical and functional requirements for its respective capability area, identify the key gaps that Canada must address and assess the full socioeconomic benefits of Canadian leadership in lunar infrastructure. (6/9)

Head of Nation Congratulates Asgardians on Unity Day (Source: Asgardia)
Today, our Space Nation of Asgardia, uniting over a million people from nearly 200 countries on planet Earth, celebrates one of its national holidays—Unity Day. This day reminds us that Asgardia has originated not from a common birthplace, language, or family background, which are beyond our control, but from the free choice of people who went for uniting around a common idea—a peaceful future for humanity in space.

Over the years of Asgardia's existence, technologies have changed, our community has grown, and state institutions have evolved, but the essentials have stayed the same - the inspiration to build a society that has no earthly borders, artificial divisions, acts of war or religious conflicts. On 12 October 2026, Asgardia will celebrate the tenth anniversary, remaining the youngest nation on planet Earth. Ahead of this nationwide celebration, I announce the beginning of the development of a unified digital ecosystem — the Asgardia Nation Super App and the Asgardia Space Bank (ASB – Asgardia Space Bank) — as the basis of our digital cosmocratic sovereignty. (6/18)

Ranked: SpaceX vs. The Largest Public Space Companies (Source: Visual Capitalist)
SpaceX’s $2.46 trillion market cap is larger than the combined value of the next 20 biggest public space companies, which together are worth about $235 billion. Rocket Lab ranks a distant second at $68.6 billion, while no other pure-play space company is worth more than $35 billion. SpaceX’s post-IPO surge has turned a once-private industry leader into one of the world’s most valuable companies. (6/17)

Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional (Source: New York Times)
A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said. The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables.

A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak. A comprehensive medical review into his death is underway to determine the cause, according to the Air Force.

In the weeks since Mr. Hegseth’s vaccine policy took effect on April 21, only about 40 percent of Air Force trainees have opted to take the vaccine, which had previously been mandatory, an Air Force official said. In the aftermath of the outbreak, the Air Force issued an exception to the voluntary vaccine policy, requiring that all recruits at Lackland get flu shots — part of a broader effort to stem the virus’s spread. (6/18)

Boeing Advances Space-Based Quantum Networking with Q4S Demonstration (Source: Space News)
Boeing has successfully demonstrated high-fidelity entanglement swapping using a compact quantum networking payload, marking a key step toward deploying its Q4S satellite for an on-orbit demonstration planned in 2027. The test shows that advanced quantum networking capabilities can function on space-ready hardware, advancing efforts to build a global quantum internet. (6/18)
 
True Anomaly's Jackal Completes Mission X-3, Advancing Space Defense Capabilities (Source: Payload)
True Anomaly's autonomous orbital vehicle Jackal has successfully completed its most complex test campaign, Mission X-3, demonstrating key capabilities for space-domain awareness and orbital operations. The milestone clears the way for upcoming U.S. Space Force contracts and positions the company to scale delivery of space superiority systems. (6/18)

Crypto-Agile Infrastructure Enables Decision Superiority for Golden Dome (Source: Modern Integrated Warfare)
Today, cryptography exists primarily as an overlay, in the form of firewalls and other security add-ons. These can be difficult to scale and often require manual updates and maintenance. They also introduce opportunities for attack that can compromise the efficacy and security of an entire system simply by taking one device offline.

​Upgrading to network-embedded protection can mean bringing operations to a halt while new infrastructure is established. As a new ecosystem, Golden Dome presents an opportunity to establish crypto-agile network infrastructure that can scale and evolve without impacting decision velocity. “Building directly into the network infrastructure turns cryptography from a deployment constraint to a maneuver advantage, enabling forces to adapt and keep operating even when networks are contested or degraded,” says Tom Broadwell. (6/17)