June 25, 2026

SpaceX Sheds $400bn in Market Value as Debut Rally Hits Reverse (Source: Financial Times)
SpaceX shed $400 billion in market value on Monday in a fresh bout of volatility for the rockets and AI company following its record-breaking Wall Street debut. The sharp reversal in SpaceX shares comes as US government bond yields have risen sharply on expectations the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates in the coming months to tame inflation. Higher yields on ultra-low-risk Treasuries are caustic for richly valued tech groups such as SpaceX, which trades at more than 100 times its revenue last year. The $400bn hit to SpaceX’s market capitalization on Monday ranks as the second-biggest one-day loss suffered by any company. (6/22)

Rocket Factory Augsburg Details RFA ONE Upgrades and RFA TWO Plans (Source: European Spaceflight)
During an OHB Capital Markets Update in May, German launch services provider Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) outlined its planned path toward developing a fully reusable heavy-lift rocket called RFA TWO. RFA was founded as a spin-off of OHB, which still holds a 65% stake in the company. It is currently developing its RFA ONE rocket, which it plans to launch for the first time later this year. The rocket is designed to deliver payloads of up to 1,300 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

Block 2 will introduce a reusable first stage and an upgraded Helix rocket engine, increasing the vehicle’s payload capacity to 1.5 tonnes to low Earth orbit when flown in an expendable configuration. The upgraded RFA ONE variant is expected to stand 45 meters tall and enter service in 2028. Beyond RFA ONE, the company plans to scale significantly from the smaller launcher to a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle. RFA TWO would be powered by 100-tonne-thrust Helix X engines and capable of carrying up to 15 tonnes to low Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration. (6/24)

UCF Official Takes Role as State Department Space Advisor (Source: USDOS)
Dr. Greg Autry has been assigned as Senior Advisor for Space in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES). Dr. Autry brings a distinguished record of public service, academic leadership, and entrepreneurial innovation to this role and will play a pivotal part in advancing U.S. leadership in space.
 
Dr. Autry joins OES from the University of Central Florida, where he serves as Associate Provost for Space. A seasoned space policy expert, he has served on the NASA Agency Review Team, as NASA's White House Liaison, and has twice been nominated by the President to serve as NASA's Chief Financial Officer. (6/24)

FAA, Air Space Intelligence Sign $875M Modernization Deal (Source: ExecutiveBiz)
The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded Air Space Intelligence an $875 million contract to modernize the National Airspace System over 12 years. Air Space Intelligence will deploy the Flow Management Data and Services and Strategic Management of Airspace, Routing and Trajectories platforms, aiming to improve efficiency and increase airspace capacity. (6/23)

Starlink to EU Commission: The US Respects ITU Priority Filings on Mobile Satellite Spectrum. You Should Too (Source: Space Intel Report)
SpaceX Starlink asked European regulators to justify their planned allocation of S-band mobile satellite spectrum given SpaceX’s pending $20-billion purchase of EchoStar’s S-band portfolio, which has global priority at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). At the D2D Policy Forum, David Goldman, SpaceX vice president for satellite policy, said Starlilnk was specifically told by US and other national regulators that they would not undertake national allocations of MSS spectrum. (6/23)

SpaceX Is Sitting on $100.8 Billion in Cash to Fund Starship and Starlink V3 (Source: Mach 33)
SpaceX held approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19, 2026, up from $15.9 billion at the end of Q1 2026, per its IPO prospectus and subsequent filing. The jump came almost entirely from its June 12 Nasdaq IPO, which raised $85.7 billion, the largest in history. The balance gives SpaceX one of the deepest cash positions of any company entering a heavy capital-spending phase.

SpaceX needs that cushion to scale two programs at once. It has spent more than $15 billion on Starship to date, including $930 million in Q1 2026 alone, and Starship is the only vehicle capable of deploying its next-generation V3 Starlink satellites, which begin reaching orbit in the second half of 2026. Each Starship flight is expected to add more than 20 times the Starlink capacity of a current Falcon launch, with individual V3 satellites delivering about one terabit per second, per SpaceNews. Funding that buildout from cash on hand, rather than leaning further on external capital, is what the IPO proceeds were raised to do. (6/23)

SpaceX Starfall Could Unlock New Markets (Source: Mach 33)
On June 23, 2026, SpaceX flew the first demo of Starfall, an uncrewed, disk-shaped capsule that can return about 1,000 kg of payload from orbit. The combination of Starship and Starfall will dramatically reduce the cost of returning goods from space, the precursor to the in-space manufacturing and point-to-point cargo industries.

Starfall targets two markets no one has cracked at scale: in-space manufacturing (purer pharmaceuticals, exotic alloys, flawless semiconductor wafers, etc.) and point-to-point cargo through low Earth orbit. Built to be mass-producible and autonomous, Starfall extends SpaceX's vertical integration from launch all the way to recovery, entering it into competition with other specialized reentry capsule players, such as Varda. (6/23)

Could Cosmic Memory Explain Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Black Holes? (Source: Science Daily)
A new theory suggests the universe is constantly recording its own history in the fabric of spacetime. If correct, this cosmic memory could help solve some of the biggest puzzles in physics, from black holes to dark matter and the universe’s ultimate fate.

At its core is a simple but powerful claim: spacetime is not smooth, but discrete – made of tiny “cells”, which is what quantum mechanics suggests. Each cell can store a quantum imprint of every interaction, like the passage of a particle or even the influence of a force such as electromagnetism or nuclear interactions, that passes through. Each event leaves behind a tiny change in the local quantum state of the spacetime cell. (6/18)

We Must Ensure the Next War is Won, Not Lost, in Space. That Starts with Acquisition (Source: Breaking Defense)
Our ability to maintain our advantages in space while denying them to a sophisticated adversary has become a baseline requirement for everything we do in the maritime, air, ground, and cyber domains. But even as America’s space capabilities play a vital role in modern operations, that advantage is not guaranteed, and our comfortable and familiar bureaucratic behaviors are actively putting it at risk.

For decades, the national security enterprise relied on “exquisite” space systems: massive, multi-billion-dollar satellites that take years to design and build but are expected to survive passively in orbit for 15 years or more. In the world we face today, these platforms are exceptionally soft targets. If an adversary jams a legacy communications node or destroys a critical observation asset today, replacing that capability takes years. This is a systemic vulnerability we cannot afford.

We must normalize a new tier of space capabilities built upon highly resilient, rapid, and mass-proliferated orbital architectures. True space superiority requires systems capable of active orbital mobility that can maneuver on demand, inspect anomalies in real time, and actively service or physically safeguard our critical infrastructure under fire by firing back. If an adversary disrupts an asset, three more should be ready to launch or reposition immediately. (6/24)

NASA Names Sean Gallagher as Chief Information Officer (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected Sean Gallagher as the agency’s chief information officer (CIO). In this role, he is responsible for the agency’s entire portfolio of Information Technology products and services. Gallagher has been serving in an acting capacity since January and his permanent role is effective immediately. (6/23)

Stellar Explosion Visible in Night Sky (Source: Space.com)
A once-in-a-lifetime stellar eruption could occur at any time, potentially causing a 'new star' to appear in the night sky. If it does, the star system T Coronae Borealis could suddenly brighten to rival Polaris, the North Star. "Blaze Star" T. Coronae Borealis (T CrB) is a prime example of a recurring nova.

This thermonuclear explosion erupts from the atmosphere of a white dwarf star roughly once every 80 years, when it reaches a point of critical mass, having stripped vast quantities of material from a co-orbiting red giant. After each eruption, the white dwarf returns to vampirically feeding on its companion star, until ready to start the process anew. Recurring novas like T CrB are extremely rare, with only five known to exist within the entirety of the Milky Way, according to NASA. (6/23)

NASA’s Moon Plan Depends on 15 Starship Launches. There’s Just One Problem (Source: Gizmodo)
The report warns that Kennedy isn’t ready to support a high launch cadence for super heavy-lift rockets like Starship. “NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the agency and government and commercial partners,” it states. If NASA hopes to put astronauts back on the Moon before the decade is out, upgrading Kennedy’s aging infrastructure may prove just as critical as developing the spacecraft themselves. Otherwise, the agency’s lunar ambitions could end up bottlenecked not by vehicle readiness, but by the spaceport meant to launch them. (6/23)

Here's How Many Rovers NASA's Landed On Mars (And How Many Are Still Active) (Source: Jalopnik)
From the pint-sized Sojourner — the first rover to hit Mars' surface, in 1997 — to the markedly chonkier Perseverance that landed on the Red Planet in 2021, all five of NASA's rovers have served their NASA masters well. So what exactly have these high-tech (and presumably quite dusty) mobile science labs accomplished over the years? And what are the two remaining fully operational Mars rovers up to these days? Click here. (6/24)

Musk's Original 2001 Plan for Mars Wasn't a Colony — it Was a Tiny Greenhouse Called Mars Oasis, Meant to Grow Plants and Reignite Public Interest in Space (Source: Silicon Canals)
The most consequential Mars plan Elon Musk ever made was not Starship, not a million-person city, and not the colony rhetoric he is famous for now. It was a tabletop-sized greenhouse he never managed to launch. The mission was called Mars Oasis, and almost everything SpaceX became can be traced back to its failure. In 2001, a 30-year-old Musk was in Russia trying to buy a refurbished ICBM. He was not there to start a rocket company. He was there to bolt a small robotic greenhouse onto the top of a converted weapon and send it to another planet.

Beside everything that came later, the plan was almost disarmingly modest. A sealed chamber would land on the Martian surface, carry seeds or food crops, hydrate them inside a controlled enclosure, and send back a photograph of green life against red ground. That was the original emotional payload. Not Starship. Not a colony carved into the regolith. At the beginning, the plan was closer to a terrarium than an empire. (6/24)

Vast Signs Additional Partners for Commercial Space Station Microgravity Research (Source: Space News)
Commercial space station developer Vast has partnered with four new organizations to expand its microgravity research and manufacturing network aboard its upcoming Haven stations. They include: UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, Auxilium Biotechnologies, LambdaVision, and BioOrbit. (6/24)

York Satellite Demonstrates Two-Way UHF Communications From Low Earth Orbit (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems said June 24 that a satellite it built for the U.S. Space Force successfully demonstrated two-way tactical communications using ultra-high-frequency (UHF) links from low Earth orbit. This was part of an experiment to test whether communications now provided by geostationary satellites can be delivered from low orbit. (6/24)