July 10, 2026

Space Force Acquisition Branch Plans Hiring Push (Source: FNN)
The top civilian overseeing the Space Force’s acquisition branch says the command aims to hire 100 employees each month as it rebuilds following last year’s civilian purge. “We’re doing a full-court press,” Natalie Riedel, executive director of Space Systems Command, said in a release Wednesday. “It’s an aggressive goal, but we have to get there.” The Space Force has been hit hard by the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce and its contractor support. Civilians make up about one-third of the Pentagon’s smallest service, more than in any other branch of the military. (7/9)

Consortium Unites Florida Universities to Promote Space Research (Source: FSRC)
The Florida Space Research Consortium (FSRC) brings together Florida’s leading research universities to better align the state’s academic strengths with its central role in space. By connecting expertise across institutions and linking it more directly to Florida’s space infrastructure, the Consortium strengthens the state’s ability to contribute to — and help shape — civil, commercial and national security space activities.
 
It provides a clearer, more coordinated way for partners across government, industry, and academia to engage with the full breadth of capabilities at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida A&M University, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University, Florida State University, UCF, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. Click here. (7/9)

ISS Test Finds That Moon Dust Could be Effective as a Lunar Building Material (Source: Brighterside News)
Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months bolted to the outside of the International Space Station, exposed to vacuum, radiation and constant temperature swings. When they came back, some were stronger than matching samples kept on Earth. The team is working with geopolymers, a cement-like material that can be made by chemically binding clay-rich powders into a solid. In this case, the powders were simulated lunar and Martian regolith, stand-ins for the dusty surface material found on those worlds. (7/7)

China Recovers Long March 10B First Stage (Source: Douglas Messier)
China became the second nation to recover an orbital class rocket for reuse on Friday Long March 10B first stage was caught by wires on an sea-based platform. The rocket lifted off on its inaugural flight at 12:15 p.m. local time. The first stage landed on the platform a short time later. This was a flight test of the rocket; it’s not clear whether it was carrying a payload.

It was China’s third attempt to land the first stage of a rocket. The first stage of LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 rocket came very close to a successful landing on Dec. 3, 2025. Twenty days later a Long March 12A rocket’s first stage failed during its descent. Long March 10B is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of placing 16,000 kg in a 200-km high orbit or 11,000 kg into a 900 km high orbit. (7/10)

US Air Force Picks Longshot to Test Hypersonic Tech with Ground-Based Launcher (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Longshot announced on July 8 that it has joined the U.S. Air Force’s new AEDC Velocity Alliance. This gives the kinetic space launch startup a chance to help modernize America’s hypersonic testing infrastructure. The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) and the Air Force Test Center created the consortium to boost the nation’s testing abilities for next-generation defense technologies. The kinetic launch startup will help the Air Force expand hypersonic testing using a reusable accelerator designed to cut costs and increase test frequency. (7/9)

Russia Tries to Jam Starlink Systems to Counter Ukrainian Drones (Source: Reuters)
Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian "mid-strike" drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots told ​Reuters. Kyiv's development of "mid-strike" drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometers behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war ‌in Ukraine. (7/8)

Environmental Groups Urge FCC to Pause Orbital Data Center Applications (Source: Space.com)
Environmental and scientific organizations are banding together to demand federal environmental reviews of space-based data center projects, which plan to put more than a million new satellites in Earth orbit over the coming years. "Allowing a million orbiting data centers with no environmental review isn’t just irresponsible — it’s reckless," Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said in a statement. (7/9)

ArianeGroup Tests Upgraded Ariane 6 Upper Stage Rocket Engine (Source: European Spaceflight)
Details of a previously unannounced test campaign involving an upgraded Ariane 6 rocket engine have emerged in the 2025 annual accounts of ArianeGroup SAS, the group’s French entity. The filings describe the testing of a 200-kilonewton version of the rocket’s Vinci upper stage engine at DLR’s Lampoldshausen facility in Germany. The upgrade increases the engine’s thrust by around 11%, from 180 kilonewtons. The testing was “conducted throughout the year” and included a long-duration test in October that lasted 570 seconds. (7/9)

DoD, Silicon Valley Now are Betting on Solar Power Beaming (Source: Breaking Defense)
“While we have been informally researching the topic for a few years, Space Operational Energy is a growing focus for us,” an Air Force spokesperson said. “We hope to host industry days and create avenues for collaboration with industry partners in the near future.” The Pentagon’s renewed interest in such a capability is being buoyed by research over the past five years that has brought some of the underlying technologies to fruition, as well as its war on Iran, which showed how US adversaries can easily target Earth-based fuel logistics tails.

In May, the Air Force contracted Virginia-based startup Overview Energy for a year-long study on the use cases in which space-based solar power could supply electricity “in constrained and contested logistics environments.” (7/9)

Pentagon Accelerates Directed-Energy (Sources: Aviation Week)
The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin and nLIGHT Defense contracts to transition high-energy laser weapon systems into field-ready, production-oriented platforms to defeat drones and cruise missiles. Separately, the Space Force funded Pulse Space’s $40 million effort for laser-based power beaming and orbital tracking. The Space Force also finalized an acquisition-structure reform creating nine mission-area portfolio acquisition executives. (7/9)

Auxilium Biotechnologies Demonstrates Scalable Bioprinting of Multiple Organ Tissues on ISS (Source: Payload)
Auxilium Biotechnologies said it has created multiple types of organ tissues aboard the International Space Station, a milestone toward scalable in-orbit bioprinting. The company positioned the results as enabling future bioprinting use cases in space, building toward broader orbital manufacturing and medical applications. (7/9)

China Announces Plan to Build Early-Warning System for Dangerous Asteroids (Source: Space.com)
China has announced that it wants to develop a "space-ground" asteroid early-warning network, while providing few details on what it could look like. But recent papers and presentations to the United Nations provide clues as to what the country has in mind for planetary defense. (7/9)

Boys Club: Isaacman Flew Acting AG Blanche in Controversial DC Mall Flyover (Source: CBS)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew private military jets over Washington, D.C., in a July 4 flyover with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as a passenger — despite safety objections from the FAA. In an unusual move, a senior adviser to the NASA administrator petitioned the FAA on behalf of Isaacman's private jet company, JDI Holdings, to participate in the aerial demonstrations over the National Mall during the America 250 celebrations in Washington. (7/8)

Embry‑Riddle Professor Takes on Key U.S. Role in International Astronomy Organization (Source: ERAU)
Dr. Terry Oswalt, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, has been elected to represent the United States in the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an organization often described as the “United Nations of Astronomy.” Oswalt will serve a three-year term on the U.S. National Committee (USNC) for the IAU, the body responsible for coordinating U.S. participation in the international organization that helps shape collaboration among astronomers worldwide. (7/1)

Space Force Completes Procurement Reorganization (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has completed the largest acquisition-organization overhaul since the service’s creation, replacing its prior structure with nine mission-focused Portfolio Acquisition Executives. The executives will oversee buying, integration, and modernization of military space capabilities. (7/9)

Shotwell Donates $325 Million to "Trump Accounts" (Source: Business Insider)
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to thank SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell for her and her husband's stock donation to Trump Accounts, which he said was worth $325 million. "Thank you to the brilliant and highly respected Gwynne Shotwell, and her husband, Robert, for their extreme generosity in helping children to attain the ever magnificent American dream!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.

A Trump Account (officially a 530A IRA) is a federally established, tax-advantaged investment account for U.S. citizens under age 18. Designed to build long-term wealth, the U.S. Treasury seeds eligible children's accounts with a $ $1,000 pilot deposit. (7/9)

Wally Funk, a Texas Aviation Pioneer and Former Record Holder, Dies at 87 (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Texas resident, icon of the aviation world, and former record holder Wally Funk died on Wednesday evening in Grapevine, Texas. She was 87 years old. Born on Feb. 1, 1939 in Las Vegas, Funk had several "firsts" under her belt. She served as the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board; the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector. She reportedly trained more than 3,000 people to fly and logged thousands of flight hours over her lifetime.

Funk was also one of NASA's First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, or the "Mercury 13") in the 1960s. Unfortunately, none of the 13 women ever went to space with NASA. Funk applied to be an astronaut multiple times and was rejected. However, Funk eventually achieved her dream of reaching space in 2021. She was an "honored guest" on Jeff Bezos-founded spaceflight company Blue Origin's first passenger spaceflight ever, out of Van Horn, Texas. (7/9)

Astronomers Scrutinize Exoplanet That Survived the Death of its Star (Source: Reuters)
Researchers now have made detailed observations of a Jupiter-like exoplanet that has lived on for billions of years after the death of its sun-like star. It's located 81 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. WD 1856  b, is about eight times greater than that of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. Its atmospheric temperature — about 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) — is unexpectedly ​warm. (7/9)

Vantor Offers Regularly Refreshed Whole-Earth 3D Maps (Source: Space Daily)
Vantor, the American Earth-observation company formerly known as Maxar, is now rebuilding chosen stretches of the planet as three-dimensional models and delivering them within a day of imaging — a commercial first, the company says, and one aimed as much at autonomous machines as at the analysts and militaries who have always been its customers. The service, called WorldView 3D, went live on July 1. It draws on a fleet of 10 satellites imaging Earth’s surface at 12-inch (30-centimeter) resolution.  (7/9)

MDA Space Acquiring 70% Stake in French Earth Observation Company CLS (Sources: Globe and Mail, Via Satellite)
MDA Space announced July 8 it would acquire 70% of Collecte Localisation Satellites, or CLS, for 567 million euros ($648 million) in cash. The acquisition complements MDA Space’s EO business from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Radarsat constellation. MDA Space is also preparing to launch the next-generation, Chorus constellation, which is currently expected to launch in late 2026. (7/9)

Eight NATO Allies to Create New Satellite Mega-Constellation (Source: Breaking Defense)
Eight NATO countries plan to link their military satellites into a “mega-constellation” to enable “high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking,” the alliance announced on Tuesday at its Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, in a move that joins a number of other a new initiatives aimed at improving NATO space capabilities.

Connecting multiple national satellites will “overcome the cost, time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets,” a NATO press release said. The new network, called the Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space (HALO), initially will involve Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey. (7/8)

Starlink to Private Jet Owners: Our Prices Are Doubling (Source: PC Mag)
Starlink is doubling the monthly cost of internet service for private and business jet operators. On Tuesday, SpaceX updated the Starlink.com support page for its Business Aviation plans. The company used to charge $10,000 per month for the Aviation Jet Unlimited tier. However, the tier, now called Aviation Global Unlimited, will now cost $20,000. (7/8)

Bridenstine Questions Artemis Lunar Lander Plans (Source: Space.com)
The former head of NASA is questioning the agency's plans to return astronauts to the moon, asking whether the crewed landers selected for the Artemis program are the right vehicles to get the job done. Jim Bridenstine voiced skepticism about the architecture of NASA's Artemis moon landers, both of which are trailing in development compared to the Orion spacecraft with which they're being designed to fly. "The architecture is extraordinarily complicated," Bridenstine said. He compared the Artemis plan unfavorably to NASA's approach during the Apollo program, which he argued was much less complex. (7/8)

New Entrant to DoD's Launch Competition Isn't a Launcher (Source: Ars Technica)
The addition of Impulse Space to DoD's Phase 3 launch contract was something of a surprise. The company specializes in building spacecraft for in-space operations, rather than launching from Earth. “I think it’s fair to say that Phase 3 did not contemplate this,” said Eric Romo, president and chief operating officer of Impulse Space, in an interview. “However, the Space Force has been really clear that they’ve got a lot of demands for high-energy launch, especially at GEO, and they don’t have a lot of supply.”

Phase 3 refers to the third iteration of the military’s launch program, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3. It allows companies to bid on “task orders” for launches between the period of 2025 and 2029. Launches typically take place one to three years after a contract is awarded. To further complicate things, there are two lanes of this program.  (7/8)