July 18, 2026

Monday Targeted for Re-Try of 13th Starship Test Flight (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX has announced a new target date for the thirteenth test flight of Starship: Monday, July 20, with the launch window opening at 6:45 p.m ET/5:45 p.m. CT. This is the first rescheduling attempt of Starship’s 13th test flight. It was set to launch last night, but SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt. (7/17)

‘Asteroid’ Tracked Since 1998 Made an Unexplained Orbital Shift—Now Astronomers Say It’s Something Far More Mysterious (Source: The Debrief)
Last summer, astronomers were observing the near approach of a space object believed to be an asteroid that had been tracked since its discovery in 1998. However, in a surprising development, the object failed to appear where it was predicted to be after decades of observations. Now, a team of researchers reports in a new study that this mysterious orbital body is no asteroid at all, but instead may be an elusive class of space objects that scientists are still working to fully understand.

1998 SH2 was likely steered off course as a result of jets of gas escaping from beneath the object’s surface—a phenomenon known as weak cometary outgassing—meaning that the suspected asteroid is actually probably a type of comet. (7/16)

Space Force Welcomes First Part-Time Guardians (Source: FNN)
The Space Force welcomed its first part-time troops on Wednesday, bringing in 18 Air Force Reservists as the service rolls out a more flexible personnel model designed to help recruit and retain experienced staff. The Space Force is the first military branch to let troops move between full-time and part-time work without transferring to the National Guard or Reserves, instead keeping both under a single chain of command.

The new approach will test how far military service can go to accommodate members’ needs without compromising critical national security missions. Part-timers will serve in a new status dubbed “nonsustained duty” — an option that allows them to hold a private-sector job or care for ailing family, for instance. (7/17)

Beyond Reach Labs Raises $10M Seed, Moves to NYC (Source: Payload)
Beyond Reach Labs, a startup building hardware to help satellite operators deploy large solar arrays, announced a $10M seed round to meet an expected massive wave of incoming demand. Beyond Reach was founded in 2023 to commercialize a technology that has its roots in a NASA grant intended to support large scale space structures. They have narrowed their focus—at least in the short term—on solar arrays.

Today’s solar-array tech faces an upper limit, according to officials at Beyond Reach: larger arrays make the spacecraft more susceptible to vibrations as the craft maneuvers and passes through wild temperature swings. But making arrays more rigid—to avoid vibrations—often means increasing the spacecraft’s weight, threatening the bottom line. Beyond Reach’s remedy is a patented solar array deployer that can stretch 100 m long, and flat pack into a typical launch fairing, thus solving the SWaP conundrum. (7/17)

Terraforming Mars May be More Realistic Than Once Thought (Source: Science Daily)
Scientists say new technologies have reopened the debate over whether Mars could someday be terraformed, turning a once impossible idea into a serious research topic. Before anyone tries to reshape the Red Planet, though, researchers say we must understand the risks, including what might be lost if Mars already harbors its own forms of life.

Potentially dramatic reductions in launch costs from SpaceX's Starship, along with breakthroughs in synthetic biology and climate modeling, have shifted the discussion. Rather than asking whether terraforming violates the laws of physics, researchers believe the more important questions are whether humanity should pursue it and what the safest path would look like. (7/17)

China’s Reusable Rocket Breakthrough Demands a Private Space Response (Source: National eview)
China’s achievement should be qualified: This wasn’t its first attempt at launching a reusable orbital booster, and it hasn’t reused the booster yet. Still, this development demands serious attention and reflection from our side. History shows that when the United States faces a technological challenge from a rival, the fastest path to American dominance is unleashing private ingenuity backed by smart government demand signals, not recreating Soviet-style central planning or slow bureaucratic programs.

China’s success, achieved via state-owned enterprises like China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, should not prompt the U.S. to double down on slow and expensive government hardware. It should encourage the opposite and accelerate the model that already works: a private-sector led overhaul of America’s space program.

That must include expanding commercial partnerships and streamlining the regulatory processes involved in launches, as well as streamlining licensing, which would cut reusable rocket launch and landing approval timelines from months to weeks with predictable, risk-based rules that are modeled on successful SpaceX iterations. Additionally, NASA and Pentagon spending should be shifted from cost-plus to fixed-price milestone contracts for crew, cargo, and lunar logistics, to repeat the Commercial Crew model that built SpaceX at scale. (7/18)

APL Installing Electronics, Readying to Add Insulation on NASA’s Dragonfly Spacecraft (Source: Aerospace America)
Technicians at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland are installing electronics inside NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft in preparation for its 2028 launch toward Titan. “We just finished the spacecraft structure qualification here,” said Simmie Berman, APL’s thermal-mechanical subsystem lead for Dragonfly, on the broadcast. This consisted of tests of “the entire structure” to verify that Dragonfly will be able to withstand the stress of launch, landing on Titan and flying on another planetary body.

The spacecraft is slated to reach Titan in 2035 and spend at least three years traversing the Saturnian moon via a series of short flights resembling leapfrog hops. No spacecraft has visited this icy body — which features liquid methane rain, sand dunes and slushy bodies of water — since 2005. The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe was not designed to operate on Titan’s surface, instead sending back atmosphere data during its descent and surface photos shortly after touching down. (7/16)

Skyroot Aerospace Achieves India’s First Private Orbital Launch (Source: Douglas Messier)
India has joined the growing club of countries with a private orbital launch capability after startup Skyroot Aerospace successfully flew its Vikram-1 rocket. The rocket took off at 2:36 a.m. ET from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, carrying six research payloads.

Vikram-1 is 22 meters tall and has a diameter of 1.7 meters. The rocket is built of carbon composite and features a 3D printed engine. Vikram-1 is designed to place 350 kilograms into low Earth orbit (LEO). Skyroot named the mission Aagaman, which means arrival in Sanskrit. Skyroot is also developing the more powerful Vikram-II launch vehicle capable of placing 900 kilograms into LEO. (7/18)

British Taxpayers Lose Millions on Rival to Starlink (Source: Telegraph)
British taxpayers have lost more than £340m after an investment in a rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink turned sour. The UK’s £517m investment in Eutelsat OneWeb, the satellite business, slumped by two thirds, government accounts reveal. Originally championed as a taxpayer investment by Dominic Cummings, OneWeb is struggling against rivals such as Starlink, owned by Mr Musk’s SpaceX.

Ministers last year put a further £143m into the company, but its value has since fallen further. Boris Johnson’s government agreed to invest £374m in OneWeb in 2020, to rescue the UK-headquartered satellite provider from bankruptcy. However, it took longer to launch its commercial services than Starlink, and in 2022 was merged with the French satellite company Eutelsat, which is state-backed. (7/18)

China is SpaceX’s Biggest Long-Term Competitive Threat (Source: Investing.com)
SpaceX’s biggest long-term competitive threat is China, even though the U.S. rocket company retains a commanding lead in reusable launch technology and satellite operations, Bernstein said in a research note. The brokerage said China’s recent successful landing of the first-stage booster from its Long March 10B rocket marked a significant milestone that arrived around six months earlier than it had expected, highlighting the country’s accelerating progress in space launch capabilities.

Bernstein said China remains well behind SpaceX, noting the Long March 10 has yet to demonstrate booster reuse, while SpaceX has been reusing Falcon 9 boosters for nearly a decade and completed 165 launches last year. China will need to prove rapid relaunch capabilities and develop high-rate manufacturing before it can match SpaceX’s launch cadence, the brokerage said. (7/18)

The War on ‘Woke Science’ Comes for Space Research (Source: The Verge)
The Trump administration is waging a culture war on science, and the latest salvo is in the form of a dry, bureaucratic proposal from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that could threaten the future of US science as we know it. The proposal would give political appointees unprecedented control over grant funding, the method through which scientists receive federal money to perform groundbreaking space research such as the search for evidence of organic compounds on Mars or the discovery of some of the earliest galaxies in the universe.

A typical proposed rule from the OMB garners less than 100 public comments. This rule has netted over 500,000 comments, the large majority of which appear to be negative, including a response from respected nonprofit The Planetary Society, which has criticized everything from the proposal’s rules around publication to its move away from peer review to its chilling effect on scientists in every field. “Nearly every proposed aspect of these rule changes has some deleterious or negative consequence for the practice of science,” said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society. (7/17)

Women Astronauts’ Chances for Space Flight (Source: PBS)
From the dawn of NASA’s space program in 1958, an astronaut prerequisite was to be a graduate of the test pilot school of the U.S. military, which didn’t permit its female pilots to attend. All military test pilots were men, so that was the immediate barrier to any woman reaching outer space. It was not until NASA began recruiting scientists and doctors as astronauts for the Shuttle program in the 1970s that women would be considered for the job, just like men. Simultaneous, in the mid-1970s the U.S. military began accepting women into test pilot schools of the Navy and Air Force.

According to the astronaut directory of the site Orbital Radar, which tracks all things space-related, more than 580 people have flown in space, and approximately 90 have been women. For the first time in its 66-year history, NASA’s new class of astronaut candidates has more women than men. The 10-person cohort that began training in September 2025 has six women and four men. (7/17)

The U.S. Wants to Turn Abandoned Oil Rigs Into Spaceports (Source: Vice)
The U.S. government sounds like it took a huge bong rip and dared ask the question no one really cared to ask or even wanted answered: What if America’s abandoned offshore oil rigs became rocket launch pads? The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recently requested public feedback on whether inactive oil and gas platforms in federal waters could be repurposed for commercial space launches, spacecraft re-entry, and recovery operations.

No official policy has been proposed yet, and there’s no clear indication that plans of any kind are moving forward, but the simple act of requesting public feedback reflects the acknowledgment of a growing need to quickly expand the country’s roster of rocket launch sites as the commercial space industry rapidly expands. (7/18)

I’m Proud of my Utterly Insignificant Association with NASA (Source: The Spectator)
Even though my career has been almost entirely in front of the camera, rather than behind it, I’ve long been obsessed with film equipment. How, then, can I resist a party in LA for Cine Gear, a trade show for new film kit? It’s a good place for the ‘creatives’ to meet the technical guys. The director Dan Trachtenberg is there, and we handle the latest Cooke glass.

Cooke has been making lenses in Leicester since 1893, and they are still the best cine lenses in the world. I bought my set of Cooke Speed Panchros in the 1980s, when nobody wanted them because they were ‘slow’, but now they are back in fashion. They have a warmth and softness that modern lenses strive to emulate because their coatings involved radio-active elements that are not permitted in manufacture now. But Cooke glass and Cine Gear’s cameras can’t compete with NASA’s new Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. Click here. (7/18)

Will Russia’s Answer to the Falcon 9 Rocket Ever Take Flight? (Source: Ars Technica)
Everyone seems to be launching and landing rockets these days. Last week, China joined the club of countries that have launched an orbital mission and brought its booster safely back to Earth, which is just the beginning of public and private ventures in that country aggressively pushing into rocket reuse. Also in Asia, Japan’s space agency has been conducting hop tests, and Honda recently performed vertical reuse tests.

In the United States, of course, SpaceX launches and lands reusable rockets every few days. Blue Origin, although its New Glenn booster is temporarily grounded, has also demonstrated the ability to both land and re-launch a large orbital booster. Other US companies, including Stoke Space, Rocket Lab, and Relativity Space, are all making credible progress toward partially or fully reusable rockets.

So what about Russia, which boasts a storied history of spaceflight and conducted the world’s first orbital launch nearly seven decades ago? There was some news this week from Russian space officials, but it does not exactly bolster confidence. Nearly six years have now passed since the state-backed Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, unveiled plans to develop a reusable rocket called “Amur-LNG.” Amur was intended to have a reusable first stage, methane-powered engines, and be capable of delivering 10.5 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in reusable mode. Dmitry Baranov, Roscosmos’ Deputy Director General for Rocket Programs, said the current focus is on developing a “demonstrator” for the first stage of the rocket. (7/17)

Google-Backed Satellites for Wildfire Detection Launch as Smoke Chokes US, Canada (Source: Ars Technica)
As smoke from hundreds of burning wildfires spread across Canada and the United States, the first three operational satellites in the Google-backed FireSat program successfully launched into orbit. The satellites will begin providing wildfire detection capable of spotting even small fires in the United States, Australia, and Europe before the end of the year.

The launch of the microsatellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 7, 2026 marks a transition to “initial operational capability” for the FireSat constellation managed by the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance. After a three-month testing period, the three satellites will begin actively providing data to fire agencies while covering every fire-prone region on Earth at least twice per day. (7/17)

The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency Hasn’t Moved as Fast as Anyone Would Like (Source: Ars Technica)
The Space Development Agency was established in 2019 to help speed up the deployment of US military space systems by sidestepping the Pentagon’s traditional sluggish bureaucracy. Seven years later, SDA is finally launching its first batches of operational satellites, just as the Pentagon plans to shutter the semi-autonomous agency and fold it back into the Space Force’s procurement pipeline, newly reorganized under several program acquisition executives in a bid to streamline weapons buying.

SDA’s fate is not a surprise, and lawmakers in both houses of Congress have backed the agency’s closure in drafts of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. SDA’s strategy was to cast a wide net across the US space industry, using satellites and sensors developed by many companies. Launches of SDA’s new satellites were supposed to occur at a cadence of about once per month. Much of SDA’s mission will continue under a different banner within the US Space Force.

Thursday’s launch was the second SDA launch of York’s data transport satellites, and the third for Tranche 1 overall. Seven more launches will complete Tranche with 63 additional data transport satellites and 28 missile tracking satellites manufactured by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris. None of the Tranche 1 tracking satellites have launched yet. Sandhoo said the schedule for the next series of SDA satellites is “still constrained” by the availability of optical communication terminals, the laser transmitters and receivers needed to connect the transport and tracking satellites into one integrated mesh network. (7/17)

NASA Ends Draper Lunar Lander Effort (Source: Space News)
NASA and Draper have terminated plans for a lunar lander mission following significant delays in development of the spacecraft. The cancellation marks a setback for the program’s timeline and underscores continuing schedule risk in lunar surface systems procurement. (7/17)

AST SpaceMobile Discloses Delays to Launch Campaign, Explores Vertical Integration (Source: Via Satellite)
AST SpaceMobile has pushed back the expected timing of its launch campaign to early 2027, the company disclosed this week. The company also launched a share sale to raise $1 billion, mentioning it may consider vertical integration in launch. The company needs 45 to 60 BlueBird satellites in orbit to provide continuous service in key markets including the United States, Europe, Japan, leadership told investors in May.

In addition, AST SpaceMobile announced a share sale to raise up to $1 billion, indicating it could look to pursue vertical integration in launch. The capital raise could potentially fund “partnerships and/or acquisitions to further vertically integrate its business and mitigate risks associated with third-party launch providers,” the filing said.

It also disclosed “advanced discussions” with Japanese company Rakuten about a joint venture related to the Japanese Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) program J-LEO to build a sovereign direct-to-device (D2D) constellation in Japan. The Japanese government is awarding Rakuten 148 billion ​yen (nearly $1 billion) to build a satellite communications network. (7/16)

BosonQ Psi Federal (BQP) Wins SpaceWERX Funding to Advance Quantum-Assisted AI for Space Domain Awareness (Source: Via Satellite)
BosonQ Psi Federal LLC (BQP) has secured SpaceWERX funding to advance the company’s quantum-assisted AI platform to improve space domain awareness (SDA). This is the company’s first federal contract. The award is part of the SpaceWERX Open Topic Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Under the award announced Friday,  BQP will develop and validate a new software application designed to improve the speed and accuracy of identifying unknown objects and behaviors in space.

Its software platform, Physics-Constrained Quantum-Assisted Machine Learning (PC-QAML), combines physics-based modeling with quantum-inspired computational techniques to perform AI inference. It is designed to run directly on directly on space-qualified processors rather than cloud computing or GPUs. (7/17)

Arianespace CEO Urges the EU to Procure Large Blocks of Ariane 6 Flights (Source: European Spaceflight)
Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès has called on either the European Commission or the German government to place block orders for 10 to 20 Ariane 6 launches, arguing that such a commitment would transform how the company approaches its supply chain. Cavaillolès made the comments amid a broader discussion of rising demand for military satellite launches.

He pointed specifically to a September 2025 speech by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in which he announced €35 billion in spending on space-related defense projects as a “turning point” for launch demand. However, he cautioned that the political decisions needed to enable European launch providers to meet that demand would have to come quickly, warning that waiting until 2027 or 2028 would be too late. (7/17)

Sky Perfect JSAT and ispace Sign MoU to Collaborate on Lunar Exploration (Source: Via Satellite)
Sky Perfect JSAT is linking up with ispace in a new MoU in the area of lunar exploration. The two companies will exchange technical information and conduct system compatibility studies with the aim of establishing communications between JSAT Space Line ground stations and ‘ULTRA’, ispace’s next-generation lunar lander planned for Mission 3, currently targeted for launch in 2028. The collaboration will also explore the feasibility of demonstration activities between the spacecraft and ground stations. The two companies announced the MoU, July 16.

ispace is seeking to expand its options for ground station services and mission support capabilities. ispace will explore the feasibility of leveraging JSAT Space Line’s ground station infrastructure to support communications for future lunar exploration missions. The study will also examine the potential use of the service as a backup to the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) ground station network operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). (7/17)

SDA backs ‘Golden Dome’ Missile-Warning/Tracking with $1.75B in New Agreements; Includes $7.1M for Protective Glass for Solar Cells (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Development Agency awarded two agreements totaling $1.75 billion for additional space vehicles supporting missile warning, missile tracking and missile defense. Separately, the Pentagon awarded $7.1 million to Martin Materials Solutions to expand U.S. manufacturing of space-qualified cover glass used to protect satellite solar-cell power systems. (7/18)

A Century of Aerospace and Defense Growth Places Dayton Near the Top in New Ranking (Source: Dayton Daily News)
Long before Dayton was ranked among the nation’s best places for aerospace and defense manufacturing, the region spent decades building the ingredients for that success — military research, engineering talent, advanced manufacturing and a network of companies drawn to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Now, a new national site-selection study says that ecosystem has made Dayton the third-strongest city in America for defense and aerospace manufacturing. The region has an array of strengths that are tough to match, with the presence of Air Force planners and decision-makers at Wright-Patterson Air Base, a cadre of contractors and manufacturers drawn to that Air Force presence, as well as universities like the University of Dayton and Wright State University. (7/16)

Aerospace and Defense Industry Undergoing Major Shift in US Regions (Source: National Defense)
The report ranked the 387 most competitive U.S. metropolitan regions for aerospace and defense manufacturing, analyzing public and private data from over 120 categories, including demographics, workforce and engineering talent, research and development and defense support assets, core infrastructure, business and regulatory environment and livability. According to the report, Wichita, Kansas is the top metropolitan area for aerospace and defense investment, scoring a 92.18 on the report’s rubric. Ogden, Utah; Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek, Ohio; Salt Lake City-Murray, Utah; and Huntsville, Alabama rounded out the top five, respectively.

Nationwide, industry employment has grown about 11% since 2021, compared with roughly 4% for manufacturing overall, underscoring the sector's continued workforce expansion. Weekly job postings nearly doubled between January 2025 and May 2026, reflecting rapidly growing demand for engineers, technicians, skilled trades workers, and security-cleared personnel. 76% of companies in the sector say engineering jobs are both the most needed and the hardest to fill, and skilled manufacturing roles face similar challenges. About one-quarter of the industry's workforce is age 55 or older, indicating a significant potential labor gap over the coming decade.

Editor's Note: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville (basically the Space Coast) was ranked at #6 among the top 10. No other Florida region made the top 10. (7/16)

Ecuador and Peru Discuss Space Collaboration (Source: Forbes)
The space industry continues to generate discussion. Last Monday, the Ecuador: Space, Business & Diplomacy event took place, focusing on the opportunities the country has in this sector. “The space economy is not a matter of the future, it is a matter of the present.” The phrase belongs to the Peruvian ambassador to Ecuador, José Eduardo Zevallos, who was one of the guests at the Ecuador: Space, Business & Diplomacy meeting, which took place last Monday in Quito.

The diplomat pointed out that this industry represents an opportunity for countries like Ecuador and Peru. For Zevallos, the key lies in reaching an agreement among the states and countries that wish to participate in this economy. The meeting was organized by Global Diplomacy, the Embassy of Peru in Ecuador, and the Ecuador Space Society. (7/14)

Stoke Second Stage Makes for an Unusual Fully Reusable Rocket (Source: Rich Nicholls)
Stoke Space rebuilt the launch pad that carried John Glenn to orbit in 1962, and its first rocket flies from it later this year. Nova's second stage carries 24 thrust chambers ringed around a regeneratively cooled metallic heat shield, a design that removes the need for thermal tiles entirely. The rocket lifts 3,000 kg to low Earth orbit with both stages recovered, and 7,000 kg when expended, against a target of cutting launch cost by a factor of 20

Stoke gives up more than half of every payload to bring its hardware home, and that only pays back if the same rocket flies many times over. The heat shield is what allows it: metal, self-cooling, and free of the tile-by-tile inspection that slowed every reusable vehicle before it. The payload Stoke gives up on the first flight, it earns back on the tenth. (7/15)

Don't Lose Sleep Over Reports Of 260 Starlink Satellites Deorbiting (Source: Engadget)
SpaceX recently submitted the semi-annual report for its satellite constellation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), revealing that it deorbited 260 Starlink satellites over the course of six months. From December 2025 until May 2026, it brought down 176 first-generation Starlink satellites and 84 of its bigger second-generation ones.

While 260 sounds like a lot, it's not unusual for the company to deorbit that many within a six-month period. It wasn't even the largest number of satellites it deorbited within a similar timeframe. In 2024, SpaceX identified a common issue in a small population of version-one satellites that could increase the probability of failure. It deorbited 406 satellites in response to that finding and followed that up with nearly 500 satellites from December 2024 to May 2025. (7/16)

Scientists Discover Atmosphere Around Potentially Habitable Planet for First Time (Source: Independent)
Scientists have discovered an atmosphere around LHS 1140 b, a rocky exoplanet in its star's “habitable zone.” This marks the first time an atmosphere has been detected on a potentially habitable, Earth-like planet. The discovery was made by observing escaping helium from the planet's upper atmosphere using a telescope in Chile. The presence of an atmosphere is considered essential for a planet to potentially support extraterrestrial life. Researchers plan to use the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm the atmosphere's stability and see if there is water in the atmosphere. (7/17)

Several Space Stocks Aren't Soaring Lately (Source: Space News)
It’s been about one month since SpaceX’s IPO... But how's that been going for the other publicly traded space stocks the last couple of weeks? The short answer is: not great. Intuitive Machines, York Space Systems, Redwire, Firefly, Rocket Lab and Voyager are all down about 25% or more in the past month. AST Space Mobile, Planet and MDA, which recently announced it would acquire French data analytics company CLS, are all down more than 10%. Yes, there are a few winners as well, Iridium, which is being acquired by Rocket Lab, and Viasat are both up during that time period. But broadly it’s been a rough month. (7/15)

GOES-19 Satellite is Down at a Bad Time (Source: WRAL)
The GOES-19 weather satellite is down at a critical time for meteorologists across the U.S. According to NOAA: “Engineers report GOES-19 is in a Safehold. They are working to recover the satellite and will share a recovery timeline when available. Engineers are investigating the suspected source of anomaly is the satellite/instrument.” The good news is that GOES-16 is already operational and in orbit. The bad news is that it can take extended periods of time (up to weeks) to move the satellite into proper positioning.

GOES-18 is another backup that is already transmitting data but the coverage is limited. JPSS satellites are not geostationary, but they provide high-resolution snapshots that can be useful in detecting tropical anomalies and current wildfire smoke coverage. (7/16)

Most Canadians Don’t Know We Can’t Launch a Rocket or Satellite From Our Own Soil (Source: David Coletto Substack)
There are some things Canadians simply assume about their country. We assume we can patrol our own Arctic. We assume we can defend our borders. And, as it turns out, most of us assume that a country with its own space agency, a world-class aerospace sector, and an astronaut who flew around the Moon can launch a satellite from Canadian soil. But in reality we can’t. That disconnect showed up in a new survey my firm Abacus Data conducted for Maritime Launch Services, the Nova Scotia company developing Canada’s first commercial spaceport. (7/16)

Space Force Taps True Anomaly for Kronos Integration (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
The US Space Force has chosen True Anomaly to provide capabilities for the Kronos Family of Systems, a program to enhance space command, control and battle management. Mosaic will support target pairing and asset orchestration, using AI to analyze interactions among assets and offer decision-support information. (7/17)

Florida Members Introduce Space Ready 2.0 Act in House and Senate (Source: Rep. Haridopolos)
Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, and Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) introduced the Space Ready 2.0 Act to modernize the roads, utilities, and other critical infrastructure that support NASA's missions and America's growing space industry. The bill would launch a pilot program allowing NASA to partner with public and private entities to improve shared infrastructure at NASA centers.

It aims to modernize critical infrastructure, including roads, utilities, pipelines, and other shared facilities, to support growing government and commercial space operations. It requires cost estimates, project timelines, annual reports to Congress, and clear cost-sharing agreements. Unused private contributions would be refunded or redirected to eligible projects. The program would sunset on December 31, 2031. (7/15)

Orbital “Tow Truck” Could Tackle Space Debris Problem (Source: CASIS)
New technology from Kall Morris Inc (KMI), tested through the ISS National Laboratory, may offer a solution. The startup used the ISS to successfully demonstrate its REACCH system—an orbital “tow truck” designed to safely capture and maneuver unprepared objects in space. The technology supports applications ranging from satellite servicing and orbital mobility to debris management.

REACCH, short for Responsive Engaging Arms for Captive Care and Handling, uses tentacle-like arms with gecko-inspired adhesive pads to capture objects of various shapes, sizes, and materials. REACCH does not need to wrap around an object but merely attach to it and push, allowing the system to move objects much larger than itself. (7/16)
 
AST SpaceMobile Defers Commercial Direct-to-Device Timeline to Early 2027 (Source: SatNews)
AST SpaceMobile announced in a regulatory filing that it has rescheduled its commercial Direct-to-Device (D2D) service launch to early 2027. The revision shifts the Texas-based operator’s target away from its previous late-2026 commercial timeline. Despite schedule changes, the company is continuing to manufacture and deploy its “Block 2” BlueBird satellite configuration designed to deliver continuous space-based cellular broadband. (7/16)

York Space Readies 21 Satellites for US Space Development Agency Launch (Source: Defense Post)
York Space Systems has completed a second batch of 21 satellites for the US Space Development Agency (SDA), with the spacecraft scheduled for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Built at York’s US production facilities, the satellites are designed to expand the SDA’s low Earth orbit communications network and provide secure tactical data links for US and allied forces. York said the production lot reflects investments in manufacturing capacity intended to support higher-volume spacecraft production for national security programs. (7/17)

ESA Selects Ariane 6 to Launch Deep Space CubeSat (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to launch its solar storm-monitoring CubeSat on an Ariane 6 rocket. Scheduled for launch in early 2027, the Henon CubeSat will be flown as a secondary passenger alongside ESA’s PLATO telescope, which will be tasked with finding Earth-like exoplanets. According to the agency’s 16 July press release, a feasibility study was first conducted with Arianespace to confirm that CubeSats could be safely accommodated as secondary payloads aboard an Ariane 6 flight. (7/16)

Astronomers Discover Landslides on Pluto Large Enough to Bury Entire Cities on Earth (Source: Space.com)
The aftermath of landslides have been found in images of Pluto's surface taken when the New Horizons mission flew past the dwarf planet in 2015. The landslides are evidence that the icy world is still active, albeit on geological timescales. Images taken by New Horizons' LORRI (Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager) instrument, which was capable of detecting surface features as small as 984 feet, provided evidence for six landslides that have taken place down the inner walls of three craters on the western edge of Sputnik Planitia. (7/16)

NASA Mars Plans Hit Budget Wall (Source: Politico)
Mars researchers are warning congressional appropriators that without an increase to NASA’s budget, a new flagship program could imperil other science efforts. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced a mission earlier this year to send three helicopters to Mars aboard a nuclear-powered spacecraft. The mission, dubbed “SkyFall,” aims to launch in late 2028 and investigate the geology and climate history of Mars.

Scientists are excited about the unprecedented mission. But they warn NASA’s science budget is already strapped for cash, and there isn’t enough to go around. Adding a new project to NASA’s flat budget could compel the agency to “prematurely terminate active missions,” according to a letter shared with POLITICO that was sent to appropriators this week by the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, a community-based forum that provides input on Mars missions.  (7/17)