July 2, 2026

The War Hits Home for Roscosmos (Source: Douglas Messier)
The Ukraine General Staff reported that the military conducted strikes against a subsidiary of the government-owned Roscosmos corporation that runs Russia’s space program. The JSC Research Institute of Physical Measurements (NIIFI) in Penza, Russia was struck over the night of June 30 and July 1. NIIFI is a leading manufacturer of sensors for space vehicles, fighter jets, strategic bombers, and cruise and ballistic missiles.

NIIFI is part of the Russian Space Systems holding company, which is a subsidiary of Roscosmos. The United States imposed sanctions on Russian Space Systems in January 2025. NASA continues to cooperate with Roscosmos on operation of the International Space Station. (7/1)

End of SpaceX's FOMO Trade Exposes Deeper Problem (Source; Bloomberg)
SpaceX, the most hyped initial public offering in years, peaked on its third day of trading and has lost about 15% of its value since. It’s been a volatile and somewhat disappointing performance for the FOMO-driven retail traders who bought record1amounts of its shares in those frenzied early days. If SpaceX turns into a dog in public markets, it will join a long line of ultra-hyped megacap IPOs that underperformed in their early years — after making private market investors immensely rich. (7/1)

Space Florida Announces Israel Aerospace Partnership Winners (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida, the state's aerospace finance and development authority, and the Israel Innovation Authority, an independent publicly funded agency dedicated to fostering innovation ecosystems, announced the award recipients of the 13th round of funding from the Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program. To date, Florida and Israel have helped fund over $23 million in valuable and innovative research.

This year's winners are two Florida-Israeli partnerships advancing next-generation aerospace and aviation technologies:  MySky Eco, Inc. of Port Orange, FL and Airwayz  of Tel Aviv, Israel will receive $400,000. SRF Consulting Group, Inc. of Tallahassee, FL and Mobility Insight LTD of Kfar Saba, Israel will receive $200,000. The Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program has supported the research, development, and commercialization of aerospace and related technology projects for the benefit of Florida's and Israel's economy since 2013. (7/1)

Nebex Raises $30 Million Seed Round (Source: Mach 33)
Nebex, a space fintech founded by former Axiom Space CEO Tejpaul Bhatia, disclosed a $30 million seed round, and concurrently announced a banking relationship with J.P. Morgan. Nebex is building an online exchange to connect U.S. space companies selling technology, foreign governments seeking to acquire space capabilities, and the investors financing those transactions, to resolve the cross-border payment friction that national security export controls impose.

U.S. ITAR and EAR controls restrict technology transfers to foreign governments, and Nebex cannot clear sovereign deals at scale until its compliance-automation layer satisfies them. Bhatia reports that foreign space agencies and institutional investors are already approaching the company to negotiate contracts ahead of a launch targeted for later in 2026, none of which becomes revenue until the platform is live. (6/29)

White House Picks Harvard Professor with Polarizing Alien Theories to Lead New UFO Council (Source: PBS)
A polarizing Harvard astronomer known for splashy theories about alien visits has been tapped by the White House to lead a team of outside scientists to study the national security risks posed by UFOs. Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard's astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years. It's part of President Donald Trump's push to declassify more information about the issue. (6/30)

Port Canaveral Weighs Future of Unused Exploration Tower, Closed Since 2022 (Source: Florida Today)
Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral opened to great fanfare in 2013, and the $23 million building quickly an iconic sight welcoming visitors to one of the world's busiest cruise ports. But for the last four years the building has sat empty, and the Port still has not decided its future. Exploration Tower currently costs the Canaveral Port Authority $250,000 annually in maintenance. Port officials are actively weighing the building's future, considering options between a costly reuse or potential demolition.

The iconic 22,000-square-foot structure was originally designed as an exhibition center, museum, and observation tower, but it struggled financially, losing more than $2 million during its first nine years. Port officials have evaluated its viability and continue to deliberate, as finding a tenant willing to cover the proposed $803,000 yearly lease has proven difficult. (7/1)

Thales Alenia to Build GEO Commsat for Qatari Operator (Source: Thales Alenia)
Thales Alenia Space won a contract to build a geostationary communications satellite for a Qatari operator. Thales Alenia said Tuesday it signed a contract with Es'hailSat to build Eshail-3/Türksat-Biruni. The satellite, based on Thales Alenia's Space INSPIRE (INstant SPace In-orbit REconfiguration) bus with a software-defined payload, will provide communications services from Europe through Central Asia, with Es'hailSat sharing the satellite with Turkish operator Turksat. The companies did not disclose a planned launch date for the spacecraft. (7/1)

Vera Rubin Begins Night Sky Survey (Source: New Scientist)
The Vera Rubin Observatory has kicked off a decade-long survey of the night sky. The observatory announced Tuesday it officially started the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will spend the next 10 years performing the most detailed survey to date of the universe using the observatory's eight-meter telescope in Chile. The telescope will be able to observe the entire southern sky every few nights, helping astronomers monitor changes ranging from supernova explosions to near Earth asteroids. Testing of the observatory over the last year has already led to the discovery of 11,000 asteroids. (7/1)

A Third of Humanity Can No Longer See the Milky Way (Source: Space Daily)
For nearly all of human history, the night sky was a fixed feature of being alive — and then, quietly, it wasn't. Every human who lived before roughly 1900 shared one experience we've nearly lost: a sky thick with stars, the Milky Way arcing overhead like spilled milk, bright enough to cast a shadow.

To not see it is not a small thing. It is to lose the oldest calendar, the oldest map, the oldest mirror humans ever had. What strikes us is how invisible the loss feels. Nobody mourns a sky they never knew was theirs. The glow that erases it looks like safety, progress, home. And yet the fix is almost absurdly reversible. Light pollution, unlike most environmental damage, vanishes the instant you switch off the lamp. The stars are still up there, waiting. (7/1)

X1.1 Solar Flare Triggers Radio Blackouts Across North America (Source: Space.com)
A powerful X1.1 solar flare caused radio blackouts across parts of North America on June 3. The flare raises questions about whether an accompanying CME could drive auroral activity, underscoring how space weather can quickly disrupt terrestrial communications. The reported X1.1 flare and resulting radio blackouts show how quickly space weather can affect communications over large geographic areas. The event links directly to space-derived hazard monitoring used by satellite operators and communications stakeholders managing service continuity. (7/1)

Dish/EchoStar Satellite-TV and Wireless Affiliates File for Bankruptcy to cut ~$9 Billion Debt After Spectrum Sales to SpaceX (Source: Space News)
Dish DBS and its EchoStar wireless subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy under a prepackaged restructuring plan aimed at repaying debt early. The move follows delays around a crucial AT&T-related transaction and follows spectrum sales to SpaceX and AT&T, reshaping the group’s capital position. (7/1)

Vantor (Maxar) Launches WorldView 3D with Updated High-Definition Earth Imagery (Source: Space News)
Vantor, the company previously known as Maxar Intelligence, unveiled WorldView 3D July 1, to provide customers with updated and high-definition imagery. The WorldView 3D line includes two products. WorldView 3D Rapid allows customers to task satellites and receive updated 3D maps with a resolution of 50-centimeters within 24 hours. For 3D maps at 15-centimeter resolution produced from satellite imagery, customers can opt for WorldView 3D High Definition (HD). WorldView 3D HD promises 3-meter accuracy in three dimensions, compared with 4 meters for WorldView 3D Rapid.  (7/1)

FAA Proposes Rule to Enable Supersonic Flight Over the Continental United States (Source: AeroTime)
The FAA has proposed a new rule that would set the stage for civil supersonic flights over the continental United States, a step toward lifting restrictions that have been in place since the 1970s. US Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the proposed rule on June 30, 2026, saying advances in supersonic technology now make it possible to operate these aircraft without producing a disruptive sonic boom on the ground. (7/1)

Scientists Start Mapping Out Crewed Mission to Huge Saturn Moon Titan (Source: Space.com)
After Earth's moon and Mars, where could humans plant their footprints? The "Humans to Titan Summit 2026" explored the concept of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, as the next human exploration destination, post-Mars. Researchers looked into how demanding such a trek could be and what would be required to make it, along with next steps to further that ambitious goal.

"Everyone recognizes that the reality of this is a long way off," said Amanda Hendrix, "but normalizing the idea   — that Titan is actually a very reasonable destination for humans  — is important." Taking this goal seriously means that "we can have a next destination in our minds, after Mars," she added. "That keeps the momentum going." (6/30)

NASA May Send a Backup, Nuclear-Powered Mars Rover to the Moon (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA officials said Tuesday that they are seriously considering sending the full-scale engineering model of the Perseverance rover, which is currently housed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, to the Moon to expedite their efforts to explore the south pole region.

The car-sized rover nicknamed “Promise,” which serves as a testbed for Perseverance and was not otherwise planned for a launch, would land equipped with a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) to power it across difficult terrain and through the lunar night. NASA’s other rovers primarily operate on solar power. (6/30)

Latitude to Launch Inaugural Flight from Oman (Source: European Spaceflight)
French rocket builder Latitude has signed a letter of intent to conduct the planned inaugural flight of its launch vehicle from Oman’s Etlaq Spaceport. The company declined to disclose details of how the project would be funded. Latitude is developing a small two-stage rocket that remains unnamed and will be capable of delivering payloads of up to 200 kilograms to low Earth orbit. As recently as June 2025, the company had said that the rocket’s inaugural flight would take place from a new shared launch facility at the Guiana Space Center. (7/1)

Should the ISS be Extended Beyond 2030? (Source: Aerospace America)
NASA’s rationale to deorbit ISS in 2031 is the increased cost and risk associated with operating a nearly 30-year-old platform, but not everyone agrees a controlled deorbit is the best course. And although the handful of companies developing commercial successors have expressed confidence their stations will be operating by 2030, NASA and U.S. lawmakers are also concerned about the possibility of a gap in U.S. presence in LEO. Click here to see their opinions. (7/1)