July 29, 2026

Space Coast and Central Florida Towns Dominate "Best Cities for Engineers" Ranking for Southeast (Source: Livability)
Finding a place to live that supports both your personal and professional aspirations is more important than ever. For engineering professionals, choosing where to call home is all about work-life balance – you want a place to live that offers an exceptional quality of life and where you can build a thriving career. Labor market data experts at Chmura Economics & Analytics analyzed relevant nationwide data, broken our guide down by region. For the Southeast, four Central Florida towns dominate the ranking, with Space Coast towns Palm Bay and Melbourne in the top three, plus Alafaya and Apopka (both in the Orlando metro area) in the top four. Click here. (7/13)

Satellite Imagery Points to Data Center Missile Strike in Bahrain (Source: Sensus PR)
With satellite imagery now appearing to corroborate the recent strikes on Amazon's Bahrain data centers, the question of how commercial data centers actually defend themselves has become live. Laurynas Šatas, CEO of Aktyvus Photonics, thinks data centers should defend themselves against drones, and partner with the state for missile defense.

"A very similar attack on AWS data centers happened in March. But it's worth separating the two events, because they involved different weapons. The confirmed March strikes used one-way attack drones. The July strikes on the Bahrain facilities appear to have involved missiles, and while Amazon hasn't confirmed the extent of the damage, independent satellite imagery now appears to corroborate that it was significant. (7/29)

Swift Reboost Mission Glitches (Source: Space News)
A spacecraft launched earlier this month to reboost the orbit of a NASA astrophysics mission has run into problems. Katalyst Space Technologies said Tuesday its Link spacecraft entered a multi-axis spin several days ago because of problems with its attitude control system. The company is working on regaining control of the spacecraft despite failures of two reaction wheels and only partial functionality of reaction control system thrusters. Link launched July 3 on a mission to attach to NASA's Swift gamma-ray observatory and raise its orbit before it reenters late this year or early next year. Katalyst said it is developing an alternative plan for the mission that will still allow it to carry out the reboost. (7/29)

ESA Studying Gateway Element Repurposing (Source: Space News)
ESA is studying how it could repurpose an element it had been developing for the lunar Gateway. ESA issued an invitation to tender on Monday for studies examining the feasibility of the proposed Lunar Link repurposing mission. Lunar Link was to be a communications system for Gateway, but NASA announced earlier this year it was pausing work on the Gateway indefinitely to focus on a lunar base. The studies will examine the feasibility of turning Lunar Link into a standalone satellite to provide communications at the moon, complementing the agency's existing Moonlight program. (7/29)

China's Stars Harmony Secures $14 Million for Orbital Tracking Constellation (Source: Space News)
A Chinese startup has secured around $14 million to build a satellite constellation for tracking orbital objects, adding to China's growing SSA sector. Xingchen Daohe, also known as Stars Harmony, was reported to have secured nearly 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) last week. The funds will be used for the development, deployment and team-building for the Guanlan constellation, intended to provide continuous space-based monitoring and tracking of orbital objects to support collision avoidance, orbit optimization and space traffic management for both military and civil satellite operators. The finding is another sign of the growing Chinese SSA sector as multiple companies secure funding and advance work on SSA systems. (7/29)

Fortastra and Hadrian Team on In-Space Manufacturing (Source: Space News)
Fortastra, a Los Angeles startup focused on defending on-orbit infrastructure, is partnering with manufacturing specialist Hadrian. The companies announced Wednesday they will work together to see how Hadrian's expertise in manufacturing could be used to reduce spacecraft mass and accelerate production. The agreement calls for Fortastra and Hadrian to jointly evaluate ways to apply additive, subtractive, hybrid and emerging manufacturing approaches to Fortastra programs such as satellite buses. (7/29)

Boeing and NASA Talking About Next CST-100 Mission Amid Vulcan Challenges (Source: Space News)
Boeing says it is still talking with NASA about scheduling the next CST-100 Starliner mission. In an earnings call Tuesday, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said work to correct problems with Starliner is going "quite well" but that NASA was "replanning their launch sequence" for the program. Starliner has not flown since a crewed test flight two years ago that suffered propulsion system problems, and the next mission will be a cargo-only flight. NASA safety advisers said in June it could be up to a year before Starliner flies again. Boeing separately disclosed in an SEC filing Tuesday that it provided a loan guarantee to United Launch Alliance along with Lockheed Martin, which had disclosed its loan guarantee last week. Boeing and Lockheed have each guaranteed $500 million in loans to ULA, which is suffering financial challenges from the grounding of its Vulcan rocket. (7/29)

Japan's ispace to Get H3 Ride to Moon (Source: Space News)
Japanese lunar lander company ispace will launch its next mission on the H3 rocket. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and ispace announced Tuesday a launch agreement for ispace's Mission 3 lander mission, scheduled for 2028. The first two ispace landers launched on Falcon 9, but the companies said the new arrangement creates Japan's first private lunar transportation system. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the launch contract, although ispace noted the weak Japanese yen has made foreign launch vehicles more expensive. The announcement came days after ispace's European subsidiary won a $74 million ESA contract to complete development of a small robotic rover called MAGPIE that will fly on ispace's Mission 4 lander in 2029. MAGPIE will study regolith conditions and prospect for water ice at the south polar region of the moon. (7/29)

RFA to Destack at SaxaVord, Debut Orbital Launch Delayed (Source: STV)
Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) is pausing preparations for its first launch. The company said Tuesday that an undisclosed issue found during testing of its RFA ONE rocket at SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands led it to decide to destack the rocket. The small launch vehicle was going through a series of tests that was to include a static-fire test before a launch attempt as soon as Aug. 10. RFA did not disclose how the issue might delay that launch attempt. (7/29)

Germany Considers Sovereign Spaceport (Source: European Spaceflight)
The German military is considering a dedicated launch facility. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit last week to launch company Isar Aerospace that he was considering whether the German military needed a site that would provide it with guaranteed launch access. Companies like Isar and RFA are launching outside the country at spaceports that, in some cases, are shared with other users. Pistorius did not state where that launch site should be located but said it could be outside of German territory. (7/29)

NASA Expected to Formalize International Lunar Base Partnerships (Source: Seoul Economic Daily)
NASA expects to decide in the next three months roles for international partners in its lunar base initiative. During a visit to South Korea Wednesday, Carlos García-Galán, NASA's Moon Base program manager, said the agency was evaluating the capabilities and interests of Artemis Accords signatories for participating in the base's development. He said that within three months, "we want to determine the direction and a detailed timeline for which partner nations will take on which roles in each key area." García-Galán and other NASA officials were in the country to talk with South Korea's space agency about roles in the lunar base program. (7/29)

US Builds $50M Hypersonic Payload Hub Ahead of Schedule to Speed Mach 5+ Flight Testing (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has completed construction of a new hypersonic payload integration facility in southern Indiana ahead of schedule, expanding U.S. infrastructure for next-generation flight testing as demand grows for advanced missile technologies. The $50 million Indiana Payload Integration Facility (IPIF), located near the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in Crane, Indiana, gives Kratos additional capacity to support U.S. hypersonic weapons development. The company said the site will help increase the pace of Mach 5+ flight testing while strengthening the nation’s defense industrial base as the Pentagon accelerates advanced weapons programs. (7/29)

U.S. Air Force Reveals Plans For VTOL Bomber Prototype (Source: Aviation Week)
The U.S. Air Force has released plans to experiment with a prototype reusable, rocket-powered aircraft for high-speed, long-range strike missions. Although limited to a prototype program, the interest from Air Force Global Strike Command points toward a future bomber alternative that differs markedly from the stealthy, subsonic Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, which is now in the early stages of production.

The prototype described in solicitation documents released in mid-July calls for a liquid-fueled, rocket-powered, vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft. After launching vertically, or potentially on a steep diagonal trajectory, the aircraft would transition to horizontal flight and accelerate to high—likely supersonic or hypersonic—speed, perform a strike mission and then return to its launch base for a vertical landing. (7/29)

NNSA Delivers New Nuclear Detonation Sensors To Space Force (Source: Defense Daily)
The National Nuclear Security Administration has delivered its fifth next-generation Global Burst Detector sensor payload to the Space Force to monitor nuclear detonations above-ground globally. The payload will be integrated onto a satellite before launch, where it will join an existing constellation of sensors that continuously monitor the globe for above-ground nuclear explosions. (7/29)

EchoStar Faces Mounting Financial Pressure on Hughes Satellite Unit Amid Corporate Reorganization (Source: SatNews)
Financial reports published on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, indicate that EchoStar Corporation’s satellite communications division, Hughes Network Systems, is facing severe liquidity constraints, fueling industry speculation regarding a potential Chapter 11 filing or targeted debt restructuring for the subsidiary. (7/29)

SpaceX Launches Saturday Starlink Mission From California (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched 24 more satellites for its Starlink network on Saturday (July 25), a day after demonstrating it could do the same on its next-gen rocket. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink group 17-51 lifted off on Saturday from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. About an hour later, the 24 broadband internet satellites were deployed into low Earth orbit (LEO), as planned. (7/28)

Philippines Plans Spaceport, 2027 Suborbital Launch (Source: Inquirer)
In the next few years, the Philippines may have its own booming spaceport, similar to Cape Canaveral in the United States, where more than a hundred rockets are sent into space each year. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the country will launch a rocket into space next year, marking the first liquid-fueled suborbital rocket launch from Philippine soil. The test rocket launch, set at Cagayan North International Airport in early 2027, will help advance the Philippines’ launch capabilities, develop Filipino expertise in rocket technologies, and prepare for future space launch activities, according to the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA). (7/28)

Germany's Exploration Company, with SpaceX Ambitions, Aims for $2 Billion Valuation (Source: Financial Times)
An ambitious European space start-up is in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for its plan to develop reusable space capsules in a bid to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The Exploration Company (TEC) is discussing raising at least $300mn in new money that could value the company at more than $2bn once the fresh investment is taken into account, according to people familiar with the matter. Brussels’ new flagship Scaleup Europe Fund, an investment vehicle backed by the European Commission and managed by Swedish investment group EQT, was discussing making one of its first investments in TEC as part of the deal, the people added. The people cautioned that talks remained ongoing and that figures could yet shift, with no final decisions taken yet. (7/28)

SpaceX Performed Secret Starship Test on Flight 13 (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX performed a secret test on a specific portion of Starship with its recent 13th test flight last week, CEO Elon Musk revealed. Musk described an internal test of the ship’s heat shield tiles, as the space exploration company wanted to push them to the limits after previous issues. Many noticed that Starship’s initial launch seemed to be more accelerated than normal, and that was not a mistake. Musk revealed that SpaceX decided to give Flight 13 an intentionally aggressive acceleration rate in an effort to test how well the tiles would remain attached to the ship. (7/28)

Friends in High Places: Trump Exempts SpaceX Starlink From FCC Ban on Foreign Routers (Source: Ars Technica)
The Trump administration today exempted SpaceX’s Starlink routers from the Federal Communications Commission ban on foreign-made routers. A public notice issued by the FCC said Starlink routers received approval from the Department of War (also known as the Department of Defense). SpaceX’s exemption is good until February 1, 2028.

The FCC kicked off an industry-wide scramble when it updated the Covered List to include all consumer-grade routers made at least partly outside the US, except those that are granted exemptions. SpaceX has a factory in Texas, and some of its routers have the words “Made in the USA” printed on them, leading some to believe that it might be the only major router maker to escape the FCC’s wide-ranging ban. But other Starlink routers are made in Vietnam. (7/27)

SpaceX Stock-Purchasing by Congress Members Fuels Conflict Concerns (Source: CNBC)
Reps. William Timmons, R-SC, John McGuire, R-VA, Dan Meuser, R-PA, Gil Cisneros, D-CA, Jared Moskowitz, D-FL, and John James, R-MI — or members of their immediate families — bought between roughly $83,000 and $245,000 in SpaceX shares combined, all within six days of its IPO. Five of the lawmakers serve on committees whose work intersects with SpaceX’s defense, satellite, AI, federal contracting or securities businesses. The transactions were legal, and there is no evidence of insider trading, but an ethics expert said the holdings create potential conflicts between lawmakers’ duties and financial interests. (7/28)

MDA Space Issues $600 Million in Senior Notes to Finance U.S. Expansion (Source: SpaceQ)
MDA Space has priced a $600-million private placement of senior unsecured notes to fund its acquisition of U.S. satellite manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), capping off a month of intensive capital raises for the company. The notes, which carry a 6.50% interest rate and mature in 2033, were issued at par. The offering is expected to close on Aug. 5. (7/27)

‘Our Country is the Mission’: More Than 100 Ex-NASA Astronauts Launch New Voting Campaign (Source: The Guardian)
Cady Coleman and dozens of other retired NASA colleagues have formed Astronauts for America, a non-partisan advocacy group of fellow space explorers. Launched, pun intended, to coincide with the 2026 semiquincentennial of the US, the out-of-this-world alliance wants to restore faith in, and support of, the country’s constitutional democracy. It seeks to encourage politicians and the public to commit to the principles of the constitution itself, something its members believe has fallen into a sort of a black hole in recent months and years. (7/27)

Former NASA Associate Administrator Named Chairman of ABOVE Space, Provider of Hybrid Gravity Tech (Source: ABOVE)
ABOVE Space Development Corp. announced the appointment of James L. “Jim” Reuter as Chairman of the Board, strengthening the company’s leadership as it advances next-generation commercial space infrastructure. Reuter, a 40-year NASA veteran and former Associate Administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, brings decades of experience leading complex human spaceflight, exploration, and advanced technology programs.

The announcement comes as ABOVE reaches a major intellectual-property milestone with the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 12,576,995 B1, “Systems and methods for providing a hybrid gravity environment.” The patent covers an orbital platform architecture designed to support both artificial gravity and microgravity within a single integrated space vehicle structure. In practical terms, the technology is intended to allow future customers to access different gravity environments on one platform, supporting a broader range of research, manufacturing, habitation, training, and mission needs. (7/26)

Impulse Space Details its First Electric Propulsion System (Source: Via Satellite)
Impulse Space detailed the company’s first electric propulsion system called Electra, built to support long-duration operations in space. This comes after a year ago, Impulse said it was exploring developing electric propulsion, in addition to the company’s lineup of chemical propulsion. Within six months, the company had fired the propulsion system and is now qualifying Electra flight engines for integration with the Mira spacecraft. Impulse said Tuesday the system is nearly fully vertically integrated and built in-house, including the thruster and supporting avionics. (7/28)

Florida’s Space Play Offers a Roadmap for Beating China (Source: Florida Today)
China has a secret weapon in the modern day space race that the United States isn’t taking enough advantage of: state and local investment. Chinese provinces and municipalities such as Shanghai are spending billions and leading the effort to build space infrastructure and satellite systems. For example, Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) was initially founded with capital from Shanghai’s municipal state asset management commission and Shanghai Alliance Investment, a state-owned venture capital firm.

The U.S. system cannot and should not seek to copy China’s system, but it would be foolish not to learn from what’s working for our biggest competitor. The federal government just gave states a new tool. Space Infrastructure bonds are tax-exempt private activity bonds that can be used to finance spaceports and nearby related facilities like spacecraft factories. Space Florida is on track to be the first to use them as part of the state’s "Project Jaguar" focused on making its space industry even more competitive domestically and internationally through improvements at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

There are 20 US spaceports in 10 states ― from California to Florida and beyond ― that now have the opportunity to use this new financing mechanism to supercharge economic development around spaceport sites. This is particularly significant as bond rates rise, making other financing options for these projects more expensive. Municipal investment in space is part of the Space Coast's DNA but this new policy allows for even more investment. (7/27)

Preserving the Legacy of the ISS (Source: Space Review)
The International Space Station is scheduled to be retired as soon as the end of the decade. Jeff Foust reports this is providing new urgency to efforts to preserve some aspects of the station before it is deorbited. Click here. (7/28)
 
Orbiting Solar Observatories: Nancy Grace Roman and Solar Science From Spinning Spacecraft (Source: Space Review)
NASA’s next major space telescope, launching in a month, is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman. Trevor Williams discusses how she spearheaded the development of a line of spacecraft missions to study the Sun. Click here. (7/28)
 
Starship May Become Useful Before it Becomes Reusable (Source: Space Review)
SpaceX’s Starship performed its latest suborbital test flight last week, inching closer to orbital missions. Paul Almond says that Starship could still be useful to SpaceX even before the company demonstrates the vehicle’s full reusability. Click here. (7/28)
 
Affordability for Artemis (Source: Space Review)
One question about NASA’s revised plans for Artemis is how much it will cost to get astronauts back to the Moon. Robert Oler argues that Congress should investigate just how affordable those plans are. Click here. (7/28)
 
To Win the Moon, Divide the Labor (Source: Space Review)
NASA is relying heavily on commercial partnerships in its plans to return to the Moon and establish a base there. Alexander Salter discusses why those plans will require a balance of commercial capabilities and government-led efforts. Click here. (7/28)

FAA Moves to Simplify Commercial Space Licensing (Source: FAA)
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that the FAA is launching a new initiative to streamline commercial space licensing, making it faster and easier for innovators to secure approvals to launch rockets, reenter spacecraft, and operate launch and reentry sites. The move builds on an executive order and advances a decades-old Congressional mandate to simplify and expedite commercial space licensing.

The FAA's proposed rule would allow the agency to waive unnecessary environmental laws and regulations that are slowing American innovation. Requirements that are needed to protect public health and safety, property, national security, or U.S. foreign policy interests would not be impacted. (7/28)