July 30, 2026

Drawn by Helium-3, Lunar Mining Companies Prepare for Initial Missions (Source: Aerospace America)
On Earth, helium-3 is worth $30,000 per gram because of its scarcity. But on the moon, there are abundant deposits of this gas in rocks and dust on the lunar surface, thanks to billions of years of solar wind exposure. This has created a modern gold rush, birthing a handful of prospective mining companies now taking steps toward beginning operations on the lunar surface in the coming years.

Their initial missions will be aimed at determining where these helium-3 deposits are located, how concentrated those deposits are and the best methods for extracting them from the lunar regolith — all of which they need to be sure of before beginning large-scale mining because of the extreme expense of operating on the moon. Then there is the matter of proving they can operate in the moon’s harsh environment, including surviving the two-week lunar nights.

Aside from its current price, the appeal of helium-3 lies in the projected demand — coolant for quantum computing and fuel for future fusion reactors, for example. Interlune, a Seattle-based space resources company with plans to mine helium-3, has signed contracts worth $500 million to sell the gas to the U.S. Department of Energy, Bluefors of Helsinki and Maybell Quantum in Denver, all for quantum computer cooling. Another prospective miner, Black Moon Energy of Houston, has $500 million in helium-3 contracts to supply DOE and fusion reactor companies, the CEO says. (7/29)

All Points Wins $250 Million for Vandenberg Payload Processing Facility (Source: Space News)
All Points Logistics won a $250 million contract to expand satellite processing facilities at Vandenberg. The award, announced Wednesday, covers design and construction of a commercially owned and operated spacecraft processing center at Vandenberg's Mission Development Zone. All Points is the third company to receive a contract under a Commercial Solutions Opening, or CSO, initiative to expand satellite processing capacity, after Astrotech and Blue Origin. Payload processing has drawn greater attention as launch activity increases on both U.S. coasts, creating bottlenecks in launch manifests. (7/30)

Mexico Backs Down From SpaceX Lawsuit Plan (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
The Mexican government is backing down from plans to sue SpaceX over claims about Starship launch debris. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said last year that the government was considering suing SpaceX after debris from an explosion during a Starship test landed across the Rio Grande in Mexican territory. Mexican officials had also complained that debris from Starship launches had washed up on Mexican beaches. Sheinbaum said this week that the government was no longer planning a lawsuit after discussions with both SpaceX and the U.S. government.

Editor's Note: I've asked this before but never got a clear answer: can Mexico shut down Starbase launches if the blast danger zone encroaches Mexican territory, including territorial waters? (7/29)

L3Harris Delays Missile Business Spin-Out (Source: Space News)
L3Harris is delaying plans to spin out its missile business despite strong demand. The company said earlier this year it would turn its Missile Solutions business into a separate, publicly traded company in the second half of 2026 after taking a $1 billion investment from the Defense Department. L3Harris CEO Christopher Kubasik told analysts on the company's second-quarter earnings call that demand for the business continues to strengthen, but recent IPO activity has made public markets less attractive. L3Harris now expects to revisit an IPO in mid-2027. (7/30)

FAA Rule Would Exempt Commercial Launches From Environmental Regulations (Source: Space News)
A proposed FAA rule would exempt commercial launches from many environmental regulations. The proposal, published Thursday in the Federal Register, would waive requirements from 13 environmental laws and associated regulations for commercial launch, reentry and spaceport licensing. The FAA developed the rule in response to provisions of a commercial space executive order released nearly a year ago that called on the Department of Transportation to reduce environmental and other barriers to launch licensing. The space industry has argued that complying with environmental regulations, including developing environmental assessments, is time-consuming and expensive. Environmental groups oppose the proposal. The publication of the proposed rule starts a 30-day comment period. (7/30)

Sophia Space and Caltech Patent Orbital Data Center Modular Architecture (Source: Space News)
A company and university have received a patent for orbital data centers. The patent by Sophia Space and Caltech covers the architecture for a modular, scalable, passively cooled, computing and data storage unit designed for assembly into large computing data centers powered by solar energy. It is designed to address one of the key challenges of orbital data centers, how such structures can both take in and radiate away large amounts of power. It builds on earlier work done at Caltech on space-based solar power. (7/30)

SpaceX Launches NRO Mission From Florida on Thursday (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX launched a National Reconnaissance Office mission overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida on the NROL-95 mission. The first stage for the launch landed back at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 2. Neither SpaceX nor the NRO disclosed any details about the launch's payload, although it is suspected to be a signals intelligence spacecraft. (7/30)

China Launches Long March 7A and Long March 6 Missions (Source: Xinhua)
China performed two launches Wednesday. A Long March 7A rocket lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport, placing into orbit Tianlan 3-01, a GEO data relay satellite used to support China's space station and other missions. A Long March 6 rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. It placed into orbit what Chinese media called communication technology test satellites, designated TJS-27A and -27B, but with no further details about their orbit or mission. (7/30)

Rocket Lab Wins Another Japanese Multi-Launch Contract (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab won another contract from Japanese radar-imaging company iQPS. Rocket Lab announced Thursday it signed a contract to launch three iQPS satellites on Electron rockets starting late this year. This is the third multi-launch contract iQPS has awarded Rocket Lab in the last year, bringing the total number of Electrons ordered to 18. Seven of those launches have taken place, but an eighth launch was scrubbed a month ago after an abort at engine startup. That launch has not yet been rescheduled. (7/30)

SpaceX Wins $1.6B to Launch Space Force ‘Sensing and Targeting’ Sats on 18 Launches (Source: CNA)
SpaceX won $1.6 billion in orders from the U.S. Space Force on Wednesday to launch 18 Falcon 9 missions through 2027 carrying Pentagon satellites for detecting and targeting airborne objects, the service said. The 18 missions were assigned to SpaceX across two task orders under the U.S. Space Force's flagship launch procurement program, in which SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and other U.S. launch firms inducted into the program jockey for lucrative mission assignments. (7/29)

Cyber Firm Resecurity Joins Space ISAC (Source: Via Satellite)
Resecurity is the latest cybersecurity company to join Space ISAC as a member. As a provider of cyber threat intelligence and digital risk protection, Resecurity aims to deliver advanced capabilities, including external attack surface monitoring; digital risk management; brand protection; first-, second-, third-, and fourth-party risk management; fraud prevention; executive protection; threat intelligence; dark web intelligence; digital investigations; and adversary infrastructure tracking. Space ISAC announced Resecurity joined the organization, July 28. (7/29)

SpaceX Customers Are Bracing for the Falcon Rocket Phaseout (Source: Bloomberg)
Satellite operators are preparing for changes as SpaceX moves to phase out Falcon rocket configurations used for commercial payload rides. The shift raises near-term questions for manifesting, launch availability, and how operators continue relying on SpaceX’s “workhorse” vehicle for routine access to orbit. (7/29)

Outlier Space Raises $7.3M to Build New Zealand’s First Reentry Vehicle (Source: Payload)
Outlier Space, a New Zealand-based reentry startup, announced a $7.35M pre-seed round yesterday to fund the development of the company’s microgravity research and return vehicle, which is scheduled to fly its debut mission in 2028. Global from Day One led the round, which included additional participation from Nova Threshold, Brian Cartmell, Airtree, Icehouse Ventures, Investible, and Side Stage Ventures.

Founded in 2024 by Jamie France, Rocket Lab’s former global director of the Electron launch vehicle, Outlier is developing a reusable Earth-return capsule to offer better mission economics compared with the growing pool of reentry vehicles on the market. While France declined to discuss many of the technical specifics about the vehicle Outlier is building, he shared the company’s plan to lower the cost of reentry through comparatively larger reusable capsules—by focusing as much as possible on increasing the ratio between payload mass and total vehicle mass. (7/29)

MaiaSpace Ditches Suborbital Test Flight Plans (Source: European Spaceflight)
MaiaSpace has scrapped plans to conduct a suborbital test flight of its Maia rocket, opting instead to proceed straight to a full orbital launch attempt for the vehicle’s inaugural flight in the second half of 2027. Under its initial development roadmap, the ArianeGroup subsidiary would have flown a full two-stage Maia vehicle with a reduced propellant load to a target altitude of at least 100 kilometers. The company has, however, now concluded that its ground and combined testing has reduced the value of conducting a suborbital test flight. (7/29)

ESA Commissions Optical Ground Station in Luxembourg to Advance Quantum-Enabled Ultra-Secure Satellite Communications (Source: Spacewatch Global)
The European Space Agency has commissioned a new optical ground station in Windhof, Luxembourg, to help test an ultra-secure, international communications network. This follows the ground breaking ceremony in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, for a dedicated OGS to communicate with the EAGLE-1 satellite for quantum technology-based ultra-secure communication earlier this month. (7/29)

ESA Taps Aalyria to Build Deep-Space Network Hub (Source: Payload)
ESA has tapped Aalyria to build a piece of the internet’s off-world extension: a network-operations center that allows spacecraft, lunar missions, and ground stations to share data reliably across the solar system. The center will run delay-/disruption-tolerant networking (DTN), which is a store-and-forward protocol built for space when a constant, instant connection is often impossible. (7/29)

Thales Alenia Space Secures Platform Development Contract for Italy’s PRISMA Second Generation Hyperspectral Mission (Source: SatNews)
In an expansion of Italy’s space-based Earth observation infrastructure, Thales Alenia Space announced on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, that it signed a contract with prime contractor OHB Italia to develop the satellite and supply the PRIMA-S platform for the Italian Space Agency’s PRISMA Second Generation mission. Scheduled for launch in 2031, the spacecraft will host an upgraded hyperspectral optical payload built by Leonardo to provide enhanced imaging of Earth’s land surfaces, vegetation, inland waters, and coastal environments. (7/29)

Rocket Explosions Used To Be Tragic. Now They’re Punchlines (Source: New York Times)
In the first-season finale of the HBO series “Succession,” Roman Roy, the youngest son of a right-wing media mogul, ducks into a bathroom to watch a satellite launch on his phone. His father has put him in charge of the launch, not because he has any particular expertise but in order to subtly manipulate interpersonal family dynamics. Roman has ignored technical concerns and insisted that the rocket go up on the day of his sister’s wedding.

The stream buffers for a minute, and then the rocket appears. A cloud of smoke gathers as the thrusters engage. Then, just like that, the screen shows only flames. Roman gulps and puts his phone back in his suit jacket. He washes his hands and goes back into the wedding reception, ready to pretend that nothing happened.

On May 28, a New Glenn rocket — a creation of Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin, meant to eventually carry a moon lander on future NASA Artemis missions — exploded during a test. The visuals were almost identical to Roman Roy’s impotent effort: the smoke, the series of miniature fireballs appearing before the big one spreads outward and consumes everything. “This is one of the greatest explosions I’ve ever seen,” one user wrote. “Michael Bay is somewhere saying, ‘Damn, not bad.’” Many people posted photos or gifs of Roman’s face. But one poster summed the prevailing feeling succinctly: “how have we gotten worse at this lmao.” (7/28)

Supersonic Flight’s New Golden Age Getting Closer (Source: Flying)
In early 2025, its XB-1 “Baby Boom” demonstrator made 13 test flights over Mojave, California, where U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in a Bell X-1 nearly eight decades before. Two of those flights surpassed Mach 1—and, according to Boom, produced sonic booms that were inaudible on the ground below. With the XB-1 now retired to Boom’s headquarters in Centennial, Colorado, the firm is setting its sights on Overture—the flagship, civil supersonic jet it aims to introduce by 2030. Both United Airlines and American Airlines have purchase agreements.

But whereas customers routinely shelled out more than $10,000 for one-way Concorde tickets, Scholl claims an equivalent trip on Overture would cost less than half that. He added that the company aims to drive costs down “until it’s for everybody.” Scholl said Boom aims to fly “tens of millions of passengers everywhere on hundreds of routes”—and not just internationally. That’s because Overture will be capable of what he dubbed “boomless cruise.” (7/29)

State Space Summits Planned (Source: SPACErePORT)
The Texas Space Summit, previously planned for Sep. 21-23 in San Antonio, will be rescheduled to sometime in 2027. The summit is organized around the state's growing space industry, supported by the Texas Space Commission. Meanwhile in Florida, multiple space-focused summits, symposia, and conferences are planned before the end of 2026, including a Florida Space Summit on Oct. 20-21, a Space Settlement Summit on Oct. 25-30, a Space Economy Summit on Oct. 28-29, an "UP.Summit" investor summit on Nov. 4-6, and a Space Coast Symposium on Aug. 21, a Space Visions Symposium on Sep. 11, a Small Satellite Education Conference on Nov. 7-8, and the SpacePower Conference on Dec. 8-10. Scroll to the bottom of my weekly SPACErePORT for links to these Florida events.

In other states, the Arizona Aerospace Summit was on Jul. 15. New Mexico's Space Valley Discovery event is planned on Sep. 28. An Ohio Space Forum is on Sep. 17. The Boston Human Spaceflight Symposium is on Sep. 24-25. Massachusetts Space Days is on Oct. 4-10. The Keystone Space Collaborative Conference is on Oct. 27. The Northeast Space Trade and Research Show is on Nov 28-29. And the Maine Space Conference is on Nov. 5-6. (7/29)

Space Stocks Plunge Over 60% in Just Two Months (Source: Payload Pro)
Space stocks did nothing but go vertical in the first half of the year (many were up well over 100%) with momentum driven by SpaceX's IPO and valuation, increased geopolitical conflict with the war in Iran, orbital data-center hype, and a broader market pivot from software into hardware businesses. Then, starting just before the SpaceX IPO, it started to collapse. Since the end of May market highs, space stocks have broadly plunged over 60%. (7/29)