August 18, 2026

EU Sanctions Roscosmos (Source: Space News)
The European Union sanctioned the head of a Roscosmos subsidiary as part of a broader effort to target Russia's military space sector. The EU added five Russian defense industry executives to its sanctions list earlier this month, including Viktor Ivanov, director general of Roscosmos subsidiary NII TP. That entity develops the Kasatka-R synthetic aperture radar system. The EU said the designation sends a signal to Russian executives that working on Russia's war effort against Ukraine "carries direct, individual consequences." Under the sanctions, any assets Ivanov holds in the EU are frozen, EU persons and entities are prohibited from making funds or economic resources available to him, and he is barred from entering or transiting through EU territory. (8/18)

Floaty Starship Makes Way to Christmas (Source: The West Australian)
A SpaceX Starship upper stage has been towed to an Australian island. SpaceX has been working since the Ship 40 splashdown on Flight 13 last month to try to recover the vehicle, which unexpectedly survived the splashdown. Elon Musk said a week and a half ago that recovery was looking doubtful because of rough seas. However, on Tuesday, vessels towing Ship 40 arrived just off the coast of Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean south of Indonesia. SpaceX has not disclosed its plans for Ship 40. (8/17)

NASA Picks Four for Payload Processing (Source: NASA)
NASA selected four companies to provide payload processing services. The agency announced Monday it awarded contracts to All Points Logistics, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace and L3Harris to provide payload processing of spacecraft and launch vehicles for agency missions. The companies will be eligible to compete for task orders for future missions, with a maximum value of $100 million through early 2033. (8/18)

South Korea Providing Lunar Lander Instrument for NASA Mission (Source: Korea Times)
South Korea will provide an instrument for a future NASA commercial lander mission. The Korean space agency KASA said Tuesday it signed an agreement with NASA to deliver the Lunar Vehicle Radiation Dosimeter instrument, which will be flown on an Intuitive Machines lander through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in 2030. The instrument will collect data on radiation levels on the lunar surface to help support future crewed missions. (8/18)

NRO Picks HawkEye 360 for RF Intelligence (Source: Space News)
The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded HawkEye 360 a new contract to provide commercial radio-frequency intelligence. The NRO said Monday that the contract was awarded under its Commercial Radio Frequency Capabilities Augmentation program, or CRFCA, an effort to expand the intelligence community's and military's use of commercial RF data. The value of the contract was not disclosed. The new contract follows the NRO's three-phase Commercial Radio Frequency Capabilities program, which began in 2022 with study contracts awarded to six companies including HawkEye 360. (8/18)

Australia's HEO Will Use Planet's SkySat to Image In-Space Satellites for US Government (Source: Space News)
HEO, an Australian company that uses satellites to image other space objects, has signed a deal to use Planet's satellites. The companies announced a partnership Monday giving HEO access to Planet's SkySat high-resolution imaging spacecraft for non-Earth imaging applications such as space domain awareness. The images of space objects taken by SkySat satellites will initially be available only to U.S. government customers, although HEO expects to expand access to others. With the addition of SkySat, HEO will have access to more than 50 sensors in orbit, primarily from other Earth observation companies, that it can use to observe other space objects. HEO also has its own satellite, Continuum-1, which it acquired from Satellogic early this year. (8/18)

Space Force's Proposed Spending Surge Focused on Specific Projects (Source: Space News)
A surge in Space Force spending is concentrated in a handful of programs. A new analysis of the administration's fiscal year 2027 budget request, published by The Aerospace Corporation, noted that while the overall request is a 120% increase from the service's 2026 appropriations, that increase is concentrated in classified activities, moving-target indication, missile warning and command-and-control programs. The proposed increase is not assured, since it includes $12.1 billion in a budget reconciliation package whose fate in Congress remains uncertain. (8/18)

My Visit to Midland Air & Spaceport (Source: GSA)
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a three-day intensive astronaut training simulation organized by GSA Member Space Nation in Midland, TX. While in the Permian Basin. I also made sure to visit with our colleagues at the GSA member spaceport, the Midland Air & Spaceport. I had an informative discussion with Justine Ruff, Director, and Nicholas Krakovec, Operations Manager of Midland Air and Spaceport. Separately, I met with Sara Harris, Director of the Midland Economic Development Corporation. From these discussions, I came away more convinced than ever of Midland’s potential as a major hub for commercial space development. Click here. (8/14)

Three Pillars of a Resilient Hybrid SATCOM Architecture (Source: FNN)
The Defense Department is evolving its hybrid space architecture (HSA) to ensure defensive readiness against advanced threats. That initiative, which is central to the United States Space Force mission, blends innovative commercial technology with sovereign military capability to enable a seamless, self-healing network in space. Resilience of such a vital ecosystem is essential to sustaining the capabilities that will be delivered by this web of satellite assets. There are three key pillars to achieving it.

First is an interoperable terminal strategy. Terminals to receive satellite communications (SATCOM) are often high-cost capital investments with operational lives that span decades; new equipment is sourced as needed from a breadth of vendors. None of that should matter to the HSA model. The Space Force should not be expected to buy new equipment to accommodate a SATCOM provider’s proprietary products, or become vendor-locked to a particular service because of its terminals. True resilience demands a terminal-agnostic strategy that can ensure interoperability when roaming across multiple orbits and spectrum frequencies. Agency acquisition decision-makers want to know that whatever terminals they buy ensure users’ freedom of choice, working with legacy as well as new satellites that will be integrated into future DoD infrastructure. (8/17)

Why Spaceports Need More Than Basic Lightning Standards (Source: GSA)
For many conventional buildings, lightning protection, when provided, is primarily intended to reduce the risk of fire, physical damage, sideflash, shock hazards, and dangerous potential differences. Spaceports are different from “most buildings” because they operate around some of the most sensitive systems ever built. That distinction changes everything about how lightning protection must be approached.

Conventional lightning protection standards and systems provide an essential baseline for reducing the risk of fire, physical damage, sideflash, shock hazards, and dangerous potential differences in structures. However, modern launch facilities must also manage mission-assurance concerns involving rockets, payloads, avionics, fueling systems, communications infrastructure, control systems, and other critical electronics where transient electrical effects can create operational consequences even when the structure itself is protected. There is a lot more to lightning protection at a spaceport. Providing a preferred attachment point for lightning is only the beginning. Click here. (8/17)

DoD Hiring Boards Add Secrecy, Delays to Civilian Hiring (Source: FNN)
The Defense Department has begun bringing on civilian employees through the Trump administration’s new strategic hiring committees, raising questions about their impact on the defense workforce so far.  Four committees have sprung up across the department to vet new workers, including one in each of the three military service departments and one that covers the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other defense agencies, according to a DoD spokesperson.

Their work is largely shrouded in secrecy nearly one year after President Donald Trump mandated the committees’ creation in an executive order last October. “Nobody really knows what’s happening, and agencies are still figuring out how to make this work,” said Jenny Mattingley, vice president for public policy and stakeholder engagement at the Partnership for Public Service. (8/14)

DoD Base Schools Add Emphasis on Christianity, Western Civilization (Source: FNN)
The Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Western civilization and Christianity this fall in the schools it operates for military families, part of an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to redirect the education system toward patriotic values and classical learning.

The Department of Defense Education Activity operates about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members. Conservatives have eyed the schools — which, unlike most public schools, are run by the federal government — as a testing ground for reshaping education. (8/14)

Why Existing Airports May Become the Foundation of Future Space Transportation (Source: GSA)
As the commercial space industry continues to expand, a common question emerges: Where will all of the future spaceports come from? The answer may already be sitting on the map. Across the United States and around the world, airports have spent decades building the infrastructure that transportation systems require.

They possess runways, utilities, fuel systems, road access, rail connections, cargo facilities, security frameworks and established relationships with regulators and local communities. As new transportation technologies emerge, many of these airports are uniquely positioned to become the foundation for the next generation of spaceports. The transition will not happen overnight. And it will not look the same in every community. Yet many industry leaders believe existing airports represent one of the most practical pathways toward expanding access to space. Click here. (8/17)

Brussels Keen to Monitor UFOs Under the Radar (Source: Euro News)
Brussels has signaled it is monitoring unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and has hinted at improving capabilities, according to documents seen by Euronews. The European Commission seems to have been monitoring unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) under the radar since at least 2023, according to a document from the Commission's defense department, which pertains to sky and space observations in Malaysia.

"We are getting better at seeing it (UAPs) and better identifying it as our technological capacities improve, but we need to get even better," the letter read, signaling the EU executive is actively monitoring the phenomenon more than officially stated and seems keen to investigate it. (8/17)

Satellite Operators are in Panic Mode Due to a Worsening Launch Crisis (Source: Ars Technica)
This should be a golden era of launch. During the last three years, an average of 270 orbital rockets have launched from Earth, a more than threefold increase from only a decade ago. By every metric available, the launch industry is crushing it: Prices have never been more competitive, launches never more frequent, and access to space never more rapid. Paradoxically, though, there is a growing crunch in launch availability.

With a growing number of constellations big and small, there is a huge and growing demand signal. The Commercial Space Federation predicts demand for thousands of satellite launches annually in less than a decade. Analysys Mason forecasted that more than 37,000 satellites will need to be launched between 2023 and 2033. Henry’s own firm, Quilty Space, has charted a change in the discussion from how many launch companies the US market can support to who can execute the fastest to meet surging satellite needs. And if things are bad now, there are reasons to believe they may get even worse over the next two to four years.

Myriad factors are driving this crunch, but the principal concern of late has been SpaceX. The company that is almost exclusively responsible for the dramatic increase in launch availability in the 2020s has signaled that it intends to wind down Falcon 9 operations as quickly as possible in favor of the larger Starship rocket. Some might see that as a good thing due to Starship’s enormous payload capacity. But there are growing concerns that SpaceX will largely focus on its own payloads. (8/17)

NASA Advances Lunar Wheel and Mars Helicopter Mobility Concepts (Sources: Universe Today, NASA)
NASA engineers and students are testing fabric-based wheel prototypes for future lunar-base mobility while developing a ground-penetrating-radar antenna for the SkyFall Mars helicopters. The efforts target two distinct planetary exploration challenges: reliable surface transportation on the Moon and subsurface science from rotorcraft on Mars. (8/17)

EU Sanctions Roscosmos Subsidiary Chief Developing Radar Satellites for Russia’s Military (Source: Space News)
The European Union has sanctioned the head of a Roscosmos subsidiary involved in developing a synthetic aperture radar satellite system for the Russian military. The action expands pressure on Russia’s space industry and targets leadership linked to military space capabilities. (8/17)

United Launch Alliance Names Mark Peller President and CEO Amid Vulcan Challenges (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
United Launch Alliance has appointed longtime company executive Mark Peller as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Peller is taking over for John Elbon, who ran ULA after Bruno’s departure, but will be retiring at the end of the year after a 45-year career in the aerospace industry. Peller had been the company’s chief operating officer and responsible for its Atlas V and Vulcan launch programs. He has led Vulcan development since its inception. (8/17)

AST SpaceMobile Wins Temporary FCC Authority to Test Satellite Connectivity in the 800 MHz Band (Source: Spacewatch Global)
AST SpaceMobile has received temporary authorization from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to test satellite connectivity using spectrum in the 800 MHz band. The approval advances the company’s effort to evaluate satellite-enabled communications in a regulated terrestrial-frequency range. (8/17)

Lynk and Omnispace Merge as Elveo Mobile to Expand Direct-to-Device Satellite Services (Source: Smallsat News)
Lynk Global has completed its merger with Omnispace and rebranded as Elveo Mobile, combining Lynk’s direct-to-device satellite capabilities with globally coordinated S-band spectrum. The company aims to move beyond basic messaging and broaden satellite connectivity for standard mobile devices. (8/17)

Blue Origin Establishes Apprenticeship Program (Source: Blue Origin)
Blue Origin is launching its first registered apprenticeship program, and is looking for a founding cohort in Huntsville. Participants are full-time from day one, with full benefits, and a path to a nationally recognized credential. The cohort starts in October. Time is split between hands-on work at Blue Origin alongside experienced machinists and classroom and lab instruction. Classroom instruction is fully covered by Blue Origin at no cost to apprentices (8/17)