SpaceX Has Bought $329M Worth of Tesla
Megapacks So Far This Year (Source: Tech Crunch)
SpaceX has ramped up purchases of Tesla Megapack, spending $295 million
on the battery storage devices in the second quarter and $329 million
so far this year, according to the company’s earnings report released
on Tuesday. The purchase illustrates just how interconnected Elon
Musk’s universe of companies are. Musk, who is the CEO and largest
shareholder of SpaceX, also runs Tesla. Musk’s artificial intelligence
business xAI acquired his social media platform, X, in 2025. Earlier
this year, SpaceX gobbled up xAI. (8/4)
Northrop Grumman Opens
300,000-Square-Foot Florida Space Coast Engineering Center (Source:
Defense Industry Europe)
Northrop Grumman has opened a 300,000-square-foot engineering facility
at its Melbourne campus in Florida. The site will support
sixth-generation aircraft design and development for U.S. defense
programs. The new building provides space for more than 1,200 engineers
and includes 17 secure laboratories. It expands the company’s capacity
for advanced aerospace research, engineering and program work. (8/3)
South Korea to Send Up Space Solar
Probe in 2031, Seeks More International Space Tie-Ups (Source:
Yonhap)
South Korea is set to send a research probe to the region of space
between Earth and the Moon in 2031 to observe solar activity, the
country's space agency said Tuesday. The Korea AeroSpace Administration
(KASA) said it plans to hold one-on-one meetings with space agencies
from other countries, including the United States' NASA and Europe's
ESA, and discuss cooperation in areas including lunar exploration,
space telescopes and space sciences.(8/4)
Telesat Secures $2.3 Billion Arctic
Military Satcom Contract, Expanding Telesat Lightspeed Network and
Capacity by 44% (Source: Space News)
Canadian satellite operator Telesat has signed the largest contract in
its history. Telesat announced Tuesday a $1.63 billion contract with
Canada's Defense Investment Agency for military Ka-band services in the
Arctic beginning in 2028. The deal includes two five-year options
valued at about $142 million each. Those services would be provided by
Telesat's upcoming Lightspeed low Earth orbit constellation. The
contract gives Telesat an anchor defense customer before Lightspeed
begins service. It also supplies funding to increase the number of
fully financed satellites in the low Earth orbit constellation from 156
to 225. Telesat already had a contract with MDA Space for 198
satellites, and added 27 satellites to the contract with this
agreement. (8/4)
Starship to Deploy Working Payloads on
Next Test Flight (Source: Space News)
SpaceX plans to begin deploying payloads in orbit on its next Starship
flight. The company announced during its earnings call Tuesday that
Flight 14, the next Starship mission, will deploy Starlink V3
satellites into operational orbits. All Starship test flights to date
have been suborbital missions, including Flight 13 last month that
deployed Starlink V3 satellites for brief in-space tests before the
satellites reentered. Flight 14 is tentatively scheduled for the end of
this month. SpaceX also intends to recover the Starship upper stage on
that flight back at the launch site with a tower catch, pending
regulatory approval. In the earnings call, the first since the company
went public in June, SpaceX reported a net loss of $541 million on
revenue of $7.8 billion in the second quarter. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
made bold predictions about the company's growth in the call, including
that it would reach $1 trillion in annual revenue in 2030, but SpaceX
shares fell in after-hours trading because of concerns about current AI
spending. (8/5)
SpaceX's Satellite Ambitions Squeeze
Out Rivals Reliant on its Rockets (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX is increasingly reserving space on its rockets to launch its own
Starlink satellites, crowding out rival space companies that have long
depended on Elon Musk's company to get their payloads into orbit.
Starlink's share of SpaceX missions has grown year after year, rising
from 54% of the Falcon 9 rocket's manifest in 2020 to about 79% so far
in 2026. In recent months, at least seven spacecraft companies have
been told that Falcon 9 is fully booked for all types of missions until
2028 or 2029, eight sources told Reuters. They added that the
bottleneck is driven by SpaceX's plans to transition to the new
Starship rocket, designed to be fully reusable and cheaper than Falcon
9.
Starlink's growing percentage of SpaceX launches reflects an economic
reality. Analysts estimate that a single Starlink mission using
Starship could bring in tens of millions of dollars more in revenue for
SpaceX than launching a commercial customer's payload to space. That
calculation is based on the expected returns of adding more satellites
to Starlink's network. (8/4)
Rocket Lab Among Three Winners in
Space Force Project for Threat Tracking Satellites (Source:
Space News)
Rocket Lab is among three companies to win Space Force contracts to
develop technologies for a satellite network intended to track aircraft
and missile threats from orbit. The Space Force announced Tuesday $615
million in contracts to Rocket Lab, Systems & Technology Research
and an undisclosed third company for the Space-Based Airborne Moving
Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI, program. It will provide the military
with persistent tracking from space over areas where surveillance
aircraft may be unable to operate safely. The Space Force did not say
how the funding would be allocated among the three companies but Rocket
Lab said its share is worth $397 million, funding production and launch
of "Flatellites" for the constellation. The new contracts follow a
$4.16 billion award to SpaceX to build the initial AMTI satellite
constellation. (8/5)
Portugal's Neuraspace Raises $18
Million for Space Traffic Management (Source: Space News)
Space traffic management startup Neuraspace raised an additional $18
million. The Portuguese company announced the new funding Wednesday,
consisting of €6 million ($6.9 million) in Series B venture funding and
€9.6 million from Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan. The funding
will support the company's work on NeuraspaceDEF, an AI-powered space
domain awareness platform for civil and defense users. The platform
combines data from public databases, ground-based telescopes and its
own optical sensors to improve satellite tracking. It monitors more
than 600 satellites for customers such as Spire Global and the European
Space Agency. (8/5)
Voyager Seeks Eased NASA Requirements
for Commercial Stations (Source: Space News)
Voyager Technologies would like to see NASA reduce some of the proposed
requirements for the next phase of a commercial space station program.
In an earnings call Tuesday, Voyager executives were upbeat about the
prospects for Starlab, the commercial space station being developed by
the Starlab Space joint venture where Voyager is the majority owner.
That includes competing for the next phase of NASA's Commercial LEO
Destinations program, for which NASA released a draft RFP last month.
Voyager said it was concerned that the requirements NASA imposed on
companies in the draft RFP were too robust, and urged NASA to relax
them. Voyager expects the final RFP to be released "shortly" with NASA
making awards by early next year. (8/5)
SpaceX Positions Starfall Against
Multiple US, European, and Asian Startups (Source: Space News)
SpaceX's Starfall reentry vehicle is a validation of the market for
companies developing their own vehicles as well as a stiff competitor.
SpaceX flew its first Starfall test flight in June, demonstrating a
vehicle that can return about one ton from orbit. Starfall comes as
many startups in the United States, Europe and Asia pursue their own
vehicles, seeking to tap into demand for pharmaceutical research and
space manufacturing. Those companies said that SpaceX's entry into the
field with Starfall demonstrates the strong potential of the market,
but acknowledged they will have to work to differentiate themselves.
(8/5)
SpaceX Launches AST and Starlink
Satellites on Tuesday From Florida and California (Source:
Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched Starlink and BlueBird satellites on separate missions
less than 24 hours apart. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space
Force Base in California at 1:05 p.m. Eastern Tuesday, putting 24
Starlink satellites into orbit, adding to a constellation of now about
10,800 satellites. Another Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral
Space Force Station in Florida at 3:49 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, carrying
three BlueBird direct-to-device satellites for AST SpaceMobile. That
company, a competitor to SpaceX, has been forced to rely on SpaceX for
launches with Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket out of service. (8/5)
China Launches Broadband Constellation
Satellites on Long March 8A and Jielong-3 Rockets (Source:
Xinhua)
China launched another set of broadband satellites Tuesday. A Long
March 8A lifted off from the Wenchang commercial launch site. It placed
into orbit a set of satellites for the Guowang constellation.
Separately, a Jielong-3 (Smart Dragon-3) lifted off Tuesday from a ship
offshore from Haiyang, China. The rocket placed into orbit two
hyperspectral imaging satellites. (8/5)
European Policy Institute Warns of
Space Lag (Source: Space News)
A new study warns Europe risks falling behind China and the United
States in the race to develop orbital data centers. The study released
Wednesday by the European Space Policy Institute noted that Chinese
companies have already deployed satellites to serve as orbital data
centers following a top-down approach with government backing, while
American companies are pursuing more commercially driven approaches.
Europe, though, continues to focus on research and small-scale
technology demonstrations, and the study recommended the European Union
identify orbital data centers as an emerging pillar of technological
sovereignty and coordinate policy, investment and regulation around
their development. (8/5)
Rubicon Completes Nontoxic Thruster
Tests (Source: Space News)
Rubicon Space Systems has completed testing of a spacecraft thruster
that uses a nontoxic alternative to hydrazine. The company said tests
showed its Velox thruster, which produces five newtons of thrust,
exceeded design objectives in tests and is ready to go into production.
Velox uses ASCENT, a green propellant developed as an alternative to
hydrazine. Rubicon has three customers so far for Velox, with
deliveries to the first customer scheduled for early 2027. (8/5)
SpaceX Partners With Nvidia On
Starmind AI1 Compute Payload (Source: Mach 33)
SpaceX is partnering with Nvidia to design the Starmind AI1 satellite
compute payload, which will include Nvidia Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs for
what the company calls datacenter class space compute. (8/4)
ESA and Pokémon Team to Celebrate
World Space Week (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency (ESA) and The Pokémon Company International
(TPCi) are teaming up to celebrate World Space Week from 4–10 October
2026. This unique, limited-time collaboration brings together two
worlds united by curiosity, exploration and imagination. For decades,
space has inspired people to dream and look beyond the horizon. ESA has
turned that sense of wonder into exploration, uncovering more about the
Universe and sharing this journey of discovery with people on Earth.
Pokémon has sparked that same spirit of adventure for generations,
inviting fans around the world to discover, learn and explore through
play. (8/4)
Hunt On for Private Overseas
Investment in New Zealand's Second Launch Pad (Source: RNZ)
The National Aerospace Center says it expects to tap intense global
demand for rocket launches to get private investment for the country's
second launch pad. Tāwhaki says it has several European companies
interested in a spaceport at Kaitorete Spit south of Christchurch.
Plans "just need commercial ignition", said acting chief executive John
Holt. The government has all but ruled out any further capital
investment in the near term due to fiscal constraints, and an official
briefing said the lack of subsidies for launch pads was a "key
challenge". (8/5)
SaxaVord Spaceport Submits Revised
Staff Accommodation Plans (Source: Shetland Times)
Spaceport staff accommodation plans have been scaled back from 80
modules to 32, according to new documents. SaxaVord Spaceport recently
submitted revised proposals for its temporary accommodation required
for launch staff through two separate planning applications. They have
been lodged at a key time for the spaceport as it gears up for its
first launch, which could potentially happen as soon as next week. (8/5)
SpaceX Needs to Make Its Bigger
Rockets Work (Source: Wall Street Journal)
SpaceX’s stock has fallen hard since the company’s IPO in June. But
Elon Musk still needs a lot to go right to justify the company’s
out-of-this-world valuation. Pretty much all of SpaceX’s most promising
ambitions hinge on carrying larger payload capacity at lower cost than
today’s rockets. And that means the company can little afford continued
hiccups with Starship, the successor to SpaceX’s tried and tested
Falcon 9 rockets. (8/5)
NASA To Ramp Up ISS Mission Cadence To
Hasten Rotation Rate (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA plans to move up the launch of four crewmembers to the
International Space Station (ISS) to help hasten the crew rotation rate
as the seven-person orbital lab approaches a planned 2030 deorbit. (8/3)