August 6, 2026

Rocket One and NASA Reach Agreement to Advance Space AI Technology (Source: Rocket One)
Rocket One has entered into a nonexclusive patent license agreement with NASA covering the Affordable Vehicle Avionics System (AVA), a NASA-developed technology that will serve as the foundation for Rocket One’s planned AI-powered software platform supporting spacecraft mission planning, avionics modeling, simulation and engineering workflows.

Rocket One has obtained rights to develop and commercialize software, analytical tools and technical workflows utilizing NASA’s patented technology within a defined field of use focused on modeling, simulation, testing and mission planning for space-vehicle avionics. The company intends to integrate the licensed technology into an AI-enabled platform designed to streamline spacecraft engineering, mission readiness, avionics analysis and technical decision-making for commercial launch providers, satellite operators, aerospace companies, defense contractors and government organizations. (8/4)

NRO Picks Capella, Iceye, and Umbra for SAR Imaging (Source: Space News)
The National Reconnaissance Office awarded synthetic aperture radar imaging contracts to three companies. The NRO said Wednesday it selected Capella Space, Iceye U.S. and Umbra for awards under its Commercial Radar Capabilities program. That establishes a direct pathway for users to order SAR collections, archive imagery and derived products as well as work to develop new capabilities to meet mission requirements. The NRO said the radar imaging awards leverage lessons learned from a similar program to acquire optical imagery from commercial providers. (8/6)

China's Orienspace Plans IPO (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch company Orienspace is starting preparations for an IPO as it raises more private financing. The company announced this week it raised tens of millions of dollars in a pre-C round from several investors. Orienspace said the funds will go toward research, development and production of Gravity-2, a large liquid-propellant reusable rocket. The company is also starting preparations for an IPO, joining a growing cohort of Chinese commercial rocket makers such as LandSpace, CAS Space, Space Pioneer and Galactic Energy that are racing toward listings on Shanghai's STAR Market. (8/6)

NASA and Roscosmos Extend ISS Seat Barter Agreement (Source: Space News)
NASA and Roscosmos continue to extend an agreement to barter seats on spacecraft going to the International Space Station. Russian media reported in July that the agencies had agreed in principle to extend an agreement to swap seats on Soyuz and Crew Dragon missions, ensuring there will be crew from both agencies on the station if either vehicle is sidelined for an extended period. At a briefing earlier this week about the upcoming Crew-13 mission, NASA officials did not say how long the agreement has been extended but noted they look ahead about 18 months when planning missions. The agreement does not yet include Boeing's Starliner as NASA and Boeing continue to work to resolve propulsion system problems. (8/6)

Rocket Lab Launches Japanese SAR Imaging Satellite From New Zealand (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab launched a Japanese radar-imaging satellite Thursday more than a month after the previous attempt was aborted. An Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand launch site at 5:18 a.m. Eastern, deploying the QPS-SAR-13 satellite 50 minutes later into low Earth orbit. The launch was scheduled for the end of June but was scrubbed just as the Electron's engines ignited. Rocket Lab did not disclose what caused that abort or the lengthy delay. The customer for this launch was iQPS, a Japanese company developing a SAR constellation. It will also be the customer for the next Electron launch, scheduled for late this month. (8/6)

ISS Spacewalk Aims to Prepare for New Solar Arrays (Source: NASA)
NASA astronauts have started a spacewalk at the ISS. Astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon officially started the spacewalk at 8:33 a.m. Eastern, scheduled to last six and a half hours. The two will conduct work to prepare a power channel on the station for the installation of new solar arrays that will be sent to the station later this year. This is the first of three spacewalks planned by NASA at the ISS this month. (8/6)

Broadband Constellation Startups Seek Their Niche Alongside Starlink and Leo (Source: Space News)
Startups planning broadband constellations are seeking niches to avoid directly competing with Starlink and Amazon Leo. Startups that include Logos, Rivada, CesiumAstro, Astra, LTS Systems/Theia and SpinLaunch's SN Space subsidiary applied for more than 13,700 satellites in the FCC's latest processing round for satellite systems in the Ka-, Ku- and V-bands last month. Analysts say those companies will need to avoid directly competing against existing providers, instead providing services for enterprise and government customers. However, if those niches prove attractive, they could again face competition from major providers. (8/6)

Falcon 9 Upper Stage Crashes Into Moon (Sources: New York Times, Yonhap)
A Falcon 9 upper stage hit the moon Wednesday but few were able to detect the impact. The stage, weighing about four tons, hit the moon at 2:35 a.m. Eastern on the western limb. Astronomers did not detect the impact itself or a prominent plume of material, but a few observatories reported seeing traces of the impact, such as sodium and lithium detections. South Korea's space agency, KASA, said its Danuri lunar orbiter spotted the impact site in images taken hours later, showing a black spot not visible in images of the area taken before the impact. (8/6)

Solar Imagery Sharpens Photosphere Focus (Source: Science News)
The sharpest images taken to date of the sun are helping scientists understand its activity. In a paper published Wednesday, researchers described how they used high-resolution images of the sun taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii to detect swirls of magnetized plasma on the sun's photosphere. Those swirls, seen throughout the image, could be the source of instability that leads to the formation of solar flares and may also explain the heating of the sun's corona. Those swirls were only seen now because of the resolution of the telescope's images, which can see features just tens of kilometers across. (8/6)

Physicists Find Unexpected Connection Between Black Hole Mergers and Thermodynamic (Source: Physics World)
Usually, when physicists want to model the merger of two black holes, they use supercomputers. Now, however, physicists in the US have found a possible shortcut. They show that, of the final states permitted by energy and angular momentum, the remnant of a non-spinning black hole merger ends up in a state quite close to one that maximizes the system’s entropy – a surprising and puzzling result that reinforces the deep connection between thermodynamics and black holes.

After the moment of merger, the remnant oscillates vigorously, “ringing down” into a quiescent, rotating object known as a Kerr black hole that can be described in terms of just two quantities: mass and spin. Meanwhile, the gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of spacetime – from this energetic collision propagate through space virtually uninterrupted. These gravitational waves encode information about their source, and when we detect them on Earth (millions of light-years away from their origin), we can use them to predict the remnant’s size and spin. (8/4)

Study Finds Evidence of Liquid Recently Flowing on Pluto’s Surface (Source: SwRI)
A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto’s surface through cracks in the northern edge of the Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the first evidence of liquid recently flowing on Pluto. The study is based on data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft and is led by SwRI Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission. (8/5)

Artemis II Astronauts Discuss Mission at Red Rocks CO Event (Source: 9News)
The Artemis II crew was in Colorado on Monday to discuss their role in NASA's historic mission to the moon. The astronauts — NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, NASA Pilot Victor Glover, NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — appeared at Red Rocks Amphitheatre for a public speaking event Monday morning. (8/4)

FCC Plan to Share Wi-Fi Bands With Satellites Raises Interference Alarms (Source: PC Mag)
A US plan that could let satellites supply data to laptops and smartphones using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio bands is facing some pushback over concerns about interference. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission introduced a novel proposal to enable satellites to beam data to consumer and IoT devices already equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips. This includes harnessing the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands commonly used by Wi-Fi routers. However, resistance is emerging among wireless internet service providers (WISPs) that use radio signals to deliver broadband to local homes and businesses. (8/3)

NASA Funds Projects to Explore Caves on Moon, Titan (Source: Douglas Messier)
Lava tubes and caves on the Moon, Mars and other worlds could provide habitats for future explorers that would protect them from dangerous radiation. The challenge is how to safely explore these subterranean areas on worlds hostile to human life.

NASA has provided grants for two early-stage research projects to develop technologies for these tasks. One researcher wants to explore a skylight on the Moon, the other is focused on exploring caves on Saturn’s moon Titan. Each NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I award provides up to $175,000 for a nine-month initial study. NIAC projects are focused on early concept development and are not considered official NASA missions. (8/4)

JPL Engineer Envisions Venus Rovers Lasting Years (Source: Douglas Messier)
Venus has been an especially difficult world for planetary scientists to study. Surface temperatures range from 464°C to 482°C (867°F to 900°F) and atmospheric pressure is 89 to 94 times higher than on Earth. Soviet landers that reached the surface transmitted for between 23 and 127 minutes before dying in Venus’ hellish environment. David Bugby, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is hoping to overcome these obstacles. He is researching technologies that he believes will enable rovers to explore Venus’ surface for years at a time. Bugby received an early-stage research award under the NASA Innovative Advanced Projects (NIAC) program. Each NIAC Phase I award provides up to $175,000 for a nine-month initial investigation. (8/3)