September 13, 2026

Florida Has Become the New Hotbed for Defense Startup Money (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Venture-capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new regional headquarters in South Florida, focusing on defense investments two years after it fled the region following a short-lived crypto office in Miami. The California-based firm said it is planning to open its new base next year in West Palm Beach, where a team will oversee the American Dynamism fund. That vehicle has raised $1.18 billion for startups building technologies for national security and the industrial economy. (9/10)

Senegal Moves Closer to Building Satellites Domestically (Source: CGTN)
Senegal is taking another step towards developing an independent space industry, with engineers working on the country's second satellite in collaboration with France's University Space Center in Montpellier. The project is part of a wider national program aimed at building local expertise and reducing Senegal's reliance on foreign satellite imagery. (9/10)

Why is NASA in the Air Show Business? (Source: Space News)
NASA recently announced Max Power, a spectacle-filled event at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with air shows that the agency is ticketing as a series of "park experiences" and a major industry trade event. "Max Power might turn out to be a fun event, but it might also be an empty one. It could inspire the next generation of the space workforce, but so could a regular trip to KSC, writes Jeff Foust.

"Brian Hughes, the current director of KSC, said at the Max Power announcement his interest in space was kindled by a trip to the center when he was 3½ years old. The agency is involved in a lot more spectacles with greater significance, from exploring the universe to returning humans to the moon. And rocket launches are a lot more fun than an air show." (9/12)

Mars Astronauts Could Live in Houses 3D-Printed From Freeze-Dried Yeast (Source: The Register)
A paper published on Thursday describes a method for building structures on Mars that doesn’t rely on energy-intensive heating to turn regolith into building blocks. The team instead turned to bioengineered yeast and gelatin mixed with simulated Mars dirt to 3D print structures.

"My inspiration came from freeze-dried fruits that become harder,” says senior author Jishen Qiu. His idea is a relatively simple one once you break it down: Take one part yeast bioengineered to produce adhesive proteins that bind the components. Combine with artificial gelatin hydrosol to serve as a growth medium for the yeast. Add plain old Martian dirt, and extrude the material through a 3D-printing nozzle. (9/11)

Macron’s Space Summit Showed Europe Isn’t Ready for Takeoff Without the US (Source; Politico)
The international space summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday and Thursday was meant to show that Europe is getting serious about investing in its space sector. But the two-day gathering under the glass dome of Paris’ Grand Palais ended up demonstrating that Europeans are not spending enough to cut reliance on the U.S. to access space — at least not yet. (9/10)

DIU Moves to Prototype New Contract Model That Will Fast-Track Security Clearances for Startups (Source: Defense Scoop)
The Defense Innovation Unit will soon sponsor approved startups and non-traditional companies with certain temporary security clearances so they can participate in classified conversations to fully grasp the U.S. military’s real demands, ahead of winning major Pentagon contracts.

Senior defense officials on Thursday previewed a unique contracting solicitation that’s in the pipeline for release in the next few weeks and will prototype a process to grant venture-backed and other small businesses with fast-tracked Facility Security Clearances (FCL) held under DIU’s new Bridge Program. (9/10)

The FAA's Plan To Replace The Supersonic Flight Ban Could Change Commercial Aviation (Source: Simple Flying)
Boom Supersonic holds approximately 130 conditional orders from United Airlines, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines (JAL) for its Mach 1.7 Overture airliner. President Trump signed an executive order in June 2025 directing the FAA to repeal the ban. Congress is advancing bipartisan legislation with statutory deadlines. Regulatory, technological, and political conditions for supersonic overland flight are aligning for the first time since the ban.

Congress has pursued a parallel track through the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act, known as the SAM Act. The legislation is sponsored in the House by Representatives Troy Nehls of Texas and Sharice Davids of Kansas with nine additional cosponsors. In the Senate, Senators Ted Budd of North Carolina and John Hickenlooper of Colorado lead the bill with four additional cosponsors.

Boomless Cruise does not require the aircraft's shape to prevent shock wave coalescence the way the X-59 does. It relies on atmospheric conditions and flight profile management to keep the boom above the surface. Whether Boomless Cruise can consistently keep ground-level overpressure below 0.11 lb per square foot across varying atmospheric conditions, seasons, and terrain is a question that flight testing and operational data will need to answer. (9/12)

Some Satellite Companies Still Have an Appetite for Boutique Launch Services (Source: Ars Technica)
If you ask most satellite companies aside from SpaceX, they will tell you the world doesn’t have enough capacity for launching payloads into orbit. This is despite the blistering launch cadence we’ve seen around the world in recent years, led by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

Customers in any sector will, of course, usually welcome competition. Theoretically, competition will lead to lower prices and allow the best to rise to the top. It seems like the customers buying launch services were right. SpaceX is dialing back its Falcon 9 launch program, and there is no certainty about when SpaceX’s reusable next-generation super-heavy-lift rocket, Starship, will carry anything to orbit besides the company’s own Starlink satellites.

So it’s no surprise satellite operators are cheering the success of a new launch provider. This was especially the case a few days ago, when Germany’s Isar Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum rocket. The launcher delivered a batch of CubeSats to low-Earth orbit from a spaceport in northern Norway, and Isar tasted success after its first test flight ended in failure last year. (9/11)

FAA Advises of Sep. 18 Date for Next Starship Flight (Source: NSF)
An FAA Operations Plan Advisory lists Starship Flight 14 for September 18. The launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. CDT. (9/11)

Space Force Clears Design Milestone for 10 New Satellites To Track Maneuverable Hypersonic Missiles Worldwide (Source: Defence Industry Europe)
The U.S. Space Force has completed a critical design review for the first two orbital planes of its Epoch 2 missile-warning and tracking network. The milestone clears the program to advance towards construction of 10 new satellites for deployment in medium Earth orbit.

BAE Space & Mission Systems, the first of two planned Epoch 2 suppliers, supported the completed review. Selection of a second supplier is continuing, with a contract award planned for early fiscal 2027. Epoch 2 is the next phase of Space Systems Command’s Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking program. It will expand global coverage and improve the military’s ability to detect, track and assess advanced missile threats. (9/11)

Northrop Grumman Eyes 25,000 Rocket Motors Annually As It Adds 57,000-Square-Foot Maryland Facility (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Northrop Grumman opened a new 57,000-square-foot Propulsion Innovation Center in Elkton, Maryland, as part of a broader $100 million investment to expand the company’s solid rocket motor capacity across its propulsion manufacturing network. (9/12)

Boeing and Engineers’ Union Reach Tentative Contract Agreement (Source: Reuters)
Boeing and its engineering union reached a ‌tentative contract agreement on Friday, union officials said. The four-year offer includes higher general wage increases than the first offer, which members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) overwhelmingly rejected in an August 21 vote. (9/11)

Axiom Space, ESA Partner On Innovation, LEO Access (Source: Aviation Week)
Axiom Space and ESA have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) emphasizing the importance of international collaboration and commercial innovation in space. They are also seeking to broaden cooperation for sustained European access to low Earth orbit (LEO). The partnership helps Europe secure continuous access to microgravity research and flight opportunities as the ISS nears its retirement.

Both organizations will explore future astronaut missions to both the ISS and the commercial Axiom Station. The collaboration covers potential European contributions to infrastructure, science payloads, and future transport systems like European cargo and crew vehicles. (9/10)

SpaceX: Louisiana’s Blueprint for Exponential Business Growth (Source: New Louisiana)
SpaceX may have given Louisiana more than a transformational investment. It may have given us a blueprint. When attracting the project mattered enough, Louisiana demonstrated its willingness to reconsider taxes, remove regulatory obstacles, coordinate government agencies, and provide greater legal certainty. In doing so, the state also provided a remarkable demonstration of what our own government believes stands in the way of investment. The question now is whether those lessons can be applied beyond aerospace. (9/11)

Finland Urges Musk To Allow Starlink Use Against Russia (Source: Aviation Week)
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb urged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of the company’s Starlink service in its battle against Russia. Stubb, during the International Space Summit here in Paris, called out Musk and said he should allow Ukraine to use the satellite system to target Russian ballistic missile launchers that are killing Ukrainians.

The appeal comes as Russia has been firing ballistic missiles at Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, on a near-daily basis. Ukraine has been struggling to defend itself against those attacks given its lack of missile defense interceptors. (9/10)

Gravity Molded Human Consciousness—But a Future in Space Could Make It Evolve (Source: Popular Mechanics)
The near-absence of gravity during space missions can temporarily alter astronauts’ bodies and brains. In one experiment, gene expression and chromosomal telomere length changed. Some scientists theorize that long-term life in microgravity could reshape human cognition, potentially even consciousness, and other aspects of human evolution.  Evidence for such future changes is limited for now. But researchers are looking for ways to predict how humans might adapt to long periods in space. (9/11)