September 15, 2026

An Analysis of Ukraine’s Missile Strike on the Progress Rocket Factory (Source: Space Review)
Ukrainian cruise missiles struck a Russian factory last month that produces Soyuz rockets, with some reports claiming the attack caused serious damage. Bart Hendrickx examines the evidence to better understand the significance of the attack. Click here. (9/15)
 
A Collision Probability is Not Permission to Maneuver (Source: Space Review)
Satellite operators are increasingly turning to automated systems to avoid potential collisions based on when the probability of a collision passes a threshold. Burak Oktenli argues that threshold alone should not be sufficient to trigger a maneuver. Click here. (9/15)
 
The Junkers Spaceplane (Source: Space Review)
In the early 1960s, a German aerospace company pursued studies of a spaceplane with support of a famous designer. Hans Dolfing explores the designs Junkers examined for a reusable spaceplane. Click here. (9/15)
 
Voyager 6 Seeks the Creator (Source: Space Review)
The first Star Trek movie features a spacecraft based on the recently launched Voyager missions. Dwayne Day describes how the filmmakers worked with NASA on the design of Voyager 6. Click here. (9/15)
 
The Road to the Asteroid belt Runs Through the Moon (Source: Space Review)
NASA is leading a new effort to develop a lunar base, one that requires development of many technologies needed to live on the lunar surface for extended periods. Chad McElroy and Jacob Smagula discuss how these technologies can also help create an asteroid mining industry. Click here. (9/15)

The Space Race That Will Decide the Future of Freedom (Source: National Review)
What America does in space during the next ten or 20 years may determine humanity’s trajectory for centuries to come. We are in a race with China that will decide whether tens of billions of people yet to be born will live in freedom or under rules established by the Chinese Communist Party. The nation that first achieves rapid, fully reusable orbital flight will dominate commercial space. Commercial space dominance will lead to military space dominance. Military space dominance will confer decisive advantages across the entire planet — on land, at sea, and in the air.

The dominant military in space and on Earth will acquire unprecedented leverage over the international order and possess the ability to impose its values on billions. The key technological revolution in space is reusable launch — it is the Moore’s Law of space. Every integrated circuit, software platform, and artificial-intelligence system today rests on Moore’s Law, which states that as microchip technology improves, costs decrease, lowering the cost of computing. In the same way, everything humanity does in space rests on launches becoming cheaper, more reliable, and more frequent. (9/13)

UF Brings Experiments on Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign (Source: UZH Space Hub)
The University of Florida space biomanufacturing initiative is taking flight at the 8th Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign. A crew of nine faculty investigators, students, and a postdocs are working alongside partners at UZH Space Hub. Together they are flying 12 experiments designed to answer a fundamental question: How do living systems respond when gravity changes?

In every parabola, They are capturing real-time fluid behavior, monitoring enzyme activity, and measuring cellular responses through advanced fluorescence imaging. These insights will help advance technologies for producing medicines, supporting human health, and creating sustainable resource recycling systems beyond Earth. (9/15)

CubeSat Instrument Extends Solar Storm Warnings Tenfold (Source: Universe Today)
A new instrument aboard a CubeSat could extend advance warnings of solar storms by a factor of 10. The capability would improve monitoring of solar radiation, helping characterize space-weather conditions that can affect spacecraft, satellite operations and other space-based systems. (9/15)

Spaceports to Satellites: Here Are the Big Projects Canada Is Pitching (Source: Bloomberg)
Canada is putting some of its biggest ambitions on the table for global investors, including data centers, critical-mineral mines, high-speed rail and an Arctic trade corridor. A 66-page prospectus prepared for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Canada Investment Summit in Toronto lays out 167 projects, with opportunities to invest in shovel-ready developments or get in at the planning stages. The pitch is part of a broader push to attract C$1 trillion ($721 billion) of investment over five years. (9/15)

Musk Revives Idea of Combining SpaceX and Tesla (Source: Bloomberg)
Elon Musk again raised the possibility of merging SpaceX and Tesla, calling the question of why the companies remain separate a “great question.” Musk pointed to the extensive cooperation between the rocket and electric-vehicle businesses, which he leads as chief executive of both. (9/15)

Novaspace Forecasts More Than Fourfold Growth in Space-Based ISR Satellite Launches Over Next Decade (Source: Defense News)
The number of satellites launched to provide militaries and defense departments with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data from space is expected to increase more than fourfold over the next decade, according to Novaspace, signaling sustained expansion in defense-oriented orbital infrastructure. (9/15)

Kuva Space Demonstrates Satellite Monitoring of Illegal Poppy Cultivation (Source: Payload)
Kuva Space released data from a pilot program demonstrating its ability to monitor illegal poppy farming from orbit. The results highlight a potential satellite-based approach for identifying illicit crop cultivation over broad areas without relying solely on ground-based surveillance. (9/15)

Maverick Books 10 Kepler Satellites on Portal’s Dedicated Launch to Use Excess Capacity (Source: Payload)
Maverick has booked 10 Kepler satellites on a dedicated launch operated by Portal, using available capacity as demand for orbital launch services continues to intensify. The deal highlights the value of flexible launch arrangements for satellite operators seeking access to increasingly constrained capacity. (9/15)

Sophia Space, SLI Set Terms for $300M Satellite Leasing Deal (Source: Payload)
Orbital compute startup Sophia Space and space asset leasing company SLI have set terms for a $300M asset-financing deal. Under the framework, SLI would fund construction of a 10-satellite edge computing constellation against build and launch milestones, take ownership upon in-orbit acceptance, and lease them to Sophia’s customers. Both companies are betting that space is entering its infrastructure capital era. As a result, they’re relying on the same financing tools that built aviation and shipping. (9/15)

Trump "Loyalty" Question Barred From Federal Job Applications (Source: FNN)
Agencies will be barred from including an essay question on federal job applications asking candidates which of the president’s executive orders are most “significant” to them. U.S. District Judge George O’Toole on Friday issued a stay order directing agencies to remove the question from all hiring announcements, after finding that the inclusion of the essay question likely violated job applicants’ First Amendment rights. (9/14)

Golden Dome Needs Congressional Buy-In, but Lawmakers are Still in the Dark (Source: FNN)
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) said there is “a lot of work that has to be done” to build broad support in Congress for the Trump administration’s ambitious Golden Dome missile defense system, in part because lawmakers still do not have any meaningful information about the system more than a year after President Trump announced the initiative.

“To be able to, I think, first of all, get the information that we need is extremely important, but also to have a better understanding of just what Golden Dome involves,” Fischer said. Her comments come after a group of lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June saying that DoD needs to share its plans for the system before the department “spends one more taxpayer dollar” on the Golden Dome initiative. (9/14)

HawkEye 360 Establishes European Subsidiary (Source: Space News)
HawkEye 360 announced several steps Tuesday for addressing growing demand for sovereign space capabilities in Europe. The company, which operates satellites for radio-frequency intelligence, said it is establishing a European subsidiary, working with Leonardo to provide radio-frequency sensing to European customers and collaborating with ERA, part of the Czech Republic's Omnipol Group. Company CEO John Serafini said international demand for its services is "off the charts," prompting the new European partnerships. (9/15)

Finland's Iceye Expanding to Germany, Portugal, India, Netherlands, South Korea, UAE (Source: Space News)
Iceye is also expanding its global footprint to meet sovereign demand. In recent weeks, the Finnish synthetic aperture radar satellite manufacturer and constellation operator established Iceye Germany, Iceye Portugal, Iceye India, an Iceye technology hub in the Netherlands, a strategic partnership with South Korean satellite operator KT Sat and local leadership for Iceye United Arab Emirates. The company's new global COO said Iceye is responding to sustained customer demand in these locations where there's been a clear case for countries developing their homegrown intelligence value chain. (9/15)

SES Plans European Factory for Elveo Satellites (Source: Space News)
SES revealed plans Tuesday to establish direct-to-device satellite production capabilities in Europe with Elveo Mobile. Elveo said the factory would be geared around the D2D satellite bus, payload and software, but did not reveal the location, timing or other details about the European factory. The operator, formed by the recent merger of Lynk Global and Omnispace, announced on Monday it is working with satellite manufacturer Apex to establish a dedicated satellite factory somewhere in the United States. (9/15)

Airbus, Leonardo and Thales Alenia Continue Project Bromo Support (Source: Space News)
Executives of the three European companies planning to merge their space businesses say the joint venture still makes sense despite a changing market. Airbus Defence and Space, Leonardo and Thales Alenia Space announced last fall their intent to merge their space businesses into a joint venture codenamed Project Bromo.

The deal came as the companies were struggling, but they have since turned around their space businesses and are seeing growing demand, particularly from European governments. Despite the changing markets, executives said at World Space Business Week on Monday that the merger was still needed to provide sufficient scale for Europe in the global market. Bromo is going through regulatory reviews that could be aided by proposed changes to EU merger guidelines. (9/15)

Vega C Launches Two Satellites (Source: Space News)
A Vega C successfully launched two European Earth science satellites Monday night. The rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:21 p.m. Eastern, deploying the Sentinel-3C satellite an hour later and FLEX nearly an hour after that. Sentinel-3C is part of the Copernicus program by the European Commission and ESA for Earth science observations, while FLEX is an ESA Earth science mission. The launch was the second this year of the Vega C with another planned before the end of the year. At the International Space Summit last week, Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said his company was planning to increase the vehicle's launch cadence to six per year in the near future, and could further increase it to nine per year. (9/15)

Satellogic Gets Navy Agreement for Six Satellites (Source: Space News)
Earth observation company Satellogic has an agreement to launch six satellites for the Office of Naval Research. The contract, through Innovative Defense Technologies, involves six of the company's Mark VI satellites to support the office's Slingshot III program. In 2025 and 2026, Satellogic conducted Slingshot III proof-of-concept demonstrations with Mark VI satellites, which gather imagery with native resolution of 70 centimeters per pixel and 50-centimeter super resolution in four spectral bands. With artificial-intelligence algorithms running onboard, the Mark VI satellites will share observations in real time through radio-frequency intersatellite links. Satellogic also announced it will launch three satellites, one Mark V and two Mark VI spacecraft, in October on a SpaceX rideshare mission. (9/15)

Australia's HEO Repurposes Earth Observation Sat to Inspect Chinese Rocket Body (Source: Space News)
Australian company HEO repurposed an Earth observation satellite to conduct close-range inspection of a Chinese Long March 2C rocket. HEO worked with Satellogic and the University of New South Wales Canberra Space to obtain images of the stage from various angles and imaging conditions using Continuum-1, the spacecraft HEO acquired in orbit from Satellogic earlier this year. HEO has performed non-Earth imaging through conventional flybys, where satellites gather imagery when they pass space objects during routine operations. In contrast, Continuum-1 moved to within 40 kilometers of the rocket body, obtaining images at a resolution of 7 centimeters per pixel. (9/15)

UK's Shield Space Readies Cubesat for Satellite Inspections (Source: Space News)
British startup Shield Space has completed the critical design review for a cubesat designed for satellite inspection. Shield Space is providing autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) software for an 8U cubesat EnduroSat is building to chase a 3U target, also based on the Bulgarian firm's standardized bus. The Broadsword mission, planned for 2027, will test the ability of the chaser cubesat to approach within 100 meters of the other cubesat. Shield Space argues that, if this mission is successful, it will show that cubesats can perform inspection missions, opening up what it sees as "pretty significant" defense applications. (9/15)

ColliMate Demos Nexus Software for Autonomous Satcom Downlinks (Source: Space News)
ColliMate Space has demonstrated its Nexus software for autonomously managing satellite downlinks on a spacecraft for the first time. Running on ESA's OPS-SAT PRETTY in-orbit software testbed, ColliMate said Nexus successfully combined simulated spacecraft sensor data with orbital, environmental and radio frequency information. ColliMate now aims to test multiple phenomenologies of real-time on-orbit sensors to further increase the system's flexibility, as well as move toward operational deployments on commercial and government spacecraft. ColliMate is part of a wider push to add more autonomy in orbit, leaning on increasingly capable and cheaper-to-deploy spacecraft. (9/15)

Space Telescope Gets Bonus Time From Fuel-Saving Maneuvers (Source: NASA)
An accurate launch will help extend the lifetime of NASA's newest space telescope. The agency said Tuesday that engineers have conserved fuel reserved for mid-course correction maneuvers after the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in late August. One maneuver was more accurate than required, conserving fuel. That, along with additional fuel loaded on Roman before launch and an upcoming second maneuver that will be smaller than expected, will give Roman more than 20 years of fuel reserves once it arrives at the Earth-sun L-2 point. The mission was designed to have 10 years of fuel. (9/15)