September 17, 2026

Sidus Space Signs MOU with 3GM Plus to Support Slovenian Small Satellite Capability (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with 3GM Plus, a Slovenian company headquartered in Ljubljana, to collaborate on satellite manufacturing, technology licensing, and the establishment of a domestic small satellite capability in Slovenia. Under the MOU, 3GM Plus will serve as prime contractor for Slovenian satellite programs, with Sidus supporting as subcontractor providing satellite bus technology and licensing, engineering development and knowledge transfer, and flight-proven hardware. (9/17)

Groups Say FAA Commercial Space Waivers Illegal (Source: Douglas Messier)
The Department of Transportation’s plan to waive the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and a dozen related laws to “supercharge” the commercial space industry is both illegal and grossly irresponsible, environmental groups said in comments submitted to the government.

“Nothing in the language of the Waiver Provision suggests or supports a broad, complete waiver of an entire law’s application across the board, much less waiver of all provisions of 13 environmental protection laws as set forth in the Proposed Rule,” Earthjustice said in a letter submitted to DOT last month.

The Seattle-based non-profit submitted the letter on behalf of the American Bird Conservancy, DarkSky International, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The letter is one of more than 3,500 submissions that DOT received during a month-long public comment period that ended on Aug. 31. (9/17)

Space Inventor and Astroscale Japan Develop In-Orbit Satellite Servicing Architecture (Source: SatNews)
On Sep. 16, Danish satellite manufacturer Space Inventor and its partner Astroscale Japan announced the development of a joint technological capability enabling in-orbit satellite servicing, maintenance, and repair. The system combines Space Inventor’s modular smallsat platforms with Astroscale Japan’s flight-proven rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking infrastructure to address spacecraft operational failures and propellant depletion in low Earth orbit. (9/16)

Space Force’s GMTI Program Gets a Name, with Northrop as Prime (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force plans to begin launching a new satellite constellation that can track ground targets from orbit by 2028, according to a top service official. Space Force Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon revealed that the Resilient Radar System-Ground, or RRS-G, program will go up “in the next two years.” The satellite system is built by Northrop Grumman, the general said. (9/16)

Space Security: Can Europe Connect the Dots Better? (Source: Via Satellite)
Europe needs to embrace risk if it is to benefit more from next generation of space capabilities and keep its space assets secure. This was one of the key takeaways from a discussion on international alliances and cooperation in space security on Tuesday. Ahead of the discussion, Eva Portier, space deputy to the Director General for Armaments (DGA) in France admitted that “Space has become a domain of war,” and that we are currently witnessing is a changing nature of the space environment.

“Cooperation is in the DNA of the European Union. That cooperation is being challenged. There is a need for Europe to do much more, and that means space capabilities. We need to have more cooperation. We want to incentivize member states to invest in space capabilities,” he said. "How can we connect the dots between what the EU is doing and what member states are doing? How do we tap into the potential of the private sector? It has to be a very agile architecture to plug and play capabilities. We need space capabilities that are fit for purpose over the coming years. The intelligence itself is for member states. But we are helping member states in developing capabilities. But, how can we have EU based industry provide sovereign services? We need an industry that is fully up to speed and agile. Sovereignty matters.” (9/16)

L3Harris Chose To Not Be An SBI Prime, Instead Focusing As Propulsion Supplier (Source: Defense Daily)
An L3Harris executive said the company has elected to not be a prime on the Space Force’s Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) competition because for now it wanted to instead focus on being a propulsion supplier for that element of missile defense. "We chose to be a merchant supplier, leveraging our equities that were proven in, which is propulsion, and I’ll leave it at that,” said Rob Mitrevski. (9/16)

China Launches Another Two Rockets in One Day (Source: Space News)
China conducted two launches about two hours apart Wednesday evening. A Long March 12 rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch center. It placed nine satellites into orbit for the Guowang constellation into orbits at an inclination of 50 degrees. A Kuaizhou-11 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, putting into orbit Tianyi-51 and Tianyi-52, spacecraft developed by Chinese company Spacety to perform interferometric synthetic aperture radar imaging from mid-inclination orbits. The launches were part of four conducted by China within 48 hours. (9/17)

Russia Launches Cargo Mission to ISS (Sources: Space.com, NASA)
Russia launched a Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on Wednesday. A Soyuz-2.1b placed the Progress MS-35 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft, carrying about three tons of cargo, will dock with the station on Saturday. The launch was scheduled for last week but delayed, reportedly because of problems with the rocket's third stage. NASA separately announced Wednesday that the next crewed mission to the ISS, Crew-13, will now launch in early October. Crew-13 was scheduled to launch in mid-September but was delayed to correct a leak in an oxidizer line in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. (9/17)

SpaceX Launches Classified Wednesday Mission From California (Source: Spaceflight Now)
A Falcon 9 launched a classified Space Force mission Wednesday night. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:07 p.m. Eastern after a one-day delay. Neither SpaceX nor the Space Force disclosed details about the payload on the Falcon 9 for this mission, designated USSF-259. It followed two similar Space Force Falcon 9 missions launched in mid-August and last week, with another expected in late September. (9/17)

Rocket Lab's Iridium Acquisition is On Track (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab says its acquisition of satellite operator Iridium remains on track. The company said Tuesday it completed financing for the $8 billion deal announced in June and is now working on regulatory issues before closing the deal. Rocket Lab previously said it expected the acquisition to close by mid-2027 but company CFO Adam Spice said at World Space Business Week earlier this week that it could be done sooner. Spice said Rocket Lab sees growth opportunities for using Iridium's existing constellation for navigation services as well as direct-to-device applications that comply with the 3GPP standard. (9/17)

Intuitive Machines Plans Entry Into Orbital Data Centers (Source: Space News)
Intuitive Machines wants to leverage its GEO satellite manufacturing capabilities for orbital data centers. Company executives said at World Space Business Week that they are studying how to transfer existing capabilities to build large GEO satellites, obtained when Intuitive Machines acquired Lanteris Space Systems, to orbital data center satellites. Doing so would also require "industrial-scale" production, shifting from a handful of satellites built for GEO customers to potentially hundreds for orbital data center customers. The company currently builds spacecraft that produce about 30 kilowatts of power and sees a path to scale them to spacecraft with 100 kilowatts or more. (9/17)

Behold, a Large New Crater on the Moon! (Source: AP)
Scientists have discovered a large new crater on the moon. The crater, 222 meters across and 43 meters deep, was created some time between April 11 and May 22 of 2024 based on images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater was likely caused by an impact of an asteroid the size of a small building. Such an impact should happen on the moon less than once a century. Scientists named the crater McGetchin after the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. (9/17)

China Launches Another Two Rockets in One Day (Source: Space News)
China conducted two launches about two hours apart Wednesday evening. A Long March 12 rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch center. It placed nine satellites into orbit for the Guowang constellation into orbits at an inclination of 50 degrees. A Kuaizhou-11 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, putting into orbit Tianyi-51 and Tianyi-52, spacecraft developed by Chinese company Spacety to perform interferometric synthetic aperture radar imaging from mid-inclination orbits. The launches were part of four conducted by China within 48 hours. (9/17)

Russia Launches Cargo Mission to ISS (Sources: Space.com, NASA)
Russia launched a Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on Wednesday. A Soyuz-2.1b lifted off at 9:33 a.m. Eastern and placed the Progress MS-35 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft, carrying about three tons of cargo, will dock with the station on Saturday. The launch was scheduled for last week but delayed, reportedly because of problems with the rocket's third stage. NASA separately announced Wednesday that the next crewed mission to the ISS, Crew-13, will now launch in early October. Crew-13 was scheduled to launch in mid-September but was delayed to correct a leak in an oxidizer line in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. (9/17)

SpaceX Launches Classified Wednesday Mission From California (Source: Spaceflight Now)
A Falcon 9 launched a classified Space Force mission Wednesday night. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:07 p.m. Eastern after a one-day delay. Neither SpaceX nor the Space Force disclosed details about the payload on the Falcon 9 for this mission, designated USSF-259. It followed two similar Space Force Falcon 9 missions launched in mid-August and last week, with another expected in late September. (9/17)

Rocket Lab's Iridium Acquisition is On Track (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab says its acquisition of satellite operator Iridium remains on track. The company said Tuesday it completed financing for the $8 billion deal announced in June and is now working on regulatory issues before closing the deal. Rocket Lab previously said it expected the acquisition to close by mid-2027 but company CFO Adam Spice said at World Space Business Week earlier this week that it could be done sooner. Spice said Rocket Lab sees growth opportunities for using Iridium's existing constellation for navigation services as well as direct-to-device applications that comply with the 3GPP standard. (9/17)

Intuitive Machines Plans Entry Into Orbital Data Centers (Source: Space News)
Intuitive Machines wants to leverage its GEO satellite manufacturing capabilities for orbital data centers. Company executives said at World Space Business Week that they are studying how to transfer existing capabilities to build large GEO satellites, obtained when Intuitive Machines acquired Lanteris Space Systems, to orbital data center satellites. Doing so would also require "industrial-scale" production, shifting from a handful of satellites built for GEO customers to potentially hundreds for orbital data center customers. The company currently builds spacecraft that produce about 30 kilowatts of power and sees a path to scale them to spacecraft with 100 kilowatts or more. (9/17)

Behold, a Large New Crater on the Moon! (Source: AP)
Scientists have discovered a large new crater on the moon. The crater, 222 meters across and 43 meters deep, was created some time between April 11 and May 22 of 2024 based on images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater was likely caused by an impact of an asteroid the size of a small building. Such an impact should happen on the moon less than once a century. Scientists named the crater McGetchin after the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. (9/17)

Bulgaria's EnduroSat Raises $205 Million, Including for New US Manufacturing Site (Source: Space News)
Bulgarian satellite manufacturer EnduroSat has raised $205 million to ramp up production in Europe and the United States. The company announced Wednesday it closed a funding round led by Riot Ventures and Atreides Management that valued the company at more than $1 billion. The extra funds will help establish a new high-volume manufacturing facility in the United States, where it announced an order from navigation startup TrustPoint last week for 40 low Earth orbit satellites.

Also central to the raise are plans announced last month with Bulgaria's government for a space and defense hub at a former military airbase near Sofia featuring a production line designed to produce two 200- to 500-kilogram satellites a day. The company, once known for just cubesats, is looking to move beyond the 500-kilogram class with FRAME Max, designed for spacecraft weighing between one and five tons for orbital computing and other power-intensive applications. (9/17)

EnduroSat is also teaming with CACI to build two dozen imaging satellites for Vantor. Their 'Pulse' constellation will use 40-centimeter-imaging satellites to provide more frequent coverage than Vantor's existing high-resolution spacecraft. EnduroSat will supply the satellite buses and handle spacecraft integration, while CACI will provide the optical imaging payloads. Payload integration and testing will take place in the UUS, and Vantor said the satellites are expected to deploy between 2027 and 2029. Pulse satellites will monitor broad areas for changes and then cue higher-resolution satellites to collect more detailed imagery. (9/17)

Impulse Space Adds $308 Million to Scale (Source: Space News)
Impulse Space added $308 million in new investments. The additional money will help Impulse Space scale its team and work on new product development. The company has flown three of its Mira maneuverable spacecraft, two of which recently completed proximity operations that saw them come within 200 meters of each other. A fourth Mira is scheduled to launch next month, while the company works on its larger Helios kick stage for a 2027 first flight. (9/17)

ULA Vulcan Must Resume Commercial Missions Before Conducting More NatSec Missions (Source: Space News)
The Space Force will wait for ULA's Vulcan to resume commercial launches before using it for national security missions. A Space Force official said ULA will resume commercial operations, starting with an upcoming launch for Amazon Leo, while the Space Force continues its own review under the National Security Space Launch program, or NSSL, which buys launches for the military and intelligence community. Vulcan has not flown since February when one of its solid rocket boosters suffered an in-flight anomaly, although the mission was still a success. The pause has prompted the Space Force to examine how it can rearrange its launch schedule rather than wait for Vulcan to return, including potentially swapping missions between vehicles. (9/17)

Space Force Defers to SpaceX on SDN-B Constellation Design (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is deferring the design of a new satellite network to SpaceX. Rather than set specific spacecraft requirements for the Space Data Network Backbone (SDN-B) constellation, the service instead set constellation-level requirements for coverage, capacity, number of users and data throughput, allowing SpaceX to decide how to best achieve those requirements. SpaceX won the $2.29 billion contract for the SDN-B system in May. The Space Force describes the network as a foundational data backhaul layer providing high-capacity, low-latency communications. (9/17)

L3Harris HBTSS Missile Tracking Prototype to Become Part of AMDT3 Golden Dome Constellation (Source: Space News)
L3Harris is turning a missile-tracking prototype satellite developed for the Missile Defense Agency into a production spacecraft for Golden Dome. The company in July received a $955 million Space Development Agency contract for 18 Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3, or AMDT3, satellites, which will carry sensors designed to produce precise tracking data needed to support missile intercepts. The spacecraft are closely based on the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, or HBTSS, prototype that L3Harris launched in 2024 and subsequently tested on orbit. SDA tied the AMDT3 procurement to Golden Dome when it announced the contracts in July. (9/17)

Will Space Coast Innovation Park Draw Mystery Space Company to Titusville? (Source: Florida Today)
A 50-acre development at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville is expected to bring 1,500 to 2,000 high-tech aerospace jobs to north Brevard County. Space Coast Innovation Park is planned as a three-phase hub for aerospace and defense manufacturing companies. The project is being built on Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority land. The industrial zone will ultimately span 1.1 million square feet of floorspace across 100 acres in its first two phases for aerospace and defense companies at Space Coast Regional Airport.

The land has been owned by the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority and has sat empty and unused for about 20 years, according to Kevin Daughtery of the airport authority. “We’ve gone from tire kickers to real companies wanting to look at our property and invest,” Daughtery said. Officials said the project is expected to add to the region’s economy through new jobs and property tax revenue. “We are adding to the tax base, not just the jobs, but the ad valorem tax base,” Daughtery said. The park will help the region compete for companies looking for space to locate or expand. (9/16)

Space Force Growth Plans Put Florida's STARCOM at Center of Training Push (Source: Florida Today)
With the Space Force confirming America has weapons orbiting Earth, the recently minted military branch is launching a growth boom to face threats of space-based warfare by rivals such as Russia, China and rogue nations. And STARCOM at Patrick Space Force Base will play a critical role in training burgeoning ranks of Space Force guardians for futuristic space conflicts — think electromagnetic attacks, missile-laser weaponry and cyberwarfare. (9/16)

Space Force leaders want to double the number of today's 10,000-odd active-duty guardians within the next five years, said Space Force Maj. Gen. James Smith, who commands STARCOM. An acronym for Space Training and Readiness Command, STARCOM must develop space-warfighting tactics, techniques and wargaming for a nationwide wave of recruits, including training about 5,000 civilian employees.

STARCOM continues settling in on Florida's Space Coast after moving cross-country from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The command marked its Sunshine State one-year anniversary in July. In March, STARCOM conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a $28 million headquarters annex, a pair of nondescript modular buildings near the Air Force Technical Applications Center. Looking ahead, Smith said the Space Force may build a permanent STARCOM headquarters at Patrick SFB in the early 2030s. (9/16)

Breakthrough Could Enable Rocket-Fuel Production From Mars’ Thin Atmosphere (Source: Space.com)
A new breakthrough could make it possible to produce rocket fuel on Mars rather than transport it from Earth. Local production would reduce the mass a Mars mission must launch and carry, potentially improving mission architecture and expanding the feasibility of sustained exploration beyond Earth. It's an old method involving electrolysis, but the new trick produces methane pure enough to be used as liquid propellant. (9/15)

Planet Nine Isn’t Hiding Because it Would be Small (Source: Space Daily)
Somewhere far past Neptune, a handful of icy worlds swing around the sun on orbits that lean the same way, like debris caught in a current. The tilt of those orbits is the strongest hint we have that something big is out there — the math points to a world around six times Earth's mass, tugging them into line. So why haven't we seen it? Not because it's small. Because of how far light has to go.

Sunlight leaving the sun spreads out as it travels, dimming with distance. Out where this planet would sit, that light is already faint. Then it has to bounce off the planet and come all the way back to us — dimming a second time on the return trip. The light is thinned twice, going and coming. A planet several times Earth's size can still be nearly invisible, not because there's little to see, but because there's so little light left to see it by. (9/16)

SpaceX Adds 300-Plus Engineers to AI Data Center Unit After Leadership Overhaul (Source: Mach 33)
More than 300 SpaceX engineers joined the company's AI data-center project over the past month following a leadership change that replaced data-center veterans with rocket- and Starlink-manufacturing executives. SpaceXAI reported 1.4 GW of compute capacity online with a target of over 2 GW by year-end. (9/10)

SpaceX CFO Discloses Compute Hosting Deal Worth $1.11 Billion a Month (Source: Mach 33)
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen said on September 10, 2026, at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia conference that the company closed a compute hosting deal with an undisclosed customer worth about $1.11 billion a month, starting December 1. He also cited a range of 5 GW to 10 GW of terrestrial compute deployed in 2027, up from slightly more than 2 GW expected by the end of 2026. (9/10)

Maritime Launch Services and Isar Aerospace Finalize Statement of Work, Advance to Execution (Source: Mach 33)
Maritime Launch Services and Isar Aerospace have finalized plans required under their previously announced facilities usage agreement for Spaceport Nova Scotia. The agreement advances plans for the development of Isar Aerospace’s dedicated launch complex for its Spectrum launch vehicle at Spaceport Nova Scotia. (9/14)

EU President Endorses Space Policy, Funding Increase (Source: Space News)
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, called for coordinated action by Europe to expand its capabilities. That includes an effort to pool demand for launches among the commission, ESA and national governments. “Our industries are calling for clear and predictable demand, to give them the certainty they need to invest and scale,” she said.

She endorsed a proposed major increase in funding for the commission’s defense and space directorate, to 131 billion euros ($152 billion) in the next seven-year funding cycle that begins in 2028, five times the amount in the current EU budget. She also backed the EU Space Act, which would create a single market for space within the EU, as well as a separate effort to assign spectrum for satellite communications at the EU rather than national level. (9/16)

NASA Rushed Engineers Out of Their Labs. They Say it Risks Future Space Missions (Source: NPR)
When NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida late last month, engineers were anxious. Fifteen years of preparation and $4 billion had led to this moment. With spacecraft, the smallest of mistakes can derail everything. And at NASA's premier space flight complex, the Goddard Space Flight Center, engineers knew that teams working on the telescope had been operating under tenuous conditions.

NASA's management had forced scientists to quickly move out of their labs at Goddard multiple times since last November — and as recently as a month before Roman's launch, engineers said. NASA's management said that moving scientists out of buildings last year was aimed at reducing costs and eliminating "waste and redundancies," according to internal NASA documents reviewed by NPR. (9/15)

Interlune Raises $5M for Initiatives That Go Beyond Mining the Moon (Source: Geekwire)
Seattle-based Interlune has raised $5 million in fresh funding to support a business plan that involves building space infrastructure as well as mining the moon for helium-3 and other valuable resources. The funds were raised through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE, in which investors provide upfront cash to a startup in exchange for shares to be issued during a future priced round. Interlune used the same approach to raise $5 million earlier this year. Interlune said existing and new investors participated in its latest SAFE offering, which came to light today in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (9/15)

Space Force Announces Interservice Transfer Opportunities (Source: USSF)
The Interservice Transfer program, or IST, allows qualified regular component, full-time, active-duty officers and enlisted members serving in the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps to apply for transfer into the Space Force. The program gives the service an additional pathway to bring experienced military talent into select career fields as the Space Force continues to grow and build the force required to meet evolving mission demands. (9/15)

NASA Expects One Lunar Launch This Year, Moon Base Manager Says (Source: Aerospace America)
Voyager Technologies’ first Griffin lunar lander is on track to launch no earlier than November, but a handful of the agency’s robotic landings have slipped to 2027, NASA’s Moon Base program manager said. Griffin was one of four landers NASA had been planning to send to the lunar surface this year. The next two — Blue Origin’s Mark 1 Endurance and Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity — are now slated to launch in “the first part of 2027,” said Carlos García-Galán.

The fourth, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 2, is scheduled to launch later in 2027, he added. NASA and Blue Origin officials have attributed the Mark 1 delay to the May explosion of a New Glenn rocket on its Florida launch pad. Blue Origin CEO David Limp last week posted on X that the company is making “incredible progress” at rebuilding that infrastructure. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in June that launching Mark 1 aboard New Glenn is still “Plan A,” but the agency is assessing alternatives. Intuitive Machines CEO and President Steve Altemus said in August the Nova-C launch would slip to “the first quarter of 2027.” (9/15)

Satellite Ground Infrastructure Accelerates as Viasat-Space42 Commit up to $1B and Telesat Expands Lightspeed Network (Source: Spacewatch Global)
Viasat and Space42 are establishing Equatys, a mobile satellite services venture backed by up to $1 billion, while Telesat and SatPort Infrastructure pursue a global build-to-suit ground network for Lightspeed. Northwood introduced its Prism antenna, and Involve Space won ESA funding for a stratospheric radar platform. (9/16)

Rocket Lab Fully Funds Iridium Acquisition After $1.94 Billion Share Sale and Drops $3.6 Billion Bridge Facility (Source: Defence Industry Europe)
Rocket Lab said it has fully financed its pending acquisition of Iridium Communications after completing an at-the-market equity program that raised approximately $1.944 billion in gross proceeds. The company issued 29.3 million shares under the program and plans to use the net proceeds primarily to fund cash payments required for the transaction. The $1.944 billion figure is before commissions and offering expenses. Rocket Lab said any excess proceeds, or the funds if the Iridium acquisition is not completed, would be used for future growth, potential acquisitions, general corporate purposes and working capital. (9/16)

Open Cosmos Raises €300 Million as Investors Back Europe’s Space Push (Source: European Spaceflight)
UK-based satellite maker Open Cosmos announced on 14 September that it had closed a €300 million funding round. The company said it would use the new funding to expand its manufacturing capacity and accelerate the deployment of its Earth observation and communications constellations.

The €300 million raise represents the company’s first major publicly announced funding round since September 2023, when it secured $50 million in Series B funding. The round was led by venture investors including UK-based Lightrock, ETF Partners and Entrepreneurs First, alongside Catalonia’s public financial institution, Institut Català de Finances. Two unnamed international pension funds were also among the lead investors. (9/15)

Microscopic Alien Technology May Be Hidden in Moon Dust (Source: Space.com)
Could we find alien technology embedded in moon dust? The bold idea, not yet peer-reviewed, suggests checking out the lunar surface for "microscopic technosignatures." The SETI Institute — or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute — describes these technosignatures as "tiny engineered particles" that may have come from interstellar space before settling on the moon. (9/15)