October 12, 2026

The Space Industry Needs to Look Under the Hood (Source: Better Futures)
The tendency of experts to express strong opinions on matters outside their areas of expertise is becoming borderline toxic. Everyone has opinions beyond their expertise and locus of control. But having an opinion does not make someone an expert, nor does it make them right. Expertise in one domain does not automatically confer authority in another, yet that distinction is increasingly ignored, even in professional settings.

Elon Musk is a case in point—or, as I like to call him, the South African. I use that description not to besmirch him, but to acknowledge that many people hold extraordinarily strong opinions about him. I am not interested in speculating about the origins of those opinions. What concerns me is the inability to separate personal feelings from professional assessment. In a professional setting, a neutral starting point matters. Calling him the South African acknowledges one dimension of who he is without tipping the scales toward either fanboy admiration or outright vilification.

The point is that professional competence and personal likability are entirely different things. We do ourselves, our businesses, and the industry a disservice when personal feelings replace a serious evaluation of what someone has accomplished, what they are trying to accomplish, and what we can learn from their successes and failures. The same principle applies to politics. While the current administration leaves much to be desired for many people, its approach to commercial space presents significant opportunities. (10/8)

Vandenberg Test Launches Missile That Will Carry Next-Generation Nuclear Weapon  (Source: San Luis Obispo Tribune)
The Air Force conducted a missile test from Vandenberg Space Force Base early Friday morning as part of the ongoing efforts to develop a next-generation weapon system that may see its debut flight next year. Few details were released late Thursday night, but base officials announced the test involving a Minotaur launch vehicle would occur before 6 a.m. Friday. (10/10)

Artemis II's Victor Glover Says Oklahoma is Key to America's Future in Space (Source: The Oklahoman)
Glover was in the state as a guest of the Oklahoma Aerospace Forum, an annual event that highlights Oklahoma's workforce and aerospace companies that support the space program and aviation. There's a lot more that can be done, and the people living, studying and working here have a great chance to join the industry, he said. "You know that saying, 'Houston, we have a problem?' Oklahoma, you have a solution," Glover said. (10/11)

NASA Demonstrates Next-Generation Heat Shield Technologies (Source: NASA)
NASA is testing heat shields that can keep astronauts safe as they return from missions to the Moon and Mars in an unusual way: by taking out the trash. When Northrop Grumman 24th cargo resupply mission for NASA undocked from the International Space Station, it carried a fleet of 12 small, experimental capsules designed to test the next generation of thermal protection materials that could serve as the foundation for future heat shields.

The experiment, called the Kentucky Reentry Probe Experiment (KREPE-3), is the third in a series of low-cost, high-impact missions that use the final moments of the cargo spacecraft’s lifespan to gather valuable data. (10/9)

Russian Satellite Activity Raises Concerns for Starlink, German Space Commander Says (Source: Reuters)
The shadowing of a Western satellite supporting ​Ukraine by a cluster of Russian military satellites earlier this year demonstrates capabilities that could threaten commercial constellations such as ‌Elon Musk's Starlink, Germany’s space commander said. In May, Russia maneuvered four military satellites, known as Cosmos 2610 through 2613, close to a commercial radar-imaging satellite, according to the US Space Force. Finland's ICEYE, which supplies data to the US and its allies, confirmed that it was one of their satellites. (10/9)

Can a Kevlar Tether Create Artificial Gravity in Space? (Source: Big Think)
So could we use a specific type of rotating, low-cost artificial acceleration — with two separate craft connected by a tether — to provide that artificial gravity? “How long would a Kevlar cable need to be for astronauts to feel centripetal acceleration as comfortable as gravity? Why don’t we send up a mile-long Kevlar cable, stretch it between two capsules, spin it up, and have artificial gravity?” In principle, we could do it. In principle, we could even make it equivalent to Earth’s surface gravity in strength. But in practice, it faces some major obstacles.

If you want to create a significant amount of artificial gravity, something close to Earth’s g, for example, you have to have your spacecraft rotate at a particular rate, where the centripetal acceleration is defined by the formula a = v²/r. Since angular velocity is v/r by itself, that means that if you want to reproduce Earth’s gravitational acceleration, a set of capsules separated by a tether that’s: 1) 20 meters long requires spinning at just under 10 revolutions-per-minute, 2) 200 meters long requires spinning at right around 3 revolutions-per-minute, or 3) and 2000 meters long requires spinning at just under 1 revolution-per-minute.

The problem is that the spacecraft needs to rotate quite quickly in all cases, and has to build up a lot of angular momentum while maintaining that balance around the center-of-mass. The faster the speed you have to go at and the larger a radius you’re at from the center-of-mass (or the center-of-rotation), the greater your angular momentum is, and these three examples all have a lot of it. The 20 meter tether requires a speed of about 9.9 m/s, the 200 meter tether requires a speed of about 31.3 m/s, and the 2000 meter tether requires a speed of an impressive 99 m/s. As you can see, greater distances require the buildup of greater amounts of angular momentum, and that’s an enormous challenge to keep delicately balanced. (10/9)

Cygnus XL Cargo Spacecraft Released from Station by Canadarm2 (Source: NASA)
At 12:44 p.m. EDT, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL was released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm after it detached from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Unity module. At the time of release, the space station was flying about 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Cygnus XL successfully departed the orbiting laboratory nearly six months after arriving with about 11,000 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo for NASA and its international partners.

Mission controllers will command the spacecraft to deorbit Monday, Oct. 12, carrying several thousand pounds of disposal items and other unneeded cargo into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will harmlessly burn up during re-entry. NASA will not provide coverage of the deorbit. (10/9)

Black Holes Could Have Planets, New Simulations Suggest (Source: EarthSky)
Astronomers have found thousands of planets orbiting other stars. They’ve even found some rogue planets, or planets without a star. Now, fascinating new research says more planets could be lurking elsewhere. They could, the study says, be forming around black holes. They revealed that massive planets could form in the dusty regions around supermassive black holes, similarly to how planets form around stars. (10/8)

Billionaire Jeff Bezos: ‘Success is Not Villainy' (Source: Geekwire)
When Jeff Bezos sat down on Blue Origin’s Cape Canaveral factory floor for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier earlier this week, he laid out an unapologetic defense of free enterprise and wealth creation. “Success is not villainy,” Bezos said. The Amazon founder’s point was simple: building a massively successful enterprise isn’t something society should apologize for or view with suspicion, it’s the natural result of creating something people actually want. (10/9)

Engineers at Johnson Space Center Modeled a Mars Propellant Plant Turning Martian Air and Buried Ice into 300 Metric Tons of Methane and Oxygen (Source: EcoNews)
How much hardware that refining would take is the question behind a Mars propellant plant study from engineers working at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “The SIMA team conducted analyses on a full-scale Martian ISRU production system for oxygen and methane cryopropellant, with the goal of recycling as much material as possible,” the authors wrote. SIMA is the Systems Engineering and Integration ISRU Modeling and Analysis project.

The study looks at 33 tons (30 metric tons) and 331 tons (300 metric tons) of liquid oxygen and methane “produced during the course of a Martian year (~687 Earth days), at a ratio of approximately 3.5:1, respectively.” That works out to 25.7 tons (23.3 metric tons) of oxygen and 7.4 tons (6.7 metric tons) of methane in the small case, and ten times as much in the large one. (10/10)

NASA to Conduct Flyover, Engage NFL Fans at MetLife Stadium (Source: NASA)
As part of the agency’s Inspiration Tour flyover, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman piloted one of three F-5 fighter jets to kick off the New York Jets vs. Cleveland Browns game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Oct. 11. (10/10)

Retired Widebody Airliner Now Cheaper Than Building A New Hypersonic Carrier Aircraft (Source: Simple Flying)
Stratolaunch Systems is an aerospace company best known for operating the Scaled Composites Model 351 Stratolaunch, or 'Roc', a twin-fuselage testbed aircraft that still holds the record for having the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history. The monstrous-looking aircraft was originally intended to carry air-launch-to-orbit rockets, but is now used for hypersonic vehicle testing, and it's flown 25 times since its introduction in 2019. However, this isn't the only aircraft used by Stratolaunch Systems.

In 2023, the company announced that it would acquire a Boeing 747-400 to complement Roc for hypersonic vehicle testing. The aircraft, now named the 'Spirit of Mojave', has been used multiple times as a more cost-effective and flexible option alongside Roc, as it's essentially a standard 747-400 repurposed for this mission. Meanwhile, in September 2026, Stratolaunch announced that it would be acquiring a third aircraft, selecting a used Boeing 777-200ER to be the company's third carrier platform. (10/10)

Bezos Is Closing the Net Worth Gap With Elon Musk, Thanks to Blue Origin (Source: Benzinga)
Bloomberg data shows that Bezos has a net worth of $372 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world. He has gained over $122 billion from the same point this year. In contrast, Musk has a net worth of over $1 trillion, having gained $548 billion in wealth in the same period, thanks to the SpaceX IPO that raised over $85 billion in June. Jeff Bezos’s wealth jumped after Blue Origin raised new capital at a $130 billion valuation. (10/10)

NASA Releases Finalized RFP for Commercial Space Stations (Source: Space News)
NASA released Friday the final request for proposals for the next phase of its effort to help develop commercial space stations. NASA issued the RFP for the Commercial LEO Destinations, or CLD, program, with proposals due in early December and a selection of two or more companies planned by mid-April. One change from the draft RFP from this summer is that NASA will handle transportation of crews and cargo to commercial stations at least for an initial series of missions, rather than require companies to make their own arrangements. Industry officials previously said they were concerned about the ability to obtain transportation given SpaceX's intent to retire the Dragon spacecraft. (10/12)

SpaceX Launches SDA Satellites From California (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched on Saturday the first set of Space Development Agency (SDA) satellites built by Northrop Grumman for a communications network. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Tranche 1 Transport Layer A mission for SDA. The rocket carried 21 satellites built by Northrop. The 21 satellites are the first half of a $692 million contract the Space Development Agency awarded Northrop Grumman in 2022 to build 42 spacecraft for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA. York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin previously launched their own satellites for the Transport Layer. The launch was scheduled for Monday but postponed by technical issues with the rocket and range conflicts. (10/12)

Arms Race: Russian Anti-Satellite Weapons Could Counter Golden Dome (Source: Space News)
Russia could develop nuclear weapons and electronic-warfare systems to counter missile defense systems like Golden Dome. A report published last week by U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) argues that Russia's efforts to protect its nuclear arsenal from U.S. weapons and missile defenses could drive Moscow toward anti-satellite weapons designed to disable or disrupt large numbers of spacecraft in orbit. Its conclusions are based on an analysis of Russian military doctrine, technical research and the economic constraints shaping Moscow's weapons investments, and not any evidence of deployment of such weapons. RUSI's assessment comes more than two years after U.S. officials publicly accused Russia of developing a nuclear anti-satellite capability. (10/12)

Kapta Raises $24 Million for Radar Tracking From Orbit (Source: Space News)
Kapta Space has raised $24 million to advance the development of radar technology designed to help the U.S. military track moving targets from orbit. The Seattle-based company said Friday it raised a Series A round led by Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by Bison Ventures, with participation from several other investors. Kapta unveiled plans last year for a less expensive and less power-intensive alternative to conventional satellite radar systems, targeting the military market for space-based surveillance capabilities that can detect and follow moving targets. The company said it has won several classified contracts this year for moving target indication systems, but did not disclose the customers or the contracts' values. (10/12)

Andrenam and AnySignal Partner for Submerged System Satellite Links (Source: Space News)
An undersea tracking company and a space communications startup are teaming up to build a new link between submerged systems and satellite networks. Andrenam and AnySignal announced a partnership Friday to develop a family of underwater acoustic communications modems. The agreement would extend AnySignal's satellite communications technology into the maritime domain while expanding the capabilities of Andrenam's network of ocean-monitoring buoys. Those buoys would serve as relays between vehicles and sensors underwater and satellite and terrestrial networks. (10/12)

Spain's EarthPulse Raising Money for Geospatial Intel Growth (Source: Space News)
EarthPulse, a six-year-old geospatial analytics company, is working on its first funding round. To date, the Barcelona-based startup has grown through sales of geospatial-intelligence products, software-as-a-service and APIs that pair satellite observations with terrestrial data and algorithms. The company says it is raising money now because demand for its services is growing faster than it can accommodate on revenue alone. The company's customers range from the European Union Agency for the Space Program to telecommunications giant Telefónica and personal care company L'Oréal. (10/12)