Senate Commerce Targets Satellite Security in Next Executive Session
On April 13, 2026, the Senate Commerce Committee scheduled a markup session to consider nine bills, including the Secure Space Act and the Satellite Cybersecurity Act, aimed at strengthening U.S. satellite communications security. The Secure Space Act would bar the FCC from licensing entities on the agency’s Covered List, such as Huawei and ZTE, and expand protection to additional satellite systems with new regulations required within a year. The Satellite Cybersecurity Act directs the Commerce Department to draft voluntary cybersecurity guidelines for commercial operators and mandates a GAO review of existing federal efforts. Lawmakers will also review the Stop the Scroll Act, which would require social‑media platforms to display mental‑health warnings before users access content.
Citra Space Announces $15M Series A
Citra Space Corp announced a $15 million Series A financing led by Washington Harbour Partners, with participation from Industrious Ventures, Reliable Properties, Scout VC, Squadra Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Flex Capital. The round adds to earlier backers and provides fresh capital to...
Bring Back Wonder: Why Artemis II Still Matters
Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed flight beyond low‑Earth orbit, is more than a technical rehearsal. While it will validate Orion’s life‑support and propulsion systems for a future lunar landing, the mission also seeks to rekindle the public’s sense of awe that...
April 13, 2026 Quick Space Links
Space industry observers noted several key developments on April 13. NASA engineers examined the Artemis‑2 Orion capsule, while ISRO completed landing‑engine tests for its Chandrayaan‑5 lunar mission slated for 2028, and China’s Chang’e‑7 mini‑hopper prepared for a 2024 launch to...
Hughes Readies Satellite Antenna Combo for Airlines
Hughes Network Systems announced a new electronically steerable antenna (ESA) that merges Ka‑band and Ku‑band capabilities, aiming to free airlines from reliance on a single satellite network. The solution pairs the existing HL1520 Ku‑band ESA with a newly developed Ka‑band...
Watch: SpaceX Launches Cygnus XL Cargo Ship to Resupply ISS Crew
SpaceX's Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:41 a.m. EDT on Saturday, carrying Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft. The Cygnus XL is bound for the International Space Station to deliver scientific experiments, food, and equipment for the crew....
The Best Moments From the Artemis II Mission
NASA’s Artemis II mission launched on 1 April 2026, sending a four‑astronaut crew on a ten‑day deep‑space flight around the Moon—the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit in 50 years. The flight validated the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, confirming critical systems...
SmallSat Europe Speaker Focus: Chris Quilty, Quilty Space
Chris Quilty, co‑CEO of Quilty Space, has become a pivotal voice in satellite market intelligence, most notably after his September 2025 projection that Starlink would generate $15.9 billion in revenue and $11 billion in EBITDA for 2026. His forecasts have been baked into...
The Moon Just Got a New Scar
In late spring 2024 a meteoroid struck the Moon, creating a 225‑meter‑wide, 43‑meter‑deep crater—the largest impact captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to date. Researchers compared meter‑scale images taken before and after the event, revealing bright ejecta rays, a...
Subaru Telescope Sheds Light on the "Color Mystery" Of Jupiter Trojan Asteroids
The Subaru Telescope’s Hyper Suprime‑Cam surveyed over 500 Jupiter Trojan asteroids, revealing a bimodal color distribution that resolves a long‑standing “color mystery.” The study shows that the red and less‑red groups correspond to distinct surface compositions and likely different formation...
Indian Spacetech Startups Shift Gears From R&D to Scalable Manufacturing
Indian spacetech startups are moving from pure research to large‑scale manufacturing as demand for low‑Earth‑orbit constellations accelerates. Bellatrix Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos and Red Balloon Aerospace have each built regulated, additive‑manufacturing and assembly‑line processes to shrink build cycles from months to...
Between Eternal Night and Day, the Faces of Two Cousins of Earth
An international team using the James Webb Space Telescope has produced the first climate maps of two Earth‑sized exoplanets, TRAPPIST‑1b and TRAPPIST‑1c. Thermal phase‑curve data reveal day‑night temperature differences exceeding 500 °C, indicating the planets lack substantial atmospheres. The study, published...
Mission Control Taps Magellan Aerospace for Lunar Utility Rover Systems
Mission Control announced that Magellan Aerospace will develop core subsystems for Canada’s Lunar Utility Rover, a semi‑autonomous, minibus‑sized vehicle. The Canadian Space Agency has earmarked about $985 million USD in total, with $876 million USD allocated over 13 years for design and...
NASA and Contractors Accelerate Mobile Launcher Refurbishment, Artemis III Hardware to Meet New Schedule
NASA is accelerating the Artemis program to enable a mid‑2027 Artemis III launch, moving solid‑rocket booster deliveries forward and fast‑tracking mobile‑launcher refurbishment. The 112‑meter‑tall mobile launcher will be inspected, power‑washed, and welded to remove corrosive booster residue and repair heat‑warped structure...
MDA Announces Orbital Servicing Platform
MDA Space unveiled MDA Midnight, an on‑orbit servicing platform, at the Space Symposium. The satellite is built for rendezvous and proximity operations to detect, identify, counter and deter threats to space assets. Its inaugural mission will showcase inspection, electronic‑countermeasure mitigation,...
With Renewed Interest in Going to the Moon, How Will Future Trash Be Dealt With?
Renewed lunar activity has revived concerns over the 400,000 lb (181 t) of Apollo-era trash now classified as human heritage under the 2020 One Small Step Act. While the Artemis Accords and UN bodies stress debris mitigation, concrete plans for surface waste...
Artemis 2: Our Favorite Photos From NASA's Historic Moon Mission
NASA’s Artemis 2 mission concluded on April 10 with a splashdown in the Pacific after a 10‑day flight around the Moon’s far side. The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—set several historic milestones, including the first woman and the...
Citra Space Raises $15 Million Series A to Expand Platform for Identifying Objects in Orbit
Citra Space announced a $15 million Series A round led by Washington Harbour Partners to scale its space‑domain‑awareness platform. The Colorado startup, founded by former U.S. Space Force officers, aggregates data from ground and space sensors to create persistent fingerprints of orbital...
Atomic-6 Launches Orbital Data Center Marketplace
Atomic-6 unveiled ODC.Space, a marketplace that lets customers order orbital data center hardware as easily as an online purchase. The platform aggregates space‑industry suppliers, offering configurations from 1U shared units to sovereign 42U racks, with the latter priced at roughly...
Sophia Space and Kepler Sign Agreement to Demo ODC Tech
Orbital data‑center startup Sophia Space has signed an agreement with satellite operator Kepler Communications to demo its operating system, SOOS, on Kepler’s distributed in‑orbit compute network. The partnership will see Sophia upload SOOS to the network by year‑end for an...
Atomic-6 Unveils Online Marketplace for Orbital Data Centers
Atomic-6 announced ODC.space, an online marketplace that lets customers procure complete satellites for on‑orbit data‑center capacity. The platform offers both dedicated satellites and shared compute rentals, handling everything from component sourcing to launch and mission operations. Target customers include AI...
Orbit Is Filling up Fast. Now Comes the Awkward Bit: Pre-Empting and Handling a Crisis.
Earth’s orbital environment is nearing a tipping point as tens of thousands of new satellites are slated for launch, pushing low‑Earth orbit toward congestion. In 2023 Starlink alone performed roughly 300,000 collision‑avoidance maneuvers, and analysts warn that as many as...
The Price of European Military Space Autonomy
European nations are committing roughly $109 billion to military space programs by 2030, but the IISS warns that this level of funding falls short of true autonomy from U.S. capabilities. An extra $10 billion would close the most critical gaps for limited...
Rohde & Schwarz Enables Pulsar Signal Simulation to Support Next-Generation Navigation Devices
Rohde & Schwarz announced that its SMBV100B and SMW200A vector signal generators will support simulation of Xona’s Pulsar, a low‑Earth‑orbit navigation service designed to complement GPS. The new software option lets device makers test Pulsar compatibility in production environments, accelerating validation and...
Artemis 2, Apollo 8, and the Problem with History
Artemis 2’s lunar flyby mirrors Apollo 8’s historic 1968 mission, but its justification is largely technical rather than geopolitical. Recent declassified CIA memos reveal that intelligence on Soviet circumlunar plans was shared with NASA, yet historians argue the primary driver for Apollo 8...
ThinKom Unveils Space-Optimized ThinAir Nexus Aircraft Antenna
ThinKom introduced the ThinAir Nexus, a space‑optimized aircraft antenna that delivers multi‑orbit, multi‑constellation inflight connectivity in a footprint comparable to single‑orbit electronically steered antennas. The Nexus supports gigabit‑class throughput for GEO, MEO and LEO satellites and can be upgraded via a...
Strategic Celestography and Lunar Competition: Artemis, CLEP, and the Struggle for Positional Advantage
The United States' Artemis program and China’s Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) are racing to secure strategic footholds on the Moon and in cislunar space. Both powers target the lunar south‑pole for its water‑ice deposits and favorable solar illumination, while leveraging...
The U.K. Just Spelled Out What a Carrington-Class Solar Storm Would Cost — and the Numbers Should Change Policy
The UK’s National Risk Register now quantifies a Carrington‑class solar storm as a trillion‑dollar threat, estimating $0.6‑$2.6 trillion in first‑year global damages and tens of billions of pounds in domestic losses. The country’s electricity sector alone underpins roughly $112 billion of GDP,...
Key Senate Appropriator Rejects Proposed NASA Budget Cuts
Sen. Jerry Moran, chair of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, announced he will fight the administration’s proposed 23% cut to NASA’s FY2027 budget, aiming to keep funding near last year’s $24.4 billion level. He emphasized a balanced budget...
Volta Space Technologies Leverages Government Partnerships and Funding to Develop Laser-Enabled Lunar PV Power Network
Volta Space Technologies is developing LEPTON, a laser‑enabled power‑transmission network that will beam electricity from low‑lunar‑orbit satellites to surface assets. The company secured a slot on Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeting a 2028 demonstration that will power a lander‑mounted...
Q&A: Building a Broadband Constellation for a Contested Space Era
Logos Space Services, founded by former NASA and Google executive Milo Medin, received FCC approval to launch up to 4,178 low‑Earth‑orbit broadband satellites operating in K‑, Q‑ and V‑band frequencies. The company’s private‑network architecture uses super‑narrow beams to boost capacity,...
Space Compass Forges Optical Satellite Relay Pact
Space Compass signed a memorandum of understanding with Apolink and JSAT International to develop optical data‑relay technology that links geosynchronous (GEO) and low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) satellites. The agreement will explore both technical feasibility and commercial potential, initially focusing on integrating Apolink’s...
Lockheed Martin Nails Historic Orion Splashdown With NASA, Paving Way for Moon Return
Lockheed Martin celebrated the successful splashdown of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, concluding the Artemis II mission that sent astronauts on a 10‑day journey beyond the Moon. The splashdown validates Orion’s deep‑space re‑entry capabilities and reinforces Lockheed’s role as the prime contractor for...
A Worst-Case Solar Storm Could Knock Out Satellites, GPS and Power Grids, Report Warns
Scientists from the U.K.’s Science and Technology Facilities Council released a 80‑page report outlining a worst‑case solar‑storm scenario that could recur every 100‑200 years. The analysis warns that a severe geomagnetic event could trip power‑grid safety systems, age or destroy...
Proba-3’s First Results Are Already Rewriting What We Thought We Knew About Solar Wind
ESA’s Proba‑3 twin‑satellite mission has released its first scientific data, revealing solar‑wind speeds in the inner corona that far exceed existing model forecasts. The formation‑flying pair creates an artificial eclipse, allowing the ASPIICS coronagraph to observe the Sun’s innermost atmosphere...
Ukraine Confirms Rocket Launches Into Space During Wartime
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) confirmed two wartime rocket launches that crossed the Kármán line, reaching 100 km and 204 km altitudes. The unit also performed a pioneering air‑launch from a transport aircraft at 8,000 m, a first for Europe and only the...
First Proba-3 Science: Surprisingly Speedy Solar Wind
The European Space Agency’s Proba‑3 mission has turned artificial eclipses into a repeatable laboratory, delivering 57 artificial solar eclipses and over 250 hours of high‑resolution corona video since July 2025. Using the ASPIICS coronagraph, scientists tracked slow‑wind plasma blobs moving at 250‑500 km s⁻¹,...
South Africa’s Politics Might Stifle The Growth Of Its Space Programme
South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation warned that political and fiscal missteps are jeopardising the nation’s nascent space programme. SANSA has poured $18.3 million into the EO‑Sat1 satellite, yet the project was stalled for six years due to...
The Satellite War on Terrestrial Telecoms Has Already Begun
The convergence of silicon‑carbon battery advances, relaxed FCC power‑limit rules and higher‑bandwidth LEO satellite capabilities is bringing satellite direct‑to‑device (DTD) connectivity closer to everyday use. Early demonstrations—MTN’s 2025 voice call in South Africa and Vodafone’s 2026 video call—show that smartphones...
The Largest Orbital Compute Cluster Is Open for Business
Kepler Communications launched the largest orbital compute cluster in January, featuring 40 Nvidia Orin edge processors spread across ten satellites linked by laser communications. The firm announced a partnership with Sophia Space, which will upload its proprietary operating system to...
As Artemis II Is Celebrated, the World Faces Hard Questions About US Leadership in Space
Artemis II completed the first crewed lunar fly‑by in over five decades, carrying the first woman and the first person of colour to orbit the Moon. The mission is a milestone in NASA’s broader goal of establishing a permanent lunar base...
Starship’s Commercial Moment: What Operational Starship Flights Would Do to Launch Economics
SpaceX’s Starship is on the cusp of commercial operation after the FAA approved up to 25 launches per year from Starbase and the V3 Raptor engine fired for the first time in early 2026. Analysts estimate near‑term launch costs between...
The Satellite Manufacturing Market After Starlink: How Mass Production Changed the Economics of Building Spacecraft
Starlink’s assembly line now produces about five satellites per day at roughly $400,000 each, slashing unit costs far below the $150‑$300 million price tag of traditional GEO spacecraft. Global satellite‑manufacturing revenue rose 17% to $20 billion in 2024, with U.S. firms delivering...
OneWeb UK Ups Revenue in 2025
OneWeb Holdings UK, the London arm of Eutelsat, posted a 44.5% jump in revenue to $186 million for the year ending June 2025. Staff costs were cut by a third, falling to $82.8 million, while the operating loss shrank 66% to $456 million. Eutelsat...
Recapping the Historic Artemis II Mission Around the Moon
NASA’s Artemis II mission completed a historic crewed flyby of the Moon, covering nearly 700,000 miles before splashing down in Houston. The ten‑day flight launched on a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion capsule and a four‑person crew. Over the...
Analyst: SpaceX Making 340 Satellites per Month
SpaceX is now manufacturing roughly 340 Starlink satellites each month, topping 4,000 units annually—a 40% jump from 2024. The network’s ground‑station footprint expanded to about 503 sites in 2026, more than double the 2024 count. Quilty Space projects Starlink revenue...
NSA Reveals Details of New LEO Security Report
The National Security Agency, together with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Australian Space Agency, has issued a Cybersecurity Information Sheet titled “Securing Space: Cyber Security for Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communications.” The guidance breaks LEO sat‑com risk and mitigation into...
China Accelerates Orbital Internet Deployment with Successful Smart Dragon-3 Sea Launch
China’s Smart Dragon‑3 carrier rocket lifted off from a sea‑based platform off Guangdong on April 11, delivering a test payload for its sovereign low‑Earth‑orbit internet network. The four‑stage solid‑propellant vehicle, now on its 11th successful flight, can place up to 1,500 kg...
Smallsats Dominate 2025 Launch Landscape as Mass Efficiency Peaks
In 2025, smallsats—satellites under 1,200 kg—accounted for 98% of all launches, marking a decisive industry shift. The second quarter saw 1,198 spacecraft lifted, with smallsats delivering 87% of the 743,770 kg upmass, while the third quarter maintained a 98% share despite a...
MIT STAR Lab Expands Scope From Lasercom Innovation to Space Policy Architecture
MIT’s Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation (STAR) Lab is broadening its focus from pure hardware innovation to a hybrid of high‑performance CubeSat technology and emerging space‑policy frameworks. Under Professor Kerri Cahoy, the lab is integrating astrophysics research, such as exoplanet...