Space

True Anomaly next year aims to achieve key milestones to underpin the defense space startup’s growth strategy, including the first demonstration of its Jackal spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit.

The French Vortex spaceplane demonstrator program will aim to validate heat shield technology and different control capabilities once it takes flight.

The Trump administration’s proposal to reduce NASA’s budget by 24% has so far met a solid rebuke in Congress.

Space access and satellite provider Rocket Lab is looking to raise $750 million gross from a share sale, according to a securities filing.

Amazon is preparing its fifth batch of Kuiper broadband satellites for launch next week.

MaiaSpace is on track for a first flight of its mini-launcher late in 2026, a first step toward creating a family of reusable rockets, its CEO says.

Astranis has contracted Impulse Space to directly inject its MicroGEO communications satellite into geostationary orbit in 2027 using the Helios kick stage.

Axiom Space has launched the Axiom Space University Alliance.

Bluetooth satellite network creator Hubble has raised $70 million from investors in a Series B funding round, the Seattle-based startup said on Sept. 17.

Colorado-based rocket engine developer Ursa Major is entering a new growth phase.

China’s Space Pioneer completed the first-stage engine test of its Tianlong-3 rocket on Sept. 15.

HawkEye 360 is gearing up to start deploying a new generation of its electronic intelligence spacecraft that should slash production costs.

Latitude’s Zephyr microlauncher will fly at the end of next year, a one-year delay from its earlier schedule, commercial director Adeline Pitrois said Sept. 17.

The ESA is poised to ask member states to back the European sovereign satellite communications IRIS² program with €600 million in the next funding cycle.

Atmos Space Cargo is expanding its focus on the defense market, floating the idea of using its capsule to allow military users to rapidly deploy missiles from space.

SpaceX is in talks with countries to give them sovereign satellite communications capabilities, says Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s president.

NASA and Northrop Grumman are revising the flight plan for the Cygnus XL cargo ship to rendezvous with International Space Station.

The United Arab Emirates’ Space42 and Viasat are hoping to attract partners in their new direct-to-device global low Earth orbit satellite service venture, Equatys.

Communications satellite operator SES has partnered with startup K2 Space to explore designing next-generation medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites.

Solar activity—thought to rise and fall over 11 year cycles—has been on an incline since 2008, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-led study says.

SpaceX is looking to fly the first of a new iteration of its Starship launch system late this year or early next year.

Earlier this summer Maxar posted an image of a Chinese satellite taken by one of its WorldView Legion satellites in low Earth orbit.

As Ariane 64, the heavy-lift version of the Ariane 6, is nearing the end of its development, it will represent about half of next year’s launches.

Airbus and the French space agency CNES have agreed to extend the life of the two-satellite Pléiades constellation for another two years.

Germany and Spain are among the countries looking to move quickly to get counterspace systems into orbit.