Ars Technica
• Eric Berger
NASA is confronting a difficult choice involving SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, with the available options appearing to carry significant drawbacks. The situation highlights the agency’s dependence on a commercial crew and cargo system whose strategic importance can make even seemingly narrow decisions consequential.
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Novaspace’s Satellite Communications for Defense and Security, 2nd Edition forecasts rapid growth in the defense satellite communications market, with commercial defense Satcom service revenues projected to exceed $22.6 billion by 2035. The outlook underscores expanding demand for commercially provided connectivity supporting defense and security missions.
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NASA is confronting a difficult choice involving SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, with the available options appearing to carry significant drawbacks. The situation highlights the agency’s dependence on a commercial crew and cargo system whose strategic importance can make even seemingly narrow decisions consequential.
A NASA workshop with satellite manufacturers and operators found that commercial practices for passivating spacecraft batteries—intended to prevent explosions after mission end—often fall short of NASA recommendations. The findings raise concerns as commercial satellite buses become increasingly common across government and civil space programs.
A new group of Chinese commercial launch companies is pursuing electric-pump-fed liquid engines, signaling an emerging propulsion trend in the country’s private space sector. The effort could broaden the technology base available to Chinese launch providers as they develop competing commercial space transportation systems.
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SpaceX is scheduled to conduct four orbital launches this week, including Crew-13 to the ISS, a Falcon Heavy mission for the NRO and Transporter-18 with 130 payloads. The activity coincides with satellite-sector financing and development milestones from Astro Digital, Sateliot and India’s GalaxEye.
Momentus has successfully tested a low-cost sensor suite designed to support proximity operations for future satellite-servicing missions. The test advances the company’s effort to develop lower-cost sensing capabilities for spacecraft rendezvous and servicing, though no performance results or deployment timeline were provided.
The 2026 Vaduz Space Dialogue argues that Europe should move quickly to federate secure satellite connectivity rather than await a perfect institutional framework or build another standalone constellation. The discussion positions spectrum as strategic infrastructure and federation as a potential answer to Europe’s connectivity-security challenge.
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The Pentagon and Space Force are advancing commercial capabilities for GEO surveillance, maneuverable satellite communications and faster space-domain awareness, while DIU and DARPA launch or plan competitions for low-cost ISR and heavy-lift drones. The initiatives combine rapid procurement mechanisms with emerging operational concepts for contested environments.
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