politico.eu
• Daria Zakharova
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Elon Musk the Order of Freedom, one of the country’s highest honors, as Kyiv presses Musk to authorize Starlink use inside Russian territory. Starlink already supports battlefield communications for Ukrainian forces, but access for drone operations in Russia remains restricted.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Elon Musk the Order of Freedom, one of the country’s highest honors, as Kyiv presses Musk to authorize Starlink use inside Russian territory. Starlink already supports battlefield communications for Ukrainian forces, but access for drone operations in Russia remains restricted.
China deployed seven satellites into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Aug. 25, 2026, in a launch highlighting the continued growth of the country’s commercial space sector. The mission adds to China’s expanding orbital infrastructure and launch cadence.
An analysis of Europe’s IRIS2 satellite initiative argues that the program’s strategic-autonomy framing also masks an effort to support the region’s space market. The assessment highlights the tension between political objectives and industrial policy as Europe develops its approach to space communications.
The U.S. Trustee is urging a bankruptcy court to appoint an examiner to investigate $1.5 billion in alleged “unusual transactions” between EchoStar Corp. and its bankrupt subsidiary, Hughes Satellite Systems Corp. The request places EchoStar’s intercompany dealings and governance under heightened legal scrutiny.
Impulse Space plans to increase the cadence of rideshare missions to geostationary orbit, citing strong commercial demand. The expansion signals continued customer interest in dedicated orbital transfer and deployment services for GEO-bound payloads, while adding another demand indicator for the emerging commercial space transportation market.
TrustPoint successfully demonstrated its C-band positioning and navigation signals in the presence of GNSS interference, meeting a milestone under its contract with U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. The test advances the company’s work on space-based navigation solutions designed to operate when conventional satellite signals are disrupted.
Space-based communications and intelligence provider CesiumAstro has acquired Virginia-based 1Aardvark, a mission software and defense systems engineering company. The transaction marks CesiumAstro’s third defense systems acquisition this year, expanding its capabilities across mission software and integrated defense engineering.
NASA will omit cubesat secondary payloads from Artemis 3 after carrying small satellites on the first two Space Launch System missions. The change reduces the mission’s rideshare activity and underscores the evolving payload priorities for the next Artemis flight to the Moon.
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