NASA Spaceflight
• Justin Davenport
Six missions are scheduled across launch sites in Norway, India, New Zealand and the United States from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6. Isar Aerospace is targeting the second flight of its Spectrum rocket, while ISRO pursues an Earth-observation launch and SpaceX continues Starlink missions from Vandenberg.
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Six missions are scheduled across launch sites in Norway, India, New Zealand and the United States from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6. Isar Aerospace is targeting the second flight of its Spectrum rocket, while ISRO pursues an Earth-observation launch and SpaceX continues Starlink missions from Vandenberg.
All.Space has received a contract from the Defense Innovation Unit focused on increasing production rates for its Hydra satellite communications terminal. The award targets U.S. defense supply-chain capacity, linking satcom equipment demand with efforts to expand domestic manufacturing throughput.
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OHB won a contract worth more than $1 billion to build the medium-Earth-orbit shell of Europe’s IRIS² constellation. Separately, Thales Alenia Space will develop Italy’s PRISMA second-generation Earth-observation satellite, Space Inventor will build two HiVE platforms, and NorthStar will lead ESA’s FALCON reentry-tracking consortium.
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NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has left Earth aboard its mission to study dark energy and the evolving universe. The 300-megapixel observatory will spend roughly three months traveling to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, about one million miles away, before beginning its science mission.
High activity
Viasat has placed its third ViaSat-3 satellite into commercial service across Asia-Pacific, adding more than one terabit per second of high-throughput Ka-band capacity. The satellite, launched in April 2026, will support connectivity services including those used by Delta Air Lines and Qantas.
Diffraqtion has raised $10 million to develop quantum imaging technology for space cameras, aiming to resolve details that conventional imaging systems cannot. The funding will support the startup’s efforts to advance higher-resolution capabilities for space-based observation and sensing applications.
Consolidation, shifting business models, sovereign space ambitions and a tougher investment environment are reshaping the global space sector. Industry leaders meeting in Paris are confronting increasingly interconnected pressures across commercial space, national capabilities and capital markets.
The Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office says the Space Force needs tighter coordination between acquisition staff and operators to make better use of commercial space data. Col. Tim Trimailo’s comments point to an organizational challenge in turning privately provided capabilities into operational value.
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