The Atlantic
• Missy Ryan, President Zelensky, Simon Shuster
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked U.S. President Donald Trump to enable Starlink support for operations targeting ballistic-missile launchers inside Russia. The request would expand the role of commercial satellite connectivity in Ukraine’s military targeting and strike activities.
Space Defense & Militarization
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked U.S. President Donald Trump to enable Starlink support for operations targeting ballistic-missile launchers inside Russia. The request would expand the role of commercial satellite connectivity in Ukraine’s military targeting and strike activities.
Satellite imagery has reportedly detected fresh burn scars and active fires at Amazon data centers and at a Saudi oil refinery, indicating continued strikes affecting critical energy and cloud infrastructure. The observations add to the growing body of satellite-based assessments of wartime damage in the region.
Fortastra and Hadrian have signed a memorandum of understanding laying out a framework for technical collaboration to build advanced spacecraft aimed at urgent national security space missions, the companies announced. The agreement focuses on coordinating industrial and spacecraft-manufacturing expertise for faster program execution.
True Anomaly says its Victus Haze mission for the U.S. Space Force executed a “space pursuit” between Rocket Lab-built Puma and True Anomaly Jackal-0004. The company frames the engagement as a space-to-space pursuit as part of the mission’s planned activities.
High activity
The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX two task orders worth $1.6 billion to launch 18 Falcon 9 missions by 2027, supporting Pentagon “sensing and targeting” satellite constellations for detecting and targeting airborne objects. The awards mark the largest publicly announced batch under NSSL Phase 3 and were issued after the service’s July 17 $11.4 billion plus-up to the Phase 3 Lane 1 ceiling.
Spain will invest up to $2.3 billion in a national secure satellite broadband constellation, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said July 29. The system is intended to integrate into Europe’s IRIS2 multi-orbit network as part of Spain’s broader defense capability buildup.
SpaceX is preparing an early-morning launch on Thursday, July 30, for a classified U.S. government reconnaissance mission. The company plans a live webcast of the event, underscoring the continued outsourcing of national security space launch activity to commercial providers.
Beijing is steadily narrowing the advantage held by U.S. space capabilities by expanding and upgrading its satellite systems to gain a clearer view of American activities. The shift signals accelerating competition across space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
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