Space Minds: What’s next for ISR in space

Catch up on our panel from Small Sat Europe

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08/24/2026 READ IN BROWSER Subscribe now and read anywhere with the SpaceNews app: Unlimited reporting and analysis – plus the monthly digital magazine – from $25/month. Get access now. In this episode, SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner leads a panel of experts to discuss the role of ISR in space and what comes next. This session was recorded in May at SpaceNews’ defense stage in Amsterdam at Small Sat Europe. Joining the panel are: Adrian Zevenbergen, CEO, European Space Imaging Jan Smolders, CCO, Space Inventor Dr. Eugene Kim, Executive Vice President, Satrec Intiative Maxwell Keyte, Head of International Data Sales, ICEYE Moderator: Debra Werner, Correspondent, SpaceNews FROM THE CONVERSATION Debra Werner: How are peacetime ISR requirements different from wartime ISR? Maxwell Keyte: I'd say, from the point of view of Iceye, different in many many different ways. Just for context, Iceye provided thousands of intel products essentially into the active kill chain of Ukraine. And of course this is a war zone. We provided 7,000 images, and about 38% of this was used for the purpose of preparing strikes. If we then look at the the damages caused in terms of, say, monetary value to to Russia, the damage is billions. So the impact is significant, I would say. What we provide is hourly revisit, autonomous target recognition and then retasking within a single orbit. ... the tempo at which this was done, within an active conflict, is next level. And is entirely different from peacetime ISR, we believe. 📨 Don't miss what's next. Sign up for other SpaceNews newsletters: NEW SpaceNews Mission Brief: Orbital Data Centers: A series explaining the latest developments in the rapid race to conceive, finance, develop and launch the future of on-orbit computing. Europe Report: Tracking the policy landscape, investment climate and regional priorities driving Europe’s space ambitions. First Up: Every weekday morning, Jeff Foust delivers the day's most important industry headlines. Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin with weekly news and insights for the military space professional. China Report: Biweekly news and analysis from correspondent Andrew Jones on business, politics and technology in the Chinese space industry. SpaceNews Mission Brief: Golden Dome: Explaining the Golden Dome initiative and what it means for the space industry. Editor’s Choice: Our most important recent stories you may have missed, with background and insights from editors, reporters and contributors. Opinions: A weekly digest of the latest commentary and analysis. SpaceNews This Week: The week’s top headlines and our conference coverage. Subscribe to SpaceNews This email has been sent to generalastronomy110.stnirp@blogger.com because you previously opted in to receive emails from SpaceNews. Unsubscribe here. Sign up for other SpaceNews newsletters.  SpaceNews.com  |  Advertise with SpaceNews Contact us  |  Privacy policy  |  Terms and conditions SpaceNews.com  |  Advertise with SpaceNews  |  Contact us  |  Privacy policy  |  Terms and conditions © 2026, SpaceNews, 100 Fillmore Street, 5th Floor, Denver, CO 80206, United States

China's lunar mission delayed

Plus: Starcloud raised $250 million

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08/24/2026 READ IN BROWSER Save $100 on a year of SpaceNews: Through Aug. 31, use code SMALLSAT40 to get 40% off any new subscription. Get access to all our reporting and commentary. Subscribe now. SPONSORED BY By Jeff Foust In today's edition: China's Chang'e-7 lunar mission is delayed indefinitely, Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers, SpaceX revises plans for its next Starship launch and more.  If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday. Have thoughts or feedback? You can hit reply to let me know. 📲  Download the SpaceNews mobile app SPONSORED Lasting exploration begins with lasting infrastructure. Intuitive Machines offers integrated capabilities that support every phase of your mission, from spacecraft design and manufacturing to persistent communications, navigation, and long-term surface operations. We engineer systems that connect missions, extend operational life, and create the foundation for sustained exploration beyond Earth. With proven technology, we turn your objectives into lasting capabilities. Top Stories China has delayed the launch of an ambitious lunar mission, potentially into next year. The Chang'e-7 mission was scheduled to launch as soon as Sunday evening on a Long March 5 rocket, which rolled out to the pad several days ago. However, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced on Sunday that the launch had been postponed and "cannot take place during the planned window this year." The office did not disclose a new launch date, and there was confusion about whether a launch could take place later this year or would be delayed until 2027. China also did not disclose a reason for the delay other than it did not meet the launch requirements. A typhoon near the spaceport on Hainan may have contributed to the decision to postpone the launch. [SpaceNews] Starcloud has raised $250 million to accelerate its orbital data center constellation plans from investors including Nvidia. The company said Friday that investment firm Manhattan West led a Series A funding round extension that doubled its valuation to $2.3 billion, bringing total capital raised since being founded in 2024 to $450 million. The additional capital is intended to help build out manufacturing capacity, procure rocket launches and support engineering work with Nvidia for space-rated AI processors. The first 450-kilogram Starcloud-2 satellite, generating eight kilowatts of power, is slated to launch in January on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare. It is a precursor to a three-ton, 200-kilowatt-class spacecraft called Starcloud-3 it plans to use for an orbital data center constellation. [SpaceNews] Star Catcher Industries has signed up another orbital data center company as a customer of its power-beaming technologies. Star Catcher said Monday that Aethero signed a power purchase agreement where Aethero will buy power beamed from Star Catcher's future satellites. Aethero is developing computing systems for orbital data centers and related systems, and is partnering with EnduroSat on a spacecraft called Titan to test those technologies later this year. Star Catcher said Aethero is the 10th major commercial customer for its power-beaming system that is in development. [SpaceNews] Kongsberg NanoAvionics has unveiled a 500-kilogram version of its flagship MP42D satellite bus. The new version of the bus, designed for payloads of up to 250 kilograms, is more than double its previous maximum mass to support more demanding defense and intelligence missions. The bus is part of a second-generation product line announced Monday that also includes upgrades for its smaller MP42 and MP42H platforms. That Gen-2 family also includes a more than threefold increase in downlink data rates, greater pointing accuracy and improved radiation tolerance and navigation-jamming resistance. [SpaceNews] Veoware successfully demonstrated its mini control moment gyroscopes for the first time aboard a Pelican Earth observation satellite from Planet. During tests conducted earlier this month, a Planet Pelican satellite conducted a 30-degree roll maneuver with four reaction wheels and two of Veoware's miniCMGs. The maneuver was completed about 2.5 times faster than was possible with reaction wheels alone. The ability to turn quickly could help Earth observation satellites collect images of multiple targets in a single pass. [SpaceNews] A startup has unveiled a line of large deployable solar arrays. Beyond Reach Technologies announced on Monday its Flarewing line of rigid deployable structures. The structures are designed to stow in compact configurations for launch and deploy in space for arrays that can produce from 5 to 200 kilowatts of power. The structures are designed to remain stiff as they deploy, reducing bending modes that can affect spacecraft stability and maneuvers. The Brooklyn-based company has raised more than $11 million and has contracts with two customers for studies of those structures. [SpaceNews] A Chinese startup building a constellation to detect and geolocate radio-frequency emissions from orbit has closed a funding round. StarRF said Friday it completed a Pre-A+ funding round of undisclosed size led by Shandong state-owned investor Luxin Venture Capital. StarRF, founded in November 2023, is building a low Earth orbit constellation called "Diting" to monitor electromagnetic spectrum activity across land and sea. The business model places StarRF in the same commercial niche as U.S. and European firms such as HawkEye 360, BAE's Azalea and Unseenlabs, which operate constellations that detect and triangulate RF emitters for applications spanning maritime domain awareness to GPS jamming detection. [SpaceNews] Other News SpaceX launched two batches of Starlink satellites about 13 hours apart. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 11:14 a.m. Eastern Friday, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch took place after a previous attempt Thursday was scrubbed in the final minute of the countdown. A second Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:25 a.m. Eastern Saturday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying 27 Starlink satellites. With the two launches SpaceX now has more than 11,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. [Spaceflight Now] SpaceX is delaying and scaling back plans for its next Starship launch. In an earnings call early this month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the next Starship launch, planned then for the end of August, would be the first to attempt a catch of the Starship upper stage, or ship, back at the Starbase launch site. However, Musk said on social media last week that the catch would instead happen "in a few months" but did not elaborate on the change. The launch itself has now slipped to mid-September, according to briefings for airspace managers. [SpaceNews] The FAA is seeking input on two elements of a new national space transportation policy. A request for information from the FAA, announced on Friday, is asking industry and other stakeholders on ideas for new spaceport sites as well as why many existing spaceports are underutilized. It also asks for information about creating "priority airspace" corridors for launches. Both are topics included in the policy released last week, which set a goal of supporting 1,000 launches and reentries by 2030. In the RFI and a related statement, the FAA and Department of Transportation also set a goal of 10,000 launches and reentries by 2035. The FAA, in aerospace forecasts it published earlier this year, projected no more than 500 commercial launches and reentries in 2035. [SpaceNews] NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is sticking to a mid-2027 launch of the Artemis 3 mission. Speaking at a conference in Florida on Friday, Isaacman said the agency is targeting June 2027 for the mission, which will require coordinated launches of the Space Launch System, Blue Origin's New Glenn and SpaceX's Starship. On the mission, Orion will dock with lunar landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX in low Earth orbit, testing capabilities needed for landing astronauts on the moon on Artemis 4 and beyond. [Florida Today] The Office of Space Commerce is seeking applications to test its new mission authorization system. The office published last week a "call for interest" for its new Space Commerce Certification framework, designed to review applications for novel commercial space activities not currently licensed by the office or other agencies. Companies interested in participating in that pilot phase of the certification must submit applications by early October. [Office of Space Commerce] The Artemis 2 astronauts will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor this week. The four astronauts will be awarded the medals on Friday at a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center led by President Donald Trump. The medal is the highest honor for astronauts, and was last awarded in 2023 to Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the astronauts who flew on the Demo-2 commercial crew mission in 2020. [collectSPACE] The Week Ahead Monday: Taiyuan, China: Anticipated launch of a Long March 6C with an undisclosed payload at 11:21 p.m. Eastern. Monday-Wednesday: Salt Lake City: The 40th Annual Small Satellite Conference continues with the theme of "The Clouds Above the Clouds." Tuesday: Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 1:49 a.m. Eastern. International Space Station: Astronauts Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot perform a spacewalk to install a new antenna starting at 8:35 a.m. Eastern. Washington: The Washington Space Business Roundtable hosts a panel discussion on "From Demo to Dollars: Why Promising Space Companies Still Hit a Wall on the Way to a Program of Record" at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. Wednesday: Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 5:27 a.m. Eastern. Wednesday-Thursday: North Bethesda, Md.: The 2026 Intelligence and National Security Summit will discuss intelligence topics, including space-related issues. Thursday: Kourou, French Guiana: Scheduled launch of an Ariane 62 carrying the MTG-I2 weather satellite at 4:10 p.m. Eastern. Sunday: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon Heavy carrying NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at 7:26 a.m. Eastern. 📨 Don't miss what's next. Sign up for other SpaceNews newsletters: SpaceNews Mission Brief: Orbital Data Centers: A series explaining the latest developments in the rapid race to conceive, finance, develop and launch the future of on-orbit computing. Europe Report: Tracking the policy landscape, investment climate and regional priorities driving Europe’s space ambitions. Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin with weekly news and insights for the military space professional. SpaceNews This Week: The week’s top headlines and our conference coverage. China Report: Biweekly news and analysis from correspondent Andrew Jones on business, politics and technology in the Chinese space industry. SpaceNews Mission Brief: Golden Dome: Explaining the Golden Dome initiative and what it means for the space industry. Editor’s Choice: Our most important recent stories you may have missed, with background and insights from editors, reporters and contributors. Opinions: A weekly digest of the latest commentary and analysis. Subscribe to SpaceNews This email has been sent to generalastronomy110.stnirp@blogger.com because you previously opted in to receive First Up from SpaceNews. Unsubscribe here. Sign up for other SpaceNews newsletters.  SpaceNews.com  |  Advertise with SpaceNews Contact us  |  Privacy policy  |  Terms and conditions SpaceNews.com  |  Advertise with SpaceNews  |  Contact us  |  Privacy policy  |  Terms and conditions © 2026, SpaceNews, 100 Fillmore Street, 5th Floor, Denver, CO 80206, United States