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06/04/2026

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Top Stories

SpaceX plans to raise at least $75 billion in an IPO that would value the company at more than $1.75 trillion. The company released an updated prospectus for its initial public offering on Wednesday, disclosing it will sell more than 555.5 million shares at $135 per share. The offering includes an option to sell 83.3 million additional shares in the 30 days after the IPO, bringing the total raised to more than $86 billion. SpaceX said the proceeds would go toward various initiatives aimed at improvements in launch, satellite constellations and artificial intelligence, but with few details. The documents also showed that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will hold more than 80% of the voting power of the company's shares, giving him control over any matters requiring shareholder approval. Shares are expected to begin trading at the end of next week. [SpaceNews]

AST SpaceMobile says it expects a three- to six-month delay in beginning its commercial service because of the New Glenn failure. The company said at an investment bank conference this week the loss of New Glenn means the company won't meet the goal of having 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. The company has "a handful of launches" the rest of this year with other launch providers, including a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch scheduled for this month carrying three satellites. [SpaceNews]

NASA has declared the end of the MAVEN Mars mission six months after losing contact with the orbiter. NASA said Wednesday a review board concluded that the spacecraft was unrecoverable after efforts to restore contact with it were unsuccessful. NASA last heard from MAVEN in early December, and a fragment of telemetry indicated the spacecraft suffered an anomaly that caused it to spin up and drain its batteries. NASA has not yet identified a root cause for the failure. MAVEN arrived at Mars in 2014 to study the planet's atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. It also served as a communications relay for missions on the Martian surface. [SpaceNews]

NASA wants to streamline the management of a nuclear propulsion demo mission the agency hopes to launch in just two and a half years. NASA announced the Space Reactor 1 (SR-1) Freedom mission at the Ignition event in March to test nuclear electric propulsion technologies on a mission to Mars scheduled to launch at the end of 2028. At a National Academies meeting this week, agency officials said they are working to streamline management processes to meet a timeline they acknowledge is "ambitious," but noted SR-1 Freedom will use some existing hardware, like the Power and Propulsion Element for the lunar Gateway. NASA has not disclosed a cost estimate for SR-1 Freedom, which was not included in the agency's 2027 budget request. [SpaceNews]

Prospects for future scientific collaboration between the European Space Agency and China look distant despite the successful launch of a joint mission. The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, or SMILE, spacecraft lifted off on a Vega C rocket last month to study the Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind. SMILE was a joint mission of ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. However, after the launch senior officials representing both organizations stopped short of committing to more and deeper cooperation in the future, despite parallel and overlapping interests and activities. They committed only to modest "organic collaboration" between missions being independently developed by Europe and China. [SpaceNews]

A Japanese electronics manufacturer is considering using a commercial space-based timing service being developed by Xona Space Systems. Murata Manufacturing signed an agreement with Xona to explore the use of the startup's satellite-based positioning and timing service in telecommunications, data centers, financial networks and other industries that depend on precise timing signals. Xona is developing a positioning, navigation and timing service known as Pulsar through a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit as an alternative or backup to GPS. Murata will evaluate applications for Xona's service in data centers and financial institutions that require highly accurate timing synchronization. [SpaceNews]

Other News

SpaceX performed a pair of Starlink launches within the last 24 hours. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:40 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, placing 24 Starlink satellites into orbit. A second Falcon 9 lifted off at 6:26 a.m. Eastern Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying 29 Starlink satellites. The Florida launch was scheduled for Wednesday morning but postponed by weather. [Spaceflight Now]

China is establishing an industrial policy framework to support a push to build space-based computing infrastructure. The Space Computing Working Committee of the China Computer Industry Association held its inaugural meeting Wednesday. The committee, established under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's (MIIT) Electronic Information Department, says it has received applications from more than 100 organizations involved in space-based computing technologies who want to join. It is the second such committee formed in 2026, following the establishment of the Space Computing Power Professional Committee in April with a focus on standards and applications. [SpaceNews]

NASA has moved up the launch date for the Roman Space Telescope. The agency said Wednesday that the space telescope is now set to launch Aug. 30 on a Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center. NASA had earlier set a September launch for the mission. Roman is scheduled to ship by barge this month from the Goddard Space Flight Center to KSC for final launch preparations. [NASA]

German launch startup HyImpulse has taken a step toward launching its rockets from Oman. The company signed a letter of intent last week with Oman's Etlaq Spaceport to launch its rockets from that spaceport. HyImpulse will study the feasibility of using the spaceport for its SR75 suborbital rocket and SL1 orbital vehicle. HyImpulse has previously launched the SR75 from Australia and signed an agreement in March to use SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands. [Oman Observer]

Seagate Space, a startup developing ocean-based launch platforms, won support from Space Florida. The state space development agency approved this week an equipment purchase and leaseback agreement with Seagate for hardware the company will use for its offshore launch platform. Seagate recently announced it is working with Firefly Aerospace to explore the use of that platform for Firefly's Alpha rocket. [Orlando Sentinel]

An "orbital airbag" could shield the Earth from solar storms. A concept by researchers published this week proposes to deploy a constellation of satellites called StormWall that would release hundreds of tons of gas into high Earth orbits just before a solar storm reaches the Earth. The gas would turn to plasma that would act as a shield, reducing the strength of a severe geomagnetic storm by up to two-thirds. That could protect both spacecraft and terrestrial electrical grids from the worst effects of such storms. [Science]

On the Next Episode of 'House Hunters'

"I'm learning a whole new world of walking the sidewalks of D.C., looking at commercial properties. I've been to probably eight to 10. Boy, there's some interesting characters, let's just say."

– David Mitchell, the NASA official charged with leading the search for a new headquarters building for the agency, discussing that effort at a National Academies meeting Wednesday.

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