Isaacman attends Soyuz launch

Plus: Debris hazards in the GEO belt

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07/15/2026 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. By Jeff Foust In today's edition: Isaacman attends Soyuz ISS launch, a surge of investment in satellite companies, debris hazards in the GEO belt 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 new SpaceNews mobile app FROM SPACENEWS Honor the icons shaping space: Since 2017, the SpaceNews Icon Awards have celebrated the companies, teams and individuals driving breakthroughs across civil, commercial and military space. Nominate the innovators, collaborators and leaders whose work over the past year — or an entire career — has left a lasting mark on the industry. Submit your nomination today. Top Stories Trump administration nominees for two influential U.S. national security space posts endorsed closer coordination between the Space Force and intelligence agencies as well as acquisition improvements. Erich Hernandez-Baquero, nominated to become the Air Force's top civilian space acquisition official, and Roger Mason, the president's choice to lead the National Reconnaissance Office, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. The two nominees received only limited questions in the hearing as senators focused on other nominees, but Mason said the roles of the NRO and Space Force remained clear as the military shifts airborne and ground moving-target surveillance missions toward satellite-based systems. Hernandez-Baquero said his priorities would be acquisition reform, integration across missions and rebuilding the acquisition workforce, while calling for greater use of commercial technology and new business models. [SpaceNews] A new crew traveled to the International Space Station on a Soyuz launch Tuesday attended by NASA's administrator. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:47 a.m. Eastern, placing the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft docked with the ISS three hours later, delivering Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menon. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended the launch, the first agency administrator to be at a Soyuz ISS launch since 2018. He did not disclose any meetings he had with Russian officials, but the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said he met with Isaacman and confirmed that Russia would continue ISS operations through the station's scheduled retirement in 2030. He added that NASA and Roscosmos also agreed to continue exchanging seats on Soyuz and commercial crew flights. [SpaceNews] The Japanese government wants to sharply increase launches. At the Spacetide conference last week, officials said the government's space policy has a goal of hosting 30 launches per year by the early 2030s. Japan has conducted just two launches so far this year, including the failed launch of the Kairos small rocket. Space One, which operates Kairos, said the company was working on the next Kairos launch despite the failures of all three launches of that rocket to date. Reaching a goal of 30 launches per year could require Japan hosting launches of foreign vehicles. [SpaceNews] Investment in satellite companies so far in 2026 has broken annual records. Investment in satellite companies reached $8.1 billion in the first half of 2026, according to a study by Space Capital, led by Iceye's $1.2 billion Series F round in June. That is more than the investment in satellite companies in any single year. Those companies that the report classifies as infrastructure - defined as the design, manufacture, launch and operation of space-based assets - collectively raised $20.7 billion, which is a quarterly record. That figure included a $12 billion investment in Prometheus, an industrial artificial intelligence venture backed by Jeff Bezos that Space Capital argues is space-adjacent since it will support the design and development of launch vehicles and space assets. Lines among industry sectors are blurring, Space Capital argues, and it expects standalone launch companies to atrophy over time as more follow moves such as Rocket Lab's planned acquisition of Iridium. [SpaceNews] Space robotics startup Icarus Robotics has selected Kulr to provide batteries for a payload going to the ISS. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, KULR One Space (K1S) battery systems will power Icarus's Joy as it navigates, maneuvers and assists astronauts on the Joyride-1 mission scheduled for early 2027. KULR batteries, designed to comply with NASA crewed vehicle safety requirements, obtained flight heritage in a cubesat flown aboard NASA's Artemis 2 lunar mission. [SpaceNews] SPONSORED Half a century ago, NASA's Viking 1 touched down on Mars, the first American spacecraft to successfully land and operate on another planet. On July 20th, join The Planetary Society, Johns Hopkins University, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, and SpaceNews on Capitol Hill to mark the milestone. Hear from veterans of Project Viking and today's leaders in Mars exploration, science, and industry. A reception with light refreshments and Mars exploration exhibits follows the program. Register at planetary.org/viking50 Other News A new study has found evidence of hazardous debris in the GEO belt. The study used images taken by a large astronomical telescope to survey regions of the GEO belt, running those images through new processing techniques to find 25 small debris objects that missed earlier detection. The results suggest the amount of small debris, five centimeters across or smaller, may be much higher than previously thought, making it a threat to satellites there. [Space.com] Discount airline Frontier is the latest to adopt SpaceX's Starlink for in-flight wifi. The airline, which does not currently offer wifi on its aircraft, said Tuesday it will start outfitting its planes with Starlink early next year. The airline has private equity firm Indigo Partners as an investor, and four other airlines Indigo owns stakes in across Asia, Europe and Latin America also announced they would adopt Starlink for in-flight wifi. [CNBC] The airline deal didn't help SpaceX's stock, which is sinking near its IPO price. Shares in the company fell 2.2% Tuesday to close just above $136 a share, a little more than a dollar above its IPO price of $135. The shares soared in its debut just over a month ago, reaching more than $200 per share, but have since gradually fallen. Despite the decline, more than 80% of Wall Street analysts who are covering SpaceX give the company a "buy" rating and expect shares to rise significantly in the months ahead. [Bloomberg] The Space Force is offering big bonuses for guardians willing to enlist for an extended tour of duty. The service announced this week its Initial Enlisted Bonus Pilot program, which will provide a $25,000 bonus to enlistees who commit to serving for eight years. Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna said the longer contracts reflect the additional training needed for guardians to serve in highly technical fields. The Space Force had previously used four- and six-year enlistment terms. [Military Times] Micetronauts "To our surprise, mice do skip." – Alessandro Santuz, lead author of a study that found that mice, when placed in harnesses to simulate lunar gravity, adopt the same skipping locomotion that Apollo astronauts used when walking on the moon. [Science] 📨 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. 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

Military Space: A race to rebuild the procurement workforce

Plus: NATO’s push to integrate sovereign satellite networks

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07/14/2026 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. Hire the space industry’s top talent: Need to grow your team quickly? Reach qualified candidates on the SpaceNews Job Exchange. Post your job now. SPONSORED BY By Sandra Erwin Welcome to this week's edition of SpaceNews' Military Space, your source for the latest developments at the intersection of space and national security. In this week's edition: Space Systems Command's race to rebuild procurement workforce. Plus, NATO looks to integrate sovereign satellites in a megaconstellation. If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it directly in your inbox every Tuesday. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. You can hit reply or DM me on Signal @SandraErwin.43. 📲  Download the new SpaceNews mobile app Members of the 18th Space Defense Squadron operate the Atlas system at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. L3Harris last week said it is modernizing the Atlas system to improve U.S. and allies’ ability to monitor satellites, space debris and threats in space. Atlas replaced the Cold War-era Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC) system with updated user interfaces and increased processing capacity to handle a growing space object catalog. Credit: David Dozoretz, U.S. Space Force Space Force acquisition arm looks to add 100 workers a month The Space Systems Command is trying to hire roughly 100 people per month through the end of the year as the Space Force’s main acquisition organization rebuilds from last year’s workforce losses and prepares for a sharp increase in procurement activity. SSC manages a $15.6 billion annual space acquisition budget and is responsible for developing, buying, launching and sustaining the military’s space systems. Its ability to fill contracting, engineering and program management positions will help determine how quickly the Space Force can turn a larger budget into signed contracts and fielded capabilities. “With the rapid growth occurring within SSC, we are recruiting for all occupational series at all levels,” the command said last week in a news release. Openings range from contracting, project and program management to logistics, finance, cyber, human resources, firefighting and base security.  SSC is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Calif., but the positions are spread across major space hubs, including Cape Canaveral and Patrick Space Force Base in Florida; Huntsville, Ala.; Washington; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Pressures hit the command at once SSC is still trying to fill vacancies left by departures in 2025, including losses associated with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative and voluntary retirements. At the same time, the command expects its workload to grow as Space Force funding drives more acquisition activity. Natalie Riedel, SSC’s executive director, said her immediate priority is to “fill critical vacancies.” “More funding is coming in fiscal year 2027 that will come with more billets, a larger execution role, and we need to fill these vacancies in order to execute. We need talent,” she said. “We obviously took a big hit in 2025 – that was a rough year for everyone across the board. We lost a lot of civilians, and we are now in a rebuilding year. We are working on targeting top candidates and making sure we get the talent that we need to execute the mission going forward.” The most sizeable gaps are in contracting offices, Riedel said. “We are also hiring firefighters at our Space Launch Deltas. We are hiring engineers; we’re hiring program managers. Cyber is at the top of the list. We need recent college graduates and we need mid-career professionals. We’re hiring at all levels.” To widen the applicant pool, SSC is attending career fairs and recruiting events around the country and working with NobleReach, which engages students and recent graduates at more than 450 colleges and universities about federal employment. The command has also posted a QR code that allows candidates to submit résumés directly. New workforce demands amid procurement overhaul  The Space Systems Command's push to hire hundreds of workers comes just as the Space Force begins implementing the most sweeping overhaul of its acquisition organization since the service's creation. The Space Force in late June completed its transition to nine mission-focused Portfolio Acquisition Executives, or PAEs, replacing an acquisition model centered on individual programs with one organized around operational missions. The new executives are expected to oversee broad capability portfolios spanning launch, missile warning, satellite communications, command and control, and space operations, with greater authority to shift funding, shape requirements and integrate commercial technology. The reorganization is part of the Pentagon's broader effort to accelerate defense acquisition by giving senior leaders more flexibility to make tradeoffs across entire mission areas instead of managing programs one platform at a time. Executing the new model will depend on the contracting officers, engineers, program managers and financial specialists responsible for turning those portfolio decisions into contracts and fielded capabilities.  Officials have said the PAEs will play a larger role in defining requirements themselves, giving them more flexibility to decide whether missions are best served by developing new government systems or buying commercially available products and services. That approach is intended to shorten acquisition timelines and make it easier to incorporate commercial technology. It also places greater demands on the government workforce, which must evaluate technologies across multiple programs, balance cost, schedule and performance and integrate capabilities across mission portfolios. For industry, the stakes are equally high. The new acquisition structure is designed to make it easier for commercial technologies to move into operational programs, but only if the workforce has the capacity to award contracts, manage competitions and execute a growing procurement pipeline. A shortage of contracting officers and program managers could become a bottleneck as those executives take on larger portfolios and more procurement authority. SSC said the expansion will continue beyond the current hiring campaign. “SSC is rapidly growing with new mission requirements and projects that will increase our workforce dramatically over the next five years,” the command said. NATO's next space bet: A network of allied satellites in a shared network NATO is moving to link allied military satellites into a shared operational network, marking a new phase in the alliance's effort to build space capabilities through multinational cooperation rather than NATO-owned systems. The alliance last week unveiled HALO (Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space), a multinational initiative that aims to connect participating allies' sovereign military satellites into what NATO calls a "networked mega constellation." Rather than building a NATO-owned fleet, HALO is designed as a federated architecture that allows national satellite systems to operate together while remaining under national ownership and control. The announcement, made at the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum in Ankara, reflects a broader shift in the alliance's approach to space. NATO increasingly sees its role as coordinating capabilities across allies. HALO is not another Starlink or Europe's planned IRIS² constellation. Instead, it functions as a network layer that connects existing and future military satellites operated by participating allies.  "HALO will focus on improving connectivity and integration of sovereign, nationally owned and controlled military satellites into a networked mega constellation," NATO said in a statement. "It aims to improve alliance resilience and military advantage in space, enabling high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking. It will overcome the cost, time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets." Eight nations announce plans to participate By pooling national assets, NATO hopes to deliver capabilities — including secure communications, intelligence collection, missile warning and tracking, and broader geographic coverage — that many European allies would struggle to afford independently. Eight countries are participating in HALO's initial phase: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Turkey. If successful, HALO could reshape how European governments procure military space capabilities by emphasizing interoperability, common standards and networking across sovereign systems rather than standalone national programs. That aligns with NATO's new Commercial Space Strategy, which encourages greater use of commercial technologies and standardized approaches across the alliance. HALO wasn't the only multinational space effort highlighted in Ankara. Canada became the 15th member of NATO's STARLIFT initiative, which is exploring a network of allied launch capabilities for rapid access to space. Germany's Isar Aerospace signed an agreement with Canada's Maritime Launch Services to secure launch access through Spaceport Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, Spain became the 19th member of NATO's Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS), the alliance's largest multinational investment in space capabilities to date, contributing imagery from its Atlantic Constellation satellites to strengthen coastal surveillance. Turkey also announced plans to develop two additional Imece high-resolution Earth observation satellites to expand regional capabilities. FROM SPACENEWS Honor the icons shaping space: Since 2017, the SpaceNews Icon Awards have celebrated the companies, teams and individuals driving breakthroughs across civil, commercial and military space. Nominate the innovators, collaborators, and change-makers whose work over the past year — or an entire career — has left a lasting mark on the industry. Submit your nomination today. SpaceNews' latest national security coverage L3Harris, Sierra Space to build 36 satellites to expand U.S. missile-tracking network The government’s options to address strained spaceports Space Force completes procurement reorganization, creating nine acquisition portfolios Parabilis tests propulsion system for maneuverable cubesats Startup testing nuclear battery technology in orbit The Exploration Company establishes US entity to pursue government contracts Space Force awards Pulse Space $40 million to advance laser power technology Venus Aerospace raises $91 million to scale rocket engine technology 📨 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. 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 Military Space 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