By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: the Space Force outlines its future vision, NASA awards Voyager an ISS private astronaut mission, PlanetiQ wins an Air Force contract for new weather satellites and more.
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Top Stories
The Space Force released a pair of documents Wednesday that outline the service's future vision. In a keynote address at the 41st Space Symposium, Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, unveiled unclassified versions of two foundational documents, the 68-page Future Operating Environment 2040 and the 104-page Objective Force 2040, framing them as a paired construct that defines both the problem and the solution for the U.S. Space Force. One document lays out the threat environment, or the conditions the Space Force expects to face, while the other describes what the force must become to operate in that environment. Together, they amount to the most explicit public articulation to date of how the Space Force sees the future of warfare in space. [SpaceNews]
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink says that while the Space Force will soon see large budget increases, it must be able to execute on its plans. Speaking at the Space Symposium Wednesday, Meink noted that the Pentagon is seeking to double the Space Force's budget in 2027. "Now we have to execute, execute, execute," Meink said. His comments underscore a central tension now facing the Space Force: even with a dramatic increase in funding, it remains unclear whether the service, its acquisition workforce and the industrial base can move quickly enough to translate those dollars into operational systems. [SpaceNews]
The Space Development Agency will likely no longer be a standalone agency. Officials said this week at the Space Symposium that the agency is expected to be realigned as the Department of the Air Force restructures procurement programs under so-called Portfolio Acquisition Executives, or PAEs. SDA was established in 2019 to break from the Pentagon's slower acquisition system, and its flagship effort is the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a constellation of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit designed to support missile warning, tracking and data transport. SDA's approaches, such as the use of fixed-price contracts, commercial technology and rapid, iterative procurements, have been adopted by other parts of the Space Force. [SpaceNews]
Voyager Technologies has won a private astronaut mission (PAM) to the International Space Station. NASA announced Wednesday it selected Voyager for a seventh PAM flight scheduled for no earlier than 2028. The announcement was somewhat surprising since NASA solicited proposals last year for the fifth and sixth PAMs, awarding them earlier this year to Axiom Space and Vast. NASA stated in procurement documents that Voyager's proposal was considered selectable and would consider it for a future PAM if resources became available. The PAM flights help give companies experience as they develop commercial space stations to succeed the ISS. [SpaceNews]
Several senators are asking appropriators to provide more funding for Mars exploration at NASA. In a letter released Wednesday, four Democratic senators asked the leadership of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA to provide at least $400 million in 2027 for NASA's "Mars Future Missions" account. That effort received $110 million in 2026 to continue technologies that could be used for a future Mars sample return effort after the existing program was effectively canceled. The senators said the 2026 funding is insufficient to keep that work going and that NASA risks "severe and irreversible harm" to any future Mars missions without a funding increase. [SpaceNews]
Early-stage space investor Seraphim Space has formed a global advisory council to inform its long-term strategy amidst geopolitical and technology shifts. The Global Space Advisory Council will be chaired by SES co-founder and satellite industry pioneer Candace Johnson, Seraphim announced Wednesday, ahead of its first meeting later that day at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Seraphim says the council would take a longer-term view of the structural forces shaping the space economy as the sector becomes increasingly strategic for businesses and governments. The council's inaugural meeting will focus on the next decade of space investments. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Space computing startup Aethero has ordered a satellite from EnduroSat to deploy its most powerful computing payload yet this fall. The Titan mission will use EnduroSat's ESPA-class FRAME-15 platform with 3.4 kilowatts of peak power, carrying a computing payload developed by Aethero. The Titan mission aims to demonstrate more than 16,000 teraflops per second, which Aethero says is sufficient for real-time data processing and autonomous decisions in orbit, reducing reliance on limited downlink capacity to send raw data back to Earth. The computing module is built around Nvidia's Blackwell-based Jetson Thor processor, designed to bring significantly more AI computing power to orbit than earlier generations. Titan is scheduled to launch on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission in October. [SpaceNews]
Commercial satellite operator PlanetiQ won a $15 million Air Force award for spacecraft to collect terrestrial and space weather data. The $15 million U.S. Air Force Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) contract announced Thursday covers work to develop and launch spacecraft equipped with next-generation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation receivers. Those receivers will provide extensive data on atmospheric temperature, pressure and water vapor in addition to revealing ocean-surface winds, sea states and soil moisture. [SpaceNews]
NASA is planning to seek proposals for commercial replacements for aging data-relay satellites. The agency released last week a draft solicitation for Project NEXUS, a part of the broader Commercial Services Project. The goal of NEXUS is to develop a commercial Ka-band satellite data relay service to replace the existing Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, or TDRSS. While NASA is moving future missions to commercial systems, it says it needs to support older spacecraft that remain dependent on TDRSS. NEXUS would provide backwards-compatible relay services in Ka-band using NASA spectrum, avoiding a "continuity risk" around the end of the decade as existing TDRSS satellites reach the end of their design lives. [SpaceNews]
A Starlink outage last year affected tests of U.S. Navy uncrewed vessels. The outage last August, lasting about an hour, rendered two dozen uncrewed surface vessels — the naval equivalent of drones — inoperable for about an hour off the California coast during tests. The outage came after problems earlier in the year with the Starlink connections with the drones, including high data usage that resulted in intermittent network connections. The incidents highlight concerns some have about relying on Starlink for critical military systems, but others note that there are few current alternatives to the system. [Reuters]
The space agencies of Canada and South Korea signed an agreement to cooperate in exploration, satellite communications and other fields. The agreement, announced at the Space Symposium this week, covers cooperation in a wide range of topics between the Canadian Space Agency and Korea Aerospace Administration. Among the topics is low Earth orbit satellite communications as Canada's Telesat develops its Lightspeed constellation. [Seoul Economic Daily]
Commercial space station developer Vast signed an agreement to work with Cedars-Sinai. The agreement, announced Thursday, includes collaborative research and development on biomedical research and biomanufacturing technology demonstrations in space. Cedars-Sinai, through its Center for Space Medicine Research, has flown several experiments in space and plans to fly one on Vast's Haven-1 space station next year. Additional collaboration areas include astronaut medical support, space-based research and joint education and outreach initiatives. [Vast]
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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SmallSat Europe 2026 will be one of the most important gatherings of civil, defense and commercial smallsat professionals of the year. SpaceNews joins this year's event as the official producer of the Defense Stage, bringing together military leaders, startup founders and industry executives for conversations spanning launch access, resilient communications, AI, missile defense and the evolving orbital threat environment. Check out all the programming across the defense, business and technical tracks and register today. |
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Right Geographic Metaphor
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"This morning we met with NASA and they underlined that it's really working like a Swiss clock — or like a German automotive engine."
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– Walther Pelzer, head of the German Space Agency at DLR, discussing at the Space Symposium Wednesday the performance of Orion's European Service Module on the Artemis 2 mission.
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