| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Lockheed Martin's space interceptor plans, farewell to Lunar Trailblazer, Skyrora gets a launch license and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
Lockheed Martin said it is preparing to demonstrate a space-based missile interceptor in 2028. The company said Monday it plans to conduct an orbital demonstration of space-based interceptors by 2028, aligning with President Trump's timeline for establishing initial Golden Dome capabilities. The company declined to say if its space-based interceptor concept would rely on kinetic "hit-to-kill" technology or directed-energy systems using high-powered lasers, wanting to wait for the government to first disclose its architectural requirements for Golden Dome. The appeal of space-based interceptors lies in their potential to engage missile threats during the critical boost phase, immediately after launch. [SpaceNews]
Military space operators worldwide need to more quickly identify aggressive actions on orbit and more closely integrate with other domains to deter threats. That was the message from the Chief of the Air Staff's Global Air & Space Chiefs' Conference 2025 last month, where military leaders from several nations discussed the growing importance of space capabilities. They argued that space needs to be "demystified and normalized" by using similar terminology as air, land and sea domains, as well as develop a doctrine for space and training exercises. Maj. Gen. Paul Tedman, head of U.K. Space Command, noted at the conference that the U.K.'s Strategic Defence Review, released in June 2025, called out space as a separate domain with air, land, sea and cyber for the first time. [SpaceNews]
NASA has formally ended a lunar orbiter smallsat mission more than five months after losing contact with it. NASA said Monday it terminated the Lunar Trailblazer mission at the end of July after failing to restore contact with the spacecraft. Controllers lost contact with the smallsat a day after its launch in late February and was not heard from again. The spacecraft appeared to be in a slow spin and its solar arrays were not properly aligned with the sun, depriving it of power. Mission managers had hoped that the changing orientation of the spacecraft with the sun as it cruised into deep space might restore power. Lunar Trailblazer was intended to go into orbit around the moon to map water ice. It is one of several smallsat planetary missions launched in recent years that suffered mission-ending technical problems. [SpaceNews]
Skyrora has secured a launch license from British regulators for a suborbital rocket, but may not be able to launch until next year. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority issued a license to Skyrora Monday for its Skylark L suborbital rocket, allowing the company to perform launches from SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands. Skyrora launched Skylark L once in 2022 from Iceland, but the rocket malfunctioned moments after liftoff. Skyrora hoped to launch Skylark L this year from SaxaVord but has been told none of the pads there are available currently, likely pushing the launch into next year. Skylark L is intended to test technologies for the Skylark XL small orbital launch vehicle. [SpaceNews]
NASA is reportedly planning to accelerate work on a space nuclear reactor. The agency's acting administrator, Sean Duffy, will announce this week he is directing NASA to work on a 100-kilowatt fission reactor to be ready by 2030 that could support later Artemis missions. NASA has been working on smaller concepts for fission surface power for some time, although the 2026 budget proposal would have slowed down that work. The plan Duffy will announce would be similar to one option put forward in a recent report sponsored by the Idaho National Laboratory about accelerating work on nuclear power and propulsion. [Politico]
| | | | | | Other News
China launched another set of Guowang megaconstellation satellites Monday. A Long March 12 rocket lifted off at 6:21 a.m. Eastern from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center. It placed into orbit an undisclosed number of satellites for Satellite Internet LEO Group 07, supporting the Guowang constellation. A patch for the launch had nine stars on it, suggesting that the rocket carried nine satellites. A later statement from commercial satellite manufacturer and operator GalaxySpace revealed that it provided the satellites for the launch, making GalaxySpace the first private firm to supply satellites for the state-led Guowang constellation. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab launched a satellite early Tuesday for Japanese radar imaging company iQPS. An Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 12:10 a.m. Eastern, deploying the QPS-SAR-12 into low Earth orbit nearly an hour later. The launch was the fifth by Rocket Lab overall for iQPS and the fourth this year, with four more iQPS launches scheduled through the rest of this year and into 2026. Rocket Lab has conducted 11 Electron launches this year and has plans to perform more than 20 launches in 2025. [SpaceNews]
Firefly has increased the share price for its upcoming IPO. The company announced Monday a new range of $41-43 per share, up from earlier plans of $35-39 per share. The revised share price would allow Firefly to raise nearly $700 million in the IPO and value the company at more than $6 billion. [CNBC]
An Australian state-owned company has selected Amazon to provide broadband services for rural customers. NBN Co. announced Tuesday it picked Amazon's Project Kuiper LEO constellation to replace its existing Sky Muster GEO satellites that offer broadband services to 300,000 customers out of range of terrestrial networks. The Sky Muster satellites will be phased out in the early 2030s, although NBN will start using Kuiper as soon as mid-2026. NBN did not disclose financial terms of the contract or why it selected Kuiper over Starlink, which has more than 200,000 customers in Australia. [Sydney Morning Herald]
A Kazakh cosmonaut who flew to the International Space Station with the first commercial space tourist has died. Talgat Musabayev died at the age of 74, the president of Kazakhstan announced Monday. Musabayev, selected as a cosmonaut by the former Soviet Union in 1990, flew to the Mir space station in 1994 and 1998. He went to the ISS in 2001 on a short-duration mission that included space tourist Dennis Tito. Musabayev went on to lead the Kazakh space agency, Kascosmos, from 2007 until his death. [collectSPACE]
| | | | | | Don't Forget Mom and Dad
| "I really appreciate Mr. Bezos and his team to make it possible. And thank you Dad and Mom to bring me to Earth."
| | – Justin Sun, who was on a Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital flight Sunday, in comments after landing.
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