By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: another setback for Firefly's Alpha rocket, a Chinese company plans a constellation of space-tracking satellites, South Korea picks SpaceX to launch a navigation satellite and more.
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Top Stories
The booster that was to launch the return-to-flight mission of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket was destroyed in a ground test Monday. Firefly said that the first stage, being tested at a company facility in Texas, "experienced an event that resulted in a loss of the stage." The company didn't elaborate, but video showed the booster exploding on a test stand. No one was injured in the mishap. The booster was being tested for the seventh launch of Alpha, planned for later this year, and the first since a launch failure in April. Shares in Firefly fell more than 10% in after-hours trading Monday after the company disclosed the incident. [SpaceNews]
A report by Senate Democrats alleges that NASA has been violating the law by attempting to implement elements of the administration's 2026 budget proposal before Congress acts. The report by the Democratic staff of the Senate Commerce Committee, released Monday, cited anonymous whistleblowers and other sources who said that agency staff had been instructed to implement the major cuts in the fiscal year 2026 proposal even as House and Senate appropriations bills largely reject those measures. Others worried that the cuts, along with voluntary departures of agency employees, posed a safety risk. The report comes as the federal government faces a shutdown on Wednesday if Congress does not pass a stopgap funding bill, which could potentially lead to layoffs, rather than furloughs, of many government employees. [SpaceNews]
Government demand continues to spur investment in commercial capabilities for a "circular space economy" that involves reuse of space assets. A panel at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) on Tuesday cited a steady increase in interest in satellite servicing and related capabilities from governments, particularly militaries. That demand, executives of several companies said, can help reduce costs and open up new commercial markets for those capabilities. [SpaceNews]
A Chinese company plans to establish a constellation of 144 space situational awareness (SSA) satellites in low Earth orbit. Geovis Insighter Technology Co. Ltd. said at the IAC that it plans to launch its first two satellites next April, with 12 in orbit by the end of next year as it builds out its constellation. Those initial satellites will be in 1,200-kilometer orbits to observe satellites in orbits from 300 to 2,000 kilometers. The company plans to collect SSA data to sell to commercial customers. [SpaceNews]
A startup claims to have made progress toward increasing the computing power of spacecraft. Cosmic Shielding says it has developed a lightweight nanocomposite, called Plasteel, that it uses to build enclosures protecting advanced commercial processors from the intense radiation that bombards spacecraft. That would allow satellites to carry more advanced processors, including those that can perform AI applications, without worrying about the effects of radiation on them. The company demonstrated Plasteel on a smallsat mission, allowing a Nvidia graphics processing unit to operate in orbit as well as it does on the ground. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
China launched a pair of experimental satellites. A Long March 2D lifted off at 11 p.m. Eastern Sunday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, placing into orbit the Shiyan-30 (01) and (02) satellites. Shiyan missions are usually described officially as for space environment detection and related technology experiments, but are believed to test new systems such as sensors, communications subsystems and environmental instruments. [SpaceNews]
Kayhan Space has released free software designed to help researchers and developers visualize massive satellite catalogs. Built as an offshoot of the high-fidelity orbit propagator Kayhan developed for its commercial Satcat space traffic management platform, the Colorado-based venture said its browser-based sgp4.gl software library enables users to explore thousands of satellites and debris objects in realtime. The software has improved performance to deal with large satellite catalogs that can slow down other software. [SpaceNews]
An ESA official offered a warning about a proposed European satellite joint venture. At a conference in Germany last week, Rolf Densing, director of operations at ESA, said he understood why Airbus, Leonardo and Thales were considering combining their space businesses to better compete with American firms. However, he said he was worried that the merger might leave Europe with just a single major satellite builder, which "is not too helpful" for ESA. The three companies continue to negotiate the terms of a joint venture. [Reuters]
South Korea will launch its first navigation satellite with SpaceX. The Korea AeroSpace Administration and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said Tuesday they selected SpaceX to launch the KPS 1 satellite in 2029. KPS 1 is the first satellite of the Korea Positioning System, which will provide regional navigation services using satellites in geostationary and inclined geosynchronous orbits. [Chosun]
George Smoot, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering evidence for the Big Bang, has died at the age of 80. Smoot spent much of his career studying the cosmic microwave background, created by the Big Bang. He led the development of an instrument on NASA's Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer, or COBE, spacecraft launched in 1989. COBE provided the strongest evidence yet for the cosmic microwave background, which earned him a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 with NASA's John Mather, who also worked on the mission. [Physics World]
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Prime Directive
| "We had a conjunction warning coming up with a Korean satellite. We had their contact information so we called them up, but there was a language barrier as well, because the answer that we got was, 'No, I didn't order anything from Amazon.'"
| – Josef Koller, head of space safety and sustainability for Amazon's Project Kuiper, discussing challenges dealing with other satellite operators regarding warnings of potential collisions during a panel at the International Astronautical Congress on Tuesday.
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