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NASA's acting administrator says the agency will "open up the contract" SpaceX has for the Artemis 3 landing to potential competitors. Sean Duffy, in television interviews Monday, said that since SpaceX had fallen behind in its development of Starship for Artemis 3, NASA would allow other companies to compete for transporting astronauts to and from the lunar surface on that mission. The agency later said that it will request SpaceX and Blue Origin, which also has a lunar lander contract for later Artemis missions, provide "acceleration approaches" by Oct. 29, while it will use an RFI to solicit ideas from other companies. Duffy acknowledged in the interviews it was unlikely Artemis 3 would take place in 2027 as planned, with a new goal of flying the mission before the end of President Trump's term in January 2029. SpaceX's Elon Musk said on social media that he was not worried about competition and that "Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission." [SpaceNews]

The new competition for the Artemis 3 landing is part of a power struggle for leadership of NASA. Duffy, the secretary of transportation who has served as acting administrator since July, reportedly wants to remain at the helm of the space agency, possibly moving the agency within the Transportation Department in some way. Meanwhile, Jared Isaacman, whose nomination to be NASA administrator was abruptly withdrawn at the end of May, has been lining up support to be renominated. There were rumors over the weekend that Trump could reveal a new nominee on Monday, but the White House did not make any announcements. [Wall Street Journal]

Preparations for the Artemis 2 mission continue during the government shutdown. Duffy announced Monday that the Orion spacecraft for the mission had been installed on the Space Launch System rocket for a launch that could occur as soon as February. That work is continuing despite a government shutdown, now nearly three weeks long, that has furloughed most NASA employees. Those working on Artemis are excepted from the shutdown, a move agency officials said last month was likely because of the safety-critical nature of launch preparations. [SpaceNews]

Muon Space plans to install Starlink optical intersatellite links on its spacecraft. The company announced Tuesday that "mini laser" terminals would link its Halo satellites into Starlink's growing mesh of optical crosslinks in low Earth orbit, providing up to 25 gigabits per second of connectivity as far as 4,000 kilometers away. Each Halo satellite, ranging from around 100-500 kilograms, would typically carry one to four Starlink mini laser terminals, depending on connectivity and redundancy needs. Muon said most of the customers for its Halo satellites expressed interest in the terminals. [SpaceNews]

Other News

Landspace is making final preparations for the first attempt by a Chinese company to recover a booster. The company said Monday that it had completed the first phase of its inaugural launch campaign of the Zhuque-3 rocket. That launch, expected as soon as next month, will attempt to land the first stage, the first such recovery attempt by a Chinese company. The first Zhuque-3 is expected to carry a prototype of the reusable Haolong cargo spacecraft as part of a program for low-cost cargo delivery to the Tiangong space station. [SpaceNews]

Three European companies have reportedly reached an initial agreement on combining their space businesses. Sources said Airbus, Leonardo and Thales finalized a "framework deal" on a joint venture that would merge their satellite activities, with Leonardo planning an extraordinary board meeting as soon as today to approve it. The companies have been in talks since last year on a joint venture that would allow it to better compete with American companies. A deal was expected this summer, but negotiations on how to run the venture and its value delayed an agreement. [Reuters]

A Belgian startup led by satellite networking veterans raised seed funding to develop a 5G virtual satellite modem. Nxgsat announced Tuesday it raised 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million) to fund product development and team expansion ahead of a planned commercial release in the second quarter of 2026. The company is working on a hardware-agnostic system using open standards to enable multi-orbit compatibility across traditionally closed communications infrastructure. The company was founded by former executives of satellite communications equipment maker ST Engineering iDirect where they had worked on similar technologies. [SpaceNews]

NASA's acting chief financial officer has left the agency to join The Aerospace Corporation. Steve Shinn, NASA's deputy CFO who had been serving as acting CFO since January, left the agency last week and, on Monday, was named vice president and CFO of Aerospace. He had spent 15 years at NASA in various roles leading up to deputy CFO. The position of CFO at NASA is one of a handful that require Senate confirmation; the White House nominated Greg Autry to be NASA CFO earlier this year but the Senate has yet to take up the nomination. [Aerospace Corp.]

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