| By Jeff Foust
In this today's edition: Amazon vows to ramp up deployment of its broadband constellation, the Space Force takes steps to shore up launch cybersecurity, missile defense's big data problem and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
Amazon said Monday it would ramp up deployment of its broadband constellation. The company vowed to double the annual launch rate for its low Earth orbit broadband constellation to more than 20 missions, including three in the coming weeks. The next launch, an Atlas 5 on Sunday, will carry 29 satellites, two more than previous Atlas launches, thanks to engine upgrades. Another Atlas 5 is due to fly next month, along with a second Ariane 64 launch for the constellation. Amazon is facing pressure to accelerate deployment of its 3,232-satellite constellation as it asks the FCC to extend or eliminate a July deadline to have half the constellation in orbit. [SpaceNews]
Increased interest from institutional investors is reshaping the space economy. In a speech at the Satellite 2026 conference Monday, Seraphim Space CEO Mark Boggett said there is growing interest from institutional investors in space companies, creating a new floor of capital for the maturing industry. Private investment in the sector soared 48% year-on-year to about $12.4 billion in 2025, surpassing the previous peak in 2021 at the height of the SPAC boom. Growing demand for sovereign space capabilities, particularly in Europe, is also driving demand for the industry. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force is deploying dedicated cybersecurity teams at its primary launch sites. Two units known as Defensive Cyber Operations Squadrons will monitor activity during launch operations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Vandenberg Space Force Base, Space Systems Command announced on Monday. Those units will be tasked with detecting and countering attempts to interfere with launches via cyberattacks. The move reflects rising concern that adversaries could disrupt rocket launches through digital means rather than physical interference. [SpaceNews]
York Space Systems is scaling up satellite production but faces uncertainty from its major customer. The Denver-based satellite manufacturer said last week annual revenue rose 52% to about $386 million in 2025, driven largely by work on the Space Development Agency's proliferated low Earth orbit constellation. The company has built a sizable backlog tied to that work, with roughly 140 satellites ordered to date. However, the future of its work with the SDA is uncertain, with the SDA Transport Layer constellation likely to be absorbed into a broader Space Force effort known as the Space Data Network, a concept still being defined. The transition raises questions about how future contracts will be structured and when they will be awarded. [SpaceNews]
Parsons Corporation is rolling out a new satellite ground antenna, seeing an opening after the Space Force canceled another company's antenna contract. Developed in collaboration with Raven Defense, the S-Band Phased Array Receive and Transmit Antenna Node, or SPARTAN, combines a six-meter parabolic dish with an electronically steered phased-array feed. Parsons is positioning the antenna to address a demand for commercial alternatives after the Space Force canceled a $1.7 billion procurement of advanced phased-array antennas from AeroVironment. [SpaceNews]
Arianespace won a contract to launch a startup's satellite servicing spacecraft. Katalyst Space Technologies will launch its Nexus-1 spacecraft on an Ariane 64 in the second half of 2027, the companies announced Monday. Nexus-1 will be deployed into geostationary transfer orbit and install a space situational awareness sensor on a U.S. Space Force satellite in geostationary orbit, and later serve commercial customers. Katalyst is working on a separate mission to reboost NASA's Swift astrophysics spacecraft; that is scheduled to launch in June on a Pegasus XL. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
Russia launched the first satellites of a new broadband constellation Monday. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off at 1:24 p.m. Eastern from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, placing 16 Rassvet satellites into orbit for Russian company Bureau 1440. That company is planning a constellation of broadband satellites to serve as a competitor to systems like Starlink and Amazon Leo, but with few details on the constellation's capabilities or schedule. [Bloomberg]
Missile warning and tracking could be improved if U.S. government agencies shared the raw data they gather. Experts said at the Satellite 2026 conference Monday that missile defense is fundamentally a big-data problem, with a wide range of data form ground- and space-based sensors that need to be effectively combined. However, panelists said that data structures and, in some cases, classification issues keep agencies from collaborating on data sharing and analysis. [SpaceNews]
The German military's plans for a satellite constellation are raising concerns in the EU. Germany plans to spend 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) on a 100-satellite constellation for communications, which would run in parallel to the EU's IRIS² constellation. Some European officials worry the planned German system could create inefficiencies as it will provide many of the same services as IRIS². Italy is also studying its own constellation, but at a much earlier phase of development. [Reuters]
NASA is expected to provide more details on its revised Artemis plans today. The agency has invited commercial and international partners to a day of meetings at NASA Headquarters that the agency says will offer an update on its implementation of national space policy. That policy, in an executive order in December, called for a human return to the moon by 2028 and starting a lunar base by 2030, along with retirement of the ISS by 2030. NASA will webcast the event. [NASA]
In a rare move, a country has said no to Starlink. The telecommunications regulator in Namibia said Monday it denied a SpaceX application for a license to provide Starlink services in the African nation. The regulator did not give a reason for the denial. SpaceX was accused in 2024 of operating Starlink in the country without a license. [Business Insider Africa]
The first person to fly to space on a privately funded vehicle has died. Mike Melvill was a test pilot at Scaled Composites when he flew that company's SpaceShipOne suborbital vehicle to just above the Kรกrmรกn Line, or 100 kilometers altitude, on a suborbital flight in June 2024. He flew it again in September 2024 on the first of two spaceflights needed to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize. He was 85. [collectSPACE]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | March 31 at 1 p.m. ET: Join SpaceNews and Star Catcher, in partnership with the Commercial Space Federation, for a conversation on the energy and computing needs driving the push toward orbital data centers, where there are gaps and where there are opportunities and what comes next in this fast-moving field. Register now. | | | | | | One Controller, Two Thousand Satellites
| "Gen. (Jay) Raymond brought a bunch of generals up to the Starlink facility in Washington state. At that time there were a couple thousand Starlink satellites flying and he wanted to show the generals the Starlink operations center. I had to look at him and say, 'Hey, you see that 23-year-old over there with the computer? That's the Starlink operations center.'"
| | – Lee Rosen, CEO of ThinkOrbital and a former SpaceX executive, speaking on a panel at Satellite 2026 Monday.
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