Plus: Golden Dome's price tag rises
| Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, Blue Origin and Starcloud both filed for orbital data center megaconstellations, the Pentagon raised the price tag for Golden Dome and more.
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| | | | | OUR TOP STORY
| | By Jeff Foust Blue Origin is the latest company to propose an orbital data center system, filing plans for a constellation of up to 51,600 satellites.
In a March 19 filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Blue Origin sought authorization to launch and operate Project Sunrise, a constellation of satellites that would provide in-space computing services.
Like other companies that have announced plans for orbital data centers, Blue Origin argues that a satellite constellation is the best approach to meet the growing computing requirements — and thus power demand — of artificial intelligence applications.
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| | At the conclusion of a meeting of the ESA Council on March 19, the agency said member states endorsed a project called ESA Provided Institutional Crew, or EPIC, to send a European crew to the ISS on a Crew Dragon in early 2028.
In recent days, NASA officials including Administrator Jared Isaacman has discussed a new effort, yet to be formally announced, that would call for sending robotic landers to the moon as frequently as monthly, potentially to support development of a future lunar base.
NASA's planetary science program, while spared steep cuts proposed last year, is still facing a funding shortfall that requires "strategic choices" about which missions to continue, according to Louise Prockter, director of NASA's planetary science division.
| | MILITARY
| | The Pentagon has increased its cost estimate for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative to $185 billion over the next decade, up from a previously reported $175 billion, as the program shifts more funding toward space-based capabilities.
Rocket Lab, a provider of launch services and spacecraft, announced it won a $190 million Pentagon contract for 20 hypersonic test flights. The award, issued by the Pentagon's Test Resource Management Center under its Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed, or MACH-TB 2.0, covers 20 missions scheduled over the next four years.
The U.S. Air Force has increased by $2 billion the value of a contract with Raytheon to produce and sustain terminals that connect aircraft, command posts and other platforms to the military's most secure satellite communications network. | | | | | | | COMMERCIAL
| | The FCC accepted for filing March 13 an application by Starcloud, a company based in Redmond, Washington, to operate as many as 88,000 satellites in a range of low Earth orbits to serve as orbital data centers for artificial intelligence and other applications.
The growth of the space industry is putting new strain on the supply chain that supports satellite manufacturing, launch systems, and related technologies, according to a report from the Aerospace Industries Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The conflict between the United States and Iran is turning the Strait of Hormuz into a live testing ground for commercial geospatial intelligence — a role similar to what the Ukraine war played for satellite imagery providers. | | | |  | | SPONSORED CONTENT
| | By Kepler Communications Kepler is issuing a call for payloads seeking persistent, real-time data streaming in Low Earth Orbit. Integration starts soon for the limited number of hosted payload slots remaining available across Kepler's 2027 hosted missions and our Tranche 2 (T2) deployment in 2028. Formal payload selections are expected in Q1 2026.
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