By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Amazon to acquire Globalstar, L3Harris invests in missile-defense capabilities, Axiom to test its spacesuit in orbit next year and more.
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Top Stories
Amazon will acquire low Earth orbit satellite operator Globalstar. The companies announced Tuesday morning a deal in which Amazon will acquire Globalstar for $90 a share in cash or Amazon stock, valuing Globalstar at $11.6 billion. The deal would give Amazon access to Globalstar's spectrum for direct-to-device services. Apple had been funding a new Globalstar constellation, and as part of the deal Amazon Leo will provide satellite connectivity serviced for Apple devices. [Amazon]
AI advances and rising geopolitical tensions are helping usher in a new phase of investment in space infrastructure. A study released Tuesday by Space Capital found that global investment in space infrastructure more than doubled year-over-year to $6.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026. That makes it the third-largest quarter on record. The report also said those investments are on pace to exceed an annual record set last year, thanks in large part to surging interest in orbital data centers. Growing demand for sovereign space capabilities by countries is also driving investment. [SpaceNews]
L3Harris is investing in missile defense technologies to position itself for work on Golden Dome and related programs. Sam Mehta, the newly appointed head of L3Harris Technologies' space business, said the company is directing resources toward missile-defense architectures, building capacity and securing supply chains in anticipation of demand. The company has spent about $250 million to expand production facilities across Florida, Indiana and Massachusetts, adding roughly 150,000 square feet of manufacturing space. L3Harris is also investing in digital engineering and workflow tools. [SpaceNews]
While there is a growing consensus within government to spend more and move faster to keep the United States competitive with China, it remains unclear if the system in place can deliver on that ambition. Government and industry officials at a Space Foundation forum Sunday broadly agreed the U.S. must accelerate investment to compete with China, but there is less consensus on whether the government and industry are equipped to translate funding into capability. One issue is a disconnect between government and industry on what exactly the "demand signal" is with regard to space, with the need for government to provide clearer, more consistent signals to industry so companies can scale production and invest with confidence. Others pointed to increased defense spending, expected to top $1 trillion in 2027, as that necessary demand signal. [SpaceNews]
Axiom Space says it plans to perform a flight test of the Artemis spacesuit it is building in 2027, either on Artemis 3 or the International Space Station. At a briefing Monday, company executives said they are making good progress on their AxEMU spacesuit, with ground tests scheduled for later this year, allowing it to be tested in space in 2027. NASA has discussed testing the suit on Artemis 3, a low Earth orbit mission where Orion will dock with lunar lander prototypes from Blue Origin and SpaceX. However, the company said another option would be to send it to the ISS, which offers an easier option for testing it in a spacewalk. [SpaceNews]
Programs that fund technology development by small businesses have been reauthorized after a months-long lapse. President Trump signed the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act Monday, which reauthorizes the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs through September 2031. Authority for the SBIR and STTR programs, which awards more than $4 billion annually, lapsed at the end of September, keeping agencies from using them to fund technology development programs by small companies. The U.S. Space Force, for example, has provided SBIR contracts to fund research and development of technologies ranging from space-based refueling and deployable solar arrays to novel propulsion, software-defined radios and deep-space navigation. [SpaceNews]
Gravitics is preparing to test a space architecture built around a large orbital platform designed to store and deploy multiple spacecraft. The company finalized last month a contract announced last year from the Space Force, combining $30 million in government funding with an equal amount of private capital. Gravitics is developing what it calls an "orbital carrier," a platform that can host as many as six maneuverable vehicles, called Viper, and release them on demand. Under the contract, the company will seek to validate core technologies shared across the Orbital Carrier and the Viper platforms, with a first mission planned for as soon as 2027. [SpaceNews]
Amazon has unveiled the antenna its upcoming constellation would use to provide gigabit speeds to commercial aircraft. The electronically steered Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna is compatible with aircraft ranging from regional jets to widebody planes, Amazon said Monday, with download speeds of up to one gigabit per second. SpaceX advertises up to 310 megabits per second per terminal for its Starlink aviation service, amid plans to upgrade a global offering it has been providing to major airlines for more than two years. Amazon has signed up Delta and JetBlue for its services, expected to begin in 2027 on JetBlue airliners and 2028 on some Delta planes. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
A Chinese small rocket launched eight imaging satellites Tuesday. The Kinetica-1 solid rocket lifted off at 12:03 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, putting eight satellites into orbit for Chang Guang Satellite Technology (CGST). The satellites are part of CGST's Jilin-1 constellation Gaofen-07 series, and can produce images sub 50-centimeter resolution. Kinetica-1 has now flown 12 times, placing 92 satellites into orbit with one launch failure. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites early Tuesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:33 a.m. Eastern, deploying 29 Starlink satellites. SpaceX has now launched more than 1,000 Starlink satellites this year, with more than 10,000 currently in orbit. [Spaceflight Now]
China appears to be preparing for the first launch of its reusable Long March 10B. China conducted what was likely a wet dress rehearsal for the rocket over the weekend at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. The 5.0-meter-diameter rocket could now launch for the first time in the coming weeks, although there have been no announcements about a launch and no airspace closure notices linked to it. The kerosene-liquid oxygen Long March 10B is a cargo variant of the Long March 10A, a rocket designed to launch a new crew spacecraft to low Earth orbit. Long March 10B features a booster that is designed to be resuable, using a vessel with a net system to catch the booster rather than have the booster deploy landing legs. [SpaceNews]
A Cygnus cargo spaceship arrived at the International Space Station Monday. The station's robotic arm captured the NG-24 Cygnus spacecraft at 1:20 p.m. Eastern, berthing it to the Unity module later in the day. Cygnus launched on a Falcon 9 Saturday and delivered 5,000 kilograms of cargo to the station. [Space.com]
The Aerospace Corp. plans to offer industry access to its expertise and facilities through a new program called government furnished talent (GFT). The approach is similar to what is known as government furnished equipment, where agencies give companies access to hardware. Under GFT, Aerospace can provide companies with technical analysis and engineering expertise at both unclassified and classified levels. Aerospace says the program is intended to help accelerate development of space capabilities. [SpaceNews]
Citra Space said it raised $15 million in a Series A funding round to expand its space domain awareness capabilities. The round, led by Washington Harbour Partners, will help the company develop systems to determine the identity and intent of objects in orbit. The company is developing software that combines data from multiple sources to build profiles of satellites and other objects over time for military and commercial users. Citra's approach merges observations from space- and ground-based sensors to create persistent "fingerprints" of objects, allowing operators to monitor changes in behavior over time through a single interface. [SpaceNews]
Phantom Space believes it now has the key pieces of a vertically integrated model to compete on the edges of the emerging orbital data center market. The company recently acquired Thermal Management Technologies (TMT), a specialist in spacecraft heat control systems that addresses a key challenge for high-performance computing platforms in orbit. Phantom has plans for a Phantom Cloud constellation designed to move, process and distribute data in orbit, and it argues having that thermal management technology will give it an advantage. [SpaceNews]
Satellite component company Atomic-6 is developing a marketplace designed to simplify how companies procure spacecraft for in-space computing. The platform, called ODC.space, allows customers to order a complete satellite capable of processing data in orbit. The offering targets artificial intelligence developers, software providers and government agencies seeking access to orbital data center capacity. Atomic-6 produces solar arrays, thermal management systems and protective shielding for spacecraft, and provided equipment for Freedom, an experimental data center developed by Lonestar Data Holdings and flown to the moon on the IM-2 lunar lander mission. [SpaceNews]
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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SmallSat Europe 2026 will be one of the most important gatherings of civil, defense and commercial smallsat professionals of the year. SpaceNews joins this year's event as the official producer of the Defense Stage, bringing together military leaders, startup founders and industry executives for conversations spanning launch access, resilient communications, AI, missile defense and the evolving orbital threat environment. Check out all the programming across the defense, business and technical tracks and register today. |
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Back Home
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"Being 200,000-plus miles away from home, like, before you launch, it feels like it's the greatest dream on Earth. And when you're out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends."
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– Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman at a ceremony Saturday welcoming the crew home to Houston.
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