Plus: The Space Force orders two more GPS satellites
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Gilat to buy Comtech space assets, Space Force orders two more GPS satellites, a Chinese spacecraft approaches an asteroid and more.
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Top Stories
Israel's Gilat Satellite Networks plans to expand its defense capabilities by acquiring most of Comtech's space-related communications business. Gilat said Monday it will buy Comtech's satellite ground infrastructure solutions and other space communications assets for $157.5 million in cash. The assets include anti-jam tactical modems for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, satellite ground systems, space electronics and high-powered amplifiers. The Israeli firm said the acquisition would help grow its annual revenue to more than $700 million. The deal comes more than six years after Comtech announced plans to acquire Gilat for $533 million, a deal derailed by the pandemic. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force is buying two more GPS satellites from Lockheed Martin. The Space Force said Monday it awarded Lockheed a $514 million contract for the GPS 3F 23 and 24 spacecraft. It brings the total number of GPS 3F spacecraft under contract to 14, with a combined contract value of $4.6 billion. GPS 3F introduces several upgrades over the GPS 3 design, including a feature known as Regional Military Protection, which allows satellites to concentrate the power of their encrypted military signal over specific geographic areas. The spacecraft also have a fully digital navigation payload and will transmit the civilian L1C and L5 signals with improved accuracy and reliability. [SpaceNews]
DARPA is seeking input from the space industry on how the United States could rapidly restore critical space capabilities if satellites were disabled or destroyed during a conflict. DARPA's "Rapid Reconstitution of Space Capabilities" RFI, released last week, seeks technical concepts and operational strategies that could quickly restore satellites and other space-based capabilities degraded in a conflict. The agency said its objective is to reestablish critical services on timelines measured in hours to weeks. Responses are due by July 8. [SpaceNews]
China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft is maneuvering to rendezvous with an asteroid next month. The spacecraft performed a large maneuver June 7, followed by a series of smaller ones. Tianwen-2 launched in May 2025 and is headed to near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo'oalewa, an object 40 to 100 meters across in an orbit that makes it a "quasi-moon" of Earth. The spacecraft will arrive at the asteroid in July and collect samples to return to Earth. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has yet to provide an official update on the mission following the recent maneuvers but they match an apparent mission timeline leaked just before launch last year. [SpaceNews]
A report blamed damage to a large antenna in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on poor training and procedures. The 70-meter antenna in California was damaged last September when it over-rotated, breaking cables and hoses that flooded the antenna with water from a fire-suppression system. NASA said the damage will cost up to $4.6 million to repair. A report released earlier this month identified as the root cause of the mishap poor training and inadequate procedures, as well as reliance on "undocumented behaviors and institutional knowledge" and "personal heroics" by DSN staff. The antenna has been offline since the mishap and will remain so through late 2028 as NASA begins major upgrades in August. [SpaceNews]
The geospatial industry has created a new initiative devoted to maritime surveillance technologies. A working group focused on maritime intelligence is seeking participation from satellite operators, analytics firms, government agencies and academic institutions as demand grows for technologies that track everything from illegal fishing and sanctions evasion to commercial shipping and naval activity. The initiative is being organized by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and led by maritime intelligence company SynMax. One goal of the group is to address industry-wide challenges that have emerged as the market matures, such as "platform overload" as each company develops its own proprietary platform for data and analytics. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX exercised an option Monday to sell additional shares as part of its IPO. SpaceX said it allowed underwriters to sell 83.3 million additional shares in what is called a "greenshoe" option. That sale brings the total raised by SpaceX in the IPO to $85.7 billion. SpaceX shares rose another 19.6% in trading Monday. SpaceX also announced Tuesday it was acquiring AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion after the companies announced a partnership in April where SpaceX would either buy Cursor or pay it $10 billion for collaborating on coding tools. [CNBC]
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites on Monday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:34 a.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, putting 24 satellites into orbit. The company now has 10,660 active Starlink satellites. [Space.com]
Isar Aerospace called off another attempt to launch its Spectrum rocket Monday. The German company scrubbed the launch after reporting "off nominal behavior in the vehicle's fluid systems." Isar did not announce a new launch date, but the company said last week it had a launch period at Norway's Andøya Spaceport through June 21. Isar has attempted to launch Spectrum several times since January, delaying those attempts because of technical issues and, in one case, a range violation by boats. This will be the second launch of Spectrum after the first failed shortly after liftoff in March 2025. [DPA]
India's PSLV could return flight to in the next month. The country's science minister, Jitendra Singh, said Monday that ISRO was preparing for a launch at the end of June or early July, but did not disclose the payload or other details. PSLV, which has long been the workhorse for India's space program, suffered back-to-back launch failures in May 2025 and January 2026, both involving the rocket's third stage. ISRO has not released the investigations into either failure, but sources said they were caused by separate issues with components produced by suppliers. [Indian Express]
French launch startup Latitude is changing the name of its rocket. The company has been working for several years on a small launch vehicle that it called Zephyr, but the company's website now simply refers to "our launcher" and no longer uses the name Zephyr. Latitude did not disclose the reason for the change, which could be linked to potential trademark infringement with Zephyr, a high-altitude aircraft developed by a subsidiary of Airbus. [European Spaceflight]
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Times Change
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"When I first set foot in Astrobotic's offices across the river — it was just an office building — there was a tight-knit, incredibly ambitious team involving 12 to 15 people. They had the vision and potential but, frankly, they really didn't know what they were doing."
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– Ryan Stephan, NASA's acting director for cargo landers, during an event Monday at Astrobotic's Pittsburgh facility where the company showed off its completed Griffin-1 lunar lander, scheduled to launch late this year.
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