By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: IRIS² gets bigger and more expensive, Senate confirms the Space Force's new commanding general, new Texas projects for SpaceX and Blue Origin and more.
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Top Stories
The European Commission has finalized an agreement with an industrial consortium for the IRIS² constellation, increasing its size and cost. The commission announced Friday it completed negotiations with the SpaceRISE consortium on the constellation, allowing development of the system to proceed. The agreement adds 66 satellites to the system's high-LEO shell, bringing it to 330 satellites, along with 18 medium Earth orbit satellites. Launches of IRIS² satellites are scheduled to begin in 2029. The commission did not disclose the revised cost of the system but Hispasat, one of the members of SpaceRISE, said the constellation now costs 15.6 billion euros ($18 billion), a nearly 50% increase from earlier estimates. The European Commission and ESA, along with their member states, will provide 11.6 billion euros with SpaceRISE contributing the remainder. [SpaceNews]
The Senate confirmed Douglas Schiess as the next commanding general of the Space Force. The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Scheiss as chief of space operations and promote him from lieutenant general to general. Schiess, who has served as the Space Force's deputy chief of space operations for operations since late 2025, succeeds Gen. Chance Saltzman as the service's top uniformed officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Schiess is a 34-year military veteran who began his career as an Air Force missile officer before moving into military launch, GPS and satellite communications. Saltzman, who is retiring after 35 years of military service, called Schiess "an exceptional leader" and said he had the experience needed to guide the Space Force into its next phase. [SpaceNews]
A bipartisan Senate bill would direct the Space Force to strengthen preparation for a potential conflict with China. The Space Superiority Readiness Act, introduced by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.), would require the Defense Department to expand the Space Force's capacity to conduct wargaming, modeling and simulation of peer conflicts in space and develop training programs focused on the tactics, techniques and procedures needed for space control operations. It also requires an unclassified report to Congress on China's commercial space capabilities and their potential military applications within 180 days of enactment. The proposal, which could be included as an amendment to the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act, largely reinforces initiatives the Space Force says are already underway. [SpaceNews]
Redwire will fly a dedicated microgravity research flight on SpaceX's Starfall vehicle. Redwire announced Thursday it purchased a Starfall mission, scheduled for late 2028, that will carry up to 32 of Redwire's PIL-BOX experiment packages to conduct pharmaceutical research. SpaceX launched its first Starfall mission in June on a test flight, offering it for microgravity research and manufacturing. The contract illustrates both the interest in commercial microgravity research and manufacturing and the competitive threat posed by SpaceX as several other companies also work on reentry spacecraft for similar applications. [SpaceNews]
As NASA works on its plans for a moon base, several companies are working on an important but often overlooked technology: growing food for the people who will live there. This spring, NASA solicited SBIR proposals for plant-growth technologies and has multiple contract opportunities for similar types of innovations. Across the industry, companies and research teams are building modular plant pods and refining larger lunar greenhouse designs, preparing to cultivate difficult-to-grow flora on the lunar surface and developing monitors that can detect plant stress before it hinders growth. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
NASA astronauts successfully completed work on the International Space Station's power system during a spacewalk Thursday. Jessica Meir and Anil Menon spent 6 hours and 27 minutes outside the station on a spacewalk that ended at 3 p.m. Eastern. The two installed a modification kit for one of the station's eight power channels to prepare for a new solar array that will be added later this year. The spacewalk was the first of three NASA planned for the ISS this month, with the next, to replace an antenna, scheduled for Aug. 13. [Space.com]
A suburb of Austin, Texas, is advancing plans for a factory that may be used by Blue Origin. The city council of Hutto, Texas, along with its economic development corporation jointly approved Thursday performance and incentive agreements for "Project Blue Hub," which has been linked to Blue Origin. Project Blue Hub involves a factory spanning 1.3 million square feet that would create more than 2,000 jobs. City officials have not disclosed additional details about the project, and the discussion of the agreements took place in executive session. Blue Origin has not publicly stated it is involved in Project Blue Hub but a company official attended the meeting. [Austin American-Stateman]
The board of directors of Italy's space agency, ASI, has dissolved as part of the response to the death of the agency's president. ASI announced this week that three members of the board stepped down so that the board could be dissolved and an extraordinary commissioner appointed to lead the agency temporarily. ASI's president, Teodoro Valente, died unexpectedly last month, and board members said Italian law did not include provisions to select a replacement in such a scenario. An extraordinary commissioner can run the agency for up to a year while a new president and board are selected. [European Spaceflight]
SpaceX's next giant project will be a terrestrial chip factory. SpaceX announced Thursday it was proceeding with plans to develop Terafab, a giant chip fabrication facility to be built in Grimes County, Texas, northwest of Houston. Terafab will cover 100 million square feet and cost $16.8 billion to develop. SpaceX announced earlier this year its intent to develop Terafab, which will product chips for AI applications at both SpaceX and Tesla. SpaceX in the near term, though, will continue to rely on other chip producers, announcing an exclusive agreement with Nvidia earlier this week to use that company's chips on its orbital data center spacecraft. [Houston Chronicle]
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Super Exciting
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"Nobody's asked about Starfall yet. I know inventory and working capital is super exciting to talk about, too."
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– Peter Cannito, chairman and CEO of Redwire, in an earnings call Thursday where he announced the company was buying a SpaceX Starfall mission, but where analyst questions focused primarily on the company's finances.
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