Plus: Rocket Lab developing portable launch infrastructure
Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, Space Command is expanding its presence in Alabama, Rocket Lab announced a portable launch infrastructure system, a Chinese Long March 7A exploded shortly after liftoff and more.
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OUR TOP STORY
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By Sandra Erwin Five years after a bruising political fight over where U.S. Space Command headquarters should be located, the debate is giving way to bulldozers, construction contracts and the practical challenges of moving one of the U.S. military’s most complex commands.
At Redstone Arsenal, where a 64-acre site has been cleared for U.S. Space Command’s future headquarters, Gen. Stephen Whiting now works from a temporary office roughly once every six weeks as he divides his time between Alabama and Colorado Springs, where the command continues to operate.
The arrangement will continue for years.
If the current schedule holds, roughly half of the headquarters staff will be based in Huntsville by 2028, with the permanent facility completed in 2031 and the full workforce of about 1,800 personnel moving into the building the following year.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Submit your nominations by this Friday, Aug. 14: Since 2017, the SpaceNews Icon Awards have celebrated the companies, teams and individuals driving breakthroughs across civil, commercial and military space. Nominate the innovators, collaborators, and change-makers whose work over the past year — or an entire career — has left a lasting mark on the industry. Submit your nomination today. |
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LAUNCH
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Rocket Lab said it has developed a containerized launch system for its Electron and HASTE rockets, an effort to make it easier to operate the vehicles from locations beyond the company’s permanent launch sites and give military customers more options for orbital and hypersonic test missions.
China appears to have lost an unknown payload after a Long March 7A rocket exploded less than 90 seconds into flight, according to amateur footage. It is not immediately clear how or if the failure will impact upcoming missions.
Blue Origin disclosed new details about its plans to not only rebuild but also expand its Florida launch site, adding a second pad for a larger version of New Glenn. The new pad, LC-36B, will be designed for the New Glenn 9×4, an upgraded version of the vehicle.
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MILITARY
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The U.S. Space Force awarded $60 million to five companies to demonstrate how satellites from multiple vendors can connect to its Space Data Network, a military communications architecture whose core backbone is being supplied by SpaceX.
U.S. Space Command has ranked offensive space capabilities and systems for countering proliferated low Earth orbit constellations as its two highest priority needs for fiscal years 2029 through 2033, signaling where the combatant command sees some of the biggest gaps in preparing for a future conflict in space.
SpaceX is no longer simply the Pentagon’s dominant launch provider but is also becoming a central supplier of the satellite networks and communications infrastructure underpinning the military’s next-generation missile defense architecture. |
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COMMERCIAL
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Intuitive Machines announced Aug. 13 that it won a $600 million contract from an undisclosed customer for three geostationary orbit communications satellites in June.
A subcontractor for a module that was being developed for NASA’s lunar Gateway has laid off 70 people after NASA halted work on the program.
In the company’s second-quarter earnings call Aug. 12, Virgin Galactic executives said they now expect commercial flights of their first Spaceship suborbital vehicle to begin in February 2027. In the company’s previous earnings call in May, it expected those commercial flights to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. |
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SPONSORED CONTENT
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By Voyager Technologies For most of its history, the United States has been largely insulated from foreign threats. Vast oceans made it an impractical destination for invading armies before the advent of modern aviation and ballistics. And even now, its size and relative distance from adversaries are logistical deterrents.
But threats are evolving fast. |
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Latest Press Releases
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