08/25/2026

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Ursa Major, a company that develops rocket engines and hypersonic missiles, is going public through a SPAC deal. The company announced Tuesday it will merge with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. III, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), that would value the merged company at $2.3 billion. The deal includes at least $350 million in committed financing for Ursa Major to expand production of missile propulsion systems, hypersonic missiles and spacecraft propulsion technology. Ursa Major originally built its business around supplying liquid-propellant rocket engines to launch companies, but has since moved deeper into defense as Pentagon demand for hypersonic systems and solid rocket motors has grown. Ursa Major said it expected the merger to close in the first quarter of 2027. [SpaceNews]

The Space Development Agency (SDA) expects to soon resume launches of a military communications satellite system. After a months-long pause, SDA is filling out the Tranche 1 Transport Layer, the communications backbone of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Two planes of York Space Systems satellites and one plane of Lockheed Martin spacecraft are currently in Tranche 1. Speaking at the Small Satellite Conference on Monday, SDA director GP Sandhoo said the first set of Northrop Grumman satellites for Tranche 1 could launch in the next couple of weeks. He said despite progress in deploying PWSA satellites, the agency is still seeing problems such as supply chain constraints that are hindering the overall effort. [SpaceNews]

Kepler Communications announced Monday the start of commercial in-orbit optical data relay services. The Canadian company said it had wrapped up commissioning for the first tranche of 10 satellites, weighing about 300 kilograms each, that SpaceX launched in January. The network uses intersatellite laser links to relay data between spacecraft, reducing the need for customers to wait for passes over ground stations to communicate with Earth. Kepler said it has a diverse mix of customers across commercial and government markets for its data relay network, including OroraTech, which operates satellites for wildfire monitoring. [SpaceNews]

Lux Aeterna, a startup developing reusable spacecraft, is pitching such spacecraft to the Space Force. The company is working to convince the military that it is possible to treat some spacecraft more like aircraft: assets that can be deployed for a mission, brought back for maintenance or upgrades and returned to service. The argument is as much about lowering the cost of a satellite as it is about changing how the Space Force manages spacecraft over their lifetimes. Lux Aeterna is building its first satellite, Delphi-1, a roughly 200-kilogram vehicle designed to carry about 30 kilograms of payload. It is scheduled to launch early next year. [SpaceNews]

Constellr, a German company developing a constellation of thermal-imaging satellites, has ordered two spacecraft from Danish smallsat manufacturer Space Inventor. The satellites, slated for launch in 2028, will provide thermal imagery at higher resolution than its current satellites, working toward a goal of sub-five-meter resolution. Constellr operates two SkyBee satellites, built by Kongsberg NanoAvionics, that provide thermal imagery at a resolution of 30 meters. A third SkyBee satellite is scheduled to launch next February. [SpaceNews]

SpaceX is offering a free space safety platform for other satellite operators. The company discussed its space-safety.com system at the Small Satellite Conference on Monday. It uses data from its Stargaze SSA system announced earlier this year along with other data, such as ephemerides from satellite operators. SpaceX officials said its system can screen for potential conjunctions far more rapidly than other services, such as the Space Force's Space-Track system. SpaceX acknowledges it is motivated to improve space safety given it is by far the largest satellite operator, with more than 11,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. [SpaceNews]

The Aerospace Corporation says tests of its first DiskSat satellites have gone well. Aerospace launched in December the first four DiskSat spacecraft, so named because of their disk-shaped form factor that is a departure from cubesats and other smallsats. Tests of the spacecraft show they are performing well despite a few issues, such as stray light affecting star trackers that had been modified to fit within the thin spacecraft. Several companies have expressed interest in licensing the DiskSat design for their own spacecraft. [SpaceNews]

CesiumAstro plans to launch its first Element spacecraft later this year. In a presentation at the Small Satellite Conference on Sunday, a company official said the Element-1 spacecraft is being shipped later this week for launch on a SpaceX rideshare mission in October. Element-1 is a 500-kilogram satellite that will test the company's L- and Ka-band phased-array antennas. The company has filed plans for a constellation of more than 700 satellites based on Element-1 but has said little about the services that constellation will provide. [SpaceNews]

Other News

A Chinese Long March 6C rocket launched seven satellites Monday night. The rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:21 p.m. Eastern. The rocket's payload included two radar-imaging satellites for Chinese company GalaxySpace. That company also built GISTDA Cube Sat 1, which will provide Earth science data for Thailand's space agency. [Xinhua]

Russia launched a military satellite from Plesetsk despite worries of an Ukrainian drone attack. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the spaceport in northern Russia at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday, placing into orbit a classified Russian military satellite. The launch took place after reports of Ukrainian drone sightings in the region earlier Sunday, interpreted by some at an attempted attack on the spaceport. [Russian Space Web]

SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Tuesday morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 5:33 a.m. Eastern, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. The early morning launch created a "jellyfish" effect as the plume was backlit by the rising sun, making it visible across parts of the Eastern Seaboard. The booster used for the launch made its record-setting 37th flight. [Spaceflight Now]

Finnish hyperspectral startup Kuva Space expects to provide daily coverage of the Arctic by 2028. The company, which has two satellites in orbit today, is working on the six-satellite Hyperfield-2 constellation that will join them. Kuva Space expects that the full eight-satellite system will be able to provide daily hyperspectral coverage of the Arctic, from detecting stealth vessels to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. [SpaceNews]

After years of effort, demand for hyperspectral imagery is finally emerging. Constellations of small satellites with hyperspectral imagers have promised global insights that are impossible to obtain with other systems, but have grappled with the complexity of calibrating hyperspectral sensors and turning the raw data into information customers value. However, industry officials say advances in AI are making it easier to process hyperspectral imagery and extract key insights. Governments are early customers for that data, using it to see through camouflage and detect decoys, but there is also commercial interest in agriculture and mining. [SpaceNews]

Spacecraft developer Portal Space is working with Rebel Space to place spectrum monitoring technology aboard its vehicles. The companies are exploring several approaches that would allow Portal spacecraft to detect and characterize interference and other electronic threats in their immediate surroundings. The effort comes as government agencies and commercial satellite operators pay closer attention to the increasingly congested electromagnetic environment in space, where communications links can be disrupted by unintentional interference or deliberate jamming. [SpaceNews]

Shield AI has flown its Hivemind autonomy software aboard a satellite for the first time. Shield AI, Sedaro and NOVI Space said Monday that Hivemind ran aboard a NOVI satellite in low Earth orbit during a series of experiments that combined artificial intelligence with onboard simulation software designed to check commands before they were carried out. The experiment went beyond using artificial intelligence for onboard data processing, testing whether software could make decisions across several mission demands. Shield AI is a San Diego-based defense technology company known for its AI autonomy software for aircraft. [SpaceNews]

Some Launches Are More Beautiful Than Others

"I will look at this picture happily all day, every day. All launches are beautiful, but when it's your spacecraft you get very excited."

– Jessie Dotson of NASA's Ames Research Center, showing the deployment of the Pandora astronomy smallsat from a Falcon 9 on a January launch during a presentation at the Small Satellite Conference on Monday.

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