Space Commerce Week

America’s space industry is booming — but the supply chain keeping it aloft is buckling under the pressure. A new report from the Aerospace Industries Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers is sounding the alarm: the U.S. space industrial base was built for a different era, and it’s struggling to keep pace with explosive demand. Consider this — more than 3,400 U.S. space objects were launched in 2...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is taking aim at one of the least-talked-about chokepoints in the commercial space industry — spectrum. On Wednesday, Carr shared a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with his fellow commissioners. If it clears a full Commission vote at the agency’s March monthly meeting, the FCC would open a formal proceeding to address what it calls an acu...

The bipartisan leadership of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee is pushing back hard on the Federal Communications Commission. Committee Chairman Brian Babin and Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren have sent a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr urging the Commission to withdraw — or substantially narrow — a proposed rulemaking titled “Space Modernization for the 21st Century.” The committe...

We start with what may be the most closely watched accountability story in human spaceflight in years. NASA has officially released the findings of an independent Program Investigation Team that examined what went wrong during Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test back in 2024. Starliner launched on June 5th, 2024, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space...

The UK small launch sector is facing a rough moment. Orbex, one of Britain’s most prominent homegrown rocket companies, has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators after its Series D fundraising round came up empty. Merger and acquisition talks also failed to produce a deal. With no funding lifeline in sight, the company is now formally exploring the sale of all or part of its busine...

SpaceX has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission seeking approval to launch up to one million satellites for what the company is calling an orbital data center system. To put that number in perspective, that’s roughly a thousand times larger than SpaceX’s current Starlink internet constellation. The FCC’s Space Bureau accepted the application last week, setting the wheels...

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee took its first look at the NASA 2026 Reauthorization bill in a markup hearing this week. “The NASA Reauthorization Act of 2026 ensures that America does not merely participate in the next year of space exploration, but that we lead it.” Brian Babin (R-TX) The full committee markup is the first opportunity for lawmakers to formally vote on the under...

The U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded a $52.5 million contract to Starfish Space to provide Deorbit-as-a-Service (DaaS) for satellites within the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The award is the first such contracted mission for end-of-life satellite disposal service for any provider. Under the contract, Starfish Space will build, launch, and operate an...

Bipartisan legislation to provide regulatory predictability to the satellite industry, boost high-speed Internet access, and ensure American space leadership has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Senator Peter Welch (D-VT). The SAT Streamlining Act establishes a clear, one-year deadline for the FCC to make a decision on a license appl...

AI-first Earth intelligence platform SkyFi has announced that it has raised $12.7 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Buoyant Ventures and IronGate Capital Advisors. This investment will accelerate product development and enhance SkyFi’s technology, including its platform’s user interface and analytical tools. Additionally, the company plans to forge new pa...

Private investment firm AE Industrial Partners has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Space Propulsion and Power Systems business of L3Harris Technologies. The transaction encompasses business units across five locations in the U.S., which have developed the upper-stage rocket engines used in national security, civil and commercial missions for more than 60 year...

Entrepreneur Jarad Isaacman has been confirmed as the next Administrator of NASA. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 67-30 in favor of the nomination. Isaacman was first nominated for the job by President Donald Trump in December, 2024, and he appeared to be headed for an easy confirmation. But that was derailed when the nomination was abruptly withdrawn in late May while the confirmation process...

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has announced the appointment of Taylor Jordan as Director of the Office of Space Commerce (OSC), underscoring the Trump Administration’s commitment to strengthening U.S. leadership in space commerce. Mr. Jordan will continue to serve concurrently as assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction at NOAA. Jordan brings more th...

It wasn’t exactly the hot seat, but Jarad Isaacman was back in front of the United States Senate Commerce Committee to answer questions about his qualifications to be the next administrator of NASA. Isaacman had been tapped by President Donald Trump in December, 2024 for the post during the transition period, and Isaacman appeared to be headed for easy confirmation with bipartisan support. But his...

Sidus Space reported a net loss of $6 million in the third quarter as it advances its strategic transition toward higher-value commercial operations. The aerospace company reported third-quarter revenue of $1.3 million, down 31 percent from $1.9 million in the same period last year. The decline reflects a strategic shift away from lower-margin legacy services toward higher-value commercial technol...

The Federal Communications Commission has launched what it calls a generational rulemaking to overhaul its satellite and earth-station licensing processes . This proceeding represents the centerpiece of the Commission’s Final Frontiers agenda to ensure that America’s space innovators build and win on the global stage. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would overhaul the agency’s decades-old regula...

Without much fanfare, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social and X that he was renominating Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA Administrator. In the social media post, Trump said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has “done an incredible job as Interim Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). I am pleased to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished busi...

The Photon spacecraft for Eta Space and NASA’s LOXSAT mission has been completed by Rocket Lab. The final piece to be cleared was the Systems Integration Review (SIR) which allows the spacecraft to proceed with payload integration. Rocket Lab will now move the mission into environmental testing – the next phase before its launch on Electron in early 2026. LOXSAT is an on-orbit technology demonstra...

A comprehensive security study has exposed significant vulnerabilities in geostationary satellite communications . The study found that sensitive data from corporations, governments and millions of consumers can be intercepted using equipment costing just a few hundred dollars. The University of California, San Diego and University of Maryland research team observed 411 transponders across 39 geos...

The 11th flight test of Starship went off without a hitch Monday, lifting off at 6:23 p.m. CT from Starbase in south Texas and ending with the booster landing in the Gulf of America and Ship splashing down in the Indian Ocean. This was the final flight of the second-generation Starship and first generation Super Heavy booster, as well as the final launch from the current configuration of Pad 1. Ev...

The commercial space industry attracted $5.8 billion across 115 companies in the third quarter of 2025, putting the year on track to rank among the top three funding years on record, according to Space Capital’s latest quarterly report . The report noted that NASA faces budget constraints, with the administration proposing cuts while Congress works to maintain funding near $25 billion. That is pus...

We saw a couple of strategic acquisitions in the Space Commerce world this week. Intuitive Machines has completed its previously announced acquisition of KinetX , which specializes in deep space navigation, systems engineering, and constellation mission design. Intuitive Machines says the acquisition enhances its ability to provide customers secure, reliable communications and precision navigation...

A technology that allows a single system to operate in both high-thrust chemical and high-efficiency electric modes has been acquired by Quantum Space. This strategic acquisition from Phase Four, which also includes an integration and test facility in Los Angeles, strengthens Quantum Space’s ability to deliver highly maneuverable, persistent, and cost-efficient platforms for its national security,...

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) joined U.S. government and European Union (E.U.) colleagues in Washington, D.C. recently for the 13th U.S.-E.U. Space Dialogue . DOC attendees included representatives from NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, the Office of Space Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Nation...

Federal regulators accepted applications that would enable satellites to provide cellular coverage directly to existing smartphones in partnership with major wireless carriers. The FCC announced last week that AST SpaceMobile and AT&T, Verizon, and FirstNet have filed joint applications for supplemental coverage from space authorization. The Space Bureau, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Pu...