SpaceNews — Blue Origin says it has passed a key development milestone for its Blue Ring spacecraft, a maneuverable in-orbit transport vehicle designed for national security missions and backed by Pentagon funding.

Air and Space Forces Magazine — Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman released a new document, whichs sums up U.S. Space Force’s current status and all of Saltzman’s efforts to solidify the Space Force’s identity as a warfighting service.

Marshall Smith, CEO of Starlab Space, reflects on his path from NASA engineer to leading the development of a next-generation commercial space station.

Aviation Week — The spacecraft, nicknamed Blue and Gold — the colors of UC Berkeley, which is overseeing the mission — will reach Mars in Sept. 2027. The identical satellites, built by Rocket Lab, are designed to work in tandem, with one in the solar wind environment around Mars, while the other makes simultaneous measurements of the thin Martian atmosphere.

Barron’s — With NASA’s International Space Station set to come out of service in 2030, American aerospace firm Vast has stepped into a frenzied race for the world’s first commercial space station.

Aviation Week — The U.S. Space Force is overhauling its training systems and doctrines. The Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI) merges virtual environments with live ranges to ready personnel for on-orbit conflict.

Aviation Week — The U.S. Space Force is conducting market research for a potential foreign military sale (FMS) to Canada of command-and-control (C2) capabilities. The new enterprise-level system would upgrade Canada’s currently fragmented capabilities and processes

SpaceNews — Project Kuiper has shed its seven-year-old code name, emerging as “Amazon Leo” as the company nears the start of initial broadband services from the low Earth orbit constellation next year.

Washington Post — The successful second launch represents a major step forward for Jeff Bezos’s rocket company as it seeks to catch up with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Air and Space Forces Magazine — According to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, the U.S. Space Force should take bold, decisive steps quickly to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress.