Air and Space Forces Magazine - Space Systems Command is tripling the size of one of its main launch procurement contracts from $5.6 billion to $17 billion to accommodate growing demand from government customers.

Reuters - NASA remains on track for next year's Artemis III mission, a key test of orbital ‌docking and lunar landers needed for future crewed moon landings, despite an explosion involving an unmanned Blue Origin rocket during a launchpad test in May.

FedScoop - The Genesis Mission, an effort to combine AI, quantum, and high-performance computing, is expanding beyond the DOE to include 20 federal agencies, which are bringing a combined commitment of more than $5 billion.

SpaceNews - The U.S. Space Force is widening the field of companies eligible to compete for national security launch contracts, adding launch startup Relativity Space and orbital transportation company Impulse Space to a roster of commercial providers

SpaceNews - The reorganization gives a small group of executives broad authority over how the service buys and integrates space capabilities, reflecting a Pentagon-wide effort to speed procurement and make it easier to adopt commercial technology.

Breaking Defense - According to a new report from space monitoring firm LeoLabs, China has been abandoning used launcher rocket stages in low Earth orbit (LEO) at an ever-increasing pace.

AP News - Launched in 2004, Swift is sinking faster than ever because of recent solar storms. Northrop Grumman launched Katalyst Space Technologies’ Link spacecraft from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to rescue the telescope.

Military + Aerospace Electronics - The Aerospace Corporation and Google Public Sector are collaborating on an AI-based system designed to help satellite operators detect and investigate spacecraft anomalies.

Payload - Amazon, Globalstar, Iridium, and Canada’s Telesat joined together to establish the SpaceConnect Association, for non-geostationary satellite (NGSO) operators.

Ars Technica - Rocket Lab announced that it is acquiring the satellite communications company Iridium. The deal, made for cash and shares of Rocket Lab stock, values Iridium at about $8 billion. The deal pairs the launch company, founded and led by Peter Beck, with a decades-old profitable satellite company whose network of 80 satellites in low-Earth orbit provides telecommunications services.