Aerospace News

Harvesting solar energy in orbit and beaming it down to Earth is a decades-old idea. Now, a raft of companies say they could finally make it a reality.

Silicon Valley Space Week (SVSW) opened in Mountain View on October 28 with the ‘hottest’ of hot topics under examination for its Satellite Innovation segment.

TechCrunch — Aerospace’s Dr. Debra Emmons participated in a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, discussing how on-orbit compute and autonomous decision-making are transforming satellite missions.

Aviation Week — As the U.S. Space Force embraces commercial technology, in-space servicing companies are urging the Pentagon to consider a logistics layer. The Defense Department is partnering with Astroscale U.S. to develop a 660-lb. satellite to refuel two Space Force assets in geostationary orbit next summer.

The U.S. Space Force awarded a contract to Vantor to strengthen its ability to continuously track high-interest space objects, including those that pass through areas not visible to ground-based sensors, according to a recent press release from the company.

Aerospace America — Aerospace’s Marty Ross commented on a project that will study the mesosphere: “The space enterprise will have to better understand mesospheric dynamics and variability as well as mysterious clouds at the edge of space caused by rocket exhaust and meteoroid and space debris ablation.”

Air and Space Forces — The Space Force expects to award $905 million in contracts over the next five years through a new Maneuverable GEO program, which aims to form a commercial fleet of communication satellites that can shift around in geosynchronous orbit.

SpaceNews — Quantum Space says it plans to launch its first Ranger spacecraft in mid-2026 to demonstrate its capabilities for national security missions.

Aviation Week — After a 5.5-year hiatus, JAXA is poised to debut the HTV-X spacecraft, which can carry 6.5 tons of cargo. It can also be loaded 24 hours before launch, compared with 80 hours for its predecessor.