Via Satellite — After years of Starlink holding a commanding lead in LEO broadband, analysts and industry experts see a shift in the constellation race. Aggressive launch schedules for new services, differentiated offerings, and geopolitics are all driving greater competition in an expanding market.
Aerospace America — The Air Force’s new acquisition approach will eventually result in about 18 portfolio acquisition executives, Secretary Troy Meink said. These PAEs will “have all the contracting, finance” personnel directly under their authority.
Breaking Defense — Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, who until recently was running the space acquisition program at the Department of the Air Force, has been shifted out of that office to serve as “senior advisor” to Secretary Troy Meink.
SpaceNews — The U.S. Space Force said it will not fly additional national security missions on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket until an investigation is completed into a performance anomaly during a Feb. 12 launch.
Breaking Defense — Companies involved in manufacturing satellites may shift their sights away from DoD to supplying commercial players simply due to the economies of scale. Another complicating factor is that DoD demand can be fickle as it is dependent on the annual budget and political winds.
SpaceNews — The Office of Space Commerce’s Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS, includes contact information for satellite owner-operators, but it can still be difficult for countries or operators to contact each other.
Aerospace America — Based on the missions launched to date and those projected to by 2030, the number of orbit “conjunctions” where collisions or near misses are possible could increase 100-fold, according to a 2025 paper by the Aerospace Corporation.
The New York Times — NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that Artemis III will launch in mid-2027 as a flight test to practice rendezvousing in low-earth orbit, so the agency can iterate more quickly between Artemis missions.
Aerospace’s contributions to EVA research are paving the way for safe, sustainable space exploration on the Moon, Mars and beyond.
SpaceNews — Procurements of certain elements of the U.S. military’s low Earth orbit satellite constellation known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) are on hold, as the Pentagon reviews acquisition options and shifts responsibility for parts of the program outside the Space Development Agency (SDA).
