This Week in Spacetime

Issue #6 · Week ending September 20, 2026

Spotlight

U.S. Space Force · National Harbor, Md.

The US says for the first time that it has weapons in orbit

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Air & Space Forces Association conference on September 14 that the United States now has on-orbit "space control weapons" able to defend the joint force against hostile action. It is the first public acknowledgment by a US official that such weapons are deployed. Meink gave no details on what they are. He also said space-based interceptors for Golden Dome have reached flight-ready hardware, and that the first air moving target indicator satellite would launch this month.

Read the full story at Breaking Defense Sep 14

Headlines

01

SpaceX · Starbase, Texas

Starship's first try at orbit moves to September 28

SpaceX moved Starship Flight 14 from September 22 to September 28 and gave no reason for the six-day slip. Liftoff from Starbase is set for a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. local time. Starship has flown 13 times since its April 2023 debut, all on suborbital paths, so this would be its first flight to orbit. The ship will carry 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first of the larger V3s meant to join the constellation. Three of them carry cameras to photograph the ship's heat shield after they deploy.

Read the full story at Space.com Sep 17

SpaceX Starship
02

Viasat · Carlsbad

The last ViaSat-3 satellite enters service over the Americas

Viasat said on September 17 that the third and final terabit-class ViaSat-3 broadband satellite has entered service over the Americas, completing the trio. The news came days after SpaceX launched the last three satellites for SES's O3b mPower network in medium Earth orbit.

Read the full story at SpaceNews Sep 18

Viasat ViaSat-3 constellation
03

Rocket Lab · NASA · Blue Origin · Long Beach

Rocket Lab protests NASA's Mars relay award to Blue Origin

Rocket Lab filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office on September 11 over NASA's early-September choice of Blue Origin to build, launch and operate the roughly $700 million Mars Telecommunications Network orbiter. Rocket Lab says the award does not match the eligibility rules Congress wrote into the 2025 funding law and that NASA's review of its technical proposal was flawed. Blue Origin said any delay puts the mission's 2028 launch goal at risk.

Read the full story at Ars Technica Sep 14

Rocket Lab

Also this week

SpaceX · NASA · Washington

NASA buys three more Crew Dragon flights

NASA added Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17 to SpaceX's commercial crew contract for $946 million, bringing SpaceX to 17 missions and the contract to $5.92 billion. The flights are due to be ready in 2027 and 2028.

NASA Sep 18 SpaceX
SpaceX · U.S. Space Force · National Harbor, Md.

The Space Force lets SpaceX design its $2.29 billion data network

The Space Force set performance targets for the Space Data Network Backbone and left the satellite count and constellation layout to SpaceX. SpaceX owes an operational prototype by the end of 2027.

SatNews Sep 17 SpaceX
SpaceX · U.S. Space Force · Vandenberg SFB

Falcon 9 flies a second classified Space Force mission in six days

A Falcon 9 launched the classified USSF-259 mission from Vandenberg on September 16, six days after USSF-153 left the same base. Booster B1097 landed on a drone ship for the 13th time.

Space.com Sep 16 SpaceX
Boeing · NASA · Washington

NASA plans to order more Starliner flights

NASA is set to order two more Starliner crew missions from Boeing, help pay to fix its thruster problems and support certifying it on a new rocket, Ars reports. SpaceX has signaled it may retire Crew Dragon by 2030.

Ars Technica Sep 17 Boeing
Impulse Space · Redondo Beach

Impulse Space adds $308 million, taking its Series D to $808 million

The extension came from existing investors and will fund products, hiring and facilities. Impulse also named former VIZIO CFO Adam Townsend as its first chief financial officer.

SatellitePro ME Sep 17 Impulse Space
Northrop Grumman · U.S. Space Force · National Harbor, Md.

Northrop is building the Space Force's ground-tracking radar satellites

Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon named the program Resilient Radar System-Ground, or RRS-G, and said Northrop Grumman builds it. Launches are due within two years.

Breaking Defense Sep 16 Northrop Grumman
True Anomaly · Northrop Grumman · Long Beach

True Anomaly and Northrop win prototypes to watch geosynchronous orbit

The Defense Innovation Unit and Space Systems Command picked both companies for GHOST-R, lower-cost satellites that image objects in geosynchronous orbit, to fly by 2028 for the RG-XX constellation.

Defense Daily Sep 18 True Anomaly Northrop Grumman
ULA · U.S. Space Force · National Harbor, Md.

Vulcan needs a separate review before flying military missions again

ULA plans to return Vulcan to flight with an Amazon Leo mission. A senior Space Force acquisition official said the rocket must pass a separate review before it resumes national security launches.

SpaceNews Sep 16
Apex · Elveo Mobile · Los Angeles

Apex will help set up a US factory for direct-to-device satellites

The plant will build satellites for Elveo Mobile, the operator formed by the merger of Lynk Global and Omnispace.

SpaceNews Sep 14 Apex
Space Development Agency · National Harbor, Md.

SDA aims for two more Tranche 1 launches this year

Director Gurpartap Sandhoo said 63 of 154 Tranche 1 satellites are in orbit and the campaign should wrap up with six more launches by spring 2027. The first missile tracking satellites could slip from December into next year.

Air & Space Forces Sep 16 SDA Transport & Tracking satellites

International Spotlight

01

Eutelsat · Airbus · Toulouse, France

Eutelsat orders 229 more OneWeb satellites from Airbus

Eutelsat gave Airbus Defence and Space the go-ahead to start work on 229 additional OneWeb satellites, on top of 440 already ordered, for a total of 669 built in Toulouse. They will replace early satellites nearing end of life in the network of more than 600 spacecraft at 1,200 km. The new batch adds digital channelizers and room for hosted payloads.

Read the full story at Inflight Sep 14
02

Isar Aerospace · SEOPS · Ottobrunn, Germany

Isar Aerospace books five more Spectrum launches after reaching orbit

Fresh off a successful second flight, Isar signed five launches with rideshare provider SEOPS, bringing that customer to six. They will fly from 2028 to 2030 from Andøya in Norway and Spaceport Nova Scotia in Canada. Isar says its 2028 manifest is now full and it has started building vehicles three through seven.

Read the full story at Via Satellite Sep 16
03

LandSpace · Spacesail · Jiuquan, China

A private Chinese rocket launches Qianfan satellites for the first time

LandSpace's Zhuque-2E put 10 Spacesail satellites into orbit on September 15, the first time a private Chinese company has launched for one of the country's large internet constellations. It was the network's 15th batch, bringing it to 248 satellites of a planned 12,000.

Read the full story at Mediasat Sep 16

Summaries are written by From Blue to Black. Headlines and reporting belong to the linked publications.