2026 04 News
09 Apr 2026
- PLD Space secures $35 million European Investment Bank loan for MIURA 5 launcher
- China conducts pair of Long March launches for Thousand Sails and Guowang megaconstellations
- Portal Space Systems raises $50 million to accelerate spacecraft development
- Space Force taps 14 firms for $1.8 billion GEO surveillance program
- Albedo prepares second VLEO mission for 2027 launch
- Lockheed Martin wins $105 million contract for GPS ground control system as OCX winds down
- Vantor to expand imaging satellite fleet, adding smallsats to increase revisit rates
- Apex to develop larger satellites for missile defense, space-based computing
- Improved thresholds and SSA accuracy can reduce most satellite collision risk
- The gravity of their experience hasn’t quite set in for the Artemis II astronauts
08 Apr 2026
- Improved thresholds and SSA accuracy can reduce most satellite collision risk
- April 30: Opportunities for On-Orbit Computing
- LeoLabs debuts space monitoring tool for military users
- Artemis 2 science gets underway as Orion begins its return trip
- Capella Space wins $49 million contract for military communications satellite demo
- Space security moves to forefront as threats to satellites spread
- Inspection cubesat demo planned as first step toward orbital defense mothership
- Astroscale passes key design milestone for UK military space-tracking cubesats
- With Orion still flying, NASA is nearing key decisions about Artemis III
07 Apr 2026
- Hungary taps Northrop Grumman for first national geostationary communications satellite
- Starfish Space raises more than $100 million
- Nominate space industry leaders for the 2026 SpaceNews Icon Awards
- Finally, Artemis delivers some exceptional, high-quality photos of the Moon
06 Apr 2026
- FOSSA targets Japan’s defense market as larger smallsats expand capabilities
- Military space programs confront hidden supply constraints
- Artemis 2 ready to fly around the moon
- NASA’s Moon ship and rocket seem to be working well, so what about the landers?
- Why will today’s lunar flyby only beam back low-resolution video?
05 Apr 2026
04 Apr 2026
- Atlas 5 launches Amazon Leo satellites
- Space Force budget would more than double in Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense plan
03 Apr 2026
- Italy’s Argotec plans to scale Florida satellite facility to meet rising US demand
- White House again proposes steep NASA budget cuts
- SpaceX and Amazon spar over satellite deployments
- China’s commercial Tianlong-3 rocket fails on debut launch
02 Apr 2026
- Former Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice to lead Astrion
- Optical terminals still a bottleneck in Pentagon’s proliferated constellation
- Pentagon awards Raytheon $45 million for GPS ground system as program future is reassessed
- Phantom Space buys thermal specialist to support orbital data center push
- Relativity, Hermeus, Astrion and Divergent executives join Fortastra C-suite
- Artemis 2 crew blasts off on historic moon mission
- Amazon is trying to buy Globalstar to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink
- SpaceX tries to convince FCC that Amazon put satellites into wrong altitude
- Why is NASA bothering to go back to the Moon if we’ve already been there?
01 Apr 2026
- SpaceX quietly files for big bang IPO
- Teledyne forms dedicated space unit to capture rising demand
- Artemis 2’s (nearly) 10-day flight around the moon
- Saltzman: Space ‘baked into’ modern combat operations
- Aspect Aerospace secures early funding to advance swarm-deployable VLEO satellites
- Artemis 2 fueling underway
- After three years, Artemis 2 astronauts ready to launch
- Vantor wins intelligence agency contract to monitor space objects
- Chinese startup tests flexible robotic arm in space for on-orbit servicing
- Live coverage: NASA to launch Artemis 2, its first Moon-bound mission with astronauts since 1972
- Launch day has arrived for NASA’s Artemis II mission—here’s what to expect
- SpaceX finally files for IPO, targets $1.75 trillion valuation