GoKawiil
Tech News
SpaceX turned down three military launch contracts offered by the US Space Force, according to this week's Rocket Report roundup. Separately, a NASA safety panel said SpaceX's Starship may need up to 22 refueling flights to support a lunar landing mission.
Blue Origin announced plans to add two new launch pads for its New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral, on top of two already under construction, along with a new manufacturing facility for up to 150 upper stages of a larger New Glenn variant. The company also plans two additional landing ships to recover first stages, plus a customer integration facility built with the US Space Force featuring four payload bays. Blue Origin says it has invested about $3 billion in Florida infrastructure, employs over 5,000 people there, and works with 500 state-based suppliers.
The US Space Force has confirmed publicly for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, marking a shift from its previous focus on defensive and monitoring roles. The branch, established in 2019 as the first new US military service in over 70 years, was originally created to safeguard American satellites used for communication and surveillance.
China's Yaogan 50-02 reconnaissance satellite, which had settled into an unusual retrograde orbit roughly 590 miles up, broke apart months after launch. The US Space Force has tracked 43 fragments now circling Earth at altitudes between 372 and 683 miles, and the cause of the breakup remains unannounced, though astronomer Jonathan McDowell speculated it could be a battery explosion or a debris strike.
President Trump signed an executive order at Johnson Space Center establishing a commission to develop the first US Space Academy, a NASA-run institution rather than a military service academy. The signing came during a ceremony honoring the four Artemis II astronauts with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is leading the effort as part of his broader Project Athena plan to reshape the agency's workforce strategy.