21 satellites delivered for launch into the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture — powering faster, secure communications and missile tracking from low Earth orbit. We’re advancing the @SemperCitiusSDA’s mission in bringing this capability to the warfighter as quickly as possible. Learn more: news.northropgrumman.com/sat…

Satellites can be replaced quickly—but not if the launch site is targeted first. In a recent episode of HTK with Kari Bingen and @heatherwilly, @tomkarako explained why real space resilience means defending launch infrastructure, not just replacing what's already gone.

Mars Sample Return mission is dead in the latest funding agreement. Which means China will likely beat the US to returning the first samples from Mars. Perseverance has collected the best samples it could, and those will remain on Mars for a long time. But it had become ridiculously expensive, partly because political support from Congress allowed it to. science.org/content/article/…

Astra Space may be poised to fundamentally reshape the commercial space launch rocket equation with its pending 2027 Rocket 4 debut. Here's why. thedebrief.org/astra-space-l…

Astra projecting early 2027 for the introduction of Rocket 4.0 spacenews.com/astra-projecti…

That’s pretty close to NC so I’m 100000% going up there for test flight alpha. Go team @Astra!

Astra's Chris Kemp says at World Space Business Week this morning the company is planning a first launch of their Rocket 4 from Wallops in January or February.

Currently, hazard area's for an Electron launch out of LC-1 tomorrow from 01:30-04:20 UTC are active, so Rocket Lab appears to be preparing to launch less then 12 hours from now. I'm expecting an update once the sun rises in New Zealand in a few hours, but this smells of BlackSky

Rocket 4.0 first stage engine. A mixture ratio sweep at full throttle.

$ASTS: 🚨🇯🇵 JAPAN'S MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS FILES A NEW 136 SATELLITE CONSTELLATION AT THE ITU UNDER "J-BLUEBIRD-NGSO" DESIGNATION On 9/4, Japan’s MIC formally filed a new satellite constellation with the ITU called J-BLUEBIRD-NGSO. This is not a third-party label or speculation --> the Japanese government itself is filing a constellation under AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellite name. The filing package describes a steerable, high-gain communications system with broad frequency use and coverage across the visible Earth, and the associated constellation data points to 136 satellites across 34 orbital planes. That is not the footprint of a small pilot. That is the architecture of a full-scale sovereign communications constellation. Now put this together with everything else we already know: Rakuten/RAST was selected for Japan’s J-LEO program, Japan has discussed up to ~$1B of government capital, Rakuten has said J-LEO is separate from its ordinary commercial AST service, and it has openly talked about creating Japan’s first “Japanese-flagged” LEO satellite. The pieces are starting to line up in a very big way. AST SpaceMobile is looking at something far larger than just selling capacity to Rakuten --> it could be serving the government of Japan. Dedicated satellites, launches, ground infrastructure and a sovereign Japanese network built around AST’s platform. That is a completely different magnitude of opportunity. The biggest takeaway. Japan is effectively saying, “we want our own BlueBird constellation,” and this could become the template for other countries that want sovereign space infrastructure without developing an entire LEO platform from scratch. AST may not just be building one global network — it could end up becoming the underlying platform for national satellite networks around the world for the US, Japan, the European Union, Brasil and more. ITU reference: J2026‑83391