Jio Platforms, owner of India's largest telco, plans to lease broadband capacity from global satellite constellations to establish its own sovereign low Earth orbit network. Managing Director Akash Ambani stated that partnering with global constellation providers will accelerate service availability. Jio submitted draft papers for an Initial Public Offering on the same day. The company aims to connect remote villages, island communities, and border outposts where its network cannot reach. Jio will also build its own ground [...]

INNOSPACE, a South Korean launch services company, has partnered with Norma, a quantum software developer, to co-engineer space-based quantum computing technologies. The partnership aims to address growing data bottlenecks in orbital networks by developing decentralized, high-performance computing solutions. The initial technical milestone involves integrating a compact quantum computing payload into INNOSPACE's HANBIT launch vehicle to test its stability and operability in an aerospace environment. The data gathered will inform the development of a proposed Space Quantum Computing [...]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the NROL-179 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 19, 2026, at 4:50 a.m. EDT. The mission, dedicated to the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), marked the 14th launch of a new "proliferated architecture" network. The NRO is modernizing its architecture to stay ahead of threats, delivering more capability with increased resilience and a greater number of satellites in multiple orbits.

Mu-g Technologies has acquired a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet to offer commercial parabolic flight services, providing brief periods of microgravity for research and technology demonstrations. The company aims to fill the gap left by Zero-G Corp., which has not flown commercially since last year. Mu-g plans to offer flights with a digital flight control system, ensuring a proper trajectory and microgravity parabolas of 20 to 25 seconds. The company expects to start flying commercially within six [...]

A Chinese university-led mission, START, is set to join international efforts to study the asteroid Apophis during its close approach to Earth in 2029. The low-cost smallsat, developed by Tsinghua University, will launch in early 2028 and use its Xenon solar electric propulsion system to reach the asteroid. START will pass within 7 kilometers of Apophis, collecting data on the asteroid's surface and tracking changes driven by Earth's tidal forces. The mission is part of a larger [...]

NASA has selected the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer (DAPHNE) mission for development, which will study how space weather interacts with Earth's atmosphere. The mission, set to launch no earlier than 2029, will use two identical satellites equipped with three instruments to examine conditions in the thermosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere. DAPHNE aims to fill a gap in scientific understanding of the Earth's lower atmosphere's effect on space weather and the upper atmosphere. The mission is part [...]

The space industry is facing a durability crisis in medium Earth orbit (MEO) due to the limitations of low Earth orbit (LEO) hardware. LEO technology, characterized by high-volume manufacturing and cost-effective components, is not suitable for the harsher environment of MEO, where electronics and other components are vulnerable to radiation and extreme temperatures. This has led to a materials science crisis, as standard commercial-off-the-shelf electronics and structural composites are not designed for long-term use in MEO.