Satellite communications
SES expands Elveo investment for multi-orbit D2D
The companies plan to connect Elveo’s LEO network with SES’s MEO, GEO and ground assets, but disclosed no deal value, ownership percentage or rollout date.
The archive
News archive
Every dispatch, feature and dossier published by the Space Exploration .IN newsroom.
Launch
Sidus reiterates LizzieSat vibration-test completion in second-quarter results
The completion had been public since June 16; neither that announcement nor the August 14 results identifies the day the qualification work finished.
Launch cadence
SpaceX reaches 100 missions in 2026 with Starlink 17-50
Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg and B1097 landed after its 12th flight. The sources reviewed did not separately confirm deployment of the 24 satellites.
Starship Flight 13
Ship 40 reaches calmer water, giving SpaceX its first intact Starship to inspect
The upper stage survived its July 24 splashdown and about 24 days at sea. Its returned tiles and vehicle hardware can now be compared with reentry imagery and sensor data, although ocean exposure complicates the diagnosis.
Satellite finance
Lightspeed financing sits outside Telesat’s looming GEO debt
The first-half filing separates the LEO project’s financing from about C$2.3 billion of Telesat GEO obligations due at the end of 2026, while retaining a first-quarter 2028 service target.
Science
Researchers trace near-3,000 K water vapour in V557 Mon outburst
Near-infrared spectra and ExoMol-based models track a transient molecular layer as accretion rose about 70-fold, then cooled during the 2025 decline.
Launch infrastructure
Blue Origin outlines second LC-36 pad for New Glenn 9x4
LC-36B, new processing buildings and a hybrid integration flow would divide work between two pads. Neither 9x4’s debut nor the repaired LC-36A’s next launch has an exact date.
Launch
China resumes launches on two rockets after Long March 7A failure
Long March 12 carried nine catalogued spacecraft in the 24th Guowang batch, and Long March 2C placed the UAE’s SEO satellite into orbit; the earlier failure remains unexplained.
Science
COFFIES model tests early detection of solar active-region emergence
The machine-learning model uses acoustic-power changes and weak magnetic signals to project solar-surface brightness 12 hours ahead, but the result is not yet a real-time solar-storm forecast.
Science
Helix Nebula’s 22 bow shocks trace stellar debris breaking apart
The arcs’ changing geometry supports progressive stripping and a roughly 10,000-year coherence time, not a direct clock for every stage of interstellar mixing.
Satellite communications
Intuitive Machines outlines $600m-plus IM-1300 satellite programme
The IM-1300 will underpin design, manufacturing, integration and support for multiple spacecraft. The customer, delivery calendar and most programme terms remain undisclosed.
Earth observation
Intuitive Machines outlines IM-300 role in EAGLE-VSWIR mission
The company would supply the spacecraft, integrate JPL’s imaging spectrometer and run ground and mission operations. NASA lists the Earth-observation launch no earlier than 2028.