The archive

News archive

Every dispatch, feature and dossier published by the Space Exploration .IN newsroom.

Diagram showing Lynk’s six low-Earth-orbit satellites and mobile-operator spectrum, Omnispace’s 60 megahertz of S-band spectrum and three test spacecraft, and SES’s medium- and geostationary-orbit infrastructure feeding Elveo Mobile’s multi-band direct-to-device platform

Satellite communications

Lynk and Omnispace complete merger to form Elveo Mobile

The combined company joins Lynk’s direct-to-phone platform with Omnispace’s S-band spectrum and SES’s multi-orbit infrastructure, but its deployment and funding plans are still ahead.

20 August 20265 min read

Federal Register page for NASA’s procedures implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, identifying 14 CFR Part 1216 and document 2026-13245

Space policy

NASA’s interim NEPA rule takes effect with 19 adopted exclusions

Part 1216 now codifies previously adopted exclusions, one- and two-year review deadlines, page caps and a defined role for commercial project sponsors.

20 August 20266 min read

NOAA award notice listing the $6.4 million total order and daily radio-occultation deliveries assigned to PlanetiQ and Spire

Commercial weather data

NOAA buys 4,200 daily radio-occultation profiles from PlanetiQ

The $2.73 million, 74-day bridge order also assigns PlanetiQ 500 ionospheric tracks a day while NOAA prepares a two-year successor procurement under a broader $2.35 billion vehicle.

20 August 20265 min read

Diagram showing Planet imagery flowing through Rwanda Space Agency to government agencies, public universities, selected startups and development partners

Earth observation

Rwanda’s Planet data programme targets public services and universities

Rwanda Space Agency will manage access to near-daily imagery and an archive for state bodies, public universities, selected startups and development partners. The August 14 newsletter item was follow-on coverage of Planet’s August 10 announcement, not a second programme launch.

20 August 20265 min read

Saguaro at redshift 2, a simulated redshift-7 view and a real little red dot shown side by side

Science

Saguaro simulation shows how a galaxy could fade around a Webb little red dot

When researchers simulated the redshift-2 spiral at redshift 7, its faint host slipped below Webb-like limits while the compact nucleus remained. It is one analogue, not a universal answer.

20 August 20266 min read

Emission-line maps of six Local Volume Mapper targets released in SDSS DR20

Astronomy surveys

SDSS-V DR20 opens more than three million spectra and 18 specialist catalogues

The July 30 release adds the first southern BOSS data, major eROSITA follow-up and six Local Volume Mapper targets; its newly reduced BOSS observations stop at February 2, 2025.

20 August 20266 min read

Flow diagram showing a phone connecting to an Elveo low-Earth-orbit satellite, a planned relay through an SES medium-Earth-orbit satellite to SES ground gateways, and a separate geostationary-orbit support path for tracking, command and monitoring; an inset lists undisclosed investment terms

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.

20 August 20265 min read

Timeline showing an undisclosed LizzieSat vibration-test completion day, Sidus’s June 16 announcement, the June 30 quarter end, the August 14 results reiteration and future integration and launch steps

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.

20 August 20265 min read

Editorial chart breaking down SpaceX’s first 100 missions of 2026 and showing Starlink Group 17-50 launch status

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.

20 August 20265 min read

Diagram showing reentry imagery and sensor data feeding into comparison with Ship 40's recovered heat-shield and vehicle hardware

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.

20 August 20265 min read

Editorial diagram contrasting Telesat GEO obligations due at the end of 2026 with financing available for the separately held Lightspeed programme

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.

20 August 20265 min read

Line chart showing V557 Mon water-vapour model temperatures near 3,000 kelvin in January and February 2025, falling to 2,000 kelvin by March and April

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.

20 August 20266 min read