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Last week was a bit lighter than usual in space commerce; interesting developments in science and governance. Talk to us. We talk back on Discord, Instagram, LinkedIN, and TikTok. Having trouble with links? Click the link below to read the unclipped publication. ↓

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12 October, 2026

NASA opened a $150,000 Lunar Grounding Challenge seeking ways to safely discharge static electricity from astronauts’ spacesuits at the lunar south pole, with submissions due Jan. 15. NASA hopes to land astronauts there as early as 2028, on Artemis 4 or 5, ahead of a moon base targeted for the 2030s. Walking on the surface and exposure to ambient plasma charge the suits, and in shadowed regions a suit can build up a strong negative charge. An astronaut could become “a walking, high voltage capacitor,” NASA said. Touching the slightly positively charged lander could trigger an arc that damages suit layers and electronics, threatens the suit’s oxygen-rich environment or shocks the crew. Lunar dust lets sparks jump wider gaps. An arc is a sudden spark that jumps across a gap as built-up charge discharges all at once, the same effect as a static shock from a doorknob, but at far higher voltage.

Solutions must discharge an astronaut at minus 100 kilovolts or more without arcing to the suit and keep the current below 1 milliamp, with a target of 0.2 milliamps, below human perception. They must weigh under 20 kilograms and support four moonwalks over 10 days in 0.165g gravity, temperatures from minus 361 to minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit and dust particles from 0.02 to 10 micrometers. NASA’s model treats a suited astronaut as a 200-picofarad capacitor. The suit and lander will offer attachment points, and the lander up to 40 watts and heaters. Up to five finalists will advance to a second round.

12 October, 2026

White dwarfs, the dense remnants left when sunlike stars reach the end of their lives, can appear green, pink, cyan, yellow or purple to the human eye, not only the orange, white and blue set by temperature, University of Warwick astronomers report in RAS Techniques and Instruments.

In the coolest white dwarfs, atmospheres reach roughly the density of water, causing trace elements such as carbon, calcium and sodium to absorb light across a wider range of colors. Using existing spectra and a model of human vision, the team found colors tied to composition such that carbon-rich stars appear pink or purple, those enriched with planetary debris yellow, and cool stars with mixed hydrogen-helium atmospheres cyan.

WD J1330+6435, about 4,000 degrees Celsius and 280 light-years away, accreted rocky material rich in calcium, lithium and sodium and would appear green, which the researchers call the first credibly reported green star. WD J1011+2845, 48 light-years away, may be the reddest known star. Five of the 151 white dwarfs within 65 light-years show unusual colors, suggesting about one in 30 do. The rest have a median color temperature of about 6,800 kelvin, which looks white. Surveys favoring bright, hot white dwarfs had made them seem typically blue.

12 October, 2026

The UAE’s Technology Innovation Institute unveiled a half-scale model of the probe it built for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt at an Oct. 1 press conference in Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways will fly the flight-ready probe to Colorado for integration with the UAE Space Agency’s MBR Explorer, set to launch from Japan in a three-week window opening in March 2028.

Over eight years and about 5 billion kilometers, the spacecraft will use gravity assists at Venus, Earth and Mars and fly past asteroids Westerwald, Chimaera, Rockox, Ghaf, Ousha and Moza before orbiting 269 Justitia. The red asteroid’s spectrum resembles those of Kuiper Belt objects, suggesting it formed beyond the distance at which methane and methanol freeze, and it may hold organics and water-related minerals. The probe receives no commands after launch. During the cruise, onboard AI will select images from its two cameras for transmission about every six months. In 2036, it will hit Justitia at 15 to 27 meters per second with no way to slow down, likely digging a small crater that may expose subsurface material. The team does not expect it to survive but if it does, its battery would last 20 to 50 minutes.

A team of roughly 50 built the probe in under two years. EMA follows the Hope orbiter, at Mars since 2021, as the UAE seeks a top-10 space economy by 2031, up from a sector now valued at about $12 billion. In May, the UAE Supreme Space Council approved an AED 1 billion international cooperation program. Officials declined to disclose the mission’s cost.

14 October, 2026

Satellites built to track methane reliably spotted releases of the planet-warming gas on clear days in the largest controlled test of the technology, a Stanford-led study found. The authors say the results should give regulators and companies confidence in tools increasingly used to find major leaks. Researchers timed 481 methane releases in Casa Grande, Arizona, to overpasses by 11 satellites in 2025, and 15 teams in nine countries analyzed the images, according to the study, published Oct. 14 in Nature. The 8- to 10-minute releases ranged from 10 to 1,200 kilograms per hour. In total, the team released less than 50 metric tons of methane, about a year’s emissions from 500 dairy cows.

Dedicated methane instruments detected 92% to 100% of plumes. Under ideal conditions, they caught releases as small as about 50 to 200 kilograms per hour, near the 100-kilogram threshold that triggers reviews under some super-emitter programs. Most size estimates were up to 50% too high or too low, but the errors roughly balanced out on average. The authors say that makes the data reliable enough to flag large leaks and inform emissions inventories. Repurposed instruments, such as Germany’s EnMAP, caught 62% to 88%, and general-purpose land-scanning satellites 29% to 37%. Clouds hampered detection, a problem in methane-emitting regions including Nigeria, Venezuela, Canada and Russia. Across 265 overpasses with no release, AI methods applied to land-scanning satellite data produced 79% of false positives.

Methane traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Senior author Adam Brandt said repairing leaks also saves operators saleable gas and reduces fire and ground-level ozone risks.

13 October, 2026

The European Space Agency wants about €10 billion over the next decade to launch its own astronauts instead of relying on U.S. spacecraft, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said. He cited SpaceX’s plan to retire Crew Dragon, which he expects around 2029. Only the U.S., China and Russia can currently launch astronauts, and ESA astronauts fly on Crew Dragon. Continuing to buy U.S. seats and commercial space station access would cost about €5 billion over the same period, Aschbacher told Euronews. He said Europe could offer seats to partners such as Japan or Australia.

The estimate would cover a crew capsule, launch abort and ocean recovery systems, and astronaut training facilities. The Exploration Company and PLD Space are developing capsules that could serve as candidates. In September, ESA signed a €760 million contract with The Exploration Company for its Nyx capsule, including €310 million for a cargo demonstration mission to the International Space Station. Member states committed a record €22 billion to ESA in 2025. The crew proposal isn’t approved yet and ESA plans to present costed options to ministers Dec. 15 in Rome, with contracts possible from its 2028 ministerial council.

The ISS is set to be retired in the early 2030s. ESA has signed agreements with Axiom Space, Starlab Space and Vast for commercial stations, and Airbus and OHB are leading studies of a European-led station.

15 October, 2026

SpaceX wants to launch Starship from its South Texas site as many as 456 times a year, more than 18 times its current limit of 25, and the Federal Aviation Administration has begun an environmental review of the request. SpaceX says it needs that pace for growing ambitions as Elon Musk has targeted more than 10,000 Starship launches a year by 2030, and the company is building three Florida pads and planning a $100 billion, 12-pad complex in Louisiana. Its Starlink constellation could eventually reach 100,000 satellites, and Musk says a planned AI constellation called Starmind could include a million.

The FAA announced Oct. 14 that it will prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement. The proposal would proceed in two phases: up to 100 launches a year on any day of the week, then, within several years, up to 456 on weekdays only. Each launch includes two landings, one for the Super Heavy booster and one for the Starship upper stage. Boosters could land at the pad, splash down in the Gulf or be expended in flight and Starship could also come down in the open ocean. For its analysis, the FAA assumes half of operations happen at night. The review will cover noise, air quality, wildlife, wetlands, coastal resources and protected marine species, in consultation with federal wildlife agencies.

Reactions, however, are split. A South Padre Island resident told KRGV that more launches mean more Boca Chica Beach closures, while a frequent spectator called each launch “progress for humanity.” Environmental groups sued the FAA in 2023 over its earlier Starbase review. Public comments are due Nov. 30, with meetings in Brownsville, Port Isabel and online Nov. 17-19. The FAA also reviews safety, security and insurance before licensing.

12 October, 2026

U.S. Army infantry units using Reveal Technology’s Farsight mapping software will be able to draw on drone, satellite and sensor imagery from every authorized source, not just what they collect themselves, the company said in announcing Farsight 2.0 and a new $9.5 million Army order.

The update fuses that imagery, including imagery passing over command and control networks, into a single 3D terrain model that updates as new data arrives and is shared among authorized Army users. Operators can request imagery and have Farsight task drones to collect it, and can update the model offline in the field. Existing tools such as line-of-sight and viewshed analysis, helicopter landing zone and drop zone assessments, AI-assisted route planning and measurement, still remain. The software runs on hardware soldiers already carry and integrates with Nett Warrior, the Army’s soldier-worn battle-command system. Current users will receive the update, and newly fielded units will get 2.0 at installation. The order, the second under Reveal’s GSA contract, covers fielding, training and sustainment for additional infantry brigades.

13 October, 2026

Amazon is pitching its Leo satellite internet network to the U.S. Army as a way to connect soldiers in places without reliable service, demonstrating it for Army officials in what the company called an important step toward an expanded partnership.

At Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, at an event hosted by the Army’s DEVCOM C5ISR Center, a laptop connected through Amazon’s Leo Pro antenna exchanged data with newly deployed satellites passing overhead. It reached peak download speeds above 400 Mbps, Amazon said. More than 30 Army representatives attended. The network’s satellites are linked by high-speed optical connections and communicate with a global network of gateway stations, fiber and internet connection points on the ground.

Further tests will cover faster links, mobile use and integration with Army tactical networks, with the aim of moving proven capabilities from the lab to the field, Amazon said. The company has built more than 1,000 Leo satellites, nearly 400 of them in orbit. It is also pursuing public sector customers through an agreement with AT&T Business to combine Leo with fiber and 5G networks, and plans to acquire Globalstar to add direct-to-device service. In 2025, L3Harris Technologies partnered with Amazon’s Kuiper Government Solutions to integrate satellite connectivity with tactical communications networks.

13 October, 2026

Private investment in space companies has already set a record this year and is on track to top $100 billion, driven by a launch shortage and government demand, according to venture firm Space Capital’s quarterly report.

Investors put $92.5 billion into the sector through September, surpassing 2025’s full-year record, and a record 44 companies reached valuations of $1 billion or more. Space Capital counts companies whose products rely on satellites, such as Waymo, alongside rocket and satellite makers. Investment in that hardware reached $40.8 billion, 1.8 times last year’s total. Third-quarter hardware investment totaled $11.5 billion across 84 rounds, led by manufacturer Hadrian’s $1.4 billion, while China’s Spacesail and Chang Guang raised a combined $1.7 billion.

Launch companies raised a record $7.8 billion, including Stoke Space’s $1 billion and Blue Origin’s first outside round, of $10 billion, after SpaceX stopped taking rideshare bookings beyond late 2028. The shortage is “the best thing to happen to the launch market in a decade,” the report said. The White House has set a goal of 1,000 U.S. launches and reentries a year by 2030, about five times today’s rate. During the quarter, Isar Aerospace reached orbit from Norway, China caught a Long March 10B booster in a net at sea and Skyroot flew India’s first private rocket to orbit.

Companies outside North America took nearly half of third-quarter capital, up from 23% in the second. Europe drew 28%, and its $13.5 billion so far this year, led by defense company Helsing, exceeds any prior full year. Acquisitions are on pace for a record. Space Capital CEO Chad Anderson warned that some companies depend on SpaceX’s Starship, whose availability is uncertain. The report noted that a stopgap budget leaves less than $400 million of the $17.5 billion requested for the Golden Dome missile-defense program in fiscal 2027.

14 October, 2026

Rocket Lab has pushed the first launch of its partially reusable Neutron rocket from late 2026 into 2027, holding back a new launch option as SpaceX reportedly prepares to wind down Falcon 9.

CEO Peter Beck said inspectors found voids between carbon-fiber layers in a propellant dome made by an automated machine adopted after a contractor’s hand-laid tank ruptured in January testing. Beck said process changes fixed the flaw. A replacement dome is due by year’s end, with first-stage hydrostatic and cryogenic tests in the first quarter, after which the company expects to set a target date.

Announced in 2021 with a 2024 target, the 141-foot rocket with a reusable first stage slipped to 2025, early 2026 and, after a tank rupture, late 2026. Rocket Lab also flies Electron, a small-satellite launcher. Shares fell more than 10% after the disclosure.

Reflect Orbital, a startup planning orbiting mirrors that would redirect sunlight to Earth after dark, has bought two launches from India’s Skyroot Aerospace, citing a shortage of launch capacity. SpaceX is not accepting Transporter rideshare reservations beyond 2029.

One launch will use Skyroot’s Vikram-1, which carries about 350 kilograms to low Earth orbit and in July made India’s first private orbital launch. The other will use the Vikram-1U, rated for about 550 kilograms and expected to debut in the first quarter of 2027. Neither timing nor cost was disclosed. A company spokesperson said Reflect Orbital is the only payload for now.

The FCC approved its Eärendil-1 demonstration satellite in July after more than 2,000 comments, many raising concerns about potential harm. The company expects two satellites in orbit this year, more than 1,000 by 2028 and potentially more than 50,000 eventually. It says the light could extend solar farm output after sunset and serve defense, remote operations, search-and-rescue missions and nighttime concerts.

15 October, 2026

The UK Space Agency has hired ClearSpace to remove two defunct U.K.-registered satellites from orbit in the country’s first national debris removal mission, which the agency says will build capabilities for an in-orbit servicing market.

The contract is worth 61 million pounds (about $80 million). ClearSpace beat bids from Astroscale and Starfish Space. The spacecraft is to demonstrate autonomous navigation and capture of objects not designed for servicing, with operations targeted for 2029, subject to final mission and launch scheduling. The agency will set requirements and oversee performance, acting as a customer rather than only funding innovation, the announcement said.

The award follows a September U.K. space strategy naming in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) one of four priority subsectors. ClearSpace, founded in 2018 as a spin-off of Swiss university EPFL, is based in Luxembourg with teams in Switzerland, the U.K., Germany and France. Its European Space Agency work includes ClearSpace-1, commissioned in 2020 to remove an unprepared, uncooperative object, PRELUDE, an inspection and proximity operations mission targeting a 2027 launch and Phoenix, a geostationary life-extension mission under a contract signed in September.

Young stars like the sun appear to begin with a richer supply of organic molecules than scientists expected, material that may end up in their planets, according to a new ALMA survey..

An ALMA (Atacama Large millimeter/submillimeter Array) survey of 11 nearby sunlike protostars found methanol maser emission around more than half of them, favoring the youngest, the COMPASS (the Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys) team reported in seven papers in Astronomy & Astrophysics. A maser is a microwave analog of a laser, in which emission is stimulated and amplified, here occurring naturally. Such masers had previously been seen only around high-mass protostars. The finding shows locally extreme conditions can arise around forming sunlike stars, said co-principal investigator Maria Drozdovskaya of the University of Bern.

Methanol is the most abundant complex organic molecule in interstellar space. The share of its hydrogen atoms replaced by the heavier isotope deuterium depends on conditions in a forming system, making it a probe of those conditions. Molecules with some hydrogen replaced have been detected before. COMPASS found fully deuterated methanol, CD₃OD, with all four hydrogen atoms replaced, for the first time around a protostar, IRAS 4A2, in the Perseus molecular cloud about 1,000 light-years away. The survey also found varying abundances of oxygen- and nitrogen-bearing molecules among the 11 stars.

COMPASS was one of four ALMA Large Programs selected from about 40 proposals in 2022, with more than 100 hours of observing time. More than 30 researchers are involved. Analysis will take several more years, with follow-up observations planned on JWST.

Earth’s outer layers shifted relative to the planet’s spin axis in relatively rapid bursts at least twice in the past 320 million years, moving regions toward or away from the poles, a study of ancient flooding suggests. Some scientists had considered this process, known as true polar wander, negligible or slow.

True polar wander differs from changes in Earth’s 23.4-degree tilt, which varies over tens of thousands of years. Instead, the crust and mantle move together relative to the spin axis. Because Earth bulges at the equator, uneven mass, such as continents gathered in one hemisphere, can drive that shift. It now proceeds at about 10 centimeters a year. Past rates are hard to measure and studies relied on magnetic traces in ancient rocks, which yielded conflicting results.

Researchers led by Mathew Domeier of the University of Oslo instead analyzed maps of continental flooding in 10-million-year intervals. They looked for the pattern a shift leaves behind, with seas rising in two opposite regions and falling in two others. They found evidence of four episodes, strongest for 150 million to 140 million years ago and 100 million to 90 million years ago, and weaker for 200 million to 190 million and 30 million to 20 million years ago. During these episodes, the surface shifted as much as 0.6 degrees per million years, according to the study, published Oct. 1 in Science. The team found that Pangea’s northward drift around 300 million years ago, a suspected episode, was due to plate tectonics alone. The authors said similar fast episodes likely occurred earlier in Earth’s history.

Despatch Out. 👽🛸