Issue 118 | Breaking Space News: Aug 30 - Sep 5, 2026
A nonprofit wants to send an 80,000-year mission to our closest star system, Alpha Centauri, and a dark matter detector has recorded its most compelling signal yet. The Week in Space News: NASA-backed study aims to detect space minerals, mining sites from orbit, a new RAND report warns US space industry can't rebuild military satellites fast enough, and China's Galactic Energy and Europe's Isar Aerospace have reached new launch milestones. Plus: Quantum imaging startup Diffraqtion, Spanish launcher PLD Space, German rocket firm HyImpulse and physics-AI software firm BQP, closed new funding rounds, EU, ESA and NASA awarded new contracts to OHB, Creotech Instruments and Blue Origin, and more.