August 27, 2026 — Europe's Launch Independence Bet: ESA Signs the First Checks
ESA signs its first European Launcher Challenge contracts today, putting real money behind Europe's bid to build launch independence from SpaceX and Ariane — Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, a...
27 Aug 10min
August 26, 2026 — Starbase Louisiana: A $100 Billion Bet on an Unproven Rocket
SpaceX and Louisiana officials unveiled a planned $100 billion, ten-pad 'Starbase Louisiana' spaceport in Vermilion Parish — a huge bet on a Starship that still hasn't flown an operational mission. Pl...
26 Aug 14min
August 25, 2026 — Can Anyone Actually Cool a Computer in Orbit?
Nvidia spent this week backing two rival paths to orbital AI compute — SpaceX's in-house Starmind satellite and independent startup Starcloud's fresh funding round — while nobody has yet solved how to...
25 Aug 14min
August 24, 2026 — China's Chang'e-7 Delay and the Fight for the Lunar South Pole
China scrubbed the Chang'e-7 lunar south pole mission hours before launch, reopening a genuinely uncertain race with Blue Origin and Astrobotic for the Moon's ice deposits. Plus: a Chinese booster lan...
24 Aug 15min
August 22, 2026 — Weekly Recap: A $71 Billion Ask and a Launch Market in Crisis
This week's recap: a launch market so hot it's straining the operators depending on it, the White House's answer with a thousand-launches-a-year target, a record $71 billion Space Force budget request...
22 Aug 16min
August 21, 2026 — A Thousand Launches by 2030 — Without the Money to Build It
The White House signed off on a new National Space Transportation Policy setting a goal of a thousand launches and reentries a year by 2030 — heavy on infrastructure directives, light on appropriated ...
21 Aug 17min
August 20, 2026 — Space Force's $71 Billion Ask, and Last Year's Missing $8 Billion
The Space Force wants $71 billion for FY2027, more than double its current budget — but the number splits into a likely $59.2 billion in appropriations and a shaky $12.1 billion riding on an unprecede...
20 Aug 16min
August 19, 2026 — LandSpace Stuck the Landing — Now Comes the Hard Part
LandSpace lands the Zhuque-3 booster on its second flight, becoming the third organization on Earth to stick a leg landing — the show asks whether recovery is turning into reuse. Plus: Rocket Lab's Sp...
19 Aug 15min
