Author: Robert Zimmerman

The Space Force is asking for industry input on its expanding launch facilities at Vandenberg

8:20 am

Vandenberg Space Force Base
The commercially leased launchpads at Vandenberg

In order to meet the expected surge in launches in the coming years, the Space Force is now requesting industry feedback on its proposal to create what it is tentatively calling a “Mission Development Zone” at Vandenberg where it would create joint facilities for commercial operators.

Vandenberg, which hosts one of the service’s two coastal spaceports, expects its cadence could approach 200 launches per year by the end of the decade—a sharp increase from the 66 space launch missions it supported in 2025.

To meet that higher rate, the range not only needs to designate space for more launch pads and ensure its roads can handle heavier traffic, but it must also make room for the administrative offices, processing facilities, and assembly and test infrastructure that launch suppliers rely on. The Mission Development Zone is Vandenberg’s answer to that challenge.

While officials at Space Launch Delta 30, which oversees the range there, have a vision for what that area could look like, they’re asking industry for input on how to finance, design, construct, and maintain that infrastructure. They also want to hear what types of facilities and layout companies are most interested in.

I suspect the industry will ask the base to provide increased access to roads, fuel, and utility services, but will mostly want to lease their own launch complexes — as the map indicates the base has been doing so far — and run everything from within those complexes, rather than share some joint facility.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

0 comments

Redwire gets contract to build solar arrays for Axiom’s second space station module

8:02 am

Axiom's module assembly sequence
Axiom’s module assembly sequence

Axiom yesterday awarded Redwire a second contract to build the solar arrays for its second space station module, having previously in 2025 awarded the company the contract to build the arrays for the first module.

The press release provided no information as to contract price or schedule, but did say this about the status of Axiom’s first two modules:

Axiom Station’s first module is currently undergoing final assembly at Thales Alenia Space, in Turin, Italy, after which the module will be transferred to Houston for integration and testing and ultimately transferred to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch. Axiom Space is planning to launch the first module in 2028. The second module is preparing to undergo final assembly at Thales Alenia Space and is planned to launch less than a year after the first, where it can loiter on orbit until ready to dock with the first module. Together, these two modules will form a four crew-capable, operational free-flying space station.

The plan is to initially attach these modules to ISS, transfer much of ISS’s equipment into Axiom’s modules for NASA, and then detach to fly as an independent station before ISS is retired and de-orbited in 2030. Though this schedule remains unchanged since the last update, the schedule remains very tight to get everything done before ISS goes away.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

My updated rankings of the five American space stations presently under development:
» Read more

0 comments

October 5, 2026 Quick space links

2:48 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

7 comments

South Korean rocket startup Innospace publishes results for SEBIT launch failure

10:54 am

Less than five seconds after launch
Hanbit-Nano less than five seconds after launch and
just prior to its failure in December 2025.

The South Korean rocket startup Innospace last week published the results of its investigation into the August 2026 launch failure of its SEBIT suborbial rocket, pinpointing the failure to the software used to control the rocket’s fins.

Based on telemetry collected during the flight, INNOSPACE conducted its own technical analysis of the early flight termination and identified areas requiring improvement in the control algorithm governing the four fins mounted at the lower section of the vehicle. The fins are used to control the rocket’s attitude and direction during flight. The analysis identified discrepancies between predicted design behavior and actual flight performance during the low-speed phase of flight. INNOSPACE is now using the in-flight data to refine the fin control algorithm as well as related design and test procedures for application to the next verification flight.

Innospace’s orbital rocket, HANBIT-NANO, also failed in December 2025, right after liftoff. It is presently unknown when the company will make another launch attempt, of either rocket.

1 comment

Space station startup Voyager raises $400 million by allowing public investors to convert stock

9:27 am

Starlab design as of December 2025
Starlab design as of December 2025

In a conversion sale offer to holders of its public stock, allowing investors to convert their public stock to private notes valued approximately 30% more than the original sale price, the space station startup Voyager has now raised about $391.6 million in capital.

The net proceeds from the offering were approximately $391.6 million, after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and commissions and Voyager’s estimated offering expenses. Voyager intends to use (i) approximately $52.5 million of the net proceeds to fund the cost of entering into the capped call transactions described below; and (ii) the remainder of the net proceeds for general corporate purposes.

The notes will mature in 2030, when Voyager will apparently have to buy them back, though it could do so sooner.

This stock conversion comes on top of the $383 million the company obtained during its public stock offering, as well as its $217.5 million station developmental contract from NASA. The consortium building Starlab has also obtained an undisclosed amount of private capital from two major investment firms, 1789 Capital and Seven Grand Managers. Based on this, Voyager was also able to get a credit line of $250 million from J.P. Morgan.

These deals suggest Voyager has the cash to build Starlab, plus diversify its operations into other space-related fields where there is money to be made now.

My updated ranking of the five American space stations presently under development:
» Read more

6 comments

Red tape at Saxavord forces HyImpulse to delay suborbital test launch until next year

8:52 am

SR75 lifting off in 2024
SR75 lifting off in 2024

Though the German rocket startup HyImpulse announced late last week [pdf] that it had secured its launch license from the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for a suborbital test launch of its SR75 rocket, it appears that the remaining regulatory approvals not yet authorized has forced the company to delay launch until next year.

Although HyImpulse has now secured its launch operator licence, which authorises it to conduct one SR75 flight per 12-month period, the approval does not by itself clear the company to launch. HyImpulse must first satisfy a number of conditions, including requirements relating to insurance, final range and hazard-area arrangements, and data-sharing with the UK’s National Space Operations Centre, with some required information due as early as 60 days before the intended launch window.

HyImpulse does appear to have already been working toward fulfilling some of those requirements even before the licence was approved. In September, maritime and aviation notices were issued for the first SR75 launch from SaxaVord, with a window opening on 5 October and running through 18 October. However, the company’s preparations do appear to have fallen short of what was required, pushing the planned launch back to no earlier than March 2027.

This would have been the second suborbital test of SR75, the first occurring in 2024 from Australia’s Koonibba range run by the commercial company Southern Launch. Though HyImpulse had hoped to launch again from that facility, it has not because Koonibba is not on the coast, is used mostly as a landing site for returning capsules, and the red tape in Australia is almost as bad as in the United Kingdom.

The result of these delays is that the launch schedule for HyImpulse’s rockets has been badly impaired. It had hoped to complete two suborbital tests of SR75 by 2024, followed by an orbital test of its SL1 rocket in 2025. None of that has occurred.

This is the same situation experienced earlier this year by Rocket Factory Augsburg, the other German rocket startup that wishes to do a test launch from Saxavord. It had a launch license for a launch in August 2026, but when it technical issues forced a scrub, the paperwork required to get a new launch window was such the launch was delayed indefinitely. At the time I predicted the delays would extend into next year.

Unless the UK eliminates some of this red tape, in the long run do not expect many rockets to launch from Saxavord. The paperwork makes frequent launches literally impossible.

2 comments

Portugal rocket startup Ominidea acquires most of bankrupt Orbex’s assets

12:30 pm

Santa Maria spaceport
Portugal’s proposed spaceport on Santa Maria Island

The Portugal rocket startup Ominidea has now acquired a large majority of the assets left over when the British rocket startup Orbex went bankrupt earlier this year.

Omnidea submitted its offer in March 2026 as part of a competitive process managed by Orbex’s administrators. Omnidea said the transaction subsequently received the necessary foreign direct investment and export-control approvals from authorities in the United Kingdom and Denmark before closing on 30 September.

The acquisition includes two of the three buildings Orbex previously operated in Forres, Scotland, along with manufacturing equipment, tools, material stocks, processes and intellectual property. Omnidea also acquired data from both Orbex’s UK and Danish operations, as well as the Orbex brand and associated assets.

The company plans to revise Orbex’s Prime rocket under a new name, PrimeNEO. It has announced no launch schedule, but says once it is closer to launch it will consider launch sites in both the United Kingdom or Portugal’s proposed spaceport on Santa Maria island in the Azores.

The UK location is close to where Orbex’s rocket manufacturing facility is located, but the UK is also home to a lot of red tape that contributed strongly to the bankruptcy of Orbex as well as Virgin Orbit. The Santa Maria site is less developed, but it is in Portugal, where this company is based. If it was up to me, I’d choose Santa Maria, shifting those UK operations to Portugal. That would not only consolidate things, saving money, it would likely help garner support from the Portuguese government.

4 comments

Sounding rocket launches from Oman’s proposed Etlaq spaceport

12:15 pm

Active and proposed Middle East spaceports
Active and proposed Middle East spaceports

A sounding rocket was successfully launched today from Oman’s proposed Etlaq spaceport near the town of Duqm on its southern coast, the second such test launch there.

The “Etlaq” spaceport in Duqm successfully conducted a trial launch of the Azad Dreamer rocket as part of the Karman X1 space mission. The 4.3-metre-long rocket, weighing 26 kg, was launched from the spaceport and followed a stable upward trajectory, with flight data accurately transmitted to the mission control centre. The rocket reached its designated target altitude within the test range.

The mission was not intended to reach space, but focused on testing the launch process, rocket performance during flight, and the technologies and systems used in the mission.

A number of European rocket startups — PLD, HyImpulse, Latitude — have signed preliminary deals to launch from Etlaq, but up to now there is no indication any have started work on a launchpad. This test launch today is Oman’s effort to demonstrate its ability to handle launch operations.

4 comments

October 2, 2026 Quick space links

2:55 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay plus the last from reader Gary. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

21 comments

“Cellular structures” inside Martian crater

1:04 pm

Irregular cellular structures in Martian crater
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on July 13, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The science team labels this “Irregular Cellular Structures around Crater in Southern Mid-Latitudes.” The image to the right highlights those structures in the northern half of this four-mile-wide unnamed crater.

What formed these strange shapes? The latitude is 37 degrees south, so this material is likely glacial debris, impregnated with near-surface ice that is mostly protected from sublimation by a coating of Martian dust. The weird shapes likely formed from two processes, either some of that dust blew away to allow the ice to sublimate into gas, or the many climate cycles of Mars caused the material to warp with each new cycle as the changing climate either laid down or removed a layer of ice.
» Read more

1 comment

Honda and Redwire partnering to develop robots for future space stations

10:19 am

Computer graphic showing Honda's robot hand attached to Redwire's robot arm
Computer graphic showing Honda’s robot hand
attached to Redwire’s robot arm

The Japanese company Honda and the American company Redwire are now developing a partnership to use their complementary robotic products to develop robots for the future commercial space stations presently being built.

Honda today announced efforts to develop a robotics solution for future commercial space stations that could reduce the time needed for astronauts to conduct experiments and laboratory operations in space. To advance its space station robotics concept, the U.S.-based Honda space development team is engaging with experts at Redwire (NYSE:RDW), a global leader in space and defense technology solutions. The concept would combine the Honda multi-fingered robotic hand with Redwire’s STAARK robotic arm and experiment locker technology into an integrated system for research operations in orbit.

Based on the Honda press release, it is not clear if an actual partnership deal has been signed. Instead it appears both companies are working together to see if this joint collaboration makes sense. For example, both companies are sending representatives to a space conference in Turkey beginning tomorrow to “discuss potential applications for the combined robotics solution with commercial station developers and prospective industry partners.” Depending on the response they get I suspect will determine whether they go forward with this partnership.

0 comments

New Canadian rocket startup plans engine test site at Ontario airport

9:16 am

CRC's proposed R-2 rocket
CRC’s proposed R-2 rocket

A new Canadian rocket startup called the Canada Rocket Company (CRC) has now leased 50 acres at London International Airport in Ontario where it plans to build a $30 million engine test facility.

CRC will lease 50 acres from the Greater London International Airport Authority for an engine test area and a 12,000-square-foot office and shop building used for engineering, assembly, and test preparation. Putting the shop next to the stands is meant to keep engine build-up, instrumentation, and test ops in one place rather than splitting that work across distant sites.

The test area is planned for up to three vertical and horizontal stands, with the ability to static-fire engines producing more than 1 MN of thrust. Vertical stands are typically used for flight-like firings. Horizontal stands are often used earlier in a campaign for access, instrumentation, and engine development work.

The company hopes to have this facility operational in 2028 in conjunction with its plans to build a reusable rocket dubbed R-2, which from the scant details provided appears a copy of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, but using methane instead of kerosene for fuel. The company’s website provides no information on a launch schedule, and notes it raised $22.5 million in the first eight months after it was incorporated. It also claims its team includes people formerly from “SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, ArianeGroup and more.”

I think this is now the second Canadian rocket startup attempting to get off the ground. Nordspace was the first. Neither however is very close to launch, though both will likely benefit from the present Canadian government’s desire to promote and fund a “sovereign” launch capability.

2 comments

Kenya funds spaceport study

8:56 am

Kenya spaceports
Kenya’s proposed spaceports

The Kenyan government yesterday officially committed the funds to conduct a feasibility study, first proposed in December 2025, on whether it will make sense to build its own spaceport on its eastern coast.

[Directorate of Public-Private Partnership Director General Kefa] Seda said the government had taken another step towards advancing the project through the signing of a funding agreement to support the feasibility study. “This morning, I hosted the Director General of the Kenya Space Agency, Major General Hillary Kipkosgey, for the signing of funding agreement to support the feasibility study for the proposed spaceport project. The funding will facilitate the Transaction Advisor’s technical, commercial and financial assessment of the project and inform the development of an appropriate Public Private Partnership (PPP) structure,” he added.

The feasibility study will examine the proposed spaceport’s viability, investment requirements and commercial prospects before the Government proceeds with the selection of a private sector partner.

The report today made no mention of location, though the previous story in 2025 had suggested the government was considering a location at Kipini, as shown on the map. An earlier story had said that Italy was thinking of reopening the San Marco launch platform, further south from Kipini just off the coast, that had been used in the late 1960s. That project would have Italy work with the Kenyan government. It is not clear if this new feasibility study will study both sites, or just one.

What does seem clear is that there is a lot of pay-offs likely going on within the Kenyan government. It appears that any deal will require money to go to the Kenya Space Agency, as per this new agreement.

2 comments

Hayabusa-2’s last working ion engine fails

8:40 am

Ryugu's northern hemisphere
Ryugu as seen by Hayabusa-2 shortly before it grabbed
samples from the surface in 2019. Arrow indicates planned touchdown
site.

Though the last ion engine on the Japanese asteroid probe Hayabusa-2 has now failed, engineers think they can improvise a method to keep the spacecraft under control as it heads to a 2031 rendezvous with the tiny 32-foot-wide asteroid 1998 KY26, which some have suggested might instead be the failed Soviet Mars probe Phobos-1.

Of Hayabusa2’s four ion engines, A, C and D had degraded substantially, so engine B, which had been preserved during its journey to and from Ryugu, has been mainly used on the extended mission. After the B engine broke down in mid-August, JAXA unsuccessfully attempted to fix it.

The ion engine consists of an ion source and a neutralizer, and both must operate simultaneously for navigation. A close examination found that the B engine’s ion source has failed while its neutralizer is functioning. Meanwhile, the neutralizers of the C and D engines have broken down, but their ion sources are functioning. Therefore, JAXA decided to switch the circuit to combine the B engine’s neutralizer with the D engine’s ion source to resume the operation of the B engine.

This was the technique engineers used when a similar failure occurred on Japan’s first asteroid probe, Hayabusa-1. The difference is that with Hayabusa-1 the problems occurred early in the mission, when the spacecraft was young and still relatively healthy. Hayabusa-2 however has been in space for more than a dozen years, has returned samples from the rubble pile asteroid Ryugu, and flew past the asteroid Torifune. For it to last another five years under these conditions remains questionable.

2 comments

PLD signs deal to build 2nd launchpad in French Guiana

8:07 am

French Guiana spaceport
The French Guiana spaceport. The Diamant launchsite is labeled “B.”
Click for full resolution image. (Note: The Ariane-5 pad is now the
Ariane-6 pad, and the Soyuz pad is now controlled by rocket startup
MaiaSpace.)

The Spanish rocket startup PLD yesterday signed a new agreement with France’s space agency CNES, which owns and operates the French Guiana spaceport in South America, to study what is required to build a second PLD launchpad there.

[B]oth parties will jointly explore the feasibility of accommodating a second launch pad at the ELM-Diamant site to support operations of MIURA 5 and MIURA 9, included in PLD Space’s contract with European Space Agency (ESA) under the European Launcher Challenge (ELC).

CNES originally planned in 2024 to upgrade the Diamant launch complex, unused since the 1970s, as a multi-use pad standardized to accommodate the rockets of seven different European rocket startups. That plan however generated little interest from those rocket companies, as their rockets are all different and standardized equipment won’t work. Only PLD committed to using the site, but it budgeted €35 million to make it specifically usable for its Miura-5 orbital rocket, which it hopes to launch from there before the end of this year.

It appears with this new deal CNES has recognized that each rocket must have its own dedicated pad. It is now partnering with PLD to help it develop launch facilities for both its Miura-5 rocket and its planned larger Miura-9.

Of the four other companies still listed by CNES as potential users of the Diamant site — Isar, Rocket Factory, Latitude, and Sirius — the first three have made plans to launch elsewhere, with Isar having long term deals to launch from Norway and Canada, Rocket Factory to launch from the United Kingdom, and Latitude from Oman. Sirius meanwhile is very new rocket startup, with its plans very much uncertain.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

0 comments

SpaceX completes 3rd launch today

9:18 pm

SpaceX tonight successfully launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Falcon Heavy rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The rocket’s two side boosters (B1104 and B1072) completed their 2nd and 4th missions, 33 days after their previous Falcon Heavy launch, placing the Roman Space Telescope in orbit. Both boosters touched down softly at SpaceX’s two landing zones at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The two fairings completed their 4th and 5th flights respectively.

This was the company’s third launch today, using three different launchpads, two in Florida and one in California.

The leader board for the 2026 launch race:

114 SpaceX
60 China
16 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
12 Russia

SpaceX now leads the entire world combined 114 to 112 in successful launches in 2026.

13 comments
1 2 3 4 … 1,797