RFA plans first launch this summer
Original Publication Date: 2026-03-08 01:31
German launch startup Rocket Factory Augsburg is targeting a summer launch after shipping its first and second stages of the RFA ONE rocket to Scotland’s SaxaVord Spaceport. The first stage arrived directly from Augsburg, while the second stage was delivered from a test site in Sweden, where the company performed a hot‑fire engine test. Although the nine Helix engines are still in final testing in Sweden, they will be shipped to SaxaVord once cleared, with integration and further testing slated before launch. Following a fire incident last August that destroyed a previous first stage, RFA says it has reviewed and improved its systems, and the arrival of the new stages underscores its commitment to reliability.
Air Force lab awards BlackSky contract worth up to $99 million for large optical satellite payload
Original Publication Date: 2026-03-07 11:41
The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded BlackSky a contract worth up to $99 million to develop a large‑aperture optical imaging payload for future space‑based intelligence systems.
SpaceX scrubs Saturday Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg SFB, targeting Sunday
Original Publication Date: 2026-03-06 17:13
SpaceX scrapped a Saturday launch from Vandenberg and rescheduled the Falcon 9 carrying 25 new Starlink satellites to Sunday morning. The mission, Starlink 17‑18, will add to the company’s 9,900‑plus satellite constellation and is slated to lift off at 3:59:40 a.m. PDT. The booster, B1097, will fly a southerly trajectory and aim to land on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific after about eight minutes in orbit. If successful, the ship will record its 182nd landing and SpaceX will reach a total of 582 booster landings.
Baikonur Launch Pad restored, clearing path for Progress MS-33 ISS Mission
Original Publication Date: 2026-03-07 19:49
Russia’s Baikonur launch pad at Site 31/6, damaged when a Soyuz‑2.1a’s service cabin fell into the flame trench, has been fully repaired in under two months. The overhaul, carried out by more than 150 technicians, restored the 19‑meter, 17‑tonne structure and updated all electrical, fastening and welding systems. With the pad back in operation, Roscosmos is set to launch the Progress MS‑33 cargo vehicle to the ISS on March 22, 2026, delivering 2.5 tons of supplies, including propellant and crew parcels. This mission marks a return to normalcy for Russian logistics to the space station.
Where are all the aliens? Maybe space weather is scrambling their transmissions
Original Publication Date: 2026-03-08 10:00
SETI’s quest to hear alien radio messages may be thwarted by the very stars that host those civilizations, a new study says. Researchers at the SETI Institute found that stellar winds and coronal mass ejections flood a star’s environment with plasma that can broaden and weaken narrowband signals, slipping them below our detection thresholds. By calibrating the effect with data from Earth’s own solar wind, they quantified how space weather could smear out the sharp, few‑hertz signals that astronomers look for. This insight may explain the long‑standing radio silence and could guide future searches to account for stellar interference.