Blue Origin announces BE4 engine upgrades and plans for a super-heavy New Glenn variant, New Glenn 9x4 - 9 engines on stage 1 and four on stage 2.

Today Russia's space chief Dmitry Bakanov and acting NASA chief Sean Duffy, in the first face-to-face meeting of US-Russia space agency heads since 2018, discussed "cooperation on lunar programs" and "joint exploration of deep space" as well as ISS cooperation, Roscosmos says.

How SpaceX's rocket diplomacy backfired in the Bahamas www.reuters.com/science/how-...

"Doctors are famished to the point that they have dizzy spells as they make their rounds, medics say, and the journalists documenting their caseloads are often too weak to even walk to the clinics." www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

In 2022, Elon Musk ordered staff to shut off Starlink service in parts of Ukraine where troops were pushing into during a critical counteroffensive against Russia. Our story today examines this order, and Starlink's relationship with governments around the world since www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Great reporting in WaPo on how the US is touting Starlink to foreign countries amid tariff talks. Sec of State Rubio in one cable, referring to Starlink: "U.S. government advocacy is essential to maintain and extent their global ‘first-mover’ advantage.’” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

The Russian satellite that U.S. officials believe is connected to a nuclear anti-satellite weapon program, Cosmos 2553, has appeared in the past year to be spinning and tumbling in orbit, suggesting it may not be functioning, U.S. analysts say. www.reuters.com/business/med...

Jared Isaacman will tell senators on Wednesday that the agency will prioritize an astronaut mission to Mars, while noting that most U.S space programs are over budget and behind schedule, per his prepared testimony seen by Reuters. www.reuters.com/science/trum...

Space Force is expected to announce major launch program contracts today (Phase 3 Lane 2), with SpaceX and ULA among the winners, sources tell me and @marisataylor.bsky.social. Story on @reuters.com

Firefly's Blue Ghost is closing in on the moon, ahead of its first landing attempt about one hour from now: www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Micah Maidenberg has an interesting story about Jared Isaacman in the WSJ with info I didn't know. www.wsj.com/business/nas...

This should be a huge red flag to countries other than just Ukraine. Predatory weaponization of interdependence is something the US can probably exploit in the short term but the rest of the world will, rightfully, avoid American solutions if that's our modus operandi

New: U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting off the country's access to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, per three sources. www.reuters.com/business/us-...

NASA's Jim Free, a key official who has defended the agency's moon program, is leaving NASA on Saturday, and the CFO, CIO and top procurement official at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center had their retirements announced internally yesterday. www.reuters.com/world/us/key...

Blue Origin is laying off 10% of its workforce, CEO Dave Limp tells employees in an all-hands this morning. "We just came to the painful conclusion that we aren't set up for the kind of success that we really wanted to have," Limp said.

Senate Commerce chair Ted Cruz speaking at the Commercial Space Conference in DC: "some well-intentioned but misguided effort to focus only on the moon or only on Mars, would only allow China to fill that void, driving a wedge between the US and our partners. That's a path we're not going to take."

New special report: China is swiftly forging space ties with African nations, and its investments in satellites and infrastructure are winning friends – and expanding its eyes on the skies – as America slashes help for developing countries. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Troy Meink, a top official at the NRO and Trump's Air Force nominee, arranged a lucrative contract solicitation for a spy satellite network in way that favored Elon Musk's SpaceX, sparking complaints and an IG probe, per 7 people familiar with the contract. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Voyager Technologies (fka Voyager Space) confidentially filed to IPO, with an expected valuation between $2-3 billion: www.wsj.com/finance/defe...

Trump is likely to get rid of the White House's National Space Council, a space policy body that SpaceX lobbyists have been pushing to axe, according to three people familiar with the plans. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Residents in North and South Caicos islands said it felt like an earthquake, as multiple chunks of Starship debris broke the sound barrier and fell over the territory. "The walls were shaking... it was like when you're on an airplane - my ears were rattling." www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Before Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch attempt last night, I spoke with Jeff Bezos about the incoming Trump admin’s space agenda and vision for Mars. “What we shouldn't do is start and stop things - we should continue with the lunar program for sure” he said. www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Tom Vice is out as CEO of Sierra Space, as the $5 billion company works to debut its long-delayed Dream Chaser spaceplane later this year: www.cnbc.com/2025/01/06/s...

A power outage at SpaceX's Hawthorne, CA building during the Polaris Dawn mission in September knocked out ground control of the spacecraft for at least an hour before Jared Isaacman and his crew conducted the first-ever private spacewalks. www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Taiwan is in talks with Amazon about collaborating for the company's Kuiper satellite internet service www.reuters.com/technology/t...

As ULA tries to get Vulcan on a routine launch pace for the Pentagon missions it was tailored for, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture has settled on a Vulcan upgrade plan for low-Earth orbit missions to more aggressively challenge LEO launchers like SpaceX's Starship. www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Jared Isaacman speaking at the Spacepower conference in Orlando, when asked about future Polaris missions: "The future of the Polaris program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment. It may wind up on hold for a moment."

For Isaacman, the path to a faster, more privatized human spaceflight program as Trump and Musk want would involve a delicate and unfamiliar political tango of trimming costly programs and wooing lawmakers to increase NASA's $25 billion budget. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...