Commercial
Commercial spaceflight news from Cosmic Herald — SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, private space stations, and the new space economy.
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Commercial
The First Air-Breathing Satellite Gets a Bus: Kreios Space Taps NanoAvionics to Fly an Engine That Eats the Atmosphere
Spanish startup Kreios Space will fly the first orbital demo of air-breathing electric propulsion on a Kongsberg NanoAvionics MP42 bus in 2028 — a ~200 kg satellite that scoops atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen for propellant, aiming to make 150-300 km orbits sustainable without carrying fuel.
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Commercial
Blue Origin Pins New Glenn Pad Explosion on a BE-4 Oxygen Valve
Blue Origin says a single malfunctioning main oxygen valve on a BE-4 engine destroyed New Glenn and 48 Amazon Leo satellites in May, with fixed hardware due late August and flights targeted before year's end.
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Commercial
Caltech and a JPL Spinoff Just Patented the Cooling Trick Space Data Centers Need
Sophia Space and Caltech won a U.S. patent for TILE, a modular passively-cooled computing panel meant to let data centers run in orbit, with an on-orbit demo planned for 2027.
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Commercial
FAA Wants to Waive 13 Environmental Laws to Speed Up Rocket Launch Licenses
The FAA's new proposed rule would let it bypass NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, and 11 other statutes when licensing commercial rocket launches — the biggest shake-up of launch environmental oversight since 2021.
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Commercial
Starship Flight 13 Deploys First Operational Starlinks, but Booster Splashdown Gets Rough
SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 delivered 20 production Starlink satellites and an in-space Raptor relight, but Super Heavy limped to a hard splashdown on just five of 13 engines.
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Commercial
Intel Unveils 'Starfire,' Its First Space-Grade System-on-Chip for Government Satellites
Intel Government Technologies is entering the orbital computing market with Starfire, an 18A-process SoC aimed at giving satellites the onboard horsepower for AI-driven image analysis and anomaly detection.
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Commercial
Starship Flight 13 Nails Its First Intact Splashdown — and Drops 20 Real Starlink Satellites
On Flight 13, SpaceX put an intact Starship in the water for the first time and deployed 20 working Starlink V3 satellites — its first real payloads — even as the Super Heavy booster came down hard after an incomplete landing burn.
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Commercial
NASA Reopens Stennis' B-2 Stand to Hot-Fire New Glenn's Hydrogen Upper Stage
NASA and Blue Origin have agreed to prep the historic B-2 test stand at Stennis to hot-fire New Glenn's two-engine, LOX/LH2 second stage this fall — a move that ties the rocket's readiness directly to Artemis.
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Commercial
The Last of the Shuttle Engines: Four RS-25s Arrive at Michoud for Artemis III
L3Harris delivered four RS-25 engines with 36 shuttle flights between them to NASA's Michoud facility on July 22, 2026 — the final flight of Space Shuttle Main Engine heritage hardware before Artemis V switches to newly built, 3D-printed engines.
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Commercial
Lightning Hit a Long March 3B 30 Seconds Off the Pad — and the Rocket Kept Flying
Amateur video caught a lightning bolt hitting a Long March 3B/E about 30 seconds after it left Xichang on July 23. The Tianlian II-06 relay satellite reached orbit anyway — and the footage raises an uncomfortable question about how differently launch ranges treat weather risk.
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Commercial
America's First In-Orbit Mechanic Is on Its Way to GEO
A Falcon 9 launched Northrop Grumman's Mission Robotic Vehicle on 21 July 2026, carrying DARPA/NRL's RSGS robotic arms to geosynchronous orbit to inspect, repair, relocate and life-extend aging satellites.
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Commercial
America's First Robotic Satellite Mechanic Reaches the Pad
A Falcon 9 is set to launch Northrop Grumman's MRV-1 and three Mission Extension Pods on July 21, carrying DARPA's RSGS payload — the first U.S. multi-mission robot built to inspect, repair, upgrade, relocate and refuel satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
