Military space news from Cosmic Herald — Space Force, satellite warfare, GPS, missile warning, and the growing role of space in national defense.
A new GAO report finds the Space Force filled only 75% of its identified FY2025 positions and has no standardized way to calculate how many Guardians it actually requires — a gap opening just as the service plans to roughly double in size.
Read the story →The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center took over the delay-plagued MGUE program on July 23, 2026, absorbing the jam-resistant M-code receiver effort that the Space Force developed but struggled to field on schedule.
NNSA has handed the Space Force its fifth next-generation Global Burst Detector, the multi-lab sensor payload that turns GPS satellites into a 24/7 nuclear detonation watch — announced the same day the Space Force offloaded its troubled M-code receiver program to the Air Force.
Commercial trackers say China's Shijian-31 has rotated the Soviet-era Molniya orbit onto the equator and detuned its period to 12.5 hours, letting one satellite sweep the entire geostationary belt from 2,000 km above it every 23 days.
A July 16 Falcon 9 lofted 21 York-built data-transport satellites for the Space Development Agency, resuming Tranche 1 flights after a roughly nine-month pause — and York confirmed contact with all 21 within hours, pushing the on-orbit count to 63.
The Space Force tripled its NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 ceiling to $17 billion across seven launch providers on July 17, 2026 — but a GAO report showing commercial launches at federal ranges have more than quadrupled since 2021 suggests the real bottleneck isn't rockets, it's the ground beneath them.
Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess faced few questions and even fewer skeptics at his July 16 Senate hearing to lead the Space Force, telling lawmakers that China's rapid military-space buildup justifies a roughly $71 billion budget and a service set to more than double in size.
MIT physicist Areg Danagoulian's new Nature paper describes a 9U CubeSat that hunts spallation neutrons from fissile material, offering the first peer-reviewed method to detect thermonuclear warheads secretly parked in Earth orbit.
In his farewell address as Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Chance Saltzman warned that orbital mechanics gives no nation an opt-out from a war in space — and that the only real deterrent is a force visibly able to win one.
SDA launched 21 more York-built data-relay satellites after a nine-month pause to fix on-orbit software and hardware issues, bringing half of its 126-satellite Tranche 1 Transport Layer into orbit even as GAO warns the program may not deliver capability on schedule.
L3Harris and Sierra Space will build 36 new missile-tracking satellites for $1.75 billion, pushing the Space Development Agency's Tranche 3 constellation to 104 spacecraft in support of the Golden Dome missile-defense architecture.
Air and space leaders from the US, UK, and more than 50 other nations meet in London July 15-16 to discuss space operations, nuclear deterrence, and missile defense days after a tense NATO summit.
Free daily briefing — missions, discoveries, and what's overhead tonight.
You're in. ✓
Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.No spam. Unsubscribe any time. Read our privacy policy.
