September 1, 2026 — Inside the FAA's Power to Ground a Rocket Company
Today's episode is an Orbit 101 on the Federal Aviation Administration's role as the safety gatekeeper for commercial launch and reentry — what its licensing power actually covers, why a suspended lic...
1 Sep 11min
August 31, 2026 — Europe Bets Big on Beating Starlink — Can It Ship in Time?
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched successfully Sunday and drew an unusual phone-in from President Trump, SLS hardware is now moving through production on four vehicles at once, Rocket ...
31 Aug 11min
August 30, 2026 — Roman Telescope Launches: Did Congress Just Prove It Runs NASA's Science
Roman Space Telescope enters its launch countdown after surviving a White House push to cancel it, ESA reveals the actual euro figures behind its European Launcher Challenge contracts, and NASA's Isaa...
30 Aug 10min
August 29, 2026 — The Week Space Ambition Met the Launch Bottleneck
The weekly recap: NASA's Roman telescope clears its last review for a Sunday launch, LandSpace's Zhuque-3 lands a booster that then topples, the White House sets a bold new national launch-cadence tar...
29 Aug 12min
August 28, 2026 — $72 Million: The Price of Skipping the Bid on SpaceX
The Space Force hands SpaceX a fleet-wide, sole-source Starshield contract for military aircraft — with the award value redacted. Plus: ESA's European Launcher Challenge money breaks down company by c...
28 Aug 12min
August 27, 2026 — Europe's Launch Independence Bet: ESA Signs the First Checks
ESA signs its first European Launcher Challenge contracts today, putting real money behind Europe's bid to build launch independence from SpaceX and Ariane — Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, a...
27 Aug 10min
August 26, 2026 — Starbase Louisiana: A $100 Billion Bet on an Unproven Rocket
SpaceX and Louisiana officials unveiled a planned $100 billion, ten-pad 'Starbase Louisiana' spaceport in Vermilion Parish — a huge bet on a Starship that still hasn't flown an operational mission. Pl...
26 Aug 14min
August 25, 2026 — Can Anyone Actually Cool a Computer in Orbit?
Nvidia spent this week backing two rival paths to orbital AI compute — SpaceX's in-house Starmind satellite and independent startup Starcloud's fresh funding round — while nobody has yet solved how to...
25 Aug 14min
