Three separate NASA awards announced in late June 2026 show the agency leaning on commercial partners to build out space communications infrastructure, launch science payloads, and expand Earth observation datasets.
A Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket will deploy a servicer spacecraft this week to raise the orbit of the aging Swift observatory and keep it operating rather than letting it reenter Earth's atmosphere.
The House Appropriations Committee's fiscal year 2027 defense bill funds U.S. Space Force at $55.5 billion while pressing for more competitive satellite communications contracts and objecting to how the Golden Dome missile-defense initiative is being financed.
A new OIG report finds that Kennedy Space Center and Wallops Flight Facility could hit operational capacity before 2030, driven by a dramatic surge in commercial launches that has already more than tripled activity at both sites since 2020.
The $4.3 billion observatory begins roughly 70 days of final prelaunch processing ahead of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy liftoff no earlier than August 30, 2026.
