Space · Saturday, 10 October 2026

01 Briefing what happened

NASA asks companies to build the space stations that replace the ISS, and offers to arrange their first crew flights

NASA's 360-page request sets 8 December for bids and puts a price on the rides to orbit, because SpaceX plans to retire the only US crew capsule flying today.

$100m

the least NASA promises each company that wins this round

Later rounds, to build the stations and fly crews to them, are worth billions. [1]

$325m

NASA's estimate for one four-seat crew flight to a private station in 2030

It put one cargo flight at $300 million. [1]

2 of 3

dollars spent running a finished station go on crew and cargo flights, says Blue Origin

Its station manager, Randy Lillard, said a private station cannot work if ride prices double. [2]

The lead story — what happened

NASA on Friday asked US companies to propose private space stations to replace the International Space Station, the lab that circles Earth with astronauts on board. [1]
The request runs to 360 pages. Ars Technica reports the new stations could take over as early as 2030. [1]
Proposals are due on 8 December. NASA plans to pick two or more companies and decide in April. [1]
Each winner of this round is guaranteed at least $100 million. Later rounds pay to build and certify the stations, then buy at least four NASA crew visits. [1]
The hardest question was how astronauts get there. SpaceX, the only US company flying crews today, plans to retire its Crew Dragon capsule and has not offered seats to private stations. [1]
So NASA will arrange the rides for its first four missions to the new stations. Bidders do not need a signed deal with a capsule maker. [1]
NASA also put prices on those rides: about $325 million for a four-seat crew flight in 2030, and $300 million for a cargo flight. [1]
Blue Origin's station manager told a conference in Turkey on Tuesday that crew and cargo flights are two-thirds of a station's cost once it is built. [2]
Two weeks ago NASA gave Boeing another $359 million to get Starliner, its crew capsule, approved for astronauts. [1] NASA hopes Starliner enters service in 2028. [2]
Axiom Space, Voyager's Starlab and Vast all said on Friday they will bid. [1] SpaceX looks unlikely to bid, and Ars Technica says Blue Origin's commitment is in doubt. [1]

Least each winning company gets now$100m

One cargo flight in 2030$300m

One four-seat crew flight in 2030$325m

NASA's own figures from the request. One crew flight is priced at more than three times what each winning company is promised in this round.

Who is involved

NASA

the US space agency; its head, Jared Isaacman, says NASA will never leave low orbit, and it wrote the request
Axiom Space, Voyager and Vast

three US companies designing private stations; Voyager's is called Starlab, and Vast is in final assembly of its first station, Haven-1
Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos's rocket company; its station plan is Orbital Reef, and it says it will not pay to build a crew capsule alone
Boeing

the US plane maker that builds Starliner, a crew capsule NASA is paying to get approved
SpaceX

Elon Musk's rocket company; it flies every US crew today and plans to retire that capsule

How it unfolded

July NASA publishes a draft request and gets a flood of comments [2]
30 Sept NASA's station programme manager says the final request is close [2]
Fri 9 Oct the final 360-page request comes out [1]
8 Dec company proposals are due [1]
April NASA plans to pick its winners [1]
2030 or 2032 the International Space Station is steered out of orbit [1]

Where this points

Watch 8 December, when bids are due, and whether any company besides SpaceX and Boeing offers to fly crews to a private station. [1][2]

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Armed forces moving into orbit Building↑

SpaceX launched 21 relay satellites for a US military network that warns of missiles. [4] Kapta Space, a Seattle start-up, raised $24 million for radar to follow missiles from orbit. [7] All 27 European Union countries approved a shared plan for answering threats to their satellites. [5]

SpaceX's reach growing High↑

Phone company shares fell on Friday after SpaceX agreed to buy airwaves for a phone service. [8] SpaceX is the only US company flying astronauts today, and it plans to retire that capsule. [1] Insuring SpaceX's debt against default now costs more. [12]

Governments as the main buyer Building↑

NASA promises each winning station company at least $100 million. [1] Kapta's new money pays for radar units for classified missions it won this year. [7] NASA says the first part of its Moon Base launches in December. [15]

Test dates slipping Steady→

The European Commission gave Themis, Europe's reusable rocket test, until the end of 2026 to make its first hop. [12] SpaceX's next Starship flight moved to 8 November at the earliest. [14] NASA held back its station request for months to work through comments on its July draft. [2]

The rest of the day

13 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
Phone company shares fall after SpaceX airwaves deal

Shares in big phone companies fell on Friday after SpaceX agreed to buy more airwaves for Starlink Mobile, its plan to sell phone service. [8][11] These 800 MHz airwaves reach inside buildings, which SpaceX calls one of its last gaps. [11] Verizon closed 8.75% down, its worst day since 2002. T-Mobile fell 13.27% and AT&T 9.81%. [8] In London, Vodafone lost 4.9% and Airtel Africa 6.3%, and Deutsche Telekom fell 8% in Germany. [9][10]

T-Mobile13.27%
AT&T9.81%
Verizon8.75%
Deutsche Telekom8%
Airtel Africa6.3%
Vodafone4.9%
How far each company's shares fell on Friday 9 October. The three US phone companies, SpaceX's direct rivals, fell furthest.

Why it matters — SpaceX says it can now be the first operator to use both satellite and ground airwaves, and Musk called the deal the last piece it needed for full US coverage. [11][9] JPMorgan analysts still see little near-term risk, because a ground network takes years and a lot of money to build. [8]
03
US military network gets 21 more satellites

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 21 data-relay satellites for the US Space Development Agency from California at 07:39 GMT on Saturday. [3][4] The agency is building a military network in low orbit that carries messages for US forces and warns of missiles. [4] Its first full batch, called Tranche 1, needs 126 relay satellites, and 84 are now up. [4] A first try on 5 October stopped 58 seconds before launch over odd readings from the rocket's second stage. [3]

84 of 126
relay satellites launched for Tranche 1
Each dot is one relay satellite the first batch needs. The filled ones are in orbit after Saturday's launch.

Why it matters — This was the fourth of nine launches for the first batch, and the plan is a new batch every two years. [4] Every relay satellite so far has flown on a SpaceX rocket. [4]
04
Europe pays for guard satellites, not weapons

All 27 European Union countries approved a shared plan this week for answering threats to their satellites. [5] Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency, told reporters in Turkey that Europe does not put weapons in space. [5] But an EU defence fund and France are paying for satellites that can fly up to a rival's craft and act against it without smashing it. [5] Germany's strategy calls for such 'bodyguard' satellites too. [5] The treaty banning nuclear weapons in orbit dates from 1967, when 128 satellites flew. About 16,810 working ones fly now. [6]

128Satellites in 1967
16,810Working satellites now
The main treaty on weapons in space was written for a sky with 128 satellites. It now covers more than a hundred times as many.

Why it matters — It follows Troy Meink, the US Air Force secretary, saying in recent weeks that the US has weapons in orbit. [5][6] Aschbacher warned that wrecking satellites would spread debris that could make space unusable for everyone. [5]
05
Start-up raises $24m for radar that follows missiles

Kapta Space, a Seattle start-up, raised $24 million on Friday to build radar for satellites that can follow moving targets. [7] Radar sees by bouncing radio waves off a target, and Kapta's is meant to track missiles mid-flight, where ground radars can lose them. [7] The money pays for radar units for classified missions it won this year. [7] Its chief, Milton Perque, says the radar will first fly within 24 to 36 months. [7]

Why it matters — Perque says radar in space has been too expensive to fly in the hundreds a missile watch needs, and claims Kapta's design is cheaper. [7] Payload notes it looks made for Golden Dome, the Trump administration's planned missile shield, though Kapta says its work began earlier. [7]
06
NASA says its Moon Base starts in December

NASA's head, Jared Isaacman, said on Thursday that the first part of NASA's Moon Base will launch in December. [15] Robot missions with no crew would then fly almost every month from early 2027. [15] US space policy had set 2030 for the first Moon Base parts, so this would beat that goal. [15] NASA is also building a website so the public can watch the base go up. [15]

Why it matters — Isaacman said rovers and equipment will be waiting when astronauts arrive. [15] He spoke at a White House science summit, where a NASA deal on space nuclear power was signed with no new money or cost estimate attached. [15]
07
Lenders get warier of SpaceX as Musk talks bigger

The price of insuring SpaceX's debt against default rose on Wednesday, Ars Technica reports, citing the Financial Times. [12] Protecting $1 million of its debt now costs $19,400 a year. [12] It follows SpaceX's plan to borrow $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips for AI. [12] On Thursday Elon Musk posted that SpaceX could one day be worth far more than the whole world economy. [13] SpaceX was worth $2.2 trillion at Thursday's close and lost $541 million in the second quarter. [13]

Why it matters — One analyst called Musk's post "classic Musk hype and theatre". [13] Musk wrote on Friday that seeing a path did not mean he was confident of reaching it. [13]
08
Starship's next flight moves to November

SpaceX's next Starship test, Flight 15, is now set for no earlier than 8 November, NASASpaceflight reports. [14] Starship is SpaceX's giant rocket, which SpaceX plans to catch and fly again. [14] Ship 42, the upper stage for that flight, went back for a third round of tank testing with its six engines removed. [14] Ship 40, which flew on Flight 13, came home to Texas on 7 October after 75 days at sea. [14] Flight 16, no earlier than 10 December, would be the first from Florida. [14]

Why it matters — NASASpaceflight guesses the extra tests fix engine failures seen on Flights 12 and 14, but SpaceX has not said. [14] Starship's licence is written for Flight 14's plan, so a new plan, such as catching the ship, would need the regulator's approval. [14]
09
Blue Origin builds three more launch pads

Jeff Bezos told Fox News this week that Blue Origin, his rocket company, is building three more launch pads. [12] That would give it four, counting the Florida pad it is rebuilding for its big New Glenn rocket. [12] The company has asked the FAA, the US aviation regulator, to let it fly 50 times a year from Florida. [12] Bezos said the goal is to fly every day, then every hour. [12]

Why it matters — Bezos tied the new pads to that request to fly 50 times a year. [12] Ars Technica notes Blue Origin has yet to launch even once a month. [12]
10
Florida launch base gets drone-zapping lasers

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida is getting lasers that can knock down drones flying into its airspace, Ars Technica reports, citing The War Zone. [12] SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Relativity Space all launch from the base. [12] Hundreds of drones flew into the area last year. [12] The usual defence, jamming a drone's radio link, could also damage the rockets and spacecraft there. [12]

Why it matters — The lasers are meant to keep launches safe and to keep prying cameras away from a base full of military and company secrets. [12]
11
Europe's reusable rocket test slips again

The European Commission has given SALTO, a 42.8 million euro project to test Europe's reusable rocket demonstrator, until the end of 2026. [12] The rocket, Themis, must make short hops: lift off, land and fly again. [12] The first deadline was November 2025, and it has been pushed back several times. [12] Separately, German start-up Rocket Factory Augsburg named Alexander Dahm, who worked on the Ariane 5 rocket, as its new chief. [12] Its first stage was destroyed in a 2024 ground test, and it has not yet reached orbit. [12]

Why it matters — Themis is Europe's test of a rocket that lands so it can fly again. [12] On Saturday a SpaceX booster made the 668th landing of a Falcon rocket. [3]
12
A student finds three quiet galaxies

Julian Shapiro found three small galaxies near the big spiral galaxy M101 while he was still in high school, Universe Today reports. [16] They are now named Shapiro I, II and III, and his paper is in The Astrophysical Journal. [16] He used public telescope archives, open to anyone. [16] Small galaxies far from big ones should still be making stars, but these three are not. [16]

Why it matters — Shapiro argues they once passed close to a big galaxy, lost their gas, and were flung back out. [16] Such backsplash galaxies are predicted by the leading model of the universe but have been hard to find nearby. [16]
13
NASA's Venus probe passes furnace tests

A test copy of the probe NASA's DAVINCI mission will drop into Venus's atmosphere passed a series of furnace tests in August and September, The Planetary Society reports. [17] The tests, at a heat-treating firm in Bedford, Pennsylvania, copied the fast, extreme heating of the fall through Venus's air. [17] DAVINCI is NASA's planned mission to Venus. [17]

Why it matters — The test copy is an engineering model, built to check the design before the flight probe is made. [17]
14
Musk names Ambani in India Starlink row

Elon Musk turned his complaint about Starlink's stalled launch in India on one man by name this week: Mukesh Ambani. [18][19] Ambani's Reliance group owns Jio, India's largest phone and internet company. [18] On Thursday Musk asked on X whether Ambani was the real boss of India, and he later called him Prime Minister Ambani. [18][19] On Saturday he shared old news reports about political donations to India's ruling party by a Reliance-linked firm. [20]

Why it matters — India's communications minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said on Friday that India allows no monopolies and that three satellite operators hold licences. [20] Reliance has not responded, and CNBC cites local reports that Jio plans its own network of about 1,600 low-orbit satellites. [20][18]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a guard satellite looks like a weapon from the other side

A rival cannot see what a guard satellite is for, only what it can do, so it builds its own, and both sides end up with more.

The twist

Each country builds guard satellites to feel safer. Its rival sees a machine that could attack, builds its own, and both end up with more weapons in orbit and no more safety.

How it works

A country builds a satellite to guard its own
To guard, it must be able to fly close to other craft
Anything that close could also jam, blind or push them
The rival sees what it can do, not what it is for
So the rival builds its own guards, and the first country adds more

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Europe's bodyguard satellites

After the US said it has weapons in orbit, EU countries agreed a shared plan for threats in orbit. An EU fund and France already pay for craft that can act against a rival's satellite, and they call it defence.
The US military relay network

Its 21 new satellites warn of missiles and pass messages to US forces. A country that might face those forces counts these satellites as part of an attack aimed at it.
Kapta's missile-tracking radar

A satellite that follows a rival's missiles in flight is built as a shield, and it gives that rival a reason to build ways to blind it.

Where you've seen this

Family cars

one family buys a bigger car to be safer in a crash, so the small car next to it is less safe, and that family buys bigger too

Warships before 1914

Britain and Germany each built more battleships to match the other, and neither felt safer

Cold War missiles

the US and the Soviet Union each added missiles because the other had added missiles

The catch

The spiral slows when each side can check what the other has built, and in space countries cannot yet agree even on what counts as a weapon.

And the whole of it

Weather forecasts, phone maps and card payments all lean on satellites flying among these guard craft. Each government sees its own satellites clearly, and the other side's plans hardly at all.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

NASA wants private companies to build the next US space station. [1] But SpaceX, which flies the only working US crew capsule, plans to retire it and has not offered seats to private stations. [1] So NASA promises each winner at least $100 million and will arrange the first four crew flights itself, which leaves the private stations leaning on NASA for money and for passengers. [1]

Why it works on us — Calling the stations commercial makes NASA's part sound smaller than the request shows it is. [1]

Who gains

Boeing — NASA's offer to arrange rides makes Starliner the likely capsule for the first station visits, after an extra $359 million two weeks ago. [1]
Axiom Space, Voyager and Vast — They can bid without a signed deal with a capsule maker, and each winner is promised at least $100 million. [1]
SpaceX — Its shares rose about 1% on Friday while its phone company rivals fell. [8] Every relay satellite launched so far for the US military's first batch flew on its rockets. [4]
Kapta Space and its investors — Its $24 million pays to build radar units for classified missions it won this year. [7]
European companies building guard satellites — An EU defence fund and France are paying for craft like theirs, and the 27 EU countries just agreed a shared plan for threats in orbit. [5]

Who pays

Shareholders in US phone companies — Verizon had its worst day since 2002, and T-Mobile fell 13.27%. [8]
Shareholders in phone companies in Europe and Africa — Vodafone fell 4.9% and Airtel Africa 6.3% in London on the same news. [9]
NASA's budget — It has offered to arrange four crew flights it prices at about $325 million each in 2030. [1]
Everyone who uses satellites — ESA's chief warns that wrecking satellites spreads debris, and about 46,950 pieces are already tracked in orbit. [5][6]
Holders of SpaceX's debt — Insuring $1 million of it against default now costs $19,400 a year. [12]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

Whether NASA ends up paying for one station or two.

Ars Technica reports NASA will pick two or more companies and decide in April. [1] Before the request came out, Aviation Week reported a plan to narrow to one company within 14 to 15 months, and Vast's chief asked NASA to fund two. [2]
02

Who flies astronauts to a private station after Crew Dragon.

SpaceX has not said what part, if any, its Starship could play, and Boeing's Starliner is not expected in service before 2028. [2] NASA's offer covers only its own first four missions. [1]
03

Whether a crew flight will really cost NASA's estimate of $325 million.

It is NASA's own estimate for 2030, and no company has quoted a price for flying crews to a private station. [1]
04

What Europe's guard satellites can actually do to a rival's craft.

Lodestar, a British company building them, says it will not discuss specific effects in public. [5] The US Air Force secretary gave no details of the US weapons he said are in orbit. [6]
05

Whether SpaceX can turn its new airwaves into a real phone network.

The deal still needs the FCC's approval, and JPMorgan analysts say a ground network takes years and a lot of money to build. [11][8]
06

What stopped the first try at the US military launch on 5 October.

SpaceX cited only odd readings from the second stage. [3] Its webcast ended after the booster landed, at the military's request, so the satellites' release was not shown. [4]
07

Why SpaceX pulled Ship 42 back for more tank tests.

NASASpaceflight guesses at changes to fix engine failures on two earlier flights, and SpaceX has not explained. [14]
08

How NASA pays for a Moon Base that starts in December.

The nuclear power deal signed at the same summit named no new money and no cost estimate. [15]

04 Hope carry this

Julian Shapiro found three small galaxies near the spiral galaxy M101 while he was still in high school, using public telescope archives. They now carry his name, Shapiro I, II and III, in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Also true today

A test copy of the probe NASA plans to drop into Venus's atmosphere came through a series of furnace tests in Pennsylvania in August and September.
The SpaceX booster that launched 21 satellites from California on Saturday landed back at its base on its sixth flight. It was the 668th landing of a Falcon rocket.