Space · Sunday, 18 October 2026

01 Briefing what happened

The US military's relay network has 84 satellites in orbit, but joining them up is slow because each builder made its controls differently

The US Space Development Agency launched its first batch of Northrop Grumman relay satellites on 10 October, taking it to 84 in orbit, but handing them to government operators is going slowly, and the agency expects the network to work as one only from 2027.

relay satellites the agency now has in orbit

from three builders: York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman [1]

4 of 21

Lockheed Martin satellites in one batch run by government operators

counted on 4 October, and moved over one or two at a time [1]

2027

when the agency expects the first usable network

Sandhoo says linking the satellites by laser will take the next six months [1]

The lead story — what happened

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried 21 data-relay satellites for the US Space Development Agency into low orbit on 10 October. [1][2]
The Space Development Agency is a US military office set up seven years ago to put up satellites faster than the decades-long programmes before it. [1]
This was the first batch built by Northrop Grumman, a large US defence company. [1][2] It takes the agency's relay satellites in orbit to 84, from three builders. [1]
The network is meant to pass data around the world all day and night. [1] Its jobs are warning of missiles, tracking them, linking troops and aiming weapons at targets over the horizon. [1]
Connecting the satellites and putting them to work is taking longer than expected, Aviation Week reports. [1]
The agency's director, Gurpartap Sandhoo, says the problem is not physics but getting the parts to work together. [1]
Each builder was allowed slightly different designs for the system that commands its satellites. [1] That is now slowing the move of control from the builders to government centres in North Dakota and Alabama. [1]
Lockheed Martin's batch also launched with fewer laser links between satellites than designed. [1] The agency has faced years of supply delays for those parts. [1]
By 4 October only four of the 21 Lockheed Martin satellites in one batch had been handed to government operators. [1] Sandhoo said they are moved one or two at a time to avoid problems. [1]
The first working satellites of this round, called Tranche 1, are launching more than a year later than first planned. [1]
Two more relay launches and four launches of missile-warning satellites built by L3Harris are still to come. [1] The agency expects the first usable network in 2027. [1]
The 10 October launch had been stopped by the rocket's own computers just before liftoff on 5 October, then delayed twice more. [1][2]

4 of 21

Lockheed Martin relay satellites handed to government operators by 4 October

One batch of 21 satellites is in orbit. Four of them, the filled dots, had been handed over to the US military's own operators by early October.

Who is involved

The Space Development Agency

a US military office building a large network of small satellites; it bought these relay satellites
Gurpartap Sandhoo

the agency's director; he says the delay comes from joining different designs together
Lockheed Martin

one of the biggest US weapons makers; its batch is being handed over slowly
Northrop Grumman

a large US defence company; its first batch launched on 10 October
The US Army

expected to be one of the network's main users, through a new ground station called TITAN

How it unfolded

Sep 2025 The first batch of York Space Systems relay satellites launches [1]
Oct 2025 Lockheed Martin's first batch launches [1]
Jul 2026 A second York batch launches [1]
5 Oct The rocket's computers stop the countdown just before liftoff [1][2]
10 Oct Northrop Grumman's first batch reaches orbit, taking the total to 84 [1][2]
2027 The agency expects the first usable network [1]

Where this points

Watch how many more of the 84 satellites pass to government operators over the six months Sandhoo has given for linking them, because that count, not the number in orbit, says when the network starts working. [1]

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.

Military satellites ordered in bulk Building↑

The US Space Development Agency now has 84 relay satellites in orbit, with more launches booked. [1] The US Space Force's ground jammers for enemy satellite links are moving into full production within four weeks. [3]

Parts arriving late High→

Lockheed Martin's relay satellites flew with fewer laser links than designed, after years of supply delays for those parts. [1] The jammer maker GRVTY brought in extra suppliers for antennas and power amplifiers to keep up. [3]

Making things from Mars itself Building↑

A research team made graphite from carbon dioxide, borate and water, which Mars has plenty of. [5] Engineers in Hong Kong are testing building blocks of sand, gelatine and yeast for houses on Mars. [6]

The rest of the day

7 more stories on this beat.

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

02
US Space Force jammers go into full production

The first full production units of the US Space Force's remote modular terminals roll off the line within four weeks, their maker said on 13 October. [3] They are ground-based jammers built to block enemy communications that pass through satellites. [3] A first order of 24, from a 2022 contract of about $22 million, arrived within two years. [3] A former head of the buying office said it meant to get at least 160. [3] Lt Gen Gregory Gagnon, who heads the Space Force's combat forces, told The Wall Street Journal they are used in combat around the world. [3]

24First order
160Planned at least
The first 24 jammers were delivered within two years. The office that bought them meant to buy at least 160.

Why it matters — A US Space Force general has now said on the record that these jammers are used in real fighting. [3] Their locations are kept secret to protect them from attack, so nobody outside the US military can say whose links they are blocking. [3]
03
A biologist flew with his own space experiment

Robert Ferl, a space biologist, published an essay in the journal npj Microgravity on 15 October about flying to space to run his own experiment. [4] He flew on New Shepard flight NS-26, a short up-and-down trip on a Blue Origin rocket, paid for by NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. [4] On the space station, career astronauts usually run scientists' experiments, and many scientists cannot even train them in person. [4] During his flight he watched how well a preservative covered his samples and moved the tubes to fix them faster. [4]

Why it matters — Short commercial flights give a few minutes of weightlessness, and Ferl argues they let a scientist see an experiment's first minutes in space for themselves. [4] That matters most for studies of how living things change in the moment they leave Earth.
04
Graphite made from what Mars has

A team including researchers named Zhong, Tian and Fan made graphite from carbon dioxide, borate and water, the journal Nature Chemical Engineering reported on 16 October. [5] All three ingredients are plentiful on Mars. [5] The process ran at 220 C and 5.0 megapascals, about 50 times the air pressure at sea level on Earth. [5] About 79% of the converted carbon ended up as graphite, and the graphite was 93% pure carbon. [5] It worked as one end of a zinc battery, and the process also made pure hydrogen. [5]

Converted carbon that became graphite79.2%
Purity of the graphite93.1%
Two measures of how well the process worked, out of 100.

Why it matters — Anything a Mars base needs must otherwise be flown from Earth, so making battery material from the planet's own air and water would mean carrying less. The work describes a laboratory process, not a test on Mars. [5]
05
Hong Kong team tests bricks for Mars houses

Researchers in Hong Kong are developing building blocks for Mars that could be printed by machine from materials found there, Euronews reported on 17 October. [6] The idea came from freeze-dried fruit. [6] The mix is sand, gelatine and a yeast changed so that it makes sticky proteins, which hold the blocks together. [6] The team is testing the blocks in conditions made to copy Mars. [6]

Why it matters — Building with local sand would spare a Mars mission from carrying bricks from Earth. Moving the equipment there and supplying enough energy are still major obstacles. [6]
06
A Russian satellite closes in on a radar satellite

Cosmos-2612, a Russian military satellite, has changed its orbit several times to move close to ICEYE-X36, The Hindu reported on 18 October. [7] ICEYE-X36 is a commercial satellite that takes pictures of the ground using radar. [7] It is registered in the US, and its operator supplies radar data to Ukraine. [7] Both circle about 550 km above Earth. [7] Late on 17 October Marco Langbroek, an astronomer at TU Delft, a Dutch university, estimated they were 1 to 2 km apart and could come within metres if their paths held. [7]

Why it matters — No attack had been seen by the morning of 18 October, and what Cosmos-2612 can do is not known. [7] It carries the war in Ukraine into orbit, next to a satellite whose pictures help Ukraine's side. [7]
07
Zelenskyy calls the Starlink limit a planned operation

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Saturday that the speed limit on Starlink in Ukraine is a planned operation. [8] Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet, still cuts out there above 160 km/h, which stops some Ukrainian drones from catching Russia's fast Shahed attack drones, he said. [8] He said Ukraine drove vehicles carrying Starlink through EU countries at over 180 km/h, and the service kept working. [8] Nobody, SpaceX included, was answering Ukraine's military or defence ministry, he added. [8]

Why it matters — Zelenskyy's point is that a limit that works only over Ukraine was set for Ukraine. [8] The EU's own planned satellite network, IRIS2, is not expected before 2030, so Ukraine has no quick replacement. [8]
08
Britain asks the public to name its junk-clearing craft

The UK Space Agency has asked the public to name its mission to remove two dead satellites, The Register reported on 17 October. [9] Earlier that week the agency picked ClearSpace UK to grab two British satellites in low orbit from 2029, backed by more than 60 million pounds. [9] The craft will drop each one into a lower orbit to burn up in the air, then climb back for its next job, and it can be refuelled. [9] It is due to launch from SaxaVord, a spaceport in Scotland, and finish by 2032. [9]

Why it matters — Dead satellites crowd low orbit, and removing them is becoming more important, The Register notes. [9] ClearSpace was also chosen in 2019 for a European Space Agency clean-up mission then set to launch in 2025. [9]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a lab can copy Mars one condition at a time, but Mars arrives all at once

A test on Earth copies the one condition it was built for, so the first time every condition meets together is in the real place.

The twist

A ground test can show what one condition does. All the conditions meet together for the first time in the real place, so that is where the surprises show up.

How it works

Mars and space are hard to reach, so most testing happens on Earth
A lab copies the one condition it was built for: Mars ingredients, weightlessness, or one maker's satellite
Everything the lab did not copy stays the way it is on Earth
So the result shows what that one condition does on its own
The real place brings every condition at once, and that mix is met for the first time there

The same force, elsewhere today

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

The relay satellites that are slow to join up

Three builders' satellites are in orbit, but running their different designs as one network, under one set of operators, is being done for the first time now, one or two satellites at a time.
Graphite made from what Mars has

The lab used the ingredients Mars has, but in a reactor on Earth, so Mars itself was not part of the test.
Hong Kong team tests bricks for Mars houses

The blocks are tested in copied Martian conditions, and the report names what that test leaves out: getting the machines there and powering them.
A biologist flew with his own space experiment

Only on the real flight could he see how the preservative covered his samples, and move the tubes to fix them faster.

Where you've seen this

New medicines

a drug that works on cells in a dish meets a whole human body for the first time in its first trial

Fire drills

a drill copies the route out of the building, but not the smoke or the fear

A new bridge

each part is load-tested in a factory, and wind, traffic and heat all press on it together only once it is built

The catch

Some labs copy several conditions at once, such as a chamber that is both cold and airless, so the gap between the test and the real place is smaller for some jobs than for others.

And the whole of it

Every team in today's stories knows its own test well. None of them, and none of us, can see how the whole thing behaves until it is working where it was built to work.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

The US Space Development Agency has 84 relay satellites in orbit, but it let each builder design its own controls. [1] So government operators are taking them over one or two at a time, and the network is not expected to work as one until 2027. [1]

Why it works on us — A count of satellites in orbit sounds like a finished network, and the number that says whether it works is the much smaller count that operators actually run.

Who gains

Northrop Grumman — Its first batch reached orbit on 10 October, so it is now one of three builders with relay satellites in the network. [1][2]
Anduril and Palantir — They are building eight units of TITAN, an Army ground station meant to use the network, and a bigger production contract is expected in the 2027 US budget year. [1]
GRVTY — It bought Northstrat, the jammers' original builder, in May 2026, and now makes the production units. [3]
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic — A NASA-paid scientist flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard to run his own experiment, and Ferl writes that both companies see value in flying science with their passengers. [4]

Who pays

US Army units waiting for the network's data — The Army expects to be one of its main users, and the network is not expected to give its first usable service until 2027. [1]
Whoever relies on satellite links the jammers target — The Space Force says the jammers are already used in combat around the world, at places it does not name. [3]
The US Space Force's budget — The first 24 jammers came from a 2022 contract worth about $22 million, and the office meant to buy at least 160. [3]
Scientists with experiments on the space station — Career astronauts usually run their experiments, and many of the scientists cannot train those astronauts in person. [4]

What nobody knows yet

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

01

How many of the 84 relay satellites government operators run today.

The only figure given is four of 21 Lockheed Martin satellites in one batch, counted on 4 October; no total for the whole network was published. [1]
02

Whether the network starts working in 2027 as planned.

The agency expects it to, but the first working satellites of this round already launched more than a year late, and two relay launches and four missile-warning launches are still to come. [1]
03

Whether Northrop Grumman's new batch will be handed over faster than Lockheed Martin's.

The slowdown comes from each builder's different control design, and Northrop Grumman's first batch only reached orbit on 10 October. [1][2]
04

Where the US Space Force's jammers are, and whose satellite links they block.

A Space Force general says they are used in combat around the world, but their locations are kept secret. [3]
05

How many jammers will be built.

A former head of the buying office said at least 160, and the maker gave no figure for the new production order. [3]
06

Whether the graphite process works on Mars itself.

The report describes a laboratory process at 220 C and high pressure, using ingredients Mars has, and no test under Martian conditions. [5]
07

Whether bricks of sand, gelatine and yeast can be made in useful numbers on Mars.

Moving the equipment there and supplying enough energy are still named as major obstacles. [6]
08

How many scientists will get to fly with their own experiments.

Ferl's essay argues that short commercial flights open the door, but gives no count of future research seats. [4]

04 Hope carry this

A space biologist flew to space with his own experiment on a short Blue Origin flight paid for by NASA. During the flight he moved the sample tubes himself so the preservative fixed them faster.

Also true today

A research team turned carbon dioxide, borate and water, all plentiful on Mars, into graphite that worked inside a zinc battery. The same process also gave off pure hydrogen.