Top Stories

Air Force Opens Competition for Anti-Radiation Missile

The Air Force released a market survey March 4 seeking additional vendors to build anti-radiation Stand Attack Weapon systems. Northrop Grumman currently holds the development contract, but the service is probing for equivalent alternatives. This move typically signals either dissatisfaction with timelines, cost overruns, or deliberate hedging on a critical capability.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Pentagon Orders 30,000 One-Way Drones Within Days

The Department of Defense will announce winners from its “Gauntlet” unmanned exercise competition and begin fielding systems across military units over the next five months. This represents a major shift toward mass procurement of attritable aircraft—drones designed to be expendable rather than recovered.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

UK Commits £500 Million to Space Security and Economic Growth

The UK government announced a new 500 million pound ($668 million) space funding package aligned with national security and economic priorities, according to Liz Lloyd, minister for the Digital Economy. The reframing explicitly ties civil space investment to defense objectives.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

Sierra Space Closes $550 Million Series C Round

Sierra Space raised $550 million in Series C funding as the company accelerates its pivot toward national security contracts. The investment underscores investor confidence in the commercial spaceplane market’s defense applications.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

USS Ford Deployment Could Stretch to 11 Months

Navy leadership signaled the USS Ford carrier strike group could deploy for approximately 11 months—approaching the Vietnam-era record of 332 days set by USS Midway. Extended deployments strain readiness and crew retention, indicating either operational necessity or sustained carrier availability gaps.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

UAE Defense Contractor EDGE Group Expands Latin American Footprint

EDGE Group, the UAE’s primary defense industrial firm, signed agreements to supply Ecuador with border protection systems including surveillance, drones, and anti-drone capabilities. The company is prioritizing internal security over traditional military exports in the region, reflecting market demand for counter-narcotics and criminal trafficking surveillance.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Satellite of the Day

TUBSAT-A

TUBSAT-A is a small box-shaped satellite operated by TUB (Technische Universität Berlin) and launched on January 25, 1994, aboard a Tsiklon-3 rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Weighing just 40 kilograms, this compact spacecraft exemplifies the early era of university-built microsatellites and represented an ambitious educational and research initiative for German space science.

Orbiting at a high inclination of 82.57 degrees, TUBSAT-A was designed to conduct Earth observation and technology demonstration experiments. Its near-polar orbit provided excellent coverage of high-latitude regions and made it a valuable platform for testing innovative satellite subsystems. As part of the broader TUBSAT program, this mission contributed valuable lessons to the growing field of small satellite design and operations that would influence CubeSat and other miniaturized spacecraft programs for decades to come.

Track this satellite in real-time: Track TUBSAT-A

Upcoming Space Launches

March 7

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:
  • Starlink Group 17-18 from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (10:58 UTC) A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.

March 10

• Firefly Aerospace Firefly Alpha:

  • Stairway to Seven from Space Launch Complex 2W, Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (00:50 UTC) Firefly Alpha’s Flight 7 will be a test flight and return-to-flight for the launch vehicle after its April 2025 launch failure. It will test and validate key systems ahead of Firefly’s Block II configuration upgrade on Flight 8.

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:

  • EchoStar 25 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (04:14 UTC) EchoStar 25 is a direct broadcast satellite, built on the proven Maxar 1300 series platform, which will deliver content across North America. It will be equipped with a high-power, multi-spot beam payload, allowing DISH to provide high-quality content to its customers.

March 11

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:
  • Starlink Group 17-31 from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (10:58 UTC) A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.

March 12

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:
  • Starlink Group 10-48 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (10:00 UTC) A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.

March 15

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:

  • Starlink Group 17-24 from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, USA (02:37 UTC) A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:

  • Starlink Group 10-46 from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, USA (11:11 UTC) A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.

March 19

• Isar Aerospace Spectrum:
  • Onward and Upward from Orbital Launch Pad, Andøya Spaceport, Norway (20:00 UTC) Second test flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle. This launch will carry 5 cubesats and 1 non-separable experiment as part of the European Space Agency (ESA)‘s “Boost!” program, including CyBEEsat, TriSat-S, Platform 6, FramSat-1, SpaceTeamSat1, and the Let It Go non-separable experiment.

March 22

• Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) Soyuz 2.1a:
  • Progress MS-33 (94P) from Launch Pad 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan (11:59 UTC) Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.

March 24

• Rocket Lab Electron:
  • Daughter Of The Stars (LEO-PNT Pathfinder A) from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (00:00 UTC) The European Space Agency (ESA)‘s LEO-PNT demonstrator mission will lift 2 “Pathfinder A” satellites built by Thales Alenia Space and GMV to a 510 km altitude Low Earth Orbit, assessing how a low Earth orbit fleet can work in combination with the Galileo and EGNOS constellations.

Note: Launch dates and times are subject to change due to technical or weather considerations.