Top Stories

Missile Strike Hits SES Teleport Facility in Israel

On March 9, a missile struck a teleport facility operated by satellite operator SES inside Israel. SES confirmed the facility was “targeted and struck.” The attack comes amid ongoing Israeli and U.S. military operations against Iran.

Ground infrastructure — teleports, uplink stations, control facilities — rarely makes headlines, but it’s as operationally critical as the satellites themselves. A damaged teleport can take transponder capacity offline for commercial and government users alike. No details have been released on the extent of damage or service disruption.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

Anduril Acquires Space and Missile Tracking Firm ExoAnalytic

Anduril Industries is acquiring ExoAnalytic Solutions, a commercial space situational awareness company that operates a global network of optical telescopes for tracking satellites and missiles. Anduril plans to fully absorb ExoAnalytic’s roughly 130 employees rather than run it as a subsidiary.

ExoAnalytic’s sensor network feeds data directly into space domain awareness workflows — the kind used by Space Force, allied militaries, and commercial operators. Folding that capability into Anduril’s autonomous systems portfolio puts real-time object tracking closer to an integrated kill chain architecture.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Space Force Terminates AeroVironment BADGER Antenna Contract

Space Force has officially terminated its contract with AeroVironment for the BADGER satellite control antenna program. AeroVironment says it will redesign the antenna and compete for the follow-on contract.

The BADGER program was intended to provide ground-based antennas for satellite command and control. A contract termination at this stage means the program restarts its acquisition cycle, adding delay to whatever ground architecture it was meant to support. No cost figures or timeline for the follow-on competition have been released.

Read the full story: SpaceNews

Firefly Alpha Returns to Orbit After Two 2025 Failures

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket reached orbit on March 11 — its seventh launch overall and first successful flight since two explosive failures in 2025. The mission marks the vehicle’s return to operational status.

Alpha is a small-lift rocket targeting payloads under 1,000 kg to LEO. Two back-to-back anomalies in a single year would ground most programs; getting back to orbit this quickly suggests Firefly identified and addressed the root causes. Payload details for this mission have not been prominently reported.

Read the full story: Space.com

Rheinmetall Projects $16.8B Annual Orders as It Pivots Entirely to Defense

German defense and industrial firm Rheinmetall is forecasting annual order intake of $16.8 billion and says it will “focus entirely” on defense going forward. The company cited the current security environment as the driver for its position.

Rheinmetall produces armored vehicles, ammunition, and air defense components. A full pivot to defense production at that revenue scale reflects how European rearmament spending is reshaping the industrial base — with direct downstream effects on procurement timelines for space and missile defense systems.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

DART Mission Data Shows Asteroids Exchanging Material Across Binary Systems

New analysis from NASA’s DART mission reveals that binary asteroids — like the Didymos-Dimorphos system DART targeted in 2022 — exchange material with each other over time. Images show slow-moving ejecta, described as “cosmic snowballs,” transferring between the two bodies and gradually reshaping their surfaces over millions of years.

The finding has implications for planetary defense modeling. If surface composition and mass distribution shift over geological timescales through inter-body transfer, deflection calculations based on current observations may not account for long-term changes in target asteroid structure.

Read the full story: Space.com

Air Force Doctrine Debate: Air Denial vs. Air Superiority

Lt. Col. Grant “SWAT” Georgulis published an argument in Breaking Defense that the U.S. Air Force has drifted toward accepting air denial as a strategic goal — the ability to contest an adversary’s use of airspace — rather than pursuing traditional air superiority, which means controlling it. His thesis: denial leads to stalemates, superiority enables decisive outcomes.

The distinction matters for space as well. Space domain awareness doctrine faces the same fork — the ability to detect and contest objects in orbit is not the same as the ability to operate freely within it. How the services define “control” in contested domains will shape acquisition priorities across both air and space programs.

Read the full story: Breaking Defense

Satellite of the Day

ONEWEB-0673

ONEWEB-0673 is part of OneWeb’s ambitious mega-constellation of communication satellites designed to provide global broadband coverage. Launched on March 9, 2023, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, this Ku-Band equipped satellite is one of hundreds being deployed in a near-polar orbit to deliver high-speed internet to remote and underserved regions worldwide. With a launch mass of 148 kilograms and an expected operational lifetime of seven years, ONEWEB-0673 exemplifies the modern push toward affordable, space-based connectivity.

What makes OneWeb’s constellation particularly interesting is its near-polar deployment strategy—this satellite’s 87.92° inclination allows it to serve high-latitude regions that traditional geostationary satellites struggle to reach. The satellite uses efficient Hall effect thrusters for station-keeping and attitude control, a common choice for constellation operators looking to maximize propellant efficiency over their mission duration. As part of the broader shift toward LEO-based internet services, ONEWEB-0673 represents a new era in space-based telecommunications competing alongside Starlink and other emerging networks.

Track this satellite in real-time: Track ONEWEB-0673

Upcoming Space Launches

March 12

• China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 8A: Unknown Payload

  • Unknown Payload from Wenchang Space Launch Site, Commercial LC-1, People’s Republic of China (19:40 UTC) The Long March 8A is an enhanced variant of the Long March 8, capable of lifting up to 7 tonnes to a 700 km sun-synchronous orbit. It features a larger liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen second stage and can accommodate a 5.2-metre diameter payload fairing. Payload details have not been disclosed. Launch Preview

• China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 2D: Unknown Payload

  • Unknown Payload from Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Launch Complex 3, People’s Republic of China (22:25 UTC) The Long March 2D is a two-stage Chinese carrier rocket commonly used for LEO and sun-synchronous orbit missions. Payload details have not been disclosed. Launch Preview

March 13

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 10-48

  • Starlink Group 10-48 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Space Launch Complex 40, FL, USA (10:00 UTC) 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live Launch Preview

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 17-31

  • Starlink Group 17-31 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Space Launch Complex 4E, CA, USA (10:58 UTC) 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live Launch Preview

March 15

• China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 6A: Unknown Payload
  • Unknown Payload from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Launch Complex 9A, People’s Republic of China (13:14 UTC) The Long March 6A is a medium-lift launch vehicle featuring two YF-100 engines on the first stage and four solid rocket boosters — China’s first rocket to incorporate solid boosters. Payload details have not been disclosed. Launch Preview

March 16

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 10-46
  • Starlink Group 10-46 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Space Launch Complex 40, FL, USA (10:49 UTC) 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live Launch Preview

March 17

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 17-24
  • Starlink Group 17-24 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Space Launch Complex 4E, CA, USA (02:37 UTC) 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live Launch Preview

March 18

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 10-33
  • Starlink Group 10-33 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Space Launch Complex 40, FL, USA (10:57 UTC) 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live

March 19

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5: Starlink Group 17-15

  • Starlink Group 17-15 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Space Launch Complex 4E, CA, USA (14:00 UTC) 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to low Earth orbit. Watch Live

• Rocket Lab Electron: Eight Days A Week (StriX Launch 8)

  • Eight Days A Week from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (17:45 UTC) The eighth Strix synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for Japanese Earth-observation company Synspective. The StriX satellites are in the 100 kg class with approximately five-year operational lifespans. This is the latest in a series of 27 dedicated Electron launches contracted by Synspective for its growing SAR constellation.

• Isar Aerospace Spectrum: Onward and Upward

  • Onward and Upward from Andøya Spaceport, Orbital Launch Pad, Norway (20:00 UTC) Spectrum’s second test flight, carrying five CubeSats: CyBEEsat (TU Berlin), TriSat-S (University of Maribor), Platform 6 (EnduroSat), FramSat-1 (NTNU), and SpaceTeamSat1 (TU Wien Space Team), plus the “Let it Go” experiment from Dcubed. Exolaunch is managing payload integration and deployment. The mission was delayed from January 21 due to a pressurization valve issue. Watch Live

March 22

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

March 24

• Rocket Lab Electron: Daughter Of The Stars (LEO-PNT Pathfinder A)
  • LEO-PNT Pathfinder A from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (00:00 UTC) The European Space Agency’s LEO-PNT (Low Earth Orbit Positioning, Navigation and Timing) programme will demonstrate how a low Earth orbit satellite constellation can complement the Galileo and EGNOS navigation systems. This launch carries two Pathfinder A satellites — built by Thales Alenia Space and GMV — to a 510 km orbit, beginning a planned 10-satellite demonstration constellation.

Schedule Changes

• Firefly Alpha | Stairway to Seven: Status changed from To Be Confirmed to Launch Successful.

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