Top Stories
Air Force Tells Contractors to Drop Anthropic by September
A Pentagon memo obtained by Breaking Defense sets a hard deadline: contractors must purge Anthropic tools department-wide by Sept. 1. Anthropic is suing the government to reverse the directive.
The timeline squeezes defense contractors who built workflows around Claude models over the past two years. Anthropic’s legal challenge argues the removal order exceeds the department’s authority over vendor tool selection.
Read the full story: Breaking Defense
Booster 20 Fires All 33 Engines in Record-Duration Static Fire
SpaceX completed a full 33-engine static fire on Booster 20 at Starbase, the longest duration test of its kind to date. The company is pushing toward its next Starship flight test.
A clean 33-engine burn clears one of the last major hurdles before stacking and a launch attempt. Booster 20 represents the next iteration in SpaceX’s push to shorten turnaround between Starship flights.
Read the full story: NASASpaceFlight.com
FCC Clears First Reflect Orbital Satellite for Launch
The FCC approved Reflect Orbital’s first satellite, designed to test reflecting sunlight onto nighttime ground targets. Astronomers and environmental groups have publicly opposed the concept since it was announced.
The approval covers a single demonstration satellite, not the full constellation Reflect Orbital has proposed. Expect renewed pushback from the astronomy community once the satellite reaches orbit and starts testing its mirror array - any operational version would add a new class of bright, maneuvering objects for ground-based trackers to sort out.
Read the full story: SpaceNews
Pentagon’s New Drone Office Faces Political Test Before It Even Starts
Breaking Defense reports the success of the Pentagon’s new drone-buying office will hinge less on funding and more on who runs it and how they navigate service rivalries. One former Pentagon AI chief compared the risk to the F-35 program’s troubled acquisition history.
No director has been named yet. The office consolidates drone procurement authority that was previously split across service branches, a structural change that has already generated friction among program offices protecting existing contracts.
Read the full story: Breaking Defense
China Publishes Roster of State-Backed Commercial Space Consortium
A Chinese government body released the membership list for its national commercial space consortium, the first public confirmation of which companies Beijing treats as established players in the sector.
The list gives outside analysts a rare data point for mapping China’s commercial launch and satellite manufacturing base against state priorities. Expect the named firms to see preferential access to contracts and spectrum allocations going forward.
Read the full story: SpaceNews
Pentagon Moves to Reprogram $4.3 Billion for Operations and Personnel
A 47-page Pentagon reprogramming notice seeks to shift $4.3 billion away from weapons and technology programs to cover rising operations and personnel costs, citing “unforeseen military requirements.”
The request pulls funds from an array of existing programs rather than a single line item, a sign the Pentagon is managing a broader budget squeeze rather than one isolated shortfall.
Read the full story: Breaking Defense
Earth Observation Overtakes Telecom in European Space Sales
Eurospace’s 2025 Facts and Figures report shows European space industry sales rebounded after a 2024 contraction, with Earth observation satellite sales now exceeding telecom for the first time.
The shift reflects growing government and commercial demand for imaging data over traditional communications payloads. Telecom’s decline tracks with the broader industry move toward smaller, cheaper EO constellations that can be replaced and upgraded faster than legacy comsat fleets.
Read the full story: SpaceNews
Satellite of the Day
OBSERVER-1A
OBSERVER-1A is a 16U CubeSat developed by South Korea’s NARAST for Earth observation missions. Launched on November 11, 2023, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, this compact satellite packs a multispectral electro-optical camera into a box-shaped frame weighing just 24 kilograms. Despite its small size, OBSERVER-1A operates from a sun-synchronous polar orbit, making it well-suited for systematic Earth monitoring with consistent lighting conditions across passes.
Equipped with deployable solar arrays and onboard batteries, OBSERVER-1A is designed for a mission lifetime of approximately two years. As a relatively new addition to the CubeSat constellation, it represents the growing trend of compact, cost-effective Earth observation platforms that complement larger, more specialized satellites. Its polar orbit at 97.39° inclination allows near-global coverage, making it valuable for environmental monitoring, disaster assessment, and land-use applications.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| NORAD ID | 58323 |
| Operator | NARAST |
| Launch Date | November 11, 2023 |
| Orbit | Sun-synchronous polar, 97.39° inclination |
| Purpose | Earth observation |
| Status | Active |
Track this satellite in real-time: Track OBSERVER-1A
Upcoming Space Launches
July 12
- Orienspace Technology Gravity-1:
- Unknown Payload from Haiyang Oriental Spaceport (02:00 UTC) Details to be determined. Launch Preview
July 14
- SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:
- Starlink Group 15-14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA (01:16 UTC) A batch of 24 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites will be deployed to low Earth orbit; first stage booster B1071 will attempt its 35th landing on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You. Watch Live
- Starlink Group 10-45 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL (07:15 UTC) A batch of 24 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites will be deployed to low Earth orbit; first stage booster B1071 will attempt its 35th landing on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You. Watch Live
- Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) Soyuz 2.1a:
- Soyuz MS-29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan (14:47 UTC) Soyuz MS-29 will carry three cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station, including Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, and NASA astronaut Anil Menon, as part of the International Space Station program’s Human Exploration mission. Watch Live
July 15
- SpaceX Starship:
- Flight 13 from SpaceX Starbase, TX (22:45 UTC) The 13th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle, and the second flight of the Starship V3 development version, continuing SpaceX’s reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle program.
July 16
- SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:
- SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer E from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA (20:22 UTC) One of six Falcon 9 missions for the United States Space Force’s Space Development Agency, deploying satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, providing resilient, low-latency military data connectivity via optical inter-satellite links.
July 17
- China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 7A:
- Unknown Payload from Wenchang Space Launch Site, People’s Republic of China (11:00 UTC) Details to be determined.
- Rocket Lab Electron:
- LOXSAT 1 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand (00:00 UTC) A demonstration satellite from Eta Space, sponsored by NASA’s Tipping Point program, to test a complete cryogenic oxygen fluid management system aboard a Rocket Lab Photon-LEO bus, collecting in-space cryogenic fluid data over 9 months to support future commercial depot development.
July 18
- SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5:
- Starlink Group 17-39 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA (14:00 UTC) A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation, SpaceX’s space-based internet communication system. Watch Live
- Skyroot Aerospace Vikram-I:
- Demo Flight from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India (05:00 UTC) The first launch of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-I orbital launch vehicle, carrying several cubesats with payload identities still to be determined. Launch Preview
Schedule Changes
- Added a new Starlink Group 17-39 launch (Falcon 9 Block 5) from Vandenberg Space Force Base, scheduled for July 18 at 14:00 UTC, currently Go for Launch.
- Starlink Group 17-48 (Falcon 9 Block 5) has completed its mission successfully and has been removed from the upcoming launch list.
Note: Launch dates and times are subject to change due to technical or weather considerations.
