Space – Page 2 – The Defense Post

Apr- 2026 -

23 April

BlackSky’s third Gen-3 satellite provides high-resolution image and analytics.

BlackSky Secures $25M Deal for Satellite Imagery, Analytics Services

BlackSky secured a $25-million multi-year contract with an international defense customer for satellite imagery and analytics services.

22 April

Jodesz Gavilan

Poland Advances Secure Military Satellite Program With EU Firms

Poland is moving to secure dedicated military satellite communications as it teams up with European industry to build a new geostationary defense satellite system.

21 April

Telescopes operated by the 15th Space Surveillance Squadron at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex are shown on Maui, Hawaii, Sept. 16, 2025. The MSSC is located on Haleakala, is the third best place on Earth from which to view space, and the best location for daytime space domain awareness. GBOSS upgrades to the legacy Ground Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance System at the White Sands Missile Range were completed and reached operational acceptance on June 27, 2025, and the upgrades to the MSSC in Hawaii are currently underway. The GBOSS system was built to continue to meet the Space Surveillance Network mission needs and to increase SDA by more accurately identifying and tracking resident space objects in orbit. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman noted, “GBOSS improves our ability to map the space operating environment. The upgrade not only improves sensitivity and boosts the number of objects we can track, it also takes advantage of data provided by commercial sensors to help with our unquenchable thirst for more SDA data.” (U.S. Air Force photo by 1st Lt. Laura Anderson)

Rojoef Manuel

US Space Force Expands Orbit Tracking With New Ground Sensor in Hawaii

The US Space Force has approved upgrades for its Ground-Based Optical Sensor System at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex in Hawaii, expanding its ability to track objects across Earth’s orbits.

21 April

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink 10-44 mission successfully launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on Mar. 30, 2026. This was the 34th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, SES O3B mPOWER-A, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, Galileo L13, Koreasat-6A, and now 23 Starlink missions. (U.S. Space Force photo by Gwendolyn Kurzen)

Rojoef Manuel

Starlink Glitch Leaves US Navy Drone Boats Drifting: Report

A global outage in Elon Musk’s Starlink network disrupted US Navy drone tests, cutting communications and leaving approximately two dozen unmanned surface vessels adrift off California for nearly an hour.

20 April

Jodesz Gavilan

Rheinmetall Plans Satellite Test Facility in Norway

Rheinmetall has taken a step toward building a satellite processing and test facility in northern Norway through a new agreement with the municipality of Andøy.

20 April

Lockheed Martin’s GPS III SV08 will join the US Space Force’s operational GPS constellation in orbit.

Jodesz Gavilan

Lockheed Wins $105M US Space Force GPS Ground Control Upgrade

Lockheed Martin has secured a $105-million US Space Force contract to sustain and upgrade its Global Positioning System (GPS) ground control network.

14 April

A Northrop Grumman Minotaur IV rocket launches the Department of War Space Test Program S29A (STP-S29A) mission from Space Launch Complex 8 at Vandenberg Space Force Base Calif., April 7, 2026. The STP-S29A mission carried a variety of DoW, U.S. Space Force, and academic institution payloads into orbit, marking the 23rd launch of 2026 from Vandenberg. (Courtesy photo by Northrop Grumman)

Rojoef Manuel

Northrop Grumman Launches US Space Force Experiments on Minotaur IV

Northrop Grumman has launched the US Space Force’s Space Test Program S29A mission module aboard its Minotaur IV rocket, deploying multiple experimental payloads into low Earth orbit.

10 April

U.S. Space Force 1st Lt. Tia Scoggan, weapons and tactics section chief for the 18th Space Defense Squadron Det. 1, looks at a computer screen at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, Oct. 5, 2022. 18 SDS Det. 1 provides timely and actionable Space Domain Awareness (SDA) for emergent and existing threats that are identified by the Joint Task Force-Space Defense’s National Space Defense Center as on-orbit threats. (U.S. Space Force photo by Tiana Williams)

Rojoef Manuel

Pentagon Funds $1.8B Andromeda Program for Space Tracking Network

The US Department of Defense has awarded contracts worth up to $1.843 billion to multiple companies to develop next-generation space domain awareness capabilities under the US Space Force’s Andromeda program.

10 April

Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance telescope operated by the 15th Space Surveillance Squadron.

Jodesz Gavilan

US Space Force Awards L3Harris $150M to Modernize Space Surveillance

The US Space Force has awarded L3Harris a $150-million contract to sustain and modernize ground systems that track objects in space and provide earlier warning of potential threats.

8 April

Artist rendition of Northrop Grumman's GEOStar-3 platform.

Jodesz Gavilan

Northrop Grumman Partners With Hungary on Communications Satellite

Hungary has launched work on its first sovereign communications satellite, aiming to provide secure, nationally controlled connectivity for government and commercial users.

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