Payload

The human body has evolved to withstand many environments, but the Moon isn’t one of them. NASA’s Human Research Program is asking researchers to submit questions and ideas to guide the agency’s research planning, and reduce risks to astronauts during lunar and Mars exploration missions. Over the history of crewed spaceflight, NASA has identified five hazards for astronauts:  ☢️ Space radiation; 🧑🚀 Isolation and confinement; 🌎 Distance from Earth; 🌐 Gravity fields; 🏠 Hostile/closed environments. Payload reporter Victoria Woodburn has the full breakdown of what the agency's looking for. Link in the comments.

Speaker announcement: Taylor Jordan, NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Assistant Secretary and Director of the Office of Space Commerce, is joining us at Off World. Taylor leads the federal government's focal point for space commerce policy, overseeing satellite programs and working to streamline how commercial space activity gets authorized and regulated. Catch him September 23-24 at Space Center Houston. Buy tickets: https://lnkd.in/g4d9SGHy

Reflect Orbital's plans to build a constellation of 50,000 orbiting mirrors has made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded—by scientists, astronomers, and lovers of the night sky—as a bad move. But that hasn't slowed the company's momentum. Reflect unveiled its second fully built satellite this week, and plans to launch as many as 4,000 solar reflecting sats before the end of the decade. Payload reporter Douglas Gorman spoke with Reflect CEO Ben Nowack to hear how the company is addressing the public's concerns.

Europe's launch community is in for a surprise when they return from holiday. While they were out, Rocket Lab moved into their turf. At least a dozen companies in Europe are attempting to debut new launch vehicles before the end of the decade. The shared goal of these efforts is to build up Europe’s sovereign launch capabilities, and establish a globally competitive European launch sector. Both propositions will likely be harder with Rocket Lab down the street. Read the full story by Payload reporter Douglas Gorman online. Link in the comments.

Astranis Space Technologies found problems with existing SDA tech while operating in GEO—so it built a tool to fix it. The company announced Perceptor on Wednesday, an SDA and maneuverability platform designed to operate in higher—and strategically important—orbits. The new hardware features: 👀 A suite of sensors to help with everything from determining the capabilities of adversary spacecraft, to providing details about anomalies on allied sats. 🔥 Propulsion hardware to maneuver throughout GEO more than a dozen times in one mission.  🛰️ The ability to operate with other spacecraft as part of a constellation. Read the full breakdown by Payload editor Jacqueline Feldscher. Link in the comments.

Space Kinetic Corp. landed a $50M OTA award from the Space Force to develop Whirlwind—its space maneuverability and deployment system. Payload reporter Victoria Woodburn caught up with Space Kinetic cofounder and CEO Ryan Sullivan who shared the idea behind Whirlwind, which flings small, ruggedized microsatellites from a host spacecraft at high velocities—without firing a thruster. Full story in the comments

Speaker announcement: Bob Ess, President of Starlab, is joining us at Off World. Bob spent nearly three decades at NASA, including managing avionics and software for the Orion program, before moving into commercial space leadership roles at Blue Origin and Venus Aerospace. Now he's helping build Starlab's next-generation commercial space station. Catch him September 23-24 at Space Center Houston. Buy tickets: https://lnkd.in/g4d9SGHy

Firefly Aerospace notched its first ever $100M+ quarter, with Q2 revenues jumping 45% compared to the Q1 2026. But that revenue figures comes with a cost: 💸 Net loss widened to $92.3M, up from $63.8M a year ago. 🔥 Free cash flow was an outflow of $106.3M, up from $78.9M the prior quarter. Read the full breakdown by Payload reporter Victoria Woodburn. Link in the comments.

Gen. Michael Guetlein, director of the US Golden Dome missile defense system, warned that funding the missile defense system under a continuing resolution would leave the program at risk—without a financial basis to fall back on. "If they don’t figure it out, there is no Golden Dome—because there’s no funding," Guetlein said. Payload editor Jacqueline Feldscher has the full breakdown of Geutlein's remarks today. Link in the comments.

Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL) introduced the Space Superiority Act on Friday. The bill directs the defense secretary to expand the Space Force’s ability to conduct wargaming, modeling, and simulation of in-space conflicts, and orders the Pentagon to provide an unclassified report to Congress about the Chinese commercial space sector. Read Jacqueline Feldscher's deep dive on the bill's specifics in today's edition of Polaris—our weekly newsletter focused on US space policy. 🚀 Subscribe to Polaris: https://lnkd.in/gFpdKsDP 🔥 Full story in the comments...