Space News for Friday, April 24, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:22) The governance gap: Why orbital data centers need certification before they scale(00:59) Astrobotic tests advanced rocket engine(01:26) FCC throws out satellite spectrum challenges as D2D dealmaking heats up(01:59) SpaceX wins $57 million U.S. military contract for satellite crosslink demo(02:51) Jordan signs the Artemis Accords(03:26) The Smartest Money in the Room Is Looking Up(03:53) SmallSat Europe Speaker Focus: Giovanni Pandolfi Bortoletto, Leaf Space(04:30) Blue Origin CEO Attributes BlueBird 7 Satellite Loss to Second-Stage Thrust Anomaly(04:42) An Agricultural Mosaic in Taiwan(05:30) Johnson Leaders Honored by National Space Club & Foundation(06:18) NASA Shares SpaceX Crew-13 Assignments for Space Station Mission(07:01) NASA Kennedy Prepares Facility for Roman Space Telescope Arrival(07:16) Starship Progress at the Cape with Hoping to Launch this year(07:30) Astra Targets Golden Dome With Small Rockets, Says CEO Chris Kemp(08:14) Trump Taps Space Execs For Military Space Roles(08:50) Orbital vs. Terrestrial Data Center Cost Analysis(09:26) Hubble Telescope celebrates 36th anniversary with gorgeous new image of famous Trifid Nebula(10:10) Sun unleashes 2 colossal X-flares within 7 hours of each other, knocking out radio signals on Earth(11:00) Ted Cruz pushes back on NASA budget cuts: 'I don't want to wake up one day and look up at the moon and realize the Chinese have beat us there'(11:36) What will happen when our sun starts dying? These 'stellar archaeologists' may have found a clue(12:10) These 'interstellar glaciers' could give water to young star systems. Could they support alien life, too?(12:58) We still don't have a more precise value for "Big G"(13:35) US Space Command: Russia is now operationalizing co-orbital ASAT weapons(14:14) Eight months early and under budget, the Roman Telescope is ready to launch