Space News for Friday, August 21, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:21) Landspace aims to refly recovered Zhuque-3 booster within six months(00:44) New space transportation policy focuses on increased launch rates(01:22) Golden Dome chief touts progress as funding questions loom(01:42) Elve qualifies millimeter-wave amplifiers for spaceflight(02:17) SpaceWERX selects 11 firms to scale technologies for military space(02:53) Last-minute abort stalls Cape Canaveral Starlink mission(03:35) Orbital Data Center Constellations Face Scrutiny Over Atmospheric Re-entry Pollution and Space E-Waste(04:18) Muon Space Reaches $1.5 Billion Valuation Following $250 Million Series C Round(04:42) United Launch Alliance Upsizes Private Bond Offering to $1.5 Billion to Fund Infrastructure Expansion(05:04) Artificial Intelligence Integrations Drive Satellite Data Analytics Toward 14.2 Percent Annual Growth(05:40) INNOSPACE Terminates Initial Flight Test of SEBIT Suborbital Rocket Following Trajectory Anomaly(06:20) SmallSat 2026(07:08) Artemis Mission Patches(07:44) NASA Selects University Teams to Help Advance Aviation Research(08:30) The View from Above: The Gemini Visual Acuity Experiments(09:13) Op-ed: The Technologies That Could Define the Future of Space(09:28) Muon Space Raises $250M Series C(10:16) Portal Books Dedicated Falcon 9 Amid Constrained Launch Market(11:01) China's Chang'e 7 moon probe will launch this weekend on the most ambitious lunar mission in history(11:48) SpaceX will try for 1st Starship tower catch 'in a few months,' Elon Musk says(12:28) Microbes from Earth may survive on the moon, scientists find(13:07) Mars Express orbiter captures detailed new video of the crater where Mark Watney was stranded in 'The Martian'(13:43) On this day in space! Aug. 20, 1977: Voyager 2 launches to the outer planets