Space News for Friday, August 28, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:22) Arianespace Launches Thales Alenia Space MTG-I2 Satellite Aboard Ariane 62 Rocket(00:39) Financial Modeling Validates SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Economics and Margins(01:23) Saudi Space Investments Projected to Quadruple to $31.6 Billion by 2035, CST Report Finds(02:00) The Forested Floodplains of Congaree National Park(02:43) NASA Invites Media to Turkey Artemis Accords Signing Ceremony(02:57) Civil Servants Sworn in at NASA Ames(03:29) ICEYE Opens Three International Offices in a Single Week(03:58) Canadian Companies Partner on SDA Sat Solution(04:14) Space Weather Losses to Double by 2035, Report Finds(05:02) LeoLabs Wins $20.68M Space Force Award for Scout(05:27) James Webb Space Telescope observes 72 stars and finds planet formation is a race against time(06:14) Astronaut Jonny Kim leaves NASA, will return to active military duty(06:57) After failure of private rescue mission, NASA's Swift space telescope will crash back to Earth. But when and where?(07:39) Starship is coming home! SpaceX loads floating spacecraft onto huge ship in the Indian Ocean (photos)(08:12) Trump tried to scrap NASA's Roman Space Telescope last year. Now it's ready to launch