Space News for Friday, February 13, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:23) China’s iSpace launch firm raises record $729 million for reusable rockets(00:41) Space startups find more paths to liquidity as investors warm to maturing sector(01:11) First Ariane 64 launches Amazon Leo satellites(02:00) Axiom Space raises additional $350 million(02:20) ThinKom gets military contract to supply portable ground stations for satellite communications(02:48) NASA loading liquid hydrogen aboard Artemis 2 rocket in unannounced test(03:25) Vulcan suffers solid rocket booster problem during USSF-87 launch(04:07) ULA to launch geosynchronous orbit surveillance satellite for the U.S. Space Force(05:11) The Hybrid Architecture Is No Longer Theoretical(06:03) The Thruster Reality Check: Why Boring is the New Stealth(06:21) Balance Sheets Now Matter More Than Rockets(06:52) 70,000 Satellites, One Big Bottleneck: The Industry Wakes Up to the Data Trap(07:20) Software Defines the New Front Lines of Space Defense(08:13) Sunlight Extracts Oxygen From Regolith Using Solar Chemistry(09:00) Stonebreen’s Beating Heart(09:37) NASA Selects Vast for Sixth Private Mission to Space Station(10:16) NASA Moon Mission Spacesuit Nears Milestone(10:30) Shimmering Light in Egg Nebula(11:10) Archival Data From NASA’s NEOWISE Tracks Star Turning Into Black Hole(11:27) Orbex’s Troubles Open Opportunities for Skyrora(12:25) Vulcan, Ariane 64 Blast Off(13:13) Deep Space Energy Pockets €980K to Build European Space Nuclear Power(14:04) Satellite megaconstellations continue to grow. Could their debris fall on us?(14:44) Watch SpaceX launch Crew-12 astronaut mission to the International Space Station this morning(15:22) Deja vu: Vulcan Centaur rocket powers through 'significant performance anomaly' on satellite launch(15:59) Scientists have found a weird 'inside out' planetary system. Here's what it looks like