Space News for Friday, March 20, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:22) Blue Origin joins the orbital data center race(00:54) Register now: The energy imperative driving the push toward orbital data centers(01:43) Kratos wins $446 million Space Force contract for missile-tracking ground systems(02:33) Eileen Collins on what it takes to become Space Shuttle Commander(02:59) SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral(03:15) NASA Deals Blow to Boeing With Bigger SpaceX Moon-Mission Role(03:44) Eutelsat CEO Outlines Strategic Pivot to Multi-Orbit Connectivity and OneWeb Gen 2 Roadmap(04:16) NewSpace Systems Opens Africa’s Largest Commercial Space Hardware Manufacturing Facility(04:35) ReOrbit Secures €150 Million Contract with SLI for Next-Generation Small GEO Satellites(04:58) Restless Kīlauea Launches Lava and Ash(05:25) American Bald Eagle at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center(05:56) How NASA is Collecting Explosion Data for Next Generation Rockets(06:30) NASA Laser Reflecting Instrument Makes GPS Satellite More Accurate(06:54) NASA to Cover Progress 94 Spacecraft Launch, Space Station Docking(07:41) Inside Austria’s Small But Mighty Space Ecosystem(08:33) Portal, Paladin Team On Debris Removal Service(09:04) These cotton candy exoplanets hide behind a haze even the James Webb Space Telescope can't penetrate(09:52) 'A great relief!' Europe's Proba-3 solar-eclipse satellite phones home after a month of silence(10:30) Private South Korean rocket exploded last December due to hardware failure, investigation finds(11:15) NASA peers inside an asteroid | Space photo of the day for March 19, 2026(11:52) An AI cyberattack could trigger a satellite apocalypse in the next 2 years. Are we prepared?(12:40) Dogfighting in space won't look like the movies, but this company wants in on it