Space News for Tuesday, February 17, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:23) Leonardo funding development of Earth observation constellation(01:19) NASA work on several programs pending responses to White House executive order(02:06) The space nuclear power bottleneck — and how to fix it(02:38) Low-profile Chinese launch firm conducts first stage static fire(03:25) NASA to attempt second full fueling test of its Space Launch System rocket(04:22) Viasat Report Signals Industrial “Rush” Toward Direct-to-Device (D2D) Connectivity(05:29) China Completes In-Orbit Testing of “Three-Body” AI Computing Constellation(05:44) India Accelerates Military Space Architecture Amid Rising Orbital Weaponization Risks(06:41) JAXA Awards Rakuten Mobile $71.9 Million to Advance Satellite-Terrestrial 5G Integration(07:36) LMT Group and Sateliot Partner with ESA to Advance Dual-Mode 5G Satellite IoT(08:37) Orbex collapse fails to halt progress for UK domestic launch capability(09:29) Launch Preview: Firefly to launch Alpha, SpaceX to launch three Starlink missions(09:49) The Artemis 1 moon mission had a heat shield issue. Here’s why NASA doesn’t think it will happen again on Artemis 2(10:34) Why don't more Tatooine-like exoplanets exist in our Milky Way galaxy? Astronomers might have an answer(11:07) Astronomers discover chemicals that could seed life in the core of a developing star(11:44) Wormholes may not exist – we've found they reveal something deeper about time and the universe(12:31) How astronomers are unveiling the 'skeleton' of the universe