Space News for Tuesday, July 21, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:23) Italian startup ORiS raises funding for laser power-beaming technology(01:08) Pipelines to payloads: risk management lessons for the space economy(01:44) AI rocket engine startup LegendSpace raises $29.5 million angel round(02:08) SpaceX suffers rare, last-second Falcon 9 rocket launch abort(02:45) Commercial Launch Providers Advance Next-Generation Heavy and Medium-Lift Vehicle Milestones Ahead of 2026 Debuts(03:07) SSPI Launches Collateral Risk Series Addressing Civil Spillover in Contested Space Domains(03:24) ThinKom GT2517 Terminal Achieves SES Government Technology Certification for O3b mPOWER Operation(03:59) Avealto Opens $50 Million Funding Round to Launch Stratospheric Broadband Production(04:30) NASA Sets Briefings for SpaceX Crew-13 Mission to Space Station(05:05) NASA, GE Aerospace Work Enables Hybrid-Electric Flight Demonstration(05:47) From Hampton to Mars: How NASA Langley Helped Land on the Red Planet(06:14) Launch Preview: Falcon 9, Starship, and Chinese rockets scheduled to launch(06:30) Skyroot Aerospace Reaches Orbit with Vikram-1 Rocket(07:17) DoD Adds $11.4B to NatSec Launch Contracts(08:02) SpaceX targets July 23 for crucial Starship Flight 13 test launch after abort(08:42) Scientists discover mystery molecule on Pluto and Saturn's moon Titan: 'We cannot say what it is'(09:33) 50 years after Viking 1's historic Mars landing, NASA is looking to the Red Planet's skies(09:47) Twice in a row: SpaceX rocket aborts launch at last second again (video)(10:13) Four astronauts, 3 spacecraft, 2 weeks in orbit: Artemis III will be NASA's most complicated mission ever(10:42) The Space Force is now seeking to buy up to $30 billion in rocket launches