Thirty-two years ago, Soundgarden predicted it with their summer smash from the album Superunknown.

This week, astronomers actually found it: a black hole sun.

These black hole stars are supermassive stars that produce energy comparable to what a black hole produces. Essentially, in the early universe, massive and dense clouds of gas—larger than our entire solar system—formed around black holes. These are incredibly powerful mashups bringing all of the power of both a massive star and black hole.

Closer to earth, concerns continue to grow over space debris.

A U.S. Air Force flight to Antarctica was forced abandon its flight and return to New Zealand. While the exact cause remains unconfirmed, it appears that the most likely culprit leading to the flight’s abandonment was concerns of space debris.

The government is paying attention.

The Defense Innovation Unit and Space Development Agency awarded contracts to three firms to design and test capabilities to deorbit expended satellites under a ‘deorbit-as-a-service’ model. The three firms are D-Orbit, Firefly Aerospace, and Katalyst Space.

While this is a critical step, it does not solve the full-scope of challenges facing us in orbit and particularly the challenge posed by small debris. There are more than 140 million pieces of debris from 1mm to 10cm, nearly all of it smaller than 1cm. This small debris is still capable of causing serious damage to spacecraft. In November, debris struck the Chinese Shenzhou-20 space capsule, effectively stranding three taikonauts in space longer than expected.

Speaking of China, they’re preparing to launch their Chang’e-7 robotic lunar probe this weekend.

The probe’s mission is to search for ice and water at the Lunar south pole.

If the mission is successful, China will be the first to find water on the Moon and will notch a significant achievement in the growing space competition with the United States.

Anyway, take a moment and watch the video of this absolute banger from 1994, and then get back to work and keep building!

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Epic Fury

• U.S.-Iran talks collapse (again) as U.A.E. suspends trade with Tehran (F24)

• Iran’s attacks on ships in Hormuz mount, testing U.S. military restraint (WSJ)

• Netanyahu, Kushner agree U.S. general to verify Hamas disarmament before Israel withdraws from Gaza (F24)

• Houthi threat to Red Sea shipping rises (WSJ)

• Trump threatens to bomb Oman (WSJ)

News Headlines

• Trump defends his move to cut back on U.S., South Korean military exercises (WP)

• South Korea hopes for talks between U.S. and North Korea after Trump downsizes military exercises (AP)

• Dept. of Justice probes VC firm a16z over antitrust concerns related to board director seats (BBG)

• L3Harris ousts CEO Chris Kubasik over unspecified ‘conduct’ (WSJ)

• Pentagon threatens to cut funding to 30 universities over foreign academic partnerships (TG)

Satellites

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Space News

• Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object: a black hole star (MIT)

• Panelists points to cost, production as key challenges for space nuclear power and propulsion (AA)

U.S. Federal Space News

• SPACECOM Deputy: U.S. must fuse missile warning and defense to defeat future threats (TWZ)

• Iran war reveals protection of space assets on bases has to ‘evolve’ (DO)

• The Pentagon is getting a ‘satellite sweeper’ that can roam three orbits (TDP)

• Space Force, Japan launch sensor to bolster space surveillance above Indo-Pacific (MT)

• Suspected space debris forces U.S. Air Force to abandon flight to Antarctica (NZH)

• DoD expands R&D on clearing expired satellites from orbit (BD)

Commercial Space News

• Satellite operators panic over worsening launch crunch (AT)

• Space-based interceptor contractors passed first Golden Dome milestone: Guetlein (BD)

• Astranis unveils geostationary surveillance satellite (SN)

• HEO to use Planet Labs satellites for non-Earth imaging (AVW)

• Northrop, Aeronix launch partnership to develop cryptographic systems for space-based defense platforms and satellite networks (IE)

• FCC retracts 7 million U.S. Starlink subscriber figure (PCM)

• SpaceX now exceeds 11,000 satellites in LEO (SFN)

Foreign Space News

• Japan prepares a mission to the Martian moons (JT)

• China’s space program is about to give the U.S. a wakeup call (AT)

• China’s LandSpace lands rocket booster; joins SpaceX, Blue Origin with reusable tech (RT)

• Kyiv faces missile barrage after Ukraine strikes on Russian satellite network (TG)

Electromagnetic Warfare

• New U.S. Space Force EW unit pairs multiple weapon systems in a first (ASF)

• Nigeria tests ‘all-in-one’ EW capability against rogue drones (TDP)

• U.S. Army leaders draft ‘guiding document’ to ask industry for new intelligence, electromagnetic spectrum operations capabilities (BD)

• Australia deploys new MC-55 EW jet for first time, heads to South China Sea (TWZ)

• Japan looks toward drone-mounted stand-in jammers (AMR)

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Deal Flow 

Funds

• GD1 made a first close of $33.5M ($NZ60M) for GD1 Core Fund II, a new fund focused on early-stage companies including in space tech (PU)

VC

• Stoke Space is raising a $1B Series E, following its $860M Series D which closed in February, to fund its Nova fully-reusable rocket (BBG)

• NeoGeo, an Indian geospatial technology startup, raised a $20M Series A led by Neev II Fund and Aavishkaar Capital (ISN)

• Princeton Critical Minerals, a clean technology startup accelerating lithium production from brine sources, raised an $11M Series A led by SOSV HAX (DR)

PE / M&A / Exits

• SpaceX completed it previously announced $60B acquisition of AI company Cursor (BBG)

• U.S. rocket company Astra ‌Space is seeking to raise $250M at a $1B valuation in a fresh funding haul (RT)

• CesiumAstro buys semiconductor specialist Jariet Technologies to boost constellation plans (SN)

Debt

• ULA inks $1.5B private bonds--triple the original planned size (BBG)

• Canadian satellite operator Telesat raised a $120M term loan this month as it prepares to deal with $2B of debt coming due (BBG)

Editor’s Picks

• wonders if Hughes‘ filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy could increase the risk that SpaceX runs afoul of antitrust law.

• Former DIU Director Doug Beck explores why America’s defense tech revolution hasn’t won the tech race, yet.

• offers a step-by-step look at how reflected electromagnetic energy becomes range, velocity, direction, and a targetable track.

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Only months after raising a whopping $729M Series D++, iSpace has announced a $148M first tranche of its Series E. Space Star Technology raised $297M, led by HongShan (formerly Sequoia China). And Orienspace raised hundreds of millions of Yuan.

This latest surge in space financing signals more than investor enthusiasm for the sector.

Beijing is mobilizing capital across launch, reusability, production, and orbital infrastructure to build a deeper and more resilient space-industrial base alongside its traditional state-owned champions, like CASC.

That China suffered a launch failure of a Long March-7A doesn’t really threaten the broader trajectory; instead, it helps illustrate why China is funding multiple pathways to orbit before any single failure can constrain its ambitions.

To be blunt: China is treating space competition as an industrial-mobilization problem, while the West still too often treats it as a series of programs, demos, and best on individual champions.

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Epic Fury

• Trump pivots back to sanctions for Iran as other strategies to end war fizzle (AP)

• Former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaei appointed as Iran’s security chief (AlJ)

• Strait of Hormuz traffic falls to new low as Iran-backed Houthis kill 6 in Red Sea (CBS)

• Hopes of any Iran deal are fading (BBG)

News Headlines

• Another nuclear power plant disabled--this time by jellyfish swarm (BBG)

• Congressional Budget Office warns U.S. debt service payments reach $3B per day! (FTN)

• Russia releases former U.S. Marine, held in detention for more than 4 years (NPR)

• Norway’s $2T SWF says entire value could disappear in market collapse (RT)

• Resilient Europe turns into a winning bet for investors (BBG)

• Former Biden Secretary of Air Force Frank Kendall to sue administration over security clearance revocation (TH)

• European drought is hindering Germany’s economic recovery (DW)

• Moderate Democrat keeps socialism in check in Wisconsin gubernatorial primary (NYT)

Satellites

Launches

Upcoming Launches

Space News

• Research team creates synthetic quasar data to train AI algorithm on gravitational lensing (UT)

• Scientists have released the biggest two-dimensional map of the universe, which took 263,407 photos to make (NSF)

• Most detailed images ever taken of sun’s surface are also revealed (NASA)

U.S. Federal Space News

• Bipartisan Senate bill would sharpen Space Force training for conflict with China (SN)

• The U.S. Senate confirmed Douglas Schiess as the next Chief of Space Operations (AFT)

Commercial Space News

• Blue Origin narrowing in on root cause of catastrophic rocket accident (AT)

• Firefly pushes debut of Alpha Block 2 rocket to Q4 (SFN)

• ICBM killer passes two key tests ahead of design review, Lockheed claims (DO)

• Northrop CEO says Sentinel backlog rose by $7.6B, with first integrated flight planned for 2027 (DIE)

• Redwire has booked SpaceX Starfall’s first dedicated mission (AVW)

• Environmental groups challenge FCC approval of Reflect Orbital‘s plan to beam on-demand sunlight from space (NBC)

• Rocket Lab unveils GHOST, its rapidly deployable, responsive launch system (SP)

• SpaceX increasing footprint in missile defense (SN)

• SpaceX declines Ukrainian request for Starlink support to deep strikes in Russia (U24)

Foreign Space News

• Chinese Long March-7A rocket explodes during comms satellite launch (BBG)

• A Chinese satellite captured video of SpaceX rocket debris crashing into the moon (MP)

• Kyiv warns Russia is rolling out Rassvet, its Starlink-style network faster than expected (RT)

• Russia’s space program is highly dependent on Chinese hardware (TR)

• Ukrainian strikes on Russian space enabling infrastructure are weakening Russia’s space program (UP)

Electromagnetic Warfare

• Chinese scientists use AI and metasurfaces to rewrite what radar sees (EA)

• Australian firm develops handheld device that reads the electromagnetic battlefield (TDP)

• Ukraine strikes Russia’s newest $1.5M Starlink-jamming EW system near Black Sea Cost (KP)

• Parsons wins $40M EW national security contract (EB)

• China’s transport aircraft can play combat roles, turn into electromagnetic warfare platform (IE)

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Deal Flow 

Funds

• VC firm Accel raised $3.5B across four funds for global early-stage investments (YF)

• David Sacks’s Craft Ventures is seeking to raise $1B for its first fund since leaving the Trump administration (TI)

VC

• China-based Space Star Technology raised a $297M Series D led by Sequoia China to expand its TT&C and ground in-o0rbit service offerings (DR)

• Chinese reusable launch company iSpace raised the first $148M of its planned larger Series E round, less than six months after its massive, $729M Series D++ round (SN)

• Chinese space startup Orienspace announced a pre-Series C round worth several multiples of $15M, as it prepares for IPO (SN)

• Endeavor Optical Networks emerged from stealth, having raised a $10.8M seed round co-led by General Catalyst and a16z to build a constellation of optical communications satellites in MEO (TC)

PE / M&A / Exits

• Blackstar Orbital Technologies, a company developing a reusable spacecraft platform, will merge with Pono Capital Four at a $380M valuation (ST)

• Indian space startup GalaxEye acquires StarOps to strengthen satellite engineering with in-house production and two launches scheduled in next two years (ISN)

• ETL Systems acquired Amphinicy Technologies to expand SatCom opportunities, in an undisclosed transaction (SE)

Debt

• ULA is reportedly planning a $500M private placement to refinance its debt (YF)

Exciting Opportunities

• Air Force Research Laboratory is looking for information on potential solutions to enhance Rocket-Based Combined Cycle propulsion technologies (SAM)

• DARPA is looking for micro-scale inertial sensing architectures for GPS-denied navigation (SAM)

• The Naval Research Laboratory is looking for end-to-end IT and scientific-computing support for its Space Science Division (SAM)

Editor’s Picks

• FPRI president Aaron Stein explores Russia’s approach to ASATs and why they’re willing to risk LEO for everyone.

Lighter Side

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Epic Fury

• Cargo ship reports being struck in Strait of Hormuz as U.S., Iran claims about talks diverge (AP)

• At least 13 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza after Hamas agree disarmament deal (BBC)

News Headlines

• Denmark begins extended military conscription in response to Russia, Trump (RT)

• Taiwan, U.S. promote cooperation in answer to Trump, China (WSJ)

• U.S. manufacturing is finally up, hits 4-year high (RT)

• Pirro brought box of evidence to show Trump what caused Reflecting Pool damage (CBS)

• Senate judiciary committee advances Todd Blanche’s nomination to the Senate for final confirmation as Attorney General (NYT)

• Trump blasted Big Oil for 'making too much money' (WSJ)

Satellites

Launches

Upcoming Launches

Space News

• Memory chips cut computing power 59-fold, may trim satellite weight by 2,000 pounds (IE)

• Astronomers have found a hole in the universe — the Boötes Void which has almost no galaxies where there should be thousands (SD)

• SpaceX rocket set to crash into Moon today, likely to leave a new crater (TG)

U.S. Federal Space News

• Space Force to launch 18 communications and targeting missions by 2028 (ASF)

• Space Force picks 15 firms to build test and training infrastructure (ASF)

Commercial Space News

• AE Industrial Partners takes 60% ownership of Rocketdyne as L3Harris splits off space propulsion company from faster growing missile business Aerojet (SN)

• Space Force awards K2 Space $22.9 million for laser communications demonstration (SN)

• Rocket Lab, STR win Space Force contracts for airborne-target tracking (SN)

• SpaceX’s revenue rises as its once-soaring stock price drifts back to Earth (NPR)

• Musk continues to overstate reasonable SpaceX revenues in near term (WSJ)

• Musk is reportedly considering selling Tesla's China unit to pave way for a SpaceX merger (WSJ)

Foreign Space News

• China closes the satellite gap in space race with the U.S. (WSJ)

Electromagnetic Warfare

• Ukraine takes on multi-band drone threats with new EW tech (TDP)

• Military GPS-jamming test may have resulted in civilian medevac aircraft crash in New Mexico, killing all on board (WI)

• Russia allegedly gave Iran anti-jam hardware that has defeated U.S. EW tech (TT)

• German military deploys EW unit to Lithuania (APA)

• Ukraine will mass-produce Stone Cloak EW tech after U.K. allows Kyiv to build a tablet-sized device (TR)

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Deal Flow 

Funds

• Index Ventures raised $3.5B across a new seed fund, a flagship VC fund, and a growth fund (PU)

VC

• Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a fusion power startup, raised $1B in new funding from pension funds, SWFs, and others (TC)

• Nuclear startup Valar Atomics raised a $1B round led by Sequoia (TC)

• Satellite startup K2 Space raised a $500M Series D at $6.8B valuation led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ (PRN)

• Array Labs raised $21M led by Mitsubishi Electric to develop satellite radar tracking over the Pacific (PRN)

PE / M&A / Exits

• Nuclear tech firm Westinghouse filed confidentially for an IPO; Brookfield and uranium producer Cameco acquired the firm for $8B in 2023 (WSJ)

• Trump family-backed defense tech company Space-Eyes will merge with McKinley Acquisition Corp in $640M deal (SA)

Restructuring / Bankruptcy / Distressed

• EchoStar‘s satellite internet unit Hughes Satellite Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (RT)

Editor’s Picks

• Chevalier Strategic Advisors president Frank Rose reflects on lessons for space warfare from Iran and Ukraine.

• A group of joint, mid-career officers explain shortfalls in the U.S. Marine Corps EMSO capabilities.

Lighter Side

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It’s just another day in the space office.

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It is nearly 100: the number of American service members injured since hostilities resumed two weeks ago. Four more service members have been killed in the days since the ceasefire collapsed.

Those figures do not capture the full human cost of the war’s first phase, from February through May, when the Pentagon recorded hundreds more injuries and 14 prior deaths. They do, however, describe the character of this renewed phase with uncomfortable clarity: this is not a brief aftershock to a war already won.

It is a live conflict in which American forces are again absorbing casualties, Iran is still able to strike regional bases and commercial shipping, and the United States has conducted more than a week of consecutive strikes. And there is little evidence that the trend is reversing.

Nevertheless, the administration continues to present Epic Fury as little more than a punitive operation: force applied to restore…

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One report we think is particularly notable alleges that Iran is using encrypted PNT signals from China’s BeiDou constellation to guide missiles such as the Zolfaqar short-range ballistic missile. If accurate, the integration could make those weapons more resilient to U.S. efforts to jam or spoof their satellite-navigation signals.

The immediate effect would be greater pressure on the kinetic layer of the defensive architecture. If electromagnetic warfare cannot sufficiently degrade a missile’s guidance, U.S. and allied force may have little choice but to shoot it out of the sky. That could accelerate the consumption of critical munitions such as the PAC-3 MSE and THAAD interceptor.

There is some good news though: the success rate of U.S…

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At the same time, the President has announced a desire to cut off all trade with and tourism to Spain, calling the country ‘a wasted cause’. Not content to upset just one major ally, the President has renewed calls for U.S. ownership of Greenland.

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Looking forward, China is planning to ramp up its launch cadence this week, as it looks to compete with the United States. Rocket Lab is looking to compete with SpaceX and is gobbling up existing space companies—like Iridium—to do so.

Finally, in case you missed it, we dropped some great, paywalled content for our paid subscribers earlier this morning about the interdependence between national power and America’s increasingly vulnerable financial system.

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Armies maneuvered to seize mountain passes, river crossings, roads, ports, railways, and airfields because those features enabled the movement of military power. Terrain determined where forces could mass, how quickly they could move, and whether commanders could sustain operations over distance.

The industrial age expanded the scale of warfare, but the logic remained largely unchanged. Railroads moved armies. Pipelines moved fuel. Shipping lanes moved supplies. Physical infrastructure served as the connective tissue that transformed individual units into coherent fighting forces.

The information age has introduced a new form of terrain.

Today, military power increasingly moves through the electromagnetic spectrum.

The electromagnetic spectrum has become the backbone of modern military operations. It carries orders from commanders to subordinates. It enables aircraft to navigate, ships to maneuver, missiles …

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While couched in the familiar nomenclature of civil communications tests and environmental monitoring, their orbital profiles and industrial origins signal an accelerated build-up of operational military intelligence—and potentially counterspace—capabilities.

The first launch, TJS-25 (NORAD ID: 69474), used a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle from Wenchang. The requirement for China's most powerful heavy-lift launcher and an oversized payload fairing is consistent with a large-aperture signals intelligence payload, potentially related to the Qianshao family of GEO SIGINT satellites. These platforms deploy gargantuan mesh reflector antennas to harvest weak electronic emissions across theaters. The heavy payload capacity utilized here highlights that Beijing isn’t merely sustaining its high-altitud…

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Russia has been conducting regular tests of what appears to be a small constellation of electromangetic warfare satellites in Molniya orbits since at least 2019. These satellites have been observed jamming a frequency exceptionally close to frequencies used in global navigation systems, over the entire European continent. University of Texas-Austin professor Todd Humphreys succeeded in isolating the satellites responsible for the interference, but this highlights the need resilience in systems—and particularly for Alt-PNT.

Finally, we’re at T-2 days and count…

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Of course, the explosion is more than a problem for Blue Origin. It’s a reminder of just how thin the United States’ heavy-lift launch capacity remains.

For NASA, the setback complicates plans for sustained lunar operations. Until New Glenn returns to flight and completes the certification process, NASA’s practical options for super-heavy launch capability remain limited. While multiple launch providers exist on paper, the reality is that only one possesses the capacity necessary to support ambitious lunar exploration, large-scale cargo delivery, and future space infrastructure.

The same trend appeared last week when NASA shifted portions of its commercial cre…

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Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, is the application of advanced technologies for remotely accessing adversary computer systems and conducting espionage or sabotage. It’s a term that comes from the NSA, was once the name of a specialized SIGINT division, and is the pinnacle of hacking abilities.

When we talk about TAO, think of how Israel’s Unit 8200 and the NSA implanted Stuxnet onto air-gapped SCADA systems in Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility under Operation Olympic Games. While early versions of the virus were transferred by USB thumb-drive, later versions were projected through ‘more sophisticated means’ — likely a reference to some form of a radiofrequency man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack.

Now, a team of Korean, Chinese, and Singaporean researchers led by Professor Han Jun of KAIST demo…

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In space, a school bus-sized asteroid will pass within 500,000 miles of earth today. Speaking of Asteroids, scientists have developed an algorithm to optimize a spacecraft visiting multiple asteroids, saving on fuel and costs. This comes as spacecraft Psyche has slingshot around Mars—coming within 2,500 miles of the Red Planet, on its way to …

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Ukraine has allegedly struck at Russia’s cosmodrome prompting a pause on using it for space launches. That will not have a very large impact on Russia’s launch capabilities as most of its launches still take-off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Ukraine has demonstrated an incredible improvement in its lo…

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While the financial press is busy calculating the immediate impact on Brent crude futures (hint: it doesn’t change the fact that the Strait of Hormuz is still blocked up), those of us in the defense and technology sectors should be looking at a much more ominous signal.

The U.A.E.’s withdrawal is not a simple pricing dispute; it is a sovereign pivot. It is a high-profile “exit” from a 20th-century institution that Abu Dhabi has deemed no longer fit for its 21st-century ambitions. This move is not about oil. It is a canary in the coal mine for a larger, more dangerous trend: the fragmentation of the global operating system.

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For many across the Joint Force, this will feel like a small victory. The flu shot has long been an administrative burden—tracked by commanders, enforced by medical staff, and begrudgingly received by service members.

But this is not a minor policy change. It is a decision that, if allowed to stand, risks reversing one of the most important—and hard-won—advancements in military readiness.

For most of American military history, service members were far more likely to die from disease and non-battle injuries (DNBI) than from enemy action. Disease, not combat, was the primary killer on the battlefield.

The numbers are staggering:

• In the Revolutionary War, 6,800 servicemembers died in combat while 17,000 died from DNBI. DNBI represented 71% of all military deaths in the war.

• In the War of 1812, 2,260 servicemembers died in …

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This policy comes less than a year after termination of the joint DARPA-NASA Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operation (DRACO), which had aimed to field a nuclear thermal rocket. On the surface, that may appear contradictory. In reality, it reflects something more important: nuclear technologies in space are not going away, they’re diversifying.

Nuclear powered space craft are not new, either. For example, the Voyager 1 and Voyater 2 probes (noteworthy for being the most distant man-made objects from earth) are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) using Plutonium-238. These systems do not provide propulsion to the spacecraft—that comes from hydrazine—but they do provide long-duration, reliable power in environments where solar energy is insufficient.

Nuclea…

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• US commitment to guarantee non-aggression.

• Continuation of Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz with $2M fees per ship split with Oman.

• Acceptance of Iran’s nuclear enrichment rights.

• Lifting of all primary sanctions on Iran.

• Lifting of all secondary sanctions.

• Termination of all UN Security Council resolutions targeting Iran.

• Termination of all IAEA Board of Governors resolutions on Iran’s nuclear program.

• Payment of compensation/damages to Iran for war losses from U.S., Israel.

• Withdrawal of US combat forces from the region—all U.S. forces out of the Middle East.

• Cessation of hostilities on all fronts including against Iranian proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Given the administration’s transactional approach to foreign…

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