Space Economy

Verizon Communications has entered into a joint venture with AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile US, Inc. to expand wireless coverage and reduce mobile dead zones across the United States using satellite connectivity. The venture will complement Verizon's existing network with direct-to-device services, letting compatible devices connect to satellite networks and providing backup connectivity during natural disasters or other network disruptions. The partnership is expected to reduce coverage gaps, improve reliability and provide more satellite service options, while helping Verizon adopt common technical standards that improve compatibility among devices, operating systems and satellite networks. Existing carrier-satellite agreements will remain in place, allowing Verizon to continue its independent connectivity initiatives alongside the new venture. Verizon shares have gained 10.8% over the past year compared with the industry's growth of 119.6%, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 8.77 versus the industry average of 37.6. Earnings estimates for 2026 have remained static at $5.03 per share, while estimates for 2027 have increased 0.2% to $5.30 over the past 60 days.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. is exploring a robotics solution for research and laboratory operations aboard future commercial space stations, working with space and defense technology provider Redwire Corporation. Honda's U.S.-based space development team is combining its multi-fingered robotic hand with Redwire's STAARK robotic arm and experiment locker technology to automate research tasks and cut the time astronauts spend on routine lab work. The push comes as NASA shifts from the International Space Station toward commercially operated stations in low Earth orbit, where smaller crews and shorter astronaut stays are increasing the need for automation. Honda's hand uses actively controlled joints with force and tactile sensing across the fingertips and palm for precise, human-like manipulation, while Redwire operates eight facilities on the ISS and has tested the STAARK arm's ability to autonomously track and grasp dynamic objects. The integrated system could eventually support the broader experiment workflow, from sample handling and material transfers to equipment operation, plus inventory management, cargo movement and inspections.

SpaceX shares rose about 4% on Monday after Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and a $300 price target on the rocket and satellite company, calling it an "unusually cheap" way to play the growing space and artificial intelligence economy. The target implies 88.7% upside from Friday's close. Analyst Adam Jonas said SpaceX looks expensive on conventional metrics but relatively cheap after adjusting for growth, trading at about 30 times estimated 2028 EV/EBIT versus roughly 16 times for other mega-cap AI enablers, and at only 0.3 times EV/EBIT/growth, about 40% below the peer median. Jonas said the market already prices in most of SpaceX's space and connectivity opportunity, leaving about $32 a share for its AI business, and flagged Starship Flight 15, expected in late October or early November, as a key catalyst that could be the biggest positive catalyst since the IPO. Further AI compute contracts, new Grok releases, and progress on Starship reusability could also support the stock, while risks include slower AI growth, higher infrastructure costs, and potential dilution.

TELUS and AST SpaceMobile have successfully completed their first integration test between TELUS' wireless network and AST SpaceMobile's space-based network, a milestone toward delivering broadband data, voice calls and text messages directly between smartphones and satellites. The service is expected to be available to TELUS customers within the next year, letting eligible smartphones connect beyond the reach of traditional cell towers. AST SpaceMobile's constellation features the largest communication arrays ever deployed in Low Earth Orbit. Nazim Benhadid, Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at TELUS, called the milestone a major step forward in extending cellular coverage to places where service isn't available today, while AST SpaceMobile Chief Commercial Officer Chris Ivory said the test reflects the strength and maturity of the company's technology. The partnership builds on TELUS' ongoing investments in its wireless network, including faster 5G+ and LTE speeds and expanded coverage across Canada.

WISeSat.Space Holdings Corp. shares surged as much as 500% in Monday premarket trading after the company completed its previously announced reverse SPAC merger with Columbus Acquisition Corp. on October 1, 2026. The subsidiary of WISeQey Corp. began trading its ordinary shares on Nasdaq under the ticker SAIQ on October 2, 2026. Founder, chairman and CEO Carlos Moreira is scheduled to ring the Nasdaq Opening Bell on October 9, 2026, at Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. The listing supports WISeSat.Space's plans to expand secure satellite connectivity, drawing on WISeQey's expertise in cybersecurity, digital identity and secure semiconductors to connect IoT devices beyond terrestrial networks. SAIQ was up 308.63% at $7.55 in premarket trading on Monday, hitting a new 52-week high.

Teledyne Imaging Sensors announced it has delivered more than 1.3 billion infrared detector pixels in support of the U.S. Space Force and Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, and has been selected to provide infrared focal plane technology for both Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3 awards. The pixel deliveries support SDA Tracking Layer programs for missile warning and missile tracking missions. To date, Teledyne has delivered more than 170 infrared focal planes for the SDA Tracking Layer and is under contract to provide more than 115 additional focal planes. The AMDT3 awards, announced by SDA in July 2026, will add more than 30 additional missile warning, missile tracking, and missile defense satellites to the Tracking Layer in direct support of the Golden Dome for America initiative. Teledyne has also advanced its large-format focal plane arrays to formats as large as 6K × 6K and 8K × 8K pixels.

Gilat Satellite Networks said its Peruvian subsidiary, Gilat Perú, has signed a $28 million agreement with Pronatel, Peru's national telecommunications program, to upgrade broadband connectivity across the Ica region. Construction on the project is expected to be completed by mid-year 2027, after which a seven-year operational phase will follow. The award expands Gilat's footprint in Peru's regional connectivity buildout.

Redwire has been awarded a follow-on contract by Axiom Space to develop and deliver two Roll-Out Solar Array wings for Axiom Station's second space station module. The company is also developing the ROSA wings for Axiom Space's first space station module, which is undergoing final assembly at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. That first module will then be transferred to Houston for integration and testing before launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the launch planned for 2028. The second module is preparing for final assembly at Thales Alenia Space and is expected to launch less than a year after the first module, and once in orbit it can remain there until it is ready to dock with the first module. Together, the two modules are expected to form a four-crew-capable, operational free-flying space station.

Redwire announced new collaborations with Sophia Space on orbital computing infrastructure and with American Honda Motor on integrated robotics for future commercial space stations, while also being named one of 15 vendors on Space Systems Command's more than US$980 million NITE-STAR IDIQ contract, which carries no guaranteed revenue. The agreements, disclosed in late September and early October 2026, extend Redwire's push into space-based infrastructure, automation and US national security programs and could broaden its revenue mix across commercial, research and defense customers. The company's investment narrative projects $714.6 million in revenue and $66.1 million in earnings by 2029, requiring 24.4% yearly revenue growth and a $410.0 million earnings increase from -$343.9 million today. Before the news, the most optimistic analysts assumed revenue could reach about US$782.1 million by 2029 with earnings of roughly US$72.8 million, a view that sits in tension with concerns about heavy equity issuance and integration risk. Redwire's biggest risks remain exposure to complex contracts, cost overruns on fixed price work, uneven profitability and reliance on external funding to support its growth plans.

Viasat Inc., through its subsidiary Inmarsat Government, Inc., was awarded the U.S. Space Force's MECS2 contract in September 2026, securing an initial US$42 million task order under a seven-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity agreement with a ceiling of up to US$307 million to provide fully managed global SATCOM services for the U.S. Marine Corps. The award deepens Viasat's role in secure, multi-orbit government communications and highlights the importance of its ViaSat-3-enabled Ka-band network and 24x7 managed services capabilities. The company's narrative projects $5.5 billion revenue and $626.3 million earnings by 2029, with forecasts yielding a $103.94 fair value, a 44% upside to its current price. Some of the lowest ranked analysts were far more cautious, assuming only about 3.9 percent annual revenue growth and continued losses. The MECS2 award looks incrementally positive for the investment thesis, reinforcing defense demand and multi-orbit capabilities, but it does not by itself resolve near term pressure from high ViaSat-3 and Inmarsat capex or the risk that broadband subscriber declines keep weighing on revenue quality.

Rocket Lab Corporation announced a multi-year agreement to launch 20 new Electron missions from Launch Complex 1 for Synspective, carrying StriX synthetic aperture radar satellites to sun-synchronous orbit annually from 2028 through 2031. The contract is the largest commercial launch deal for Electron so far and lifts Rocket Lab's backlog above 100 missions, deepening its role in building Synspective's global Earth-imaging constellation. The deal reinforces Electron's position as a high-cadence small-launch workhorse and slightly reduces near-term lumpiness risk in the launch book, though the key near-term catalyst and risk remain Neutron test progress and ongoing cash burn. Rocket Lab's US$1.944 billion equity raise to fund the pending Iridium acquisition shows management leaning on the balance sheet to expand into higher-value space systems and communications, amplifying the benefits of large multi-year contracts like Synspective's while raising the stakes around dilution and execution. Analysts had already modeled revenue near US$2.2 billion and earnings around US$365 million by 2029 on the optimistic side, against a more cautious consensus that treats cash burn and contract lumpiness as core risks.

Planet Labs launched 20 satellites on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg, sending up a stack that included a prototype for Google's Project Suncatcher, Tanager-2, and 18 SuperDoves, according to a company press release. Planet Labs established contact and began commissioning Tanager-2, the Suncatcher prototype, and two SuperDoves. Google is using the Planet-hosted demo to run four TPUs with the Gemma AI model in orbit, a step toward space-based AI compute. Shares of the earth imaging satellite company jumped 7.8% in the afternoon session on the news. Planet Labs is down 14.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $17.44 per share it is trading 66.1% below its 52-week high of $51.40 from May 2026.

SpaceX shares have stabilized after notching an all-time low of $104.83 in early August, with the company citing fresh catalysts that could drive the stock higher into year-end and into 2027. Starship, SpaceX's two-stage rocket and the largest human-made flying object, recently reached orbit for the first time, and the recent flight deployed the first 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. Anthropic expanded its computing agreements with SpaceX, committing up to $84.5 billion through May 2029 for NVIDIA-based AI infrastructure, while Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest SpaceX will grow revenue by 147% in 2027. The odds of a SpaceX and Tesla merger by the end of next year have spiked to 63% on Polymarket. The company also pointed to Planet Labs and Google's launch of the first AI satellite as proof of concept for its ambitions in space-based AI data centers.

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on Thursday aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, marking the company's 13th crew rotation mission for NASA. The crew, consisting of two Americans, one Canadian, and one Russian cosmonaut, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Falcon 9 rocket. According to Bloomberg space correspondent Lauren Grush, the mission comes amid speculation that SpaceX may retire the Crew Dragon once the ISS program ends, with only four more crew rotation missions currently scheduled. The crew will spend roughly a week aboard the station before the previous Crew 12 team returns to Earth following a handover. Three of the four astronauts on this flight are first-time flyers.

MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said Tuesday that SpaceX's Starlink is becoming a more credible competitor to terrestrial broadband providers, particularly in rural and lower-density markets, as the service begins deploying higher-capacity V3 satellites. Moffett told CNBC that Starlink poses a much greater competitive challenge to Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. than to traditional wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., saying the terrestrial broadband business where they deliver ISP service is a very credible product that already is having a significant impact. SpaceX's first Starship orbital flight deployed 26 V3 Starlink satellites, which Moffett said carry substantially more capacity and should improve the service, though he expects it will be after 2030 before most of the Starlink constellation consists of V3 satellites. Even with V3 satellites, he does not expect Starlink to match the speeds offered by terrestrial fiber or cable broadband, leaving pricing and customer segmentation as major competitive factors, with Starlink potentially competing more effectively for value-oriented customers. Moffett compared the challenge with the pressure Comcast and Charter already face from fixed wireless access, noting the cable operators have responded by bundling broadband with wireless services, a strategy he said has proven relatively successful.

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have entered into a joint venture agreement aimed at expanding satellite-enabled coverage in underserved areas across the U.S., following a May announcement that the three carriers would pool limited spectrum resources to help eliminate coverage dead zones. Paul Roth, a wireless industry veteran who previously held leadership roles at AT&T, Cingular Wireless and Ameritech, will serve as interim CEO while a search for a permanent chief executive is underway, and the venture will be managed by a board with representatives from each founding member. The JV is designed to complement terrestrial mobile networks rather than replace them, with the goal of nearly eliminating dead zones currently without mobile service, providing redundant connectivity during natural disasters, and improving direct-to-device access as a first step. The partners said the venture will support industry competition and innovation, work with rural mobile network operators, and pursue a standards-based approach to device compatibility, while existing carrier-satellite agreements remain in place and the three companies can continue connectivity efforts independently.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, or DE, is testing the feasibility, or POC, of technology from the company Tomorrow.io, which uses low Earth orbit, or LEO, satellites equipped with Microwave Sounder instruments to measure water mass in the atmosphere, with AI helping to process the data so that updates can be issued more frequently than once per hour, approaching real-time reporting. Mr. Chaichanok Chidchob, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, said that after the POC period ends, the ministry is still studying and comparing technologies and the cost-effectiveness of the project, since it takes the form of annual service fees rather than an outright purchase, and the ministry is open to other companies with similar technology coming forward to propose solutions, for transparency and to prevent accusations of locking in specifications. The project will be carried out within the agency's annual budget framework and does not need to be submitted to the Cabinet for approval. At the same time, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is also adjusting its disaster warning criteria, from previously waiting for confidence of more than 90% to issuing warnings once the system assesses a risk of about 60-70%, and it is cooperating with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation to push forward the One Map project and to push for data from the Meteorological Department to become open data, as well as designating the spokesperson of the Prime Minister's Office as the main person to make announcements during crises.

ICEYE and Nokia announced a partnership to develop secure, sovereign and high-performance broadband low Earth orbit satellite communications systems for governments, supporting missions from defense and border security to emergency services and disaster response. Built on trusted European technology, the jointly developed systems will give nations ownership and control of the satellites, ground segment and terminals, with the first communications satellites expected to be launched in 2028. The systems will deliver targeted, high-throughput, low-latency connectivity over priority mission areas, designed to complement military and commercial networks rather than replace them. The partnership combines ICEYE's track record delivering sovereign satellite missions with Nokia's experience in secure networking technologies and growing defense portfolio, integrating satellites, ground infrastructure and ruggedized end-user terminals. ICEYE CEO and Co-founder Rafal Modrzewski said nations must be able to fully own and control their communications without dependency on a foreign commercial operator's terms of service, while Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard said sovereign operations depend on secure, resilient connectivity across land, sea, air and space. Modrzewski and Hotard will take the stage at the Helsinki Security Forum on October 2 for a session titled "How to Salvage Europe's Technological Sovereignty."

L3Harris Technologies has won a $461.9M firm-fixed-price contract to provide commercial satellite communications connectivity for designated executive airlift aircraft. The contract supports authorized government personnel, with work expected to continue through October 2028. A total of $62.3M in FY2026 operations and maintenance funds is being obligated at award. The U.S. Space Force at Los Angeles Air Force Base is the contracting activity.

Firefly Aerospace shares rose about 6% Wednesday morning after the space technology company announced a commercial agreement with Starcloud to test advanced artificial intelligence computing in lunar orbit. Under the deal, Starcloud's computing payload will fly aboard Firefly's Elytra orbital vehicle as part of a mission targeted for no earlier than 2028, with Starcloud's SC-1L processor receiving data from Firefly's Solux vision system, performing AI computing in orbit and sending the processed information back to Earth. The Starcloud payload is scheduled to join Firefly's third lunar mission, in which Elytra will initially serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for the company's Blue Ghost lander, expected to touch down at the Moon's Gruithuisen Domes under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. After that portion of the mission is completed, Firefly plans to keep Elytra in lunar orbit for five years to support commercial and government payloads as well as imaging operations, including the Starcloud computing demonstration. Firefly is also developing its Ocula lunar imaging service and recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to process Ocula data aboard Elytra before transmitting results to Earth, while the company plans to send its first Elytra vehicle into lunar orbit with Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than 2027.

Sophia Space and Redwire Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance the development and deployment of scalable computing infrastructure in orbit. The agreement combines Sophia Space's modular TILE architecture, which integrates high-performance computing, solar power and passive radiative thermal management for AI inference and data processing in orbit, with Redwire's deployable space systems, solar power generation and distribution, heat management and rejection, spacecraft integration, avionics and systems engineering. Under the MOU, the two companies will explore collaboration across near-term demonstration missions and longer-term orbital data center architectures, aiming to move the emerging orbital computing market from individual technology demonstrations toward the repeatable, scalable infrastructure needed for a global build-out of orbital data centers. Sophia Space and Redwire intend to jointly pursue select U.S. government and commercial opportunities, including potential programs involving DARPA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Space Development Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, across areas such as concept development, joint proposals, internal research and development, customer engagement and international market opportunities. Rob DeMillo, CEO and Cofounder of Sophia Space, said the question is now how quickly high-performance computing in orbit can be scaled, while Al Tadros, Chief Technology Officer of Redwire Space, said the maturation of the orbital data center market represents opportunities to build next-generation architectures that could unlock significant economic value.

Terran Orbital, a Lockheed Martin company, announced the appointment of Jamin Brown as Chief Operating Officer. Brown will lead the satellite manufacturer's operational execution from its Irvine, California headquarters, focusing on increasing production capacity, strengthening operational performance, and delivering at greater speed, scale, and cost efficiency alongside President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Krauss. He joins Terran Orbital from Lockheed Martin Space, where he most recently served as Vice President of Missile Defense Programs and Huntsville Site General Manager, overseeing a portfolio that included Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, Targets and Countermeasures Programs, directed energy, hypersonic defense, and space surveillance. Brown spent more than two decades at Lockheed Martin, beginning as an Electronics Engineer and later serving as Deputy Vice President of the Hypersonic Strike Weapon Systems mission segment and as Fleet Ballistic Missile Reshaping Site Director in Colorado. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering, a Master of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering, and an MBA from San Jose State University, and is a graduate of Stanford University's Certified Program Manager program.

weBoost, part of Wilson Connectivity, announced weBoost Sky, which it calls the world's first vehicle signal booster engineered to strengthen satellite direct-to-device connectivity. The patent-pending system mounts an exterior antenna on a vehicle and amplifies a phone's 200 milliwatt uplink to 1 watt, the FCC ceiling, a fivefold increase in transmission power, then rebroadcasts the amplified signal inside the cabin through an interior antenna. In Wilson Connectivity field testing outside St. George, Utah, Sky improved RSRP from -116 dBm to -96 dBm and lifted SNR from 1-6 dB to 11 dB, turning an unreliable T-Satellite connection into a dependable one for messaging, location sharing and supported data applications. The same hardware amplifies T-Mobile Band 25 for T-Satellite D2D connectivity and supported terrestrial cellular signal, draws less than 5W over USB-C and installs without drilling or vehicle modification. weBoost Sky, SKU 471086, goes on sale beginning September 28, 2026 at weBoost.com and through select retailers and dealers at an MSRP of $149.99 USD, backed by a two-year manufacturer's warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

KCE shares jumped 11.07% to 75.25 baht, up 7.50 baht, with trading value of 2.357 billion baht as of 10:50 a.m., from an opening price of 71.25 baht, a high of 75.25 baht and a low of 71.25 baht. This morning also saw a big lot of 150,000 KCE shares worth 11.89 million baht trade at an average price of 79.25 baht, above the board price. Kiatnakin Phatra Securities, together with BofA Global Research, initiated coverage of KCE Electronics with a buy rating and raised its target price to 104.00 baht, based on a target P/E of 38.1 times, from 67.75 baht previously. It expects net profit to recover 95% year on year to 1.529 billion baht in 2026, surge 110% year on year to 3.212 billion baht in 2027, 69% above market expectations, and reach 4.174 billion baht in 2028. The drivers include the recovery cycle in the PCB industry, the growing electronic content in electric vehicles and software-defined vehicles, indirect benefits from the AI wave that is tightening automotive PCB supply, LEO communications satellites whose revenue share is expected to rise to 16% in 2027 and 30% in 2028 of total PCB revenue, and humanoid robots, with management confirming it is in talks with Tesla, having passed some qualification tests and awaiting final design approval. BofA expects the global humanoid robot market to be worth 100 billion US dollars by 2033, with global shipments growing nearly fivefold from 290,000 units in 2027 to 1.2 million units by 2030. Meanwhile, Sureeporn Teewasuwet, assistant managing director of the securities analysis department at FSS International, sees second-half profit better than the first half after KCE raised PCB prices from the second quarter of 2026 on higher raw material prices such as copper and fiberglass, together with AI-driven PCB demand that is diverting supply. She recommends trading the stock, maintains a target price of 61.00 baht, and warns investors to be cautious in 2027 because new PCB supply will start to gradually come on stream in the second half of 2027.

Elon Musk's net worth ended the week at $925 billion, up more than $305 billion since January, as his path to trillionaire status stalled amid fading momentum at Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla will unveil the long-delayed Roadster, with the base model starting at around $200,000 and the Founders Series at $250,000, limited to 1,000 vehicles, while traders on Polymarket expect third-quarter deliveries of between 450k and 475k vehicles after 480k in the second quarter. SpaceX is set for its first orbital launch on Monday, a test that will carry the third version of Starlink to space; Starlink made over $4.29 billion in the second quarter, accounting for 53% of SpaceX revenue, and analysts expect total revenue to jump to $44 billion this year and $108.3 billion next year. Most of Musk's wealth comes from his 48.5% stake in SpaceX and about 20.3% of Tesla, plus large holdings in Neuralink and The Boring Company.

Kiatnakin Phatra Securities Public Company Limited, or KKPS, issued a research note dated 29 September 2026 recommending a "Buy" on KCE Electronics Public Company Limited, or KCE, with a target price of 104 baht, and maintaining a "Buy" on Hana Microelectronics Public Company Limited, or HANA, while raising its target price to 61 baht from 42 baht. It views both companies as entering a new growth cycle driven by a recovery in their core businesses and opportunities from artificial intelligence, or AI, related operations. For KCE, the research team sees it entering an upcycle in the printed circuit board, or PCB, business, expecting normal earnings per share to grow by about 95% in 2026 and 110% in 2027, which is about 69% above the market average. It expects net profit attributable to the company after excluding special items of about 1.529 billion baht in 2026, rising to 3.212 billion baht in 2027 and 4.174 billion baht in 2028. The communications business, especially PCBs for low Earth orbit, or LEO, satellites, is expected to increase its share to about 16% of PCB revenue in 2027 and 30% in 2028. As for HANA, KKPS raised its 2026 and 2027 earnings forecasts by 8% and 31% respectively, expecting profit growth of about 20% in 2026 and 53% in 2027, supported by a rise in capacity utilisation in its OSAT business in Ayutthaya province to 62% from 55%. It expects net profit attributable to the company after excluding special items of about 999 million baht in 2026, rising to 1.533 billion baht in 2027 and 1.78 billion baht in 2028. Meanwhile, two of HANA's three AI projects, Phononic TEC and High-density PCBA, have begun ramping up production and are expected to generate combined revenue of about 2.5 to 3.5 billion baht in 2027.

SpaceX's fully reusable rocket Starship, which the company is developing, succeeded for the first time in reaching Earth orbit on its 14th flight test on September 28, 2026. A vehicle combining the upper-stage spacecraft Ship 41 with the first-stage booster Booster 21 was launched, and although one of the six Raptor engines on the upper stage shut down earlier than planned during ascent, it achieved orbital insertion and released all 26 next-generation communications satellites, Starlink V3, into orbit. The original plan called for roughly six orbits of low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 275 kilometers over about 10 hours, followed by a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, but the flight time was shortened to about three hours following the upper-stage engine malfunction. Previous flight tests of Starship and Super Heavy had deliberately remained on suborbital trajectories with safety as the priority, and the shift to true orbital flight and the demonstration of its capability as a means of transporting operational satellites mark a turning point. SpaceX has won a 2.89 billion dollar HLS development contract from NASA and aims for a crewed lunar landing on Artemis 4 in 2028 and the construction of a long-term activity base on the lunar surface.

U.S. space company SpaceX conducted a launch of Starship, the world's largest rocket, on the 28th, placing it into Earth orbit for the first time on its 14th launch. Nikkei reported the news, saying it gave momentum toward commercialization. Meanwhile, an engine problem occurred during flight, shortening a planned 10-hour mission to 3 hours. Space-related companies are likely to draw attention.