Theresa Hitchens

Blue Origin also stuck the landing of New Glenn's reusable first stage, becoming only the second company after SpaceX to do so.

Increased focus on defense is one of five pillars in a new French national space strategy announced by President Emmanuel Macron today.

The satellites will need to be defended "not only from adversary kinetic or local orbital issues, but also from cyber attacks, electronic jamming and laser attacks," said Patrick Binning, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

"When the funding will be authorized, given the shutdown and all the fun there, is a question mark," one industry source told Breaking Defense.

The State Department's damning critique argues that, if enacted, the draft law would imperil cooperation on "space weather, remote sensing, space exploration, spaceflight safety, space debris mitigation and remediation, [and] communications."

Building dynamic space operations concepts will be necessary to force "flexibility," and provide capabilities for "maneuver and surprise" on orbit, the new report by the Mitchell Institute says.

The move widens Intuitive Machines' past focus on the Moon to the space market closer to Earth.

Since its founding 50 years ago, the European Space Agency has shunned involvement in military space activities.

"Futures Command is dead," one Pentagon official said bluntly.

Brig. Gen. Donald Brooks, deputy commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), said the command's plan to stand up a new Space Branch is now "in the approval process" at the senior service level.