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Space News 23 June 2025 - 26 June 2025

Orbiting Eyes: How Space-Based ADS-B Is Revolutionizing Air Traffic Surveillance

Orbiting Eyes: How Space-Based ADS-B Is Revolutionizing Air Traffic Surveillance

Space-based ADS-B became operational in 2019 with Aireon using Iridium NEXT’s 66 low Earth orbit satellites at about 780 km, each carrying an ADS-B receiver listening at 1090 MHz and delivering data to ground stations with latency under 1.5 seconds and updates often in the 2–5 second range. Before 2019 only about 30% of the globe had ADS-B surveillance and roughly 70% of airspace lacked real-time coverage, whereas space-based ADS-B now provides global coverage including oceans and the poles. On March 27, 2019, NAV CANADA and NATS deployed space-based ADS-B in the North Atlantic, reducing lateral separation from about 40
26 June 2025
Latest Satellite News & Insights 26.06.2025

Latest Satellite News & Insights 26.06.2025

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured images of exoplanet TWA 7b, a Saturn-mass planet orbiting the young star TWA 7, using high-contrast imaging and a coronagraph. Israeli airstrikes on western Iran targeted military satellites, air defense systems, and missile infrastructure, using around 20 fighter jets and over 30 munitions. ESA’s Biomass satellite, launched in April, released its first images mapping global forests using radar to measure the carbon stored in forests. A transient radio signal from NASA’s long-inactive Relay 2 satellite was detected on Earth, likely caused by an electrostatic discharge. The U.S. Space Force’s FY26 budget includes $277 million
26 June 2025
Orbital Quantum Leap: First Photonic Edge-Computing Satellite Set to Transform Space Data Processing

Orbital Quantum Leap: First Photonic Edge-Computing Satellite Set to Transform Space Data Processing

The ROQuET payload, a photonic quantum computer no larger than a shoebox, was developed by Philip Walther’s team at the University of Vienna and measures about 15 × 15 × 45 cm, weighing roughly 9.5 kg with an aluminum frame and a borosilicate glass optical circuit. The device was launched on June 23, 2025, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-14 mission and hosted on D-Orbit’s ION platform as the SCV004 Upmik payload. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base and deployed around 70 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit at about 550 km altitude. The mission demonstrates edge computing, enabling
China’s “Night‑Light” Laser vs. Starlink: What a 2‑Watt Beam Really Means for the Coming Orbital Arms Race

Laser Leapfrog: Inside China’s Record-Breaking 1 Gbps Geo-Laser Link and the Post-Starlink Future of Space Internet

On June 17, 2025, a team led by Prof. Wu Jian (Peking University of Posts & Telecommunications) and Dr. Liu Chao (Chinese Academy of Sciences) achieved a 1 Gbps downlink from a geostationary satellite using a 2-watt optical laser. The GEO satellite was parked about 36,705 km above Earth and beamed data to a ground station in southwest China. The ground receiver used an 1.8-meter telescope at the Lijiang Observatory with advanced optics to capture the laser signal. The experiment delivered 1 Gbps downlink, five times faster than SpaceX Starlink’s typical 50–200 Mbps consumer speeds (bursts to 300–500 Mbps under
25 June 2025
EU Declares War on Space Junk: A Deep Dive into the New Space Act, the Starlink Dilemma and the Hidden Climate Costs of Orbital Debris

EU Declares War on Space Junk: A Deep Dive into the New Space Act, the Starlink Dilemma and the Hidden Climate Costs of Orbital Debris

The EU Space Act was presented on 25 June 2025 and would impose EU-wide rules on launch licensing, debris-mitigation, end-of-life disposal, cybersecurity and environmental impact, with fines up to 2% of global turnover. If approved, most provisions would apply from 2030, including special traffic-coordination duties for mega (100+) and giga (1,000+) constellations. The debris crisis features about 40,000 tracked objects orbiting Earth and more than 1.2 million pieces larger than 1 cm, with at least 3,000 new debris fragments created in 2024. Starlink has launched 7,578 satellites, of which 7,556 were operational as of 30 May 2025. SpaceX logged over
25 June 2025
Historic Liftoff! Poland’s “Star Scientist” Launches on SpaceX Dragon—All the Inside Details on the Ax-4 Mission, Crew and Experiments

SpaceX’s ‘Grace’ Roars to Orbit: Axiom Mission 4 Sends India, Poland & Hungary Back to Space — and Signals the Dawn of a Truly Global Commercial ISS Era

Liftoff occurred at 2:31 a.m. EDT (06:31 UTC) on 25 June 2025 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, and the Falcon 9 booster landed at LZ-1 eight minutes later. Dragon C213, the fifth and final production Crew Dragon, was named Grace by Commander Peggy Whitson moments after orbital insertion. The two‑week Ax‑4 mission carried about 60 experiments for 31 nations, the largest research manifest of any Axiom flight. The multinational crew included Peggy Whitson (USA), Shubhanshu Shukla (India’s first ISS astronaut), Sławosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski (Poland’s first ISS visitor), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary’s first spacefarer in 45 years). Ax‑4 marked
25 June 2025
Historic Liftoff! Poland’s “Star Scientist” Launches on SpaceX Dragon—All the Inside Details on the Ax-4 Mission, Crew and Experiments

Historic Liftoff! Poland’s “Star Scientist” Launches on SpaceX Dragon—All the Inside Details on the Ax-4 Mission, Crew and Experiments

On June 25 at 08:31 CEST, SpaceX Crew Dragon “Grace” launched from Pad 39A with four astronauts on Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). Peggy Whitson (USA) commands Ax-4 and is on her fifth spaceflight, with a U.S. orbital record of 675 days. Shubhanshu Shukla (India) is Pilot for Ax-4, becoming the first Indian in space since 1984. Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland) is the first Polish national on the ISS and the second Pole in space. Tibor Kapu (Hungary) is Ax-4’s Mission Specialist, marking Hungary’s first visitor to the ISS. Poland’s 47-year space drought ends with Ax-4, following Mirosław Hermaszewski’s 1978 Soyuz 30
25 June 2025
Jeff Bezos vs. Elon Musk: How Amazon’s New Kuiper Satellites Could Disrupt a $100 Billion Space‑Internet Gold Rush

Space Race Frenzy: Exploding Starships, Quantum‑Proof Satellites & Europe’s Billion‑Dollar Constellation Shake‑Up — Everything That Hit Orbit TODAY (24 June 2025)

SpaceX’s Transporter-14 rideshare lofted 70 payloads, including memorial capsules, ICEYE and Capella radar sats, and York Space Systems’ Dragoon Tranche-1 12-satellite demo. The first Dragoon craft launched Monday on Transporter-14 is now on orbit, with SDA citing a four-month schedule cut to accelerate capabilities. Shijian-21 rendezvoused with Shijian-25 at about 22,236 miles, rehearsing refueling and capture maneuvers that analysts warn could neutralize adversary satellites in a conflict. T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service will provide full data links on 1 Oct 2025, piggybacking on 657 Starlink satellites, with basic messaging starting 23 July and 911 texting free for all U.S. users. SpaceX targets
Space Race 2.0: A Shoebox‑Sized Quantum Satellite Blasts Off—Can It Make Hackers Obsolete?

Space Race 2.0: A Shoebox‑Sized Quantum Satellite Blasts Off—Can It Make Hackers Obsolete?

QUICK³ is a 3U CubeSat weighing 4 kg, led by Germany’s Technical University of Munich, and it launched on 23 June 2025 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter‑14 from Vandenberg SFB. It carries the first true single-photon source flown, a laser-pumped hexagonal boron nitride chip on a 10 × 10 × 15 cm photonic chip. True single photons are expected to raise secret-key rates 10–100× over weak-laser systems. The pump laser is a 698 nm diode module, 45 × 80 × 20 mm, weighing 200 g. QUICK³ uses a 3U CubeSat bus with a 4 kg mass budget and rideshare compatibility, with launch
Space Superpower Play: How ICEYE’s Radar Satellites Are Turbo-Charging NATO’s ‘Aquila’ Constellation – and Why It Could Change Intelligence Forever

Space Superpower Play: How ICEYE’s Radar Satellites Are Turbo-Charging NATO’s ‘Aquila’ Constellation – and Why It Could Change Intelligence Forever

NATO Allied Command Operations signed a multiyear agreement to receive 24/7 SAR imagery from ICEYE and feed it into the APSS Aquila constellation, announced on 24 June 2025. ICEYE’s 54-satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar fleet can be tasked within eight hours, and in some cases within one hour, for sea- and land-tracking. ICEYE satellites deliver 25 cm ground resolution and have revisit intervals under three hours at mid-latitudes. APSS Aquila pairs ICEYE’s 25 cm SAR with Planet Labs SkySat optical data at 50 cm RGB and supports sub-daily tasking. Contract value was not disclosed, but analysts estimate it is in the
24 June 2025
Jeff Bezos vs. Elon Musk: How Amazon’s New Kuiper Satellites Could Disrupt a $100 Billion Space‑Internet Gold Rush

Jeff Bezos vs. Elon Musk: How Amazon’s New Kuiper Satellites Could Disrupt a $100 Billion Space‑Internet Gold Rush

On 23 June 2025, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launched 27 Kuiper satellites from Cape Canaveral into a 450 km parking orbit, bringing Amazon’s on‑orbit Kuiper fleet to 54 operational satellites plus two de‑orbiting prototypes. The Atlas V mission is the second of eight Kuiper flights on that rocket, with ULA set to fly 44 Kuiper missions in total (6 more Atlas V plus 38 Vulcan), delivering more than half of the 3,236-satellite constellation. Amazon’s 172,000 ft² Kirkland, WA factory can mass‑produce up to five Kuiper satellites per day, reducing individual test times from months to days. Amazon has
Space‑Laser Shockwave: Inside China’s 2‑Watt Orbital Beam That Claims to Outgun Starlink and Reshape the Security Balance in Space

China’s ‘Night‑Light’ Laser Satellite Leaves Starlink in the Dust—What It Means for the Future of Space Internet and Warfare

On 17 June 2025, Prof. Wu Jian of Peking University and Dr. Liu Chao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences down-linked 1 Gbps from an unnamed GEO satellite 36,705 km above Earth using a 2-watt laser. The AO‑MDR method combines 357 micro-mirrors on a 1.8 m telescope to reshape the wavefront and eight spatial modes, with a path-picking algorithm selecting the three cleanest channels and boosting usable signal probability from 72% to 91% in heavy turbulence. The Chinese GEO demo delivered 1 Gbps, about five times the throughput of typical Starlink down-links (100–300 Mbps, peaks ~600 Mbps) from 550 km

Stock Market Today

Wall Street Feels the Heat (and Thrill): Fed Cuts, Tariffs & Mega-Mergers Set NYSE Buzz

Stock Market Today 07.02.2026

7 February 2026
LIVEMarkets rolling coverageStarted: February 7, 2026, 12:00 AM ESTUpdated: February 7, 2026, 12:08 AM EST CleanSpark (CLSK) Shares Show Volatility Amid Bitcoin Mining Growth Prospects February 7, 2026, 12:02 AM EST. CleanSpark (CLSK), a bitcoin mining firm, saw a sharp 21.96% rise in one day after a 35.26% decline over 90 days. The company posted $785 million in annual revenue but a net loss of $267 million. Despite recent share price volatility, analysts estimate a fair value of $23.16 per share, more than double the current $10.08 price, reflecting expectations of expansion in mining capacity and improved margins. The valuation
Seagate (STX) stock jumps nearly 6% as Citi hikes target — what to watch next week

Seagate (STX) stock jumps nearly 6% as Citi hikes target — what to watch next week

7 February 2026
Seagate shares rose 5.9% to $429.32 Friday after Citigroup raised its price target to $480 and reiterated a buy rating. The gain ended a two-day slide but left the stock 6.6% below its Feb. 3 high. CEO Dave Mosley sold 20,000 shares on Feb. 2 under a pre-arranged plan, SEC filings show. U.S. jobs and inflation data next week are seen as key tests for tech stocks.
Cummins (CMI) stock price rebounds after earnings whipsaw as investors eye data-center power demand

Cummins (CMI) stock price rebounds after earnings whipsaw as investors eye data-center power demand

7 February 2026
Cummins shares jumped 6.8% to $577.73 Friday, recovering from a nearly 9% post-earnings drop the day before. The company reported Q4 revenue up 1% to $8.54 billion, took a $218 million charge tied to its hydrogen business, and guided for 2026 EBITDA of 17–18% of sales. Demand for data center generators offset weakness in North American truck markets. Analyst reaction was mixed; Truist raised its price target.
Corning stock hits first record close since 2000 as jobs, CPI data loom

Corning stock hits first record close since 2000 as jobs, CPI data loom

7 February 2026
Corning shares surged 8.3% to $122.16 Friday, their highest close since the dot-com era, after Meta agreed to buy up to $6 billion in fiber-optic cables. The stock is up 40% since late 2025, fueled by strong first-quarter guidance and AI data-center demand. Insiders sold shares following the rally, SEC filings show. Investors await next week’s U.S. jobs and inflation data for rate signals.
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