The Monday brief Aug 10, 2026
Six launches flew, 37 new solicitations posted, our weekly award total came to zero, and Blue Origin traced the New Glenn explosion to an oxygen valve.
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The opportunity
Air Force Research Lab wants rented UHF bandwidth
The Air Force Research Laboratory office listed as FA9453 AFRL RVK posted a Request for Information for capacity on a commercially owned, commercially operated UHF-capable on-orbit MEO satellite, for use in a near-term experimental campaign. It closes 2026-08-10, so the window is short. Operators with UHF-capable MEO capacity to lease are the obvious fit here.
Readers with a longer horizon should also look at the National Security Space Launch Enterprise Payload Processing Management draft RFP from SSC/AAK-LA, which closes 2026-08-12 and asks for responses by 5:00PM Pacific Time on 11 August 2026.
The company move
Blue Origin names an oxygen valve
Blue Origin identified an engine issue behind the New Glenn explosion, and reporting in our news feed traces the origin to an oxygen valve, according to the company's CEO. Separate coverage has the company working engine resolutions and a dual pad future. The same week, Blue Origin patent filings entered the record, including a rocket nozzle assembly with separable nozzle extension and additively manufactured parts with integrated passages.
Our hiring collection shows Blue Origin with 250 listings first seen and 267 removed, with a largest single-day removal of 78. We are not treating that as a company decision.
The money
Small awards, six stake disclosures, sharp price moves
The awards desk recorded no new obligations this week by our totals, and the individual notices we saw were small: RTX Corporation at $3M on 2026-08-04, Raytheon Company at $2M on 2026-08-08, Lockheed Martin Corporation at $2M on 2026-08-07. Six stake disclosures came through, among them State Street Corp in Redwire and in Virgin Galactic on 2026-08-08, FMR LLC in Karman Holdings on 2026-08-07, and Baralonco Ltd in Iridium Communications on 2026-08-05.
On price, Voyager Technologies moved 70.6% between 2026-08-02 and 2026-08-08, Redwire 57.7%, and Velo3D 39.8%. Redwire also filed an 8-K on 2026-08-06.
The launch record
Six flights up, Michibiki 7 moved three times
All six launches we recorded were successful: three Falcon 9 Block 5 missions, Electron with The Grain Goddess Provides (iQPS Launch 7) on 2026-08-06, Smart Dragon 3 with OSE HS-01 & 02, and Long March 8A with SatNet LEO Group 23. Rocket Lab's iQPS flight came after a five-week delay and moved 25 days earlier before flying.
Schedule movement was busier than the flight log. Michibiki 7 on H3-22 slipped 24 days, then 21 days earlier, then 1 day, and now sits on 2026-08-10. Spectrum's Onward and Upward slipped 25 days. Crew-13 moved 17 days earlier and went to Go, and Nuri with NeonSat-2 to 6 slipped 31 days.
The week in numbers
Watch this week
- The AFRL Request for Information on UHF-capable MEO satellite capacity closes.Aug 10, 2026
- Michibiki 7 is scheduled on H3-22 from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, after three schedule moves in four days.Aug 10, 2026
- LandSpace has Zhuque-3 Flight 2 on the schedule, moved 20 days earlier and set to Go.Aug 10, 2026
- Responses are due by 5:00 PM Pacific for the NSSL Enterprise Payload Processing Management draft RFP and Request for Information, ahead of its Aug. 12 formal close.Aug 11, 2026
- SpaceX is scheduled to fly Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 on Falcon 9 Block 5, now at Go.Aug 16, 2026
Evidence cutoff Aug 9, 01:30 UTC. Figures stay as published; the site's rolling totals move daily. Written each week from the site's own record of the previous seven days. Every number and name in it is machine-checked against that record before a person reads it, an outside model then tries to refute it, and a person approves it before it appears here. Every claim links to the page that holds its evidence.