Tuesday, Sep 15, 2026 Updated Sep 15, 01:30 UTC

NewSpace RFP

We track the space industry: contracts, hiring, launches, patents, funding, suppliers and company activity.

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The Monday brief Sep 7, 2026

Five launches flew and all five succeeded, one award of $660.0M was signed, and 45 new solicitations entered the record.

NASA library image
Integration Test of Jason-3 Advanced Microwave Radiometer Instrument, JPL, 2013-05-23, NASA, public domain.

The opportunity

NASA reopens its launch services catalog

The NASA Launch Services II (NLS-II) 2026 On-Ramp closes on 2026-10-05. An on-ramp is the point at which a provider outside the catalog can apply to get in; the notice sets the terms. Isar Aerospace flew Spectrum successfully on 2026-09-05, its first successful Spectrum flight and the first launch to orbit from continental Europe.

Two other NASA items sit nearby on the calendar. The Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination Contract (CLDC) Request for Proposal appeared in the solicitations record on 2026-09-05, and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Frequency Reference System (FRS) Flight closes 2026-09-19.

The company move

Blue Origin takes the Mars communications work

Blue Origin holds the week's only signed award, $660.0M from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on 2026-09-01, for design, development, integration, launch and on orbit continuous communications supporting a Mars Sample Return mission and future Mars surface, orbital and human exploration missions. The same company filed three patent applications on 2026-09-03, covering VACUUM SPRAY BOILER, ELECTRICAL INTERFACE FOR A FUEL CELL STACK and LAUNCH VEHICLE VENT SYSTEMS. Our news file also carries a story on Blue Origin expanding test and launch sites across the Cape.

The money

One award signed, five prices down and one up

Totals for the week show 1 award and $660.0M, the Blue Origin contract signed on 2026-09-01. The largest award-value change logged was a repeated LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION entry moving between $62M and $83M, appearing across 2026-09-02 through 2026-09-06.

Among SEC filings, 26 were recorded, including a Viasat 8-K on 2026-09-05 and a Planet Labs 8-K on 2026-09-04. Among price movers, BlackSky Technology fell 14.2 percent and Viasat rose 12 percent between 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-06.

The launch record

Five flights, five successes, two long slips

All five flights in the record succeeded. Isar Aerospace flew Spectrum on 2026-09-05, the Indian Space Research Organization flew GSLV Mk II with GISAT-1A (EOS-05) on 2026-09-03, Rocket Lab flew Electron with Owl Around The World (StriX Launch 11) on 2026-09-02, SpaceX flew Starlink Group 15-23 on 2026-09-02, and Galactic Energy flew the Pallas-1 Demo Flight on 2026-09-01.

The schedule moved further than the flights did. Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Tracking Layer E slipped 92 days on 2026-09-06 and Tracking Layer C slipped 92 days on 2026-09-04. Crew-13 slipped 17 days and went from Go to TBD on 2026-08-30.

The week in numbers

1,841 changes across the record in seven days
The full change record

Hiring 1,429

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1,429 in the week. The 10 closest to the top of the record are held with this issue; the rest are on the full page.

Awards 190

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190 in the week. The 60 closest to the top of the record are held with this issue; the rest are on the full page.

Solicitations 145

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145 in the week. The 60 closest to the top of the record are held with this issue; the rest are on the full page.

Launches 29

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Filings 26

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Patents 20

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Events 2

Stories 136, not counted

A story is coverage, so it is listed here and left out of the total.

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136 in the week. The 60 closest to the top of the record are held with this issue; the rest are on the full page.

136 news items shown above and excluded from the 1,841.

The full count changes daily.
45 new solicitations posted this week
The full RFP index
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The full count changes daily.
5 orbital launches flown this week
The full launch scorecard

The full count changes daily.
$660.0M committed across 1 awards signed this week
The full business desk

6,600 in the week. The 1 closest to the top of the record are held with this issue; the rest are on the full page.

The full count changes daily.
5 launches scheduled in the coming week
The full calendar

The full count changes daily.

Watch this week

Evidence cutoff Sep 6, 13:32 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.