The Monday brief Sep 14, 2026
Three launches flew, the week's totals list zero awards, and 47 new solicitations posted, while Rocket Lab protested a NASA award to Blue Origin.
NASA library image
The opportunity
Space Systems Command asks about overhead infrared
Space Systems Command posted a base notice for an Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) Research and Development (R&D) Effort. It appeared on September 11 and closes on September 25. Project HALO: Hybrid All-domain LEO Operations closes two days earlier, on September 23.
The company move
Blue Origin's Mars win draws a protest
News this week reported that Blue Origin has won a NASA Mars communications-orbiter contract worth up to $700 million, and that losing bidder Rocket Lab has filed its own protest with the same federal watchdog.
Across other desks, Blue Origin entered the record with 176 job listings first seen and 245 no longer listed, and filed KINETIC CAPTURE OF ORBITAL DEBRIS on September 10. Rocket Lab had 86 job listings first seen and flew Electron on September 11.
The money
Europe's cargo and IRIS2 money, and a Lockheed value that toggled
The week's award totals list zero signed US awards, and the money in the record sits elsewhere: an ESA cargo award of 760 million euros, 5.4 billion euros in IRIS2 contracts, and a $161 million Antares award, all in the news file. The largest award-value change logged, Lockheed Martin Corporation's award moving from $62M to $83M and back between September 6 and September 12, is the record correcting itself. United Launch Services, LLC's award moved from $56M to $60M on September 11.
On the filings desk, Moog filed a 4 on September 12, Intuitive Machines and BlackSky Technology both filed a 4 on September 11, and AeroVironment filed an 8-K on September 10. York Space Systems fell 12.1 percent between September 7 and September 12.
The launch record
Three successes and two 92-day SDA slips
Three orbital launches flew, each logged as successful: Electron with Happily Ever Faster (BlackSky Gen-3 5) on September 11, Falcon 9 Block 5 with USSF-153 on September 10, and Long March 4B with Yaogan 53-01 to 03/56-01 to 03 the same day. No failure is logged this week.
Schedule movement went the other way. SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer D slipped 92 days, and SDA Tranche 1 Tracking Layer E slipped the same. Starship Flight 14 moved 15 days earlier, then slipped 3 days and 1 day, and sits at September 18. Ten launches are scheduled for the coming week.
The week in numbers
Watch this week
- Vega-C is scheduled to carry Sentinel-3C & FLEX for Avio S.p.A.Sep 15, 2026
- The hearing on Innovation in Disaster Prevention: Advancing Technology for Prediction and Response is on the calendar.Sep 15, 2026
- SpaceX is scheduled to fly Falcon 9 Block 5 with USSF-259.Sep 16, 2026
- Starship Flight 14 sits on the schedule at TBC after three moves this week.Sep 18, 2026
- Project HALO: Hybrid All-domain LEO Operations closes.Sep 23, 2026
Earlier issues
- Sep 7, 2026Five launches flew and all five succeeded, one award of $660.0M was signed, and 45 new…
- Aug 31, 2026Six launches flew and each is marked successful, the Roman Space Telescope among them;…
- Aug 24, 2026Six orbital launches flew and all were recorded successful, 41 new solicitations posted,…
- Aug 17, 2026Four launches flew and one of them failed at Max-Q, while we logged 1,329 changes and 64…
- Aug 10, 2026Six launches flew, 37 new solicitations posted, our weekly award total came to zero, and…
- Aug 3, 2026Four launches flew and all four succeeded, 48 new solicitations posted, and $9.5M was…
- Jul 27, 2026Seven launches all succeeded, Blue Origin added 320 job listings, defense primes rose on…
Evidence cutoff Sep 12, 19:30 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.