Frontier signal stream

Sierra Space announced it has secured contracts with undisclosed national security and commercial customers to fly payloads aboard Dream Chaser on the spaceplane's inaugural mission, which also carries civil payloads via NASA's Cargo Resupply Services programme. CEO Dan Jablonsky said the company is 'establishing a new operational model in which the same platform serves national security, civil, and commercial customers on a single mission'. Sierra Space describes Dream Chaser as the only commercial reusable, runway-capable spaceplane, and said it is still finalising the manifest with defence, civil and commercial payloads. The customers, contract values and launch date are not disclosed in the release.

NASA selected Blue Origin on 1 September 2026 to develop its Mars Telecommunications Network, a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum potential value of approximately $700 million to deliver a high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiter no later than 31 December 2028. Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch and operate the network, which NASA expects to be operational at Mars by 2030.

Florida Today reported that the first phase of Relativity Space's expansion in Brevard County, Florida - previously known by the code name Project Forge - involves a total capital investment of $565 million and is projected to create 590 new jobs at average salaries of $86,000. The expansion covers a new Terran R factory plus expanded test and launch infrastructure at Cape Canaveral, where Relativity Space plans to launch Terran R from Launch Complex 16. The report follows an earlier agreement struck with Space Florida, reported by SpaceNews in July 2026, to expand Terran R production in the state.

Pacific Fusion broke ground on a $1 billion Research & Manufacturing Campus at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which will house its Demonstration System — designed to reach net facility gain by 2030 and to produce high-yield fusion bursts exceeding 100 megajoules, making it the only high-yield fusion facility under construction in the United States. The same day, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and Pacific Fusion announced a Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Collaboration on High Yield Fusion, High-Energy-Density Science and Related Technical Areas, signed by NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams and Pacific Fusion co-founder and CTO Keith LeChien. NNSA stressed the MOU is a framework only: specific projects and funding commitments require separate agreements. Federal, state and local leaders attended alongside investors including board member Eric Schmidt, and the company positioned the build explicitly against Chinese fusion investment.

On 25 Aug 2026 SpaceX announced a $100 billion investment to build its largest rocket launch facility yet in Vermilion Parish, southern Louisiana, announced jointly with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. Louisiana Economic Development states SpaceX "will invest $100 billion to build its largest launch facility in Vermilion Parish, a spaceport designed to support" high-cadence operations; CNBC reports the site will be called "Starbase, LA" and will "support thousands of launches annually". Reuters describes it as "a $100 billion effort" to build "its largest rocket launch complex yet". Local reporting (WBRZ) says construction begins in 2027. Material as one of the largest single private infrastructure commitments ever announced, establishing a second Starship base beyond Starbase in Texas and materially expanding SpaceX's launch-cadence ceiling.

Intuitive Machines was selected to provide the spacecraft platform and mission solutions for NASA's EAGLE-VSWIR Earth science mission - an extension of the company's spacecraft-production business, built on the Lanteris platforms, beyond lunar and national security work into Earth observation.

Firefly was added to NASA's Spacecraft Processing Operations Contract vehicle, giving it eligibility to bid future task orders rather than a single funded award.

Impulse Space announced on 13 August 2026 a $28 million SBIR Phase III contract extension from the US Space Force Space Systems Command Space Safari Office, covering two additional missions - VICTUS SALO 2 and VICTUS SALO 3 - for which it will deliver two Mira spacecraft to host government payloads in low Earth orbit. It builds on Impulse's existing contract for VICTUS SALO 1 and VICTUS SURGO.

The Defense Innovation Unit contracted Firefly to design an Elytra-based deorbit system, pointing Elytra at the debris-removal and space-sustainability mission set.

SciTec won a $94m U.S. Space Force contract for ground-based radar digitization - the largest single disclosed award to Firefly's software subsidiary in the window.