The United States has no domestic germanium production and imports nearly all of what it uses.

NASA awarded Intuitive Machines a firm-fixed-price contract worth up to approximately $148.3 million to deliver a production-line-qualified Nova-C lunar lander under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

Industry estimates put Blue Canyon Technologies’ annual production ceiling at 400 to 500 units.

NASA’s Office of Inspector General says NASA is operationally dependent on a single company to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

Axiom Space has been based at Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport since its founding in 2016.

Blue Canyon Technologies is currently owned by RTX Corporation.

The Space Modernization Order will go before the full FCC Commission for a vote at the July 22 open meeting.

Gallium is a key ingredient in gallium nitride, which is used in high-power radio components for satellite communications.

NASA officials had previously targeted fall 2026 for Starliner certification.

Spectrolab, SolAero, and Germany’s Azur Space make most of the West’s space-grade solar cells.

Blue Origin plans to return its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket to flight by the end of this year after a pad-side anomaly during a hotfire test in late May at Launch Complex 36 in Florida.

NASA made $127.9 million in milestone payments to Boeing for a future Starliner flight before Boeing completed a single test flight.

Blue Origin has completed the first two phases of a five-phase New Glenn recovery plan and is working on design and repair work tied to a new operations concept.

NASA has agreed with all six recommendations in the inspector general report, including holding further Boeing payments until certification is complete.

Blue Origin has completed pad cleanup and debris removal at Launch Complex 36 in Florida and has begun reconstruction work.

China controls roughly 80 percent of the world’s refined gallium and 60 percent of its refined germanium.

China has required export licenses for gallium and germanium since 2023 and tightened the rules further in December 2024.

Demand from the Space Development Agency’s Tranche satellite programs and commercial operators Planet Labs, Spire Global, and HawkEye 360 is now running up against Blue Canyon Technologies’ production ceiling.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr says the agency is nearing completion of reforms intended to speed up satellite and earth station licensing.

NASA will need to buy at least three additional crew flights from SpaceX or Boeing to keep the International Space Station staffed through its planned retirement in 2030.

Blue Canyon Technologies makes reaction wheels and star trackers for small satellites.

Sanctions have effectively removed a major Russian exporter of Inconel 718 from the market since 2022.

Axiom Space’s Houston Assembly Integration and Test Facility will handle final assembly of Axiom Station modules before launch to low Earth orbit.

Only a handful of major Western suppliers, including ATI and Special Metals, produce Inconel 718 at scale.

Inconel 718 is a nickel-chromium alloy used in combustion chambers, turbopumps, and fasteners.

Boeing has not resolved helium leaks and thruster failures that have appeared repeatedly in Starliner testing.

The NASA contract is Intuitive Machines’ sixth CLPS task order.

Boeing’s Commercial Crew contract was reduced from $4.2 billion to $3.7 billion after NASA removed two flights from the agreement last November.

MDA Space has reached an agreement to acquire Blue Canyon Technologies.

The Intuitive Machines contract is structured to qualify Nova-C for serial production and support a higher-volume pipeline of lunar deliveries for NASA and commercial customers.

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur and Blue Origin’s New Glenn are among the programs affected by the Inconel 718 shortage.

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 12 and BlueBird 13 satellites have expanded phased arrays designed to support two-way voice, data, and video services.

AST SpaceMobile’s August launch will also include the BlueBird 12 and BlueBird 13 satellites.

AST SpaceMobile confirmed that BlueBird 11 completed transit from its Midland, Texas manufacturing facility to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a deployment window scheduled for the first half of August.

On Friday, July 10, 2026, shares of AST SpaceMobile Inc. were heading toward their sharpest weekly decline in more than a month.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr highlighted intensifying competition in the space-based direct-to-device segment.

On July 10, 2026, shares of AST SpaceMobile Inc. were headed toward their sharpest weekly decline in more than a month after public statements by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

AST SpaceMobile’s upcoming launch will also include the BlueBird 12 and BlueBird 13 satellites.

SpaceX and Amazon.com Inc. are driving rapid network expansion in the space-based direct-to-device segment.

BlueBird 12 and BlueBird 13 are next-generation block spacecraft designed to support dual-way voice, data, and video services and deliver up to twice the peak data speeds achieved by AST SpaceMobile’s initial experimental versions.

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 12 and BlueBird 13 satellites are designed to deliver up to twice the peak data speeds achieved by the company’s initial experimental versions.

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 11 satellite has moved from the company’s Midland, Texas manufacturing facility to Cape Canaveral, Florida for a deployment window in the first half of August.

The Shenzhou-23 crew replaced samples in the fluid physics experiment cabinet and the maintenance and assembly cabinet.

Zhang Zhiyuan has been a member of the Communist Party of China since 2011.

Zhu Yangzhu has been a member of the Communist Party of China since December 2006.

Before becoming a taikonaut, Zhu Yangzhu was an associate professor of aerospace engineering in the People’s Liberation Army and held the rank of colonel.

The Shenzhou-23 crew inspected and maintained life support equipment on the space station complex.

The Shenzhou-23 crew maintained crew-specific equipment including eye-washing stations and intravenous infusion devices.

Before becoming a taikonaut, Li Jiaying was a chief inspector of the Hong Kong Police Force and reached the rank of superintendent.

Zhu Yangzhu was selected for China’s third taikonaut group in 2020.