U.S. Space Command has scheduled additional Wargame Tabletop Exercises for June and September 2026 to refine rules of engagement for hybrid military-commercial operations in contested environments.

Commercial firms seeking to participate in the March 23, 2026 exercise must hold appropriate security clearances and coordinate through the USSPACECOM J811 Commercial Integration Branch.

Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, views the commercial sector as a critical component of U.S. warfighting capacity and supports integrating commercial firms into classified discussions to protect the national space enterprise.

A one-square-meter radiator operating at 350 K (77 °C) rejects approximately 700–850 watts depending on emissivity.

Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) is defined as altitudes below 250 kilometers.

Highly Elliptical Orbits (HEO) and cislunar space can reduce radiation exposure relative to the Van Allen belts and provide long dwell times over specific hemispheres.

Geostationary Orbit (GEO) slot assignments are a finite, ITU-regulated resource that create multi-year geopolitical hurdles for deployment.

VLEO concepts rely on aerodynamic shaping and air-breathing propulsion to maintain self-cleaning orbits while trading increased atmospheric drag for atomic oxygen erosion.

Replacing solar arrays with compact fission reactors increases onboard power generation density but does not solve the heat rejection density problem, since every watt of computation still produces a watt of waste heat.

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at about 400 kilometers requires constant re-boosting for massive solar arrays due to atmospheric drag and faces a debris environment that drives insurance premiums to prohibitive levels for permanent megawatt-scale infrastructure.

The Earth–Sun Lagrange point L2 removes Earth’s infrared thermal environment but increases latency and link-budget challenges to levels that can make commercial applications impractical.

Heat rejection in space is dominated by thermal radiation, which scales with the fourth power of temperature according to the Stefan–Boltzmann law.

In vacuum, convection does not exist and fans are ineffective for heat rejection.

Doubling heat rejection from a radiator requires either doubling radiator area or raising the radiator operating temperature to roughly 400–420 K (125–145 °C), which risks thermal runaway or unacceptable reliability degradation for commercial silicon.

Geostationary Orbit (GEO) has zero atmospheric drag and near-continuous sunlight interrupted only by seasonal eclipse periods.

Oxford Space Systems used custom composite and metal mesh production lines to manufacture the Wrapped Rib Antenna.

The Wrapped Rib Antenna was entirely designed and manufactured at Oxford Space Systems’ facilities in Oxfordshire.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited and Oxford Space Systems confirmed the successful in-orbit deployment of the Wrapped Rib Antenna aboard the CarbSAR In-Orbit Demonstration mission on January 29, 2026.

The Wrapped Rib Antenna design enables extremely compact stowage during launch to fit within small satellite fairings and expansion in orbit to rival much larger traditional spacecraft antennas.

With flight heritage secured from the CarbSAR mission, Oxford Space Systems is positioned to scale production of the Wrapped Rib Antenna for future commercial and government constellations.

Oxford Space Systems’ deployable antenna architecture is engineered to provide high-performance X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar from a stowage-efficient small satellite platform.

The OSS large deployable reflector development was funded through multi-year UK space industrialization initiatives.

The Wrapped Rib Antenna underwent a two-stage deployment sequence to reach its operational focal point following initial commissioning.

Performance data gathered from the CarbSAR mission will underpin Oxford Space Systems’ ability to produce batches of Wrapped Rib Antennas for global satellite operators.

The Wrapped Rib Antenna deployment on CarbSAR provides the first flight heritage for Oxford Space Systems’ large deployable reflector.

The CarbSAR mission launched on January 11, 2026 on a SpaceX Falcon 9.

The overarching goal for the Complementary Technology Development (CTD) work is for the contractor to achieve Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) between 4 and 6, depending on the initial TRL proposed.

Mission Control is one of three companies working on LUV concept designs.

The RFP is specific to complementary technology development for the proposed Canadian Lunar Utility Vehicle (LUV) expected to launch no earlier than 2033.

MDA Space is one of three companies working on LUV concept designs.

The CanadaBuys procurement notice for the LUV complementary technology development RFP is publicly available.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) released a new request for proposals (RFP) related to the Lunar Utility Rover (LUV).

The Canadian Space Agency posted on LinkedIn elaborating on the publicly available CanadaBuys procurement notice for the LUV RFP.

The CSA outlined the following LUV-aligned sub-systems: Structures, Mobility, Command and data handling, Electrical power, Thermal control, Guidance, navigation and control, Communications, Payload/Sensors/Tools accommodation, Harnesses, Manipulation capability, and Ground segment.

Proposals for the CSA LUV Complementary Technology Development RFP are due no later than March 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM EDT.

The RFP requests offers to provide services to develop additional technologies to support Lunar Utility Vehicle concept progress outside of the main Rover Phase 0 and Technology Development contracts.

Canadensys Aerospace is one of three companies working on LUV concept designs.

Maris‑Tech’s payload is designed to demonstrate high-performance edge computing and video processing capabilities in orbit.

An integration milestone has been achieved in advance of the Sidus Space LizzieSat-4 mission carrying a Maris‑Tech payload.

Maris‑Tech is an AI-based edge computing and video company.

Sidus Space provides a turnkey space platform for commercial and government customers.

The recently achieved integration milestone marks the transition from planning to active integration for the Maris‑Tech payload on LizzieSat-4.

Patrick Butler is Executive Vice President, Engineering & Programs at Sidus Space.

Maris‑Tech’s payload will leverage the modular LizzieSat architecture and Sidus Space’s flight-proven subsystems.

LizzieSat-4 is part of Sidus Space’s constellation of multi-mission satellites engineered to support rapid payload integration and flexible hosted payload configurations.

The LizzieSat-4 mission is expected to support real-time data handling and advanced analytics use cases for space and defense applications.

Sidus Space and Maris‑Tech are preparing to initiate testing of Maris‑Tech’s payload hardware next week.

Israel Bar is Chief Executive Officer of Maris‑Tech.

The LizzieSat-4 mission is scheduled to launch later this year.

Upon completion of initial testing, Maris‑Tech’s payload is expected to be integrated onto the LizzieSat-4 satellite.