The United States Space Development Agency’s responsibilities include providing low-latency tactical data links (Transport Layer), advanced tracking and missile-defense capabilities (Tracking Layer), and battle management and custody of critical targets (Custody Layer).

The contracts were signed with Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris Technologies, with each company contracted to deliver and operate 18 spacecraft.

The United States Space Development Agency awarded four contracts totaling approximately $3.5 billion to build 72 missile-tracking satellites for the next phase of a low Earth orbit constellation designed to detect and track advanced missile threats.

Gurpartap GP Sandhoo is the acting director of the United States Space Development Agency.

Ana María Molina served as corporate general director of Hispasat prior to becoming CEO of Hisdesat.

Miguel Ángel Panduro served as CEO of Hispasat prior to his appointment as director of Indra Space.

Luis Mayo Muñiz has more than 20 years of experience in high-technology sectors and has led companies and participated in European programs.

Private firms in Jiangsu supplied optical components for the Chang'e-6 mechanical arm's camera.

Research institutes and academic groups collaborated to build a lunar soil structure detector and a mechanical sampling arm for the Chang'e-6 mission.

The Chang'e lunar exploration systems involve about 3,000 organizations and nearly 100,000 people working on mission planning and execution.

The nationwide resource mobilization system is designed to combine research priorities with economic outcomes by using market-based resource allocation to convert R&D spending into technical progress and commercial activity.

Research and test teams completed risk analysis, solution evaluation, material and personnel allocation, the crew's return, and the emergency launch of Shenzhou-22 within a 20-day window.

BeiDou has supported the growth of a satellite navigation and location-services industry that includes about 14,000 domestic entities and more than 500,000 employees.

Enterprises in Fujian produced the bearing parts used in the servo mechanism of the Chang'e launch system.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System involves more than 400 organizations and over 300,000 technical staff in its development and construction.

Policy documents for drafting China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) state that the nationwide resource mobilization system will continue to support innovation by targeting core technologies along entire industrial chains.

In 2024, China's BeiDou industry recorded a total output value of 575.8 billion yuan, or about 82 billion U.S. dollars, representing 7.39 percent year-on-year growth.

Starburst features bidirectional payouts so wins can be calculated from left to right and from right to left.

CSU identified completing a full experimental cycle with successful post-flight reproduction as a foundation for future studies to have mice mate, conceive, give birth and raise offspring entirely in space.

Astronauts supplied water to the mice via a dedicated port in the habitat during the mission.

CSU continuous AI-powered monitoring tracked the mice's movement, feeding and sleep patterns throughout the flight and supplied real-time data to support decision-making in orbit.

CAS researchers co-created cartoon illustrations of the four space-traveled mice with Xinhua News Agency to help communicate the science to younger audiences.

Four mice numbered 6, 98, 154 and 186, two males and two females, were chosen from dozens of candidates after more than two months of training and behavioral screening before launch.

SSC's ground stations will provide a link between Earth and space for the PExT demonstration.

The PExT demonstration supports NASA's plan to retire the TDRS constellation and move to a commercial-first model for near-Earth space communications services by 2031.

As part of the extended mission, SSC will support more than 50 low Earth orbit direct-to-Earth passes during the PExT direct-to-Earth campaign.

PExT is designed to enable spacecraft to communicate across multiple frequencies and to operate over both government and commercial networks from a single terminal.

PExT was launched on July 23 and the mission has been extended by 12 months to continue testing.

PExT is an in-flight Ka-band wideband technology demonstration managed by NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Benchmark tests show the method cuts network size by about 84.7 percent for the Telesat constellation compared with a full time-expanded network.

The partial time-expanded network removes more than 90 percent of redundant links using feasibility pruning and hierarchical aggregation.

Benchmark tests show the method cuts network size by about 99.4 percent for the OneWeb constellation compared with a full time-expanded network.

Benchmark tests show the method cuts network size by about 88.9 percent for the Starlink constellation compared with a full time-expanded network.

ESA is not certain that any classified data was stolen.

DarkWebInformer.com published a summary on Dec. 27 of what "888" claims to have stolen from the European Space Agency.

The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed a data breach.

Innospace plans to return to Brazil’s Alcantara Space Center in 2026 pending a formal finding by the Brazilian Air Force’s Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA).

The Earth Observer has been in publication for 36 years.

The Earth System Observatory is designed to provide three-dimensional, holistic data on climate change, disaster mitigation, and agricultural processes.

The Earth Observer was established in March 1989 to chronicle the development of the EOS program.

NASA plans to retire its three major Earth Observing System flagship satellites—Terra, Aqua, and Aura—possibly as early as the end of 2026.

The archives of The Earth Observer will remain accessible online as a historical record.

NASA is shifting resources toward the next-generation Earth System Observatory.

The decision to close The Earth Observer aligns with the operational wind-down of the EOS era.

NASA’s Earth observing flagship satellites have outlived their designed six-year lifespans by nearly two decades.

NASA has begun the 'painful process' of shutting down key instruments associated with the EOS program.

NASA will cease publication of The Earth Observer, its Earth Science newsletter, effective December 31, 2025.

EOS provided iconic imagery and data continuity that defined modern Earth science for nearly 30 years.

The Earth Observer served as a primary link between NASA leadership and the global science community before the internet was widely available.

The retirement of the EOS flagships and The Earth Observer clears the stage for the new Earth System Observatory.