A large amount of infrastructure totaling hundreds of tons will be needed on the lunar surface for a sustainable presence.

New Glenn Mark II has a fineness ratio of around 2 for safe landing on uneven lunar surfaces.

Falcon Heavy has completed 11 successful flights.

The combined delta-v requirement used for TLI, LOI, and lunar landing in the analysis is 3,260 m/s for TLI, 900 m/s for LOI, and 2,050 m/s for landing.

The outer three docked Falcon Heavy upper stages would fire their Merlin 1Dv engines for TLI and LOI, and the central stage rocket would be used to land the combined vehicle on the lunar surface with throttling as needed.

Dr. Ajay Kothari is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and a member of the AIAA Aerospace Power Technical Committee.

Falcon Heavy LEO payload capacity is approximately 38 tons fully reusable, 54 tons partially reusable, or 63 tons fully expendable.

Using four Falcon Heavy launches for the cargo concept yields substantial cost savings relative to SLS-based NRHO operations under the cited numbers.

The NASA Inspector General estimated SLS operations via NRHO would cost about $2 billion, not including Orion.

Amazon plans more than 20 Amazon Leo launches in 2026 and more than 30 launches in 2027.

Amazon requested an extension from the FCC for the milestone requiring 50% of its constellation to be deployed by July 30.

On Feb. 5, 2026 Amazon projected a year-over-year cost increase of approximately $1 billion related to Amazon Leo.

The central core of the Arianespace Ariane 64 rocket was photographed ahead of the first Ariane 6 Amazon Leo launch.

Amazon expects to spend $1 billion more on Amazon Leo expenses in 2026.

Amazon has launched 180 Amazon Leo satellites so far.

Amazon Leo is expected to launch commercially in 2026.

Amazon Leo will provide advanced encryption and secure private networking that bypasses the public internet and connects directly to Amazon Web Services.

Amazon is deploying the Amazon Leo satellite constellation to provide broadband for consumers, governments, and enterprises.

Amazon expects to complete full Amazon Leo constellation deployment by the end of July 2029.

Amazon cited near-term launch availability shortages driven by manufacturing disruptions, the failure and grounding of new launch vehicles, and limitations in spaceport capacity.

Amazon has invested more than $10 billion in Amazon Leo and committed additional billions.

The Leo Ultra enterprise customer terminal delivers simultaneous download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second and upload speeds of up to 400 megabits per second.

Amazon requested an extension or waiver from the FCC for the requirement to have 50% of the Amazon Leo constellation launched by July 30.

Amazon purchased 10 additional SpaceX Falcon 9 launches in late 2025 in addition to three previously purchased Falcon 9 launches.

Arianespace is scheduled to perform its first mission for Amazon Leo on Feb. 12.

Telesat signed a strategic partnership deal in the Middle East with Es’hailSat on Feb. 9 to deliver Low-Earth Orbit satellite connectivity services to Qatar and key international markets.

Telesat Lightspeed is a Low-Earth Orbit constellation currently in production and designed to deliver high-throughput, low-latency connectivity.

Es’hailSat’s strategic engagement with Telesat is intended to expand Es’hailSat’s international partnerships and provide innovative, high-performance connectivity solutions to its customers.

Telesat plans to launch two Telesat Lightspeed pathfinder satellites in late 2026 to validate satellite performance before broader deployment.

Telesat and Es’hailSat agreed to collaborate on service validation activities, market development initiatives, and exploration of local infrastructure integration in Qatar to support future service delivery.

Es’hailSat is evaluating and will demonstrate next-generation LEO services that complement its existing satellite and teleport infrastructure.

Telesat plans to bring 156 Telesat Lightspeed satellites into operation by the end of 2027.

Astroport’s proprietary autonomous construction tools are being integrated with Venturi Astrolab’s Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover.

Astroport Space Technologies and Venturi Astrolab completed a field demonstration using a prototype of a specialized lunar excavator payload.

Jaret Matthews is the CEO of Venturi Astrolab.

The completed excavator field demonstration is the first in a planned suite of automated lunar construction solutions from Astroport and Venturi Astrolab.

Venturi Astrolab’s FLEX rover is described as a mobility platform designed for operations on the lunar surface.

The excavator demonstration serves as the foundational proof of concept for a broader family of interchangeable automated tools for lunar construction.

Planned lunar construction tasks for the integrated system include precision site preparation and excavation for high-mass payloads.

The automated tool suite under development is engineered to perform lunar site preparation required for mission assurance.

Planned lunar construction tasks for the integrated system include creating sintered landing and launch pad surfaces to mitigate spacecraft plume-surface interaction (PSI).

Astroport Space Technologies and Venturi Astrolab signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a unified “Science-to-Construction” pipeline for lunar site preparation.

Under the MoU, Venturi Astrolab’s FLEX rover will serve as the primary industrial workhorse for Astroport’s suite of automated civil engineering implements.

Planned lunar construction tasks for the integrated system include building lunar roadways to support a cislunar transport corridor.

Sam Ximenes is the CEO of Astroport Space Technologies.

The integrated Astroport–Venturi Astrolab system is intended to enable large-scale autonomous construction operations on the Moon.

President Trump backed away from proposed tariff hikes on household furnishings, coinciding with a 0.5% monthly decline in household furnishings prices.

Science received $7.76 billion in NASA’s FY2026 budget.

Economic growth projections for 2026 anticipate annual GDP growth of 1.4% to 1.7%.

Intellectual property and software investment surged 18% year-over-year in Q3 2025.