NASA's moon mission has been delayed (again)
Engineers observed an interruption in the flow of helium required for launch operations.
This newsletter was brought to you by Sonder London. Follow us on LinkedIn here. And thanks for reading.
Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of The View from Space.
🌙 Nasa has said that the 6th March launch day for for its long-awaited Artemis II mission to the moon is now ‘out of consideration’. The BBC reports:
‘Four astronauts are preparing to be sent on the 10-day trip to the far side of the Moon and back, marking humanity’s furthest ever journey into space.
Isaacman said he understood “that people are disappointed by this development”, after almost 50-hours of checks on Thursday revealed no faults.
The agency felt almost certain that its “wet rehearsal” had been a success, leading the team to announce that the launch could take place as soon as 6 March.
But overnight on Friday, engineers observed an interruption in the flow of helium required for launch operations.
Disruption to helium, which is used to pressurise fuel tanks and cool rocket systems, is treated as a serious technical issue, according to Nasa.
The test was the scientists’ second attempt at a practice run at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, having fixed earlier issues with filters and seals that had led to hydrogen leaks..’
☀️ Could Britain harness the sun’s energy from space? asks the FT:
‘.. The quest continues for non-intermittent sources of low-carbon power — and one idea gaining traction is to launch solar panels into space, where they can harvest almost constant sunlight and beam electricity back to Earth (as microwave radiation).
As with many emerging technologies, there is a debate between those who think space-based solar power is humanity’s great hope and those who believe we’d be better off pouring resources into developing traditional wind, solar and batteries for storage.
But interest has gathered pace in recent years thanks to reductions in the costs of both making and launching satellites to host the solar panels. Companies such as Space Solar, based in Oxford, England, are working on the technology as well as governments.
The latest contribution to the debate comes via a report from Frazer-Nash Consultancy, in partnership with Space Solar and Imperial College London, looking at whether it would be more viable to launch smaller projects, given the costs and technical prowess required.’
🛰️ Forbes wonders why satellites are ‘suddenly everywhere’:
‘In the United States, satellite connectivity has now featured in Super Bowl advertising for two consecutive years, which is notable, given that 30-second spots can cost upwards of $8 million and reach more than 100 million viewers. Last year, major telecom providers highlighted direct-to-device messaging designed to extend coverage beyond the traditional footprint of cellular networks, from rural highways to backcountry trails. This year, the focus shifted to everyday connectivity: broadband at home and Wi-Fi on commercial flights.
At the same time, new constellations continue to be announced, so-called “legacy” operators are expanding capacity and governments outside the U.S. are backing satellite networks designed to compete on a global scale. Headlines about adjacent space developments — from in-orbit services to more ambitious infrastructure concepts like space-based data processing — only deepen the sense that connectivity will be central to whatever comes next.
What appears sudden is largely the result of trends unfolding for years. Launch costs have dropped. Satellites are cheaper and faster to manufacture. Growing capacity in orbit gives operators more flexibility in how they structure and sell service, including leasing access rather than owning the entire value chain.
Satellite technology has advanced as well. Higher-capacity payloads and denser constellations have reduced latency and increased throughput, allowing satellite networks to compete more directly with terrestrial systems in mainstream use cases. At the same time, improvements in antenna design, beam steering and network architecture have expanded coverage and reliability in places that were previously difficult or uneconomical to serve. What was once a niche solution for areas with no alternative can now support applications ranging from home broadband to enterprise resilience.’
🤖 Martin Halliwell, Partner at NewSpace Capital, explores the role that artificial intelligence is playing in the new space race. He writes for EU-Startups:
‘The global zeal for artificial intelligence has been so wildly out of proportion with the reality of what it can actually do that a theorised AI bubble has spawned its own Wikipedia page. But AI does, of course, have its uses, and it has already made a difference in a large number of sectors. Space is one of them.
Satellites need to detect patterns, update plans in close to real time, and adjust behaviour within an environment that is partly structured. This has all the hallmarks of a classic AI use case. Applied to capacity management, AI could decide who gets bandwidth, when, and for how long. In contested settings, this matters a great deal. It can also improve resilience, since automated systems can keep networks running even when links are degraded or operators are overloaded.’
🤣 Sam Altman has called Elon Musk’s plan to install data centres in space ‘ridiculous’, reports the India News Network:
‘During the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Altman expressed his thoughts on the feasibility of launching data centres into orbit. “Putting data centres in space with the current landscape is ridiculous,” he stated in an interview with the Indian Express. He elaborated that the current economic and technical challenges posed by launch costs and the difficulty of addressing issues with components, such as graphic processing units (GPUs), make such initiatives unrealistic within the decade.
Nevertheless, Altman acknowledged a future potential for orbital data centres, noting, “We’re not there yet.”
These remarks come as Musk has been advocating for the establishment of data centres in space. At the World Economic Forum in Davos this January, Musk claimed, “The lowest-cost place to put AI will be in space, and that will be true within two years, maybe three at the latest.” His ambitions regarding this initiative were highlighted at an all-hands meeting of xAI in December, where he foresees the involvement of Tesla’s Optimus robot in managing orbital data centres.’
⚠️ With satellites proliferating, Earth’s orbit is on track for a ‘catastrophe’ claim Gregory Radisic and Samantha Lawler in The Conversation:
‘At this scale of growth, the night sky will change permanently and globally for generations to come.
Satellites in low Earth orbit reflect sunlight for about two hours after sunset and before sunrise. Despite engineering efforts to make them less bright, truck-sized satellites from many megaconstellations look like moving points in the night sky. Projections show future satellites will significantly increase this light pollution.
In 2021, astronomers estimated that in less than a decade, 1 in every 15 points of light in the night sky would be a moving satellite. That estimate only included the 65,000 megaconstellation satellites proposed at the time.
Once deployed at a scale of millions, the impacts on the night sky may not be easily reversed.
While the average satellite only lasts about five years, companies design these megaconstellations for nearly continuous replacement and expansion. This locks in a continuous, industrialised presence in the night sky..’
🛜 Jeff Huggins, President of Cailabs, US, warns that GPS is under attack – but that powerful alternatives exist. He writes for Photonics Spectra:
‘Lasercoms’ credibility stems from its resilience to jamming, spoofing, and interference, which is intrinsic to the technology. Plainly, lasing bypasses the transmission of data as radio waves. And, because of the way light propagates — as a narrow, focused beam — anyone who wanted to jam it would need to be positioned exactly in its path. For all intents and purposes this is extremely difficult to achieve. Spoofing is even more difficult to achieve: The physics of laser propagation make mimicking a coherent optical signal in real time nearly impossible.
The advantages go beyond security. Optical satellite links, as readers of this column will know, have already demonstrated data rates many times higher than those of conventional radio systems. An optical ground station can move gigabits of data per second.
In short, lasercoms could provide a robust, interference-resistant communication method that is also ultra high-speed.
The additional benefit of lasercoms is its alignment with the overall purpose of GPS: accurate position, navigation, and timing (PNT). The physics of laser beams means they can precisely confirm the position of a given satellite. Simple geometry that makes use of the known position of the optical ground station, the tight laser beam a few meters in circumference, and the angle and altitude of the satellite each offer assurance that the location of the broadcasting GPS satellite is accurate.’
👩💼 Via Satellite have released their annual list of the women making a different in the satellite industry:
‘2026 marks the fifth anniversary of Celebrating Women in Satellite, which has now commemorated more than 175 women in the space and satellite industry. This year’s feature honors women in roles that span across the space and satellite industry — from propulsion technology, user terminal development, satellite licensing, satellite data exploitation, to workforce development, project management, and marketing. We are also honored this feature has reached readers around the world, and highlights women from five continents.
🇨🇳 China is building the high-tech backbone of African space. The South China Morning Post reports:
‘Bulelani Jili, an assistant professor at Georgetown University in Washington, said Beijing’s strategy was about “strategic presence and technical lock-in”, as ground stations, data-receiving facilities and navigation infrastructure – often compatible with China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system – created technical dependence.
Consequently, he said, China could “become the default partner for maintenance, upgrades, training and bandwidth, making alternatives operationally and financially costly”.
He noted that “gifting” space infrastructure was a form of soft power.
“By delivering visible symbols of partnership, such projects generate political capital while embedding long-term ties with defence, telecommunications and science ministries,” Jili said.’
👽 And finally, United States Secretary of War was asked if aliens exist. He equivocated.