Latest briefing · August 28, 2026
Starlink's $11.4 Billion Engine: How Satellite Broadband Is Bankrolling Starship's Infrastructure Buildout
SpaceX's connectivity division posted $4.4B operating profit in 2025 — the cash funding 17 Starship pads and a $100B Louisiana spaceport.
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August 27, 2026
Tritium Betavoltaic Cells Head to Orbit: What It Means for Lunar Surface Power
Nuclear "batteries" using tritium beta decay are being tested in space for the first time, targeting the one power problem solar can't solve: the 14-day lunar night.
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August 26, 2026
Beyond Reach Labs' Flarewing and ESA's Nuclear Argonaut Signal a Surface Power Reckoning
Two milestones this week—a patent-pending deployable solar array and Ariane 6 nuclear safety mods—sharpen the surface power trade-off every lunar program must now make.
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August 25, 2026
China's Chang'e-7 and NASA's Cargo Landers: Who Powers the Lunar South Pole First?
Two competing programs are racing to deliver sustained power to the lunar south pole — and the infrastructure choices made now will define who operates there.
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August 22, 2026
What UNSW's Xiaojing Hao Just Got Right About Earth-Made Solar for Space
UNSW's CZTS solar cell breakthrough at 12.4% efficiency signals a real path to cheaper, greener photovoltaics for both Earth and space applications.
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August 22, 2026
Elve's TRL-8 mmWave Amplifier Is the Quiet Infrastructure Win Space Solar Needs
A space-qualified 100 W mmWave transmitter at TRL-8 removes one of power-beaming's hardest hardware blockers — here's what it proves and what it doesn't.
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August 21, 2026
Zeno Power's Lunar Night Survival Test: What the Firefly RHU Mission Actually Proves
Zeno Power's radioisotope heating unit boards a Firefly lunar lander no earlier than 2028 — here's what the demo proves, and what it doesn't.
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August 20, 2026
Moon Pits Hold a Steady 17°C — But Who Powers the Base Inside Them?
UCLA's lunar pit temperature data solves a thermal problem and immediately surfaces a harder one: how do you run a permanently shaded habitat?
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August 19, 2026
UK Space Energy Initiative Pushes for Orbital Solar Demo as Launch Costs and Terrestrial Efficiency Close In
The Space Energy Initiative is pressing Westminster for co-funding an orbital space-based solar power demonstrator — here's what the numbers actually say.
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August 18, 2026
Orbital Data Centres Want Space Solar Power — Here's What the Physics Actually Allows
AI data centres consuming the equivalent of 100,000 homes are eyeing orbital solar and radiative cooling — but the engineering constraints are unforgiving.
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