This Week in Space Tech #21
This Week in Space Tech: Jan 5 to 11, 2026. A fast moving week where funding landed, regulators reshaped satellite plans, and SpaceX kept the launch tempo high.
Welcome to This Week in Space Tech.
Launches and missions
Jan 9: SpaceX launched Starlink Group 6-96, adding 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral and recovering the Falcon 9 booster on a droneship.
Jan 11: SpaceX flew the Twilight rideshare from Vandenberg into a dusk dawn sun synchronous orbit, deploying NASA’s Pandora exoplanet mission alongside dozens of other spacecraft, including commercial payloads.
Regulation and spectrum
Jan 9: The U.S. FCC approved SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional Gen2 Starlink satellites, a major regulatory step that expands the constellation plan and supports next generation services including direct to cell connectivity in some markets.
National security and government contracts
Jan 9: U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command awarded about $739M in National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 task orders, assigning multiple future launches to SpaceX to support Space Development Agency tracking layer missions and an NRO mission set.
Jan 6: NASA awarded the Wallops Range Contract with a total potential value of $339.8M, strengthening launch range operations for Wallops as small launch and suborbital activity continues to scale.
Startups, funding, and corporate moves
Jan 5: Array Labs announced a $20M Series A, positioning the startup to scale manufacturing for its space based radar hardware and push toward flight qualification and deployment.
Jan 5: L3Harris agreed to sell a controlling stake in its Space Propulsion and Power Systems business to AE Industrial Partners in an $845M deal, reshuffling a key supplier footprint in propulsion and power.
Jan 8: India based TakeMe2Space announced a $5M seed round to expand its OrbitLab concept and build out a larger on orbit compute enabled satellite network.