SpaceX and the state of Louisiana are close to finalizing a deal for the launch company to acquire about 130,000 acres along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

There have been persistent rumors about such an agreement for months, but now The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate reports that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to announce the agreement later this month.

The deal would give SpaceX control of an 18-mile stretch of marshland southwest of Lafayette. The site, known as Pecan Island, became available as part of a legal settlement that resolves dozens of lawsuits that blame ExxonMobil for pollution and coastal land loss, the newspaper reports.

No Louisiana officials publicly commented on the deal. Nor did SpaceX. In May, however, the company said in response to rumors about the Louisiana site on X, “It’s no secret that we intend to launch Starship a lot, targeting thousands of flights per year. That cadence will require the ability to launch from many different locations, so we are constantly exploring to find viable sites to expand Starship operations in the future, both domestically and internationally.”

Plenty of incentives

Adding fuel to the rumors was the passage of bills by the Louisiana Legislature earlier this year that included a package of incentives for aerospace companies, including liability protections and property tax breaks.

According to the Louisiana newspaper, the agreement with SpaceX will include provisions for coastal restoration and preservation of the sensitive marshland along the northern Gulf Coast, which is important for wildlife and also acts as a buffer for hurricanes that regularly impact the region.

So why would SpaceX be interested in a remote, marshy location in southern Louisiana?

Lots of reasons to like Louisiana

If the company is to fulfill its ambitions to launch thousands of Starship rockets a year to build a massive constellation of orbital data centers, among other purposes, it needs more launch sites. And there are limited expanses of undeveloped coastal locations along the Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic Ocean in the United States.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-is-set-to-acquire-130000-acres-of-marshland-in-southern-louisiana/

One week ago, more than 200 miles above the Earth, a refrigerator-size satellite making its way toward an attempted rescue of NASA’s $500 million Swift gamma-ray observatory suddenly spun out of control.

It didn’t look good. The spacecraft, named Link, was rotating on multiple axes, rendering it unable to maintain a reliable communications link with the ground and complicating efforts to arrest the spin. Two of the satellite’s three reaction wheels, used for pointing, also stopped working. Through sporadic radio contact, engineers discovered a problem with some of the spacecraft’s cold gas thrusters used for finer attitude control.

The Link satellite is built, owned, and operated by Katalyst Space Technologies, a satellite servicing startup that won a $30 million contract from NASA to fly up to the Swift observatory, grab onto it, and boost its orbit before succumbing to aerodynamic drag and burning up int he atmosphere.

The clock is ticking. In a few months, Swift will be too low for Katalyst to complete the rescue. This is the first time NASA has contracted with a commercial company to service one of its satellites. The space agency gave Katalyst less than a year to put the mission together. The Link satellite launched July 3 to begin the pursuit of Swift, and the mission proceeded mostly according to plan until last Saturday.

“When this happened, it was during one of the passes without comms,” said Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst, said in an interview with Ars. “We were, immediately prior, in a very stable configuration.”

Katalyst’s ground team, working from a control center near Denver, hurried to find a fix and recover the Link satellite. The good news was the spacecraft’s other systems remained healthy, including its power supply, three xenon-fueled electric thrusters, and the rendezvous and robotics hardware the Link satellite needs to capture Swift.

Keeping at it

Ars spoke with Lee, Katalyst’s chief executive, on Friday afternoon as the company’s ground team worked to stabilize the spacecraft. The first step involves using the satellite’s plasma engines to gradually slow the spin. The engines are primarily designed for orbit-raising, but they’re also suitable for attitude control because they can vector their thrust with a two-axis gimbal.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/heres-how-engineers-plan-to-save-the-satellite-sent-to-save-nasas-swift-mission/

A NASA website providing status updates on each DSN complex showed no activity at the Madrid site Friday afternoon, while antennas at the California and Australia locations were communicating with several NASA spacecraft, such as Voyager 2 and Juno, exploring interstellar space and Jupiter, respectively.

No activity at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex on Friday afternoon.

Credit: NASA

“The safety and well‑being of our personnel is our highest priority and our thoughts are with the families and neighbors who are also experiencing the impact of the wildfires in the surrounding communities,” NASA said. “We will provide updates as conditions evolve.”

A separate deep space tracking station owned and operated by the Spanish government and the European Space Agency was also evacuated due to wildfires, according to Spanish news reports. The Cebreros tracking station, part of ESA’s Estrack network, is located a few miles away from NASA’s DSN facility.

Reuters reported Friday that Spanish authorities ordered more than 19,000 people to evacuate from towns in the mountains west of Madrid. More than 2,000 personnel and 10 aircraft were deployed to combat the wildfires. A summer heat wave and chronic drought conditions have made conditions ripe for wildfires across Spain and France.

Without the Madrid location, the Deep Space Network is down to one operational 70-meter radio antenna in Australia. The 70-meter antenna in California has been offline since last year due to an accident that “over-rotated” the structure. The incident damaged cables and water lines, flooding the base of the antenna with 200,000 gallons of water containing glycol, an environmental hazard.

The cleanup and repair is projected to cost between $4.1 million and $4.6 million. NASA officials are combining the repairs with already-planned upgrades. The work is expected to keep the antenna offline into 2028.

The good news for DSN is the next Artemis mission to the Moon is still at least a couple of years away. Artemis missions put high demand on DSN, with additional requirements for telemetry and imagery downlinks to support human spaceflight. Artemis III will now fly in low-Earth orbit to test the Orion capsule with commercial Moon landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. Artemis IV, the program’s first planned lunar landing with astronauts, is targeted for no earlier than 2028.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/wildfire-forces-evacuation-of-nasas-deep-space-network-complex-in-spain/

The modern rise of commercial satellite imagery and free public resources such as Europe’s Copernicus satellite imagery has also enabled news agencies and open source intelligence researchers to provide additional transparency on conflicts around the world. But US satellite firms such as Planet Labs and Vantor have largely restricted imagery related to the ongoing Iran war after the US government raised concerns about security risks.

Such restrictions have forced journalists and researchers to rely more heavily on alternatives such as the free Copernicus satellite images and European firms that provide commercial satellite imagery. For example, the independent investigative journalism group Bellingcat released an open source tool that uses Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite imagery to map possible war damage in Iran and the Gulf region.

Similarly, The New York Times and Washington Post have relied on Copernicus satellite imagery to investigate the extent of damage to US military bases and radar installations from Iranian missile and drone strikes. Such reporting comes at a time when the Pentagon under Trump’s administration has become less willing to share information about US military casualties or damage to military assets during the war.

The 24-hour delay in the release of Copernicus satellite imagery is less onerous than US satellite firms’ restrictions and would still allow journalists and researchers to monitor the war.

But the new restriction does create additional friction in providing timely transparency around what is happening. The potentially widening war has already killed thousands of people and created a global energy shock from ongoing disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz shipping lanes—not to mention already costing the United States more than $37 billion, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting another $70 billion.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/european-union-grants-us-request-to-restrict-satellite-images-of-iran-war-region/

The Space Force originally estimated the Lane 1 launch providers would compete for at least 30 task orders over a five-year period. Officials put a ceiling of $5.6 billion on the Lane 1 contract to cover these 30 missions. The Space Force capped the Lane 2 contract at $13.7 billion last year, a number officials thought was sufficient to cover an estimated 54 launches projected for procurement through 2029.

But things have changed rapidly. In April, Space Systems Command said it had identified 25 additional Lane 2 missions on top of the 54 included in the original contract just one year before. Now, the Space Force is tripling the maximum value for the Lane 1 contract. The service has not said how many more missions it expects to order in Lane 1 beyond the initial estimate of 30.

With Friday’s announcement, the combined maximum value of Lane 1 and Lane 2 has reached more than $30 billion, and the number is likely to climb again. Space Force officials have not publicly identified exactly what missions they plan to add to each of the NSSL contracts. But there are a few obvious programs driving the military’s rising launch demand.

One is the Space Force’s recent award of multibillion-dollar contracts to SpaceX for the deployment of numerous satellites for the Pentagon’s Space Data Network and Airborne Moving Target Indicator programs. The SDN and AMTI satellite constellations will provide global connectivity and targeting information for US forces. Another is Golden Dome, the Trump administration’s proposed missile defense shield, which is expected to include an untold number of space-based missile warning sensors and space-based interceptors.

The Trump administration requested $71.1 billion for the Space Force in fiscal year 2027, up from approximately $40 billion allocated for fiscal year 2026. The House Appropriations Committee’s draft 2027 budget for the Pentagon includes $55.5 billion for the Space Force, somewhat less than the White House’s request. The Senate has not released its Pentagon budget bill.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/the-space-force-is-now-seeking-to-buy-up-to-30-billion-in-rocket-launches/

This view of the payload deck of the Vikram-1 rocket’s upper stage was captured moments after orbital insertion Saturday. The rocket deployed two small CubeSats and hosted several more payloads that remained attached to the upper stage.

Credit: Skyroot Aerospace

Skyroot’s breakthrough launch comes as India’s government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeks to supercharge the country’s space industry. India has long had a robust space program, with government-developed rockets such as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the larger LVM3 often attracting commercial customers from the United States and Europe. India became the fourth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon in 2023, and is working on an oft-delayed human-rated crew capsule to fly astronauts to low-Earth orbit.

Modi has told the Indian space industry to increase its annual launch total from about five launches per year to 50 before the end of the decade. The prime minister called Chandana and congratulated the Skyroot team after Saturday’s launch.

“This is a defining moment in India’s space journey,” Modi said in a statement. “The growing participation of our private sector is opening new frontiers and accelerating innovation. This achievement will encourage countless youngsters to dream bigger and innovate fearlessly.”

Chandana, a former engineer at India’s space agency, founded Skyroot in 2018 with another ISRO scientist, Naga Bharath Daka. They decided to focus on developing a solid-fueled launcher first, optimizing for what Chandana described as the lowest development time and the lowest cost per launch. “We wanted to get to an orbital launch vehicle in a few years,” Chandana told Ars.

“It’s a test launch” he said at the time. “Statistically, the first launch from a private company almost always fails. It’s very difficult to succeed with all new systems. But I think we have done everything we can do to ensure the first launch goes well.”

Indeed, the first launch went very well, exceeding all expectations. A second Vikram-1 launch could happen before the end of the year, Chandana said.

“This is a 100 percent designed in India rocket, a 100 percent made in India rocket, built by 100 percent Indian people, for India and for the world,” Chandana said after the launch Saturday. “This was a historic moment for India, but also a very proud moment for the global space sector because the world needs more access to space.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/indias-first-privately-developed-rocket-reaches-orbit-on-dramatic-debut-launch/

How many launches to build a data center megaconstellation? In a new feature, Ars looks into the technical challenges of building orbital data centers and assesses what it might take to build SpaceX’s proposed 1 million satellite megaconstellation. The key to all of this is not radiation or the need to cool data centers in space. The single-most important factor is cheap access to space. For the purpose of the analysis, Ars modeled three scenarios: high-performing Starship and low-satellite mass; medium-performing Starship and satellite mass; and low-performing Starship and high-mass satellites.

The numbers are pretty daunting … The optimistic scenario would require 17,500 Starship launches to deploy 1 million satellites. The most pessimistic scenario would require 77,000 total launches. Over a period of five years, by the way, for the pessimistic scenario that would be 42 Starship launches a day. As for total costs, including launches, satellites, and ground systems, under the most optimistic scenario the constellation could be deployed for $1.45 trillion. Pessimistically? Hold your breath: It’s $9.8 trillion.

NASA mission moves to Falcon Heavy. NASA’s SunRISE (Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment) mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the space agency said this week. As part of the announcement, NASA did not announce a launch date for the heliophysics mission, which had originally been scheduled to launch on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.

Six new eyes on the Sun … The mission is flying as a rideshare sponsored by the United States Space Force’s Space Systems Command. SunRISE comprises six toaster-oven-size small satellites, or SmallSats, that will operate as one giant radio dish slightly above geosynchronous orbit (about 22,000 miles, or 35,000 kilometers, in altitude) to track the rumbles of radio bursts coming from within the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona. (submitted by Tfargo04)

Next three launches

July 16: Starship | Flight Test 13 | Starbase, Texas | 22:45 UTC

July 18: Vikram 1 | Aagaman test flight | Satish Dhawan Space Center, India | 06:00 UTC

July 20: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-39 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 14:00 UTC

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/rocket-report-indias-vikram-1-nears-debut-flight-ast-to-become-rocket-company/

SpaceX called off a test flight of its powerful Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster as the countdown clock reached zero Thursday at the company’s spaceport in South Texas.

The launch team at Starbase, Texas, just north of the US-Mexico border, aimed to launch the more than 400-foot-tall rocket at 5:45 pm local time (6:45 pm EDT; 22:45 UTC). The countdown proceeded smoothly throughout the day, culminating in the loading of more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen into the two-stage rocket.

But the computers controlling the countdown called an abort during the Super Heavy booster’s engine startup sequence. SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt, and engineers began preparations to drain the rocket’s propellant tanks. Officials did not immediately announce when they plan to try to launch again.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, posted on his social media platform X that the company might not be able to launch during the next available opportunity on Friday evening. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” Musk wrote. “Now offloading propellant. Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days.”

Later Thursday evening, Musk added that ground teams at Starbase will replace two of the Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster. “Most probable launch timing is early next week.”

Tuning the engine

The Super Heavy booster has 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, each capable of generating more than half a million pounds of thrust. The engines are supposed to ignite in a staggered sequence after activation of the launch pad’s water-cooled flame diverter, designed to protect the launch facility from the intense heat and vibrations during liftoff of the world’s most powerful rocket.

SpaceX officials did not say how many engines failed to start during the ignition sequence, but a graphic of engine status on SpaceX’s live video stream indicated four of the 33 engines never ignited. The engines on this Starship and Super Heavy come from SpaceX’s third-generation Raptor design. This test flight—the 13th full-scale Starship launch—is the second to use the Raptor 3 engine flying on SpaceX’s upgraded Starship Version 3 rocket.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/spacex-scrubs-starship-launch-after-some-of-its-engines-didnt-start/

Anil Menon, a NASA flight surgeon, felt crushed nine years ago as his hopes and aspirations collapsed around him.

For the fourth time, he had diligently applied to become an astronaut at the US space agency, seeking to fulfill a lifelong dream. Although he made it to the final round, NASA had once again rejected his application at the end of the grueling process.

“I was so sad, and I admitted defeat,” Menon said. “I just did not see a pathway forward. So I pretty much, at that point in time, gave up on being an astronaut. I thought there was a zero percent chance.”

He was 39 years old. In 2017, Menon was already half a decade older than the average age of those selected to become astronaut candidates. He felt a door closing, and looking for a new one to open, devoted time to thinking deeply about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

His life was not without adventure up to that point—far from it. An emergency physician by training, Menon had practiced medicine on Mount Everest, provided relief in Port-au-Prince after a devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and flown search-and-rescue missions with the US military in Afghanistan.

As he considered what should come next, Menon journaled daily about his passions, purpose, and principles. Eventually, he settled on space medicine. If he could not go to space, he would help others do so. And collectively, humanity would advance. “I needed that to be crystal clear in my mind,” Menon said.

It had to be, because Menon and his wife Anna were about to make some momentous decisions. Decisions that would ultimately culminate in not one of them, but both, going to space.

Facing a difficult decision

After spending his childhood years in the Midwest, Menon studied at Harvard University (neurobiology) before attending Stanford University to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering and, in 2006, a medical degree. He worked as an emergency physician in Los Angeles. He also joined the Air National Guard, became a pilot, and worked as a physician on search-and-rescue helicopters in Afghanistan.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/a-most-improbable-astronaut-just-went-to-space/

SpaceX has pinned the bulk of its future value on orbital data centers. Not rockets. Not spacecraft.

Instead, it envisions launching and maintaining a constellation of 1 million satellites capable of generating 120 GW to power tens of millions—and potentially up to 100 million—frontier-class GPUs for data center services.

The company’s founder, Elon Musk, revealed plans for this massive constellation months ago, but until recently, the scope of the individual satellites was largely unknown. That changed in June, when Musk and Ian Dahl, director of satellite engineering for SpaceX, spoke in a promotional video about the company’s plans to develop the first iteration of an orbital data center, called an AI1 satellite. The video finally provided the company’s numbers about the satellite’s size and power capabilities.

“There’s not some magic that’s necessary that doesn’t exist,” Musk said during the video, reflecting on the challenge of building AI1 satellites. “A lot of this is technology we’ve already made for Starlink V3 satellites. Basically, we don’t think this is a super hard problem.”

As Ars wrote in part 1 of this series, the physics of orbital data centers are indeed non-magical. But the economics are, to put it mildly, challenging.

This subject has sparked a broad debate about the near-term viability of this technology, both in terms of feasibility and whether it’s all hype now that SpaceX is a publicly traded company.

SpaceX’s design for its AI1 satellite.

Credit: SpaceX

Iridium Communications chief executive Matt Desch, a long-time, level-headed satellite industry executive, was asked during an earnings call earlier this year what he thought about the concept.

“It’s a hot, hot area right now of discussion, mainly because of Starlink’s announcement and some others,” Desch replied. “It looks like a problem that can be solved in space… (But) there’s massive technical challenges to overcome.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/how-hard-is-it-to-build-orbital-data-centers-actually/