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.