True Anomaly Images Rocket Lab Satellite for Space Force as ULA Closes Atlas V Amazon Run and Isar Wins Planet Contract

The clearest signal of the day came from low Earth orbit, where True Anomaly's Jackal spacecraft, nicknamed Panther, located, approached and imaged a Rocket Lab satellite for the Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC) in its Victus Haze responsive-space exercise. SSC gave True Anomaly 72 hours to deliver imagery; the company did it in 61, after Rocket Lab's Puma launched on Electron just over 16 hours from notice.

CEO Even Rogers called it the most complex rendezvous and proximity operation in modern history outside crewed missions, and SSC has said more tasked missions with increasing complexity will follow. For the Pentagon, the exercise validates a private-sector path for the kind of adversary satellite inspection China and Russia routinely conduct.

United Launch Alliance flew its final satellite-carrying Atlas V at 12:30 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral, delivering 29 Amazon Leo broadband satellites and lifting the constellation to 396 spacecraft, enough to support continuous service across initial latitudes, according to Amazon Leo business chief Chris Weber. Only six Atlas V vehicles remain under contract, all reserved for Boeing Starliner missions with no launch dates set. ULA's next Amazon Leo flight will move to Vulcan, which is grounded pending resolution of the solid rocket booster anomaly on its February USSF-87 mission.

In Europe, Isar Aerospace signed Planet Labs Germany to launch a Pelican high-resolution imaging satellite on Spectrum from Andøya as soon as late 2026, with options for additional flights. It is the first fully German end-to-end mission tied to Berlin's expanded space agenda, though Spectrum has not yet reached orbit after last year's debut failure and repeated 2026 scrubs. NASA separately booked roughly $590 million in Commercial Lunar Payload Services deliveries with Astrobotic, Firefly and Intuitive Machines for late-2028 landings carrying a common instrument set for the Moon Base program.