EU Backs a Collective Response to Threats Against Members' Satellites, Rheinmetall and Iceye Start Radar Satellite Production, and Northrop Selects ThinKom for Its TACAMO Aircraft

[ 01 ]

The briefing

The European Union's 27 member states approved a collective response, by political, economic or military means, to threats against any one nation's satellites and ground infrastructure. Council Decision 2026/2195 broadens a 2021 framework that covered jointly owned systems such as Galileo and Copernicus, and lets a member state ask the EU to help it respond. In Germany, the joint venture of Rheinmetall and Iceye began production at a plant in Neuss designed to build 20 radar satellites a year, starting with a 40-satellite order from the German military.

Northrop Grumman selected ThinKom's multi-orbit antennas for the E-130J Phoenix II, the aircraft it is developing to take over the Navy's nuclear command relay mission from the E-6B Mercury. NASA is moving 7,500 contractor positions into the civil service under an initiative from Administrator Jared Isaacman to rebuild in-house skills. HawkEye 360 published results showing that its radio-frequency sensing satellites can detect and identify signals from other satellites, and Firefly Aerospace added Rick Ambrose, the former head of Lockheed Martin's Space business, to its board.

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL is scheduled to leave the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday after delivering more than 11,000 pounds of cargo. The European Commission extended the deadline of its SALTO reusable launcher project to the end of 2026 while ArianeGroup completed a second wet dress rehearsal of the Themis demonstrator in Sweden. Outside the space sector, Anduril won up to $2.9 billion from the Navy for a Baltimore shipyard that will build Virginia-class submarine components.

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The headlines

EU approves a collective response to threats against member states' satellites

The European Union's 27 member states approved, for the first time, a collective response by political, economic or military means to threats against any one nation's satellites and related ground infrastructure, under Council Decision 2026/2195 of September 23. The decision broadens the Space Threat Response Architecture created in 2021, which covered jointly owned systems such as Galileo and Copernicus, to threats against the security of the EU or its member states even when no EU space asset is involved, including cyberattacks, espionage and disruption of supply chains and ground stations.

Rheinmetall and Iceye joint venture starts radar satellite production in Germany

Rheinmetall Iceye Space Solutions, the joint venture created with a 40-satellite order from the German military, began production at its site in Neuss, Germany, the two companies said on October 6. The facility is designed to build 20 synthetic aperture radar satellites a year using Iceye's intellectual property, and the German military will commission and control the satellites as part of its SPOCK-1 constellation.

Northrop Grumman picks ThinKom's multi-orbit antenna for the Navy's E-130J nuclear command aircraft

NOC

Northrop Grumman selected ThinKom's multi-orbit ThinAir antennas for the U.S. Navy's E-130J Phoenix II, the aircraft it is developing to take over the Take Charge and Move Out mission, known as TACAMO, from the E-6B Mercury fleet. The mission provides connectivity between the National Command Authority and U.S. nuclear forces. The antennas provide high-bandwidth satellite communications beyond line of sight with multi-orbit connectivity, anti-jam and survivability features. Northrop Grumman was selected as prime contractor for the aircraft in late 2024, and financial terms were not disclosed.

NASA is moving 7,500 contractor positions into the civil service

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is bringing 7,500 contract positions back into the agency as civil servants under a workforce initiative meant to rebuild what he calls core competencies, a change made this year with little public attention. Former Apollo flight director and Johnson Space Center director Gerry Griffin welcomed it, saying Mission Control positions were held by NASA employees during Apollo and that many had moved to contractors by the middle of the space shuttle era.

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL is set to leave the ISS on October 9 after delivering 11,000 pounds of cargo

SpaceX NOC

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft is scheduled to leave the ISS on Friday, October 9, when ground controllers will use the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach it from the Unity module's Earth-facing port and release it, with NASA astronaut Luke Delaney monitoring from the station. The spacecraft delivered more than 11,000 pounds of supplies and experiments on the CRS-24 mission, which launched on April 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, and will take disposal cargo to a destructive reentry.

EU extends the SALTO deadline to the end of 2026 as Themis completes a second wet dress rehearsal

The European Commission extended the SALTO reusable launcher project to December 31, 2026, giving ArianeGroup three more months to fly the first hop test of the Themis demonstrator from Esrange in Sweden; the project's original deadline was November 2025. ESA said ArianeGroup and the Esrange site's operator completed a second wet dress rehearsal on September 29, loading liquid nitrogen in place of propellant, and tested automated ground systems meant to connect to the vehicle after landing and drain its tanks. The €42.8 million project funds the first two low-altitude hops, the first to a height of up to 100 meters.

[ 03 / +11 / -33 ]

Market pulse

Archived snapshot from this edition. Prices and moves are not live.

Gainers+11

Decliners-33

Big mover SATL-8.5%

Asset	Snapshot	Move
PKEPark Aerospace	$27.22	+3.2%
RBCRBC Bearings	$510.00	+1.3%
TDGTransDigm	$1,119.94	+1.1%
SATLSatellogic	$4.71	-8.5%
PLPlanet Labs	$15.96	-7.1%
SIDUSidus Space	$1.44	-7.1%

[ 04 / 2 tracked ]

Launch watch

Schedule and countdowns as recorded in the 2026-10-07 edition.

T-6D 00H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-25

SpaceX · Falcon 9 Block 5 · SLC-4E · Vandenberg SFB · LEO

T-6D 11H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-35

SpaceX · Falcon 9 Block 5 · SLC-40 · Cape Canaveral SFS · LEO

[ 05 / 7 in window ]

Filings

8-K

Starfighters Space, Inc. · 8-K

2026-10-07 · Starfighters Space set a December 17, 2026 annual meeting of stockholders and filed the required notice of meeting and record date with Canadian regulators, where the company is also a reporting issuer in British Columbia.

424B3

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. · 424B3

2026-10-07 · Firefly Aerospace filed a prospectus supplement updating its registration statement covering up to 11,111,116 shares held by selling securityholders from its SciTec Innovations acquisition, incorporating the new director appointment disclosed in its 8-K.

8-K

Sidus Space, Inc. · 8-K

2026-10-07 · Sidus Space expanded its board from five to six directors on October 5 and appointed Larry G. Swets, Jr. as a new independent director and audit committee financial expert, with his term running until the 2027 annual meeting.

8-K

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. · 8-K

2026-10-07 · Firefly Aerospace appointed Rick Ambrose, who ran Lockheed Martin's $12 billion Space business until 2022, to its board as a Class III director and to its Audit and Compensation Committees, after Thomas Zurbuchen resigned on September 30 for reasons unrelated to a disagreement with the company.

8-K

Amphenol Corporation · 8-K

2026-10-07 · Amphenol said Luc Walter, head of its Harsh Environment Solutions Division, will move to a new Senior Vice President, Strategic Programs role effective January 1, 2027, with Ryan Fisher, currently Group General Manager of its North American Military Group, succeeding him as division president.

Sidus Space, Inc. · 3

2026-10-07 · Sidus Space, Inc. filed a 3 ownership update; no operating, financing, or governance event is attached to the filing.

[ End of Issue 093 ]

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