Crew-12 Splashes Down Off California After 237 Days, NASA Selects L3Harris to Build the LISA Test Telescope, and the FAA Proposes Five Changes to Launch Licensing

[ 01 ]

The briefing

NASA's Crew-12 splashed down in the Pacific off Los Angeles at 8:34 a.m. PDT on October 8, ending a 237-day mission, 235 days of it aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev were aboard the recovery ship Shannon within an hour. Meir made four spacewalks on the flight and Adenot three, the first by a French woman, and Fedyaev became the first person to fly twice on a Crew Dragon.

NASA selected L3Harris to design, assemble, integrate and test the Engineering Test Unit telescope for LISA, the European-led gravitational-wave observatory due to launch in the mid-2030s, a final step before flight hardware. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced five proposed FAA rules to streamline the Part 450 licensing of commercial launches and reentries, with public comments due by November 4. Amazon has built its 1,000th Leo broadband satellite and says commercial service is weeks away.

The Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon a five-year contract worth $4.4 billion, and up to $6.3 billion with options, to produce Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors. Fortastra raised a $30 million Series A to build its next orbital-defense spacecraft. A financial disclosure showed President Donald Trump's accounts bought between $1 million and $5 million of SpaceX notes on August 18, two days before he signed the national space transportation policy.

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The headlines

Crew-12 splashes down off California after 237 days in space

SpaceX

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev splashed down in the Pacific off Los Angeles at 8:34 a.m. PDT on October 8 in the Crew Dragon Freedom, 27 hours and 29 minutes after undocking, ending a 237-day mission, 235 days of it aboard the ISS. Within an hour the capsule was aboard the SpaceX recovery ship Shannon. Meir made four spacewalks on the flight and Adenot three, the first by a French woman, and Fedyaev became the first person to fly on a Crew Dragon twice. The crew traveled more than 100 million miles over 3,792 orbits.

NASA selects L3Harris to build the LISA Engineering Test Unit telescope

LHX

NASA selected L3Harris Technologies to design, assemble, integrate and test the Engineering Test Unit telescope for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), the gravitational-wave observatory led by the European Space Agency and slated for launch in the mid-2030s. NASA called the unit a final step toward production of flight hardware; L3Harris previously built a full-scale prototype.

Transportation Department proposes five changes to Part 450 launch licensing rules

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced five proposed FAA rules on October 6 to streamline Part 450, the framework that licenses commercial launches and reentries, the first output of the department's SPACE Task Force, which was set up on September 9. The proposals change how operators show they meet the FAA's public-risk limits; one deletes the word "hypothetical" from the far-field blast analysis so that it covers existing windows only. Part 450 took effect in March 2021 and had produced 14 licenses in five years. Public comments close on November 4.

Raytheon lands a multi-year SM-3 Block IB contract worth up to $6.3B

RTX

The Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon a five-year contract with a base value of $4.4 billion, plus options worth nearly $2 billion over two more years, to produce Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors, for a total of up to $6.3 billion; the number of missiles was not disclosed. The interceptor is fired from ships and from land against short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the midcourse phase of flight, and the Pentagon lists it among the munitions it most wants to scale. The contract follows a framework agreement signed in February.

Amazon builds its 1,000th Leo satellite and says commercial service is weeks away

SpaceX AMZN

Amazon has manufactured its 1,000th satellite for its Amazon Leo broadband constellation at its factory in Kirkland, Washington, and is weeks away from offering commercial service for the first time, said Rajeev Badyal, who leads the program. Badyal confirmed that the Vulcan rocket's return-to-flight mission will fly Amazon Leo satellites and that a second Vulcan is being prepared to launch more of them this year. Amazon says it can now build a handful of satellites a day, making it the world's second-largest satellite manufacturer after SpaceX.

Fortastra raises a $30M Series A to build its next orbital-defense spacecraft

California-based Fortastra raised a $30 million Series A led by First In, with Upfront, Space Capital, Rsquared, Side Door Ventures and ATX Ventures participating, to fund its next spacecraft and meet government demand for space-based security systems. Founded in 2025, the company has launched two demonstration missions, including a satellite on SpaceX's Transporter-18 this month, and its next spacecraft could launch as early as the first quarter of 2028. Vice president of product Sahil Desai said the round was largely closed before Air Force Secretary Troy Meink disclosed the existence of U.S. space weapons last month.

[ 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%

PKE: NEWTON, Kan., Oct. 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Park Aerospace Corp. (NYSE-PKE) reported results for the 2027 fiscal year second quarter ended August 30,. October 08, 2026 16:10.

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 / 4 tracked ]

Launch watch

Schedule and countdowns as recorded in the 2026-10-09 edition.

T-4D 00H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-25

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

T-4D 11H

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

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

T-5D 12H

Zhuque-2E

LandSpace · Zhuque-2E · Launch Area 96A · Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

T-7D 00H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | USSF-481

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

[ 05 / 5 in window ]

Filings

8-K/A

Redwire Corporation · 8-K/A

2026-10-09 · amendment · Redwire amended an earlier 8-K to confirm that, following an advisory shareholder vote, its board will hold annual non-binding say-on-pay votes on named executive officer compensation through at least the 2032 annual meeting.

8-K

Carpenter Technology Corporation · 8-K

2026-10-09 · Carpenter Technology reported the results of its October 6 annual meeting, at which shareholders elected directors to terms expiring in 2029, ratified PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor and approved executive compensation on an advisory basis.

8-K

Park Aerospace Corp. · 8-K

2026-10-09 · Park Aerospace reported net sales of $20,791,000 for its fiscal second quarter ended August 30, 2026, compared with $16,381,000 in the same quarter a year earlier.

6-K

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. · 6-K

2026-10-08 · Gilat Satellite Networks disclosed that its Gilat DataPath subsidiary received orders totaling more than $8 million from the US Department of War for field services and SATCOM system upgrades on deployed military communications, with deliveries scheduled over the next 12 months.

Form 4 x9

Carpenter Technology Corporation · Form 4 x9

2026-10-09 · Carpenter Technology Corporation grouped 9 Form 4 ownership updates from 9 reporting owners, covering stock awards or grants involving 4,986 shares acquired. These filings are routine insider-ownership disclosures, not operating updates.

[ End of Issue 095 ]

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