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China is conducting its fifth crew rotation aboard the Tiangong space station after the arrival of three astronauts aboard Shenzhou-19. Six astronauts are now aboard the space station following the docking of the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft at Tiangong at around 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Oct. 29. The astronauts were born variously in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is continuing to explore use of orbital transfer vehicles and improved multimanifesting approaches as it continues a dramatic expansion of the number of spacecraft it has in orbit.

U.S. defense officials said Oct. 29 the Pentagon is evaluating measures to address critical vulnerabilities in the defense industrial supply chain. This includes supply constraints in the space sector that are hampering the manufacturing of military satellites.

South Korean satellite developer Lumir saw its share decline steadily following a brief rally on its first day of trading. Since going public on South Korea’s KOSDAQ exchange Oct. 21 to raise capital for a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites, shares in Lumir have fallen, closing Oct. 28 at 9,120 won ($6.59), down 24 percent from its initial public offering (IPO) price. The closing price gives the company a market capitalization of 156.4 billion won, or roughly $110 million.

Solstar Space plans to conduct the first spaceflight testing next year of its narrowband satellite data-relay transceiver. The test is the culmination of more than 10 years of work by Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Solstar to raise the technical readiness level of the Critical Data Relay Spacecraft Operational Status unit, known as the Deke Space Communicator.

Dr Derek Tournear, Director, Space Development Agency, (SDA) delivered a fascinating Keynote at the Silicon Valley Space Week and its MilSat Symposium on October 23. With hundreds and hundreds of warfare satellites (tranches) potentially in orbit, and moving data in real time and handling warfare threats and activity, the SDA has a very full and demanding set of complex objectives.

The U.S. Navy is looking for options to enable its future fleets of uncrewed platforms to steam ahead even if they can’t access satellite navigation systems. The sea service plans to add a slew of robo-ships of various shapes, sizes and mission sets to its inventory in the coming years. Last month, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti laid out a new initiative called Project 33 that aims to scale robotic and autonomous systems across the fleet by 2027 so that maritime forces will be ready for a potential war against China.

Navy Capt. Chris “Chowdah” Hill is unapologetically bullish about elevating crew morale across every level of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier he commands, which recently returned from an extended and high-stress combat deployment in the Red Sea. Providing sailors with secure access to internet connectivity — explicitly for personal use — proved to be a key morale-builder during the nine months that “the Ike” was deployed, according to Hill, where they frequently faced a barrage of threats from the Iran-backed Houthis and others.

The Pentagon’s Chief Information Office is planning to publish new guidance and instruction for the department’s military services and components on accelerating software modernization efforts, according to a senior official. The new document will be released “fairly shortly,” Kevin Mulvihill, acting principal deputy CIO, said Monday during the Defense Information Systems Agency’s annual forecast to industry. The directives will build upon the Pentagon’s Software Modernization Strategy published in 2022, as well as the follow-on implementation plan published in 2023, he said at the event.