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STRATO BRIEF
SPACE · POLICY · DEFENSE
Sunday, May 17, 2026
9 stories · ~8 min read
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Space Operations & Technology
NASA has released the final request for proposals for a Mars telecommunications system, confirming requirements that limit the companies that can bid on it. WASHINGTON — NASA has released the final request for proposals for a Mars telecommunications system, confirming requirements that limit the companies that can bid on it. NASA issued the final RFP for the Mars Telecommunications Network (MTN) on May 14, seeking...
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Space Operations & Technology |
 SpaceNews · SDA / SATCOM York Space defends growth strategy as SDA programs are reshaped WASHINGTON — Just months after its public debut , York Space Systems is confronting a question that goes to the core of its business model: what happens when the Pentagon program that fueled its rise is fundamentally reorganized. During the company’s first-quarter earnings call May 14, York Chief Executive Dirk Wallinger sought to reassure investors t... | |  SpaceNews · Protected SATCOM Space Force awards Northrop Grumman $398 million satellite contract WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to build a prototype communications satellite intended to demonstrate anti-jamming technologies for military operations in contested environments, the Space Systems Command said May 15. The contract supports the program known as Enhanced Protected Tactical Satellite... |
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Policy & Politics |
The Hill · Campaign |
The Hill · Congress |
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Aerospace Industry |
 Ars Technica · Launch funding Are the pockets of Jeff Bezos not as deep as everyone thinks? Blue Origin is weighing its first external fundraising as part of a push by Jeff Bezos’ rocket venture to hit ambitious launch targets and tap investor appetite boosted by SpaceX’s upcoming initial public offering. Chief Executive Dave Limp told employees at a recent all-hands meeting that the company would require outside investment if it were to signi... |
 Breaking Defense · VTOL logistics Company executives told Breaking Defense the dual-use design targets a logistics gap between rear-operational hubs and forward units. DETROIT — Aerospace firm AIRO, along with its brand Jaunt Air Mobility, unveiled new dual-use vertical-takeoff-and landing (VTOL) drones — the JC250 cargo variant and the JX250 ISR variant — with “slowed-rotor” architecture and hybrid-electric propulsion, at the Xponential/MDEX conf... |
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Geopolitics & Defense |
 Ars Technica · GEO Instead of running silent and deep, most satellites easily stand out against the blackness of space. The world’s leading space powers desperately want to know what the others are up to high above the equator. For more than a decade, the US military has operated a fleet of “inspector” satellites designed to sidle up to other spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit and take pictures. China started launching its satellite... |
 Breaking Defense · Army posture “This was all relatively recent, and we worked back and forth on what those recommendations would be, and the order came down,” Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve said. WASHINGTON — The Pentagon informed Army senior leadership “just a couple of days ago” that it would be pulling troops out of a scheduled deployment beginning in Poland , Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Acting Chief of Staff of the A... |
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STRATO BRIEF
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