SpaceTech News Roundup – W/C 17.08.26

Firefly Aerospace Onboards Zeno Power on Blue Ghost Mission to Demonstrate Radioisotope Technologies to Survive the Lunar Night

Zeno’s Survive-the-Night Package will be onboarded to one of Firefly’s existing Blue Ghost mission returning to the Moon’s near side as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Upon landing, Blue Ghost will first operate multiple NASA CLPS payloads using solar power for the full lunar day, equivalent to approximately 14 Earth days. Zeno’s payload will then operate during the lunar night and transmit operational data back to Earth.

HawkEye 360 Awarded NRO Commercial RF Capability Augmentation Contract

This award marks an important transition for HawkEye 360. Following the successful completion of all three phases of the NRO’s Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) study contracts, the company has become the first commercial provider to move from test‑and‑evaluation efforts into an operational augmentation contract through the CRFCA program. The progression reflects sustained collaboration with the NRO and the maturation of commercial RF sensing as a reliable source of mission-ready data.

ATMOS Space Cargo and ESA complete Phase 0 concept study for PHOENIX 3 at Concurrent Design Facility

Over several weeks, experts from across ESA’s engineering disciplines worked alongside the ATMOS team to assess the feasibility of PHOENIX 3, a fully European reusable orbital return vehicle intended to carry scientific and industrial payloads to low Earth orbit and return them to Earth for rapid analysis on the ground.