Space News for Friday, February 13, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!<br>(00:10) Podcast Introduction<br>(00:23) China’s iSpace launch firm raises record $729 million for reusable rockets<br>(00:41) Space startups find more paths to liquidity as investors warm to maturing sector<br>(01:11) First Ariane 64 launches Amazon Leo satellites<br>(02:00) Axiom Space raises additional $350 million<br>(02:20) ThinKom gets military contract to supply portable ground stations for satellite communications<br>(02:48) NASA loading liquid hydrogen aboard Artemis 2 rocket in unannounced test<br>(03:25) Vulcan suffers solid rocket booster problem during USSF-87 launch<br>(04:07) ULA to launch geosynchronous orbit surveillance satellite for the U.S. Space Force<br>(05:11) The Hybrid Architecture Is No Longer Theoretical<br>(06:03) The Thruster Reality Check: Why Boring is the New Stealth<br>(06:21) Balance Sheets Now Matter More Than Rockets<br>(06:52) 70,000 Satellites, One Big Bottleneck: The Industry Wakes Up to the Data Trap<br>(07:20) Software Defines the New Front Lines of Space Defense<br>(08:13) Sunlight Extracts Oxygen From Regolith Using Solar Chemistry<br>(09:00) Stonebreen’s Beating Heart<br>(09:37) NASA Selects Vast for Sixth Private Mission to Space Station<br>(10:16) NASA Moon Mission Spacesuit Nears Milestone<br>(10:30) Shimmering Light in Egg Nebula<br>(11:10) Archival Data From NASA’s NEOWISE Tracks Star Turning Into Black Hole<br>(11:27) Orbex’s Troubles Open Opportunities for Skyrora<br>(12:25) Vulcan, Ariane 64 Blast Off<br>(13:13) Deep Space Energy Pockets €980K to Build European Space Nuclear Power<br>(14:04) Satellite megaconstellations continue to grow. Could their debris fall on us?<br>(14:44) Watch SpaceX launch Crew-12 astronaut mission to the International Space Station this morning<br>(15:22) Deja vu: Vulcan Centaur rocket powers through 'significant performance anomaly' on satellite launch<br>(15:59) Scientists have found a weird 'inside out' planetary system. Here's what it looks like<br>