Space News for Sunday, August 23, 2026

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!
(00:10) Podcast Introduction
(00:21) NASA Roman Space Telescope Passes Flight Readiness Review Ahead of SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch
(00:57) Sovereign Satellite Strategy Expands AST SpaceMobile Backlog Amid Constellation Deployment Risks
(01:32) Shanghai Spacecom Raises $1.94 Billion in Series B Round at $6.96 Billion Valuation
(02:18) NASA Swift Observatory Projected for Atmospheric Re-entry Following Unsuccessful Orbital Servicing Attempt
(02:55) How a huge fleet of 17 spacecraft discovered something surprising about solar eruptions
(03:30) Bad weather delays launch of China's historic Chang'e 7 mission to moon's south pole
(04:13) Launching 10,000 tiny 'femtosats' to Saturn? NASA funds 18 futuristic spaceflight ideas
(04:59) How will NASA's astronaut training hub change with commercial space stations?
(05:49) SpaceX sends 27 Starlink satellites to orbit on 100th Falcon rocket launch of the year (video, photos)
(06:34) Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife and water in US