Why NASA Needs the Capsule It Just Watched Fail — September 18, 2026

NASA is reportedly preparing to order more Starliner missions and help fix Boeing's capsule despite a 'Type A' mishap finding — because SpaceX has signaled Crew Dragon's retirement is coming. Plus: European startups win real contracts in Paris, Impulse Space's raise tops eight hundred million dollars, Starship's orbital debut slips again, and Telesat lights up its first European gateway.

• NASA to order more Starliner missions and help certify a new rocket to keep it flying — Ars Technica
• European Space Startups Steal the Show in Paris — Payload
• Impulse Space Raises $308M Series D Extension — Payload
• Starship's upcoming missions: Waiting on Orbit, Building toward the Cape — NASASpaceFlight.com
• Orange switches on first Telesat Lightspeed gateway — SpaceQ

Source links

• impulsespace.com
• @arstechnica on X
• @iceye_global on X
• @RossBishop77 on X
• @SpaceX on X
• @Telesat on X
• electronicsweekly.com
• en.wikipedia.org
• esa.int
• starlust.org
• ufofeed.com

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More from Brian Lampert: Quickly Quantum, the daily quantum computing briefing, and Concrete Compute, the daily AI infrastructure briefing. Transcripts and every episode: space-stakes.kngoworld.chatgpt.site.