Former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James: "The Air Force and the DoD have to come up with something to back up what the president said.” SpaceNews.com

China has lowered the orbit of its Tiangong-2 space lab, likely in preparation for deorbiting the orbital facility and thus averting a similar scenario to the uncontrolled re-entry of Tiangong-1 earlier this year. SpaceNews.com

Those who loathe or love a Space Force “separate but equal” to the Air Force must think and act decisively and quickly. Regardless of whether the Space Force actually materializes, deliberation alone could finally spring us into action to deal with the looming threat of space Pearl Harbor. SpaceNews.com

An advisory group dubbed the “think tank” for the National Space Council formally kicked off its work June 19 with a broad but vague mandate to study space policy issues. SpaceNews.com

Fleet operators SES and Intelsat asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline for their customers to register C-band dishes before the commission decides on the band’s future use. SpaceNews.com

Trump’s proposal derives from a growing debate inside military and political circles about how to best meet the threat posed to American space assets by potential enemies: Russia and China, to be precise. SpaceNews.com

A former NASA astronaut used an appearance at a National Space Council meeting June 18 to argue that a key element of NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon should be reconsidered. SpaceNews.com

Trump: Creating a Space Force and promoting space exploration by NASA and the private sector will be “important for the nation’s psyche.” SpaceNews.com

President Trump will sign a new space policy directive June 18 addressing space traffic management issues, closely following the proposed policy that Vice President Pence announced in April. SpaceNews.com

A key senator says he’s keeping an open mind regarding who in the federal government should have responsibility for the oversight of “non-traditional” commercial space activities. SpaceNews.com

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee approved $49.5 million to create a new “program of record for commercial satellite communications." SpaceNews.com

As the National Space Council prepares for its third public meeting, its activities to date have won widespread praise in the space community, even as there is some skepticism about the effectiveness of the council’s advisory group that will soon meet for the first time. SpaceNews.com

A House hearing on the reasons for cost and schedule problems with major NASA programs pointed blame at a wide variety of sources, from the tools used to track programs to the agency’s mindset to Congress itself. SpaceNews.com

Astranis, a startup developing geostationary satellites to offer broadband internet access, plans to equip its MicroGEO spacecraft with Bradford of the Netherland’s high performance green ECAPS thrusters. SpaceNews.com

Oxford Space Systems, a British startup that hopes to compete with space industry giants Harris Corp. and Northrop Grumman in the satellite component business, has raised 6.7 million British pounds ($8.9 million) from investors. SpaceNews.com

Outer space is the last frontier of human exploration. Unfortunately, the glory days of landing men on the moon are now a distant memory. So too are the memories of watching space shuttles rumble to life and roar to space fading away. That is poised to change and America is ready to lead the way. SpaceNews.com

The relay satellite which will facilitate China’s Chang’e-4 lunar far side landing mission late in 2018 has entered its intended halo orbit around Earth-Moon Lagrange point 2. SpaceNews.com

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine used a recent speech to lay out not just the recent space policy changes that directly affect NASA activities but other administration efforts that focus more on commercial space. SpaceNews.com

Both chambers want legislation that strengthens the U.S. military space posture, said Thornberry. The House and Senate are “not going to let up in our push to do better in space.” SpaceNews.com

Despite conditions that have deprived the Opportunity Mars rover of solar power, NASA officials said June 13 that they expected the long-lived spacecraft to survive an intense ongoing dust storm. SpaceNews.com