Retired Air Force officer Wesley Hallman: “We all want this to work. But does it have to be a separate service?" SpaceNews.com

NASA announced Aug. 17 that it will allow SpaceX to use a fueling approach for its commercial crew missions that attracted prior scrutiny, pending a final series of tests. SpaceNews.com

The space industry outsider nominated to become NASA deputy administrator said he would focus on acquisition reform and adapting NASA to a “new role” with commercial partners if confirmed by the Senate. SpaceNews.com

A proposed standard announced at a conference last week seeks to provide the same launch flexibility for larger smallsats currently enjoyed by cubesats. SpaceNews.com

An audit by the Defense Department’s inspector general office found security cracks in the supply chain of four critical military space programs. SpaceNews.com

Canadian remote sensing company UrtheCast says it has sufficient resources to cover the $20 million purchase of analytics firm Geosys from U.S. dairy giant Land O’Lakes. SpaceNews.com

Millennium Space Systems was founded in 2001 and has approximately 260 employees. It has developed satellites ranging from 50 kg to more than 6,000 kg. SpaceNews.com

SSL, a company known for building communications satellites and spacecraft systems, will help the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center define its next generation of protected military communications, the Maxar Technologies company announced Aug. 16. SpaceNews.com

The commercial spaceflight industry has been enjoying success both on and off the launch pad this year. SpaceNews.com

Descartes Labs announced Aug. 15 a partnership with Airbus to feed high resolution global imagery into its geospatial data platform. The Sante Fe, New Mexico-based startup also completed beta testing of its cloud-based “data refinery,” and added weather data. SpaceNews.com

International mistrust in space could become a bigger problem as the commercial space industry continues to grow and demand a peaceful environment to do business. SpaceNews.com

NASA says an Aug. 14 test of an engine for the Space Launch System was a success despite an unspecified “facility issue” that caused the test to end early. SpaceNews.com

ESA is pushing European industry to continue innovating and finding efficiencies even after Vega C’s introduction in 2019 and Ariane 6’s debut in 2020. SpaceNews.com

China will launch its Chang’e-4 lander and rover mission in December in what will be the first ever attempt at a soft landing on the far side of the moon, authorities said Aug. 15 SpaceNews.com

NASA has done a good job implementing the recommendations of its latest planetary science decadal survey despite past budget problems, but needs to improve some programs, a recent report concluded. SpaceNews.com

The Air Force will use “rapid procurement authorities” in this program and is targeting the first next-generation OPIR launch in 2023. SpaceNews.com

The Pentagon's Joint Oversight Requirements Council will be briefed this fall on potential solutions to a major national security vulnerability: hypersonic weapons that fly into space at supersonic speeds and descend back down to Earth directly on top of targets. SpaceNews.com

Chinese private launch vehicle maker OneSpace has secured $43.6 million in Series B financing as the company looks to its first orbital launch near the end of 2018. SpaceNews.com

Exos Aerospace, a Texas company developing a reusable suborbital rocket, now plans to carry out a first flight of its vehicle in late August as it sets its sights on a follow-on orbital vehicle. SpaceNews.com

Viasat is still working on a medium-Earth-orbit satellite constellation idea revealed almost two years ago, but has not finalized what that system would look like, Mark Dankberg, CEO of Viasat, said Aug. 9. SpaceNews.com