As NASA evaluates proposals for commercially developed small lunar landers, the agency is now seeking payloads that could fly on those spacecraft despite concerns from some scientists that they don’t know if their experiments are compatible with those landers. SpaceNews.com

The last mission needed to complete Iridium Communications’ second-generation satellite constellation is scheduled for Dec. 30, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said today. SpaceNews.com

SMM Hamburg, the biennial international maritime conference in Germany Sept. 4-7, attracted not only shipbuilders but also satellite operators eager to offer global communications for autonomous vessels. SpaceNews.com

Between now and when the the Air Force starts buying launch services from new competitors, ULA and SpaceX will be competing “one mission at a time.” SpaceNews.com

To connect the masses, megaconstellations will need mega antennas mega cheap. Antenna makers need mega orders to make that happen. SpaceNews.com

Intelsat invested in Africa Mobile Networks (AMN), a U.K.-headquartered group of companies with telecom infrastructure in Africa, to reach "ultra-rural" parts of the sub-Saharan side of the continent. SpaceNews.com

As the Pentagon moves to stand up a U.S. Space Command and Congress debates whether it makes sense to create a Space Force, a central focus is to defend satellites from orbital weapons that would seek to damage or destroy U.S. assets in space. SpaceNews.com

Small launch vehicle company Rocket Lab announced Oct. 17 that it will build its second launch pad, and first in the United States, at Wallops Island in Virginia. SpaceNews.com

This was ULA’s eighth launch this year, the 131st since the company was formed in 2006, and will be its 50th launch for the U.S. Air Force. SpaceNews.com

A Swedish company with plans for a geostationary communications satellite announced Oct. 16 a contract with SpaceX for a Falcon Heavy launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020. SpaceNews.com

The NASA astronaut who was on the aborted Soyuz mission to the International Space Station says he has “complete confidence” in the Russians despite this launch failure and other problems and looks forward to flying again on the spacecraft. SpaceNews.com

For all the enthusiasm about lunar exploration, and announcements made during the conference, there were far fewer specific details about just how to achieve those goals. SpaceNews.com

ThinKom’s recent collaborations with satellite operators Telesat and SES have the antenna builder jockeying to compete with Viasat, IsoTropic Systems and others in the race to build affordable high-tech antennas that can link with satellite constellations in non-geosynchronous orbits. SpaceNews.com

45th Space Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Schiess: Gen. Raymond “is pushing us to look at ways to be more responsive.” SpaceNews.com

Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft who backed the winning entry in a suborbital spaceflight competition and later funded development of a massive air-launch system, passed away Oct. 15. SpaceNews.com

The status of proposals to create a separate branch of the U.S. military devoted to space will be the subject of the next meeting of the National Space Council on Oct. 23. SpaceNews.com

Canadian satellite startup Kepler Communications raised $16 million from investors, securing funding to build and launch its first-generation constellation of up to 15 satellites, the company announced today. SpaceNews.com

The White House just released a year-long study of the U.S. defense industrial base that was billed as the deepest dive in decades into the state of the nation’s defense industry. SpaceNews.com

Eric Béranger, former chief executive of satellite constellation venture OneWeb, has left the company entirely, OneWeb confirmed Oct. 15. SpaceNews.com

Harris Corp. and L3 Technologies expect their $34 billion merger, announced Sunday, will create the sixth largest defense contractor in the United States while saving $500 million in corporate costs by three years of closing. SpaceNews.com