As NASA selects payloads it plans to fly on commercial lunar landers, companies developing those spacecraft are skeptical any landers will be ready to fly this year, as the agency desires. SpaceNews.com

A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying an Indonesian communications satellite, an Israeli lunar lander and a U.S. Air Force smallsat launched Feb. 21 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceNews.com

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein: "There are a thousand decisions that have to be made." SpaceNews.com

The Pentagon would ask Congress to approve “special temporary authorities” for the secretary of defense to transfer resources from other services to the Department of the Air Force and the Space Force. SpaceNews.com

EchoStar wishes it ordered its latest satellite, Jupiter-3, sooner than it did, but won’t seek to play catch up by buying another copy of the satellite in order to meet surging demand for broadband connectivity, executives said Feb. 21. SpaceNews.com

At the end of 2018, division chief Clare Grason and her entire satellite communications team at the Defense Information Systems Agency moved over to work in the same capacity under Gen. John (“Jay”) Raymond at the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). SpaceNews.com

The challenge facing U.S. Strategic Command is figuring out how to develop a modern nuclear command, control and communications system (NC3) that passes muster. SpaceNews.com

As Blue Origin prepares to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle, the company’s founder says the altitude the vehicle can reach will put it at an advantage over Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. SpaceNews.com

The Indonesian communications satellite that is SpaceX’s primary payload for its second Falcon 9 launch this year overcame a change of manufacturers and the loss of a U.S. Ex-Im Bank loan to reach the launch pad. SpaceNews.com

Facebook and Viasat are collaborating first in Mexico, but are open to expanding globally, Viasat said. SpaceNews.com

Virgin Galactic scrubbed the Feb. 20 flight test for SpaceShipTwo, the air-launched suborbital spaceplane, due to high winds in Mojave, California. The flight test is now scheduled for Friday, Feb. 22. SpaceNews.com

The new chair of the House space subcommittee says she’s looking forward to working with the commercial space industry on a number of issues, including oversight of non-traditional space activities. SpaceNews.com

ULA and SpaceX will split six national security launches planned for 2021 to 2022, the Air Force announced Feb. 19. SpaceNews.com

SPD-4 gives the Pentagon the official go-ahead to send a proposal to the White House recommending the establishment of a separate military branch for space. SpaceNews.com

Virgin Galactic plans to conduct a fifth test flight Feb. 20 of its suborbital spaceplane SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity. SpaceNews.com

A slow start for Eutelsat’s Konnect Africa broadband venture and losses in activities beyond the fleet operator’s core business contributed to a 4.4 percent decline in revenue during the last half of 2018. SpaceNews.com

The multiyear investment begins with 18-month contract worth few million pounds. SpaceNews.com

As LeoStella inaugurated the factory that will be used to produce a series of Earth imaging satellites, the joint venture of Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries continues to look for other customers. SpaceNews.com

DoD wants space sensors that can be counted on to work even in adverse conditions like solar activity, radiation belts and orbital debris. SpaceNews.com

An appropriation bill signed into law Feb. 15 gives NASA $21.5 billion for fiscal year 2019, $1.6 billion above the administration’s original request. SpaceNews.com