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8 stories in the last 7 days
The latest Space news, distilled by AI into sharp ~100-word summaries covering spaceflight, astronomy, rockets and the space industry. ByteBrief scans dozens of tech sources and surfaces only what matters, updated hourly. Tap any story for the full brief, or open the original source.
Of 203 companies listed on NYSE or Nasdaq in 2026, 49% have declining share prices. SpaceX, the largest IPO ever, trades at $123, down 45% from its post-IPO high. Green Circle Decarbonize Technology has dropped 88% to 47 cents per share.
Turin-based ORiS raised €5 million to develop laser power beaming for satellites. Earlybird and Pitchdrive led the €4.5 million pre-seed round, with a €0.5 million grant from the Piedmont Region. The company aims to recharge satellites in orbit using lasers instead of solar panels. A flight model is planned by July 2027.
SpaceX entered the Nasdaq-100 on July 7th after a rule change requested by the company. Index funds were forced to buy shares, contributing to the IPO pop. The company has a $1.5 trillion market cap but sold less than 5 percent of shares. Lockup expirations in mid-August may increase its index weight.
The US Space Force announced it is tripling the maximum value of its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 contract to $17 billion. The military is now seeking to buy up to $30 billion in total rocket launches. The expansion signals rising demand for military satellite launches.
NASA's twin Voyager probes carry a gold-plated copper phonograph record designed by Carl Sagan's team. The record contains sounds, music, and 55 language greetings. A uranium disc acts as a clock. The cover includes pictograms explaining how to decode the record using hydrogen atom timing.
The US has revived a push to ban Chinese AI models, with OpenAI also urging the US to ban open-weight models. The policy test now targets open weight AI models, while the Chinese AI model Kimi divides Trump advisors on the issue.
Mark Cuban proposes rewarding every employee, from CEO to janitor, with company stock to reduce income inequality. Cuban gave 300 employees millionaire status after Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion. He suggests governments offer lower corporate tax rates to incentivize CEOs to grant proportional equity to all workers.
The HackerNoon Newsletter for July 20, 2026 features top stories including Social Sequencer II: When the Sun Hits and AI Coding Tip 028. A piece by @rmghosh18 argues dashboards are production systems that require monitoring. The newsletter also notes historical events like the 1969 Moon landing.