Chemical Facility Security News: Short Takes – 3-10-26

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Short Takes – 3-10-26 – Space Geek Edition

China designates space sector an “emerging pillar industry,” sets deep space ambitions in new economic blueprint. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “These are sectors expected to become foundational drivers of economic growth, likely meaning they will benefit from strong policy support, state financing and industrial development programs. The move suggests Beijing intends to expand the space sector beyond strategic state programs toward a larger industrial ecosystem encompassing launch services, satellites and downstream data applications.”

Asteroid 2024 YR4 will not impact the Moon. ESA.int article. Pull quote: “Despite the challenges, the observations were a success. By comparing 2024 YR4’s position relative to the background stars, the team was able to measure its orbit accurately enough to rule out a lunar impact in 2032.”

Unlocking AI in space: the case for greater industry and space agency collaboration. SpaceNews.com commentary. Pull quote: “The opportunity is vast. From Earth observation satellites that must process terabytes of sensor data in real-time to Mars rovers making split-second navigation decisions millions of miles from human oversight, AI promises to unlock unprecedented autonomous capabilities across the space domain. Realizing this vision demands more than sophisticated algorithms. It requires hardware engineered to withstand the universe’s most unforgiving environments, where a single component failure can jeopardize a billion-euro mission.”

Jared Isaacman on rebuilding, Artemis and what he’s learned during his first months as NASA administrator. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Probably one of the bigger surprises is that in certain areas within NASA, we have either lost or outsourced some of our core competencies. That was surprising. More or less 75% of our workforce is contractors. There’s a lot of things that we have some external dependencies on that I would not have expected. We’ve got to look at that. There has to be certain expertise relevant to our mission that we retain inside the organization.”

Third Kairos launch fails. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “In a social media post, Space One, the company that operates Kairos, said it activated the rocket’s flight termination system after it “determined that mission success was difficult,” according to a machine translation. The company did not immediately disclose additional details about the problem that triggered the termination of the launch.”

On moonshots and Minneapolis. ScienceNews.org commentary. Pull quote: “Maybe both things can be true. Space exploration “can be this incredibly powerful thing that can bring us together,” Maher says. “It can also be this thing, like a mirror, that illustrates that we have a lot of divisions and problems. That’s the beauty of it, that it can do both things.””

Blue Origin’s surprise TeraWave constellation jolts LEO broadband race. SpaceNews.com article. ““TeraWave will not be competing with Amazon Leo,” Plucinsky said via email. “We identified an unmet need with customers who were seeking enterprise-grade internet access with higher speeds, symmetrical upload/download speeds, more redundancy, and rapid scalability for their networks.””

Senate committee advances NASA authorization bill that changes Artemis and extends ISS. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The [Senate Commerce, Science, and Tranportation] committee passed on a voice vote March 4 an amended version of S. 933, a NASA authorization act originally introduced nearly a year ago. The committee also approved nearly 20 additional amendments from various committee members with the same vote.”