<![CDATA[Altru Space]]>https://newsletter.altruspace.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_sJM!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc50a8462-b78b-4c29-860b-950b17dd952d_608x608.pngAltru Spacehttps://newsletter.altruspace.comSubstackMon, 10 Aug 2026 23:01:45 GMT<![CDATA[The Ex-Spy Satellite Set to Revolutionize Astrophysics]]>https://newsletter.altruspace.com/p/hubbles-big-sisterhttps://newsletter.altruspace.com/p/hubbles-big-sisterSun, 09 Aug 2026 13:03:01 GMTThe Big Picture

What to care about this week: NASA launches their second deep-space telescope in five years, a retrospective on global lunar progress, decentralized spacecraft collision avoidance, generative AI CubeSat design, and a rocket survives a lightning strike during ascent.

Also, a retraction from our first edition.

Hubble’s Big Sister, Launching This Month

Where Did She Come From?

In the early 2010s, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) made a few too many spy satellites.

They offered the surplus hardware, two telescope mirror systems designed for orbit, to NASA, who at the time were planning a project with a similar primary mirror. Similar, but much smaller. This gift nearly doubled the size of the developing spacecraft and significantly enhanced its imaging capability.

The donated mirrors were 7.9 feet in diameter, the same size as Hubble’s and far more advanced thanks to the intervening decades. Paul Hertz, the then director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, described “about [a] 100 times bigger area that you can image well.”

Even with the new hardware, NASA would still have to create all of the systems that support the optical components.

Fast-forwarding through three presidential administrations worth of design, integration, and test yields the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The cool kids just call it “Roman.” Source: NASA/Chris Gunn

The observatory is named for NASA’s first ever Chief Astronomer. Dr. Roman took the position only 6 months after NASA was founded, and spearheaded the creation of its space-based astronomy program. She championed Hubble’s value when it was just a twinkle in NASA’s eye.

Dr. Roman pictured with a model of the Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO). Source: NASA

“I certainly did not receive any encouragement. I was told from the beginning that women could not be scientists.” - Dr. Nancy Grace Roman

Such a prolific namesake deserves an equally prolific mission. Roman features two instruments on board, both of which contain the potential for grand discovery.

Besides sounding like my approach to homework in college, the Coronagraph instrument will enable imaging of exoplanets that we don’t yet know exist. It’s the first Coronagraph in space to contain moving mechanical components that can adjust to decrease the starlight captured by the instrument, allowing it to see planets almost a billion times fainter than their host star.

This coronagraph is also an engineering pathfinder, paving the way for development of the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which will require an instrument 100x more effective at masking stars.

Also on board is the Wide Field Instrument, an infrared camera sensitive enough to see farther than any previous telescope.

Because light does not travel instantaneously, the farther away you gaze, the older the image that you receive will be. The Wide Field Instrument will allow researchers to gaze back in time and observe how the universe has expanded throughout history.

The camera has 18 detectors which can capture a maximum 4096 x 4096 resolution apiece. Each image will require massive bandwidth to beam home, and each image will look absolutely stunning.

Roman’s Field of View vs. Hubble’s. Source: NASA

Commissioning of the system in orbit is planned to take 90 days, after which it can begin making observations long before reaching its destination.

This December, be ready to update your desktop background!

Where Will She Go?

On (no earlier than) August 30th, Roman will be launched on a one million mile journey away from the Earth. A distance so great, it requires the 13th ever launch of the Falcon Heavy system.

Why? Putting telescopes in deep-space sidesteps a lot of problems faced by those on Earth and in its orbit.

The Earth has a pesky habit of getting between telescopes and their targets. It also regularly separates solar panels from the sun - and even if you cleverly dodge it with a specific sun-synchronous orbit, glare from the Earth will still blind and heat up sensitive instrumentation. Think of the tanning reflectors that cartoon characters always unfold at the beach.

But our planet isn’t the only thing in the way.

Radio telescope observations and artsy iPhone long exposure shots alike are being increasingly obstructed by satellites. The biggest offender: internet megaconstellations.

SpaceX Starlink, Amazon Leo, Eutelsat OneWeb, China SatNet’s Guowang; all of these projects are taking a ‘the more, the merrier’ approach to satellite design. SpaceX alone owns roughly two-thirds of all active satellites, with over 10,000 operational units in orbit as of writing. I’ll break down all of the current and planned swarms by the numbers in a future edition.

One of the many consequences of this approach is its effect on astronomy, hindering stellar observation with bright trails and false positives.

Three satellites imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Source: Sandor Kruk/HST

Hubble currently orbits 326 miles above Earth’s surface - roughly the distance between Baltimore and Boston. Even up there, no one is safe from a bug on the lens.

Finally, a topic that is all too often overlooked, the ideal spots to plant a giant telescope tend to be sites of great cultural significance.

For example, Maunakea is the site of 13 active telescope facilities, with another one - controversially - planned. Maunakea is also deeply sacred to native Hawaiians, “symbolic of the piko (umbilical cord) of the island-child, Hawaiʻi, and that which connects the land to the heavens.” (Kepa Maly and Onaona Maly, 2005).

Humanity has been gazing into the stars since long before the invention of the telephoto lens.

This is a gross oversimplification, of course. If you’re interested in learning more about the fraught relationship between astronomy and colonialism, Dr. Fatima Abdurrahman has an excellent (3 hour) deep dive on the subject.

All of these challenges can be avoided with a quick jaunt to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange Point (L2), which is Roman’s destination. The James Webb Space Telescope is also at L2, so she’ll be in good company.

James Webb’s “halo orbit” around L2. Source: NASA

She’ll also be kept company by the 1,350,144 names installed on a memory card as part of an onboard commemorative plaque. Because this mission is worth commemorating!

Roman is the second major deep-space telescope to launch in only 5 years. The assembled spacecraft was completed under budget and ahead of schedule, an impressive feat for a non-military government aerospace project.

Roman represents our human investment in exploring the universe, our rapid innovation in imaging technology, and the redemptive transformation of hardware built for espionage into hardware used for discovery.

I find that deeply meaningful. I hope that you do too.

— — —

…Because I lack restraint, I have to conclude this article by completing the pattern set up by the section headings. Thank you for reading.

Where Did She Come From, Nancy Grace Ro’?

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Interesting Links and Papers

lightning strikes a rocket in the sky
Long March 3B endures a lightning strike. Source: Zhou Quan/VCG, Getty Images

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Mea Culpa

In our first edition, I relayed a quote from Bloomberg stating that the Falcon 9 program is halting manufacturing of their second stages. Seeing as those stages are expendable every launch, that has huge implications for the Falcon program and the launch industry at-large.

In the following days, it has become clear that this claim has no basis in reality. Additionally, the authors of the source article have altered the verbiage to be much more vague, with no notes about the edit.

I reached out to a contact of mine who currently works Falcon 9 Second Stage Integration and they denied any winding down of upper stage manufacturing.

I apologize for uncritically parroting misinformation. This newsletter is, by name, predicated on everything I publish being all true. I failed to live up to that in the very first publication.

The friends I’ve made in my career so far are uniquely suited to confirm or deny claims like this. You have my word that from now on, I will lean on my network and ensure everything written here is verified by a credible second source.

I appreciate your grace, I won’t let you down.

I’m Ben Durkee and this is Altru.

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Why Altru?

Altru Space is a technical deep dive on the space industry’s top stories, delivered weekly. We emphasize engineering excellence and sustainability to understand how we can make our world a better place and explore our next frontier at the same time.

]]><![CDATA[The Cost of Launch is Going Up, not Down]]>https://newsletter.altruspace.com/p/the-cost-of-launch-is-going-up-nothttps://newsletter.altruspace.com/p/the-cost-of-launch-is-going-up-notSun, 26 Jul 2026 16:35:19 GMTSpaceX Freezes Launch Contracts

Earlier this month, SpaceX launched its 17th rideshare mission, successfully deploying a total of 81 payloads from a single rocket. While killing a lot of birds with one stone, this cosmic clown car also heralds the beginning of the end for the Falcon 9 rideshare program, and for future commercial contracts.

Satnews.com reported on Monday that “small satellite operators and mission integrators confirmed that SpaceX has stopped accepting new commercial launch bookings for both its Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) Transporter series and mid-inclination Bandwagon missions beyond late 2028.”

The SpaceX website details only 3 remaining rideshare launches; all of them completely full and all of them scheduled for 2027. Historically, these missions have been scheduled years in advance, so for today’s interested customer not a single spot remains.

All remaining Falcon rideshare flights. Source: SpaceX Rideshare Program

The website also used to have a function where anyone could apply to book a singular launch, boasted proudly on the front page and the site header. Now? The option is gone without a trace.

To be clear, Falcon 9 launches are not freezing - at least not yet. Rather, much like how Micron stopped selling memory to consumers because they make more revenue by selling solely to AI firms, SpaceX is ceasing to serve external clients in favor of scaling up Starship infrastructure and creating their own demand.

SpaceX is not a charity, especially now that they are a publicly traded company, and the profit incentive directs them to bolster their breadwinner: Starlink. In 2025, 75% (123 out of 165) of Falcon 9 launches were dedicated to Starlink missions alone. That’s up from 66% (89 out of 134) of F9 launches in 2024. SpaceX’s biggest customer is SpaceX.

To make a single trip to the moon, Starship’s architecture may require more launches than some entire space programs. But it’s uniquely equipped to deliver a huge mass to Earth orbit, i.e. a swarm of identical satellites or a colossal datacenter, hence the decision to wind down Falcon and go all-hands-on-deck for the new vehicle.

So what does this mean for everyone else? SpaceX’s largest competitor, Blue Origin, is no longer completely owned by Jeff Bezos and co., having just received its first round of outside funding to the tune of $4 billion. Blue also has a series of projects which represent internal1 demand for launches of their New Glenn vehicle, a rival of Starship.

SpaceX and Blue Origin’s internal moneymakers.

If these companies have their hands full launching their own stuff, that leaves us relying on a couple industry mainstays and the next generation of launch vehicles.

🚀 Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle remains the only other new-space vehicle with truly mature flight heritage. Their upcoming Neutron vehicle (comparable to Falcon 9 in size) just underwent a successful test of one of its engines.

🚀 United Launch Alliance (ULA) are grizzled industry veterans, but they’re phasing out their proven Atlas V rocket. Its successor, Vulcan, has 4 successful launches under its belt and is scheduled far in advance to be shared between national security payloads and commercial constellation launches (Amazon Leo). So these potentially profitmaxxing payloads are poised to take other rockets off the menu as well.

🚀 Firefly Alpha has yet to stabilize its mixed launch record.

🚀 China’s Zhuque-1 and Long March 10B are in accelerated development - the latter of which just caught its booster with a barge-mounted wire rope assembly.

CDN media
Recovered Long March 10B booster. Credit: Reddit user Low-Career3769

🚀 Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 successfully launched last week - on its first try, no less - crowning it India’s first private rocket to reach orbit.

🚀 And there’s a myriad of promising up-and-comers with no successful launches yet. See the footnotes2 for an exhaustive list.

Will these launch vehicles remain accessible to smallsat customers for one-off missions? Or will space internet service providers and AI firms soak up every launch for years to come? How long before Firefly announces a line of AI datacenters and calls it “Hivemind?”

The long-term stability of launch costs is still impossible to predict. We’re privileged to live in a time where rocket supply and demand are both going gangbusters, and we have front row seats to watch the next generation of launch vehicles unfold. Maybe expect a spike in popcorn sales.

In the near-term, the almighty dollar has ushered in an era of high-speed internet and AI chatbots. And while at first glance it may seem bleak, this represents a major vacuum in the market. Research groups, climate institutes, governmental agencies, and satellite startups will still need rockets to launch their products, and having the big dogs bow out of the market creates a feeding frenzy for new rocketeers to take over and propel launch technology forward.

If we’re lucky, this temporary lull is going to precipitate the biggest surge of innovation the launch industry has ever seen. Stay tuned! You won’t want to miss it.

This Week’s Upcoming Launches

  • July 28, 2200 EDT • Falcon 9 Block 5 • Starlink Group 17-52 • Vandenberg, CA

  • July 28, NET 0700 EDT • Long March 7A • Unknown payload • Wenchang, China

  • July 29, NET 2100 EDT • Long March 6A • Unknown payload • Taiyuan, China

  • July 30, 0309 EDT • Falcon 9 Block 5 • NROL-95 • Cape Canaveral, FL

  • Aug. 1, 1000 EDT • Falcon 9 Block 5 • Starlink Group 17-53 • Vandenberg, CA

Who, What, & Why is Altru Space?

Hi!

My name is Ben Durkee, and I’m an aerospace engineer and science communicator. In the past, I worked design, integration, & test on Northrop Grumman’s Minotaur rockets and later Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander. Now I work launch operations on New Glenn, Blue Origin’s burgeoning heavy launch system. The very same one that just disassembled its launch pad… so we may have burgeoned a little too close to the sun. There’s never a dull moment in this industry of ours!

Which is why I love to talk about what I do and what’s going on in the space realm. But eyes have begun to glaze over at the Thanksgiving dinner table, so I’m seeking other outlets.

Reporting at KARS Park for the New Glenn NG-3 launch. Source: Blue Origin

The conflict of interest is visible from orbit. I’m one to err on the side of caution, so if you find that my writing is noticeably hesitant to speculate on Blue Origin’s moves and machinations, please understand that I really like my job.

You have my word that I will develop this publication with the most up-to-date information that I can confirm is publicly available. Inevitably, my work will inform my writing and my writing will inform my work. I intend to use these swords to sharpen each other in the pursuit of absolute quality. Because participating in the space industry is special.

That’s really the crux of the thing! Space is the next frontier, the ultimate unknown that’s worth exploring not for any material or intellectual benefit, but Because It’s There. It inspires and delights and represents hope on a cosmic scale. And now that so much money has entered the scene, our technology and access is about to develop lightning-fast.

But there’s a whole lotta snags that seem to be falling to the wayside. Snags that are eventually going to bite us in the rear; including, but not limited to:

How can we scale up our launch cadence without injecting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases? How do we improve our launch capability without stuffing Earth’s orbit full of satellite constellations? How can we develop a presence on other worlds without paving over paradise? How can we move manufacturing and other polluting industries off-world without exacerbating wealth inequality and making Earth exclusive to the rich?

Too many satellites? Earth's orbit is on track for a catastrophe—but we can stop it
Starlink satellites streaking across the sky, obscuring astronomy observation. Credit: Rafael Schmall

These are heady questions, ones I can really only answer with abstract platitudes, nothing concrete. We need to think and act with care. To be conscientious of our actions and their consequences. To get it right the first time, lest we condemn ourselves to a never-ending game of keepie-uppies.

In an industry moving so quickly - where one of the largest non-nuclear explosions on American soil is nothing but an inconvenient setback - those answers are inadequate. If I want to contribute my skills to this exciting new frontier and help us course-correct towards becoming an altruistic spacefaring people, I’m gonna need a better understanding of all the moving parts and where I can fit in to do the most good.

I’m gonna need a way to get my finger on the pulse, share my unique perspective, and build a network of people smarter than me, all at the same time.

I’m gonna need a newsletter.

So that’s where we are now - the first edition of my desperate attempt to catch a moving train. As we characterize this industry that changes every day, I’m confident that my research, stories, and outlook will provide you with insight you won’t find anywhere else. Together, let’s figure out how we can make the world a better place and launch rockets at the same time.

Be good and please remember: we can’t put humanity in space if we lose our humanity in the process.

I’m Ben Durkee and this is Altru.

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1

Amazon’s Leo constellation is technically not an internal project for Blue Origin, but the companies are so inextricably linked that the end result is the same: control of the entire launch vehicle/payload ecosystem.

2

Stoke Space’s Nova • Relativity’s Terran R • Northrop Grumman and Firefly’s Eclipse • Astra’s Rocket 4 • PLD Space’s Miura 5 • Orbex’s Prime • Skyrora XL (with ecological fuel!) • Isar’s Spectrum • RFA One • MaiaSpace’s Maia • Gilmour’s Eris Block 1 • Innospace’s HANBIT-NANO • Space One’s KAIROS • Interstellar Technologies’ Zero • Orienspace’s Gravity-2 and Gravity-3 • Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 • Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1 • i-Space Hyperbola-3 • Deep Blue’s Nebula-1 and Nebula-2

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