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Policy & Law

Poland to Host New ESA Center Dedicated to Civil Security and Resilience

by Zac Aubert July 13, 2026

written by Zac Aubert

WARSAW, Poland — In a major geopolitical and industrial milestone, Poland has been selected to host the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first-ever facility located in an Eastern European member state. The new center will focus specifically on civil security and resilience, marking Poland’s rapid transition into one of Europe’s most ambitious space-tech hubs.

The official announcement was made during a joint press conference in Warsaw on July 13, 2026, by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. While a formal opening date has not yet been set, preparations are scheduled to begin next year, with pre-operational activities starting in 2027.

“Poland is becoming… one of the European leaders in the broadly understood field of space activity…This covers the development of science, technology, and also business and security. Here in Poland, this space center will be, among others, responsible for dual-use research and activities.”

– Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister

By establishing the center, Poland joins a select group of European nations hosting major ESA sites, including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Poland’s Massive Financial Commitment

The selection of Warsaw for the new facility is directly tied to a dramatic funding increase from the Polish government. Recognizing space technology as a key economic and defensive driver, Poland has vastly scaled its financial contributions to the agency.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Poland’s total contribution to ESA’s budget will surge to €731 million ($833 million USD) for the 2026–2028 period. To put this in perspective, Poland committed a modest €51 million during the 2023–2025 cycle.

Out of this newly expanded budget, Poland will dedicate €550 million to ESA’s optional programs, focusing heavily on robotics, earth observation, and satellite data-based services.

Additionally, Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański announced the creation of a new, state-run venture fund valued at more than 500 million zloty ($132 million USD). This fund will inject capital directly into promising domestic space startups to accelerate their commercial scaling.

“I have no doubt that… the space industry will become another engine of the Polish economy in the coming decades,”

– Andrzej Domański, Polish Finance Minister

Poland aims to double its space sector expenditures again in the coming years.

Boosting Eastern Europe’s Space Ecosystem

The influx of capital and the establishment of the security center are expected to act as rocket fuel for Poland’s domestic aerospace sector. Polish companies like Creotech Instruments, Eycore, and SatRev have already established international credibility, securing a growing roster of foreign defense and commercial clients.

The new center’s focus on civil security and resilience comes at a vital geopolitical moment for Eastern Europe. It will focus on protecting infrastructure, monitoring environmental threats, and developing dual-use technologies that serve both civilian and national defense functions.

“The new ESA Centre will mark a new chapter for ESA and a major step for Poland, which has rapidly become one of the driving forces in Europe’s space sector. As Europe continues to strengthen its resilience in an increasingly challenging environment, the Centre will help build the capabilities we need to protect our interests, support our citizens, and act with confidence.”

— Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General

With initial groundwork commencing in 2027, the facility is poised to secure Poland’s place on the front line of Western Europe’s sovereign space defense strategy.

July 13, 2026 0 comments

FCC Approves “Sunlight-at-Night” Satellite, Dismissing Astronomers’ Warnings of an “Existential Threat”

by Zac Aubert July 11, 2026

written by Zac Aubert

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has formally authorized a highly controversial satellite mission designed to beam sunlight down to nighttime regions on Earth, pushing ahead despite fierce outcry from the global scientific and environmental communities.

In a regulatory order issued July 9, 2026, the FCC granted a license to California based startup Reflect Orbital to launch its Eärendil-1 demonstration satellite.

Scheduled to launch later this year into a low Earth orbit between 600 and 650 kilometers in altitude, the 142-kilogram spacecraft will deploy a massive, 18-meter-wide thin-film reflector designed to redirect solar beams to specific targeted areas on the ground for several minutes at a time.

Credit: Reflect Orbital

Reflect Orbital has pitched the technology as “sunlight on demand,” citing commercial interest for applications such as illuminating nighttime construction zones, assisting emergency search-and-rescue operations, and reflecting sunlight onto terrestrial solar farms to boost clean energy production after dark.

“We’re grateful to the FCC for recognizing the importance of testing novel technologies in space…This license is the first step toward rigorously testing our technology’s efficacy and the safeguards we have developed.”

– Ben Nowack, Chief Executive of Reflect Orbital

A Sky Full of Moons

While the startup paints a picture of industrial efficiency, astronomers and environmentalists view the project with deep alarm. If the initial tests succeed, Reflect Orbital plans to eventually deploy a massive constellation of up to 50,000 mirror satellites; a scale that experts warn could permanently alter the night sky.

Credit: Reflect Orbital

Environmental groups caution that artificial sunlight at this scale could severely disrupt the diurnal (day-night) cycles of plants and wildlife. For astronomers, the threat is even more direct. Giant reflective sheets in space risk blinding highly sensitive telescope instruments and ruining long-exposure deep-space imagery.

At a June 4 meeting of the National Academies, Tony Tyson, chief scientist of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and distinguished research professor at the University of California, Davis, slammed the concept. Tyson characterized Reflect Orbital’s vision as “even crazier” than the broadband megaconstellations that have already complicated orbital observations for years, raising concerns that the flexible thin-film reflectors will scatter light unpredictably.

“Imagine the sky full of moons,”

– Tony Tyson, Chief Scientist of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Echoing those concerns, the European Southern Observatory (ESO); which operates some of the world’s most advanced telescopes in the high deserts of Chile; issued a stark assessment on July 1.

According to ESO models, a full constellation of 50,000 mirror satellites would increase the background sky brightness at its facilities by a factor of three to four, effectively blinding telescopes trying to detect faint, distant celestial objects.

“For optical astronomy, this is an existential threat, and we hope that the regulators will share that view.”

— Betty Kioko, ESO Institutional Affairs Officer

Outside the FCC’s Jurisdiction?

The application drew intense public scrutiny, triggering nearly 1,900 public comments to the FCC; the vast majority of them highly critical. By comparison, a separate controversial application by SpaceX to operate up to 1 million massive “orbital data center” satellites gathered roughly 1,500 comments.

Despite the pushback, the FCC ultimately ruled that the ecological and astronomical concerns fell completely outside its legal purview.

“We find that concerns about Eärendil-1’s impacts on optical astronomy fall outside our review and authorization of the space station and are not a basis for denial of or additional conditions on Reflect Orbital’s operations,”

– FCC Order

The commission rejected arguments that the greenlight contradicted public interest. Instead, the agency concluded:

“it is in the public interest to make spectrum available to encourage companies to test new and innovative space activities, as it promotes American innovation and the new services and economic growth that come from that innovation.”

– FCC Order

To soften the blow, the FCC noted that Reflect Orbital has committed to coordinating with NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the broader astronomical community to establish geographic exclusion zones and safeguards.

The regulatory milestone arrived just one day after a coalition of environmental and scientific organizations filed a formal petition demanding the FCC conduct a comprehensive programmatic environmental assessment for orbital data center constellations.

While Eärendil-1 prepares to head to the launchpad later this year, the legal battle over who regulates the visibility of our night sky is only beginning.

July 11, 2026 0 comments

Aviation Regulations & Safety Mandates Policy & Law

FAA Unveils Framework to Legalize Overland Supersonic Flight

by Zac Aubert July 2, 2026

written by Zac Aubert

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a sweeping policy shift aimed at dismantling decades-old aviation barriers, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has officially issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to enable commercial supersonic flights across the continental United States.

The proposal marks the first concrete regulatory step toward repealing a 53-year blanket prohibition established in 1973, which barred non-military aircraft from exceeding the speed of sound over land due to the disruptive shock waves of sonic booms. By replacing speed limits with a performance-based standard, the Trump administration aims to foster a new generation of high-speed civil aviation.

The 0.11 PSF Boundary: Shifting From Speed to Sonic Performance

The proposed framework, titled “Enabling Supersonic Overland Flight,” establishes an interim noise-based operating certification standard. Rather than enforcing a rigid cap on Mach numbers, the FAA will judge incoming aircraft strictly on their physical sound signatures at ground level.

According to the 63-page draft rule published in the Federal Register, commercial operators will be legally permitted to fly at Mach 1 and above over U.S. soil under a specific condition: the aircraft’s sonic boom overpressure at the surface must not exceed 0.11 pounds per square foot (psf).

Credit: Boom Aerospace

At 0.11 psf, a supersonic aircraft passing overhead at 55,000 feet will completely eliminate the thunderous, window-rattling boom of 20th-century aircraft like the Concorde. Instead, the acoustic footprint at ground level will register as a faint, muffled “sonic thump”; structurally comparable to the sound of a standard car door slamming roughly 20 feet away.

Dual-Rule Rollout Targets Mid-2027 Finalization

To give aerospace manufacturers the concrete regulatory certainty needed to finalize multi-million dollar airframe designs, the Department of Transportation is executing a coordinated dual-rule strategy.

The regulatory roadmap directly fulfills Executive Order 14304, *Leading the World in Supersonic Flight*, signed by President Donald Trump.

[Rule 1: Enroute Sonic Boom Overpressure Standard] ──> [Rule 2 (Late 2026): Airport Takeoff & Landing Noise] ──> [Mid-2027 Finalization Goal]

“Restoring supersonic flight over land isn’t just about speed, it’s about unleashing American innovation and ushering in a Golden Age of Travel…Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are working at lightning speed to safely enable the next quantum leap in aviation technology and deliver an exciting new way to fly to the American flying public.” – Sean P. Duffy , Transportation Secretary

Leveraging NASA’s X-59 and Mach Cutoff Avionics

The regulatory pivot relies heavily on breakthrough flight-testing data gathered across government and commercial sectors over the last year.

NASA’s X-59 Quesst: Developed alongside Lockheed Martin, this specialized research aircraft broke the sound barrier for the first time in early June 2026, reaching Mach 1.4 at 55,000 feet. Its needle-nosed geometry prevents shock waves from coalescing into an explosive boom, providing the empirical foundation for the FAA’s new 0.11 psf standard.

The “Mach Cutoff” Phenomenon: Commercial startup Boom Supersonic is leveraging specialized autopilot avionics to scale a technique where atmospheric conditions, speed, and high altitudes work in tandem to naturally bend and refract sonic waves backward into the upper atmosphere before they ever reach the ground.

Credit: Boom Aerospace

“Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, noise reduction, and new operational concepts will eliminate the old sonic boom…This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports.”

– FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford

Geopolitical Dominance and the Race for Global Standards

The White House is framing the regulatory overhaul as a critical geopolitical checkpoint to ensure American aerospace primes outpace international competitors. Alongside domestic guidelines, the FAA is actively collaborating with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to secure international aviation safety agreements, laying the groundwork for frictionless cross-border supersonic flight corridors.

“This is how America wins, by moving at the speed of our innovators…For too long, outdated rules held back our engineers and manufacturers. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are clearing the runway for supersonic flight, strengthening our industrial base, creating high-skilled jobs, and ensuring the future of aviation is invented and built in America.”

– Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The FAA has officially opened a 45-day public comment window for the proposed rule, aiming to compile feedback from industry stakeholders, environmental agencies, and municipal authorities before codifying the final law next year.

July 2, 2026 0 comments