Space Industry Cheat Sheet: Wet Dresses, Falcon Hiccups, and a New Sheriff at NASA
First, an apology—I’m a day late on this week’s post, and I owe you an explanation. Last week, I was in Colorado Springs for the Rocky Mountain Cyber Symposium. Friday, I was back in Tampa to celebrate my birthday with my family, and Sunday, I was watching the Super Bowl. Between naps (jet lag was real this trip), I taught myself to use MCP connectors to start automating aspects of my life. If you’re not familiar with the Model Context Protocol, it’s worth a look—we’re at the point where AI tools can start talking to each other in ways that actually save time rather than create more work.
Now, to the news. If you’ve been following the space industry this past week, you might have noticed a recurring theme: even the best-laid plans sometimes need a little extra time in the shop. From NASA’s Artemis II hitting another speed bump to SpaceX demonstrating why having a culture of rapid response matters, this week offered plenty of reminders that space is still hard—but we’re getting better at handling the hard.
Artemis II: The Moon Will Wait a Little Longer
NASA conducted its wet dress rehearsal for Artemis II on February 2nd, and the results were… instructive. For those unfamiliar, a wet dress rehearsal is essentially a full countdown simulation in which you load the rocket with cryogenic propellants and run through the entire launch sequence, short of actually lighting the engines. It’s the final major test before you strap four astronauts on top and send them around the Moon for the first time since 1972.
The problem? Liquid hydrogen leaks. Again.
If this sounds familiar, it should. The same issue plagued Artemis I back in 2022. Despite implementing lessons learned from that campaign, NASA engineers spent several hours troubleshooting a leak in an interface used to route the cryogenic propellant into the rocket’s core stage. Cold weather at Kennedy Space Center didn’t help matters, causing delays before tanking even began.
The result is that NASA has moved off the February launch window and is now targeting March 6–9 or March 11, 2026. The Artemis II crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—have exited quarantine and will re-enter about two weeks before the next targeted launch opportunity.
Here’s the thing: this is actually the system working as designed. Wet dress rehearsals exist precisely to catch these issues before you have crew aboard. Nobody wants another Columbia or Challenger. That said, the fact that hydrogen leaks continue to be a recurring challenge on a launch system that’s been in development for over a decade raises legitimate questions about whether the current ground systems architecture needs a more fundamental rethink. The Space Launch System represents an enormous investment of taxpayer dollars, and the American people deserve transparency about whether these are teething problems or systemic design challenges.
SpaceX: A Hiccup, Then Back to Business
Speaking of transparency, SpaceX demonstrated this week why its approach to anomaly response has become the industry gold standard. On February 2nd, a Falcon 9 launching Starlink satellites from Vandenberg experienced an “off-nominal condition” on the upper stage during preparation for its deorbit burn. A gas bubble in the transfer tube prevented the second stage from re-igniting.
What happened next is worth noting: SpaceX immediately self-grounded, submitted a detailed report to the FAA identifying the likely cause and corrective actions, and by February 7th—just five days later—was back to launching. The Starlink 17–33 mission went off without a hitch, with the booster completing its 13th flight.
This rapid turnaround capability is critical to national security. When the Space Development Agency is counting on commercial launch providers to deliver the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, having partners who can identify problems, fix them, and get back to flying quickly is invaluable. The Starlink constellation now numbers over 9,600 active satellites, and SpaceX has conducted 14 launches so far this year.
New Sheriff at NASA: Isaacman’s First 50 Days
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman marked his first 50 days on the job this week by releasing a Workforce Directive that’s raising eyebrows across the aerospace community. The core message: NASA has become too dependent on contractors for functions that should be core competencies, and it’s time to bring some of that capability back in-house.
The directive targets what Isaacman identifies as “well more than a billion dollars in annual overhead” being diverted from science and discovery. Actions include discontinuing the hiring of new subcontractors for work that can be performed by civil servants and implementing “right-to-repair” provisions that would allow NASA to maintain and service its own equipment rather than depending on vendors.
This represents a significant philosophical shift. For years, the trend in government has been toward outsourcing—the assumption being that contractors could provide greater workforce flexibility and specialized expertise. Isaacman is essentially arguing that this approach has eroded internal capabilities, increased program risk, and reduced flexibility in addressing technical challenges.
Whether you agree with this approach likely depends on your perspective. Contractors will naturally be concerned about the impacts on their businesses. NASA civil servants who’ve watched their workforce shrink by about 4,000 people over the past year might welcome the change. The real test will be execution—can NASA actually rebuild these capabilities, or has too much institutional knowledge already left the organization?
In a related development that delighted social media, Isaacman also announced that NASA astronauts will now carry modern smartphones on missions, starting with Crew-12 and Artemis II. The agency had previously relied on equipment nearly a decade old due to lengthy qualification processes. Sometimes progress means questioning whether every historical requirement still makes sense.
SHIELD Awardees Are Preparing
In Other Golden Dome News
The Space Force has also been quietly making progress on the space-based interceptor component, awarding multiple prototype contracts under a competitive but classified “other transaction agreement.” Meanwhile, companies like L3Harris have invested over $100 million to expand satellite-integration facilities to support the Golden Dome development.
What remains unclear is the actual architecture. Despite all the industry activity, the proposed Golden Dome system design has not been publicly released. Gen. Michael Guetlein leads the program, and the Pentagon has set a goal of developing and demonstrating next-generation missile defense technologies by 2028—an ambitious goal by any measure.
The industry response has been remarkable. Every company with even a tangential connection to missile defense, sensors, or space systems has pivoted toward Golden Dome. Whether this represents smart positioning or chasing buzzwords remains to be seen. The physics challenges that made space-based interceptors impractical in the 1980s haven’t fundamentally changed, but processing speed and materials science certainly have.
Investment: CesiumAstro’s Big Moment
On the commercial side, Austin-based CesiumAstro closed a $470 million funding round this week—$270 million in equity led by Trousdale Ventures, plus $200 million in debt financing from the Export-Import Bank and JPMorgan. The company produces software-defined phased-array communications systems and plans to build a 270,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in the Austin suburbs.
CEO Shey Sabripour didn’t mince words about the company’s ambitions: “Our technology is moving from breakthrough to American industrial backbone. This funding lets us deliver resilient, AI-enabled communications to connect, detect, and defend at a global scale.”
That last phrase—“connect, detect and defend”—signals where the smart money thinks the market is heading. CesiumAstro’s products support SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, and the company explicitly positions itself to play a role in Golden Dome. With eight SpaceX rideshare launches already manifested and contracts spanning government and commercial sectors, they’re putting their funding where their mouth is.
The Bottom Line
This week reminded us that space systems development remains challenging. Hydrogen leaks, upper-stage anomalies, and the tension between speed and safety will continue to shape how we approach the final frontier.
But here’s what I take away from all of it: the American space industrial base is responding to the moment. Commercial providers are demonstrating operational resilience. Investment capital is flowing toward companies building critical capabilities. And leadership—whether you agree with every decision or not—is at least asking the hard questions about how we can do this better.
The Moon isn’t going anywhere. Neither is the threat environment driving Golden Dome. What matters now is whether we can execute at the speed and with the discipline the moment requires.
Sources: SpaceNews.com, Payloadspace.com, NASA.gov, SpaceflightNow.com
Pax ab Space
Clinton Austin is a Senior Business Development Director for GDIT who covers the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Space Force, and the Missile Defense Agency.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of General Dynamics Information Technology.
February 10, 2026
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