The week confirmed that the space sector is going through its best moment in history: private investment broke every known record, artificial intelligence took an operational leap in orbit and science added two findings of historic reach. In Argentina, CONAE advanced with SABIA-Mar towards launch. Here are the twelve stories that set the agenda, across business, technology, science and exploration.
Economy, investment and industry
1. Satellite investment shatters its annual record halfway through 2026
According to Space Capital's second-quarter report published on July 15, investment in the space sector climbed to USD 67.7 billion in the first half of 2026, beating the total for all of 2025 and making this the strongest year on record. Satellite companies alone took USD 8.1 billion, an absolute high. Finnish operator Iceye led activity after closing a USD 1.2 billion Series F to expand its radar satellite production in the face of NATO demand, while the infrastructure segment captured a record quarterly USD 20.7 billion. Source: SpaceNews
2. The SpaceX IPO reshapes the scale of space capital
SpaceX's Nasdaq debut in June — which Space Capital called the largest liquidity event in venture capital history, with USD 85.7 billion in proceeds — keeps drawing new investors into the sector. The deal validated the thesis that space infrastructure is now a globally scaled asset class and helped keep funding for space startups near record highs, with capital flowing towards constellations, launchers and applications. Source: Yahoo Finance
3. Argentina: SABIA-Mar enters the home straight towards launch
CONAE announced on July 14 that the Argentine satellite SABIA-Mar completed its manufacturing stage and entered final testing before shipment to the launch site. It is an Earth observation mission focused on the Argentine Sea, the coasts, estuaries and inland waters, centred on the study and monitoring of natural resources and the marine-coastal environment. Its placement in orbit is scheduled for the first half of 2027, and the July ruling recommended US firm Montero as the launch provider. A milestone for the country's technological autonomy. Source: Argentina.gob.ar
4. NASA tests satellites in orbit that «think» for themselves
In mid-July, NASA carried out the first test flight of its Dynamic Targeting technology aboard a commercial satellite. For the first time, an Earth observation satellite was able to look ahead along its orbital path, process and analyse the images with on-board AI in a matter of seconds and autonomously decide where to point its instrument, without waiting for orders from the ground. It is a concrete step towards autonomous constellation operation, in a context where the aerospace AI market is projected to grow from USD 1.98 billion in 2025 to more than USD 71 billion in 2035. Source: NASA
5. ESA accelerates its Earth observation agenda
The European Space Agency reported key progress across its mission portfolio in its weekly round-up (July 13-17): the FLEX and Sentinel-3 satellites shipped to the launch site and the MTG-I2 weather satellite completed its «fit check» with the launch vehicle adapter. The week also included a visit by the Artemis II astronauts to the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands and new images of the Kaiser crater on Mars. The pulse shows Europe reinforcing its environmental and weather monitoring capability from space. Source: ESA
6. Latin America in the race: Brazil clears SpaceSail, the «Chinese Starlink»
Brazil's telecommunications agency, Anatel, officially authorised SpaceSail — the broadband constellation described as China's equivalent of Starlink — to operate in Brazilian territory, a move that intensifies competition for satellite connectivity in the region. The step comes alongside the consolidation of the Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency (ALCE), which held its first general assembly this year, and the space sovereignty strategies driven by countries such as Chile and Argentina itself. The region is seeking to stop being only a market and become a player. Source: AS/COA — Americas Quarterly
7. Data centres start moving into orbit
One of the week's most disruptive debates is around orbital data centres (ODC) as an answer to AI's energy demand. SpaceX presented its AI1 satellite, with a 70-metre span and up to 150 kW of computing capacity, conceived not as a communications device but as a true data centre in space. The proposal opens a new business frontier — processing data in orbit instead of building dozens of massive facilities on Earth — and positions space as critical infrastructure of the artificial intelligence ecosystem. Source: Yahoo Finance
Science, exploration and missions
8. Historic: the first atmosphere detected on a rocky planet in the habitable zone
An international team confirmed the first atmosphere detected around a rocky planet located in the habitable zone of another star. It is LHS 1140 b, a super-Earth 48 light years away orbiting a red dwarf, with 1.73 Earth radii, 5.6 Earth masses and an estimated equilibrium temperature of 47 °C. The atmosphere was revealed through helium slowly escaping into space. The result, published in Science on July 16, was possible thanks to the WINERED spectrograph on the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, in Chile — another reminder of Latin America's strategic role in global scientific infrastructure. It is the strongest evidence to date that worlds with Earth-like conditions may exist beyond the solar system. Source: Carnegie Science
9. Euclid finds the oldest quasars in the universe
ESA's Euclid telescope enabled the discovery of 31 ancient quasars, including the two most remote ever observed: EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3, with redshifts of 7.77 and 7.69. Their light comes from an era when the universe was barely 670 million years old, 5% of its current age, beating the previous record by some 20 million years. The finding deepens an uncomfortable mystery for cosmology: how supermassive black holes of billions of solar masses could have formed so soon after the Big Bang. Source: ESA
10. Launch cadence: a last-second abort and an immediate return to flight
SpaceX suffered an unusual post-ignition abort at Vandenberg Base on Monday, July 20: the Falcon 9's nine Merlin engines briefly ignited and shut down immediately, in the second scrub in less than a week. The company turned things around the next day, launching the Starlink 17-39 mission on July 21 at 7:49 a.m. PDT — its 85th Falcon 9 flight so far this year. The episode illustrates both the robustness of automated safety systems and the industrial pace that now sustains access to space. Source: Spaceflight Now
11. Robotic servicing in orbit: Northrop Grumman's RSGS mission lifts off
Northrop Grumman launched its Mission Robotic Vehicle from Cape Canaveral, carrying the RSGS payload (Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites), developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory and DARPA. The mission aims to inspect, repair and reposition satellites already operating in geostationary orbit, an emerging market that promises to extend the life of multimillion-dollar assets and reduce space debris. It is one of the most concrete bets towards a true in-orbit services economy. Source: Spaceflight Now
12. China accelerates: an asteroid rendezvous and the Moon in its sights
China's Tianwen-2 probe reached the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo’oalewa (2016 HO3) in July, where it will remain for about seven months studying it and collecting samples. In parallel, the Chang’e-7 mission is preparing to explore the lunar south pole in August in search of water ice in permanently shadowed regions, while the country accelerates development of the Long March 10 rocket, the crewed Mengzhou spacecraft and the Lanyue lunar module, with the declared goal of landing astronauts on the Moon before 2030. Source: SpaceNews
Join Argentina Space 2026
All of this global transformation has its Argentine chapter, and you will be able to experience it up close. Argentina Space 2026 — Argentina promoting the New Space Economy will take place on November 11, 12 and 13, 2026 at the Salta Convention Center. It is the first major national gathering of the space, technology and scientific industries, bringing together agencies, companies, universities, startups and investors from Argentina and around the world.
Join Argentina Space 2026 and be part of the founding core of New Space in Argentina, whether as an exhibitor, sponsor or attendee. Write to us at marketing@argentinaspace.com or visit https://argentinaspace.com for more information.
