Today the Department of Commerce took a step towards helping companies obtain government certification to conduct novel activities in space. Mutiple Congresses and administrations have failed to agree on a “mission authorization” regime for space activities not already regulated by existing law. This new Space Commerce Certification could make it easier for industry to navigate the complex government environment, but does not appear to be a complete solution.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of July 19-26, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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Serbia and Mauritius have joined the Artemis Accords in the past two days, bringing the number of signatories to 70. Governments of any country are welcome to join the U.S.-led principles for responsible behavior on the Moon whether or not they have space programs or aspire to conduct operations on the Moon, although many do. Countries on all six continents that have governments are members.

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SpaceX’s first attempt to launch Starship on its 13th test flight today didn’t go as planned. At the moment of startup, some of the 33 engines on Starship’s first stage didn’t light, triggering an automatic abort. They may try again as soon as next week. [Update, July 18:  They rescheduled the launch for July 20.]

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During meetings this week with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov agreed that Russia will support operations of the International Space Station through 2030. Until now, Russia was committed only through 2028 even though the other ISS partners adopted 2030 several years ago. Bakanov also agreed to continue seat-swaps where Russia launches NASA astronauts, and NASA launches Russian cosmonauts, to the ISS on a no-exchange-of-funds basis.

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Russia launched a new crew to the International Space Station today, Soyuz MS-29.  Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, and NASA astronaut Anil Menon, docked at the ISS about three hours later for an 8-month mission.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 12-18, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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Japan’s ispace robotic lunar landing company is expanding into the lunar infrastructure business through an agreement with SpaceX. Instead of just landing on the Moon, they are offering end-to-end services starting with design through landing and mobile operations on the lunar surface.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the TWO weeks of July 5-18, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions.

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Katalyst Space’s LINK on-orbit servicing spacecraft is on its way to reboost NASA’s Swift observatory. Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus-XL rocket launched LINK this morning, July 3, and contact was successfully established, the first step in a series of checkouts before it approaches Swift in what NASA calls a high-risk, high-reward effort. [Update, July 4: orbital parameters added.]

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