Morning Drive · Friday, October 9, 2026

SCRIPT

Here's the Space News Morning Drive for Friday, October ninth. It's a big one, so let's get right to it.

We start in Austin. Microchip Technology announced this morning that it has acquired VORAGO Technologies, the Austin-based maker of radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant microcontrollers and microprocessors. The announcement went out on the wire at eight o'clock Central. Microchip says the deal adds VORAGO's rad-hard chip family and its patented Hard Sil process technology to its aerospace, defense, and space lineup, along with a team that has deep radiation-hardening expertise. Terms were not disclosed, and Microchip says the deal isn't expected to be material to its financial results.

Now, the Texas Space Ledger. Blue Origin made it official on Thursday: it's building a campus called Constellation Park in Hutto, in Williamson County. Governor Abbott's office says the company will invest more than five hundred fifty-four million dollars in a one point three million square foot complex, creating more than two thousand full-time jobs with an average salary of about eighty-eight thousand dollars. Blue Origin says the site will be a central production hub for its satellite and communications programs, with those jobs added over the next ten years. The Austin American-Statesman notes the Austin metro has drawn fifty-four space and defense projects since twenty twenty.

Staying in Texas, the state is making its pitch for the new U.S. Space Academy, the proposed Space Force school modeled on West Point and the Naval Academy. Spectrum News reports the Texas Space Commission is considering pledging one hundred million dollars for its bid, and state proposals are due October twenty-sixth. And in Houston, the Italian company Involve Space has opened its first U.S. office at the Houston Spaceport at Ellington, with commercial stratospheric balloon missions planned by the end of this year.

Time for Moon Base Watch. On Thursday at the Golden Age Summit in Washington, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed an agreement to accelerate space nuclear power and propulsion. NASA says Space Reactor One, called Freedom, is set to launch in twenty twenty-eight, paving the way for Lunar Reactor One, a fission power system meant to keep the future Moon Base running through the long lunar night. The agreement takes effect November first. At the same summit, President Trump said American astronauts will soon return to establish a permanent presence on the Moon. Separately, Bloomberg reported earlier this week that NASA is close to a bulk purchase of rocket launches for its roughly thirty billion dollar Moon Base effort.

Also from that summit: the President awarded National Medals of Science and of Technology and Innovation to six tech leaders, including Texas's own Michael Dell, along with Lisa Su, Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, and Satya Nadella. In his remarks, the President also pointed to what he called the White House Accord on Superintelligence from last week, and he used the letters S I by name.

Down at Starbase, KRGV, citing LabPadre's camera coverage, reports SpaceX crews pulled the engines off the Flight Fifteen Starship this week, which LabPadre reads as a sign SpaceX found fixes for the engine problems on Flight Fourteen. Work also continues on Booster Twenty-Four and Ships Forty-Two and Forty-Four. Reports on X say a new planning document lists Flight Fifteen for November eighth from Starbase, but SpaceX hasn't confirmed that date.

In film and production, Houston First has released a five-year plan to make Houston the film capital of Texas. Axios Houston reports the goal is to double major productions by twenty-thirty and have a full soundstage studio running. The city's ten percent film incentive has awarded nearly four hundred thousand dollars to seven projects so far, with more than sixty-one million dollars in estimated local impact. And the Texas Film Commission named Burleson its newest Film Friendly Texas community.

Here's what to watch today. Watch for trade press and analyst reaction to the Microchip and VORAGO deal. Watch for any detail from Blue Origin on hiring or construction timing in Hutto. And mark your calendar: Texas Space Academy proposals are due October twenty-sixth, and the Texas Film Commission hosts a Film Friendly Texas workshop in Austin on November twelfth.

That's the Space News Morning Drive. Thanks for listening.