October 2, 2025

Orlando's NAWCTSD Awards Contracts to Support Space Force’s VJETTS Program (Source: Team Orlando)
The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) has completed a contracting action to provide initial infrastructure for the U.S. Space Force’s Virtual Joint Environment for Tactical Training Systems (VJETTS). VJETTS enables joint services for on-site developmental test (DT) training system capabilities by creating a System of Systems (SoS) Virtual and Constructive (VC) environment. This allows the services to rehearse operations in a networked, joint context. The program is an entry point into large-scale simulation environments that already link air, sea and land components for the Space Force. (10/1)

Space Force Opens Door to Foreign Military Sales with SSA Satellite Program (Source: Aviation Week)
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy of the US Space Force has revealed plans to make the next generation of space situational awareness satellites refuelable and accessible through the Foreign Military Sales program, marking a significant shift from the secretive Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program. The RG-XX program aims for maximum flexibility in contracting, potentially allowing international partners to purchase systems before they are fully funded by the US. (10/1)

Germany Pledges ~$41 Billion for Space Defense Against Russia, China (Source: Space Daily)
Germany will spend 35 billion euros ($41 billion) on outer space defence by 2030, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Thursday, citing the threat posed by Russia and China. "Russia and China have in recent years rapidly expanded their capabilities for conducting warfare in space," he said. "They can disrupt, jam, manipulate or even physically destroy satellites. In space, there are no borders or continents. Russia and China are our immediate neighbours there." Germany has strongly backed Ukraine in its war against Russia and, under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, vowed to massively step up military spending to help boost NATO's European capabilities. (9/25)

Lunar Challenge Winner Tests Technology in NASA Thermal Vacuum Chamber (Source: Space Daily)
One year after winning second place in NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, members of the small business Starpath visited NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of their prize opportunity to test their upgraded lunar regolith excavation and transportation rover in the center's 20-foot thermal vacuum chamber.

The technology startup headquartered in Hawthorne, California, won second place overall at the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge's live demonstration and finale in June 2024. This competition, one of NASA's Centennial Challenges, tasked competitors to design, build, and demonstrate robotic technologies that could excavate and transport the icy, rocky dirt - otherwise known as regolith - found on the Moon. (9/30)

Lunar Soil Melted Into Construction Bricks by Chinese Research Team (Source: Space Daily)
At the 2025 World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, researchers from China's Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) presented a prototype machine capable of transforming lunar soil into construction bricks. The solar-powered system is the first proof-of-concept device designed to fabricate building materials directly on the Moon. The machine concentrates sunlight using a parabolic reflector, transmitting the energy through a fiber optic bundle. At the output end, the solar flux can reach over 3,000 times normal intensity, producing temperatures above 1,300 degrees Celsius. These conditions allow lunar regolith to melt and be molded into solid bricks suitable for roads and structures. (9/25)

Moonquakes Drive Most New Lunar Landslides Since 2009 (Source: Space Daily)
A Chinese-led research team has identified 41 new landslides on the Moon since 2009, concluding that endogenic moonquakes, not fresh impacts, are the primary trigger. The finding redefines understanding of active surface processes and highlights geohazard risks for future lunar bases. For decades, scientists debated whether lunar landslides stem mainly from internal seismic activity, impacts, or thermal rock breakdown. By analyzing 562 pairs of high-resolution images covering 74 globally distributed sites, they found most recent slope failures lacked any connection to impacts or exposed rocks. (9/30)

Potential Smoking Gun Signature of Supermassive Dark Stars Found in JWST Data (Source: Phys.org)
The first stars in the universe formed out of pristine hydrogen and helium clouds, in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. New James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations reveal that some of the first stars in the universe could have been very different from regular (nuclear fusion-powered) stars, which have been observed and cataloged by astronomers for millennia.

A recent study identifies four extremely distant objects which are consistent, both from the point of view of their observed spectra and morphology, with being supermassive dark stars. "Supermassive dark stars are extremely bright, giant, yet puffy clouds made primarily out of hydrogen and helium, which are supported against gravitational collapse by the minute amounts of self-annihilating dark matter inside them." (10/1)

Europe Moves Ahead With Strategies to Take On Starlink (Source: Light Reading)
Europe has made some progress in its efforts to ensure greater sovereignty in the satellite connectivity space in the past couple of weeks, although it is widely acknowledged that much work lies ahead if it is to counter the growing worldwide dominance of the Starlink system. Last week, for instance, the SpaceRise consortium that is leading the European Union's IRIS² satellite program kicked off the procurement process for the ground segment. ESA has now published the RFI announcement in addition to the previously released procurement plan. (10/2)

Indians Can Now Compete for a Seat on a Suborbital Flight (Source: The Print)
If you are a healthy adult, an Indian citizen, and have thousands of people willing to vote for you online, you have a shot at going to space. And it will be almost like a reality TV show.

Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), a US-based space agency, is partnering with Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos, to make your dream come true. No hard-set educational background, no long-duration astronaut training — all you need to be is a healthy adult, an Indian citizen, pay roughly USD 2.5 for registration, and build a campaign so that people are willing to vote for you. (10/2)

How America Fell Behind China in the Lunar Space Race—and How it Can Catch Back Up (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX and its complex Starship lander are getting the lion's share of the blame for Artemis delays. But the company and its lunar version of Starship are just the final steps on a long, winding path that got the US where it is today. Sean Duffy's continued public insistence that he will not let China beat the United States back to the Moon rings hollow. The shrewd people in the industry I've spoken with say Duffy is an intelligent person and is starting to realize that betting the entire farm on SpaceX at this point would be a mistake.

It would be nice to have a plan B. But please, stop gaslighting us. Stop blustering about how we're going to beat China while losing a quarter of NASA's workforce and watching your key contractors struggle with growing pains. Let's have an honest discussion about the challenges and how we'll solve them. Solutions include a stubby Starship, surged CLPS funding, and having NASA build its own lunar module. Click here. (10/2)

China Deploys Robot Dogs in Simulated Moon Conditions Ahead of Lunar Mission (Source: SCMP)
Chinese researchers are testing and training robotic dogs in preparation for future exploration beneath the moon’s surface, an area that is considered ideal for establishing human lunar bases. A team from the Peking University’s school of computer science has developed two specialised robotic dogs for the exploration mission, and tested them in a cave in northeastern China. (10/2)

Scalable Lunar Power Study Launched by Honda and Astrobotic (Source: Space Daily)
Honda Motor Co. and Astrobotic Technology have entered a joint development agreement to investigate scalable lunar power solutions that combine Honda's regenerative fuel cell (RFC) system with Astrobotic's Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) and LunaGrid service. The collaboration aims to deliver continuous and reliable power for extended lunar surface operations, particularly during the two-week lunar night.

Honda's RFC system, a circulative renewable energy cycle, uses solar energy and water to produce oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity. During the lunar day, solar power is stored as hydrogen, which the system converts back to electricity at night. The process yields water as the sole byproduct, which is recycled into Honda's high-pressure electrolysis system to close the energy loop. (9/30)

NASA Employees on Artemis Missions with SpaceX, Blue Origin to Work Through Shutdown (Source: CNBC)
NASA employees were informed that those working on Artemis missions with SpaceX and Blue Origin would need to continue working through the shutdown. Their work will be unpaid “during the shutdown furlough,” but employees should record their time, NASA Chief Human Capital Officer Kelly Elliott wrote in an email to staffers. The U.S. government shut down early Wednesday morning, setting the stage for the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal workers. (10/1)

Space Center Houston Remains Open During Government Shutdown; NASA Tours Paused (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Space Center Houston will remain open despite a government shutdown, but some operations such as specialty tours will be affected, representatives with the museum said Wednesday. The museum serves as the official visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center, but operates independently from the space agency. (10/2)

KSC Visitor Complex Remains Open During Shutdown; NASA Tours Not Paused (Source: KSCVC)
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is open during the U.S. government shutdown. All exhibits and attractions, including the Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour remain open for guests to explore. The Explore Tour and other special interest tours will operate as normal. (10/2)

Introducing Arc – the World’s First Space-Based Delivery Vehicle (Sources: Inversion, Ars Technica)
A relatively new spacecraft company, Inversion, revealed its new "on demand" delivery vehicle. Arc enables the on-demand delivery of cargo and effects to anywhere on Earth in under an hour, and offers unparalleled hypersonic testing capabilities. Arc reshapes defense readiness by enabling access to anywhere on Earth in under an hour – allowing for the rapid delivery of mission-critical cargo and effects to austere, infrastructure-limited, or denied environments.

This capability establishes space as a new global logistics domain, introducing unprecedented speed, reach, and resiliency for national security. Arc features a versatile payload bay designed to accommodate a wide range of mission-critical cargo and effects. When launched to low-Earth orbit, Arc vehicles will form constellations of varying sizes and locations tailored to each customer’s needs. When called down on demand, Arc spacecraft descend from orbit, maneuver through hypersonic reentry, and touch down safely under parachutes – all autonomously. (10/1)

OpenAI Valuation Soars to $500 Billion, Topping Musk’s SpaceX (Source: Bloomberg)
OpenAI has completed a deal to help employees sell shares in the company at a $500 billion valuation, propelling the ChatGPT owner past Elon Musk’s SpaceX to become the world’s largest startup. (10/2)

Will the Shutdown Impact US Launches? (Source: Space News)
The impact on launch operations at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base could be significant if there is a protracted shutdown. Military ranges depend heavily on civilian employees and contractors for everything from safety protocols to technical coordination. Mission-critical defense launches would get priority with skeleton crews, but everything else — commercial launches, non-emergency military missions, static fire tests, pre-launch operations — risks delay or cancellation if the shutdown drags on. (10/1)

As California Glaciers Disappear, People Will See Ice-Free Peaks Exposed for the First Time in Millennia (Source: LA Times)
The glaciers in California’s Sierra Nevada are shrinking and expected to disappear this century. New research shows the glaciers have probably existed since the last Ice Age. The remnants of these glaciers, which have already shrunk dramatically since the late 1800s, are retreating year after year, and are projected to melt completely this century as global temperatures continue to rise. When the last of the glaciers melts, scientists say, the mountains will be ice-free for the first time in millennia. (10/1)

NASA Closes Doors to 15,000 Employees as US Government Shutdown Begins (Source: Space.com)
More than 15,000 NASA civil servants have been furloughed as the U.S. federal government enters a shutdown. The grinding halt forces NASA and other agencies to scale back nearly all of their day-to-day operations after lawmakers in Washington D.C. failed to pass a government funding bill by the deadline. Only a fraction of NASA's workforce remains on duty, assigned to missions that cannot be paused without risking astronaut safety, critical hardware, or the Trump administration’s highest priorities.

With most science programs and public-facing activities frozen, the shutdown leaves NASA in a holding pattern until Congress approves new funding. NASA's updated shutdown plan, released Sept. 29, outlines how the agency will operate during the funding lapse, and confirms the scale of furloughs now underway. Out of NASA's 18,218 civil servants, 15,094 have been sent home, while a little more than 3,100 are classified as "excepted" and remain on the job.

By comparison, NASA's August 2023 continuity plan projected 17,007 furloughs and just 1,300 excepted employees. The smaller furlough number this year likely reflects newly expanded exemptions for Artemis, which now cover the entire program, rather than only operations necessary for "safety and protection of life and property." (10/1)

Could China Return the Perseverance Rover's Possible Biosignature Sample From Mars? (Source: Space.com)
NASA may have discovered a biosignature on Mars, but could China be in position to get crucial samples back to Earth first to make a definitive analysis? China's Tianwen 3 mission aims to launch in late 2028 and return Mars material to Earth in 2031. Landing site selection is still ongoing, but could the mission target Jezero Crater, where Perseverance is active, and attempt to collect similar samples?

Tianwen 3 plans to collect Martian samples using a drill, a scoop and a small drone, grabbing a total of around 1.1 pounds (500 grams) of material. Where it can land, however, depends on a number of engineering constraints. A landing site for Tianwen 3 will be selected between 17 and 30 degrees North latitude. Jezero Crater lies at 18 degrees North, meaning it fits that criteria. Jezero's altitude rules it out as a target, however. Jezero's floor is around 8,350 feet (2,600 meters) below Martian "sea level." But Tianwen 3 needs to land even lower down, with the criteria being at least 9,840 feet (3,000 m) below notional sea level. (10/1)

NASA Lasers Confirm Earth is Losing Landmass to Rising Seas Much More Quickly Than Thought (Source: Earth.com)
Lasers have confirmed the big driver behind today’s rapidly rising sea levels. A new study reports that global mean sea level (GMSL) has climbed about 3.5 inches since 1993. What’s even more concerning is that the pace has increased dramatically in the last two decades.

Roughly 60 percent of the rise coming from added water mass, and more than four fifths of that added mass came from melting land ice. Sea level changes for two reasons, seawater warms and expands, and new water flows from land into the ocean. The oceans take up about 90 percent of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases, according to the IPCC report.

Three and a half inches over three decades might sound small, yet it stacks on top of tides, storms, and land motion. Local sea level can move faster or slower than the global average because ice loss from warming waters and changing gravity redistribute water unevenly. The pace is not steady either. The global rate today is higher than it was in the 1990s, which lines up with faster ice loss seen in Greenland and Antarctica. (10/1)

Northwest Airports Are Sinking, National Satellite Analysis Shows (Source: OPB)
Airport runways need to be smooth and flat so planes can take-off and land safely. But if the ground under the runways is sinking, that surface can dip and crack, requiring expensive repairs. Researchers at Virginia Tech did a satellite analysis of 15 of the country’s busiest airports and found that Portland’s runways are subsiding. The analysis shows the rate varies along the runways, but at its highest, PDX is sinking relatively quickly — second only (of the airports studied) to San Francisco. (10/1)

California's Coastline Is a Public Trust, Not Elon Musk's Private Launchpad (Source: Independent)
Californians have already invested in SpaceX; now Musk seeks to evade oversight while putting our environment, our health, and our coastline at risk. This is an example of a billionaire’s corporation leveraging federal authority to pursue projects that harm the public. Our coastline is a shared public trust, not Elon Musk’s private launchpad. Rocket fuels like RP-1 kerosene, and perchlorates are highly toxic, contaminate air, soil, and water — and are especially dangerous for children and pregnant women. Methane fuel is also a dangerous greenhouse gas.

SpaceX’s endangerment of wildlife goes beyond California. Musk’s launches from Starbase, Texas, are documented to have caused mass death for 900 endangered sea turtles in the impact zone in Mexico. Musk, and Gov. Newsom, should not forget that Earth is life. Whales, birds, turtles, seals, and wildlife all need our protection. Here in California, if the Air Force continues to green-light SpaceX launching 100 or more rockets a year plus re-entries, we will be experiencing sonic booms every two to three days. The effects will feel akin to living in constant war.

In response to the Coastal Commission’s decision last October to deny the Air Force and SpaceX project until they provide more data on environmental impacts, Governor Newsom also said, “I didn’t like that.” Governor Newsom: Californians don’t like that the Air Force is ignoring the California Coastal Commission’s ruling and allowing SpaceX, a private corporation, to launch a goal of 40,000 Starlink satellites into our sky. They will not only desecrate the planet but threaten the Earth with space junk under the guise of “National Security.” In actuality, this is for private profit to SpaceX, too. (9/30)

Firefly Aerospace Stock Tanks 20% After Test Rocket Explosion (Source: CNBC)
Firefly Aerospace shares sank nearly 21% after its rocket exploded during a ground test on Monday. The explosion occurred during a first-stage test of the satellite-launching Alpha Flight 7 rocket at its facility in Briggs, Texas, Firefly wrote in an update. (9/30)

What’s Next for Direct-to-Device After SpaceX’s Blockbuster Spectrum Deal (Source: Space News)
The SpaceX spectrum deal is worth “more than the market cap of half of the satellite companies combined,” giving the clearest indication yet of just how much the company values an emerging market it has set out to dominate. “D2D was considered quite a long-term prospect, and now it’s a shorter and shorter horizon,” said Pacôme Révillon, CEO of Novaspace.

Novaspace estimates there will be roughly 300 million monthly D2D users by 2030, when service revenues are forecasted to climb from around $400 million today to $5.7 billion. SpaceX is moving quickly to capture those users as rivals ramp up their own plans. Until recently, the D2D landscape was distinctly divided into two camps: The first sought out terrestrial wireless partnerships.

Think of companies such as SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global focused on teaming up with mobile network operators (MNOs) to use their terrestrial spectrum from space. The second focused on satellite spectrum strategies. Viasat, Globalstar and other legacy MSS providers could previously only use their space-licensed frequencies to connect specialized devices, but are now adapting mobile industry standards to reach the mass market. AST, which has partnered with AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., was the first to blur that distinction. (10/1)

Heavy Traffic Ahead (Source: Aerospace America)
SpaceX has proven that thousands of satellites can be operated without collisions in low-Earth orbit, but that task could become more difficult as Amazon and others deploy their own megaconstellations. If even a few of the proposed megaconstellations come to fruition, managing their operations in close proximity will be “the next big challenge,” says Brian Weeden of Aerospace Corp.

Among the concerns is how the two main U.S. operators, SpaceX and Amazon, will coordinate with in-development Chinese megaconstellations. Further complicating the issue, in Weeden’s view, is that these broadband constellations are more than just commercial endeavors. They’re “seen as an important national capability” increasingly relied upon for security and military use, Weeden says, making it all the more important that operators have a way to communicate with one another to deconflict and avoid potential collisions.

And that’s perhaps the biggest hurdle, given how little the U.S. and China have historically communicated about space assets. Even with safeguards, the cumulative chance that a constellation the size of Starlink experiences at least one collision per year is greater than 10%. Even a single collision can create thousands of new debris fragments. In 2009, the active American Iridium-33 satellite and the defunct Russian Kosmos-2251 collided over Siberia, generating 2,000 trackable pieces of debris bigger than a smartphone, about half of which remain in orbit. (10/1)

A Closer Look at SpaceX’s Mars Plan (Source: Aerospace America)
Five uncrewed Starships would lift off in 2026, the next time the orbits of Earth and Mars are aligned. If all goes well, the craft would touch down on Mars in 2027, carrying an unspecified number of the bipedal Optimus robot made by Musk’s electric car company, Tesla. Another 20 Starships would lift off during the next transfer window in 2028. Most of them would carry additional Optimuses to set up Martian ground infrastructure and survey for resources, such as water ice, but at least one of the Starships would carry an unspecified number of human passengers.

Plans then call for steadily increasing the number of flights every 26 months, in each subsequent launch opportunity: 100 Starships in 2031, 500 in 2033, working up to the eventual target of “1,000 or 2,000 ships per Mars rendezvous,” Musk said, with each crewed Starship carrying 100 to 200 passengers.

The general plan is sound, according to the 10 experts I spoke with for this piece, several of whom were retired NASA employees who oversaw previous Mars missions and contributed to the agency’s plans for sending its own astronauts to the red planet. What’s less certain is whether SpaceX can stick to the launch targets. Even Musk acknowledges that 2026 is ambitious, tweeting in early August that it was “more likely” the first uncrewed Starships would launch “in ~3.5 years, next flight ~5.5 years with humans.” (10/1)