October 5, 2025

As Flight Delays Loom, SpaceX Puts Up Defense in Rocket vs. Airplane Debate (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The competition for airspace is just beginning as the space age kicks into high gear on the Space Coast. At the center of it all is SpaceX, which seeks to bring its game-changing Starship to Florida but with a sobering cost, delaying as many as 12,000 commercial flights each year. SpaceX said the so-called aircraft hazard areas defined in the studies “are extremely conservative by nature and are intended to capture a composite of the full range of worst-case outcomes, but not any single real-world operation.”

“SpaceX fully anticipates actual, implemented (aircraft hazard areas) will be both far smaller in geographic scope and far shorter in duration, validated by the robust flight data and heritage we are building.”

“There’s a method and a reasoning for what they’re asking for,” said John Couluris, vice president of Blue Origin’s lunar permanence division, referring to SpaceX’s plans. “And so we all have to get used to this idea that the 2020s are going to be like — and the 2030s and beyond — it’s going to be beyond what we’ve been used to.” (10/5)

Russia: NASA Might Deploy Nuclear Weapons to the Moon (Source: TASS)
NASA may deploy nuclear weapons to the Moon under the cover of the Artemis program, Alexander Stepanov, military expert with the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, told TASS.

"A manned base is part of the Artemis program, aimed at developing space exploration technologies, preparing for longer space missions, and adapting and training astronauts. The construction site will be the Shackleton Crater on the Moon’s South Pole. Nuclear energy will be used to supply power. This particular aspect is probably the most important one because this marks a step towards bringing nuclear technologies not only to orbit but also to near space. The odds are high that nuclear weapons will be deployed in near-Earth and near-Moon space," he pointed out. (10/4)

Dark Energy Might Be Emerging from the Hearts of Black Holes (Source: Scientific American)
Black holes are eaters of all things, even radiation. But what if their rapacious appetites had an unexpected side effect? A new study suggests that black holes might spew dark energy—and that they could help explain an intriguing conflict between different measurements of the universe. (10/4)

Bell Plans to Release Direct-to-Cell Satellite Service in 2026 (Source: SpaceQ)
Bell, working with Texas-based AST SpaceMobile, says it plans to deploy direct-to-cell service to the Canadian market in 2026 following successful testing in New Brunswick. The two companies accomplished a few types of tests recently that they say will help improve communications in parts of Canada underserved by traditional telecommunications networks. (10/3)

Bill Nye Leads Charge to Save NASA Science From Deep Trump Cuts (Source: Axios)
A proposed 47% cut to NASA science from the Trump administration has sounded the alarm among scientists and space advocates — and Bill Nye is leading the charge to stop it. Driving the news: Nye — known as "the Science Guy" — will join more than 300 advocates from a coalition of nearly 20 science and education groups in Washington for a Day of Action on Monday, urging Congress to save NASA science. (10/5)

Pentagon Figures Show ULA’s Vulcan is Getting More Expensive (Source: Ars Technica)
Around this time each year, the US Space Force convenes a Mission Assignment Board to dole out contracts to launch the nation's most critical national security satellites. ULA will receive $428 million for two missions, or $214 million for each launch. That's about 50 percent more expensive than SpaceX's price per mission. Part of this price difference could be explained by SpaceX's reuse of Falcon boosters, whereas ULA's Vulcan rocket is a disposable design.

But look back and you'll find ULA's prices for Space Force launches have, for some reason, increased significantly over the last few years. In late 2023, the Space Force awarded a $1.3 billion deal to ULA for a batch of 11 launches at an average cost per mission of $119 million. A few months earlier, Space Systems Command assigned six launches to ULA for $672 million, or $112 million per mission. (10/4)

New Glenn Not Yet Ready for NSSL Missions (Source: Ars Technica)
The New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin is also part of the Space Force's roster of rockets, but must complete at least one more successful flight before receiving military certification for the Pentagon's exclusive National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions. (10/4)

China’s ‘Near Space’ Legal Warfare (Source: SpaceNews)
Where does sovereign airspace end and space begin, and is there a boundary in between called near space that blurs legal and geopolitical distinctions? That’s what Todd Pennington, senior research fellow for space strategy and policy at National Defense University’s Institute of National Strategic Studies, and Cornell University student Emmy Kanarowski explore in a recent opinion article breaking down China’s activity and scholarship around near space. 

When China-aligned sources refer to near space it normalizes the notion that there is a place between air and space in which the rules differ from those of the adjacent domains. This is not true under current law. Is this narrative a knowing misstatement of law, intended as a pretext of legitimacy for Chinese incursions into other states’ sovereign airspace? Is it part of an effort to propose a new rule of international law in which near space is a legally distinct place? Is it merely designed to sow confusion and distrust in existing principles of international law? Perhaps, it serves all these purposes. (10/3)

Chinese Investors Purchased Direct Stakes in SpaceX (Source: Oligarch Watch)
In newly unsealed testimony, a SpaceX insider said that Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company has taken direct investment from Chinese investors, ProPublica reports. “They obviously have Chinese investors, to be honest,” SpaceX investor Iqbaljit Kahlon testified during a deposition last year. Some of the Chinese investors, Kahlon continued, are listed “directly on the cap table,” a reference to SpaceX’s capitalization table, a list of shareholders.

Because of its role as a key U.S. defense contractor, SpaceX executives have previously warned that money from Chinese investors could attract regulatory scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. SpaceX is the second most valuable privately held company in the world, making its shares extremely sought after. (10/3)

MDA Extends Deadline for Golden Dome Proposals (Source: Air and Space Forces)
The Missile Defense Agency is giving potential bidders an extra week to file proposals in response to its Golden Dome solicitation, the agency said, noting industry’s “considerable interest.” The Sep. 10 request for proposals for SHIELD, or the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense effort, kicked off a competition for up to $151 billion in contracts to develop and integrate homeland missile defense capabilities.

The 10-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract will enable MDA to establish a pool of qualified companies to which the Pentagon can issue task orders for prototyping, experimentation, testing, and other activities. (10/3)