December 19, 2025

The Orbital Thermos: The High Cost of Cold Logic (Source: Michael Job)
Orbital Compute is the latest tech migration story. The pitch is simple: move the chips to the sky, bask in 24/7 solar power, and let the vacuum solve the cooling crisis. It’s a clean break from the messy physical constraints of a warming planet. But this vision relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of thermodynamics. In the engineering world, space isn't a freezer... it’s the most efficient thermos in the universe. For a GPU cluster, that is a death sentence.

On Earth, we cool computers with convection, using air or water to carry heat away. In the vacuum of space, there is no medium. You are left with only radiation, the slowest and least efficient way to move energy. To keep a high-density GPU rack—the kind pulling 120kW—from liquefying, you have to radiate that heat away manually. At a standard operating temperature of 300K (27C), a radiator only sheds about 350 to 450 Watts per square meter. To cool just one state-of-the-art AI rack, you would need roughly 300 square meters of radiator panels. That is a structure the size of a tennis court. (12/18)

Starfighters Space IPO: CEO Talks Satellite Launch Operations (Source: Yahoo! Finance)
Starfighters Space (FJET) is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange after going public via an IPO and raising $40 million. Starfighters Space operates a fleet of supersonic jets that aid in the launching of satellites and payloads into space. Starfighters Space CEO and president Rick Svetkoff speaks with Julie Hyman about the space company's IPO, its supersonic aircraft fleet, and the latest advancements in satellite technology. Click here. (12/8)

Executive Order Pushes for 2028 Lunar Crewed Mission, ISS Retirement, Lunar Reactor (Source: Space News)
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday tackling a range of civil and national security space topics. The “Ensuring American Space Superiority” order directs NASA to return humans to the moon by 2028 and begin “initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost” by 2030. It also reaffirms plans to retire the ISS and to develop a nuclear reactor for the moon. In addition, the order emphasizes defending U.S. interests from Earth orbit through cislunar space, integrating commercial capabilities into the defense architecture and modernizing the nation’s military space architecture. Much of the executive order was focused on policies and procedures, such as acquisition reform. The order also effectively shutters the National Space Council and amends a 2018 policy on space traffic management, deleting provisions that directed that basic space situational awareness services be provided by the government for free.

The order came hours after Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA administrator. Isaacman was sworn in by a district judge in a private ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building Thursday, a day after the Senate confirmed Isaacman’s nomination. Isaacman later attended the executive order signing at the Oval Office. Isaacman said in a social media post that he “will intensely focus the agency on achieving the near-impossible” and added that he planned to donate his salary to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp. Isaacman is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting with NASA employees today. (12/19)

Rheinmetall and Iceye Team for $1.9 Billion German SAR Constellation (Source: Space News)
A joint venture between Germany’s Rheinmetall and Finnish synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite maker Iceye has secured a $1.9 billion contract from the German military.  Rheinmetall Iceye Space Solutions said Thursday it will build and operate a SAR satellite constellation to provide persistent surveillance and reconnaissance data for the German military, with a focus on NATO’s eastern flank. The joint venture will own and operate the SAR constellation, supply imagery, manage ground infrastructure and provide analytical services under the contract, which runs through 2030. Satellite production is set to begin in the third quarter of 2026 at a new facility in Neuss, Germany. The German government announced this fall it planned to spend more than $40 billion on military space capabilities over the next five years. (12/19)

HawkEye 360 Raises $150 Million for ISA Acquisition (Source: Space News)
HawkEye 360 raised $150 million in a new funding round, using some of the proceeds to acquire a defense contractor. The company is using some of the funds to acquire defense contractor Innovative Signal Analysis (ISA), which specializes in electronic signal and image processing systems for U.S. government customers. HawkEye 360 sells radio-frequency geolocation data collected by its satellites, primarily to the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and allied governments. It said the acquisition strengthens HawkEye 360’s position in defense and intelligence by combining space-based RF collection with advanced processing across multiple domains. (12/19)

Blue Origin Scrubs Suborbital Tourist Launch for Technical Issue (Source: GeekWire)
Blue Origin scrubbed a New Shepard launch Thursday because of a last-minute technical issue. The company halted the countdown for the NS-37 launch about a minute before the planned 11:30 a.m. Eastern liftoff from the company’s West Texas facility, and later called off the launch for the day. The company said only that controllers found “an issue with our built-in checks prior to the flight” that caused the scrub. The launch has been rescheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m. Eastern. The NS-37 suborbital flight is carrying six people, including Michaela “Michi” Benthaus, a German engineer who would become the first person who uses a wheelchair to go to space. (12/19)

Astrobotic Wins $17.5 Million for Suborbital Vehicles (Source: Space News)
Astrobotic announced $17.5 million in government contracts Friday to support work on three suborbital vehicles. The awards, from NASA, the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory, will go toward development of two new versions of Xodiac, the company’s low-altitude vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle, as well as Xogdor, a new vehicle capable of going to altitudes above 100 kilometers. One of the Xodiac vehicles will be used for testing rotating detonation rocket engines, while the other will be used for testing of landing technologies for lunar and other spacecraft. (12/19)

Astronomers Observe Asteroid Collision in Far-Off Star System (Source: New Scientist)
Astronomers have observed the collision of two asteroids in another solar system. Hubble Space Telescope observations two decades ago showed evidence of what astronomers thought at the time was a giant planet orbiting the nearby star Fomalhaut. Hubble observations taken two years ago, though, no longer showed evidence of that planet, Fomalhaut b, but instead a separate object. Astronomers now think that both Fomalhaut b and the new object are instead clouds of debris from collisions of large asteroids orbiting the star. The observations suggest such collisions are far more frequent than predicted by models of solar system formation. (12/19)

Morin Retires From NASA Astronaut Corps (Source: NASA)
A NASA astronaut is retiring from the agency more than 20 years after his only space flight. NASA said Thursday that Lee Morin is retiring from the agency after 30 years of service. Morin was selected as an astronaut in 1996 and flew on the STS-110 shuttle mission in 2002, performing two spacewalks to install a truss segment on the International Space Station. Morin then worked on technology development programs at the Johnson Space Center, including development of crew displays for the ISS and Orion. (12/19)

Redwire to Provide Docking Systems for European Space Capsule (Source: Redwire)
Redwire Corp. and The Exploration Company (TEC), a European aerospace company developing reusable, in-orbit-refuelable spacecraft, have entered an agreement for Redwire to provide two International Docking System Standard (IDSS) compliant docking systems for TEC’s flagship spacecraft, Nyx. Through this eight-figure deal, Redwire’s state-of-the-art docking system, the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM), will support future autonomous rendezvous and docking capabilities for Nyx. Developed in Belgium, IBDM is compliant with the IDSS and supports both berthing and autonomous docking operations as part of a modular, standardized interface architecture. (12/19)

Budget Bust: $901 Billion FY-26 DoD Budget Exceeds Administration Request by $8 Billion (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Senate has passed the fiscal 2026 defense authorization bill, setting the stage for sweeping changes to the nation’s defense acquisition to be encoded into law. Senators voted 77-20 on a bipartisan basis to send this year’s National Defense Authorization Act to the desk of President Trump, who signed the bill. The NDAA, which was passed by the House on Dec. 10, authorizes $900.6 billion in defense funds, or about $8 billion more than the White House’s request. (12/18)

NDAA Targets Space Force's Acquisition Workforce Issues (Source: Breaking Defense)
The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act addresses concerns about the US Space Force's acquisition workforce, requiring the Air Force secretary to maintain parity for Guardians qualified in acquisition billets with those in operational billets. Lawmakers have criticized Space Force Chief Gen. Chance Saltzman for prioritizing operations over acquisition, although he has recently emphasized the importance of acquisition in speeches.(12/18)

GE Aerospace $75 Million Michigan Expansion to Add 160 Jobs (Source: Construct Connect)
GE Aerospace has announced a $75 million expansion of its Michigan operations, with 20,000 square feet being added to the Muskegon plant to boost logistics and production and a 16,000-square-foot expansion in Norton Shores to support growth in the aerospace and defense markets. The investment is expected to generate 160 jobs by 2027. (12/19)

ISRO Reveals Electrified Moon Environment (Source: WION)
India's space agency ISRO says that analysis of the Chandrayaan-3 lander data obtained from data from August 23, 2023 to September 03, 2023 shows first-of-its-kind of results on the plasma environment near the Moon’s surface at the Southern higher latitudes, revealing that the electrical environment near the Moon's surface at the South Polar Region is far more active than previously understood. (12/14)

Like Starlink's Early Days, Amazon Leo Won't Target Polar Regions At First (Source: PC Mag)
Like the early days of Starlink, Amazon's service won't offer 100% global coverage at the start. Although Amazon Leo has been designed to reach across the globe, the system will initially feature a coverage gap for much of Alaska, parts of Canada and northern Europe. That’s because Leo’s first-generation constellation —comprising over 3,200 satellites— will only provide coverage 56 degrees north and south of the equator. (12/15)

Quantum Navigation Could Solve the Military’s GPS Jamming Problem (Source: Technology Review)
US military contractors are rolling out new GPS satellites that use stronger, cleverer signals, and engineers are working on providing better navigation information based on other sources, like cellular transmissions and visual data. But another approach that’s emerging from labs is quantum navigation: exploiting the quantum nature of light and atoms to build ultra-sensitive sensors that can allow vehicles to navigate independently, without depending on satellites.

As GPS interference becomes more of a problem, research on quantum navigation is leaping ahead, with many researchers and companies now rushing to test new devices and techniques. In recent months, DARPA and DIU have announced new grants to test the technology on military vehicles and prepare for operational deployment. (12/17)

Why Does the Same Side of the Moon Always Face Earth? (Source: Astronomy)
When the Moon first formed, it was a sea of molten lava. The immense gravity of Earth stretched this molten sea, raising tides on both the near and far sides. But the Moon was spinning, and that rotation carried the tides away from a direct line pointing toward Earth. So, from Earth’s perspective, there was an extra lump of material sitting slightly on either side of a line connecting the center of Earth with the center of the Moon.

The gravity of Earth tugged on these lumps, trying to bring them back into alignment (i.e., so that the nearer bulge pointed directly at Earth, rather than slightly away). This produced torque, or an additional rotational force, that slowed down the Moon’s rotation. At first this tugging wasn’t successful because the Moon had more than enough rotational energy to overcome the torque from Earth’s pull and keep spinning. But over time, Earth slowly won and the Moon’s rotation slowed down.

This process continued for millions of years until the lumps — the tides raised by Earth’s gravity — sat permanently on a direct line facing Earth. To achieve this, the rotation of the Moon had to synchronize with its orbit, so that it always presents the same face to Earth. (12/15)

Galileo Strengthens European Resilience (Source: ESA)
Since entering service in 2016, the Galileo program has continued to advance, introducing new capabilities to make it one of the most comprehensive satellite navigation systems of the world. Among these, the High Accuracy Service, operational since 2023, provides dedicated receivers with horizontal accuracy down to 20 cm and vertical accuracy of 40 cm. This week's launch adds extra satellites to an already robust constellation, further strengthening the system’s ability to guarantee 24/7 navigation services for billions of users worldwide. (12/17)

AST SpaceMobile Aims to Launch FM2, Its Second Prototype Satellite, in January (Source: PC Mag)
AST SpaceMobile is hoping to launch a second next-generation prototype satellite "as early as January" as it races to compete with SpaceX’s cellular Starlink service. The company disclosed the launch timing in a new Federal Communications Commission filing. AST is already on track to launch its first prototype satellite, FM1, later this month. However, it appears that it's also scrambling to launch the FM2 as soon as possible. (12/8)

Tower Corp Divests 91% of AST SpaceMobile Stake Ahead of Key Launch (Source: Satnews)
In a move affecting the Direct-to-Device (D2D) market, major strategic shareholder American Tower Corporation has liquidated the vast majority of its position in AST SpaceMobile. The infrastructure giant sold approximately 2.28 million shares, generating gross proceeds of roughly $159 million. This transaction represents a reduction of Tower Corp’s stake by over 90%, leaving them with a minimal holding just days before the scheduled launch of the BlueBird 6 satellite constellation. (12/16)

NASA JPL Shakes Things Up Testing Future Commercial Lunar Spacecraft (Source: NASA)
The same historic facilities that some 50 years ago prepared NASA’s twin Voyager probes for their ongoing interstellar odyssey are helping to ready a towering commercial spacecraft for a journey to the Moon. Launches involve brutal shaking and astonishingly loud noises, and testing in these facilities mimics those conditions to help ensure mission hardware can survive the ordeal. The latest spacecraft to get this treatment are Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 vehicles, set to launch to the Moon’s far side next year. (12/16)

DirecTV: Plan to Boost Starlink Speeds Risks Disrupting Our Satellite TV Service (Source: PC Mag)
DirecTV says its satellite TV service could face disruptions if SpaceX is allowed to increase radio emission levels for Starlink, which SpaceX says will help it increase internet speeds. In a Monday letter to the Federal Communications Commission, DirecTV argued that the disruption risks are real, citing SpaceX test results that measured the interference levels. (12/16)

NSF Pares Down Grant-Review Process, Elevating White House Priorities (Source: Science)
To ease the burden on a staff that has shrunk significantly since President Donald Trump took office, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is reducing the role of outside experts in reviewing grant proposals. The changes permit as few as one outside review rather than the current minimum of three, end the routine use of expert panels to discuss those individual reviews, and give program managers greater authority to recommend which proposals should or should not be funded.

But some program officers think the changes will hurt NSF’s ability to choose the best proposals. “This is like a stick in the spokes of merit review,” says one staffer who requested anonymity because of fear of retaliation. “It devalues discussion of the merits of each proposal.” (12/15)

30 Models of the Universe Proved Wrong by Final Data From Groundbreaking Cosmology Telescope (Source: Live Science)
After a multi-decade-year mission to understand the nature of the universe, a telescope perched in the mountain plateaus of northern Chile said goodbye in 2022. Now, its final data release is revealing the telescope's legacy: a field in tension. In October 2007, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) saw its first light. But it was not light from a star, or even a distant galaxy. Instead, ACT was designed to hunt for microwaves, especially the kind of microwaves left over from some of the earliest epochs of the universe.

In November, the ACT team released their sixth and final public dataset. While cosmologists will continue to mine the data for many years to come, the core team also provided their final suite of analyses and studies before saying farewell for good. Their findings matched what surveys like Planck had already identified: that something funny is going on with the expansion of the universe. (12/15)

NASA’s Chandra Finds Small Galaxies May Buck the Black Hole Trend (Source: NASA)
Most smaller galaxies may not have supermassive black holes in their centers, according to a recent  study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This contrasts with the common idea that nearly every galaxy has one of these giant black holes within their cores, as NASA leads the world in exploring how our universe works. (12/11)

The Bacteria That Wont Wake Up Found in Spacecraft Cleanrooms (Source: Space Daily)
Researchers have characterized a bacterium from spacecraft assembly cleanrooms that can enter an extreme dormant state, allowing it to persist where contamination controls are designed to remove nearly all life. The study centers on Tersicoccus phoenicis, a microbe detected in high-grade cleanrooms used by NASA and the European Space Agency to prepare spacecraft hardware.

The team found that Tersicoccus phoenicis can depress its metabolism so strongly that standard methods for detecting living cells register it as inactive even after conditions improve. This behavior raises concerns that some microbes may pass through established sterilization and monitoring regimes because they appear nonviable while effectively remaining intact. (12/9)

Lodestar Space Wins SECP Support to Advance AI Satellite Awareness System (Source: Space Daily)
Lodestar Space has secured funding through the UK Space Agency's Space Ecosystem Commercialization Programme, delivered by Space South Central, to accelerate work on its on-orbit sensing system Mithril.

The SECP Sprint R and D grant of GBP 30,000 will pay for integration and testing of a new LiDAR sensor within Mithril's existing on-orbit sensing suite. Mithril is described as a fully autonomous, AI-powered payload that can detect, classify and respond to other spacecraft in orbit, combining LiDAR, machine vision and onboard AI to assess threats, support docking and servicing operations, and act without human intervention. (12/8)

Mars Clocks Run Ahead of Earth by Microseconds Each Day (Source: Space Daily)
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have produced the first detailed calculation of how fast time passes on Mars compared with Earth, providing a parameter that future human and robotic missions will need for navigation and communications. They determine that clocks on the Martian surface run on average 477 microseconds faster per Earth day than clocks on Earth, with that rate varying by as much as 226 microseconds over a Martian year. (12/8)

Astrobotic Lunar Surface Sensor to Track Cislunar Traffic and Security (Source: Space Daily)
Astrobotic has secured a NASA Small Business Innovation Research Phase I award to develop Clavius-S, a visible-band imaging sensor designed to detect and track spacecraft in low lunar orbit from the Moon's surface in real time. The modular payload can fly on a range of lunar lander missions and will be integrated into future LunaGrid surface power nodes, creating a networked space domain awareness service to monitor objects 1,000 kilometers or more above the Moon. (12/8)

Satellites Used to Have Months to Avoid Collisions—Now They Have Days (Source: Scientific American)
The growth of traffic means satellite operators have a fast-shrinking window of time to avoid a catastrophic collision in an emergency. “While we had many months in the past, we now have less than a week for a close passage of serious concern—quite possibly a major collision,” says Aaron Boley. A new “Collision Realization and Significant Harm (CRASH) Clock” measure shows how the rise of mega constellations has created an “orbital house of cards.” The clock uses statistics to estimate how long spacecraft now have to avoid a dangerous close pass or a collision, Boley says.

That reaction window has shrunk considerably since satellite mega constellations took off with the launch of SpaceX’s first Starlink satellites in 2019. The researchers’ latest, unpublished calculations suggest that the CRASH clock value stood at about 5.5 days as of June 2025, compared with 164 days back in January 2018. The clock suggests the average satellite in low-Earth orbit currently faces a 17 percent chance of a close approach that could lead to a collision within 24 hours, which means satellites must make more frequent evasive maneuvers than they used to.

Spacecraft may not always be able to act quickly enough to avoid a crash, especially if software glitches or powerful solar storms interfere. In 2019 a European Space Agency science satellite had to dodge a SpaceX Starlink satellite, in part because of a “bug” in the communication system used between the agency and Starlink. (12/18)

SpaceX Loses Contact with Starlink Satellite After Mishap (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX's Starlink said one of its satellites experienced an anomaly in space on Wednesday that created a "small number" of debris and cut off communications with the spacecraft at 418 km (259.73 miles) in altitude, a rare kinetic accident in orbit for the satellite internet giant.
"The satellite is largely intact, tumbling, and will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and fully demise within weeks," Starlink said. The company said it was working with the U.S. Space Force and NASA to monitor the debris pieces, the number of which SpaceX did not say. (12/18)

The Inside Story of SpaceX’s Historic Rocket Landing That Changed Launch Forever (Source: Ars Technica)
On Dec. 21, 2015, SpaceX launched the Orbcomm-2 mission on an upgraded version of its Falcon 9 rocket. That night, just days before Christmas, the company successfully landed the first stage for the first time. In the first three years SpaceX flew the Falcon 9 rocket, from mid-2010 to mid-2013, it launched just five times. ... After two failed drone ship landings, Musk felt ready to try landing on land. This had a major advantage over the ocean, as the rocket need not contend with high seas. Ground was ground—flat and unmoving. But there was a major disadvantage, too. In returning the Falcon 9 rocket to land, it would fly near cruise ships in Port Canaveral and numerous other launch pads and valuable spaceport assets.

SpaceX acquired an old Cape pad, LC-13, in February 2015 for the purpose of returning the rocket. Trip Harriss now bore responsibility for Falcon recovery efforts and led the build-out of Landing Zone 1. He and Bala Ramamurthy also worked to convince the Range commander that SpaceX should be allowed to aim rockets at the Air Force station, a first. “As the Range commander, you’re used to rockets going away from you,” said General Wayne Monteith. “So when you see one that’s 180 feet tall and coming back, as the person responsible for the safety of everyone on that installation, you start to get a little worried."

Range safety analysts predicted the Falcon 9 flyback would produce a sonic boom comparable to the major 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event in Russia, damaging buildings and homes in the Cape Canaveral area and causing widespread damage. There was little data to refute these claims, which came as part of a lengthy and official-looking 100-page report defending the analysis. Alongside those claims came a stark warning that the United States would lose assured access to space, possibly for years, due to damage of critical launch facilities. Click here. (12/17)

But Why the Grid Fins? (Source: SPACErePORT)
Ars Technica provided a wonderful story on the background of SpaceX's historic first Falcon 9 landing, but I'm curious about the planning and deliberations that went into their design, especially their use of grid fins and retro-propulsion. In prior decades, the major defense/NASA contractors performed multiple studies on the reuse of expendable launchers and Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters. Millions of dollars and years of effort produced designs for attaching jet engines and awkward wings to the vertical rockets. None (that I can recall) concluded that propulsive vertical landings were feasible. One key to SpaceX's success was the use of grid fins for steering, a technology pioneered by the military for precision-guided bombs. I'd love to learn more about how SpaceX settled on this design. (12/19)

Leonardo DRS Achieves Major Milestone with First Space-Based Test of Next-Generation Secure Data Transport Capability (Source: Leonardo)
Leonardo DRS announced the successful first on-orbit test of its revolutionary multi-channel software-defined radio (SDR) with integrated advanced cryptography. This milestone marks a significant advance in validating a technology poised to establish a new standard for secure U.S. military satellite data transport at the tactical edge. The eXtended Crypto Module3-Space (XCM3-Space) adapts the company’s next-generation crypto and multi-channel SDR capabilities to the space domain, addressing emerging cyber and electronic warfare threats to military satellite data transport. (12/16)

US Space Command Finds Its Sweet Home in Alabama (Source: National Interest)
At an event celebrating SPACECOM’s relocation, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described the move to Huntsville, Alabama as “common sense.”
In September, President Donald Trump announced that the future headquarters of the United States Space Command would be relocated from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama. It was the last chapter in a seemingly endless saga for DoD’s 11th and newest unified combat command, which was reestablished in August 2019 to focus on military operations in space. Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was joined by lawmakers and senior military officials to mark the formal relocation of US Space Command (USSPACECOM) from Peterson Space Force Base (SFB) in Colorado to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. (12/17)

Brazil to get satellite internet from Chinese rival to Starlink in 2026 (Source: Reuters)
Chinese low Earth orbit satellite company SpaceSail will start providing internet access to remote areas in Brazil in the first half of 2026, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief of staff, Rui Costa, said on Wednesday. SpaceSail and Brazil's state-owned telecom Telebras had signed a memorandum of understanding in late 2024 to offer satellite internet services for schools, hospitals and other essential services in the South American country. (12/17)