December 9, 2025

NASA Backs WHOI Effort to Read Organic Signals from Ocean Worlds (Source: Space Daily)
Ocean worlds such as Jupiter's icy moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus are emerging as prime locations to search for life beyond Earth, potentially including a second, independent origin of life within the Solar System. With NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft scheduled to arrive at Europa in 2030 to assess whether its icy crust or subsurface ocean can sustain life, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been selected by NASA to lead a five-year project valued at about 5 million dollars that will apply multiple scientific disciplines to study these environments. The project is scheduled to begin in 2026. (12/8)

Digital Twin Successfully Launched and Deployed Into Space (Source: Space Daily)
A dynamic digital twin designed by UC Davis researchers was launched into Earth's orbit last week aboard a SpaceX rocket. The innovation, which will model the current condition and predict the future condition of the spacecraft's power system, was carried by a Proteus Space satellite and is the first of its kind to be sent into space. The rocket was launched Nov. 28 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. (12/5)

Iridium Wins five Year US Space Force Contract to Upgrade EMSS Infrastructure (Source: Space Daily)
Iridium Communications Inc. has secured a five year indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract from the US Space Force Space Systems Command Commercial Space Office worth up to $85.8 million. The System Infrastructure Transformation and Hybridization contract covers technology refreshes, lifecycle upgrades, and security improvements for the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services Service Center, Technical Support Center, and Defense Ground Station. (12/3)

There’s Something Very Weird About Blue Origin’s Device That Generates Electricity From Moon Dust (Source: Futurism)
Blue Origin recently showed off a device in Las Vegas called TEAREX, or Thermal Energy Advanced Regolith Extraction. The company claims it could one day allow future space travelers to survive 14 days of freezing temperatures during lunar night by extracting the heat stored in lunar dust during the day using battery-like tech.

“The TEAREX takes lunar regolith or Moon dust from the surface of the Moon, circulates it through this chamber, and then extracting the heat through a lightweight heat exchanger,” explained William Brennan, while holding up a sleek, roughly 12-inch device. “And then, runs it through this cylinder to save the rest of the machine from the sensitive and abrasive rocks. “This heat cycle is then reversed during the lunar day to recharge regolith for use during the next night, turning Moon dust into a battery.”

Instead of exploring the product’s feasibility or elaborating on how it actually works, the company wasted no time in boasting how the device was designed by an AI. A quick glance at the press release barely mentions TEAREX, and instead brags about how its agentic AI models “accelerate lunar hardware development by 75 percent while democratizing innovation across 70 percent of workforce.” Brennan claimed that an in-house AI agent “helped us with the detailed requirements,” while “another agent helped us create the system architecture.” (12/7)

Raytheon, AWS to Enhance Satellite Data Processing (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
Raytheon is collaborating with Amazon Web Services to enhance satellite data processing for government and commercial contracts. The partnership aims to provide cloud-based tools that integrate AWS's AI, machine learning and services. (12/9)

Pentagon Reviews DIU Tech Portfolio, Eyes Space Projects (Source: Space News)
The War Department is reviewing the Defense Innovation Unit's technology portfolio, which could affect DIU's space projects. The review aims to streamline and potentially consolidate technology initiatives to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. (12/8)

TrustPoint Sets 2027 Target for Initial Rollout of LEO-Based Navigation Services (Source: Space News)
TrustPoint, a five-year-old startup building a low-Earth-orbit navigation network as an alternative or complement to GPS, says it is on track to soft launch C-band PNT services in 2027. The schedule depends on continued on-orbit demonstrations and receiver integration over the next two years, but the company says early tests and government interest are strong enough to support the target. (12/9)

1st Human Missions to Mars Should Hunt for Signs of Life (Source: Space.com)
The first astronauts to set foot on Mars should hunt for signs of past or present Red Planet life. That's the overarching conclusion of an in-depth report about human Mars exploration from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that came out today (Dec. 9). "The detection of life on Mars is a persistent top priority for explorers of many disciplines, and it is the top science objective in this report," states the 240-page document, which is called "A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars." (12/9)

LeoLabs Lands Cross-Government Licensing Contract (Source: Payload)
SDA startup LeoLabs will integrate its data on orbital objects within the Space Force’s “Unified Data Library,” under the terms of a new contract from the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) and the Space Force. Under the agreement, LeoLabs will provide not only its full public catalog of orbital observations—which covers 99.3% of the objects tracked by the DoD’s public catalog—but also radar observations, object state updates, and maneuver detection data. OSC will evaluate how to integrate this data into its TraCSS space traffic management tool to extend LeoLabs’ orbital alert capabilities to the commercial sector. (12/9)

China Launches 4 Times in 4 Days, Boosting Megaconstellation and Surveillance Assets (Source: Space News)
China launched four missions in four days, accelerating its record-setting launch cadence while expanding its Guowang LEO megaconstellation and deploying new Yaogan reconnaissance assets. The launches included a Long March, Kinetica-1, Zhuque-3, and Ceres-1. (12/9)

NASA Goddard and the Dawn of International Cooperation in Space (Source: Space Review)
NASA cooperated with other nations on space science missions from the agency’s earliest days. Trevor Williams examines two early cooperative satellite programs with the UK and Canada, both led by the then-new Goddard Space Flight Center. Click here. (12/9)
 
The Long Arm of a European Space Law (Source: Space Review)
The European Commission released earlier this year a draft of a space law for the European Union intended to harmonize regulations and promote space safety. Jeff Foust reports that provisions of the act have raised concerns across the Atlantic by US companies as well as the federal government. Click here. (12/9)
 
Beyond Launch: How In-Space Propulsion Markets Will Determine Winners in the $1 Trillion Space Economy (Source: Space Review)
Launch has long been seen as the bottleneck for a growing space economy, but it is not the only factor. Malik Farkhadov discusses how the in-space propulsion market can be streamlined to unlock further growth in space. Click here. (12/9)
 
In Defense of Mark Kelly (Source: Space Review)
Mark Kelly, a former astronaut who is now a US senator, has been the target of a potential court martial over comments he and other members of Congress made about illegal military orders. Two fellow former astronauts, Steve Lindsey and Garrett Reisman, rise in defense of Kelly and his remarks. Click here. (12/9)

Astroscale U.S. Signs Agreement with DESE Research to Serve Huntsville Space Ecosystem (Source: Astroscale)
Astroscale U.S. is strengthening its commitment to American space superiority by growing its presence in Huntsville’s space ecosystem. This week, Astroscale U.S. signed a Strategic Presence Statement — connected to a formal Facility Use Agreement — with DESE Research, a knowledge-based organization focused on research in Defense, Energy, Space, and Environment. DESE has been a cornerstone of the Huntsville community for more than 40 years. (12/9)

Senate Committee Advances Isaacman Nomination (Source: Space News)
The Senate Commerce Committee sent the nomination of Jared Isaacman to the full Senate on Monday. The committee voted 18-10 to advance the nomination, with three Democrats joining all of the committee’s Republican members in supporting Isaacman’s second bid to lead the space agency. Isaacman lost the support of two Democratic senators who voted for his first nomination in April, including Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who questioned Isaacman about his “Project Athena” plan during last week’s confirmation hearing. The Senate has not scheduled a confirmation vote but leaders of the committee said last week they hoped to get Isaacman confirmed before the end of the month. (12/9)

Muon Wins $1.9 Million SpaceWERX Contract for Missile Defense Sensors (Source: Space News)
Muon Space won a Space Force contract to develop sensors for missile defense applications. The $1.9 million award made by SpaceWERX, the U.S. Space Force’s technology arm, covers development of a prototype of an infrared sensing payload for missile detection and tracking. The sensor could be used by the Space Development Agency for future missile tracking satellites. Earlier this year, the Space Force awarded the company a $44.6 million contract to demonstrate its Quickbeam thermal imaging system for environmental monitoring and weather imaging. (12/9)

DIU's Space Portfolio Under Review (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon is reviewing the Defense Innovation Unit’s sprawling technology portfolio, including its space projects. Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, said Monday his office is assessing the DIU’s work as part of a broader push to align investments with six “critical technology areas” the department says need sharper focus, ranging from artificial intelligence to hypersonics. DIU has become a key entry point for commercial space firms, backing work in hybrid communications, space domain awareness, sensors, logistics, servicing concepts and launch-related innovation. (12/9)

Aetherflux Enters Orbital Data Center Race (Source: Space News)
Space-based solar power startup Aetherflux has thrown its hat into the emerging market for orbital data centers. The company announced Tuesday it will deploy its first “Galactic Brain” data center node in low Earth orbit in the first quarter of 2027. Aetherflux, which raised $50 million in April to support its plans for satellites that would beam power to Earth, says it sees an opportunity to use those technologies to power data centers, avoiding challenges terrestrial data centers face in obtaining power. Several other companies have shown an interest in orbital data centers, including Amazon and SpaceX. (12/9)

Russian Capsule Returns Three From ISS (Source: Space.com)
A Soyuz spacecraft returned three people from the ISS overnight. The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft undocked from the station Monday, landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Tuesday. The spacecraft returned Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim after eight months on the station. The three were in good condition after leaving the spacecraft. (12/9)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission on Monday From Florida (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX set another Falcon 9 reuse record with a launch Monday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:26 p.m. Eastern after a one-day delay due to weather, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit.  The launch was the 32nd flight of the B1067 booster, a record for the company. With this launch SpaceX has launched 3,000 Starlink satellites this year. (12/9)

Rocket Lab Neutron Fairing En Route to Virginia Spaceport (Source: Rocket Lab)
A “Hungry Hippo” is on its way to a Virginia launch site. Rocket Lab said Monday that it completed qualification testing of the first payload fairing for its Neutron rocket in New Zealand, and is now shipping the fairing to Launch Complex 3 in Virginia to be integrated with other elements of the rocket. The fairing is nicknamed “Hungry Hippo” because, rather than detaching and falling away, its two halves swing open to allow the upper stage and payload to be deployed, then shut while remaining attached to the Neutron booster. This allows the fairings to be reused without the need for ocean recovery and refurbishment. (12/9)

Wilford Passes at 92 (Source: New York Times)
One of the most famous journalists to chronicle the early space program has died. John Noble Wilford passed away Monday at the age of 92. He was the lead reporter at the New York Times covering the Apollo program, including the Apollo 11 landing, providing “an awe-inspiring and comprehensive account” of the mission. He later won Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of the space program, including an investigation into the Challenger accident. In a video for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Wilford said he knew in 1969 that the landing would likely be the biggest story of his career, “unless of course, I am still around reporting when people discover other life in the universe.” (12/9)