Rocket Lab Secures Multiple Launches
with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab announced it has signed a direct contract for two dedicated
Electron launches with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) –
signifying the criticality of Electron to international space agencies
requiring responsive launch and dedicated access to space. Launching
from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, the two Electron
missions will deploy satellites for JAXA’s Innovative Satellite
Technology Demonstration Program. (10/10)
Is NASA Losing the Moon Race? All Eyes
Are on the Megarocket Launching Monday for Answers (Source: CNN)
Calls for the United States to return astronauts to the moon before the
end of the decade have been increasingly loud and frequent, emanating
from bipartisan lawmakers and science advocates alike. But underlying
that drumbeat is a quagmire of epic proportions. “The China National
Space Administration will almost certainly walk on the moon in the next
five years,” said Bill Nye.
Starship is still in the nascent stages of a long and laborious
development process. So far, parts of the vehicle have failed in
dramatic fashion during six of its 10 test flights. The megarocket has
yet to hit several key testing milestones. These include figuring out
how to top off Starship’s fuel as it sits parked in orbit around Earth.
Such a step is necessary given the vehicle’s design and enormous size —
but it’s never been attempted before with any spacecraft.
Adding to the uncertainty is that no one knows exactly how many tankers
full of fuel SpaceX will need to launch to give Starship enough gas for
a moon-landing mission, which NASA has planned for mid-2027. (10/10)
French Space Defense Startup Dark
Ceases Operations (Source: Space News)
Dark, a French startup developing air-launched spacecraft technology to
capture and dispose of orbital objects, has shut down operations after
struggling to establish a sustainable business model, the company
announced this week. (10/11)
Starship Launches Could Bring Huge
Tourist Crowds, Economic Boost to Space Coast (Source: Florida
Today)
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 220,000 spectators still
swarmed Space Coast beachside and riverfront rocket-viewing sites in
May 2020 to see America's first crewed launch since the end of the
space shuttle program — though NASA had urged people to stay home and
watch on TV instead.
Experts say similar crowds could converge for SpaceX's historic initial
launches of Starship-Super Heavy — the most powerful rocket system in
world history — from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral
Space Force Station. (10/12)
Microbes Essential for Human Health
Can Survive the Stress of Spaceflight. That's Great News for Astronauts
(Source: Space.com)
Microbes essential for human health have proven resilient against the
extreme forces of space travel, offering hope for maintaining astronaut
well-being on future long-duration missions.
Researchers in Australia sent spores of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis
— a bacterium known to support the human immune system, gut health and
blood circulation — in a 3D-printed microtube holder on a sounding
rocket flight to test how they would fare under the stresses of launch,
microgravity and reentry. Bacteria like B. subtilis will be vital for
sustaining human life over decades — a necessity for establishing a
presence beyond Earth, such as a future Mars colony.
The microbes were exposed to accelerations of up to 13 times Earth's
gravity, a six-minute weightless period at around 162 miles altitude,
and punishing decelerations reaching 30 g while spinning about 220
times per second during descent. After recovery, scientists found the
structure of the spores showed no signs of damage and grew just as they
would have on Earth, according to a statement from the university.
(10/12)
October 11, 2025
Recycle the ISS (Source: Space
News)
NASA plans to spend approximately $1 billion of taxpayer money to destroy the International Space Station in 2030. The ISS contains over $1.5 billion worth of space-grade materials already in orbit. Instead of throwing this asset away, we should redirect that funding to develop the technology to recycle it. This approach saves a valuable asset, prevents wasteful spending and seeds a new, American-led industry in space, ensuring our economic and strategic leadership over competitors like China. (10/11)
A Call to Arms for British Space Investors (Source: Space News)
The United Kingdom is taking strides to bolster its military and defense investments in space, but the public funding being made available for the U.K.'s space startups isn't enough to do the job, argued Mark Wheatley and Andrew Turner. They call on London-based investors to get off of the sidelines and make the private investments necessary to mobilize the U.K.'s financial strength in the interest of space security and leadership.
"The government will remain the backbone of national defense, but our view is that resilience in the contested domains can’t be built by the state alone," they wrote. "It requires partnership between ministers, financiers, industry and innovators. Acting together, we can make up the lost ground and build a world-leading defense sector." (10/11)
Prestwick Spaceport FFailure 'Echoes Global Trend' (Source: Insider)
A space industry expert has outlined many of the issues that led to the collapse of the Prestwick Spaceport project. Karen Jones, senior project leader at the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy in the United States, is one of the authors of Spaceportopia: Lessons from the Global Proliferation of Launch Sites and said that the failure of the project echoed issues being faced globally.
She and her colleagues warn that governments and councils are pouring millions into prestige projects that rarely deliver the promised returns. Many of the issues raised in the report mirror the problems faced by the Prestwick project – which was a key part of the Ayrshire Growth Deal before being formally scrapped last month. (10/10)
Seattle Space Week Offers Tips for Starry-Eyed Entrepreneurs (Source: Geekwire)
Most weeklong tech events have opportunities for entrepreneurs to make contacts and trade tips, serious sessions where CEOs and public officials share their visions, and happy hours where future deals are made. But how many “tech weeks” include a show-and-tell featuring a military-grade Jet Gun? That was one of the bonus attractions during Seattle Space Week, a smorgasbord of events served up by Space Northwest and its partners. (10/10)
Putin OKs Plan to Turn Russian Spacecraft Into Flying Billboards (Source: Ars Technica)
These are tough times for Russia's civilian space program. In the last few years, Russia has cut back on the number of Soyuz crew missions it is sending to the International Space Station, and a replacement for the nearly 60-year-old Soyuz spacecraft remains elusive. Roscosmos, Russia's official space agency, may have a plan to offset the decline. Late last month, Putin approved changes to federal laws governing advertising and space activities to "allow for the placement of advertising on spacecraft."
Rocket-makers have routinely applied decals, stickers, and special paint jobs to their vehicles. This is a particularly popular practice in Russia. Usually, these logos represent customers and suppliers. Sometimes they honor special occasions, like the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight mission by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (10/10)
China Launches Gravity-1 Rocket From Sea (Source: Xinhua)
China sent a Gravity-1 carrier rocket into space from waters off the coast of Haiyang on Saturday. The rocket placed three satellites into their designated orbits. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore mission. A wide-field satellite and two experimental satellites were onboard. The Gravity-1 carrier rocket has a low-Earth-orbit payload capacity of 6.5 tonnes and is capable of delivering a 4.2-tonne payload to a 500-km sun-synchronous orbit. (10/11)
Netherlands Commits to “Maintain” ESA Contribution Levels Through 2028 (Source: European Spaceflight)
The Dutch government has decided to contribute €344.3 million to European Space Agency (ESA) over the next three years. The government also announced that, with the addition of its national space programs, the country would spend a total of €550 million from 2026 to 2028. (10/11)
Saturn's Moon Mimas May Have an Ocean (Source: Space.com)
The case for a newborn ocean on Saturn's moon Mimas continues to build. Research mapping the thickness of the world's icy crust not only provides a window for how old an existing ocean might be but also probes where the crust might be at its thinnest — the perfect spot for future missions to detect the ocean. At the same time, examination of Mimas' largest crater is providing further constraints on the age range of the potential ocean. (10/10)
Space Prep to Bring Commercial Satellite Prep Capabilities to Kennedy Space Center (Source: Space Coast Daily)
Located inside the gates of Kennedy Space Center, Space Prep’s state-of-the-art launch-preparation complex offers scalable satellite integration and testing facilities that were once accessible only to a select few. Space Prep is pioneering launch preparation with the first true commercial multi-tenant facility designed for the next phase of space commercialization. Drawing upon best-in-class private real estate and technical expertise, the complex is purpose-built for adaptability and scale. (10/8)
How a Giant Asteroid Gauged Out the Moon’s Largest Crater (Source: Cosmos)
About 4.3 billion years ago, an asteroid collided with the Moon’s far side in a glancing blow which left behind an oblong basin as deep as 8.2km. Now, new research has revealed the giant asteroid that created the South Pole-Aitken basin (SPA), the Moon’s largest crater, slammed into the lunar surface from a northerly direction.
The team compared SPA’s oblong shape to other giant impact basins in the solar system which have independent evidence about the motion of the projectile which created them. Their new analysis reveals that SPA’s shape narrows toward the south, indicating the impact came from the north. This means the down range end of the basin, closer to the Moon’s South Pole, should be covered by a thick layer of material which was kicked up from the lunar interior by the impact. (10/9)
NASA plans to spend approximately $1 billion of taxpayer money to destroy the International Space Station in 2030. The ISS contains over $1.5 billion worth of space-grade materials already in orbit. Instead of throwing this asset away, we should redirect that funding to develop the technology to recycle it. This approach saves a valuable asset, prevents wasteful spending and seeds a new, American-led industry in space, ensuring our economic and strategic leadership over competitors like China. (10/11)
A Call to Arms for British Space Investors (Source: Space News)
The United Kingdom is taking strides to bolster its military and defense investments in space, but the public funding being made available for the U.K.'s space startups isn't enough to do the job, argued Mark Wheatley and Andrew Turner. They call on London-based investors to get off of the sidelines and make the private investments necessary to mobilize the U.K.'s financial strength in the interest of space security and leadership.
"The government will remain the backbone of national defense, but our view is that resilience in the contested domains can’t be built by the state alone," they wrote. "It requires partnership between ministers, financiers, industry and innovators. Acting together, we can make up the lost ground and build a world-leading defense sector." (10/11)
Prestwick Spaceport FFailure 'Echoes Global Trend' (Source: Insider)
A space industry expert has outlined many of the issues that led to the collapse of the Prestwick Spaceport project. Karen Jones, senior project leader at the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy in the United States, is one of the authors of Spaceportopia: Lessons from the Global Proliferation of Launch Sites and said that the failure of the project echoed issues being faced globally.
She and her colleagues warn that governments and councils are pouring millions into prestige projects that rarely deliver the promised returns. Many of the issues raised in the report mirror the problems faced by the Prestwick project – which was a key part of the Ayrshire Growth Deal before being formally scrapped last month. (10/10)
Seattle Space Week Offers Tips for Starry-Eyed Entrepreneurs (Source: Geekwire)
Most weeklong tech events have opportunities for entrepreneurs to make contacts and trade tips, serious sessions where CEOs and public officials share their visions, and happy hours where future deals are made. But how many “tech weeks” include a show-and-tell featuring a military-grade Jet Gun? That was one of the bonus attractions during Seattle Space Week, a smorgasbord of events served up by Space Northwest and its partners. (10/10)
Putin OKs Plan to Turn Russian Spacecraft Into Flying Billboards (Source: Ars Technica)
These are tough times for Russia's civilian space program. In the last few years, Russia has cut back on the number of Soyuz crew missions it is sending to the International Space Station, and a replacement for the nearly 60-year-old Soyuz spacecraft remains elusive. Roscosmos, Russia's official space agency, may have a plan to offset the decline. Late last month, Putin approved changes to federal laws governing advertising and space activities to "allow for the placement of advertising on spacecraft."
Rocket-makers have routinely applied decals, stickers, and special paint jobs to their vehicles. This is a particularly popular practice in Russia. Usually, these logos represent customers and suppliers. Sometimes they honor special occasions, like the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight mission by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (10/10)
China Launches Gravity-1 Rocket From Sea (Source: Xinhua)
China sent a Gravity-1 carrier rocket into space from waters off the coast of Haiyang on Saturday. The rocket placed three satellites into their designated orbits. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore mission. A wide-field satellite and two experimental satellites were onboard. The Gravity-1 carrier rocket has a low-Earth-orbit payload capacity of 6.5 tonnes and is capable of delivering a 4.2-tonne payload to a 500-km sun-synchronous orbit. (10/11)
Netherlands Commits to “Maintain” ESA Contribution Levels Through 2028 (Source: European Spaceflight)
The Dutch government has decided to contribute €344.3 million to European Space Agency (ESA) over the next three years. The government also announced that, with the addition of its national space programs, the country would spend a total of €550 million from 2026 to 2028. (10/11)
Saturn's Moon Mimas May Have an Ocean (Source: Space.com)
The case for a newborn ocean on Saturn's moon Mimas continues to build. Research mapping the thickness of the world's icy crust not only provides a window for how old an existing ocean might be but also probes where the crust might be at its thinnest — the perfect spot for future missions to detect the ocean. At the same time, examination of Mimas' largest crater is providing further constraints on the age range of the potential ocean. (10/10)
Space Prep to Bring Commercial Satellite Prep Capabilities to Kennedy Space Center (Source: Space Coast Daily)
Located inside the gates of Kennedy Space Center, Space Prep’s state-of-the-art launch-preparation complex offers scalable satellite integration and testing facilities that were once accessible only to a select few. Space Prep is pioneering launch preparation with the first true commercial multi-tenant facility designed for the next phase of space commercialization. Drawing upon best-in-class private real estate and technical expertise, the complex is purpose-built for adaptability and scale. (10/8)
How a Giant Asteroid Gauged Out the Moon’s Largest Crater (Source: Cosmos)
About 4.3 billion years ago, an asteroid collided with the Moon’s far side in a glancing blow which left behind an oblong basin as deep as 8.2km. Now, new research has revealed the giant asteroid that created the South Pole-Aitken basin (SPA), the Moon’s largest crater, slammed into the lunar surface from a northerly direction.
The team compared SPA’s oblong shape to other giant impact basins in the solar system which have independent evidence about the motion of the projectile which created them. Their new analysis reveals that SPA’s shape narrows toward the south, indicating the impact came from the north. This means the down range end of the basin, closer to the Moon’s South Pole, should be covered by a thick layer of material which was kicked up from the lunar interior by the impact. (10/9)
October 10, 2025
Florida/Texas Space Rivalry: UCF’s New
Space Game Uniforms Pay Tribute to Hypersonic Travel (Source:
Orlando Sentinel)
UCF’s latest version of its space-themed football uniforms for its annual space game features a nod to hypersonics and space propulsion research. The overall look, entitled “Mission IX: HyperSpace,” will debut on Nov. 7 when the Knights host Houston at Acrisure Bounce House Stadium. The focus of this theme is UCF’s HyperSpace Center, which collaborates with the United States Air Force to explore the technology that facilitates air travel at speeds ranging from Mach 6 to Mach 17. (10/8)
MIT Rejects Trump Administration Deal for Priority Federal Funding (Source: Washington Post)
MIT’s president turned down the Trump administration’s offer of priority access for federal funding Friday, publicly releasing a letter that emphasized the elite university’s values including free expression and “the core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
Last week, the Trump administration offered nine universities a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” presented as an opportunity to receive competitive advantages from the federal government and from private donors for institutions that sign on. It was the latest attempt by the administration to force colleges into compliance with President Donald Trump’s ideological priorities, after months of federal research funding freezes and investigations into schools’ adherence to civil rights laws.
Editor's Note: According to MIT's research expenditure data from 2020, NASA funded ~$34.81 million in research at MIT, representing about 5% of MIT's total research expenditures. DoD contributed $131.83 million (17% of total research expenditures). (10/10)
Adapting Judaism to Spaceflight (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon had a question before going into space: How would he mark Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, from orbit? Sabbath begins Friday at sunset and ends Saturday after sunset. But astronauts circling the Earth see a sunrise and sunset about every 90 minutes. There was a precedent for his dilemma. Jewish WWII soldiers in the Arctic Circle, where the sun rises and stays up for a long time, were advised to mark Sabbath based on the closest habitable city. So someone at the North Pole would follow the time of Anchorage, Alaska. (10/8)
JD Vance Should Take the Moon Shot (Source: National Review)
The vice president might further advance his political future by attending to a policy area that he has so far neglected: outer space. While top politicians have often been ambivalent about making space a priority — even President Kennedy, whose Rice University address launched the original moon shot, cared only to the extent that it could showcase U.S. superiority over the Soviet Union — domestic and international circumstances make this the perfect time to champion the conquest of the final frontier.
Historically, vice presidents have been their bosses’ point men for space policy. Mike Pence performed this role admirably during Trump’s first administration as chairman of the National Space Council. By taking personal interest and exercising leadership, Pence contributed to several notable policy initiatives, including strengthening property rights to celestial resources, promoting the commercial space industry, and advancing long-term strategic interests. But these gains may erode for lack of an advocate. (10/10)
QUT to Advance Navigation Systems for Australia Lunar Rover (Source: Space Daily)
QUT's Center for Robotics will play a central role in keeping Australia's first lunar rover, known as Roo-ver, safely on course during its mission to the Moon. "QUT's world-class robotics expertise, especially in areas like robotic vision and navigation technologies, is a key capability we bring to the challenge of navigating on the Moon. There are no GPS satellites, the terrain is harsh and computing resources are limited." (10/1)
Far Side Lunar Mantle Cooler Than Near Side (Source: Space Daily)
The lunar far side may have a colder interior than the near side, according to an analysis of rock samples collected by China's Chang'e 6 mission. Retrieved from a vast crater, the samples reveal key differences in mantle temperature and composition between the two hemispheres. Chemical analyses showed it crystallized at roughly 1,100 degrees C, about 100 degrees C cooler than equivalent near-side samples. This suggests the far side mantle experienced lower formation temperatures. (10/1)
Rare Cleanroom Bacterium Survives by Playing Dead (Source: Space Daily)
A University of Houston team reports that a rare bacterium found in NASA spacecraft assembly clean rooms can evade detection by entering dormancy, effectively "playing dead" in a nutrient-poor environment. The microorganism, Tersicoccus phoenicis, turned up in two clean rooms more than a decade ago in Florida and French Guiana. These facilities undergo rigorous sterilization to protect spacecraft and planetary bodies from contamination. (10/9)
Lunar Mega Basin Signals Radioactive Ejecta and Reshapes Moon Origin Story (Source: Space Daily0
New analyses of the South Pole-Aitken basin recast the formation of the Moon's largest impact crater and what it reveals about lunar origins. The study outlines how the basin's geometry and chemistry point to a northward-moving impactor and a radioactive-rich ejecta deposit. Spanning more than 1,200 miles north to south and 1,000 miles east to west, the oblong basin formed from a glancing blow rather than a head-on strike. (10/9)
Isaacman Might Be Reconsidered to Lead NASA (Source: Bloomberg)
Jared Isaacman could get a second shot at becoming NASA administrator. Isaacman has reportedly met with President Trump multiple times to discuss Isaacman’s vision for NASA, suggesting that Trump could consider renominating him. The move comes after Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination to lead the agency at the end of May. Isaacman was only days away from Senate confirmation when Trump revoked the nomination, an apparent byproduct of the falling out between Trump and Elon Musk. Neither the White House nor Isaacman have commented on the discussions. (10/10)
DoD Urged to Focus Funding on Hypersonics (Source: Space News)
A group of former senior U.S. defense officials is urging the Pentagon to dramatically expand investment in hypersonics. A report released Thursday by the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security urges the Pentagon to rapidly field both offensive hypersonic strike weapons and counter-hypersonic interceptors at a scale sufficient to achieve meaningful deterrence and, if necessary, defeat attacks from adversaries. The report warns that China and Russia are outpacing the United States in developing high-speed, maneuverable missiles that threaten to erode U.S. military deterrence. The report was written by a task force co-chaired by former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. (10/10)
New Zealand Space Strategy On Track (Source: Space News)
The New Zealand government says it is making good progress growing its space industry. The government released a strategy for its space and advanced aviation sectors a year ago, calling for them to double in size by 2030. In a speech this week at the New Zealand Aerospace Summit, Judith Collins, the country’s space minister, said the government was implementing various parts of that strategy, from regulatory reform to encouraging more investment in the industry. She said separate plans by the government to increase defense spending could also fuel the space sector through “targeted investments” in communications, reconnaissance and other systems. (10/10)
Momentus Wins Two NASA Contracts for Demo Missions (Source: Space News)
Momentus announced Thursday it won two NASA contracts to fly technology demonstration payloads. The contracts, with a combined value of $7.6 million, will fund the flights of an in-space manufacturing experiment and an advanced propulsion system on the company’s Vigoride spacecraft no earlier than October 2026. The company developed Vigoride as an orbital transfer vehicle and hosted payload platform but has not flown the vehicle since 2023, citing a cash crunch. The company’s next Vigoride mission is planned for February, with a DARPA in-space assembly payload as the prime customer. (10/10)
Starship Rolls Out for Next Test (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX is preparing for the next Starship test flight. SpaceX rolled out the Super Heavy booster for the Flight 11 mission to the pad on Wednesday, part of preparations for a launch scheduled for Monday evening from its Starbase facility in Texas. This will be the last launch of version 2 of Starship before the company moves to the more advanced version 3. Flight 11 will fly a profile similar to the Flight 10 mission in late August. (10/10)
Australia Considers More Military Space Investment (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Australian military is considering investing in space control capabilities. The country’s space and cyber attaché in Washington said in a webinar this week that the Australian Space Command has included space control among its four priorities that also include communications, space domain awareness and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The military has not disclosed further details about its space control plans but other documents note it would include “temporally assuring access and disrupting or denying an adversary use of the space domain, as required,” such as through jamming or spoofing. That capability would be available to allies as well. (10/10)
Record Space Investment for Third Quarter (Source: Reuters)
A space investment firm reported record funding for the industry in the third quarter. A report by Seraphim Space released Friday said there was $3.5 billion invested in space companies in the last quarter, a record. The figure was nearly double the funding in the same quarter a year ago. Seraphim said that investment is spread out among more companies than in the past, when it was concentrated in a few companies such as SpaceX. The report cited a surge in defense spending as a key reason for the growing investment. (10/10)
ESA Chief: Europe Needs Reusable Rockets to Catch Musk's SpaceX (Source: Space Daily)
Europe must quickly get its own reusable rocket launcher to catch up to SpaceX, European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher says. "We have to really catch up and make sure that we come to the market with a reusable launcher relatively fast," Aschbacher said. "We are on the right path" to getting this done." ESA has announced a shortlist of five European aerospace companies bidding to build the continent's first reusable rocket launch system. That number will eventually be narrowed down to two, or even one. (10/10)
Inside UC San Diego’s Out-of-This-World Impact (Source: UCSD Today)
UC San Diego’s reach doesn’t stop at Earth’s atmosphere. Our astronauts have walked in space, our scientists have tested medicines in orbit and our astrophysicists have uncovered new planets and helped explain some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. These discoveries, powered largely by federal investment in science, make America stronger at home while pushing the limits of human exploration. (10/9)
Mars’ Crater Deposits Reveal a History of Shrinking Ice Volumes (Source: Okayama University)
For decades, scientists have been curious about how much water Mars once had and what led to its gradual transformation into the dry planet we see today. A new study sheds light on this mystery by looking deep inside Martian craters, which act like “ice archives” that store a frozen record of the planet’s past. These craters reveal that Mars went through repeated ice ages over hundreds of millions of years; however, with each cycle, the amount of remaining ice decreased steadily. (10/9)
Surge in Static Fires as China’s Space Sector Gains Momentum (Source: NSF)
As China’s launch cadence continues to accelerate, so too has the pace of engine testing in recent weeks. A growing number of commercial launch providers are edging closer to the maiden flights of new vehicles — several of which are still on track to debut before the end of the year. The number of launches from China has been progressively increasing month on month since the summer.
September closed with ten launches, the last of which was the country’s 60th of the year and the 100th mission for the Chang Zheng 2D. This vehicle has been in service since 1992 and has launched from all three of China’s inland launch centers. September’s launches followed the balance of 60% state and 40% commercial launches predicted at the start of the year, but this may shift as new vehicles become operational before the year is out. Operations at Wenchang were paused at the start of October when Typhoon Matmo made landfall in South China. (10/9)
Portugal-Based Critical Software Invests in Aerospacelab (Sources: Space News, SPACErePORT)
Critical Software, in partnership with Airbus Ventures, has invested in Aerospacelab. Aerospacelab is a strategic partner for Europe, accelerating access to space through rapid satellite development. Critical Software also recently made a strategic investment in Turion Space, a California company focused on space domain awareness, in-space servicing, and debris mitigation. (10/9)
Actually, We Are Going to Tell You the Odds of Recovering New Glenn’s Second Launch (Source: Ars Technica)
Blue Origin has a lot riding on this booster, named "Never Tell Me The Odds," which it will seek to recover and reuse. Despite the name of the booster, the company is quietly confident that it will successfully land the first stage on a drone ship named Jacklyn. Internally, engineers at Blue Origin believe there is about a 75 percent chance of success.
From the outside, that estimate seems on the high side. During the rocket's first flight in January, the first stage was lost after successfully boosting its payload to orbit. Blue Origin has provided few details about the propulsion issues that led to the loss of the first stage, which never got close to the drone ship. But it's clear that the company was unable to test many of the key aspects of controlling the rocket's flight through the atmosphere and stabilizing itself upon touchdown. A lot of software has to go right to nail the delicate landing dance.
Blue Origin's engineers, some of whom worked at SpaceX at the time, have the benefit of those learnings. But it is still a very, very difficult thing to do on the second flight of a new rocket. Editor's Note: One hopes that New Glenn landing will employ many lessons learned from Blue's suborbital experience with New Shepard and its history of successful landings. (10/8)
Embry‑Riddle Partners on Florida University Space Research Consortium (Source: ERAU)
Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University has joined the Florida University Space Research Consortium, a new state research entity launched by Space Florida, the state’s independent aerospace finance and development authority.
At its Nov. 7 meeting, the board of directors of Space Florida designated the Florida University Space Research Consortium as the state’s official research entity. The consortium will facilitate the awarding of NASA research grants in partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The designation of the consortium came at the request of Embry‑Riddle, the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF). (10/7)
NATO ’s 5% Defense Spending Boost Ignites Space Investment (Source: Hakan KURT)
NATO ’s move to increase member defense budgets from 2% to 5% of GDP marks a new era for the space economy. With global defense spending exceeding $2 trillion annually, the opportunity for space infrastructure, satellite intelligence, and communication systems has never been larger. (10/6)
Astra’s Next Leap: Testing the Future of Rocket Propulsion (Source: LinkedIn)
Astra Space has completed a new hotfire test for its next-generation first-stage engine, marking a key milestone in the company’s push toward reliability and scalability in small launch systems. Astra’s propulsion team continues refining engine performance — improving combustion stability, reusability, and thrust-to-weight ratios critical for cost-effective access to orbit. (10/8)
One NASA Science Mission Saved From Trump’s Cuts, But Others Still in Limbo (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA has thrown a lifeline to scientists working on a mission to visit an asteroid that will make an unusually close flyby of the Earth in 2029, reversing the Trump administration's previous plan to shut it down. This mission, OSIRIS-APEX, was one of 19 operating NASA science missions the White House proposed canceling. "We were called for cancellation as part to the president's budget request, and we were reinstated and given a plan to move ahead in FY26 (Fiscal Year 2026) just two weeks ago," said Dani DellaGiustina. (10/8)
UCF’s latest version of its space-themed football uniforms for its annual space game features a nod to hypersonics and space propulsion research. The overall look, entitled “Mission IX: HyperSpace,” will debut on Nov. 7 when the Knights host Houston at Acrisure Bounce House Stadium. The focus of this theme is UCF’s HyperSpace Center, which collaborates with the United States Air Force to explore the technology that facilitates air travel at speeds ranging from Mach 6 to Mach 17. (10/8)
MIT Rejects Trump Administration Deal for Priority Federal Funding (Source: Washington Post)
MIT’s president turned down the Trump administration’s offer of priority access for federal funding Friday, publicly releasing a letter that emphasized the elite university’s values including free expression and “the core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
Last week, the Trump administration offered nine universities a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” presented as an opportunity to receive competitive advantages from the federal government and from private donors for institutions that sign on. It was the latest attempt by the administration to force colleges into compliance with President Donald Trump’s ideological priorities, after months of federal research funding freezes and investigations into schools’ adherence to civil rights laws.
Editor's Note: According to MIT's research expenditure data from 2020, NASA funded ~$34.81 million in research at MIT, representing about 5% of MIT's total research expenditures. DoD contributed $131.83 million (17% of total research expenditures). (10/10)
Adapting Judaism to Spaceflight (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon had a question before going into space: How would he mark Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, from orbit? Sabbath begins Friday at sunset and ends Saturday after sunset. But astronauts circling the Earth see a sunrise and sunset about every 90 minutes. There was a precedent for his dilemma. Jewish WWII soldiers in the Arctic Circle, where the sun rises and stays up for a long time, were advised to mark Sabbath based on the closest habitable city. So someone at the North Pole would follow the time of Anchorage, Alaska. (10/8)
JD Vance Should Take the Moon Shot (Source: National Review)
The vice president might further advance his political future by attending to a policy area that he has so far neglected: outer space. While top politicians have often been ambivalent about making space a priority — even President Kennedy, whose Rice University address launched the original moon shot, cared only to the extent that it could showcase U.S. superiority over the Soviet Union — domestic and international circumstances make this the perfect time to champion the conquest of the final frontier.
Historically, vice presidents have been their bosses’ point men for space policy. Mike Pence performed this role admirably during Trump’s first administration as chairman of the National Space Council. By taking personal interest and exercising leadership, Pence contributed to several notable policy initiatives, including strengthening property rights to celestial resources, promoting the commercial space industry, and advancing long-term strategic interests. But these gains may erode for lack of an advocate. (10/10)
QUT to Advance Navigation Systems for Australia Lunar Rover (Source: Space Daily)
QUT's Center for Robotics will play a central role in keeping Australia's first lunar rover, known as Roo-ver, safely on course during its mission to the Moon. "QUT's world-class robotics expertise, especially in areas like robotic vision and navigation technologies, is a key capability we bring to the challenge of navigating on the Moon. There are no GPS satellites, the terrain is harsh and computing resources are limited." (10/1)
Far Side Lunar Mantle Cooler Than Near Side (Source: Space Daily)
The lunar far side may have a colder interior than the near side, according to an analysis of rock samples collected by China's Chang'e 6 mission. Retrieved from a vast crater, the samples reveal key differences in mantle temperature and composition between the two hemispheres. Chemical analyses showed it crystallized at roughly 1,100 degrees C, about 100 degrees C cooler than equivalent near-side samples. This suggests the far side mantle experienced lower formation temperatures. (10/1)
Rare Cleanroom Bacterium Survives by Playing Dead (Source: Space Daily)
A University of Houston team reports that a rare bacterium found in NASA spacecraft assembly clean rooms can evade detection by entering dormancy, effectively "playing dead" in a nutrient-poor environment. The microorganism, Tersicoccus phoenicis, turned up in two clean rooms more than a decade ago in Florida and French Guiana. These facilities undergo rigorous sterilization to protect spacecraft and planetary bodies from contamination. (10/9)
Lunar Mega Basin Signals Radioactive Ejecta and Reshapes Moon Origin Story (Source: Space Daily0
New analyses of the South Pole-Aitken basin recast the formation of the Moon's largest impact crater and what it reveals about lunar origins. The study outlines how the basin's geometry and chemistry point to a northward-moving impactor and a radioactive-rich ejecta deposit. Spanning more than 1,200 miles north to south and 1,000 miles east to west, the oblong basin formed from a glancing blow rather than a head-on strike. (10/9)
Isaacman Might Be Reconsidered to Lead NASA (Source: Bloomberg)
Jared Isaacman could get a second shot at becoming NASA administrator. Isaacman has reportedly met with President Trump multiple times to discuss Isaacman’s vision for NASA, suggesting that Trump could consider renominating him. The move comes after Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination to lead the agency at the end of May. Isaacman was only days away from Senate confirmation when Trump revoked the nomination, an apparent byproduct of the falling out between Trump and Elon Musk. Neither the White House nor Isaacman have commented on the discussions. (10/10)
DoD Urged to Focus Funding on Hypersonics (Source: Space News)
A group of former senior U.S. defense officials is urging the Pentagon to dramatically expand investment in hypersonics. A report released Thursday by the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security urges the Pentagon to rapidly field both offensive hypersonic strike weapons and counter-hypersonic interceptors at a scale sufficient to achieve meaningful deterrence and, if necessary, defeat attacks from adversaries. The report warns that China and Russia are outpacing the United States in developing high-speed, maneuverable missiles that threaten to erode U.S. military deterrence. The report was written by a task force co-chaired by former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. (10/10)
New Zealand Space Strategy On Track (Source: Space News)
The New Zealand government says it is making good progress growing its space industry. The government released a strategy for its space and advanced aviation sectors a year ago, calling for them to double in size by 2030. In a speech this week at the New Zealand Aerospace Summit, Judith Collins, the country’s space minister, said the government was implementing various parts of that strategy, from regulatory reform to encouraging more investment in the industry. She said separate plans by the government to increase defense spending could also fuel the space sector through “targeted investments” in communications, reconnaissance and other systems. (10/10)
Momentus Wins Two NASA Contracts for Demo Missions (Source: Space News)
Momentus announced Thursday it won two NASA contracts to fly technology demonstration payloads. The contracts, with a combined value of $7.6 million, will fund the flights of an in-space manufacturing experiment and an advanced propulsion system on the company’s Vigoride spacecraft no earlier than October 2026. The company developed Vigoride as an orbital transfer vehicle and hosted payload platform but has not flown the vehicle since 2023, citing a cash crunch. The company’s next Vigoride mission is planned for February, with a DARPA in-space assembly payload as the prime customer. (10/10)
Starship Rolls Out for Next Test (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX is preparing for the next Starship test flight. SpaceX rolled out the Super Heavy booster for the Flight 11 mission to the pad on Wednesday, part of preparations for a launch scheduled for Monday evening from its Starbase facility in Texas. This will be the last launch of version 2 of Starship before the company moves to the more advanced version 3. Flight 11 will fly a profile similar to the Flight 10 mission in late August. (10/10)
Australia Considers More Military Space Investment (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Australian military is considering investing in space control capabilities. The country’s space and cyber attaché in Washington said in a webinar this week that the Australian Space Command has included space control among its four priorities that also include communications, space domain awareness and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The military has not disclosed further details about its space control plans but other documents note it would include “temporally assuring access and disrupting or denying an adversary use of the space domain, as required,” such as through jamming or spoofing. That capability would be available to allies as well. (10/10)
Record Space Investment for Third Quarter (Source: Reuters)
A space investment firm reported record funding for the industry in the third quarter. A report by Seraphim Space released Friday said there was $3.5 billion invested in space companies in the last quarter, a record. The figure was nearly double the funding in the same quarter a year ago. Seraphim said that investment is spread out among more companies than in the past, when it was concentrated in a few companies such as SpaceX. The report cited a surge in defense spending as a key reason for the growing investment. (10/10)
ESA Chief: Europe Needs Reusable Rockets to Catch Musk's SpaceX (Source: Space Daily)
Europe must quickly get its own reusable rocket launcher to catch up to SpaceX, European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher says. "We have to really catch up and make sure that we come to the market with a reusable launcher relatively fast," Aschbacher said. "We are on the right path" to getting this done." ESA has announced a shortlist of five European aerospace companies bidding to build the continent's first reusable rocket launch system. That number will eventually be narrowed down to two, or even one. (10/10)
Inside UC San Diego’s Out-of-This-World Impact (Source: UCSD Today)
UC San Diego’s reach doesn’t stop at Earth’s atmosphere. Our astronauts have walked in space, our scientists have tested medicines in orbit and our astrophysicists have uncovered new planets and helped explain some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. These discoveries, powered largely by federal investment in science, make America stronger at home while pushing the limits of human exploration. (10/9)
Mars’ Crater Deposits Reveal a History of Shrinking Ice Volumes (Source: Okayama University)
For decades, scientists have been curious about how much water Mars once had and what led to its gradual transformation into the dry planet we see today. A new study sheds light on this mystery by looking deep inside Martian craters, which act like “ice archives” that store a frozen record of the planet’s past. These craters reveal that Mars went through repeated ice ages over hundreds of millions of years; however, with each cycle, the amount of remaining ice decreased steadily. (10/9)
Surge in Static Fires as China’s Space Sector Gains Momentum (Source: NSF)
As China’s launch cadence continues to accelerate, so too has the pace of engine testing in recent weeks. A growing number of commercial launch providers are edging closer to the maiden flights of new vehicles — several of which are still on track to debut before the end of the year. The number of launches from China has been progressively increasing month on month since the summer.
September closed with ten launches, the last of which was the country’s 60th of the year and the 100th mission for the Chang Zheng 2D. This vehicle has been in service since 1992 and has launched from all three of China’s inland launch centers. September’s launches followed the balance of 60% state and 40% commercial launches predicted at the start of the year, but this may shift as new vehicles become operational before the year is out. Operations at Wenchang were paused at the start of October when Typhoon Matmo made landfall in South China. (10/9)
Portugal-Based Critical Software Invests in Aerospacelab (Sources: Space News, SPACErePORT)
Critical Software, in partnership with Airbus Ventures, has invested in Aerospacelab. Aerospacelab is a strategic partner for Europe, accelerating access to space through rapid satellite development. Critical Software also recently made a strategic investment in Turion Space, a California company focused on space domain awareness, in-space servicing, and debris mitigation. (10/9)
Actually, We Are Going to Tell You the Odds of Recovering New Glenn’s Second Launch (Source: Ars Technica)
Blue Origin has a lot riding on this booster, named "Never Tell Me The Odds," which it will seek to recover and reuse. Despite the name of the booster, the company is quietly confident that it will successfully land the first stage on a drone ship named Jacklyn. Internally, engineers at Blue Origin believe there is about a 75 percent chance of success.
From the outside, that estimate seems on the high side. During the rocket's first flight in January, the first stage was lost after successfully boosting its payload to orbit. Blue Origin has provided few details about the propulsion issues that led to the loss of the first stage, which never got close to the drone ship. But it's clear that the company was unable to test many of the key aspects of controlling the rocket's flight through the atmosphere and stabilizing itself upon touchdown. A lot of software has to go right to nail the delicate landing dance.
Blue Origin's engineers, some of whom worked at SpaceX at the time, have the benefit of those learnings. But it is still a very, very difficult thing to do on the second flight of a new rocket. Editor's Note: One hopes that New Glenn landing will employ many lessons learned from Blue's suborbital experience with New Shepard and its history of successful landings. (10/8)
Embry‑Riddle Partners on Florida University Space Research Consortium (Source: ERAU)
Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University has joined the Florida University Space Research Consortium, a new state research entity launched by Space Florida, the state’s independent aerospace finance and development authority.
At its Nov. 7 meeting, the board of directors of Space Florida designated the Florida University Space Research Consortium as the state’s official research entity. The consortium will facilitate the awarding of NASA research grants in partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The designation of the consortium came at the request of Embry‑Riddle, the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF). (10/7)
NATO ’s 5% Defense Spending Boost Ignites Space Investment (Source: Hakan KURT)
NATO ’s move to increase member defense budgets from 2% to 5% of GDP marks a new era for the space economy. With global defense spending exceeding $2 trillion annually, the opportunity for space infrastructure, satellite intelligence, and communication systems has never been larger. (10/6)
Astra’s Next Leap: Testing the Future of Rocket Propulsion (Source: LinkedIn)
Astra Space has completed a new hotfire test for its next-generation first-stage engine, marking a key milestone in the company’s push toward reliability and scalability in small launch systems. Astra’s propulsion team continues refining engine performance — improving combustion stability, reusability, and thrust-to-weight ratios critical for cost-effective access to orbit. (10/8)
One NASA Science Mission Saved From Trump’s Cuts, But Others Still in Limbo (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA has thrown a lifeline to scientists working on a mission to visit an asteroid that will make an unusually close flyby of the Earth in 2029, reversing the Trump administration's previous plan to shut it down. This mission, OSIRIS-APEX, was one of 19 operating NASA science missions the White House proposed canceling. "We were called for cancellation as part to the president's budget request, and we were reinstated and given a plan to move ahead in FY26 (Fiscal Year 2026) just two weeks ago," said Dani DellaGiustina. (10/8)
October 9, 2025
DLR's ATHEAt Flight Experiment
Achieves Hypersonic Milestone Over Norway (Source: Space Daily)
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has successfully launched its ATHEAt flight experiment from Andoya, Norway, marking a major advance in reusable space transportation technology. The sounding rocket lifted off on 6 October, flying for approximately four minutes and surpassing Mach 9 - conditions comparable to atmospheric re-entry. The rocket climbed beyond 30 kilometers in altitude, with onboard sensors capturing data on aerothermal loads and structural performance. (10/9)
Space Ocean and Space Nukes Forge Alliance to Develop Deep Space Power Systems (Source: Space Daily)
Space Ocean Corp. signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Space Nuclear Power Corp. (Space Nukes) to explore the integration of advanced nuclear reactor technology into future deep-space missions. The collaboration centers on testing Space Nukes' 10-kilowatt nuclear reactor aboard Space Ocean's ALV-N satellite. Upon meeting key performance milestones, Space Nukes will become a core supplier of compact fission systems for Space Ocean's lunar and planetary missions.
Editor's Note: There is a shortage of facilities at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport sited for nuclear payload processing, while there are several companies and programs aimed at sending nuclear powered spacecraft or nuclear power generators into space. (10/9)
Raytheon and Anduril Achieve Breakthrough Test in Advanced Rocket Propulsion (Source: Space Daily)
Raytheon and Anduril have completed a successful static fire test of an advanced solid rocket motor under contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate. The tested propulsion system featured a Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) rocket motor, one of the most challenging designs in the field. Editor's Note: HLG motors us ~90% of the propulsive stage's internal volume for propellant, as opposed to 80-85% for non-HLG motors. This requires advances in thermal management, grain design, and high-tolerance casings. (10/9)
Rocket Lab Widens iQPS Partnership with Three More Dedicated Electron Launches (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab has signed a new multi-launch agreement with Japan's Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS), adding three dedicated Electron missions from New Zealand beginning in 2026 and making Rocket Lab the primary launch provider for the QPS-SAR constellation. The additional flights lift iQPS's upcoming Electron manifest to seven, on top of four already booked. Each mission will deploy a single SAR satellite. (10/9)
Trump Jeopardizing US Role as Scientific Leader: Nobel Officials (Source: Space Daily)
Donald Trump's assault on science could threaten the United States' position as the world's leading research nation and have knock-on effects worldwide, Nobel Prize officials in Sweden said. Since taking office in January, the US president has cut billions of dollars in funding, attacked universities' academic freedoms and overseen mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies. Next week, the Nobel Prizes will be announced in Stockholm and Oslo, and chances are high that researchers working in the United States will take home some of the prestigious awards. (10/9)
University of Mississippi Law School Launches First Fully Online Air and Space Law Master's Degree (Source: Space Daily)
The University of Mississippi School of Law has introduced the nation's first fully online Master of Science in Air and Space Law, designed to equip professionals for leadership roles in the fast-growing aerospace sector. Created in collaboration with instructional design firm iDesign, the program delivers a comprehensive legal foundation for those working in aviation, commercial space, and emerging air mobility industries. (10/9)
Space Force Sees Surge in Foreign Military Sales (Source: Aviation Week)
The US Space Force has seen a significant increase in foreign military sales cases over the past four years, with projections indicating $10 billion to $12 billion in demand for space-related sales by 2030. The sales have expanded beyond GPS user equipment to other areas of the Space Force's portfolio. (10/8)
Space Force Launches Billion-Dollar Working Capital Fund (Source: Space News)
The US Space Force's newly announced working capital fund is projected to exceed $1 billion to streamline military agencies' access to commercial space services. Operating under the Air Force Working Capital Fund, this initiative uses a revolving fund model, allowing customers to pay for services and reinvesting revenues to sustain the fund. The program began with a $120 million deposit and anticipates managing over $1.2 billion each year, providing a scalable financial platform to support evolving commercial space requirements. (10/8)
Stoke Raises $510 Million for Fully Reusable Rocket (Source: Space News)
Launch vehicle developer Stoke Space announced Wednesday it raised $510 million, bringing the total it raised to nearly $1 billion. The Series D round was led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, which invests in companies developing “critical technologies relevant to the national interest,” with other new and existing investors participating. The company had closed a $260 million Series C round nine months ago. Stoke said it will use the funding to accelerate development of Nova, a medium-lift vehicle whose first and second stages are intended to be reused. Stoke secured a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract for Nova earlier this year, but the company has not announced a date for the vehicle’s first launch. (10/9)
AST and Verizon Agree to Space-Based Network Arrangement (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile said Wednesday that Verizon had signed a definitive agreement to use its planned space-based cellular network. The deal enables Verizon to provide direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity to its customers from some point in 2026, building on a strategic partnership announced in May 2024 that included plans for a $100 million investment in AST. AST signed a similar definitive revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T last year. Shares in AST closed up 8% Wednesday as investors’ concerns about the competitive threat posed by SpaceX’s D2D ambitions eased. (10/9)
European Defense Spending and Golden Dome May Reshape Commercial Space (Source: Space News)
A wave of defense spending in Europe and renewed military investment in the United States are reshaping the commercial space industry. Investors and executives said those two trends, both linked to policies by the Trump administration, have changed the outlook for space companies this year. European investments are focused on surveillance, communications infrastructure and military space projects designed to ensure strategic autonomy, while the U.S. trends are linked to the Golden Dome missile defense system. Executives say there are now more investors interested in space companies as a result.
Editor's Note: Looks like European nations are wisely using dual-use space investments to meet their defense-spending obligations to NATO. (10/9)
Space Force Creates Fund to Ease Access to Commercial Space Services (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has established a working capital fund with a projected value of more than $1 billion to help facilitate military agencies’ access to commercial space services. Space Systems Command said Wednesday that the Enterprise Space Activity Group (ESAG) was established at the start of the month under the Air Force Working Capital Fund. ESAG will help military users purchase services such as commercial satellite communications outside of annual appropriations cycles. The new fund began operations with an initial $120 million deposit and is expected to handle more than $1.2 billion annually. (10/9)
Space Force Picks Muon Space to Demo Satellite Earth Observation, Weather Forecasting (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force awarded a contract to Muon Space to demonstrate how its satellites can be used in weather forecasting. Space Systems Command announced Wednesday it awarded Muon Space a Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) fixed price Other Transaction Authority agreement, a type of public-private partnership deal used by the government to tap commercially available technologies, valued at $44.6 million. The award covers in-orbit demonstrations of the company’s environmental monitoring technology in support of military applications such as weather forecasting. Muon will launch three satellites for the Space Systems Command’s prototype demonstration. (10/9)
Blue Origin Launches Suborbital Tourist Flight at Texas Site (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin launched six people on a suborbital spaceflight Wednesday. The company’s New Shepard vehicle lifted off at 9:40 a.m. Eastern from its West Texas site on the NS-36 flight, landing 10 minutes later. The six people on board included one repeat customer, Clint Kelly III, who previously flew on New Shepard in 2022. This was the eighth flight of New Shepard this year, and a company executive said last month that Blue Origin plans to move to weekly flights over the next two years as it introduces additional vehicles capable of higher flight rates. (10/9)
Arianespace Sets November 4 for Next Ariane 6 Launch (Source: Arianespace)
Arianespace set an early November date for the next Ariane 6 launch. The company said this week the launch of the Sentinel-1D radar imaging satellite is planned for Nov. 4 from French Guiana. The launch will be the third for the Ariane 6 this year and fourth overall for the vehicle. Arianespace said last month it plans four Ariane 6 launches this year, down from earlier projections of five. (10/9)
ArianeGroup CEO Exits (Source: Alstom)
The CEO of the prime contractor for the Ariane 6 plans to step down to take a job outside the space industry. ArianeGroup announced Wednesday that Martin Sion had informed the company he would not seek to extend his contract as CEO, which is scheduled to expire in March 2026. Neither the company nor Sion provided further explanation, but French train manufacturer Alstom announced Thursday that Sion would join the company as CEO in April. (10/9)
Study Looks at Mars Crew Personality Types (Source: Space.com)
Mars missions will need a wide range of personality types, a new study argues. Researchers, in a paper published Wednesday, used computer simulations to learn how people with different personality traits would work together on a long-duration mission to Mars. The simulation used “agents” with different personality traits to simulate astronauts on the mission. Researchers said crews with different combinations of traits did better than those who were all similar to one another. (10/9)
Blue Origin Transports New Glenn Booster to Launch Site Ahead of Mars-Bound Mission (Source: Spaceflight Now)
Blue Origin is one step closer to its second ever launch of its New Glenn rocket. On Wednesday morning, teams rolled the 189-foot-tall booster from its facilities near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin its journey out to LC-36. The booster, named ‘Never Tell Me the Odds,’ a nod to the famous line from Star Wars, will be used during the upcoming launch of NASA’s Mars-bound Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. A launch date hasn’t been announced, but it’s likely in early November. (10/8)
Sabca Secures €85 Million Ariane 6 Operational Phase Contract (Source: European Spaceflight)
ArianeGroup has awarded an €85 million contract to Belgian aerospace and defence company Sabca for the production of Thrust Vector Control (TVC) systems for 27 Ariane 6 rockets. Sabca and ArianeGroup signed an initial contract for the production of the first batch of Ariane 6 TVC systems in July 2020. The TVC systems allow both the Vulcain 2.1 core-stage engine and the Vinci upper-stage engine to be steered. (10/8)
Study Finds No Benefit to NASA's Reliance on Industry for Spacecraft Development (Source: Futurism)
For decades, NASA has increasingly leaned on corporate contractors to develop its spacecraft. Triumphs have included SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles, which can now reliably shuttle astronauts to the ISS and beyond. The widely parroted idea is that players in the free market will be able to operate more efficiently than NASA’s own stock of engineers, who masterminded the agency’s triumphs of decades past, like the Apollo Moon missions and the Space Shuttle.
But are corporations actually more efficient at realizing NASA’s goals? A recent paper in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets set out to settle the score. For proponents of corporate partnerships with NASA, the results are embarrassing: the paper found that the contractors were just as inefficient as the government.
Unfortunately, the paper may be falling on deaf ears. Since rising to office, the Trump administration, with a helping hand from Elon Musk, has gutted some 20 percent of NASA’s staff, including over 2,000 senior staffers with “core mission” experience. Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, has been handed the keys to the proverbial kingdom. (10/7)
Giant Asteroid Struck North Sea, Unleashing 330-Feet Tsunami (Source: SciTech Daily)
For decades, scientists have debated the origin of the Silverpit Crater in the southern North Sea. New evidence now shows that the structure was created by the impact of an asteroid or comet roughly 43 to 46 million years ago. (10/7)
Defense to ‘Anchor’ Exploding Satellite Market Over Next Decade (Source: Breaking Defense)
The number of satellites projected to be launched over the next decade will dwarf the number of those now on orbit — but even though the bulk of those new birds will be owned by commercial and civil government entities, it is the defense sector that will “anchor” the market through 2034, according to a new analysis. NovaSpace’s report states, “more than 43,000 satellites will launch over the next decade, reshaping competition across orbits and applications and fueling a $665 billion market in manufacturing and launch services.” (10/7)
We Finally Know How The Lights Switched on at The Dawn of Time (Source: Science Alert)
We may finally know what first lit up the cosmic dawn in the early Universe. According to data from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, the origins of the free-flying photons in the early cosmic dawn were small dwarf galaxies that flared to life, clearing the fog of murky hydrogen that filled intergalactic space. (10/5)
Planning Commission Recommends County Approval of Virginia Spaceport Rezoning (Source: SPACErePORT)
The Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority received preliminary approval on Wednesday for their request to have two large parcels near the Wallops Island spaceport rezoned to support space launch operations and launch-related manufacturing (likely for Rocket Lab and/or Firefly Aerospace). The request will now go to the county commission for final approval.
One audience member strongly urged Virginia Space to increase their focus on "rocket tourism" and efforts to attract and cater to the large number of regional residents who would want to visit the area for launch viewing. (10/8)
Iceye Eyes New Funding Round Valued at $2.5B Amid Security Tailwinds (Source: Mach 33)
European radar imaging startup Iceye is reportedly considering a fresh funding round at a $2.5 billion valuation, reflecting elevated demand from defense customers across Europe and the Middle East. The firm has launched 54 satellites to date and is scaling toward a target output of 150 satellites annually.
If executed, the raise would provide critical growth capital for scaling manufacturing, R&D, and international expansion. Given the defense orientation of its customer base, Iceye is well positioned to capture cross‑border contracts. Investors will watch execution risk closely, including satellite yield, margins, and geopolitical exposure tied to sensitive imaging capabilities. (10/8)
Verizon Taps AST SpaceMobile to Extend Connectivity via Satellites in 2026 (Source: Mach 33)
Verizon and AST SpaceMobile have struck a commercial agreement to leverage AST’s direct-to-device (D2D) satellite infrastructure beginning in 2026, enabling Verizon’s 850 MHz low-band spectrum to reach remote and underserved U.S. areas. The deal builds on their 2024 strategic partnership and represents a broad expansion of Verizon’s terrestrial network footprint into orbital layers.
The move gives AST deep access to Verizon’s infrastructure and customers without bearing the full commercial risk of market rollout. For Verizon, it represents a hedge and competitive lever against rivals deploying DTC from space like T-Mobile/Starlink and AT&T via AST also. The announcement triggered a double-digit surge in AST’s share price (now up 100% in the last month), reflecting investor confidence in the company’s ability to monetize satellite DTC services. (10/8)
U.S. Government Shutdown Drags On, NASA Operations Largely Halted, Backpay Threatened (Sources: Mach 33, Axios)
The U.S. Senate again failed to pass a continuing resolution, extending the federal government shutdown with no immediate path to reopening. Approximately 15,000 of NASA’s 18,000 civil servants have been furloughed, leaving only about 3,100 exempt employees to maintain critical functions such as ISS mission control and Artemis program safety operations. The FCC and FAA remain similarly impacted, halting most licensing and regulatory activity. Bill Nye and The Planetary Society organized a “Save NASA Science” rally in Washington to highlight the disruption to ongoing research.
The prolonged funding lapse increases the likelihood of delays in new contracts, grants, and regulatory approvals across NASA, the FCC, and the FAA, raising execution and timing risk for aerospace firms reliant on government partnerships. Extended disruption could also compound schedule slippages for major programs such as Artemis II, new satellite authorizations, and FAA launch licensing, potentially affecting commercial operators’ revenue timelines and investor confidence.
And unlike previous shutdowns, the furloughed federal workers may not be compensated for their forced time off, according to a draft White House memo. If the White House acts on that legal analysis, it would dramatically escalate President Trump's pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown by denying back pay to as many as 750,000 federal workers after the shutdown. (10/8)
OBR CTM and SATIM Partner to Enhance Maritime Situational Awareness (Source: SATIM)
Poland's Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A. (OBR CTM) and SATIM announced a strategic partnership that is focused on bringing a more complete and reliable maritime picture for Polish Ministry of Defense end users and international partners. Through this partnership, SATIM, a Polish defense-tech startup pioneering AI-based analysis of satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, will focus on integrating its advanced detection and classification software OREC into Digital Baltic. (10/8)
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has successfully launched its ATHEAt flight experiment from Andoya, Norway, marking a major advance in reusable space transportation technology. The sounding rocket lifted off on 6 October, flying for approximately four minutes and surpassing Mach 9 - conditions comparable to atmospheric re-entry. The rocket climbed beyond 30 kilometers in altitude, with onboard sensors capturing data on aerothermal loads and structural performance. (10/9)
Space Ocean and Space Nukes Forge Alliance to Develop Deep Space Power Systems (Source: Space Daily)
Space Ocean Corp. signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Space Nuclear Power Corp. (Space Nukes) to explore the integration of advanced nuclear reactor technology into future deep-space missions. The collaboration centers on testing Space Nukes' 10-kilowatt nuclear reactor aboard Space Ocean's ALV-N satellite. Upon meeting key performance milestones, Space Nukes will become a core supplier of compact fission systems for Space Ocean's lunar and planetary missions.
Editor's Note: There is a shortage of facilities at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport sited for nuclear payload processing, while there are several companies and programs aimed at sending nuclear powered spacecraft or nuclear power generators into space. (10/9)
Raytheon and Anduril Achieve Breakthrough Test in Advanced Rocket Propulsion (Source: Space Daily)
Raytheon and Anduril have completed a successful static fire test of an advanced solid rocket motor under contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate. The tested propulsion system featured a Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) rocket motor, one of the most challenging designs in the field. Editor's Note: HLG motors us ~90% of the propulsive stage's internal volume for propellant, as opposed to 80-85% for non-HLG motors. This requires advances in thermal management, grain design, and high-tolerance casings. (10/9)
Rocket Lab Widens iQPS Partnership with Three More Dedicated Electron Launches (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab has signed a new multi-launch agreement with Japan's Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS), adding three dedicated Electron missions from New Zealand beginning in 2026 and making Rocket Lab the primary launch provider for the QPS-SAR constellation. The additional flights lift iQPS's upcoming Electron manifest to seven, on top of four already booked. Each mission will deploy a single SAR satellite. (10/9)
Trump Jeopardizing US Role as Scientific Leader: Nobel Officials (Source: Space Daily)
Donald Trump's assault on science could threaten the United States' position as the world's leading research nation and have knock-on effects worldwide, Nobel Prize officials in Sweden said. Since taking office in January, the US president has cut billions of dollars in funding, attacked universities' academic freedoms and overseen mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies. Next week, the Nobel Prizes will be announced in Stockholm and Oslo, and chances are high that researchers working in the United States will take home some of the prestigious awards. (10/9)
University of Mississippi Law School Launches First Fully Online Air and Space Law Master's Degree (Source: Space Daily)
The University of Mississippi School of Law has introduced the nation's first fully online Master of Science in Air and Space Law, designed to equip professionals for leadership roles in the fast-growing aerospace sector. Created in collaboration with instructional design firm iDesign, the program delivers a comprehensive legal foundation for those working in aviation, commercial space, and emerging air mobility industries. (10/9)
Space Force Sees Surge in Foreign Military Sales (Source: Aviation Week)
The US Space Force has seen a significant increase in foreign military sales cases over the past four years, with projections indicating $10 billion to $12 billion in demand for space-related sales by 2030. The sales have expanded beyond GPS user equipment to other areas of the Space Force's portfolio. (10/8)
Space Force Launches Billion-Dollar Working Capital Fund (Source: Space News)
The US Space Force's newly announced working capital fund is projected to exceed $1 billion to streamline military agencies' access to commercial space services. Operating under the Air Force Working Capital Fund, this initiative uses a revolving fund model, allowing customers to pay for services and reinvesting revenues to sustain the fund. The program began with a $120 million deposit and anticipates managing over $1.2 billion each year, providing a scalable financial platform to support evolving commercial space requirements. (10/8)
Stoke Raises $510 Million for Fully Reusable Rocket (Source: Space News)
Launch vehicle developer Stoke Space announced Wednesday it raised $510 million, bringing the total it raised to nearly $1 billion. The Series D round was led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, which invests in companies developing “critical technologies relevant to the national interest,” with other new and existing investors participating. The company had closed a $260 million Series C round nine months ago. Stoke said it will use the funding to accelerate development of Nova, a medium-lift vehicle whose first and second stages are intended to be reused. Stoke secured a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract for Nova earlier this year, but the company has not announced a date for the vehicle’s first launch. (10/9)
AST and Verizon Agree to Space-Based Network Arrangement (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile said Wednesday that Verizon had signed a definitive agreement to use its planned space-based cellular network. The deal enables Verizon to provide direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity to its customers from some point in 2026, building on a strategic partnership announced in May 2024 that included plans for a $100 million investment in AST. AST signed a similar definitive revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T last year. Shares in AST closed up 8% Wednesday as investors’ concerns about the competitive threat posed by SpaceX’s D2D ambitions eased. (10/9)
European Defense Spending and Golden Dome May Reshape Commercial Space (Source: Space News)
A wave of defense spending in Europe and renewed military investment in the United States are reshaping the commercial space industry. Investors and executives said those two trends, both linked to policies by the Trump administration, have changed the outlook for space companies this year. European investments are focused on surveillance, communications infrastructure and military space projects designed to ensure strategic autonomy, while the U.S. trends are linked to the Golden Dome missile defense system. Executives say there are now more investors interested in space companies as a result.
Editor's Note: Looks like European nations are wisely using dual-use space investments to meet their defense-spending obligations to NATO. (10/9)
Space Force Creates Fund to Ease Access to Commercial Space Services (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has established a working capital fund with a projected value of more than $1 billion to help facilitate military agencies’ access to commercial space services. Space Systems Command said Wednesday that the Enterprise Space Activity Group (ESAG) was established at the start of the month under the Air Force Working Capital Fund. ESAG will help military users purchase services such as commercial satellite communications outside of annual appropriations cycles. The new fund began operations with an initial $120 million deposit and is expected to handle more than $1.2 billion annually. (10/9)
Space Force Picks Muon Space to Demo Satellite Earth Observation, Weather Forecasting (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force awarded a contract to Muon Space to demonstrate how its satellites can be used in weather forecasting. Space Systems Command announced Wednesday it awarded Muon Space a Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) fixed price Other Transaction Authority agreement, a type of public-private partnership deal used by the government to tap commercially available technologies, valued at $44.6 million. The award covers in-orbit demonstrations of the company’s environmental monitoring technology in support of military applications such as weather forecasting. Muon will launch three satellites for the Space Systems Command’s prototype demonstration. (10/9)
Blue Origin Launches Suborbital Tourist Flight at Texas Site (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin launched six people on a suborbital spaceflight Wednesday. The company’s New Shepard vehicle lifted off at 9:40 a.m. Eastern from its West Texas site on the NS-36 flight, landing 10 minutes later. The six people on board included one repeat customer, Clint Kelly III, who previously flew on New Shepard in 2022. This was the eighth flight of New Shepard this year, and a company executive said last month that Blue Origin plans to move to weekly flights over the next two years as it introduces additional vehicles capable of higher flight rates. (10/9)
Arianespace Sets November 4 for Next Ariane 6 Launch (Source: Arianespace)
Arianespace set an early November date for the next Ariane 6 launch. The company said this week the launch of the Sentinel-1D radar imaging satellite is planned for Nov. 4 from French Guiana. The launch will be the third for the Ariane 6 this year and fourth overall for the vehicle. Arianespace said last month it plans four Ariane 6 launches this year, down from earlier projections of five. (10/9)
ArianeGroup CEO Exits (Source: Alstom)
The CEO of the prime contractor for the Ariane 6 plans to step down to take a job outside the space industry. ArianeGroup announced Wednesday that Martin Sion had informed the company he would not seek to extend his contract as CEO, which is scheduled to expire in March 2026. Neither the company nor Sion provided further explanation, but French train manufacturer Alstom announced Thursday that Sion would join the company as CEO in April. (10/9)
Study Looks at Mars Crew Personality Types (Source: Space.com)
Mars missions will need a wide range of personality types, a new study argues. Researchers, in a paper published Wednesday, used computer simulations to learn how people with different personality traits would work together on a long-duration mission to Mars. The simulation used “agents” with different personality traits to simulate astronauts on the mission. Researchers said crews with different combinations of traits did better than those who were all similar to one another. (10/9)
Blue Origin Transports New Glenn Booster to Launch Site Ahead of Mars-Bound Mission (Source: Spaceflight Now)
Blue Origin is one step closer to its second ever launch of its New Glenn rocket. On Wednesday morning, teams rolled the 189-foot-tall booster from its facilities near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin its journey out to LC-36. The booster, named ‘Never Tell Me the Odds,’ a nod to the famous line from Star Wars, will be used during the upcoming launch of NASA’s Mars-bound Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. A launch date hasn’t been announced, but it’s likely in early November. (10/8)
Sabca Secures €85 Million Ariane 6 Operational Phase Contract (Source: European Spaceflight)
ArianeGroup has awarded an €85 million contract to Belgian aerospace and defence company Sabca for the production of Thrust Vector Control (TVC) systems for 27 Ariane 6 rockets. Sabca and ArianeGroup signed an initial contract for the production of the first batch of Ariane 6 TVC systems in July 2020. The TVC systems allow both the Vulcain 2.1 core-stage engine and the Vinci upper-stage engine to be steered. (10/8)
Study Finds No Benefit to NASA's Reliance on Industry for Spacecraft Development (Source: Futurism)
For decades, NASA has increasingly leaned on corporate contractors to develop its spacecraft. Triumphs have included SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles, which can now reliably shuttle astronauts to the ISS and beyond. The widely parroted idea is that players in the free market will be able to operate more efficiently than NASA’s own stock of engineers, who masterminded the agency’s triumphs of decades past, like the Apollo Moon missions and the Space Shuttle.
But are corporations actually more efficient at realizing NASA’s goals? A recent paper in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets set out to settle the score. For proponents of corporate partnerships with NASA, the results are embarrassing: the paper found that the contractors were just as inefficient as the government.
Unfortunately, the paper may be falling on deaf ears. Since rising to office, the Trump administration, with a helping hand from Elon Musk, has gutted some 20 percent of NASA’s staff, including over 2,000 senior staffers with “core mission” experience. Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, has been handed the keys to the proverbial kingdom. (10/7)
Giant Asteroid Struck North Sea, Unleashing 330-Feet Tsunami (Source: SciTech Daily)
For decades, scientists have debated the origin of the Silverpit Crater in the southern North Sea. New evidence now shows that the structure was created by the impact of an asteroid or comet roughly 43 to 46 million years ago. (10/7)
Defense to ‘Anchor’ Exploding Satellite Market Over Next Decade (Source: Breaking Defense)
The number of satellites projected to be launched over the next decade will dwarf the number of those now on orbit — but even though the bulk of those new birds will be owned by commercial and civil government entities, it is the defense sector that will “anchor” the market through 2034, according to a new analysis. NovaSpace’s report states, “more than 43,000 satellites will launch over the next decade, reshaping competition across orbits and applications and fueling a $665 billion market in manufacturing and launch services.” (10/7)
We Finally Know How The Lights Switched on at The Dawn of Time (Source: Science Alert)
We may finally know what first lit up the cosmic dawn in the early Universe. According to data from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, the origins of the free-flying photons in the early cosmic dawn were small dwarf galaxies that flared to life, clearing the fog of murky hydrogen that filled intergalactic space. (10/5)
Planning Commission Recommends County Approval of Virginia Spaceport Rezoning (Source: SPACErePORT)
The Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority received preliminary approval on Wednesday for their request to have two large parcels near the Wallops Island spaceport rezoned to support space launch operations and launch-related manufacturing (likely for Rocket Lab and/or Firefly Aerospace). The request will now go to the county commission for final approval.
One audience member strongly urged Virginia Space to increase their focus on "rocket tourism" and efforts to attract and cater to the large number of regional residents who would want to visit the area for launch viewing. (10/8)
Iceye Eyes New Funding Round Valued at $2.5B Amid Security Tailwinds (Source: Mach 33)
European radar imaging startup Iceye is reportedly considering a fresh funding round at a $2.5 billion valuation, reflecting elevated demand from defense customers across Europe and the Middle East. The firm has launched 54 satellites to date and is scaling toward a target output of 150 satellites annually.
If executed, the raise would provide critical growth capital for scaling manufacturing, R&D, and international expansion. Given the defense orientation of its customer base, Iceye is well positioned to capture cross‑border contracts. Investors will watch execution risk closely, including satellite yield, margins, and geopolitical exposure tied to sensitive imaging capabilities. (10/8)
Verizon Taps AST SpaceMobile to Extend Connectivity via Satellites in 2026 (Source: Mach 33)
Verizon and AST SpaceMobile have struck a commercial agreement to leverage AST’s direct-to-device (D2D) satellite infrastructure beginning in 2026, enabling Verizon’s 850 MHz low-band spectrum to reach remote and underserved U.S. areas. The deal builds on their 2024 strategic partnership and represents a broad expansion of Verizon’s terrestrial network footprint into orbital layers.
The move gives AST deep access to Verizon’s infrastructure and customers without bearing the full commercial risk of market rollout. For Verizon, it represents a hedge and competitive lever against rivals deploying DTC from space like T-Mobile/Starlink and AT&T via AST also. The announcement triggered a double-digit surge in AST’s share price (now up 100% in the last month), reflecting investor confidence in the company’s ability to monetize satellite DTC services. (10/8)
U.S. Government Shutdown Drags On, NASA Operations Largely Halted, Backpay Threatened (Sources: Mach 33, Axios)
The U.S. Senate again failed to pass a continuing resolution, extending the federal government shutdown with no immediate path to reopening. Approximately 15,000 of NASA’s 18,000 civil servants have been furloughed, leaving only about 3,100 exempt employees to maintain critical functions such as ISS mission control and Artemis program safety operations. The FCC and FAA remain similarly impacted, halting most licensing and regulatory activity. Bill Nye and The Planetary Society organized a “Save NASA Science” rally in Washington to highlight the disruption to ongoing research.
The prolonged funding lapse increases the likelihood of delays in new contracts, grants, and regulatory approvals across NASA, the FCC, and the FAA, raising execution and timing risk for aerospace firms reliant on government partnerships. Extended disruption could also compound schedule slippages for major programs such as Artemis II, new satellite authorizations, and FAA launch licensing, potentially affecting commercial operators’ revenue timelines and investor confidence.
And unlike previous shutdowns, the furloughed federal workers may not be compensated for their forced time off, according to a draft White House memo. If the White House acts on that legal analysis, it would dramatically escalate President Trump's pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown by denying back pay to as many as 750,000 federal workers after the shutdown. (10/8)
OBR CTM and SATIM Partner to Enhance Maritime Situational Awareness (Source: SATIM)
Poland's Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A. (OBR CTM) and SATIM announced a strategic partnership that is focused on bringing a more complete and reliable maritime picture for Polish Ministry of Defense end users and international partners. Through this partnership, SATIM, a Polish defense-tech startup pioneering AI-based analysis of satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, will focus on integrating its advanced detection and classification software OREC into Digital Baltic. (10/8)
October 8, 2025
Space Infrastructure Investments Surge
to Five-Quarter High (Source: Space News)
Investment in space infrastructure reached its highest level in more than a year during the third quarter. A report by early-stage investor Space Capital said global investments in core space infrastructure climbed to a five-quarter high of $4.4 billion. That was thanks to investments in satellite manufacturing in the United States and in Chinese launch companies. According to Space Capital, 60% of all satellite manufacturing funding rounds tracked over the past 15 years have occurred since 2021, reflecting growing confidence in mass-production models and dual-use hardware that aims to serve defense and commercial demand. Space Capital said it does not expect that trend of increased investment in infrastructure to slow. (10/8)
Blue Origin Wins $78.25 Million Space Force Contract to Expand Launch Processing Capacity (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin won a Space Force contract to expand satellite processing facilities at Cape Canaveral. The $78.2 million contract, announced Tuesday, was secured through a “Commercial Solutions Opening” (CSO) competition, a procurement method the government uses to attract private-sector innovation and to share project costs with commercial partners. Blue Origin’s contract marks the second CSO award of the year targeting satellite processing improvements. Lockheed Martin subsidiary Astrotech won a $77.5 million contract in April to expand facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base. (10/8)
Stoke Space Reportedly Raising Another Massive Round of Funding for its Nova Rocket (Source: GeekWire)
Stoke Space is said to be raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a funding round that it hasn’t yet publicly acknowledged. Sources said the funding round could total as much as $500 million, and would value Stoke at nearly $2 billion. That figure would be roughly twice as much as the $944 million valuation that was cited by Pitchbook as of January. The round’s lead investor is said to be Thomas Tull’s United States Innovative Technology Fund. Editor's Note: Stoke is leasing LC-14 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (10/7)
Spain's Sateliot Demonstrates IoT Satellite Service (Source: Space News)
Spanish startup Sateliot says it has demonstrated Internet of Things (IoT) services via satellite using a 5G protocol. The startup said Tuesday it sent data from one of its four operational LEO satellites to an nRF9151, a low-power cellular module from Norway’s Nordic Semiconductor that is typically used in sensors for tracking or monitoring. The data was sent via the same network protocols as a regular mobile network. The system used a global 5G standard called 3GPP Release 17 that Sateliot argues will allow satellites to seamlessly integrate into terrestrial networks without the need to modify device hardware. Sateliot raised 70 million euros ($81 million) earlier this year and has long-term ambitions for a constellation of hundreds of satellites. (10/8)
Tug-of-War Over Discovery Shuttle (Source: Space News)
The future of the shuttle Discovery continues to be a hot topic in Congress. A provision in the budget reconciliation bill passed in July included $85 million for a “space vehicle transfer” interpreted to allow the move of Discovery from the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington to Space Center Houston. Last month, four Democratic senators asked leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to prevent any additional federal funds from being spent on the effort, citing estimates that the move would cost far more than the amount included in the bill. Texas’s two senators countered with a letter this week seeking to block that effort while claiming that the Smithsonian was distributing “misinformation” about the costs of the move. (10/8)
SpaceX Launches California Starlink Mission on Wednesday (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Another day means another launch of Starlink satellites. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and put 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The booster for the mission made its 29th flight, one behind the company’s current record for booster reuse. (10/8)
Thales Alenia Opens "Smart Factory" for Satellites in Italy (Source: Thales Alenia)
Thales Alenia Space opened a “smart factory” in Italy for producing satellites. The Space Smart Factory, located in Rome, is designed to incorporate digital systems and automation to enable high-rate production of smaller satellites, with a goal of manufacturing more than 100 per year. The facility cost more than 100 million euros, supported in part by the Italian government using pandemic relief funds. While intended to be used to build smaller satellites for constellations, the factory's first program will be the larger Sicral 3 GEO satellites for the Italian military. (10/8)
Starbase Streamers Could be Blocked (Source: Texas Monthly)
Media companies that stream activities at Starbase are worried SpaceX could shut them down. The newly incorporated city of Starbase adopted a zoning plan this summer that classified as residential property an area that some use for cameras to provide live feeds of activities at Starbase, including testing and launches. Grandfathering rules in Texas mean that, for now, those cameras can continue to operate, but some are concerned that Starbase city officials could eventually move to evict them. Others note that SpaceX benefits from the coverage. (10/8)
ExoMars Orbiter Spies Interstellar Comet (Source: Space.com)
European spacecraft observed an interstellar comet as it flew near Mars. ESA said a camera on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft was able to observe comet 3I/ATLAS during that comet’s relatively close approach to Mars last week, coming as close as 30 million kilometers from the planet. The images clearly show the comet’s coma of gas and dust surrounding it. Scientists hope other data might provide information about the comet’s composition. NASA spacecraft at Mars also attempted to observe the comet, but the ongoing federal government shutdown, now entering its second week, has kept NASA from releasing any details. (10/8)
From CubeSats to Classrooms: Inspiring Young Space Leaders (Source: Star Sciences)
From middle school CubeSats to international conferences, Kevin Simmons is empowering the next generation of aerospace innovators. Hear how students as young as 11 are designing satellites, presenting papers worldwide, and proving that passion beats age every time. Click here. (10/7)
Ghana Hosts Space Conference as Africa’s Space Economy Targets $22.6 Billion (Source: News Ghana)
Ghana is positioning itself at the forefront of Africa’s space technology revolution as Accra welcomes the Maiden Ghana Space Conference from Oct. 6-8 at the University of Ghana, marking a significant milestone in the country’s technological ambitions.
The three-day conference, organized by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Ghana in collaboration with the University of Ghana, Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), Ghana Meteorological Agency, All Nations University, Spacehubs Africa, and Agbedus Consult, brings together government officials, international organizations, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and global space experts to explore how satellite technology can drive sustainable development. (10/5)
China is Developing Ways to De-orbit Space Junk. Should We Be Worried? (Source: Space.com)
China is developing the capability to remove space debris from orbit, according to a top official. China will work on its space situational awareness capabilities in order to track objects and assess the chances of collisions, while also coordinating with other countries, Bian said. It will also take a more proactive role with regard to debris.
China's actions to address the issue of debris will no doubt be widely welcomed, but they may also spark some concerns. Active debris removal is a dual-use capability, meaning it can be used for civilian purposes but also for military ends. The ability to remove a defunct rocket stage or satellite from orbit could also be used to target an adversary’s spacecraft. (10/7)
Shield or Spark? The U.S. Golden Dome and the New Missile Arms Race (Source: Space Daily)
The launch of the US 'Golden Dome' missile defense initiative has already set in motion ripple effects across the globe. Rival nations are considering their own layered missile defense architectures, and experts warn this may trigger a new era of competitive missile development. What began as a domestic shield is now fueling a missile defense arms race, with competitors racing to counter, replicate, or surpass America's capabilities. (10/6)
300 Space Advocates Rally in D.C. to Save NASA Science (Source: Planetary Society)
Nearly 300 people from across the country traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Save NASA Science Day of Action. They came from all walks of life and a range of political identities. Some had decades of professional experience; most had none, holding instead a personal passion for space exploration. All came on their own dime and on their own time. They shared a single motivation: to support NASA's science program, which is facing its largest proposed cut in history. (10/7)
Investment in space infrastructure reached its highest level in more than a year during the third quarter. A report by early-stage investor Space Capital said global investments in core space infrastructure climbed to a five-quarter high of $4.4 billion. That was thanks to investments in satellite manufacturing in the United States and in Chinese launch companies. According to Space Capital, 60% of all satellite manufacturing funding rounds tracked over the past 15 years have occurred since 2021, reflecting growing confidence in mass-production models and dual-use hardware that aims to serve defense and commercial demand. Space Capital said it does not expect that trend of increased investment in infrastructure to slow. (10/8)
Blue Origin Wins $78.25 Million Space Force Contract to Expand Launch Processing Capacity (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin won a Space Force contract to expand satellite processing facilities at Cape Canaveral. The $78.2 million contract, announced Tuesday, was secured through a “Commercial Solutions Opening” (CSO) competition, a procurement method the government uses to attract private-sector innovation and to share project costs with commercial partners. Blue Origin’s contract marks the second CSO award of the year targeting satellite processing improvements. Lockheed Martin subsidiary Astrotech won a $77.5 million contract in April to expand facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base. (10/8)
Stoke Space Reportedly Raising Another Massive Round of Funding for its Nova Rocket (Source: GeekWire)
Stoke Space is said to be raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a funding round that it hasn’t yet publicly acknowledged. Sources said the funding round could total as much as $500 million, and would value Stoke at nearly $2 billion. That figure would be roughly twice as much as the $944 million valuation that was cited by Pitchbook as of January. The round’s lead investor is said to be Thomas Tull’s United States Innovative Technology Fund. Editor's Note: Stoke is leasing LC-14 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (10/7)
Spain's Sateliot Demonstrates IoT Satellite Service (Source: Space News)
Spanish startup Sateliot says it has demonstrated Internet of Things (IoT) services via satellite using a 5G protocol. The startup said Tuesday it sent data from one of its four operational LEO satellites to an nRF9151, a low-power cellular module from Norway’s Nordic Semiconductor that is typically used in sensors for tracking or monitoring. The data was sent via the same network protocols as a regular mobile network. The system used a global 5G standard called 3GPP Release 17 that Sateliot argues will allow satellites to seamlessly integrate into terrestrial networks without the need to modify device hardware. Sateliot raised 70 million euros ($81 million) earlier this year and has long-term ambitions for a constellation of hundreds of satellites. (10/8)
Tug-of-War Over Discovery Shuttle (Source: Space News)
The future of the shuttle Discovery continues to be a hot topic in Congress. A provision in the budget reconciliation bill passed in July included $85 million for a “space vehicle transfer” interpreted to allow the move of Discovery from the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington to Space Center Houston. Last month, four Democratic senators asked leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to prevent any additional federal funds from being spent on the effort, citing estimates that the move would cost far more than the amount included in the bill. Texas’s two senators countered with a letter this week seeking to block that effort while claiming that the Smithsonian was distributing “misinformation” about the costs of the move. (10/8)
SpaceX Launches California Starlink Mission on Wednesday (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Another day means another launch of Starlink satellites. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and put 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The booster for the mission made its 29th flight, one behind the company’s current record for booster reuse. (10/8)
Thales Alenia Opens "Smart Factory" for Satellites in Italy (Source: Thales Alenia)
Thales Alenia Space opened a “smart factory” in Italy for producing satellites. The Space Smart Factory, located in Rome, is designed to incorporate digital systems and automation to enable high-rate production of smaller satellites, with a goal of manufacturing more than 100 per year. The facility cost more than 100 million euros, supported in part by the Italian government using pandemic relief funds. While intended to be used to build smaller satellites for constellations, the factory's first program will be the larger Sicral 3 GEO satellites for the Italian military. (10/8)
Starbase Streamers Could be Blocked (Source: Texas Monthly)
Media companies that stream activities at Starbase are worried SpaceX could shut them down. The newly incorporated city of Starbase adopted a zoning plan this summer that classified as residential property an area that some use for cameras to provide live feeds of activities at Starbase, including testing and launches. Grandfathering rules in Texas mean that, for now, those cameras can continue to operate, but some are concerned that Starbase city officials could eventually move to evict them. Others note that SpaceX benefits from the coverage. (10/8)
ExoMars Orbiter Spies Interstellar Comet (Source: Space.com)
European spacecraft observed an interstellar comet as it flew near Mars. ESA said a camera on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft was able to observe comet 3I/ATLAS during that comet’s relatively close approach to Mars last week, coming as close as 30 million kilometers from the planet. The images clearly show the comet’s coma of gas and dust surrounding it. Scientists hope other data might provide information about the comet’s composition. NASA spacecraft at Mars also attempted to observe the comet, but the ongoing federal government shutdown, now entering its second week, has kept NASA from releasing any details. (10/8)
From CubeSats to Classrooms: Inspiring Young Space Leaders (Source: Star Sciences)
From middle school CubeSats to international conferences, Kevin Simmons is empowering the next generation of aerospace innovators. Hear how students as young as 11 are designing satellites, presenting papers worldwide, and proving that passion beats age every time. Click here. (10/7)
Ghana Hosts Space Conference as Africa’s Space Economy Targets $22.6 Billion (Source: News Ghana)
Ghana is positioning itself at the forefront of Africa’s space technology revolution as Accra welcomes the Maiden Ghana Space Conference from Oct. 6-8 at the University of Ghana, marking a significant milestone in the country’s technological ambitions.
The three-day conference, organized by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Ghana in collaboration with the University of Ghana, Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), Ghana Meteorological Agency, All Nations University, Spacehubs Africa, and Agbedus Consult, brings together government officials, international organizations, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and global space experts to explore how satellite technology can drive sustainable development. (10/5)
China is Developing Ways to De-orbit Space Junk. Should We Be Worried? (Source: Space.com)
China is developing the capability to remove space debris from orbit, according to a top official. China will work on its space situational awareness capabilities in order to track objects and assess the chances of collisions, while also coordinating with other countries, Bian said. It will also take a more proactive role with regard to debris.
China's actions to address the issue of debris will no doubt be widely welcomed, but they may also spark some concerns. Active debris removal is a dual-use capability, meaning it can be used for civilian purposes but also for military ends. The ability to remove a defunct rocket stage or satellite from orbit could also be used to target an adversary’s spacecraft. (10/7)
Shield or Spark? The U.S. Golden Dome and the New Missile Arms Race (Source: Space Daily)
The launch of the US 'Golden Dome' missile defense initiative has already set in motion ripple effects across the globe. Rival nations are considering their own layered missile defense architectures, and experts warn this may trigger a new era of competitive missile development. What began as a domestic shield is now fueling a missile defense arms race, with competitors racing to counter, replicate, or surpass America's capabilities. (10/6)
300 Space Advocates Rally in D.C. to Save NASA Science (Source: Planetary Society)
Nearly 300 people from across the country traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Save NASA Science Day of Action. They came from all walks of life and a range of political identities. Some had decades of professional experience; most had none, holding instead a personal passion for space exploration. All came on their own dime and on their own time. They shared a single motivation: to support NASA's science program, which is facing its largest proposed cut in history. (10/7)
October 7, 2025
Honeywell, Redwire Partner on
Quantum-Secure Satellites (Source: Military & Aerospace
Electronics)
Honeywell and Redwire have formalized joint development of quantum-secured satellite communications. The agreement leverages Honeywell's expertise in quantum optical payloads and Redwire's capabilities in agile satellite platforms. By combining their technologies, the companies aim to develop a fully integrated satellite system by mid-2026, targeting both civil and defense applications as part of a broader initiative supported by the European Space Agency. (10/7)
Call for Papers: 2025 Sacknoff Prize (Source: Space 3.0)
Awarded since 2011, The Sacknoff Prize for Space History is designed to encourage original research by university students in the field of space history. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to submit their original manuscript for consideration! Winners receive an $850 cash prize; publication in the peer-reviewed history journal, Quest; and an invitation to present their paper at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) by its Aerospace Special Interest Group (Albatross). The due date is 2 December 2025. Click here. (10/7)
Cleveland to Space: How NASA Glenn is Advancing Lunar and Mars Exploration (Source: Cleveland.com)
NASA is looking to explore the moon and Mars in the next few decades, and advanced technologies under development at the NASA Glenn Research Center will help make that possible. NASA Glenn is helping Artemis with several research projects. The agency is spearheading a project to build a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2030.
A permanent moon base -- used for scientific research, resource extraction, military strategy, and launching missions to Mars -- would need both solar power and nuclear fission. The agency plans to build a 100-kilowatt plant on the moon using nuclear fission, using technology overseen by NASA Glenn. In addition, NASA Glenn is working on the development of the gridded-ion thruster, the propulsion system planned for the orbiting spaceship Gateway. (10/6)
More Layoffs Coming to JPL (Source: Orange County Register)
JPL on Oct. 6 confirmed that a number of layoffs coming this month will once again hit the venerable science hub. NASA did not answer how many employees would be laid off in this next round. However, JPL rebuffed recent online suggestions that they would be in the thousands. Distressed JPL employees have suggested there could be between 3,000 and 4,000 dismissals by Oct. 15.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, called the 3,000 to 4,000 number “vastly incorrect,” adding: “All I know is it is correct that they said layoffs would be in October,” Chu said, citing her source as Caltech lobbyists in Washington D.C. (10/7)
Rocket Test Proves Bacteria Survive Space Launch and Re-entry Unharmed (Source: RMIT)
An Australian-led study has found the spores of Bacilus subtilis, a bacterium essential for human health, can survive rapid acceleration, short-duration microgravity and rapid deceleration. The spores of bacteria were launched high into the sky, then studied once their rocket fell back to earth, in what is believed to be the first study of its kind in real conditions outside the lab. (10/6)
Study with Ties to Florida Tech Could Explain What NASA Telescopes Cannot (Source: Florida Today)
It's the question on the minds of many: are there worlds similar to Earth in our galaxy? A new model, with ties to Florida Tech, may provide clearer answers to a mystery faced by astrophysicts: Why it is that some planets around a certain type of star have not proved promising for life?
TRAPPIST-1b showed hardly any evidence of an atmosphere or water. This left the question: What makes these planets either contain or lack water -- or even the elements needed for potential life? Howard Chen, assistant professor at Florida Tech College of Engineering and Science: Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, has worked to solve this mystery. (10/7)
What Parts of the Cape Canaveral Spaceport Remain Open? (Source: Florida Today)
While Florida will not see NASA’s SLS liftoff until next year, according to a NASA document released before the shutdown, NASA's Artemis moon missions are considered exempt. Kennedy Space Center is marked by NASA as OPEN and there is still activity on the grounds. A total of 1,053 are estimated to be furloughed at Kennedy Space Center. NASA police are still stationed and active near the gates to KSC property. Private companies located within KSC can continue operations on their sites. This includes companies like SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin.
So, for example, SpaceX is able to continue its weekly Starlink satellite launches. As for the Space Force side of the Cape, while nonessential employees have been furloughed, personnel who protect life and property remain on site. This includes the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, which released a forecast ahead of the upcoming SpaceX rocket launch.
NASA’s next science mission expected to launch is the ESCAPADE mission to Mars, scheduled to launch within the next month atop a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral. Projects which have already seen funding prior to this current shutdown shall continue, unless access to the closed NASA facilities or NASA civil servant involvement is required. (10/6)
SpaceX Launches Tuesday Starlink Mission at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites early Tuesday morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:46 a.m. Eastern, placing 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the first in more than a week from the Cape, a gap linked to stormy weather in Florida and in the Atlantic. (10/7)
Taylor Swift Not Interested in Spaceflight (Source: BBC)
The life of a showgirl does not include going to space. Asked on a BBC Radio 2 interview if she was interested in going to space, Taylor Swift made it clear she had no desire to do so. “Never! Why would I do that? There’s no reason to do that,” she said. She added space is “cold” and “scary” and that, even if she did go to space, people wouldn’t believe it. Her response was more animated than when the same host posed a similar question earlier this year to Mariah Carey: “I think I’ve done enough.” (10/7)
Rocket Lab Readies Synspective Launch From New Zealand (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab’s next launch will be for its biggest customer. The company said Monday its next Electron launch is scheduled for Oct. 14 from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, carrying a StriX radar imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective. That company signed a contract with Rocket Lab last week for 10 additional Electron launches, bringing its backlog of Electron launches to 21. (10/7)
FCC Plans "Space Month" Regulatory Reforms (Source: Space News)
The FCC is embarking on space-related regulatory reforms in a “Space Month” initiative announced Monday. Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Apex’s new satellite manufacturing facility in southern California, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission would overhaul licensing and spectrum rules amid mounting competition from China. One proposal would create an “assembly line” licensing process that will be faster than the current system.
A second proposal would revise siting rules for Earth stations in the upper microwave bands, known as UMFUS, to enable more intensive use of spectrum and simplify approvals for operators. His speech underscored the geopolitical urgency behind the reforms as launches get underway in China for tens of thousands of broadband satellites that would rival U.S.-based Starlink. (10/7)
Cubic Defense Seeks Military Use of Flat-Panel Satcom Terminal (Source: Space News)
Cubic Defense is pursuing military customers for its flat-panel satellite communications terminal. The military technology contractor developed a family of electronically scanned array satellite terminals with support from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate. AFRL recently extended a contract awarded in 2023 to support work on the terminals, designed to work across multiple orbits and networks. The terminals, called Vector, are intended to meet a growing Pentagon demand for “multi-domain” networks linking operations across land, air and space, the company said. (10/7)
Colorado Considers Roadblocks to Space Command Transfer (Source: KOAA)
A Colorado congressman hinted that the state’s congressional delegation might put up “roadblocks” to moving Space Command headquarters to Alabama. In an interview, Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) said he has been talking with the state’s senators “about ways that we might continue to try and throw some roadblocks in it,” suggesting that delays in the move might make it clear that transferring the command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville is “probably not as practicable as they thought.” Those roadblocks could involve having the senators block confirmations of the administration’s nominees. Crank also said that even if the command does move, Colorado might instead get some military space roles, perhaps as part of Golden Dome. (10/7)
ESA Considers Buying ISS Cargo Mission (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency is proposing to buy a cargo mission to the International Space Station. ESA issued a call for proposals last week for a single cargo mission to the ISS that would launch by the fourth quarter of 2028 to meet the agency’s obligations to support station operations. Those requirements have been met through barter arrangements with NASA, and it was not clear why this mission would be needed. ESA said the mission would require delivering 4,900 to 5,000 kilograms of cargo to the station and would be open to American companies, but with a preference for European ones. Those requirements make Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus the leading contender. The Cygnus cargo module, capable of carrying 5,000 kilograms, is built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy. (10/7)
New Research Suggests Red Dwarf Systems are Unlikely to Have Advanced Civilizations (Source: Universe Today)
Thanks to the huge spate of exoplanet discoveries, multiple rocky planets have been found orbiting within the habitable zones (HZs) of red dwarf stars. For decades, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether these systems could be our best bet for finding evidence of life beyond Earth. In a recent study, Professor David Kipping addresses two key facts that could mean humanity is an outlier. Based on the age of the Universe and the relatively rare nature of our Sun, he concludes that astrobiologists examining red dwarf planets may be looking in the wrong place. (10/5)
Agency Shutdown Messaging Draws Hatch Act, Antideficiency Act Challenges (Source: FNN)
The Office of Special Counsel has received multiple complaints about federal agencies sharing political messages during the shutdown, while one nonprofit is alleging the messaging violates the Antideficiency Act. Public Citizen has filed nine complaints with OSC over the first three days of the shutdown. The group alleges agencies are violating the Hatch Act by using “explicitly partisan messaging” blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
HUD’s website now states, “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government.” The Small Business Administration followed suit on Wednesday with a “special message” at the top of the SBA website stating that “Senate Democrats” voted to block a “clean” stopgap funding bill. Other agencies have since posted similar messages on their websites. Editor's Note: NASA's websites thus far have not violated Hatch Act protections against politicization. (10/6)
Satellite Broadband Market to Break $20 Billion by 2030, as Satellite Constellations Disrupt Established Services (Source: Juniper Research)
A new study by global tech strategists Juniper Research has found that global satellite provider revenue from fixed satellite broadband will increase from $10 billion in 2025 to $20 billion in 2030. This revenue growth will be enabled by rapid investment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) technology, which allows satellite providers to improve the latency they offer, whilst also reducing costs for satellite launches. (10/6)
France Sponsors Studies on Next-Generation Platforms for In-Orbit Refueling (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
The French space agency CNES has selected three companies for a strategic Research & Technology (R&T) initiative focused on next-generation in-orbit refuelable platforms. Dawn Aerospace, Infinite Orbits and Exotrail will participate in the effort to advance France and Europe’s understanding and development of sustainable, autonomous space operations and in-orbit servicing capabilities. (10/6)
Chinese IoT Constellation Completes First Phase for Global Communications (Source: Space Daily)
A Chinese satellite network dedicated to Internet of Things (IoT) services has achieved global surface coverage, excluding polar regions, with the deployment of its first-phase constellation of 64 satellites. The milestone was reached following the launch of 11 Geely-06 satellites from a sea platform in Shandong province. The deployment marks the culmination of six launches between 2022 and 2025, ensuring both reliability and continuous availability of the network.
Geespace, the satellite division of Geely Holding Group, designed the constellation to support 20 million users worldwide. The system can manage up to 340 million messages per day, serving 5 million high-frequency users and an additional 15 million medium- and low-frequency accounts. Data packets of up to 1,900 bytes can carry text, voice, and images.
The first-phase network will grow to 72 satellites, enhancing resilience and capacity. Longer term, Phase Two envisions 264 satellites capable of direct-to-smartphone communication, while Phase Three projects 5,676 satellites to provide global broadband connectivity. With Phase One operational, Geespace plans to expand commercial IoT services worldwide. (9/26)
Detection of Phosphine in a Brown Dwarf Atmosphere Raises More Questions (Source: Space Daily)
Phosphorus is one of six key elements necessary for life on Earth. When combined with hydrogen, phosphorus forms the molecule phosphine (PH3), an explosive, highly toxic gas. Found in the atmospheres of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, phosphine has long been recognized as a possible biosignature for anaerobic life.
Now a team of researchers has reported the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of a cool, ancient brown dwarf named Wolf 1130C. The phosphine was detected using observations obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope. The mystery, however, is not why phosphine was found, but why it's missing in other brown dwarf and gas giant exoplanet atmospheres. (10/6)
Mapping the Universe Made Faster with New Computational Tool (Source: Space Daily)
As cosmology data sets grow larger and increasingly complex, a new tool allows researchers to run advanced analyses with only a laptop in a fraction of the time once required. Dr. Marco Bonici led an international collaboration that developed Effort.jl, an emulator designed to streamline studies using the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure (EFTofLSS). The system blends advanced numerical methods with preprocessing strategies to achieve rapid, precise results. (10/1)
ESA unveils Pulse Framework to Streamline Mission Management (Source: Space Daily)
The European Space Agency has launched Pulse, a new initiative designed to transform mission monitoring and control across its expanding portfolio of space operations. Developed under ESA's Operations Directorate, Pulse provides a European, royalty-free, multi-mission solution that spans from spacecraft assembly and integration through to operations in low Earth orbit and deep space.
Pulse is conceived as an operational framework rather than a single software tool. By leveraging technologies such as the European Ground Segment - Common Core (EGS-CC), the framework integrates telemetry, event management, information exchange and execution processes. ESA says it will reduce fragmentation between missions, partners and control centers, while improving responsiveness and interoperability. (9/30)
Cosmic Constants May Explain Away Dark Matter and Dark Energy (Source: Space Daily)
For decades, astronomers have assumed that dark matter and dark energy dominate the cosmos. New research challenges that foundation, proposing that these unseen components may be illusions caused by the gradual weakening of nature's fundamental forces as the universe ages. Rajendra Gupta suggests that if the strengths of forces like gravity vary over time and across space, the resulting effects could mimic both dark matter and dark energy. (10/6)
TakeMe2Space and AICRAFT Partner to Deliver Orbital Data Centre Infrastructure (Source: Space Daily)
AICRAFT of Australia and India's TakeMe2Space (TM2S) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate AICRAFT's edge computing systems into the TM2S satellite constellation from 2026. The collaboration will begin with a hosted payload mission in 2026, after which AICRAFT's high-performance, low-power edge devices will become a core part of TM2S' orbiting platform. This alliance will enable users to design, test, and deploy satellite applications almost instantly. As part of this enabling infrastructure, AICRAFT will supply both terrestrial and flight-qualified hardware, including new product lines. (10/1)
Sierra Space Clears Design Milestone for Missile Tracking Satellites in SDA Tranche 2 (Source: Space Daily)
Sierra Space has completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Space Development Agency's (SDA) Tranche 2 Tracking Layer, confirming readiness to begin production of missile tracking satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The program will see Sierra Space deliver two orbital planes, totaling 18 satellites, each carrying advanced infrared sensors designed to detect and track ballistic, hypersonic, and emerging threats. (9/30)
Opening Lines of Communications for Space Safety (Source: Space Review)
At last week’s International Astronautical Congress, leaders of space agencies talked about their plans even if they weren’t always talking with one another. Jeff Foust reports, though, that there are signs of closer coordination between countries and companies regarding critical space safety issues. Click here. (10/7)
How China is Preparing to Dominate the World (Source: Space Review)
China is making rapid advances in space, from lunar exploration to satellite constellations. Claude Lafleur discusses those advances and how they could set up China to be the dominant space power in the near future. Click here. (10/7)
Gemini’s Wing and a Prayer: Postscript (Source: Space Review)
Dwayne Day adds a postscript to his historical review of the efforts to develop a parawing for Gemini with a look at the role that an aircraft originally developed for a classified program played in testing of the system. Click here. (10/7)
So You Want To Go To Mars: Where Do You Start? (Source: Space Review)
Exploration of the Moon and Mars offers challenges that go beyond the technology needed for such missions. Jonathan Coopersmith reviews a book that offers an extensive review of those issues. Click here. (10/7)
Honeywell and Redwire have formalized joint development of quantum-secured satellite communications. The agreement leverages Honeywell's expertise in quantum optical payloads and Redwire's capabilities in agile satellite platforms. By combining their technologies, the companies aim to develop a fully integrated satellite system by mid-2026, targeting both civil and defense applications as part of a broader initiative supported by the European Space Agency. (10/7)
Call for Papers: 2025 Sacknoff Prize (Source: Space 3.0)
Awarded since 2011, The Sacknoff Prize for Space History is designed to encourage original research by university students in the field of space history. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to submit their original manuscript for consideration! Winners receive an $850 cash prize; publication in the peer-reviewed history journal, Quest; and an invitation to present their paper at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) by its Aerospace Special Interest Group (Albatross). The due date is 2 December 2025. Click here. (10/7)
Cleveland to Space: How NASA Glenn is Advancing Lunar and Mars Exploration (Source: Cleveland.com)
NASA is looking to explore the moon and Mars in the next few decades, and advanced technologies under development at the NASA Glenn Research Center will help make that possible. NASA Glenn is helping Artemis with several research projects. The agency is spearheading a project to build a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2030.
A permanent moon base -- used for scientific research, resource extraction, military strategy, and launching missions to Mars -- would need both solar power and nuclear fission. The agency plans to build a 100-kilowatt plant on the moon using nuclear fission, using technology overseen by NASA Glenn. In addition, NASA Glenn is working on the development of the gridded-ion thruster, the propulsion system planned for the orbiting spaceship Gateway. (10/6)
More Layoffs Coming to JPL (Source: Orange County Register)
JPL on Oct. 6 confirmed that a number of layoffs coming this month will once again hit the venerable science hub. NASA did not answer how many employees would be laid off in this next round. However, JPL rebuffed recent online suggestions that they would be in the thousands. Distressed JPL employees have suggested there could be between 3,000 and 4,000 dismissals by Oct. 15.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, called the 3,000 to 4,000 number “vastly incorrect,” adding: “All I know is it is correct that they said layoffs would be in October,” Chu said, citing her source as Caltech lobbyists in Washington D.C. (10/7)
Rocket Test Proves Bacteria Survive Space Launch and Re-entry Unharmed (Source: RMIT)
An Australian-led study has found the spores of Bacilus subtilis, a bacterium essential for human health, can survive rapid acceleration, short-duration microgravity and rapid deceleration. The spores of bacteria were launched high into the sky, then studied once their rocket fell back to earth, in what is believed to be the first study of its kind in real conditions outside the lab. (10/6)
Study with Ties to Florida Tech Could Explain What NASA Telescopes Cannot (Source: Florida Today)
It's the question on the minds of many: are there worlds similar to Earth in our galaxy? A new model, with ties to Florida Tech, may provide clearer answers to a mystery faced by astrophysicts: Why it is that some planets around a certain type of star have not proved promising for life?
TRAPPIST-1b showed hardly any evidence of an atmosphere or water. This left the question: What makes these planets either contain or lack water -- or even the elements needed for potential life? Howard Chen, assistant professor at Florida Tech College of Engineering and Science: Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, has worked to solve this mystery. (10/7)
What Parts of the Cape Canaveral Spaceport Remain Open? (Source: Florida Today)
While Florida will not see NASA’s SLS liftoff until next year, according to a NASA document released before the shutdown, NASA's Artemis moon missions are considered exempt. Kennedy Space Center is marked by NASA as OPEN and there is still activity on the grounds. A total of 1,053 are estimated to be furloughed at Kennedy Space Center. NASA police are still stationed and active near the gates to KSC property. Private companies located within KSC can continue operations on their sites. This includes companies like SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin.
So, for example, SpaceX is able to continue its weekly Starlink satellite launches. As for the Space Force side of the Cape, while nonessential employees have been furloughed, personnel who protect life and property remain on site. This includes the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, which released a forecast ahead of the upcoming SpaceX rocket launch.
NASA’s next science mission expected to launch is the ESCAPADE mission to Mars, scheduled to launch within the next month atop a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral. Projects which have already seen funding prior to this current shutdown shall continue, unless access to the closed NASA facilities or NASA civil servant involvement is required. (10/6)
SpaceX Launches Tuesday Starlink Mission at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites early Tuesday morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:46 a.m. Eastern, placing 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the first in more than a week from the Cape, a gap linked to stormy weather in Florida and in the Atlantic. (10/7)
Taylor Swift Not Interested in Spaceflight (Source: BBC)
The life of a showgirl does not include going to space. Asked on a BBC Radio 2 interview if she was interested in going to space, Taylor Swift made it clear she had no desire to do so. “Never! Why would I do that? There’s no reason to do that,” she said. She added space is “cold” and “scary” and that, even if she did go to space, people wouldn’t believe it. Her response was more animated than when the same host posed a similar question earlier this year to Mariah Carey: “I think I’ve done enough.” (10/7)
Rocket Lab Readies Synspective Launch From New Zealand (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab’s next launch will be for its biggest customer. The company said Monday its next Electron launch is scheduled for Oct. 14 from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, carrying a StriX radar imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective. That company signed a contract with Rocket Lab last week for 10 additional Electron launches, bringing its backlog of Electron launches to 21. (10/7)
FCC Plans "Space Month" Regulatory Reforms (Source: Space News)
The FCC is embarking on space-related regulatory reforms in a “Space Month” initiative announced Monday. Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Apex’s new satellite manufacturing facility in southern California, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission would overhaul licensing and spectrum rules amid mounting competition from China. One proposal would create an “assembly line” licensing process that will be faster than the current system.
A second proposal would revise siting rules for Earth stations in the upper microwave bands, known as UMFUS, to enable more intensive use of spectrum and simplify approvals for operators. His speech underscored the geopolitical urgency behind the reforms as launches get underway in China for tens of thousands of broadband satellites that would rival U.S.-based Starlink. (10/7)
Cubic Defense Seeks Military Use of Flat-Panel Satcom Terminal (Source: Space News)
Cubic Defense is pursuing military customers for its flat-panel satellite communications terminal. The military technology contractor developed a family of electronically scanned array satellite terminals with support from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate. AFRL recently extended a contract awarded in 2023 to support work on the terminals, designed to work across multiple orbits and networks. The terminals, called Vector, are intended to meet a growing Pentagon demand for “multi-domain” networks linking operations across land, air and space, the company said. (10/7)
Colorado Considers Roadblocks to Space Command Transfer (Source: KOAA)
A Colorado congressman hinted that the state’s congressional delegation might put up “roadblocks” to moving Space Command headquarters to Alabama. In an interview, Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) said he has been talking with the state’s senators “about ways that we might continue to try and throw some roadblocks in it,” suggesting that delays in the move might make it clear that transferring the command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville is “probably not as practicable as they thought.” Those roadblocks could involve having the senators block confirmations of the administration’s nominees. Crank also said that even if the command does move, Colorado might instead get some military space roles, perhaps as part of Golden Dome. (10/7)
ESA Considers Buying ISS Cargo Mission (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency is proposing to buy a cargo mission to the International Space Station. ESA issued a call for proposals last week for a single cargo mission to the ISS that would launch by the fourth quarter of 2028 to meet the agency’s obligations to support station operations. Those requirements have been met through barter arrangements with NASA, and it was not clear why this mission would be needed. ESA said the mission would require delivering 4,900 to 5,000 kilograms of cargo to the station and would be open to American companies, but with a preference for European ones. Those requirements make Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus the leading contender. The Cygnus cargo module, capable of carrying 5,000 kilograms, is built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy. (10/7)
New Research Suggests Red Dwarf Systems are Unlikely to Have Advanced Civilizations (Source: Universe Today)
Thanks to the huge spate of exoplanet discoveries, multiple rocky planets have been found orbiting within the habitable zones (HZs) of red dwarf stars. For decades, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether these systems could be our best bet for finding evidence of life beyond Earth. In a recent study, Professor David Kipping addresses two key facts that could mean humanity is an outlier. Based on the age of the Universe and the relatively rare nature of our Sun, he concludes that astrobiologists examining red dwarf planets may be looking in the wrong place. (10/5)
Agency Shutdown Messaging Draws Hatch Act, Antideficiency Act Challenges (Source: FNN)
The Office of Special Counsel has received multiple complaints about federal agencies sharing political messages during the shutdown, while one nonprofit is alleging the messaging violates the Antideficiency Act. Public Citizen has filed nine complaints with OSC over the first three days of the shutdown. The group alleges agencies are violating the Hatch Act by using “explicitly partisan messaging” blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
HUD’s website now states, “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government.” The Small Business Administration followed suit on Wednesday with a “special message” at the top of the SBA website stating that “Senate Democrats” voted to block a “clean” stopgap funding bill. Other agencies have since posted similar messages on their websites. Editor's Note: NASA's websites thus far have not violated Hatch Act protections against politicization. (10/6)
Satellite Broadband Market to Break $20 Billion by 2030, as Satellite Constellations Disrupt Established Services (Source: Juniper Research)
A new study by global tech strategists Juniper Research has found that global satellite provider revenue from fixed satellite broadband will increase from $10 billion in 2025 to $20 billion in 2030. This revenue growth will be enabled by rapid investment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) technology, which allows satellite providers to improve the latency they offer, whilst also reducing costs for satellite launches. (10/6)
France Sponsors Studies on Next-Generation Platforms for In-Orbit Refueling (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
The French space agency CNES has selected three companies for a strategic Research & Technology (R&T) initiative focused on next-generation in-orbit refuelable platforms. Dawn Aerospace, Infinite Orbits and Exotrail will participate in the effort to advance France and Europe’s understanding and development of sustainable, autonomous space operations and in-orbit servicing capabilities. (10/6)
Chinese IoT Constellation Completes First Phase for Global Communications (Source: Space Daily)
A Chinese satellite network dedicated to Internet of Things (IoT) services has achieved global surface coverage, excluding polar regions, with the deployment of its first-phase constellation of 64 satellites. The milestone was reached following the launch of 11 Geely-06 satellites from a sea platform in Shandong province. The deployment marks the culmination of six launches between 2022 and 2025, ensuring both reliability and continuous availability of the network.
Geespace, the satellite division of Geely Holding Group, designed the constellation to support 20 million users worldwide. The system can manage up to 340 million messages per day, serving 5 million high-frequency users and an additional 15 million medium- and low-frequency accounts. Data packets of up to 1,900 bytes can carry text, voice, and images.
The first-phase network will grow to 72 satellites, enhancing resilience and capacity. Longer term, Phase Two envisions 264 satellites capable of direct-to-smartphone communication, while Phase Three projects 5,676 satellites to provide global broadband connectivity. With Phase One operational, Geespace plans to expand commercial IoT services worldwide. (9/26)
Detection of Phosphine in a Brown Dwarf Atmosphere Raises More Questions (Source: Space Daily)
Phosphorus is one of six key elements necessary for life on Earth. When combined with hydrogen, phosphorus forms the molecule phosphine (PH3), an explosive, highly toxic gas. Found in the atmospheres of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, phosphine has long been recognized as a possible biosignature for anaerobic life.
Now a team of researchers has reported the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of a cool, ancient brown dwarf named Wolf 1130C. The phosphine was detected using observations obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope. The mystery, however, is not why phosphine was found, but why it's missing in other brown dwarf and gas giant exoplanet atmospheres. (10/6)
Mapping the Universe Made Faster with New Computational Tool (Source: Space Daily)
As cosmology data sets grow larger and increasingly complex, a new tool allows researchers to run advanced analyses with only a laptop in a fraction of the time once required. Dr. Marco Bonici led an international collaboration that developed Effort.jl, an emulator designed to streamline studies using the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure (EFTofLSS). The system blends advanced numerical methods with preprocessing strategies to achieve rapid, precise results. (10/1)
ESA unveils Pulse Framework to Streamline Mission Management (Source: Space Daily)
The European Space Agency has launched Pulse, a new initiative designed to transform mission monitoring and control across its expanding portfolio of space operations. Developed under ESA's Operations Directorate, Pulse provides a European, royalty-free, multi-mission solution that spans from spacecraft assembly and integration through to operations in low Earth orbit and deep space.
Pulse is conceived as an operational framework rather than a single software tool. By leveraging technologies such as the European Ground Segment - Common Core (EGS-CC), the framework integrates telemetry, event management, information exchange and execution processes. ESA says it will reduce fragmentation between missions, partners and control centers, while improving responsiveness and interoperability. (9/30)
Cosmic Constants May Explain Away Dark Matter and Dark Energy (Source: Space Daily)
For decades, astronomers have assumed that dark matter and dark energy dominate the cosmos. New research challenges that foundation, proposing that these unseen components may be illusions caused by the gradual weakening of nature's fundamental forces as the universe ages. Rajendra Gupta suggests that if the strengths of forces like gravity vary over time and across space, the resulting effects could mimic both dark matter and dark energy. (10/6)
TakeMe2Space and AICRAFT Partner to Deliver Orbital Data Centre Infrastructure (Source: Space Daily)
AICRAFT of Australia and India's TakeMe2Space (TM2S) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate AICRAFT's edge computing systems into the TM2S satellite constellation from 2026. The collaboration will begin with a hosted payload mission in 2026, after which AICRAFT's high-performance, low-power edge devices will become a core part of TM2S' orbiting platform. This alliance will enable users to design, test, and deploy satellite applications almost instantly. As part of this enabling infrastructure, AICRAFT will supply both terrestrial and flight-qualified hardware, including new product lines. (10/1)
Sierra Space Clears Design Milestone for Missile Tracking Satellites in SDA Tranche 2 (Source: Space Daily)
Sierra Space has completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Space Development Agency's (SDA) Tranche 2 Tracking Layer, confirming readiness to begin production of missile tracking satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The program will see Sierra Space deliver two orbital planes, totaling 18 satellites, each carrying advanced infrared sensors designed to detect and track ballistic, hypersonic, and emerging threats. (9/30)
Opening Lines of Communications for Space Safety (Source: Space Review)
At last week’s International Astronautical Congress, leaders of space agencies talked about their plans even if they weren’t always talking with one another. Jeff Foust reports, though, that there are signs of closer coordination between countries and companies regarding critical space safety issues. Click here. (10/7)
How China is Preparing to Dominate the World (Source: Space Review)
China is making rapid advances in space, from lunar exploration to satellite constellations. Claude Lafleur discusses those advances and how they could set up China to be the dominant space power in the near future. Click here. (10/7)
Gemini’s Wing and a Prayer: Postscript (Source: Space Review)
Dwayne Day adds a postscript to his historical review of the efforts to develop a parawing for Gemini with a look at the role that an aircraft originally developed for a classified program played in testing of the system. Click here. (10/7)
So You Want To Go To Mars: Where Do You Start? (Source: Space Review)
Exploration of the Moon and Mars offers challenges that go beyond the technology needed for such missions. Jonathan Coopersmith reviews a book that offers an extensive review of those issues. Click here. (10/7)
October 6, 2025
Firefly to Acquire SciTec for $855
Million (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace announced Sunday it will acquire defense contractor SciTec for $855 million. The acquisition is intended to expand Firefly’s footprint in the defense market, where Firefly is trying to capture opportunities in the Golden Dome program. SciTec has secured major contracts with the U.S. Space Force for next-generation missile warning data systems that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning. Firefly, which raised about $1 billion going public this summer, will pay $300 million in cash and $555 million in shares to purchase SciTec. Once the deal is finalized, SciTec will operate as a Firefly subsidiary led by Jim Lisowski, current CEO of SciTec. He will report to Firefly’s CEO Jason Kim. (10/6)
Eurospace Merger Negotiations Stick on Workshare Arrangements (Source: Reuters)
Negotiations to combine the space businesses at three European companies have run into more problems. A report in a French newspaper Monday said that Thales Alenia Space and Leonardo asked for more time to complete a deal with Airbus Defence and Space to create a satellite joint venture, citing issues with how work would be split among the companies. The companies may need several more weeks to complete those negotiations, a source said. A deal on creating the joint venture was expected this summer. (10/6)
Space Cybersecurity a Big Concern for DoD and Intel Officials (Source: Space News)
The biggest concern that intelligence officials have about space assets involves cyber attacks. Chris Scolese, director of the NRO, said at a recent conference that he is worried less about kinetic or directed-energy anti-satellite weapons than cyber, because that is much cheaper for adversaries to pursue. The NRO itself saw a breach this summer when hackers compromised its Acquisition Research Center website, which contractors use to submit bids. That did not directly hurt space systems but it showed cyber adversaries are probing every corner of the ecosystem, including the industrial base. (10/6)
New Satellite Will Help Cyber Defenders Train to Stop Hackers in Orbit (Source: Air and Space Forces)
To help the military and industry develop new cyber defenses, technology contractor Deloitte has launched a microwave oven-sized satellite into low-Earth orbit to act as “an on-orbit, live-fire cyber training range,” said Deloitte Managing Director Brad Pyburn. Deloitte-1, a 22-pound cubesat launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., in March, will allow Deloitte and its government and private sector partners “to conduct training operations, test [the satellite], even attack it, and make sure it’s resilient and responds in the way that you want. (10/2)
SpaceX Has a Few Tricks Up its Sleeve for the Last Starship Flight of the Year (Source: Ars Technica)
On its surface, the flight plan for SpaceX's next Starship flight looks a lot like the last one. There are, however, some changes to SpaceX's flight plan for the next Starship. Most of these changes will occur during the ship's reentry, when the vehicle's heat shield is exposed to temperatures of up to 2,600° Fahrenheit. Like on the last Starship flight, SpaceX has removed some of the ship's thousands of ceramic thermal protection tiles to "intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle."
Several of the missing tiles are in areas where tiles are bonded directly to Starship's stainless steel structure, without a backup ablative layer, according to SpaceX. Engineers are refining the heat shield's design to make it robust against damage during reentry and landing. Any heat shield damage would require refurbishment, risking SpaceX's goal of making Starship fully and rapidly reusable.
One of the new test objectives will be a "dynamic banking maneuver" during the final phase of the trajectory "to mimic the path a ship will take on future flights returning to Starbase," SpaceX said. This will help engineers test Starship's subsonic guidance algorithms. The next flight—Flight 11—will mark the second time SpaceX has reused a Super Heavy booster flown on a previous mission. SpaceX said 24 of the 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines launching on the booster next month are "flight-proven." (9/30)
Commercial Space’s Data Mirage: Why Early-Stage Ventures Must Face Reality (Source: Courtney Stadd)
Space an ecosystem brimming with ambition, ingenuity, and genuine technical achievement. But it’s also one that suffers from a persistent problem: magical thinking. This is not the starry-eyed enthusiasm of the young engineer sketching a Mars lander on the back of a napkin — that kind of optimism can be productive fuel. The magical thinking we see today is more insidious. It resides in C-suites, government offices, and particularly in the investor community.
And that’s the problem. Everyone who’s taken even a basic statistics course knows that global market forecasts are, by necessity, built on multiple layers of assumptions. Those assumptions — sometimes dozens of them — each represent an experienced but nonetheless subjective judgment made by a market analyst. The best reports document these assumptions in detail, but the moment the headline number gets into a press release, those caveats evaporate.
One of the most troubling consequences of this overreliance on headline forecasts is that it often replaces the far more laborious, far more necessary work of building a realistic market model. In the absence of hard data — and let’s be honest, in much of commercial space the data is sparse — leaders must rely on informed intuition. That means grounding assumptions in experience, historical analogs, and a sober assessment of the competitive landscape. (9/23)
Firehawk Aerospace Achieves Critical Milestone with Successful Tests of Solid Rocket Motors (Source: Firehawk)
Firehawk Aerospace has successfully completed the flight tests of an additively manufactured Javelin and Stinger-class Firehawk Analog systems, using 3D-printed propellant for the launch motors of each system. These tests are the final milestone of a Phase III SBIR contract with the Army Applications Laboratory (AAL) which also included a hybrid rocket engine system flight test earlier this year. (9/30)
Space-Time Does Not Exist – Here’s Why That Matters (Source: SciTech Daily)
Space-time is a map of happenings, not a real object. Understanding this distinction clears up confusion about time. Whether or not space-time exists should not be considered controversial or even conceptually difficult once we are clear on the meanings of “space-time,” “events,” and “instants.” Believing in the existence of space-time is no more viable than holding onto the old notion of a celestial sphere: both are observer-centered models that are powerful and convenient for describing the world, but neither represents reality itself. (10/4)
50-Year-Old Data Reveals Venus's Clouds Are Mostly Water (Source: Science Alert)
Reanalyzing old data with our modern understanding seems to be in vogue lately. However, the implications of that reanalysis for some topics are more impactful than others. One of the most hotly debated topics of late in the astrobiological community has been whether or not life can exist on Venus – specifically in its cloud layers, some of which have some of the most Earth-like conditions anywhere in the solar system, at least in terms of pressure and temperature.
A new paper just added fuel to that debate by reanalyzing data from the Pioneer mission to Venus NASA launched in the 70s – and finding that Venus' clouds are primarily made out of water. That doesn't mean that it's water in the traditional sense of how we think water vapor makes up clouds here on Earth. The dihydrogen monoxide in Venus' clouds seems to be tied up in hydrated materials rather than standing alone as pure water droplets. (10/5)
The Epic Hunt for a Planet Just Like Earth (Source: BBC)
We can now infer that most stars have planetary systems – and yet, of the thousands of exoplanets found, we have yet to find a planetary system that resembles our own. The quest to find an Earth twin – a planet that resembles Earth in size, mass and temperature – continues to drive modern-day explorers like us to search for more undiscovered exoplanets.
After three decades of observing, a wealth of different planets have emerged. We started with the hot Jupiters, large gas giants close to their star that are among the easiest planets to find due to both deeper transits and larger radial velocity signals. But while the first tens of discovered exoplanets were all hot Jupiters, we now know these planets are actually very rare.
With instrumentation getting better and observations piling up, we have since found a whole new class of planets with sizes and masses between those of Earth and Neptune. But despite our knowledge of thousands of planets beyond the Solar System, we still have not found systems truly resembling the Solar System, nor planets truly resembling Earth. (10/5)
Earth May Not Be So Special After All, New Study Finds (Source: SciTech Daily)
New research suggests that planets outside our solar system contain far less surface water than scientists once believed. Contrary to earlier theories that these exoplanets might be covered by deep global oceans, the study shows they lack the thick water layers that were often imagined.
For years, scientists thought such planets might collect vast amounts of water during their formation and later sustain massive global oceans beneath hydrogen-rich atmospheres. These hypothetical worlds have been called Hycean planets, a term derived from “hydrogen” and “ocean.” “Our calculations show that this scenario is not possible,” says Caroline Dorn. (10/3)
NASA's Asteroid Deflection Test had Unexpected and Puzzling Outcome (Source: New Scientist)
After NASA smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, its orbit slowly but surely changed over the next month, and astronomers can’t explain why. In 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) flew a nearly-600-kilogram satellite into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, which orbits a larger one called Didymos. Before the impact, Dimorphos completed an orbit every 11 hours and 55 minutes. Observations soon after revealed that the collision had reduced the orbital period by about 30 minutes, but in the following weeks and months, the orbit shrank even further, by another 30 seconds. (10/1)
NASA Kicks Sierra Space to the Curb (Source: Motley Fool)
NASA is tired of waiting for Dream Chaser to get off the ground, and Sierra's IPO window is closing fast. Back in 2023, the privately held company raised $290 million in new funds to complete development of its Dream Chaser spacecraft -- and surged ahead to a $5 billion private market valuation, making Sierra Space 5X a unicorn stock.
For space investors, that's what it's felt like waiting for Sierra Space to do something interesting these last several years. It's been nearly a decade since NASA awarded Sierra Space (technically, its parent company Sierra Nevada Corp.) a role in its $14 billion CRS-2 project to send Commercial Re-Supply spacecraft to the ISS. Valued at roughly $628 million per launch, and with Sierra expected to run seven of the launches, the contract felt like a windfall for Sierra Space.
After 10 years of no Dream Chaser flights, NASA's tired of waiting for Sierra's phantom spacecraft. Now, NASA's telling the company it needs to either prove Dream Chaser can fly, after which NASA might permit it to fly to ISS and pay for the flights -- or else admit Dream Chaser is a mirage and let SpaceX and Northrop handle the work of resupplying the space station. In the meantime, NASA's shutting off the funding spigot to Sierra. (10/4)
Astronomers Stunned by Black Hole Growing Beyond Known Limits (Source: SciTech Daily)
Astronomers have identified a black hole growing at one of the fastest rates ever observed. The finding, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, may help clarify how certain black holes were able to gain such immense mass relatively soon after the Big Bang. This particular black hole is about a billion times heavier than the Sun and lies roughly 12.8 billion light-years away.
The black hole fuels what scientists classify as a quasar, a brilliant celestial object that shines brighter than entire galaxies. Its extraordinary luminosity comes from the vast amounts of material spiraling around and being pulled into the black hole. X-ray results show that its black hole is growing at a pace that surpasses the typical threshold expected for such objects. (10/3)
Firefly Aerospace announced Sunday it will acquire defense contractor SciTec for $855 million. The acquisition is intended to expand Firefly’s footprint in the defense market, where Firefly is trying to capture opportunities in the Golden Dome program. SciTec has secured major contracts with the U.S. Space Force for next-generation missile warning data systems that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning. Firefly, which raised about $1 billion going public this summer, will pay $300 million in cash and $555 million in shares to purchase SciTec. Once the deal is finalized, SciTec will operate as a Firefly subsidiary led by Jim Lisowski, current CEO of SciTec. He will report to Firefly’s CEO Jason Kim. (10/6)
Eurospace Merger Negotiations Stick on Workshare Arrangements (Source: Reuters)
Negotiations to combine the space businesses at three European companies have run into more problems. A report in a French newspaper Monday said that Thales Alenia Space and Leonardo asked for more time to complete a deal with Airbus Defence and Space to create a satellite joint venture, citing issues with how work would be split among the companies. The companies may need several more weeks to complete those negotiations, a source said. A deal on creating the joint venture was expected this summer. (10/6)
Space Cybersecurity a Big Concern for DoD and Intel Officials (Source: Space News)
The biggest concern that intelligence officials have about space assets involves cyber attacks. Chris Scolese, director of the NRO, said at a recent conference that he is worried less about kinetic or directed-energy anti-satellite weapons than cyber, because that is much cheaper for adversaries to pursue. The NRO itself saw a breach this summer when hackers compromised its Acquisition Research Center website, which contractors use to submit bids. That did not directly hurt space systems but it showed cyber adversaries are probing every corner of the ecosystem, including the industrial base. (10/6)
New Satellite Will Help Cyber Defenders Train to Stop Hackers in Orbit (Source: Air and Space Forces)
To help the military and industry develop new cyber defenses, technology contractor Deloitte has launched a microwave oven-sized satellite into low-Earth orbit to act as “an on-orbit, live-fire cyber training range,” said Deloitte Managing Director Brad Pyburn. Deloitte-1, a 22-pound cubesat launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., in March, will allow Deloitte and its government and private sector partners “to conduct training operations, test [the satellite], even attack it, and make sure it’s resilient and responds in the way that you want. (10/2)
SpaceX Has a Few Tricks Up its Sleeve for the Last Starship Flight of the Year (Source: Ars Technica)
On its surface, the flight plan for SpaceX's next Starship flight looks a lot like the last one. There are, however, some changes to SpaceX's flight plan for the next Starship. Most of these changes will occur during the ship's reentry, when the vehicle's heat shield is exposed to temperatures of up to 2,600° Fahrenheit. Like on the last Starship flight, SpaceX has removed some of the ship's thousands of ceramic thermal protection tiles to "intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle."
Several of the missing tiles are in areas where tiles are bonded directly to Starship's stainless steel structure, without a backup ablative layer, according to SpaceX. Engineers are refining the heat shield's design to make it robust against damage during reentry and landing. Any heat shield damage would require refurbishment, risking SpaceX's goal of making Starship fully and rapidly reusable.
One of the new test objectives will be a "dynamic banking maneuver" during the final phase of the trajectory "to mimic the path a ship will take on future flights returning to Starbase," SpaceX said. This will help engineers test Starship's subsonic guidance algorithms. The next flight—Flight 11—will mark the second time SpaceX has reused a Super Heavy booster flown on a previous mission. SpaceX said 24 of the 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines launching on the booster next month are "flight-proven." (9/30)
Commercial Space’s Data Mirage: Why Early-Stage Ventures Must Face Reality (Source: Courtney Stadd)
Space an ecosystem brimming with ambition, ingenuity, and genuine technical achievement. But it’s also one that suffers from a persistent problem: magical thinking. This is not the starry-eyed enthusiasm of the young engineer sketching a Mars lander on the back of a napkin — that kind of optimism can be productive fuel. The magical thinking we see today is more insidious. It resides in C-suites, government offices, and particularly in the investor community.
And that’s the problem. Everyone who’s taken even a basic statistics course knows that global market forecasts are, by necessity, built on multiple layers of assumptions. Those assumptions — sometimes dozens of them — each represent an experienced but nonetheless subjective judgment made by a market analyst. The best reports document these assumptions in detail, but the moment the headline number gets into a press release, those caveats evaporate.
One of the most troubling consequences of this overreliance on headline forecasts is that it often replaces the far more laborious, far more necessary work of building a realistic market model. In the absence of hard data — and let’s be honest, in much of commercial space the data is sparse — leaders must rely on informed intuition. That means grounding assumptions in experience, historical analogs, and a sober assessment of the competitive landscape. (9/23)
Firehawk Aerospace Achieves Critical Milestone with Successful Tests of Solid Rocket Motors (Source: Firehawk)
Firehawk Aerospace has successfully completed the flight tests of an additively manufactured Javelin and Stinger-class Firehawk Analog systems, using 3D-printed propellant for the launch motors of each system. These tests are the final milestone of a Phase III SBIR contract with the Army Applications Laboratory (AAL) which also included a hybrid rocket engine system flight test earlier this year. (9/30)
Space-Time Does Not Exist – Here’s Why That Matters (Source: SciTech Daily)
Space-time is a map of happenings, not a real object. Understanding this distinction clears up confusion about time. Whether or not space-time exists should not be considered controversial or even conceptually difficult once we are clear on the meanings of “space-time,” “events,” and “instants.” Believing in the existence of space-time is no more viable than holding onto the old notion of a celestial sphere: both are observer-centered models that are powerful and convenient for describing the world, but neither represents reality itself. (10/4)
50-Year-Old Data Reveals Venus's Clouds Are Mostly Water (Source: Science Alert)
Reanalyzing old data with our modern understanding seems to be in vogue lately. However, the implications of that reanalysis for some topics are more impactful than others. One of the most hotly debated topics of late in the astrobiological community has been whether or not life can exist on Venus – specifically in its cloud layers, some of which have some of the most Earth-like conditions anywhere in the solar system, at least in terms of pressure and temperature.
A new paper just added fuel to that debate by reanalyzing data from the Pioneer mission to Venus NASA launched in the 70s – and finding that Venus' clouds are primarily made out of water. That doesn't mean that it's water in the traditional sense of how we think water vapor makes up clouds here on Earth. The dihydrogen monoxide in Venus' clouds seems to be tied up in hydrated materials rather than standing alone as pure water droplets. (10/5)
The Epic Hunt for a Planet Just Like Earth (Source: BBC)
We can now infer that most stars have planetary systems – and yet, of the thousands of exoplanets found, we have yet to find a planetary system that resembles our own. The quest to find an Earth twin – a planet that resembles Earth in size, mass and temperature – continues to drive modern-day explorers like us to search for more undiscovered exoplanets.
After three decades of observing, a wealth of different planets have emerged. We started with the hot Jupiters, large gas giants close to their star that are among the easiest planets to find due to both deeper transits and larger radial velocity signals. But while the first tens of discovered exoplanets were all hot Jupiters, we now know these planets are actually very rare.
With instrumentation getting better and observations piling up, we have since found a whole new class of planets with sizes and masses between those of Earth and Neptune. But despite our knowledge of thousands of planets beyond the Solar System, we still have not found systems truly resembling the Solar System, nor planets truly resembling Earth. (10/5)
Earth May Not Be So Special After All, New Study Finds (Source: SciTech Daily)
New research suggests that planets outside our solar system contain far less surface water than scientists once believed. Contrary to earlier theories that these exoplanets might be covered by deep global oceans, the study shows they lack the thick water layers that were often imagined.
For years, scientists thought such planets might collect vast amounts of water during their formation and later sustain massive global oceans beneath hydrogen-rich atmospheres. These hypothetical worlds have been called Hycean planets, a term derived from “hydrogen” and “ocean.” “Our calculations show that this scenario is not possible,” says Caroline Dorn. (10/3)
NASA's Asteroid Deflection Test had Unexpected and Puzzling Outcome (Source: New Scientist)
After NASA smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, its orbit slowly but surely changed over the next month, and astronomers can’t explain why. In 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) flew a nearly-600-kilogram satellite into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, which orbits a larger one called Didymos. Before the impact, Dimorphos completed an orbit every 11 hours and 55 minutes. Observations soon after revealed that the collision had reduced the orbital period by about 30 minutes, but in the following weeks and months, the orbit shrank even further, by another 30 seconds. (10/1)
NASA Kicks Sierra Space to the Curb (Source: Motley Fool)
NASA is tired of waiting for Dream Chaser to get off the ground, and Sierra's IPO window is closing fast. Back in 2023, the privately held company raised $290 million in new funds to complete development of its Dream Chaser spacecraft -- and surged ahead to a $5 billion private market valuation, making Sierra Space 5X a unicorn stock.
For space investors, that's what it's felt like waiting for Sierra Space to do something interesting these last several years. It's been nearly a decade since NASA awarded Sierra Space (technically, its parent company Sierra Nevada Corp.) a role in its $14 billion CRS-2 project to send Commercial Re-Supply spacecraft to the ISS. Valued at roughly $628 million per launch, and with Sierra expected to run seven of the launches, the contract felt like a windfall for Sierra Space.
After 10 years of no Dream Chaser flights, NASA's tired of waiting for Sierra's phantom spacecraft. Now, NASA's telling the company it needs to either prove Dream Chaser can fly, after which NASA might permit it to fly to ISS and pay for the flights -- or else admit Dream Chaser is a mirage and let SpaceX and Northrop handle the work of resupplying the space station. In the meantime, NASA's shutting off the funding spigot to Sierra. (10/4)
Astronomers Stunned by Black Hole Growing Beyond Known Limits (Source: SciTech Daily)
Astronomers have identified a black hole growing at one of the fastest rates ever observed. The finding, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, may help clarify how certain black holes were able to gain such immense mass relatively soon after the Big Bang. This particular black hole is about a billion times heavier than the Sun and lies roughly 12.8 billion light-years away.
The black hole fuels what scientists classify as a quasar, a brilliant celestial object that shines brighter than entire galaxies. Its extraordinary luminosity comes from the vast amounts of material spiraling around and being pulled into the black hole. X-ray results show that its black hole is growing at a pace that surpasses the typical threshold expected for such objects. (10/3)
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)
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)
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