Trump Urges Senate GOP to Pass $350B
Defense Funding (Source: Politico)
President Donald Trump has urged Senate Republicans to pass a $350
billion defense spending package before Democrats take control of
Congress in January. Trump emphasized the need for a strong military
and called for immediate action in a post on Truth Social. However,
previous requests for increased Pentagon funding have faced resistance
in the Senate, with Republicans divided on the structure of the
spending bill. (11/12)
Kratos Completes USSF Review for
Missile Warning Program (Source: Air Force Technology)
Kratos Defense Security Solutions has completed a system review for the
US Space Force's Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking program,
supporting the Ground Management and Integration effort. Kratos, the
prime contractor for the ground segment, is integrating its system with
the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution platform. (11/12)
Pakistani Astronaut Set to Become 1st
International Visitor to China's Tiangong Space Station (Source:
Space.com)
An astronaut from Pakistan is set to launch on China's Shenzhou 24
mission in the coming weeks and become the first-ever international
visitor to the Tiangong space station. A pair of astronaut candidates
from Pakistan have been training at the Astronaut Centre of China in
Beijing, following an agreement reached between China and Pakistan in
Islamabad in February 2025 and a subsequent selection process. (11/12)
Space Dust Particles Point to Ancient
Heavy-Oxygen Water Reservoir in the Kuiper Belt (Source:
Phys.org)
Although scientists have long predicted that a primordial supply of
water enriched in heavier oxygen isotopes might exist in the outer
solar system, they lacked evidence. But now, a group of researchers has
found some convincing evidence in the space dust that made its way into
Earth's atmosphere. The team's new study describes how 12 grains of
dust can tell us what is going on in the outer solar system. (11/12)
South Korea Also Seeks Role in NASA
Moon Base Project... Mobilizes Industry, Academia and Research
(Source: Asia Business Daily)
South Korea is bringing together the technological capabilities of
domestic research institutes, universities, and companies to
participate in the construction of a Moon Base proposed by NASA. It
will assess technological readiness in areas including lunar landing
and transportation, communications and navigation, power, and robotics,
and identify areas that could contribute to U.S.-South Korea space
exploration cooperation. (11/13)
Virgin Galactic to Raise Ticket Price
to $850,000 as it Burns Cash (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
Virgin Galactic executives said in a Thursday earnings call that
tickets to suborbital space will reach $850,000. Two years have passed
since British billionaire Richard Branson’s company launched a flight
from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, where it is an anchor
tenant. In its third-quarter earnings report, the company reported
$427,000 in revenue but a net loss of $59 million. Outstanding debt is
below $100 million, executives said.
And so Virgin Galactic is seeking to generate more revenue as it burns
cash. In August, the company said its $750,000 ticket tranche sold out.
Government contracts present another revenue opportunity, Michael
Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, told investors. (11/12)
India: Ground Test of Third Stage of
PSLV (PS3) Conducted Successfully (Source: ISRO)
The ground static test of the PSLV third stage (PS3) was carried out
successfully at the Static Test Facility in Satish Dhawan Space Centre,
Sriharikota. Subsequent to the anomalies observed in the third stage of
PSLV during the PSLV-C61/EOS-09 & PSLV-C62 / EOS-N1 missions, the
configuration of the PS3 stage was revisited comprehensively. The
configuration has been strengthened and essential improvements have
been carried out in the nozzle configuration to improve design margins
along with updated procedures in the acceptance of raw materials,
assembly procedures and quality checks. (11/12)
NASA Glenn Engineer Develops Plastic
That Can Be Manufactured on the Moon and Mars (Source: WKYC)
Dr. Allison Christy, a chemical engineer at NASA Glenn Research Center
in Cleveland, is studying the crystal structure of the new material she
recently developed. It's a plastic astronauts can make far from Earth,
and a bacteria produces its main ingredient. "Similar to something like
a sourdough starter,” Christy said. “You are able to bring these
organisms with you. It's a lot smaller, it's more compact. And you can
bring those up there and you can use resources, either on the lunar
surface or the Martian surface to make plastic when we're up there."
The plastic starts as a fine powder called polyhydroxbutyrate or PHB.
Then mix in moon or Mars dust to strengthen it. In the samples
produced, the darker the color, the more dust. Gray for moon dust, and
reddish brown for Mars dust. Christy is working on making them into a
filament that can be used in a 3D printer. (11/11)
Mitsubishi Electric, NTT and Two Banks
Sign Up to Study a Japanese Megaconstellation (Source: Beyond
LEO)
Five Japanese companies have agreed to study whether they can build and
run a large satellite constellation and sell services from it.
Mitsubishi Electric said it had signed a memorandum of understanding
NTT, NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS, MUFG Bank and the Development Bank of Japan
(DBJ) to explore working together on developing and operating a
mega-constellation and on services that use it. (11/13)
November 13, 2026
NASA Awards Lunar Transportation and
Lander Contracts (Source: Space News)
NASA’s efforts to develop a lunar base continued with the award of contracts for a new generation of lunar landers as well as transportation for some missions. NASA announced at a Nov. 7 briefing that it awarded six task orders to several companies for transporting lunar landers and orbiters, although some of the selected launches do not have payloads assigned to them.
Two of the task orders involve launches of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, three task orders are for launches of Blue Origin’s New Glenn and the sixth task order involves the launch of a Terran R rocket from Relativity Space. NASA also announced at the briefing the companies selected for CLPS 2.0, the follow-on to the existing CLPS contract used for procuring landers and other lunar missions. (11/13)
Space Coast's BRPH Solves Space Problems, Even $40K Gopher Tortoises (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Designing and building launch facilities on the Space Coast takes a unique talent set that includes managing the expectations of Fortune 500 companies and the capriciousness of gopher tortoises. That’s a common logistical problem for Melbourne-based BRPH. Without naming which pad, BRPH officials earlier this year said it cost $40,000 to deal with four gopher tortoises at one launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“It is a cautionary thing, but it’s the right thing to do,” said Cliff Higgins, the company’s vice president of Aerospace Integrated Services. “We’re trying to be sensitive to all of the environmental concerns; it’s part of our process.” The company was founded in 1964 by three engineers and an architect to support the burgeoning space race. Now more than 60 years later, the company continues to expand. “We’ve grown from about 250 to 400 just in the last few years. And obviously a lot of that’s due to all the projects that we are involved with here on the Space Coast,” said Stephanie Wheeler. (11/11)
UK Military Taps Astronomers to Spot Snooping Foreign Satellites (Source: New Scientist)
The UK’s military and spy agencies are working with civilian academics to develop new ways to spot snooping by foreign satellites, researchers have revealed. The US, China and Russia have spy satellites as well as counter-surveillance satellite and spacecraft programs that can spy on other states’ satellites and observe others spying on theirs. Telescopes such as those at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain, can be used to observe satellites. (11/12)
Germany, Poland Tap SATIM to Analyze Military Satellite Imagery (Source: Defense News)
SATIM, a Polish maker of AI-based analysis tools for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, has obtained a contract from Poland’s Ministry of National Defence to supply software for the automated analysis of satellite imagery. The company is building on its ongoing cooperation with Germany’s Rheinmetall to support the German SPOCK-1 satellite reconnaissance program. (11/12)
Canada's Maritime Launch Services Reports Q3 Results (Source: Maritime Launch Services)
For the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, MLS recognized revenue of $5,566,148 and $12,100,567, respectively, compared to $nil in the corresponding periods of 2025. The increase was primarily attributable to the commencement of revenue recognition under new long-term commercial agreements during 2026, comprising lease revenue from spaceport infrastructure and launch services revenue.
For the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2026, the Company earned net income and comprehensive income of $3,518,473 and $5,659,004, respectively, as compared to a net loss and comprehensive loss of $5,745,870 and $6,906,904 for the comparable periods in the prior year. The improvement in profitability primarily reflected higher revenue from the Company's long-term commercial agreements.(11/13)
BAE Systems Selected as a Mission-Enabling Space Technologies Partner for NASA PRIMA Astrophysics Program (Source: BAE)
BAE Systems announced today that its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-led PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics) team has been selected by NASA for the next phase of development in NASA's new class of "Probe Explorers" astrophysics missions. BAE Systems will provide its Evolve+ spacecraft bus for the mission, lead the observatory assembly, integration and test process, and serve as the operations and ground lead for NASA's JPL, the manager of the mission. (11/13)
Germany's Singulus Signs €60 Million Contract with SpaceX for Satellite Solar Cell Supply (Source: Euronews.com)
SpaceX signed a €60 million deal with German mechanical engineering company Singulus Technologies for the strategic supply of solar cells, giving the German company a massive price jump. Following the deal, the company's stock temporarily spiked by 65% to 80%, which valued the firm at around €73 million. As part of a strategic partnership, further facilities and production lines are planned to be created for a solar power production capacity of 100 gigawatts, the equivalent of the annual production of ten large nuclear reactors. (11/11)
Air Force Backs Ursa Major's "Draper" Hypersonic Engine Development with $10.9 Million (Source: FlightGlobal)
The Air Force Research Laboratory has exercised a $10.9M option on Ursa Major's contract to continue development of Draper, a storable liquid rocket engine built for hypersonic applications. This exercised option follows the successful flights of the Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator as part of the same contract. (11/12)
India, Brazil Join Hands With Skyroot Aerospace to Develop Satellite Launch Vehicle (Source: Republic World)
Brazil and India are taking their longstanding space cooperation to a new level, with companies from both countries agreeing to jointly develop a satellite launch vehicle capable of carrying payloads of at least 100 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The agreement was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in October between Brazil's Micro Launcher Program consortium member Concert Technologies and Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace. (11/12)
Northrop Grumman to Integrate Mission Systems Into Hermeus’ Quarterhorse Aircraft (Source: Breaking Defense)
Hermeus and Northrop Grumman have signed a teaming agreement to integrate military mission systems into Hermeus’ Quarterhorse aircraft. The companies aim to field reusable, autonomous aircraft for the U.S. military that can fly at supersonic speeds or faster and take on more complex missions. Northrop Grumman will design, develop, integrate and support the mission systems, drawing on its experience in electronic warfare, communications, sensing and autonomy. Hermeus said the agreement also covers work in navigation and command and control. (11/12)
Voyager 1 To Become First Human-Made Object To Reach One Light-Day On Nov 18 (Source: NDTV)
Voyager 1 is precariously close to scripting history by becoming the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth next week. Launched in 1977, NASA's deep space probe will reach the milestone on Wednesday, November 18, after nearly 50 years of continuous travel through the virgin interstellar space. With Voyager 1 at a distance of one light-day, a signal sent from Earth will take a full day just to reach the probe, highlighting the gargantuan scale of the universe. One light-day is equivalent to 26 billion kilometers. (11/11)
AST Blacklift Rocket Targeting Launches From Virginia Spaceport (Sources: Space News, Ars Technica)
AST SpaceMobile says it is confident it can field a medium-lift launch vehicle in just two years despite widespread industry skepticism. AST executives argued that by purchasing rocket engines from Firefly Aerospace for its Blacklift rocket, is "starting this program on third base" and skipping years of development time. It also pointed to its experience developing carbon composite structures for its satellites, a technology it will use on its rocket. Abel Avellan emphasized, over and over again, that AST plans to build a “simple” rocket. He paraphrased SpaceX founder Elon Musk several times, saying, “the best part is no part.”
“We’re not doing this thing because we like rockets,” Avellan said during the presentation. “We’re not doing this thing because we want to be in the launch business. We want this because we have so much demand of our satellites, and as you have seen it, we cannot get enough launches.”
The company repeated a claim that it will initially launch Blacklift from an existing pad at Wallops Island, Virginia, originally built for Northrop Grumman's Antares. However, a spokesperson for the Virginia Spaceport Authority, which operates the commercial launch pads at Wallops, said that while it has held preliminary discussions with AST SpaceMobile, those talks have specifically excluded that pad. (11/13)
Iceye Expanding in California to Develop SAR Systems (Source: Space News)
The U.S. subsidiary of Iceye is increasing satellite production as it looks to expand beyond radar imagery. The CEO of Iceye US said the company sees opportunities to provide synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, systems for defense programs, including those designed to track moving targets. Iceye US is establishing manufacturing capabilities at an expanded facility in California, hiring 40 people since June. Iceye US operates a separate constellation of U.S.-licensed and operated radar-imaging satellites and has considerable autonomy from its Finnish parent. (11/13)
Relativity Expands Focus to Mars Orbiter Development (Source: Space News)
Relativity Space is highlighting advanced technology that will go on a privately funded Mars orbiter it is developing. Relativity announced in June it was building that spacecraft to launch in late 2028, carrying a suite of NASA instruments to study the Martian atmosphere. A company official said the spacecraft will include an optical communications link capable of returning data at speeds up to 1,000 megabits per second. The spacecraft will also carry 1,000 terabytes of storage and more than 10 teraflops of computing, enabling the spacecraft to collect and analyze large amounts of data. In addition to the NASA instruments, the spacecraft will carry a Relativity-developed radar for probing the Martian subsurface as well as other, undisclosed instruments from partners. (11/13)
SpaceX/Tesla Merger Talks Advance (Source: Bloomberg)
Talks about a potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla are advancing. Industry sources said the two companies, both run by Elon Musk, could be ready to announce a merger as soon as December. Musk said in October that the boards of both companies had established special committees to consider a merger, and that he was not involved in those discussions. Musk, though, has been pushing for a merger, seeking to combine the companies' capabilities in AI and robotics as applied in areas ranging from spacecraft to driverless cars. (11/13)
SpaceX Data Center Plans Include Billions for Terrestrial and Space Facilities (Source: New York Times)
SpaceX, with ambitions to develop orbital data centers, plans to spend $74 billion on terrestrial data centers. The company said Thursday it is seeking to spend $24 billion on one data center at Starbase, Texas, and $50 billion on another in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. Data centers have been a major source of capital expenditure for SpaceX, overshadowing spending on launch vehicles and spacecraft, but also a major source of revenue as it leases capacity to companies like Anthropic and Google. (11/13)
ESA's Hera Nears Binary Asteroid (Source: ESA)
ESA's Hera spacecraft has arrived at the vicinity of a binary asteroid that was visited by a NASA planetary defense mission. ESA said this week that Hera is now about 25 to 30 kilometers from Didymos and its moon Dimorphos and has started the early characterization phase of the mission. Hera launched in 2024 as a followup to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission, where a spacecraft deliberately collided with Dimorphos as a test of deflecting the orbits of asteroids. Hera and two cubesats it will later deploy will see how Dimorphos was altered by the collision. (11/13)
China's Jupiter Mission Advances (Source: Space News)
A Chinese mission to Jupiter will attempt to land on one of the planet's major moons. The China National Space Administration published a notice Friday soliciting proposals to develop instruments for the country's Tianwen-4 Jupiter probe, slated to launch around 2030. The notice states that the mission's main goals are to orbit Jupiter, orbit the Jovian moon Callisto and conduct lander exploration of that moon. Callisto is the outermost of the four large Galilean moons of Jupiter. Earlier plans for Tianwen-4 also included studies of irregular Jovian moons and a secondary spacecraft that would separate and fly by Uranus, but there is no mention of a Uranus probe in the notice. (11/13)
York Takes $750 Million Charge, Citing Military Market Uncertainty (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems said Thursday it was taking a $750 million charge, citing uncertainty about future military satellite contracts. The Denver-based satellite manufacturer reported a net loss of $807.4 million in the third quarter, compared with a $20.1 million loss a year earlier. The company said its $749.7 million noncash goodwill impairment reflected the difficulty of estimating the timing and value of government contract awards beyond 2026.
York still expects major government contracts to materialize, although the company now assumes new awards will arrive later in 2027 and into 2028. York's fortunes have been closely tied to the Space Development Agency, which awarded the company contracts to manufacture dozens of satellites. However, as SDA's plans change, a relatively predictable sequence of satellite production contracts under SDA's original tranche-based approach is giving way to a less certain procurement process for the company. (11/13)
Blue Origin Abandons Space Station Plans (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin no longer plans to participate in a NASA competition to support development of commercial space stations. CEO Dave Limp told employees Thursday that the company would not bid on the next phase of NASA's Commercial LEO Development, or CLD program, as it focuses on launch vehicles and lunar infrastructure. Blue Origin said in a statement that it is "focusing resources on capabilities that directly advance our lunar projects."
Blue Origin proposed the Orbital Reef space station five years ago and won a funded Space Act Agreement for the first phase of the CLD program in late 2021. The announcement comes a month after NASA issued a final RFP for the next CLD phase, which will support development and initial operations of commercial stations intended to succeed the International Space Station. (11/13)
Trusted Space Acquires ExoDynamics (Source: Space News)
Defense software company Trusted Space has acquired Falcon ExoDynamics, a specialist in spacecraft autonomy. The companies did not disclose the terms of the acquisition, announced Thursday. Trusted Space develops software for mission planning, satellite coordination and military command and control. Falcon ExoDynamics focuses on spacecraft autonomy, including rendezvous and proximity operations, as well as integrated hardware and software systems. The companies aim to connect these capabilities so that military operators can assign tasks to satellites and allow onboard software to determine how to execute them within established safety limits. (11/13)
Commerce Dept. Picks Companies for Mission Authorization Pilot (Source: Space News)
The Office of Space Commerce selected four companies to participate in a mission authorization pilot program. The office announced Thursday that Cowboy Space, Portal Space Systems, SpaceMD and Starcloud will participate in the pilot of the office's Space Commerce Certification system, intended to provide regulatory certainty for companies developing new space products and services that are not licensed by other agencies. The certification, announced earlier this year, is a voluntary system that provides an interagency review of novel space activities. The participating companies, operating in fields ranging from orbital data centers to space pharmaceuticals, will help develop the application form for the certification and test-drive the review process. (11/13)
NeuralSat Raises €2.9M to Build Orbital Data Relay Network (Source: Payload)
German startup NeuralSat announced a €2.9M ($3.2M) pre-seed funding round today to develop a 72-sat in-space data relay and processing network, aimed at speeding up the flow of data to and from space. NeuralSat is also a member of ESA’s Business Incubation Center (ESA BIC) and the NVIDIA Inception Program. (11/12)
Satellites Observe Changes in Great Pacific Garbage Patch Since 2002 (Source: Futura)
Satellites tracking the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii have recorded a gradual shift in water color over twenty years. A University of Bergen study found that waters in and around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch grew brighter in blue and green wavelengths between 2002 and 2022. Researchers suspect accumulating microplastics are scattering sunlight back into space, though they have not yet proved plastic waste is turning the sea cyan.
Ocean Cleanup estimates that this region holds more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic weighing roughly 110,000 tons. Tiny microplastics measuring between 0.02 and 0.2 inches across account for only about 8 percent of that total weight, yet they make up the vast majority of individual fragments drifting near the surface. (11/12)
Russia Still Developing a Starlink Alternative (Source: Tech Radar)
Russia's Rassvet-3 spacecraft have struggled to reach their intended orbital positions, raising questions about the project's ability to deliver reliable connectivity. Moscow is now pursuing an apparent replacement through an improved satellite design called Rassvet-4, although several important details remain undisclosed.
Russia has submitted documentation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) concerning a proposed Rassvet-4 network involving 374 satellites operating approximately 800 kilometers above Earth. The planned constellation would occupy 17 orbital planes, with each containing 22 spacecraft intended to provide satellite communications coverage across designated regions. The ITU documentation shows limited information about Rassvet-4's communications equipment, including its operating frequencies and antenna beam configuration. (11/10)
SpaceX Just Cleared a Key FCC Hurdle in its Fight with Verizon and AT&T (Source: Teslarati)
The Federal Communications Commission has formally opened its review of SpaceX’s plan to buy a nationwide block of 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management, moving Starlink Mobile one step closer to operating as a full U.S. wireless carrier. Acceptance is not approval. It means the applications cleared an initial review and the public comment window is now open. Comments and petitions to deny are due December 1, and oppositions are due December 8. (11/11)
A Robot Has Assembled a Structure in Space for the First Time (Source: New Scientist)
A robot has built a structure in space without any help of astronauts. The first-of-its-kind achievement is a step towards autonomous in-orbit manufacturing and assembly of structures such as space stations and data centers, which will be crucial if we want to develop an orbital economy.
Sergio Pellegrino at the California Institute of Technology and his team developed their robot as part of a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative to explore new ways to build in space. Large orbiting structures in the past have either been assembled with the help of astronauts or launched pre-assembled and folded up, spring-loaded to unfold upon release from their capsules. (11/12)
NASA’s efforts to develop a lunar base continued with the award of contracts for a new generation of lunar landers as well as transportation for some missions. NASA announced at a Nov. 7 briefing that it awarded six task orders to several companies for transporting lunar landers and orbiters, although some of the selected launches do not have payloads assigned to them.
Two of the task orders involve launches of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, three task orders are for launches of Blue Origin’s New Glenn and the sixth task order involves the launch of a Terran R rocket from Relativity Space. NASA also announced at the briefing the companies selected for CLPS 2.0, the follow-on to the existing CLPS contract used for procuring landers and other lunar missions. (11/13)
Space Coast's BRPH Solves Space Problems, Even $40K Gopher Tortoises (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Designing and building launch facilities on the Space Coast takes a unique talent set that includes managing the expectations of Fortune 500 companies and the capriciousness of gopher tortoises. That’s a common logistical problem for Melbourne-based BRPH. Without naming which pad, BRPH officials earlier this year said it cost $40,000 to deal with four gopher tortoises at one launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“It is a cautionary thing, but it’s the right thing to do,” said Cliff Higgins, the company’s vice president of Aerospace Integrated Services. “We’re trying to be sensitive to all of the environmental concerns; it’s part of our process.” The company was founded in 1964 by three engineers and an architect to support the burgeoning space race. Now more than 60 years later, the company continues to expand. “We’ve grown from about 250 to 400 just in the last few years. And obviously a lot of that’s due to all the projects that we are involved with here on the Space Coast,” said Stephanie Wheeler. (11/11)
UK Military Taps Astronomers to Spot Snooping Foreign Satellites (Source: New Scientist)
The UK’s military and spy agencies are working with civilian academics to develop new ways to spot snooping by foreign satellites, researchers have revealed. The US, China and Russia have spy satellites as well as counter-surveillance satellite and spacecraft programs that can spy on other states’ satellites and observe others spying on theirs. Telescopes such as those at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain, can be used to observe satellites. (11/12)
Germany, Poland Tap SATIM to Analyze Military Satellite Imagery (Source: Defense News)
SATIM, a Polish maker of AI-based analysis tools for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, has obtained a contract from Poland’s Ministry of National Defence to supply software for the automated analysis of satellite imagery. The company is building on its ongoing cooperation with Germany’s Rheinmetall to support the German SPOCK-1 satellite reconnaissance program. (11/12)
Canada's Maritime Launch Services Reports Q3 Results (Source: Maritime Launch Services)
For the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, MLS recognized revenue of $5,566,148 and $12,100,567, respectively, compared to $nil in the corresponding periods of 2025. The increase was primarily attributable to the commencement of revenue recognition under new long-term commercial agreements during 2026, comprising lease revenue from spaceport infrastructure and launch services revenue.
For the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2026, the Company earned net income and comprehensive income of $3,518,473 and $5,659,004, respectively, as compared to a net loss and comprehensive loss of $5,745,870 and $6,906,904 for the comparable periods in the prior year. The improvement in profitability primarily reflected higher revenue from the Company's long-term commercial agreements.(11/13)
BAE Systems Selected as a Mission-Enabling Space Technologies Partner for NASA PRIMA Astrophysics Program (Source: BAE)
BAE Systems announced today that its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-led PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics) team has been selected by NASA for the next phase of development in NASA's new class of "Probe Explorers" astrophysics missions. BAE Systems will provide its Evolve+ spacecraft bus for the mission, lead the observatory assembly, integration and test process, and serve as the operations and ground lead for NASA's JPL, the manager of the mission. (11/13)
Germany's Singulus Signs €60 Million Contract with SpaceX for Satellite Solar Cell Supply (Source: Euronews.com)
SpaceX signed a €60 million deal with German mechanical engineering company Singulus Technologies for the strategic supply of solar cells, giving the German company a massive price jump. Following the deal, the company's stock temporarily spiked by 65% to 80%, which valued the firm at around €73 million. As part of a strategic partnership, further facilities and production lines are planned to be created for a solar power production capacity of 100 gigawatts, the equivalent of the annual production of ten large nuclear reactors. (11/11)
Air Force Backs Ursa Major's "Draper" Hypersonic Engine Development with $10.9 Million (Source: FlightGlobal)
The Air Force Research Laboratory has exercised a $10.9M option on Ursa Major's contract to continue development of Draper, a storable liquid rocket engine built for hypersonic applications. This exercised option follows the successful flights of the Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator as part of the same contract. (11/12)
India, Brazil Join Hands With Skyroot Aerospace to Develop Satellite Launch Vehicle (Source: Republic World)
Brazil and India are taking their longstanding space cooperation to a new level, with companies from both countries agreeing to jointly develop a satellite launch vehicle capable of carrying payloads of at least 100 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The agreement was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in October between Brazil's Micro Launcher Program consortium member Concert Technologies and Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace. (11/12)
Northrop Grumman to Integrate Mission Systems Into Hermeus’ Quarterhorse Aircraft (Source: Breaking Defense)
Hermeus and Northrop Grumman have signed a teaming agreement to integrate military mission systems into Hermeus’ Quarterhorse aircraft. The companies aim to field reusable, autonomous aircraft for the U.S. military that can fly at supersonic speeds or faster and take on more complex missions. Northrop Grumman will design, develop, integrate and support the mission systems, drawing on its experience in electronic warfare, communications, sensing and autonomy. Hermeus said the agreement also covers work in navigation and command and control. (11/12)
Voyager 1 To Become First Human-Made Object To Reach One Light-Day On Nov 18 (Source: NDTV)
Voyager 1 is precariously close to scripting history by becoming the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth next week. Launched in 1977, NASA's deep space probe will reach the milestone on Wednesday, November 18, after nearly 50 years of continuous travel through the virgin interstellar space. With Voyager 1 at a distance of one light-day, a signal sent from Earth will take a full day just to reach the probe, highlighting the gargantuan scale of the universe. One light-day is equivalent to 26 billion kilometers. (11/11)
AST Blacklift Rocket Targeting Launches From Virginia Spaceport (Sources: Space News, Ars Technica)
AST SpaceMobile says it is confident it can field a medium-lift launch vehicle in just two years despite widespread industry skepticism. AST executives argued that by purchasing rocket engines from Firefly Aerospace for its Blacklift rocket, is "starting this program on third base" and skipping years of development time. It also pointed to its experience developing carbon composite structures for its satellites, a technology it will use on its rocket. Abel Avellan emphasized, over and over again, that AST plans to build a “simple” rocket. He paraphrased SpaceX founder Elon Musk several times, saying, “the best part is no part.”
“We’re not doing this thing because we like rockets,” Avellan said during the presentation. “We’re not doing this thing because we want to be in the launch business. We want this because we have so much demand of our satellites, and as you have seen it, we cannot get enough launches.”
The company repeated a claim that it will initially launch Blacklift from an existing pad at Wallops Island, Virginia, originally built for Northrop Grumman's Antares. However, a spokesperson for the Virginia Spaceport Authority, which operates the commercial launch pads at Wallops, said that while it has held preliminary discussions with AST SpaceMobile, those talks have specifically excluded that pad. (11/13)
Iceye Expanding in California to Develop SAR Systems (Source: Space News)
The U.S. subsidiary of Iceye is increasing satellite production as it looks to expand beyond radar imagery. The CEO of Iceye US said the company sees opportunities to provide synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, systems for defense programs, including those designed to track moving targets. Iceye US is establishing manufacturing capabilities at an expanded facility in California, hiring 40 people since June. Iceye US operates a separate constellation of U.S.-licensed and operated radar-imaging satellites and has considerable autonomy from its Finnish parent. (11/13)
Relativity Expands Focus to Mars Orbiter Development (Source: Space News)
Relativity Space is highlighting advanced technology that will go on a privately funded Mars orbiter it is developing. Relativity announced in June it was building that spacecraft to launch in late 2028, carrying a suite of NASA instruments to study the Martian atmosphere. A company official said the spacecraft will include an optical communications link capable of returning data at speeds up to 1,000 megabits per second. The spacecraft will also carry 1,000 terabytes of storage and more than 10 teraflops of computing, enabling the spacecraft to collect and analyze large amounts of data. In addition to the NASA instruments, the spacecraft will carry a Relativity-developed radar for probing the Martian subsurface as well as other, undisclosed instruments from partners. (11/13)
SpaceX/Tesla Merger Talks Advance (Source: Bloomberg)
Talks about a potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla are advancing. Industry sources said the two companies, both run by Elon Musk, could be ready to announce a merger as soon as December. Musk said in October that the boards of both companies had established special committees to consider a merger, and that he was not involved in those discussions. Musk, though, has been pushing for a merger, seeking to combine the companies' capabilities in AI and robotics as applied in areas ranging from spacecraft to driverless cars. (11/13)
SpaceX Data Center Plans Include Billions for Terrestrial and Space Facilities (Source: New York Times)
SpaceX, with ambitions to develop orbital data centers, plans to spend $74 billion on terrestrial data centers. The company said Thursday it is seeking to spend $24 billion on one data center at Starbase, Texas, and $50 billion on another in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. Data centers have been a major source of capital expenditure for SpaceX, overshadowing spending on launch vehicles and spacecraft, but also a major source of revenue as it leases capacity to companies like Anthropic and Google. (11/13)
ESA's Hera Nears Binary Asteroid (Source: ESA)
ESA's Hera spacecraft has arrived at the vicinity of a binary asteroid that was visited by a NASA planetary defense mission. ESA said this week that Hera is now about 25 to 30 kilometers from Didymos and its moon Dimorphos and has started the early characterization phase of the mission. Hera launched in 2024 as a followup to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission, where a spacecraft deliberately collided with Dimorphos as a test of deflecting the orbits of asteroids. Hera and two cubesats it will later deploy will see how Dimorphos was altered by the collision. (11/13)
China's Jupiter Mission Advances (Source: Space News)
A Chinese mission to Jupiter will attempt to land on one of the planet's major moons. The China National Space Administration published a notice Friday soliciting proposals to develop instruments for the country's Tianwen-4 Jupiter probe, slated to launch around 2030. The notice states that the mission's main goals are to orbit Jupiter, orbit the Jovian moon Callisto and conduct lander exploration of that moon. Callisto is the outermost of the four large Galilean moons of Jupiter. Earlier plans for Tianwen-4 also included studies of irregular Jovian moons and a secondary spacecraft that would separate and fly by Uranus, but there is no mention of a Uranus probe in the notice. (11/13)
York Takes $750 Million Charge, Citing Military Market Uncertainty (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems said Thursday it was taking a $750 million charge, citing uncertainty about future military satellite contracts. The Denver-based satellite manufacturer reported a net loss of $807.4 million in the third quarter, compared with a $20.1 million loss a year earlier. The company said its $749.7 million noncash goodwill impairment reflected the difficulty of estimating the timing and value of government contract awards beyond 2026.
York still expects major government contracts to materialize, although the company now assumes new awards will arrive later in 2027 and into 2028. York's fortunes have been closely tied to the Space Development Agency, which awarded the company contracts to manufacture dozens of satellites. However, as SDA's plans change, a relatively predictable sequence of satellite production contracts under SDA's original tranche-based approach is giving way to a less certain procurement process for the company. (11/13)
Blue Origin Abandons Space Station Plans (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin no longer plans to participate in a NASA competition to support development of commercial space stations. CEO Dave Limp told employees Thursday that the company would not bid on the next phase of NASA's Commercial LEO Development, or CLD program, as it focuses on launch vehicles and lunar infrastructure. Blue Origin said in a statement that it is "focusing resources on capabilities that directly advance our lunar projects."
Blue Origin proposed the Orbital Reef space station five years ago and won a funded Space Act Agreement for the first phase of the CLD program in late 2021. The announcement comes a month after NASA issued a final RFP for the next CLD phase, which will support development and initial operations of commercial stations intended to succeed the International Space Station. (11/13)
Trusted Space Acquires ExoDynamics (Source: Space News)
Defense software company Trusted Space has acquired Falcon ExoDynamics, a specialist in spacecraft autonomy. The companies did not disclose the terms of the acquisition, announced Thursday. Trusted Space develops software for mission planning, satellite coordination and military command and control. Falcon ExoDynamics focuses on spacecraft autonomy, including rendezvous and proximity operations, as well as integrated hardware and software systems. The companies aim to connect these capabilities so that military operators can assign tasks to satellites and allow onboard software to determine how to execute them within established safety limits. (11/13)
Commerce Dept. Picks Companies for Mission Authorization Pilot (Source: Space News)
The Office of Space Commerce selected four companies to participate in a mission authorization pilot program. The office announced Thursday that Cowboy Space, Portal Space Systems, SpaceMD and Starcloud will participate in the pilot of the office's Space Commerce Certification system, intended to provide regulatory certainty for companies developing new space products and services that are not licensed by other agencies. The certification, announced earlier this year, is a voluntary system that provides an interagency review of novel space activities. The participating companies, operating in fields ranging from orbital data centers to space pharmaceuticals, will help develop the application form for the certification and test-drive the review process. (11/13)
NeuralSat Raises €2.9M to Build Orbital Data Relay Network (Source: Payload)
German startup NeuralSat announced a €2.9M ($3.2M) pre-seed funding round today to develop a 72-sat in-space data relay and processing network, aimed at speeding up the flow of data to and from space. NeuralSat is also a member of ESA’s Business Incubation Center (ESA BIC) and the NVIDIA Inception Program. (11/12)
Satellites Observe Changes in Great Pacific Garbage Patch Since 2002 (Source: Futura)
Satellites tracking the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii have recorded a gradual shift in water color over twenty years. A University of Bergen study found that waters in and around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch grew brighter in blue and green wavelengths between 2002 and 2022. Researchers suspect accumulating microplastics are scattering sunlight back into space, though they have not yet proved plastic waste is turning the sea cyan.
Ocean Cleanup estimates that this region holds more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic weighing roughly 110,000 tons. Tiny microplastics measuring between 0.02 and 0.2 inches across account for only about 8 percent of that total weight, yet they make up the vast majority of individual fragments drifting near the surface. (11/12)
Russia Still Developing a Starlink Alternative (Source: Tech Radar)
Russia's Rassvet-3 spacecraft have struggled to reach their intended orbital positions, raising questions about the project's ability to deliver reliable connectivity. Moscow is now pursuing an apparent replacement through an improved satellite design called Rassvet-4, although several important details remain undisclosed.
Russia has submitted documentation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) concerning a proposed Rassvet-4 network involving 374 satellites operating approximately 800 kilometers above Earth. The planned constellation would occupy 17 orbital planes, with each containing 22 spacecraft intended to provide satellite communications coverage across designated regions. The ITU documentation shows limited information about Rassvet-4's communications equipment, including its operating frequencies and antenna beam configuration. (11/10)
SpaceX Just Cleared a Key FCC Hurdle in its Fight with Verizon and AT&T (Source: Teslarati)
The Federal Communications Commission has formally opened its review of SpaceX’s plan to buy a nationwide block of 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management, moving Starlink Mobile one step closer to operating as a full U.S. wireless carrier. Acceptance is not approval. It means the applications cleared an initial review and the public comment window is now open. Comments and petitions to deny are due December 1, and oppositions are due December 8. (11/11)
A Robot Has Assembled a Structure in Space for the First Time (Source: New Scientist)
A robot has built a structure in space without any help of astronauts. The first-of-its-kind achievement is a step towards autonomous in-orbit manufacturing and assembly of structures such as space stations and data centers, which will be crucial if we want to develop an orbital economy.
Sergio Pellegrino at the California Institute of Technology and his team developed their robot as part of a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative to explore new ways to build in space. Large orbiting structures in the past have either been assembled with the help of astronauts or launched pre-assembled and folded up, spring-loaded to unfold upon release from their capsules. (11/12)
November 12, 2026
Europe’s Hera Spacecraft Begins Close
Inspections of an Asteroid Rammed by NASA in a 2022 Test (Source:
AP)
A European spacecraft has begun close inspections of an asteroid rammed by NASA four years ago in a planetary defense test. The European Space Agency announced Wednesday that the Hera spacecraft is now studying Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos from just 15 miles to 18 miles (25 kilometers to 30 kilometers) away. NASA’s Dart spacecraft deliberately slammed into little Dimorphos in 2022 to see whether such a defensive move might help save Earth from a killer space rock one day. (11/11)
NASA’s Secret Weapon in the Lunar Space Race May Be … Procurement Reform? (Source: Ars Technica)
Senior NASA officials held a lengthy news conference last weekend, laying out a series of lunar contract awards, new contract opportunities, and mission decisions. They followed one after the other: landers, nuclear-powered rovers, scouting drones, power generation, storage, and communication satellites. The rapid-fire announcement of awards tells us a few things about NASA’s efforts to return to the Moon and establish a durable settlement there during the next decade.
First, the agency is serious about this effort—the Artemis Moon Base program represents the most credible effort to establish a permanent outpost on another world in NASA’s history. Second, NASA is reaching out to all corners of the US commercial space industry, casting an extraordinarily wide net to reach companies that have yet to fly any hardware into orbit. Third, NASA is getting creative about how it’s buying these services, and this may matter most of all. (11/11)
NASA Kick-Starts a Fresh Push to Bring Mars Samples Home (Source: Space.com)
A long-term goal at NASA has been the ability to robotically haul back to Earth specimens from the Red Planet. NASA is kickstarting a new initiative for its troubled Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, called the Perseverance Sample Retrieval Architecture, or PSRA in space shorthand. The plan is to establish a fresh NASA strategy for gathering Mars samples collected by the Perseverance rover and launching them back to Earth. (11/11)
Kratos to Upgrade Gateway Antenna Systems for Thaicom-10 Satellite (Source: Via Satellite)
Gulf Space Technology Public Company Limited (GST), formerly Thaicom, selected Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to upgrade its ground infrastructure ahead of the THAICOM-10 satellite launch. Kratos will deliver the first Q/V/Ka-band gateway antenna systems for THAICOM-10, a software-defined high throughput satellite (SD-HTS). The deal was announced, Nov. 9. (11/11)
OwlO Cloud Emerges from Stealth to Build European Orbital Cloud Network (Source: Payload)
Luxembourg-based OwlO Cloud emerged from stealth today with plans to build a sovereign European orbital-cloud network. The company is aiming to help European satellite operators process more of their data in orbit. To do so, OwlO Cloud is planning to have at least 10 spacecraft—orbital cloud nodes (OCN)—operational by 2030. Each OCN will be equipped with data processing and storage hardware, as well as optical-comms tech, provided largely by European suppliers. (11/12)
Ukraine Seeing New Starlink Disruptions (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Ukraine says it is seeing new disruptions in its access to SpaceX's satellite network. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian drones are losing connections with Starshield, the military version of Starlink, when flying more than 160 kilometers per hour. Ukraine reported similar issues last month for a week and a half, when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reportedly restricted service. Neither SpaceX nor the U.S. government have commented on the new restrictions. (11/12)
ESA's Euclid Generates First Dataset (Source: Physics World)
ESA has released the first major set of observations from its Euclid space telescope. The data set, called DR1-Foundation, was released Thursday and includes 1,700 terabytes of observations spanning a region of the sky equivalent to 9,500 full moons. The observations include 900 million galaxies and 60 million potential quasars. The data is part of a broader set of observations of the full sky that astronomers plan to use to help study dark energy and dark matter (11/12)
China Launches Four-Satellite Tech Demo on Long March 2D (Source: Space News)
China launched a four-satellite technology demonstration mission Wednesday for future science missions. A Long March 2D lifted off at 6:41 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed the Origins Program Pathfinder mission into orbit. The mission features four satellites that will test technologies for the Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) Origins Program, which comprises four flagship missions intended to make major discoveries about the early universe, the Sun, Earth-like exoplanets and extreme astrophysics. (11/12)
SpaceX Launches Classified Satellites for Space Force Wednesday From California (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched another set of classified satellites for the Space Force overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:36 p.m. Eastern Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the USSF-627 mission. Neither SpaceX nor the Space Force disclosed details about the payload, although many observers believe this mission, like one last week, carried Starshield satellites. (11/12)
DARPA's ASTRA Demos In-Space Assembly (Source: Space News)
A DARPA-funded project has taken the first steps in demonstrating robotic in-space assembly. The Autonomous in-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) payload, developed by Caltech and flown on the Vigoride 7 spacecraft from Momentus, was designed to test the in-space assembly of a 1.4-meter antenna. Technical issues prevented ASTRA from building the full truss that would serve as the backbone for the antenna, but researchers said it showed the concept is viable and requires only technical refinements. The experiment was one of two funded by DARPA's Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design, or NOM4D, program. The other, developed by the University of Illinois, will soon go to the International Space Station. (11/12)
France Awards $1.7 Billion to Airbus and Thales Alenia for Military Reconnaissance Satellites (Source: Space News)
The French military awarded contracts worth more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to two companies to develop reconnaissance satellites. Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space won the contracts for the Instruments de renseignement et d'imagerie spatiale, or IRIS, program to develop two high-resolution visible and infrared imaging satellites. The two satellites will replace the three spacecraft that make up France's existing Optical Space Component (CSO) constellation, which were launched in 2018, 2020, and 2025. The first IRIS satellite is scheduled to launch in 2033 and the second in 2035. (11/12)
York Acquires Australia's Outlook Industries (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems is moving into ground systems with the acquisition of an Australian robotic company. York said Thursday it plans to acquire Outlook Industries, developer of a long-endurance unmanned ground vehicle used by the Australian Army. Outlook would become the foundation of a new business, York Terrestrial Systems. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal. The move marks a departure for York, which built its business manufacturing satellites and has spent the past several years acquiring companies that filled out its space infrastructure and supply chain. York expects future military customers will increasingly want networks that link spacecraft, communications terminals and ground infrastructure directly to fleets of unmanned vehicles operating in the field. (11/12)
SDA to Use SpaceX Intersatellite Laser Tech (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency awarded SpaceX a contract to study integrating the company's proprietary laser intersatellite links into SDA spacecraft. The $9.92 million contract, announced Tuesday, covers a risk-reduction study of SpaceX's Plug and Play Laser, known as Plaser, delivery of representative hardware and support for missile-warning and tracking system integration. The award comes amid a broader military effort to make the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA, interoperable with a separate SpaceX-built Space Data Network Backbone intended to move large volumes of sensor and targeting data around the battlefield. (11/12)
France's Gama Raises €15 Million for Deployable Solar Arrays (Source: Space News)
A French startup has raised 15 million euros to produce large deployable solar arrays. Gama announced the seed round Thursday, which will support development of its Wing solar array system and ramp up production at a factory outside Paris. The company says its technology enables very large arrays that can produce dozens of kilowatts of power for broadband, direct-to-device and orbital data center constellations. Gama was founded several years ago to pursue solar sails, and is leveraging the deployable technologies developed for those systems for its solar arrays. (11/12)
Italy's Revolv Space Raises €5 Million for Solar Array Drive Assemblies (Source: Space News)
Revolv Space has raised 5 million euros for advancing development of its solar array drive assemblies. The funding will allow the company, based in Italy and the Netherlands, to bolster research and development as well as production capacities. The funding will be used to fund research and development efforts on a product line of solar arrays that will be compatible with the company's current products, while also expanding a production facility in Italy and hiring more staff. (11/12)
NASA Nominees Breeze Through Senate Confirmation (Source: Space News)
Nominees for two NASA positions breezed through a confirmation hearing this week. Members of the Senate Commerce Committee had few questions for Joshua Shoemaker, nominated to be NASA's chief financial officer, and Robert Steinau, nominee for NASA inspector general, during a confirmation hearing Tuesday. Shoemaker is an accountant who is currently a senior adviser in NASA's Mission Support Directorate, while Steinau has worked for NASA's Office of Inspector General since 2009 and has led the office on an acting basis since late 2024. The committee will vote next Wednesday to advance those nominations to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. (11/12)
Impulse Space Awarded Two Task Orders for NASA’s Moon Base (Source: Douglas Messier)
Impulse Space has been awarded two task orders for NASA’s Moon Base program. The awards collectively provide access to Impulse’s entire product fleet, including the highly throttleable lander for cislunar space and surface cargo deliveries, the kick-stage Helios, and the performance maneuvering spacecraft Mira for enhanced mission flexibility. With missions scheduled to begin in 2028, these task orders were among the first awarded to support the Moon Base program. (11/11)
Blue Origin's New Northstar Rocket Engine (Sources: Blue Origin, SPACErePORT)
Blue Origin's newNorthstar, a new methalox (LOX/LNG) booster engine will produce 715,000 pounds of thrust. More than 65% of the engine will be produced through additive manufacturing. Compared to the BE-4 engine, Northstar reduces mass by 30% and parts count by 50%. Manufacturing advancements have also significantly shortened production timelines, enabling assembly in less than a day.
Northstar becomes Blue Origin’s second booster engine, joining BE-4. Together, the engines reinforce Blue Origin’s position as a leading producer of American-made rocket engines, providing a comprehensive propulsion portfolio that spans booster, upper-stage, and in-space engines. One report says Northstar is meant to cost about a quarter of a BE-4 and eventually replace it on New Glenn’s first stage. SpaceX said the next version of its Raptor engine targets 300 tons of thrust at sea level, which would nearly match Northstar’s proposed 324 tons of thrust. However, no prototypes are known. (11/11)
Starfighters Space Joins Exos Aerospace Team Pursuing Air Force AEDC Velocity Alliance Opportunities (Source: Starfighters)
Starfighters Space has joined a team led by Exos Aerospace to pursue opportunities through the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) Velocity Alliance. The Velocity Alliance is an enterprise-level acquisition vehicle established by AEDC and the Air Force Test Center to accelerate the sustainment, restoration and modernization of critical U.S. aerospace test infrastructure, including for hypersonic technologies. (11/11)
Air Force Wants AI for Cislunar Space Vehicles (Source: Defense Scoop)
The Air Force is surveying industry for ready-made artificial intelligence and machine learning software geared toward autonomous space vehicles operating outside of the near-Earth domain. The service is seeking out “flight-ready” concepts to help cislunar space vehicles run through autonomous maneuvers like “station-keeping, trajectory optimization, and hazard avoidance” of objects moving outside of planetary orbit. (11/10)
Germany's Isar Aerospace has SpaceX in its Sights (Source; Brussels Times)
German rocket launch start-up Isar Aerospace believes it could one day overtake US giant SpaceX, driven by surging defense demand in the space sector, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Speaking at an economic summit organized by the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, chief executive Daniel Metzler said he would not rule out Isar being ahead of SpaceX within 18 years. (11/10)
Advocates Urge Cameron County Leaders to Reject $24B SpaceX Data Center and Power Plant (Source: KRGV)
Environmental advocates protested outside the Cameron County Courthouse on Tuesday and urged county leaders to oppose a proposed $24 billion SpaceX data center and natural gas power plant near Brownsville. The South Texas Environmental Justice Network said it is worried about possible air pollution and water use from the project. The proposed development would be built on land near Brownsville that now falls within Starbase city limits.
“We’re out here to make it clear that we oppose the SpaceX data center and gas plants. We urge Cameron County commissioners to oppose the SpaceX data center. It would pollute the Rio Grande Valley, and it would use a tremendous amount of water,” South Texas Environmental Justice Network Co-founder Bekah Hinojosa said. (11/10)
With State/Local Incentives, Blue Origin Texas Expansion to Bring 2,000 Jobs (Source: Community Impact)
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space technology company, selected Hutto as the site for a $555 million advanced manufacturing and operations campus in early October. Called Constellation Park, the 1.3 million-square-foot complex is expected to house more than 2,000 jobs over the next 10 years, according to information from both the city and company.
To secure the deal, the city of Hutto, Hutto Economic Development Corp., Williamson County and state of Texas all offered economic development incentives to Blue Origin, said Cheney Gamboa, Hutto’s director of economic development. Because the local economic development incentives are not yet finalized, the details aren’t available publicly, Gamboa said.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office awarded Blue Origin an $18.2 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant as well as a $10,000 Veteran Created Job Bonus, which provides funding for each job filled by a veteran within the first year of its creation. HEDC’s economic incentive prioritizes jobs for Hutto residents. Using sales tax revenue, it provides Blue Origin with $10,000 per employee who has been a Hutto resident with a homesteaded property for at least a year. (11/10)
UAE’s Space Ambitions Move Forward with New Satellite Project (Source: Arabian Business)
The UAE is moving closer to building and operating its own advanced satellites, with a new project designed to monitor the Earth from space expected to launch in 2028. The country’s first synthetic aperture radar satellite, called Sirb-1, has just passed an important design stage, meaning engineers can now move towards building the spacecraft ahead of its planned launch. (11/11)
Isaacman Lays Out SLS Path to the 2030s (Source: NSF)
Isaacman said industry’s responses to NASA’s search for future commercial lunar transportation pointed to the 2030s, rather than an immediate replacement for the existing system, building on NASA’s previously announced decision to abandon SLS Block 1B and its Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). The emphasis was on improving the hardware and operations available now while preparing for a later transition.
NASA instead moved toward a near-Block 1 configuration using Centaur V, avoiding continued development of an upper stage dedicated to SLS. Centaur V is already in production for ULA’s Vulcan rocket. However, the stretched version planned for NASA remains in development. Isaacman expects the stretched stage to fly on Vulcan for DoD missions, not just on SLS.
Isaacman said modifications to Mobile Launcher 1 (ML-1) were being designed and hardware ordered. He expressed disappointment in stopping ML-2 development. “If you’re going to launch even on an eight-month cadence, you do not need the second mobile launcher. I know that’s heartbreaking for some out there and believe me that was nowhere near as ready as people believe it to be,” he said. (11/10)
A European spacecraft has begun close inspections of an asteroid rammed by NASA four years ago in a planetary defense test. The European Space Agency announced Wednesday that the Hera spacecraft is now studying Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos from just 15 miles to 18 miles (25 kilometers to 30 kilometers) away. NASA’s Dart spacecraft deliberately slammed into little Dimorphos in 2022 to see whether such a defensive move might help save Earth from a killer space rock one day. (11/11)
NASA’s Secret Weapon in the Lunar Space Race May Be … Procurement Reform? (Source: Ars Technica)
Senior NASA officials held a lengthy news conference last weekend, laying out a series of lunar contract awards, new contract opportunities, and mission decisions. They followed one after the other: landers, nuclear-powered rovers, scouting drones, power generation, storage, and communication satellites. The rapid-fire announcement of awards tells us a few things about NASA’s efforts to return to the Moon and establish a durable settlement there during the next decade.
First, the agency is serious about this effort—the Artemis Moon Base program represents the most credible effort to establish a permanent outpost on another world in NASA’s history. Second, NASA is reaching out to all corners of the US commercial space industry, casting an extraordinarily wide net to reach companies that have yet to fly any hardware into orbit. Third, NASA is getting creative about how it’s buying these services, and this may matter most of all. (11/11)
NASA Kick-Starts a Fresh Push to Bring Mars Samples Home (Source: Space.com)
A long-term goal at NASA has been the ability to robotically haul back to Earth specimens from the Red Planet. NASA is kickstarting a new initiative for its troubled Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, called the Perseverance Sample Retrieval Architecture, or PSRA in space shorthand. The plan is to establish a fresh NASA strategy for gathering Mars samples collected by the Perseverance rover and launching them back to Earth. (11/11)
Kratos to Upgrade Gateway Antenna Systems for Thaicom-10 Satellite (Source: Via Satellite)
Gulf Space Technology Public Company Limited (GST), formerly Thaicom, selected Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to upgrade its ground infrastructure ahead of the THAICOM-10 satellite launch. Kratos will deliver the first Q/V/Ka-band gateway antenna systems for THAICOM-10, a software-defined high throughput satellite (SD-HTS). The deal was announced, Nov. 9. (11/11)
OwlO Cloud Emerges from Stealth to Build European Orbital Cloud Network (Source: Payload)
Luxembourg-based OwlO Cloud emerged from stealth today with plans to build a sovereign European orbital-cloud network. The company is aiming to help European satellite operators process more of their data in orbit. To do so, OwlO Cloud is planning to have at least 10 spacecraft—orbital cloud nodes (OCN)—operational by 2030. Each OCN will be equipped with data processing and storage hardware, as well as optical-comms tech, provided largely by European suppliers. (11/12)
Ukraine Seeing New Starlink Disruptions (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Ukraine says it is seeing new disruptions in its access to SpaceX's satellite network. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian drones are losing connections with Starshield, the military version of Starlink, when flying more than 160 kilometers per hour. Ukraine reported similar issues last month for a week and a half, when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reportedly restricted service. Neither SpaceX nor the U.S. government have commented on the new restrictions. (11/12)
ESA's Euclid Generates First Dataset (Source: Physics World)
ESA has released the first major set of observations from its Euclid space telescope. The data set, called DR1-Foundation, was released Thursday and includes 1,700 terabytes of observations spanning a region of the sky equivalent to 9,500 full moons. The observations include 900 million galaxies and 60 million potential quasars. The data is part of a broader set of observations of the full sky that astronomers plan to use to help study dark energy and dark matter (11/12)
China Launches Four-Satellite Tech Demo on Long March 2D (Source: Space News)
China launched a four-satellite technology demonstration mission Wednesday for future science missions. A Long March 2D lifted off at 6:41 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed the Origins Program Pathfinder mission into orbit. The mission features four satellites that will test technologies for the Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) Origins Program, which comprises four flagship missions intended to make major discoveries about the early universe, the Sun, Earth-like exoplanets and extreme astrophysics. (11/12)
SpaceX Launches Classified Satellites for Space Force Wednesday From California (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched another set of classified satellites for the Space Force overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:36 p.m. Eastern Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the USSF-627 mission. Neither SpaceX nor the Space Force disclosed details about the payload, although many observers believe this mission, like one last week, carried Starshield satellites. (11/12)
DARPA's ASTRA Demos In-Space Assembly (Source: Space News)
A DARPA-funded project has taken the first steps in demonstrating robotic in-space assembly. The Autonomous in-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) payload, developed by Caltech and flown on the Vigoride 7 spacecraft from Momentus, was designed to test the in-space assembly of a 1.4-meter antenna. Technical issues prevented ASTRA from building the full truss that would serve as the backbone for the antenna, but researchers said it showed the concept is viable and requires only technical refinements. The experiment was one of two funded by DARPA's Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design, or NOM4D, program. The other, developed by the University of Illinois, will soon go to the International Space Station. (11/12)
France Awards $1.7 Billion to Airbus and Thales Alenia for Military Reconnaissance Satellites (Source: Space News)
The French military awarded contracts worth more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to two companies to develop reconnaissance satellites. Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space won the contracts for the Instruments de renseignement et d'imagerie spatiale, or IRIS, program to develop two high-resolution visible and infrared imaging satellites. The two satellites will replace the three spacecraft that make up France's existing Optical Space Component (CSO) constellation, which were launched in 2018, 2020, and 2025. The first IRIS satellite is scheduled to launch in 2033 and the second in 2035. (11/12)
York Acquires Australia's Outlook Industries (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems is moving into ground systems with the acquisition of an Australian robotic company. York said Thursday it plans to acquire Outlook Industries, developer of a long-endurance unmanned ground vehicle used by the Australian Army. Outlook would become the foundation of a new business, York Terrestrial Systems. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal. The move marks a departure for York, which built its business manufacturing satellites and has spent the past several years acquiring companies that filled out its space infrastructure and supply chain. York expects future military customers will increasingly want networks that link spacecraft, communications terminals and ground infrastructure directly to fleets of unmanned vehicles operating in the field. (11/12)
SDA to Use SpaceX Intersatellite Laser Tech (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency awarded SpaceX a contract to study integrating the company's proprietary laser intersatellite links into SDA spacecraft. The $9.92 million contract, announced Tuesday, covers a risk-reduction study of SpaceX's Plug and Play Laser, known as Plaser, delivery of representative hardware and support for missile-warning and tracking system integration. The award comes amid a broader military effort to make the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA, interoperable with a separate SpaceX-built Space Data Network Backbone intended to move large volumes of sensor and targeting data around the battlefield. (11/12)
France's Gama Raises €15 Million for Deployable Solar Arrays (Source: Space News)
A French startup has raised 15 million euros to produce large deployable solar arrays. Gama announced the seed round Thursday, which will support development of its Wing solar array system and ramp up production at a factory outside Paris. The company says its technology enables very large arrays that can produce dozens of kilowatts of power for broadband, direct-to-device and orbital data center constellations. Gama was founded several years ago to pursue solar sails, and is leveraging the deployable technologies developed for those systems for its solar arrays. (11/12)
Italy's Revolv Space Raises €5 Million for Solar Array Drive Assemblies (Source: Space News)
Revolv Space has raised 5 million euros for advancing development of its solar array drive assemblies. The funding will allow the company, based in Italy and the Netherlands, to bolster research and development as well as production capacities. The funding will be used to fund research and development efforts on a product line of solar arrays that will be compatible with the company's current products, while also expanding a production facility in Italy and hiring more staff. (11/12)
NASA Nominees Breeze Through Senate Confirmation (Source: Space News)
Nominees for two NASA positions breezed through a confirmation hearing this week. Members of the Senate Commerce Committee had few questions for Joshua Shoemaker, nominated to be NASA's chief financial officer, and Robert Steinau, nominee for NASA inspector general, during a confirmation hearing Tuesday. Shoemaker is an accountant who is currently a senior adviser in NASA's Mission Support Directorate, while Steinau has worked for NASA's Office of Inspector General since 2009 and has led the office on an acting basis since late 2024. The committee will vote next Wednesday to advance those nominations to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. (11/12)
Impulse Space Awarded Two Task Orders for NASA’s Moon Base (Source: Douglas Messier)
Impulse Space has been awarded two task orders for NASA’s Moon Base program. The awards collectively provide access to Impulse’s entire product fleet, including the highly throttleable lander for cislunar space and surface cargo deliveries, the kick-stage Helios, and the performance maneuvering spacecraft Mira for enhanced mission flexibility. With missions scheduled to begin in 2028, these task orders were among the first awarded to support the Moon Base program. (11/11)
Blue Origin's New Northstar Rocket Engine (Sources: Blue Origin, SPACErePORT)
Blue Origin's newNorthstar, a new methalox (LOX/LNG) booster engine will produce 715,000 pounds of thrust. More than 65% of the engine will be produced through additive manufacturing. Compared to the BE-4 engine, Northstar reduces mass by 30% and parts count by 50%. Manufacturing advancements have also significantly shortened production timelines, enabling assembly in less than a day.
Northstar becomes Blue Origin’s second booster engine, joining BE-4. Together, the engines reinforce Blue Origin’s position as a leading producer of American-made rocket engines, providing a comprehensive propulsion portfolio that spans booster, upper-stage, and in-space engines. One report says Northstar is meant to cost about a quarter of a BE-4 and eventually replace it on New Glenn’s first stage. SpaceX said the next version of its Raptor engine targets 300 tons of thrust at sea level, which would nearly match Northstar’s proposed 324 tons of thrust. However, no prototypes are known. (11/11)
Starfighters Space Joins Exos Aerospace Team Pursuing Air Force AEDC Velocity Alliance Opportunities (Source: Starfighters)
Starfighters Space has joined a team led by Exos Aerospace to pursue opportunities through the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) Velocity Alliance. The Velocity Alliance is an enterprise-level acquisition vehicle established by AEDC and the Air Force Test Center to accelerate the sustainment, restoration and modernization of critical U.S. aerospace test infrastructure, including for hypersonic technologies. (11/11)
Air Force Wants AI for Cislunar Space Vehicles (Source: Defense Scoop)
The Air Force is surveying industry for ready-made artificial intelligence and machine learning software geared toward autonomous space vehicles operating outside of the near-Earth domain. The service is seeking out “flight-ready” concepts to help cislunar space vehicles run through autonomous maneuvers like “station-keeping, trajectory optimization, and hazard avoidance” of objects moving outside of planetary orbit. (11/10)
Germany's Isar Aerospace has SpaceX in its Sights (Source; Brussels Times)
German rocket launch start-up Isar Aerospace believes it could one day overtake US giant SpaceX, driven by surging defense demand in the space sector, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Speaking at an economic summit organized by the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, chief executive Daniel Metzler said he would not rule out Isar being ahead of SpaceX within 18 years. (11/10)
Advocates Urge Cameron County Leaders to Reject $24B SpaceX Data Center and Power Plant (Source: KRGV)
Environmental advocates protested outside the Cameron County Courthouse on Tuesday and urged county leaders to oppose a proposed $24 billion SpaceX data center and natural gas power plant near Brownsville. The South Texas Environmental Justice Network said it is worried about possible air pollution and water use from the project. The proposed development would be built on land near Brownsville that now falls within Starbase city limits.
“We’re out here to make it clear that we oppose the SpaceX data center and gas plants. We urge Cameron County commissioners to oppose the SpaceX data center. It would pollute the Rio Grande Valley, and it would use a tremendous amount of water,” South Texas Environmental Justice Network Co-founder Bekah Hinojosa said. (11/10)
With State/Local Incentives, Blue Origin Texas Expansion to Bring 2,000 Jobs (Source: Community Impact)
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space technology company, selected Hutto as the site for a $555 million advanced manufacturing and operations campus in early October. Called Constellation Park, the 1.3 million-square-foot complex is expected to house more than 2,000 jobs over the next 10 years, according to information from both the city and company.
To secure the deal, the city of Hutto, Hutto Economic Development Corp., Williamson County and state of Texas all offered economic development incentives to Blue Origin, said Cheney Gamboa, Hutto’s director of economic development. Because the local economic development incentives are not yet finalized, the details aren’t available publicly, Gamboa said.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office awarded Blue Origin an $18.2 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant as well as a $10,000 Veteran Created Job Bonus, which provides funding for each job filled by a veteran within the first year of its creation. HEDC’s economic incentive prioritizes jobs for Hutto residents. Using sales tax revenue, it provides Blue Origin with $10,000 per employee who has been a Hutto resident with a homesteaded property for at least a year. (11/10)
UAE’s Space Ambitions Move Forward with New Satellite Project (Source: Arabian Business)
The UAE is moving closer to building and operating its own advanced satellites, with a new project designed to monitor the Earth from space expected to launch in 2028. The country’s first synthetic aperture radar satellite, called Sirb-1, has just passed an important design stage, meaning engineers can now move towards building the spacecraft ahead of its planned launch. (11/11)
Isaacman Lays Out SLS Path to the 2030s (Source: NSF)
Isaacman said industry’s responses to NASA’s search for future commercial lunar transportation pointed to the 2030s, rather than an immediate replacement for the existing system, building on NASA’s previously announced decision to abandon SLS Block 1B and its Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). The emphasis was on improving the hardware and operations available now while preparing for a later transition.
NASA instead moved toward a near-Block 1 configuration using Centaur V, avoiding continued development of an upper stage dedicated to SLS. Centaur V is already in production for ULA’s Vulcan rocket. However, the stretched version planned for NASA remains in development. Isaacman expects the stretched stage to fly on Vulcan for DoD missions, not just on SLS.
Isaacman said modifications to Mobile Launcher 1 (ML-1) were being designed and hardware ordered. He expressed disappointment in stopping ML-2 development. “If you’re going to launch even on an eight-month cadence, you do not need the second mobile launcher. I know that’s heartbreaking for some out there and believe me that was nowhere near as ready as people believe it to be,” he said. (11/10)
November 11, 2026
Amazon Set to Launch 40 Satellites on
ULA's Vulcan Rocket (Source: Advanced Television)
Amazon is set to launch 40 broadband satellites on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket as part of Amazon Leo, which aims to deploy more than 1,500 satellites through 38 missions. The launch, scheduled for Nov. 13, marks the first use of Vulcan's six-booster configuration and a shorter Centaur V upper stage. "Vulcan will launch close to half our first-generation constellation, making it our primary workhorse over the next several years, and we're looking forward to kicking off the sprint with our partners at ULA," says Melissa Wuerl, director of launch systems for Amazon Leo. (11/10)
Viasat Wins $450M Space Force Contract for Data Network (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
Viasat has secured a $450 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract from Space Systems Command to support the Space Data Network Backbone mission operations center, including a $115 million task order. The center will integrate and manage connectivity services, providing resilient data transport for initiatives such as Golden Dome for America. (11/10)
Air Force Seeks Off-Shelf Autonomous Space Vehicle Software (Source: Defense Scoop)
The Air Force has issued a request for information to industry, seeking ready-to-deploy software for autonomous cislunar space vehicles. The service emphasizes the need for flight-ready solutions capable of supporting tasks such as station-keeping, trajectory optimization, and hazard avoidance. Submissions must require minimal development and be operational within 90 days of authorization. (11/10)
SpaceX Sidesteps Moratorium to Build $24 Billion Data Center at Starbase (Source: Texas Tribune)
SpaceX is planning to build a $24 billion data center and power plant just outside of Brownsville on property that the city had just de-annexed earlier this year at the company’s request, circumventing Brownsville’s data center moratorium that went into effect last week. On Monday, the city of Starbase, which later annexed land where the project will be built into their city limits, notified the public that SpaceX is building a $24 billion “gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility.”
The $24 billion investment is expected to cover the initial phases of the project which could include future expansions, according to the Monday notice which stated that the Starbase city commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing in December in which they will consider tax breaks for the project. The 444.45 acres of land where the project will be located was the subject of local scrutiny over the summer, when SpaceX asked the city of Brownsville to de-annex that land. In exchange, the company offered to fund $220 million for city water and wastewater projects. (11/10)
Iridium Anticipates DoD Work (Source: Space News)
Iridium expects to secure another long-term Pentagon satellite communications contract as it pitches new capabilities. The company's seven-year Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services agreement, known as EMSS, expires in March 2027 after the U.S. Space Force extended it for six months in September. Under that contract, Iridium provides unlimited voice, messaging and data services for military personnel and other government customers. Iridium says it is in talks with the Space Force on a new deal as well as additional services, such as D2D services for a wider range of military equipment. (11/11)
Anduril Enters Satellite Market (Source: Space News)
Anduril has developed three satellite payload systems for space surveillance and other applications. Several technologies were demonstrated aboard Anduril-216, a company-funded satellite launched in July. The payloads include an infrared sensor designed to detect spacecraft even when they are obscured by Earth's shadow, an onboard computer that can process data and support autonomous operations, and a power-management system that allows different payloads to operate on commercially manufactured satellites. Anduril executives said the company wants to become a mission systems integrator, combining spacecraft, sensors, computing hardware and software into operational systems tailored to military requirements. (11/11)
Dream Chaser to Fly Next Year (Source: Space News)
The first flight of Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane is expected next spring. The FAA said Monday it issued a reentry license to Sierra Space, allowing up to four Dream Chaser landings a year at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The FAA said the license supports the company's plans for a first flight in the spring of 2027, although Sierra Space has not announced a date for the mission. The company developed Sierra Space to transport cargo to the International Space Station, although the company now plans to use the uncrewed vehicle for other applications for government and commercial customers. (11/11)
UK Picks Lockheed Martin for Military Satellite Contract (Source: Sky News)
The British government is considering awarding a military communications satellite contract to an American company. The U.K. Ministry of Defence has reportedly recommended that a contract for a new generation of Skynet satellites worth 2.4 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) be awarded to Lockheed Martin rather than Airbus Defence and Space, which built previous generations of those satellites at a U.K. facility. Those reports claim that Airbus warned it would cut up to 3,000 jobs at British facilities if the government selected Lockheed for the contract, although Lockheed pledged to build the satellites in a new factory in Britain. A final decision on the contract will be made by Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the next two weeks. (11/11)
UK Gains Ownership Stake in SaxaVord Spaceport (Source: European Spaceflight)
The U.K. government now owns more than a quarter of SaxaVord Spaceport as part of a public-private investment agreement. The British government announced in September it would invest 30 million pounds ($40 million) in the spaceport, an amount matched by Wild Ventures, an investment firm owned by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen. Wild Ventures was previously the majority shareholder in SaxaVord but now owns between 25% and 50% of the spaceport, according to company filings, which also state that the government also owns between 25% and 50%. SaxaVord plans to use the new funding to build out spaceport infrastructure, including additional launch pads. (11/11)
China Recruiting International Partners for Cislunar Constellation (Source: Space News)
China is recruiting international partners for a constellation of small spacecraft operating in cislunar space. The Cislunar CubeSat Constellation (C3) is led by the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory and the International Deep Space Exploration Association with support from the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization. C3 features 30 standardized 12U cubesats of up to 25 kilograms each, plus four lunar resource exploration satellites of about 200 kilograms. The cubesats will operate in nine-day orbits at altitudes ranging from 10,000 to 360,000 kilometers, and would each carry a high-energy particle imager, a magnetometer and a gamma-ray burst detector. Partners identified so far for C3 include Thailand, Serbia, Egypt, Senegal and Indonesia. (11/11)
Reflect Orbital Raises $73.5 Million for Beaming Sunlight (Source: Space News)
Reflect Orbital has raised $73.5 million for satellites that would reflect sunlight to the ground, a concept that has attracted potential customers and controversy. The company said Tuesday it raised the round from a mix of existing and new investors. The funds will go toward work on its initial satellites and to support commercial partnerships. Reflect Orbital is developing satellites that would deploy large mirrors in orbit, reflecting sunlight to the ground. The company says the satellites would be able to illuminate solar farms to generate more power and provide lighting for construction sites or search-and-rescue efforts. The company's plans for a large constellation of satellites, though, has raised concerns from environmentalists and astronomers. The company planned to launch its first satellite with a reflector this year, but recently said it will instead launch next April a satellite without a mirror to test other spacecraft systems. (11/11)
Firefly Sees Win-Win in Rocket Deal with AST (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace argues its deal to sell rocket engines, rather than launches, to AST SpaceMobile is a "win-win" for the two companies. Firefly announced last week it will sell Miranda and Vira engines, along with a license to produce the engines, to AST, which said it will build its own launch vehicle, Blacklift, for launching its direct-to-device satellites. Firefly said in an earnings call Tuesday that the $1.3 billion deal provides an injection of capital into the company to accelerate work on its own Eclipse launch vehicle. Firefly will offer Eclipse to commercial and government customers while Blacklift will be used exclusively for AST's own satellites. Firefly, though, did not state when it expects Eclipse to start launching. Firefly separately announced Tuesday a contract from Synspective, a Japanese radar-imaging company, for up to 10 launches of its smaller Alpha rocket through 2030. However, Firefly said the next Alpha launch has slipped to early next year, citing the requirements of an unidentified national security customer. (11/11)
AST Joins Space Force Threat Tracking Effort (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile will be part of a Space Force effort to track aircraft and other airborne threats from orbit. AST said it is supporting defense technology firm Systems & Technology Research, or STR, which is a prime contractor for the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI, program. The Space Force has not disclosed what STR and AST will deliver, how many spacecraft are involved or when their technology will be demonstrated, but AST said the program will provide the company with $100 million in revenue. SB-AMTI is intended to provide persistent tracking of airborne targets, including aircraft and cruise missiles, particularly in areas where large surveillance planes could be vulnerable to advanced air defenses. (11/11)
ispace-U.S Ready for CLPS Contracts After Being Added to Vendor Pool, CEO Says (Source: Aerospace America)
The newest addition to NASA’s vendor pool of lunar lander developers, ispace-U.S., is ready to compete for future work, according to CEO Elizabeth Kryst. The U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based ispace was among the eight companies NASA on Saturday said it had selected to compete to ferry payloads to the lunar surface under the second phase of the CLPS program. (11/11)
Fire Damage Delays Installation of Simulated Lunar Greenhouse in Germany (Source: European Spaceflight)
A fire at an external contractor’s facility has delayed the installation of a containerized greenhouse designed to simulate growing crops on the Moon. According to a response to a parliamentary inquiry published by the German Bundestag on 20 October, a fire occurred while the EDEN-LUNA greenhouse container was being refurbished. (11/11)
France Awards $1.7 Billion Contract to Airbus-Thales Team for New Military Satellites (Source: Breaking Defense)
France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) has awarded €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) to Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space to procure two high-resolution Earth-observation satellites for the French armed forces. (11/11)
Strategic Government Loans Aimed at Easing Concern Over Constrained Launch Supply (Source: Ars Technica)
The U.S. military appears increasingly concerned about a shortage of launch capacity, with one assessment saying the supply crunch is “exactly the situation we predicted.” The government is taking a new approach to prop up commercial launch companies as SpaceX looks to wind down its Falcon rocket program, suggesting defense officials see the workhorse rocket’s retirement as a potential national security risk.
The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital has twice in the last two weeks announced it was sending cash to two of SpaceX’s competitors in the launch business. First, on October 26, the office announced a $150 million conditional loan commitment to Stoke Space. Military officials revealed a second $150 million Pentagon loan Tuesday for Rocket Lab. (11/10)
Astronomers Find First-Ever Disappearing Planet (Source: The Independent)
Scientists have found what they believe to be the first ever disappearing planet. The distant world, known as TOI-2535 b, has been followed by astronomers for years, allowing them to establish that it was a “hot Jupiter” where a year takes only 8.25 days. But, this year, it disappeared entirely. The researchers behind the study believe gravity from a neighboring planet has tilted its orbit in such a way as to stop it being visible to us. (11/10)
Political Paralysis Cannot Be Allowed to Undermine America’s Strategic Edge in Space (Source: Via Satellite)
The U.S. midterms have dramatically shifted the balance of power in Washington. With Democrats taking control of Congress, President Trump now faces a legislature with both the power and appetite to challenge some of his biggest spending commitments. That victory came with affordability and the economy at the forefront of voters’ concerns. Democrats will now be under pressure to demonstrate that they can translate that mandate into greater discipline over government spending as well as lower costs for households.
Defense is likely to become one of the first battlegrounds. Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield is already in the firing line, with Democrats questioning its huge potential cost and whether some of its most ambitious elements are realistic. That scrutiny is justified. No defense program should be handed a blank check simply because it carries a national-security label. But there is a danger that the political backlash against Trump’s projects becomes conflated with the strategic capabilities America needs. (11/10)
Synspective Orders 10 Launches on Firefly’s Alpha Rocket (Source: Via Satellite)
Japanese synthetic aperture radar (SAR) provider Synspective ordered 10 launches on Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket, planned through 2030. This is a new customer for Firefly, which plans to launch the missions both Pad-0A at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Each mission will launch two satellites for Synspective’s StriX constellation.
Synspective is also a major customer of Rocket Lab and signed the largest commercial contract for Electron last month for 20 launches, in addition to two previous 10-launch deals. (11/10)
DLR to Purchase 80 Red Kite Sounding Rocket Motors (Source: European Spaceflight)
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is preparing to purchase 80 Red Kite solid rocket motors from German defense company Bayern-Chemie to support future sounding rocket missions. According to a procurement notice published on 2 November, DLR plans to acquire 80 ITAR-free solid-fuel rocket motors for the agency’s Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) team, which conducts sounding rocket missions in support of scientific research and technology demonstrations. (11/10)
One Space Station Company Sues Another for Copying its Work (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA’s competition for the development of private space stations that will take flight in the 2030s is already nearing crunch time. But a recently unsealed lawsuit may spice things up even further. The lawsuit involves two of the most prominent companies in this competition, Texas-based Axiom Space and California-based Vast Space. And it is surfacing as final proposals for private space stations are due from companies to the US space agency a little more than one month from today, on December 14. Axiom is pursuing a False Claims Act case against Vast, accusing Vast of presenting NASA with a fraudulent mission-planning document that incorporates Axiom’s proprietary information. (11/10)
Amazon is set to launch 40 broadband satellites on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket as part of Amazon Leo, which aims to deploy more than 1,500 satellites through 38 missions. The launch, scheduled for Nov. 13, marks the first use of Vulcan's six-booster configuration and a shorter Centaur V upper stage. "Vulcan will launch close to half our first-generation constellation, making it our primary workhorse over the next several years, and we're looking forward to kicking off the sprint with our partners at ULA," says Melissa Wuerl, director of launch systems for Amazon Leo. (11/10)
Viasat Wins $450M Space Force Contract for Data Network (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
Viasat has secured a $450 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract from Space Systems Command to support the Space Data Network Backbone mission operations center, including a $115 million task order. The center will integrate and manage connectivity services, providing resilient data transport for initiatives such as Golden Dome for America. (11/10)
Air Force Seeks Off-Shelf Autonomous Space Vehicle Software (Source: Defense Scoop)
The Air Force has issued a request for information to industry, seeking ready-to-deploy software for autonomous cislunar space vehicles. The service emphasizes the need for flight-ready solutions capable of supporting tasks such as station-keeping, trajectory optimization, and hazard avoidance. Submissions must require minimal development and be operational within 90 days of authorization. (11/10)
SpaceX Sidesteps Moratorium to Build $24 Billion Data Center at Starbase (Source: Texas Tribune)
SpaceX is planning to build a $24 billion data center and power plant just outside of Brownsville on property that the city had just de-annexed earlier this year at the company’s request, circumventing Brownsville’s data center moratorium that went into effect last week. On Monday, the city of Starbase, which later annexed land where the project will be built into their city limits, notified the public that SpaceX is building a $24 billion “gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility.”
The $24 billion investment is expected to cover the initial phases of the project which could include future expansions, according to the Monday notice which stated that the Starbase city commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing in December in which they will consider tax breaks for the project. The 444.45 acres of land where the project will be located was the subject of local scrutiny over the summer, when SpaceX asked the city of Brownsville to de-annex that land. In exchange, the company offered to fund $220 million for city water and wastewater projects. (11/10)
Iridium Anticipates DoD Work (Source: Space News)
Iridium expects to secure another long-term Pentagon satellite communications contract as it pitches new capabilities. The company's seven-year Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services agreement, known as EMSS, expires in March 2027 after the U.S. Space Force extended it for six months in September. Under that contract, Iridium provides unlimited voice, messaging and data services for military personnel and other government customers. Iridium says it is in talks with the Space Force on a new deal as well as additional services, such as D2D services for a wider range of military equipment. (11/11)
Anduril Enters Satellite Market (Source: Space News)
Anduril has developed three satellite payload systems for space surveillance and other applications. Several technologies were demonstrated aboard Anduril-216, a company-funded satellite launched in July. The payloads include an infrared sensor designed to detect spacecraft even when they are obscured by Earth's shadow, an onboard computer that can process data and support autonomous operations, and a power-management system that allows different payloads to operate on commercially manufactured satellites. Anduril executives said the company wants to become a mission systems integrator, combining spacecraft, sensors, computing hardware and software into operational systems tailored to military requirements. (11/11)
Dream Chaser to Fly Next Year (Source: Space News)
The first flight of Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane is expected next spring. The FAA said Monday it issued a reentry license to Sierra Space, allowing up to four Dream Chaser landings a year at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The FAA said the license supports the company's plans for a first flight in the spring of 2027, although Sierra Space has not announced a date for the mission. The company developed Sierra Space to transport cargo to the International Space Station, although the company now plans to use the uncrewed vehicle for other applications for government and commercial customers. (11/11)
UK Picks Lockheed Martin for Military Satellite Contract (Source: Sky News)
The British government is considering awarding a military communications satellite contract to an American company. The U.K. Ministry of Defence has reportedly recommended that a contract for a new generation of Skynet satellites worth 2.4 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) be awarded to Lockheed Martin rather than Airbus Defence and Space, which built previous generations of those satellites at a U.K. facility. Those reports claim that Airbus warned it would cut up to 3,000 jobs at British facilities if the government selected Lockheed for the contract, although Lockheed pledged to build the satellites in a new factory in Britain. A final decision on the contract will be made by Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the next two weeks. (11/11)
UK Gains Ownership Stake in SaxaVord Spaceport (Source: European Spaceflight)
The U.K. government now owns more than a quarter of SaxaVord Spaceport as part of a public-private investment agreement. The British government announced in September it would invest 30 million pounds ($40 million) in the spaceport, an amount matched by Wild Ventures, an investment firm owned by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen. Wild Ventures was previously the majority shareholder in SaxaVord but now owns between 25% and 50% of the spaceport, according to company filings, which also state that the government also owns between 25% and 50%. SaxaVord plans to use the new funding to build out spaceport infrastructure, including additional launch pads. (11/11)
China Recruiting International Partners for Cislunar Constellation (Source: Space News)
China is recruiting international partners for a constellation of small spacecraft operating in cislunar space. The Cislunar CubeSat Constellation (C3) is led by the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory and the International Deep Space Exploration Association with support from the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization. C3 features 30 standardized 12U cubesats of up to 25 kilograms each, plus four lunar resource exploration satellites of about 200 kilograms. The cubesats will operate in nine-day orbits at altitudes ranging from 10,000 to 360,000 kilometers, and would each carry a high-energy particle imager, a magnetometer and a gamma-ray burst detector. Partners identified so far for C3 include Thailand, Serbia, Egypt, Senegal and Indonesia. (11/11)
Reflect Orbital Raises $73.5 Million for Beaming Sunlight (Source: Space News)
Reflect Orbital has raised $73.5 million for satellites that would reflect sunlight to the ground, a concept that has attracted potential customers and controversy. The company said Tuesday it raised the round from a mix of existing and new investors. The funds will go toward work on its initial satellites and to support commercial partnerships. Reflect Orbital is developing satellites that would deploy large mirrors in orbit, reflecting sunlight to the ground. The company says the satellites would be able to illuminate solar farms to generate more power and provide lighting for construction sites or search-and-rescue efforts. The company's plans for a large constellation of satellites, though, has raised concerns from environmentalists and astronomers. The company planned to launch its first satellite with a reflector this year, but recently said it will instead launch next April a satellite without a mirror to test other spacecraft systems. (11/11)
Firefly Sees Win-Win in Rocket Deal with AST (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace argues its deal to sell rocket engines, rather than launches, to AST SpaceMobile is a "win-win" for the two companies. Firefly announced last week it will sell Miranda and Vira engines, along with a license to produce the engines, to AST, which said it will build its own launch vehicle, Blacklift, for launching its direct-to-device satellites. Firefly said in an earnings call Tuesday that the $1.3 billion deal provides an injection of capital into the company to accelerate work on its own Eclipse launch vehicle. Firefly will offer Eclipse to commercial and government customers while Blacklift will be used exclusively for AST's own satellites. Firefly, though, did not state when it expects Eclipse to start launching. Firefly separately announced Tuesday a contract from Synspective, a Japanese radar-imaging company, for up to 10 launches of its smaller Alpha rocket through 2030. However, Firefly said the next Alpha launch has slipped to early next year, citing the requirements of an unidentified national security customer. (11/11)
AST Joins Space Force Threat Tracking Effort (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile will be part of a Space Force effort to track aircraft and other airborne threats from orbit. AST said it is supporting defense technology firm Systems & Technology Research, or STR, which is a prime contractor for the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI, program. The Space Force has not disclosed what STR and AST will deliver, how many spacecraft are involved or when their technology will be demonstrated, but AST said the program will provide the company with $100 million in revenue. SB-AMTI is intended to provide persistent tracking of airborne targets, including aircraft and cruise missiles, particularly in areas where large surveillance planes could be vulnerable to advanced air defenses. (11/11)
ispace-U.S Ready for CLPS Contracts After Being Added to Vendor Pool, CEO Says (Source: Aerospace America)
The newest addition to NASA’s vendor pool of lunar lander developers, ispace-U.S., is ready to compete for future work, according to CEO Elizabeth Kryst. The U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based ispace was among the eight companies NASA on Saturday said it had selected to compete to ferry payloads to the lunar surface under the second phase of the CLPS program. (11/11)
Fire Damage Delays Installation of Simulated Lunar Greenhouse in Germany (Source: European Spaceflight)
A fire at an external contractor’s facility has delayed the installation of a containerized greenhouse designed to simulate growing crops on the Moon. According to a response to a parliamentary inquiry published by the German Bundestag on 20 October, a fire occurred while the EDEN-LUNA greenhouse container was being refurbished. (11/11)
France Awards $1.7 Billion Contract to Airbus-Thales Team for New Military Satellites (Source: Breaking Defense)
France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) has awarded €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) to Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space to procure two high-resolution Earth-observation satellites for the French armed forces. (11/11)
Strategic Government Loans Aimed at Easing Concern Over Constrained Launch Supply (Source: Ars Technica)
The U.S. military appears increasingly concerned about a shortage of launch capacity, with one assessment saying the supply crunch is “exactly the situation we predicted.” The government is taking a new approach to prop up commercial launch companies as SpaceX looks to wind down its Falcon rocket program, suggesting defense officials see the workhorse rocket’s retirement as a potential national security risk.
The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital has twice in the last two weeks announced it was sending cash to two of SpaceX’s competitors in the launch business. First, on October 26, the office announced a $150 million conditional loan commitment to Stoke Space. Military officials revealed a second $150 million Pentagon loan Tuesday for Rocket Lab. (11/10)
Astronomers Find First-Ever Disappearing Planet (Source: The Independent)
Scientists have found what they believe to be the first ever disappearing planet. The distant world, known as TOI-2535 b, has been followed by astronomers for years, allowing them to establish that it was a “hot Jupiter” where a year takes only 8.25 days. But, this year, it disappeared entirely. The researchers behind the study believe gravity from a neighboring planet has tilted its orbit in such a way as to stop it being visible to us. (11/10)
Political Paralysis Cannot Be Allowed to Undermine America’s Strategic Edge in Space (Source: Via Satellite)
The U.S. midterms have dramatically shifted the balance of power in Washington. With Democrats taking control of Congress, President Trump now faces a legislature with both the power and appetite to challenge some of his biggest spending commitments. That victory came with affordability and the economy at the forefront of voters’ concerns. Democrats will now be under pressure to demonstrate that they can translate that mandate into greater discipline over government spending as well as lower costs for households.
Defense is likely to become one of the first battlegrounds. Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield is already in the firing line, with Democrats questioning its huge potential cost and whether some of its most ambitious elements are realistic. That scrutiny is justified. No defense program should be handed a blank check simply because it carries a national-security label. But there is a danger that the political backlash against Trump’s projects becomes conflated with the strategic capabilities America needs. (11/10)
Synspective Orders 10 Launches on Firefly’s Alpha Rocket (Source: Via Satellite)
Japanese synthetic aperture radar (SAR) provider Synspective ordered 10 launches on Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket, planned through 2030. This is a new customer for Firefly, which plans to launch the missions both Pad-0A at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Each mission will launch two satellites for Synspective’s StriX constellation.
Synspective is also a major customer of Rocket Lab and signed the largest commercial contract for Electron last month for 20 launches, in addition to two previous 10-launch deals. (11/10)
DLR to Purchase 80 Red Kite Sounding Rocket Motors (Source: European Spaceflight)
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is preparing to purchase 80 Red Kite solid rocket motors from German defense company Bayern-Chemie to support future sounding rocket missions. According to a procurement notice published on 2 November, DLR plans to acquire 80 ITAR-free solid-fuel rocket motors for the agency’s Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) team, which conducts sounding rocket missions in support of scientific research and technology demonstrations. (11/10)
One Space Station Company Sues Another for Copying its Work (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA’s competition for the development of private space stations that will take flight in the 2030s is already nearing crunch time. But a recently unsealed lawsuit may spice things up even further. The lawsuit involves two of the most prominent companies in this competition, Texas-based Axiom Space and California-based Vast Space. And it is surfacing as final proposals for private space stations are due from companies to the US space agency a little more than one month from today, on December 14. Axiom is pursuing a False Claims Act case against Vast, accusing Vast of presenting NASA with a fraudulent mission-planning document that incorporates Axiom’s proprietary information. (11/10)
November 10, 2026
Rocket Lab Gets DoD Loan for Neutron
Production (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon is providing financing to Rocket Lab to scale up production of Neutron rockets. The Defense Department's Office of Strategic Capital announced Monday a $150 million conditional loan commitment to Rocket Lab intended to help Rocket Lab increase production of rocket engines and composite structures, expand its fleet of maritime recovery vessels and reduce the time needed to prepare Neutron for another launch. The commitment reflects the Pentagon's growing interest in expanding the number of companies capable of launching military satellites as demand increases and SpaceX prepares to shift more of its launch business from Falcon 9 to its larger Starship vehicle. Rocket Lab says it is seeing strong demand for Neutron, having sold eight launches in the third quarter and with a manifest that now extends into the early 2030s. (11/10)
Rocket Lab Raises Launch Prices (Source: Space News)
Strong demand is leading Rocket Lab to raise launch prices. The company said in its third-quarter financial results Monday that it has increased the base price of Neutron from $55 million to $70 million, and left the door open for further price increases. Rocket Lab said the strong demand for the rocket validated its decision not to sell initial launches at a discount. The company also expects to raise prices for Electron launches because of demand for the HASTE suborbital variant as well as from smallsat customers looking for replacements for SpaceX rideshare missions. (11/10)
Globalstar Wins Regulatory Approval for D2D (Source: Space News)
Globalstar won regulatory approval for new direct-to-device satellites. France has cleared Globalstar to launch and operate the 54 next-generation satellites the company plans to start launching next year. France has also authorized the company's proposed C-3 System network, filed with international regulators as AST-NG-C-3, to use global Mobile Satellite Services spectrum for 20 years. Globalstar's constellation has used spectrum licensed by France as well as the United States. MDA Space is building the C-3 satellites, which, like earlier Globalstar satellites, will operate at 1,414 kilometers altitude. (11/10)
NASA ESCAPADE Satellites Perform Earth Flybys En Route to Mars (Source: Space News)
Twin NASA smallsats are on their way to Mars after making flybys of the Earth. The two ESCAPADE, or Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, spacecraft performed powered flybys of the Earth early Saturday and early Monday, putting them on a trajectory to arrive at Mars next September. The spacecraft launched nearly a year ago on a New Glenn and have loitered around the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point, making use of an innovative trajectory that allowed them to launch outside of normal Mars mission windows. Once at Mars, the satellites will go into orbit to study the interaction of the solar wind with the planet's magnetosphere and atmosphere. (11/10)
Firefly Sees Military Cislunar Interest (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace says there is interest from the military in operating in cislunar space. Firefly CEO Jason Kim said that while NASA and commercial ventures remain the major customers for lunar services, he sees growing military interest in spacecraft capable of surveillance, maneuvering near other objects and operating in constellations between Earth and the moon. The military could eventually account for "maybe 25%" of the market, he said, particularly for monitoring activities in cislunar space. His comments come days after the Department of the Air Force requested information from companies capable of delivering up to five spacecraft for cislunar missions, with an initial launch capability targeted for late 2029. (11/10)
China's Kuaizhou Plans 2027 Rocket Debut (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch firm Kuaizhou Aerospace plans to conduct the first launches of new rockets next year. The company, previously known as Expace, started with small solid-fuel rockets but is now moving into larger liquid-propellant vehicles. Kuaizhou-12 is a vehicle with a solid-fuel first stage and boosters but a liquid-propellant second stage that can place up to 10,000 kilograms into LEO. Kuaizhou-6 is a liquid-propellant rocket with a reusable first stage that can place up to 20,000 kilograms into LEO. Both rockets are scheduled to make their debut in 2027. The company also aims to launch the existing Kuaizhou-1A and Kuaizhou-11 solid rockets more than 50 times in total over the next three years. (11/10)
Germany's RFA Pushes Debut Launch to 2027 (Source: European Spaceflight)
The first launch of Rocket Factory Augsburg's rocket has slipped to 2027. The RFA ONE rocket was expected to launch this year from SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands, but the company halted launch preparations this summer during vehicle testing. RFA said in a social media post it recently hosted the head of Germany's space agency, who offered a "clear expectation" that RFA ONE will make a successful flight in 2027. The company has not disclosed when in 2027 it now expects to attempt the vehicle's first launch. (11/10)
Enpulsion and Orbion Collaborate on Electric Satellite Propulsion (Source: Space News)
European satellite propulsion company Enpulsion is partnering with an American firm on electric propulsion systems. Enpulsion announced Tuesday that it is working with Orbion Space Technology, a subsidiary of York Space Systems, to offer Orbion's Hall-effect thrusters along with Enpulsion's low-power electric thrusters for satellite customers. The effort is part of Enpulsion's "Spacecraft Mobility Backbone" product that includes propulsion along with attitude control and navigation systems for smallsat customers, particularly in Europe. Orbion said that it is considering opening a new production line for its thrusters in Europe to serve those customers. (11/10)
Martian Volcanoes May Only be Dormant (Source: Space.com)
Volcanoes on Mars may merely be dormant, not extinct. Observations from ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter mission detected hydrogen chloride gas being emitted from fissures in a region of Mars home to volcanoes like Olympus Mons, which scientists believed went extinct long ago. The observations add to evidence from imagery and seismic data that suggest Mars had active volcanoes as recently as a few million years ago. Those regions could also be hotspots that support microbial life, scientists added. (11/10)
Landing is Only the Beginning (Source: Space Review)
Much of the focus on NASA’s plans to return to the Moon involve being able to safely and routinely land on the lunar surface. Robert Kelso argues that broader engineering and operational issues must also be considered for the effort to be a long-term success. Click here. (11/10)
Relearning Movement Beyond Earth: What Neurorehabilitation Can Teach Us About Human Adaptation in Space (Source: Space Review)
Astronauts on long-duration missions spend months in physical therapy once they return to Earth and normal gravity. Esha Ejaz examines what lessons rehabilitation science can offer to help people recover from spaceflight. Click here. (11/10)
Is There In Truth No Beauty? Remastering Apollo with Andy Saunders (Source: Space Review)
There were millions of photos taken during the early Space Age, a small fraction of which has been published. Dwayne Day visits a new exhibit that shows what happens when you take a fresh look at old photographs from the era. Click here. (11/10)
Kratos and Seagate Space Partner to Advance Mobile Offshore Launch Capabilities for National Security Missions (Source: Space News)
Kratos announced a long-term agreement with Seagate Space for use of the company’s first Gateway offshore launch platform. The agreement supports Kratos’ planned first mission from the platform in 2027, with multiple additional launches anticipated in each subsequent year. The announcement coincides with Seagate Space’s execution of its first Gateway platform construction contract, advancing into physical construction and toward future operational readiness.
Seagate Space’s Gateway platform is being developed as a modular and mobile offshore system to support government and commercial launch, testing, and recovery missions. Its maritime mobility can provide mission planners with added flexibility in launch geometry, range access, and scheduling while reducing dependence on fixed terrestrial infrastructure.
Kratos plans to use the Gateway platform initially in support of defense-related launch and target missions. The companies expect their collaboration to establish a foundation for expanded offshore mission operations as demand grows for hypersonic testing, ballistic-missile targets, responsive launch capabilities, and other national security relevant missions. (11/10)
A Common Food Emulsifier Could Solve One of Rocketry’s Oldest Fuel Problems (Source: Universe Today)
While sitting in a tank, gels act like a dense solid, but can also act like a liquid when forced into a combustion chamber. However, they suffer from their own challenges, such as shelf life and temperature dependent phase changes. A new type of fuel uses lecithin (commonly used as an emulsifier in food) combined with a trace amount of calcium chloride salt. These form an invisible 3D mesh that can trap and hold kerosene molecules in place. Lecithin has the added advantage of being an organic compound made up of carbon and hydrogen, so it will burn right alongside the kerosene rather than acting as simply dead-weight like may other non-combustible thickening agents previously used to create gel fuels. (11/9)
FAA Issues Reentry License for Sierra Space Dream Chaser (Source: FAA)
The FAA issued Sierra Space a Part 450 vehicle operator license for its Dream Chaser reusable reentry vehicle to land at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This new reentry vehicle license is another step forward in creating a competitive commercial space sector with a variety of U.S. operators to keep America ahead in the space race.
The license was issued well in advance of Sierra Space’s targeted spring 2027 mission date and within the statutory 180-day timeframe for the FAA to make a license determination. The license is good for five years and authorizes up to four reentries per year provided the vehicle configuration and mission profile remain the same. (11/9)
NASA Awards Lunar Power Contracts (Source: Douglas Messier)
Astronauts on a lunar base will need power for life support systems and scientific instruments. NASA plans to purchase commercial solar arrays, batteries, and wireless power-transfer hardware for a Mini-Communications and Solar Tower (miniCAST).
NASA has awarded contracts to: Honeybee Robotics for energy storage capability, Redwire Space of Jacksonville, Fla., for power generation, and Yank Technologies for wireless power transfer in support of miniCAST. Honeybee Robotics is a Blue Origin company. Redwire Space is owned by AE Industrial Partners. The miniCAST will combine power and communications capabilities to support future Moon Base activities. Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center will assemble and test the systems before they are delivered to the lunar surface. (11/9)
Perseverance Dust Experiment Examines Spacesuit Materials for Future Mars Missions (Source: Universe Today)
Researchers at Washington University studied how Martian dust interacts with spacesuit-material swatches carried by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The work highlights a planning challenge for future crewed missions: accounting for dust exposure and its effects on both astronauts and the materials they rely on. (11/9)
Trump Vows US Air Show Bigger Than Paris (Source: Asianet News)
President Trump has laid out a blueprint for a sprawling aerospace exhibition venue situated at Florida’s former space shuttle landing facility, pledging an event capable of overshadowing the Paris Air Show within roughly two years. Trump detailed that the proposed 1,900-acre venue is designed to integrate commercial aircraft, private aviation and space technology, thereby equipping domestic manufacturers with an expanded stage to debut products and secure deals onshore.
"We're going to have a show the likes of which has never been done before," Trump asserted. Drawing comparisons to major aerospace exhibitions held in Paris, Britain and Dubai, the president contended that the United States ought to anchor the pre-eminent global showcase, given the dominant market share held by American firms. “We dominate and we should have the biggest show,” he remarked.
Estimates provided by the administration forecast hundreds of thousands of annual attendees, multi-billion-dollar economic boosts and astronomical commercial deals. Highlighting logistical benefits, Trump underscored that the local runway and surrounding land offer ideal capacity for handling heavy aircraft displays, space demonstrations and new exhibition buildings, with phased expansions scheduled over the coming years. (11/7)
SpaceX Plans $24 Billion Data Center and Gas Plant in Texas (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX plans to construct, own and operate a gas-fired power plant and super-compute (data center) facility at its company town in Starbase, Texas, according to a notice of a public hearing on the city’s website. The estimated investment for the initial phase of the project is $24 billion. The city commission will consider the approval of a tax abatement and development agreement at a Dec. 9 meeting. (11/9)
Canada’s Budget Backs Medium-Lift Rockets and Sovereign Launch Capability (Source: Payload)
Canada will upgrade its rockets under the Launch the North initiative, which aims to support sovereign launch vehicles operating from at least two new spaceports. The budget confirmation sets out a national effort spanning launch-vehicle development and the infrastructure needed to reach orbit from Canadian sites. (11/9)
AST SpaceMobile Forms Joint Venture With Rakuten in Japan for J-LEO Project (Source: Via Satellite)
AST SpaceMobile and Rakuten have formed a new joint venture to provide direct-to-device (D2D) services in Japan. This comes as the Japanese government selected a Rakuten proposal for the J-LEO project, Japan Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Communications Project, to establish a non-terrestrial network (NTN) managed and operated in Japan. (11/9)
The Pentagon is providing financing to Rocket Lab to scale up production of Neutron rockets. The Defense Department's Office of Strategic Capital announced Monday a $150 million conditional loan commitment to Rocket Lab intended to help Rocket Lab increase production of rocket engines and composite structures, expand its fleet of maritime recovery vessels and reduce the time needed to prepare Neutron for another launch. The commitment reflects the Pentagon's growing interest in expanding the number of companies capable of launching military satellites as demand increases and SpaceX prepares to shift more of its launch business from Falcon 9 to its larger Starship vehicle. Rocket Lab says it is seeing strong demand for Neutron, having sold eight launches in the third quarter and with a manifest that now extends into the early 2030s. (11/10)
Rocket Lab Raises Launch Prices (Source: Space News)
Strong demand is leading Rocket Lab to raise launch prices. The company said in its third-quarter financial results Monday that it has increased the base price of Neutron from $55 million to $70 million, and left the door open for further price increases. Rocket Lab said the strong demand for the rocket validated its decision not to sell initial launches at a discount. The company also expects to raise prices for Electron launches because of demand for the HASTE suborbital variant as well as from smallsat customers looking for replacements for SpaceX rideshare missions. (11/10)
Globalstar Wins Regulatory Approval for D2D (Source: Space News)
Globalstar won regulatory approval for new direct-to-device satellites. France has cleared Globalstar to launch and operate the 54 next-generation satellites the company plans to start launching next year. France has also authorized the company's proposed C-3 System network, filed with international regulators as AST-NG-C-3, to use global Mobile Satellite Services spectrum for 20 years. Globalstar's constellation has used spectrum licensed by France as well as the United States. MDA Space is building the C-3 satellites, which, like earlier Globalstar satellites, will operate at 1,414 kilometers altitude. (11/10)
NASA ESCAPADE Satellites Perform Earth Flybys En Route to Mars (Source: Space News)
Twin NASA smallsats are on their way to Mars after making flybys of the Earth. The two ESCAPADE, or Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, spacecraft performed powered flybys of the Earth early Saturday and early Monday, putting them on a trajectory to arrive at Mars next September. The spacecraft launched nearly a year ago on a New Glenn and have loitered around the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point, making use of an innovative trajectory that allowed them to launch outside of normal Mars mission windows. Once at Mars, the satellites will go into orbit to study the interaction of the solar wind with the planet's magnetosphere and atmosphere. (11/10)
Firefly Sees Military Cislunar Interest (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace says there is interest from the military in operating in cislunar space. Firefly CEO Jason Kim said that while NASA and commercial ventures remain the major customers for lunar services, he sees growing military interest in spacecraft capable of surveillance, maneuvering near other objects and operating in constellations between Earth and the moon. The military could eventually account for "maybe 25%" of the market, he said, particularly for monitoring activities in cislunar space. His comments come days after the Department of the Air Force requested information from companies capable of delivering up to five spacecraft for cislunar missions, with an initial launch capability targeted for late 2029. (11/10)
China's Kuaizhou Plans 2027 Rocket Debut (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch firm Kuaizhou Aerospace plans to conduct the first launches of new rockets next year. The company, previously known as Expace, started with small solid-fuel rockets but is now moving into larger liquid-propellant vehicles. Kuaizhou-12 is a vehicle with a solid-fuel first stage and boosters but a liquid-propellant second stage that can place up to 10,000 kilograms into LEO. Kuaizhou-6 is a liquid-propellant rocket with a reusable first stage that can place up to 20,000 kilograms into LEO. Both rockets are scheduled to make their debut in 2027. The company also aims to launch the existing Kuaizhou-1A and Kuaizhou-11 solid rockets more than 50 times in total over the next three years. (11/10)
Germany's RFA Pushes Debut Launch to 2027 (Source: European Spaceflight)
The first launch of Rocket Factory Augsburg's rocket has slipped to 2027. The RFA ONE rocket was expected to launch this year from SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands, but the company halted launch preparations this summer during vehicle testing. RFA said in a social media post it recently hosted the head of Germany's space agency, who offered a "clear expectation" that RFA ONE will make a successful flight in 2027. The company has not disclosed when in 2027 it now expects to attempt the vehicle's first launch. (11/10)
Enpulsion and Orbion Collaborate on Electric Satellite Propulsion (Source: Space News)
European satellite propulsion company Enpulsion is partnering with an American firm on electric propulsion systems. Enpulsion announced Tuesday that it is working with Orbion Space Technology, a subsidiary of York Space Systems, to offer Orbion's Hall-effect thrusters along with Enpulsion's low-power electric thrusters for satellite customers. The effort is part of Enpulsion's "Spacecraft Mobility Backbone" product that includes propulsion along with attitude control and navigation systems for smallsat customers, particularly in Europe. Orbion said that it is considering opening a new production line for its thrusters in Europe to serve those customers. (11/10)
Martian Volcanoes May Only be Dormant (Source: Space.com)
Volcanoes on Mars may merely be dormant, not extinct. Observations from ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter mission detected hydrogen chloride gas being emitted from fissures in a region of Mars home to volcanoes like Olympus Mons, which scientists believed went extinct long ago. The observations add to evidence from imagery and seismic data that suggest Mars had active volcanoes as recently as a few million years ago. Those regions could also be hotspots that support microbial life, scientists added. (11/10)
Landing is Only the Beginning (Source: Space Review)
Much of the focus on NASA’s plans to return to the Moon involve being able to safely and routinely land on the lunar surface. Robert Kelso argues that broader engineering and operational issues must also be considered for the effort to be a long-term success. Click here. (11/10)
Relearning Movement Beyond Earth: What Neurorehabilitation Can Teach Us About Human Adaptation in Space (Source: Space Review)
Astronauts on long-duration missions spend months in physical therapy once they return to Earth and normal gravity. Esha Ejaz examines what lessons rehabilitation science can offer to help people recover from spaceflight. Click here. (11/10)
Is There In Truth No Beauty? Remastering Apollo with Andy Saunders (Source: Space Review)
There were millions of photos taken during the early Space Age, a small fraction of which has been published. Dwayne Day visits a new exhibit that shows what happens when you take a fresh look at old photographs from the era. Click here. (11/10)
Kratos and Seagate Space Partner to Advance Mobile Offshore Launch Capabilities for National Security Missions (Source: Space News)
Kratos announced a long-term agreement with Seagate Space for use of the company’s first Gateway offshore launch platform. The agreement supports Kratos’ planned first mission from the platform in 2027, with multiple additional launches anticipated in each subsequent year. The announcement coincides with Seagate Space’s execution of its first Gateway platform construction contract, advancing into physical construction and toward future operational readiness.
Seagate Space’s Gateway platform is being developed as a modular and mobile offshore system to support government and commercial launch, testing, and recovery missions. Its maritime mobility can provide mission planners with added flexibility in launch geometry, range access, and scheduling while reducing dependence on fixed terrestrial infrastructure.
Kratos plans to use the Gateway platform initially in support of defense-related launch and target missions. The companies expect their collaboration to establish a foundation for expanded offshore mission operations as demand grows for hypersonic testing, ballistic-missile targets, responsive launch capabilities, and other national security relevant missions. (11/10)
A Common Food Emulsifier Could Solve One of Rocketry’s Oldest Fuel Problems (Source: Universe Today)
While sitting in a tank, gels act like a dense solid, but can also act like a liquid when forced into a combustion chamber. However, they suffer from their own challenges, such as shelf life and temperature dependent phase changes. A new type of fuel uses lecithin (commonly used as an emulsifier in food) combined with a trace amount of calcium chloride salt. These form an invisible 3D mesh that can trap and hold kerosene molecules in place. Lecithin has the added advantage of being an organic compound made up of carbon and hydrogen, so it will burn right alongside the kerosene rather than acting as simply dead-weight like may other non-combustible thickening agents previously used to create gel fuels. (11/9)
FAA Issues Reentry License for Sierra Space Dream Chaser (Source: FAA)
The FAA issued Sierra Space a Part 450 vehicle operator license for its Dream Chaser reusable reentry vehicle to land at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This new reentry vehicle license is another step forward in creating a competitive commercial space sector with a variety of U.S. operators to keep America ahead in the space race.
The license was issued well in advance of Sierra Space’s targeted spring 2027 mission date and within the statutory 180-day timeframe for the FAA to make a license determination. The license is good for five years and authorizes up to four reentries per year provided the vehicle configuration and mission profile remain the same. (11/9)
NASA Awards Lunar Power Contracts (Source: Douglas Messier)
Astronauts on a lunar base will need power for life support systems and scientific instruments. NASA plans to purchase commercial solar arrays, batteries, and wireless power-transfer hardware for a Mini-Communications and Solar Tower (miniCAST).
NASA has awarded contracts to: Honeybee Robotics for energy storage capability, Redwire Space of Jacksonville, Fla., for power generation, and Yank Technologies for wireless power transfer in support of miniCAST. Honeybee Robotics is a Blue Origin company. Redwire Space is owned by AE Industrial Partners. The miniCAST will combine power and communications capabilities to support future Moon Base activities. Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center will assemble and test the systems before they are delivered to the lunar surface. (11/9)
Perseverance Dust Experiment Examines Spacesuit Materials for Future Mars Missions (Source: Universe Today)
Researchers at Washington University studied how Martian dust interacts with spacesuit-material swatches carried by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The work highlights a planning challenge for future crewed missions: accounting for dust exposure and its effects on both astronauts and the materials they rely on. (11/9)
Trump Vows US Air Show Bigger Than Paris (Source: Asianet News)
President Trump has laid out a blueprint for a sprawling aerospace exhibition venue situated at Florida’s former space shuttle landing facility, pledging an event capable of overshadowing the Paris Air Show within roughly two years. Trump detailed that the proposed 1,900-acre venue is designed to integrate commercial aircraft, private aviation and space technology, thereby equipping domestic manufacturers with an expanded stage to debut products and secure deals onshore.
"We're going to have a show the likes of which has never been done before," Trump asserted. Drawing comparisons to major aerospace exhibitions held in Paris, Britain and Dubai, the president contended that the United States ought to anchor the pre-eminent global showcase, given the dominant market share held by American firms. “We dominate and we should have the biggest show,” he remarked.
Estimates provided by the administration forecast hundreds of thousands of annual attendees, multi-billion-dollar economic boosts and astronomical commercial deals. Highlighting logistical benefits, Trump underscored that the local runway and surrounding land offer ideal capacity for handling heavy aircraft displays, space demonstrations and new exhibition buildings, with phased expansions scheduled over the coming years. (11/7)
SpaceX Plans $24 Billion Data Center and Gas Plant in Texas (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX plans to construct, own and operate a gas-fired power plant and super-compute (data center) facility at its company town in Starbase, Texas, according to a notice of a public hearing on the city’s website. The estimated investment for the initial phase of the project is $24 billion. The city commission will consider the approval of a tax abatement and development agreement at a Dec. 9 meeting. (11/9)
Canada’s Budget Backs Medium-Lift Rockets and Sovereign Launch Capability (Source: Payload)
Canada will upgrade its rockets under the Launch the North initiative, which aims to support sovereign launch vehicles operating from at least two new spaceports. The budget confirmation sets out a national effort spanning launch-vehicle development and the infrastructure needed to reach orbit from Canadian sites. (11/9)
AST SpaceMobile Forms Joint Venture With Rakuten in Japan for J-LEO Project (Source: Via Satellite)
AST SpaceMobile and Rakuten have formed a new joint venture to provide direct-to-device (D2D) services in Japan. This comes as the Japanese government selected a Rakuten proposal for the J-LEO project, Japan Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Communications Project, to establish a non-terrestrial network (NTN) managed and operated in Japan. (11/9)
November 9, 2026
$1 Billion Awarded for Moon Missions
(Source: Space News)
NASA awarded more than $1 billion in contracts Saturday to send missions to the moon while selecting eight companies to compete for future missions. NASA announced it awarded $1.3 billion in task orders to several companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Relativity Space, for launching missions to the moon to support the agency's proposed lunar base. Those launches also incorporate orbital transfer vehicles from Impulse Space and Quantum Space. The missions launching on those rockets include communications and tech demo orbiters as well as MoonFall, a set of three lunar "hopper" spacecraft. NASA also selected eight companies for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) 2.0 contract, making them eligible to compete for future lunar lander and other orbital missions. The companies include several that have already attempted lunar landings through the original CLPS contract as well as some newcomers, such as ispace U.S. and Northrop Grumman. (11/9)
NASA Presses Ahead with Mars Rover Conversion for Lunar Mission (Source: Space News)
NASA is going forward with plans to convert an engineering test model of a Mars rover into a lunar rover. The agency said Saturday it will develop the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration, or PROMISE, using an engineering model of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. PROMISE will carry more than 10 science and tech demo payloads, some of which are versions of instruments slated to go on a different lunar rover, VIPER, in 2027. NASA said PROMISE will cost no more than $400 million, including delivery to the south polar region of the moon on a Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 lander in late 2028. PROMISE, like its Mars counterparts, will use a radioisotope power source. (11/9)
Planet Picks Stoke Space to Launch Satellites (Source: Space News)
Planet has signed a multilaunch agreement with Stoke Space. The companies announced a deal Monday that covers launches of Planet's satellites on Stoke's Nova Pathfinder and Nova Block 2 rockets. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal. Planet has in recent years relied primarily on SpaceX rideshare missions for deploying its satellites, but SpaceX is ending its rideshare program and commercial sales of the Falcon 9 rocket. Planet said the deal is part of its efforts to develop "a diversified portfolio of launch providers." Stoke Space is working toward a first launch of its Nova Pathfinder fully reusable rocket next year, with the larger Nova Block 2 to follow in 2029. (11/9)
Trump's "Freedom in Space" Declaration Has Few Policy Implications (Source: Space News)
A White House declaration about American "freedom in space" has little effect on policy. The "American Declaration of Freedom in Space" released by the White House last week outlined past and planned American achievements in space and declared that space is the "province of all humans" and open to American exploration and development. Many experts noted that the declaration largely reaffirms the Outer Space Treaty, but some noted that support is still useful. Trump briefly mentioned the declaration in a speech Friday at the Kennedy Space Center that recapped his administration's accomplishments but did not include any new announcements. At the end of the speech, NASA unveiled a plaque it said was made for Trump and would be installed on the former Shuttle Landing Facility runway there; the plaque largely promotes CapeWeek, a planned air show at the center starting in 2028. (11/9)
RFA ONE Debut Launch Slips to 2027 (Source: European Spaceflight)
German launch company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has confirmed that it is now targeting 2027 for the inaugural flight of its RFA ONE rocket from a Scottish launch facility. The revised target for the rocket’s inaugural flight was announced in a post published on the company’s LinkedIn page on 3 November. The post detailed a visit from Walther Pelzer, Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR. (11/9)
Neutron Delay to 2027 Shows Why Space Needs More Launch Providers (Source: Via Satellite)
When Rocket Lab said that it would push back the first flight of its Neutron rocket until 2027, investors reacted as you might expect. The company’s shares fell by around 11% the following day. Rocket Lab had found problems with the fuel tank and needed time to put them right. For those of us who have spent decades in the industry, delays of this kind, though disappointing, are not surprising. Building a rocket is extraordinarily difficult, and even the best engineers cannot always foresee what will go wrong.
There are reasons to be concerned, but also to believe other companies can rise to the challenge. Blue Origin has already sent its New Glenn rocket into orbit and successfully recovered a booster, although it has also suffered setbacks. Rocket Lab has extensive experience launching smaller satellites with Electron – even if Neutron presents a much greater engineering challenge. Neither company has yet matched Falcon 9’s record of frequent, reliable launches. But SpaceX did not achieve that record overnight, and we should not expect its competitors to do so either. (11/6)
Viasat Receives Up to $450 Million Contract for SDN-B Mission Operations Center (Source: Defense Daily)
U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) said on Thursday that it has awarded an up to $450 million contract to Viasat [VSAT] for a Space Data Network-Backbone (SDN-B) Mission Operations Center (MOC) to support future military operations, including missile defense afforded by a contemplated Golden Dome system. The $115 million initial task order is "to design, field, and scale the MOC," SSC said. "In this role, Viasat, Inc. will serve as the network and mission system integration partner. (11/6)
Key Space Force Satellites Can’t Talk to Each Other, Likely Requiring $1B Solution (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force’s multibillion-dollar effort to build a satellite network that rapidly moves data over high-speed laser links will require an entirely new set of satellites and significant extra funding to connect with other military space systems. In effect, this new group of satellites will serve as translators between different sets of optical waveforms — two or three missile warning/tracking constellations in the short term, and others in the future — in order to ensure multiple systems can talk to each other. That connectivity is a vital part of supporting Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative that the network is supposed to help speed into existence, multiple sources said. (11/6)
NASA Announces $1 Million to Students for Moon Base Challenge (Source: NASA)
On Sunday, NASA announced the opening of its $1 million Moon Base Student Challenge at Kennedy Space Center. As part of a Golden Age of Science, the competition invites student teams at U.S. high schools and post-secondary schools to contribute designs for the Moon Base. “We’re looking for students ready to think creatively, work as a team, and take on real problems connected to NASA’s future on the Moon,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “You do not have to wait until graduation to contribute. Curiosity, creativity, and the willingness to tackle hard problems without obvious answers are exactly the qualities we need as we build what comes next.” (11/9)
NASA Moves Forward with Nuclear-powered PROMISE Rover (Source: Douglas Messier)
NASA has announced it will move forward with the nuclear-powered Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration (PROMISE) lunar rover, which will be built from components originally designed to explore the surface of Mars. The six-wheeled rover will land at the Moon’s south pole to characterize the surface and subsurface, search for ice and other volatiles, and provide data to enable landing site selection and future infrastructure and exploration activities. NASA is targeting a launch in late 2028. (11/9)
Firefly Aerospace Selected as a Vendor for NASA’s $10 Billion CLPS 2 Initiative (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace announced it was onboarded as a vendor under NASA’s $10 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) 2 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, positioning the company to compete for and deliver task orders that will advance the Agency’s scientific, exploration, and infrastructure objectives on the lunar surface over a 10-year ordering period. (11/7)
Congested Orbits Require Collision Avoidance, at a Cost (Source: Space News)
Satellite operators are weighing the costs of operating in increasingly congested orbits. Estimates of the cost to a satellite operator of a single collision-avoidance maneuver for a satellite vary widely, from $1,000 to $28,000. Those costs add up as the number of such maneuvers grows, although companies are turning to automated approaches to reduce some of those costs. Companies working on debris-removal technologies argue that those growing collision-avoidance costs create an incentive to use their services. (11/9)
China Ceres-2 Rocket Reaches Orbit on Second Attempt (Source: Space News)
China's Ceres-2 rocket reached orbit for the first time on its second launch Friday. The Ceres-2 lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed four satellites into orbit. The solid-fuel Ceres-2, which failed in its first launch in January, can carry up to 1,300 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit. The launch is a milestone for Galactic Energy, which also had a successful first launch of its liquid-fuel Pallas-1 in August.
China Long March 12 Launches Guowang Satellites (Source: Space News)
A Long March 12 lifted off Sunday from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, placing a set of Guowang satellites into orbit. (11/9)
SpaceX Launches California Falcon 9 Mission for Space Force on Friday (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched a mission for the Space Force Friday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:48 p.m. Eastern on a mission designated USSF-432. The launch is believed to have placed a set of Starshield satellites into orbit. SpaceX has two more classified Space Force launches scheduled for this week on Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg. (11/9)
Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches NavSat (Source: RussianSpaceWeb)
A Soyuz rocket launched a navigation satellite on Saturday. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on what was described as only a mission for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The launch likely carried a Glonass navigation satellite. (11/9)
CesiumAstro Florida Expansion Adding Momentum, 100 Jobs to Space Coast Economy (Source: Florida Today)
CesiumAstro, a rapidly growing space-to-ground communications company headquartered in Austin, Texas, is investing $25 million in a new engineering-manufacturing facility near Melbourne Orlando International Airport. The expansion is projected to create 100 new jobs over the next 12 months. Chief Operating Officer Brett Paulson said Melbourne personnel will lead work on two products: a ground station and a space-based radio communications system that talk with each other over a specific frequency channel.
“We look at Melbourne as one of our star engineering hubs. So we want it to be an engineering hub of excellence for us," Paulson said. "In Denver and Austin, there’s a lot of fighting for talent. In Melbourne, there’s a lot of great talent — and that’s going to start, too. So we just want to get there and get that talent," he said. (11/2)
AI Could Flag Astronaut Health Issues on Future Mars Missions (Source: Florida Today)
“The worst thing, the thing that keeps me up at night, figuratively speaking at least, is the thing we haven’t thought of,” said Mark Shelhamer, the former chief scientist for NASA's Human Research Program who now works as a scientist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Shelhamer has studied the health risks of long-duration spaceflight, including radiation exposure and bone loss.
One of his ideas is to use artificial intelligence to help provide early clues about astronaut health so doctors can get ahead of any potential problems. He believes AI can help monitor the medical and psychological well-being of the crew: using onboard artificial intelligence to monitor the crew, spacecraft and mission as an interconnected system, flagging changes that could signal emerging problems. While unclear exactly what this system would look like or how it could work, Shelhamer believes it could hold significant potential. (11/2)
Russia Already Using Its Own Starlink Rival Over Ukraine, Kyiv Intelligence Says (Source: United 24)
Russia has begun using its Rassvet satellite communications network for military operations over Ukraine, potentially allowing its drones to adjust flight paths in real time and operate with greater resistance to Ukrainian electronic warfare systems. A representative of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR), confirmed that Russia is already employing the satellite network, developed as a domestic alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink. However, the system remains limited in its capabilities. Russia currently lacks enough satellites to provide continuous coverage over Ukraine, meaning communications are available only during periods when the spacecraft pass over specific areas. (11/7)
How Does Sand Flow on the Moon? GraviTower Enables New Insights (University of Bremen)
Understanding how sand, dust, and other granular materials move on the Moon or Mars is crucial for many future missions – from safe landing to on-site resource utilization. :ocated at the University of Bremen’s Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity, an international research team has investigated how reduced gravity affects the flow of granular materials. The results demonstrate the great potential of the Bremen research laboratory for international exploration research.
The study addresses the question of how granular materials, such as gravel or Moon surface dust, flow under reduced gravity – and more specifically, under what conditions they stop flowing. Such a “clogging” event can occur, for example, when granular material flows through a narrow opening. At the GraviTower in Bremen, the researchers were able to precisely investigate the behavior of different sand types under Martian and lunar conditions, and demonstrate that the probability of clogging increases significantly under reduced gravity. The extent of this effect depends on the properties of the material in question. (10/29)
ETH Zurich Develops its Own Satellite Mission (Source: ETH Zurich)
ETH Zurich is developing the ETHOS research satellite in collaboration with the Physical Meteorological Observatory Davos, the University of Bern and EPFL. The satellite uses four instruments to simultaneously measure solar radiation and changes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. With ETHOS, ETH Zurich is assuming full responsibility for a complete satellite mission, from the planning stages through to launch, for the first time. (11/2)
Second Successful Launch of the SyLEx Sounding Rocket (Source: Ariane Group)
ArianeGroup has built the second SyLEx sounding rocket (Système de Lancement d'Expériences, or Experiment Launch System), which was successfully launched on November 4 under the direction of the French Defense Procurement and Technology Agency (DGA) from its Missile Testing Centre in Biscarrosse. This successful launch of the single-stage version carried a payload for DGA and the French Ministry for the Armed Forces and Veterans. This was the second launch of the SyLEx system and its first operational flight, following a successful demonstration flight in November 2025. Developed in less than three years for DGA, SyLEx provides France with its first sovereign suborbital launch capability. (11/4)
Prometheus Reusable Rocket Engine Reaches New Development Milestone with Hot-Fire Test (Source: Ariane Group)
On 29 October, the Prometheus reusable rocket engine reached a new development milestone with the validation of its operation integrated with the P5 test bench owned by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). This milestone once again demonstrated the engine's ability to complete several hot-fire tests with stabilized operation in a single test day. Meanwhile, ArianeGroup teams are preparing an improved version of Prometheus®, known as Mark 2, for its test campaign that will take place at ArianeGroup's Vernon test center. (11/6)
Varda's W-8 Capsule Returns Safely from Orbit as Three Vehicles Operate in Space (Source: Varda)
Varda Space Industries, the leader in orbital pharmaceutical processing and hypersonic reentry, today announced the successful reentry and recovery of its W-8 capsule, which landed at the Koonibba Test Range at 5:58am Pacific time after 35 days in orbit. W-8 launched on Oct. 1, 2026, simultaneously with the W-9 vehicle, the first time two commercial reentry vehicles were launched together. (11/5)
Embry‑Riddle Researcher Helps Solve Mystery Around Heating of Sun’s Corona (Source: ERAU)
Based on 27 years of research into a space weather phenomenon that creates powerful surges of energy — combined with brand-new images from the surface of the sun — Dr. Katariina Nykyri has proposed an answer to a long-standing mystery: how the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, is heated to more than a million degrees, hundreds of times hotter than its visible surface. Interpreting this process is important to life here on Earth, said Nykyri, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University. (11/5)
NASA Unveils $10B Moon Base Contract as SpaceX, Blue Origin Join Lunar Gold Rush (Source: Fox Business)
NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and six other aerospace companies are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar delivery contracts as the agency advances plans to establish a permanent base on the moon. The announcement, made at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expands NASA's commercial lunar program, bringing together private companies to deliver scientific equipment, technology and infrastructure to the moon's south pole.
The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a maximum combined value of $10 billion over 10 years, with the figure representing a ceiling for future task orders, not money already awarded to participating companies. Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA selected Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar delivery missions. (11/7)
Caltech Robotic Space Demo Successfully Builds in Space (Source: Caltech)
A robotic truss builder that was conceived, designed, and built by Caltech researchers and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has successfully built a structure in space—without the help of astronauts—for the first time. The truss builder, part of DARPA's Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints held in nearby dispensers to repeatedly assemble identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss. (11/5)
Germany's Rheinmetall Announces Record Growth and Profitability (Source: Rheinmetall)
Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall AG is heading into the final stretch of the 2026 fiscal year with record growth in sales and earnings. The first nine months of the year have seen the Group expand its revenue by more than a third and significantly increase its profitability. The technology group’s order backlog remains at a very high level. (11/5)
Orbital Lasers Signs R&D Contract with JAXA to Develop LiDAR Altimeter Payload for HTV-X Demonstration (Source: Orbital Lasers)
Orbital Lasers announced that it has signed a research and development (R&D) contract with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to develop the LiDAR altimeter payload, building on the conceptual design, prototyping, and evaluation conducted under a previous contract with JAXA signed in fiscal year 2024. The payload is planned for installation aboard HTV-X, the new unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft, for an on-orbit demonstration. the mission payload comprising a LiDAR altimeter and imager system (the “LiDAR altimeter payload”). (10/30)
NASA awarded more than $1 billion in contracts Saturday to send missions to the moon while selecting eight companies to compete for future missions. NASA announced it awarded $1.3 billion in task orders to several companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Relativity Space, for launching missions to the moon to support the agency's proposed lunar base. Those launches also incorporate orbital transfer vehicles from Impulse Space and Quantum Space. The missions launching on those rockets include communications and tech demo orbiters as well as MoonFall, a set of three lunar "hopper" spacecraft. NASA also selected eight companies for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) 2.0 contract, making them eligible to compete for future lunar lander and other orbital missions. The companies include several that have already attempted lunar landings through the original CLPS contract as well as some newcomers, such as ispace U.S. and Northrop Grumman. (11/9)
NASA Presses Ahead with Mars Rover Conversion for Lunar Mission (Source: Space News)
NASA is going forward with plans to convert an engineering test model of a Mars rover into a lunar rover. The agency said Saturday it will develop the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration, or PROMISE, using an engineering model of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. PROMISE will carry more than 10 science and tech demo payloads, some of which are versions of instruments slated to go on a different lunar rover, VIPER, in 2027. NASA said PROMISE will cost no more than $400 million, including delivery to the south polar region of the moon on a Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 lander in late 2028. PROMISE, like its Mars counterparts, will use a radioisotope power source. (11/9)
Planet Picks Stoke Space to Launch Satellites (Source: Space News)
Planet has signed a multilaunch agreement with Stoke Space. The companies announced a deal Monday that covers launches of Planet's satellites on Stoke's Nova Pathfinder and Nova Block 2 rockets. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal. Planet has in recent years relied primarily on SpaceX rideshare missions for deploying its satellites, but SpaceX is ending its rideshare program and commercial sales of the Falcon 9 rocket. Planet said the deal is part of its efforts to develop "a diversified portfolio of launch providers." Stoke Space is working toward a first launch of its Nova Pathfinder fully reusable rocket next year, with the larger Nova Block 2 to follow in 2029. (11/9)
Trump's "Freedom in Space" Declaration Has Few Policy Implications (Source: Space News)
A White House declaration about American "freedom in space" has little effect on policy. The "American Declaration of Freedom in Space" released by the White House last week outlined past and planned American achievements in space and declared that space is the "province of all humans" and open to American exploration and development. Many experts noted that the declaration largely reaffirms the Outer Space Treaty, but some noted that support is still useful. Trump briefly mentioned the declaration in a speech Friday at the Kennedy Space Center that recapped his administration's accomplishments but did not include any new announcements. At the end of the speech, NASA unveiled a plaque it said was made for Trump and would be installed on the former Shuttle Landing Facility runway there; the plaque largely promotes CapeWeek, a planned air show at the center starting in 2028. (11/9)
RFA ONE Debut Launch Slips to 2027 (Source: European Spaceflight)
German launch company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has confirmed that it is now targeting 2027 for the inaugural flight of its RFA ONE rocket from a Scottish launch facility. The revised target for the rocket’s inaugural flight was announced in a post published on the company’s LinkedIn page on 3 November. The post detailed a visit from Walther Pelzer, Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR. (11/9)
Neutron Delay to 2027 Shows Why Space Needs More Launch Providers (Source: Via Satellite)
When Rocket Lab said that it would push back the first flight of its Neutron rocket until 2027, investors reacted as you might expect. The company’s shares fell by around 11% the following day. Rocket Lab had found problems with the fuel tank and needed time to put them right. For those of us who have spent decades in the industry, delays of this kind, though disappointing, are not surprising. Building a rocket is extraordinarily difficult, and even the best engineers cannot always foresee what will go wrong.
There are reasons to be concerned, but also to believe other companies can rise to the challenge. Blue Origin has already sent its New Glenn rocket into orbit and successfully recovered a booster, although it has also suffered setbacks. Rocket Lab has extensive experience launching smaller satellites with Electron – even if Neutron presents a much greater engineering challenge. Neither company has yet matched Falcon 9’s record of frequent, reliable launches. But SpaceX did not achieve that record overnight, and we should not expect its competitors to do so either. (11/6)
Viasat Receives Up to $450 Million Contract for SDN-B Mission Operations Center (Source: Defense Daily)
U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) said on Thursday that it has awarded an up to $450 million contract to Viasat [VSAT] for a Space Data Network-Backbone (SDN-B) Mission Operations Center (MOC) to support future military operations, including missile defense afforded by a contemplated Golden Dome system. The $115 million initial task order is "to design, field, and scale the MOC," SSC said. "In this role, Viasat, Inc. will serve as the network and mission system integration partner. (11/6)
Key Space Force Satellites Can’t Talk to Each Other, Likely Requiring $1B Solution (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force’s multibillion-dollar effort to build a satellite network that rapidly moves data over high-speed laser links will require an entirely new set of satellites and significant extra funding to connect with other military space systems. In effect, this new group of satellites will serve as translators between different sets of optical waveforms — two or three missile warning/tracking constellations in the short term, and others in the future — in order to ensure multiple systems can talk to each other. That connectivity is a vital part of supporting Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative that the network is supposed to help speed into existence, multiple sources said. (11/6)
NASA Announces $1 Million to Students for Moon Base Challenge (Source: NASA)
On Sunday, NASA announced the opening of its $1 million Moon Base Student Challenge at Kennedy Space Center. As part of a Golden Age of Science, the competition invites student teams at U.S. high schools and post-secondary schools to contribute designs for the Moon Base. “We’re looking for students ready to think creatively, work as a team, and take on real problems connected to NASA’s future on the Moon,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “You do not have to wait until graduation to contribute. Curiosity, creativity, and the willingness to tackle hard problems without obvious answers are exactly the qualities we need as we build what comes next.” (11/9)
NASA Moves Forward with Nuclear-powered PROMISE Rover (Source: Douglas Messier)
NASA has announced it will move forward with the nuclear-powered Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration (PROMISE) lunar rover, which will be built from components originally designed to explore the surface of Mars. The six-wheeled rover will land at the Moon’s south pole to characterize the surface and subsurface, search for ice and other volatiles, and provide data to enable landing site selection and future infrastructure and exploration activities. NASA is targeting a launch in late 2028. (11/9)
Firefly Aerospace Selected as a Vendor for NASA’s $10 Billion CLPS 2 Initiative (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace announced it was onboarded as a vendor under NASA’s $10 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) 2 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, positioning the company to compete for and deliver task orders that will advance the Agency’s scientific, exploration, and infrastructure objectives on the lunar surface over a 10-year ordering period. (11/7)
Congested Orbits Require Collision Avoidance, at a Cost (Source: Space News)
Satellite operators are weighing the costs of operating in increasingly congested orbits. Estimates of the cost to a satellite operator of a single collision-avoidance maneuver for a satellite vary widely, from $1,000 to $28,000. Those costs add up as the number of such maneuvers grows, although companies are turning to automated approaches to reduce some of those costs. Companies working on debris-removal technologies argue that those growing collision-avoidance costs create an incentive to use their services. (11/9)
China Ceres-2 Rocket Reaches Orbit on Second Attempt (Source: Space News)
China's Ceres-2 rocket reached orbit for the first time on its second launch Friday. The Ceres-2 lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed four satellites into orbit. The solid-fuel Ceres-2, which failed in its first launch in January, can carry up to 1,300 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit. The launch is a milestone for Galactic Energy, which also had a successful first launch of its liquid-fuel Pallas-1 in August.
China Long March 12 Launches Guowang Satellites (Source: Space News)
A Long March 12 lifted off Sunday from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, placing a set of Guowang satellites into orbit. (11/9)
SpaceX Launches California Falcon 9 Mission for Space Force on Friday (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched a mission for the Space Force Friday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:48 p.m. Eastern on a mission designated USSF-432. The launch is believed to have placed a set of Starshield satellites into orbit. SpaceX has two more classified Space Force launches scheduled for this week on Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg. (11/9)
Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches NavSat (Source: RussianSpaceWeb)
A Soyuz rocket launched a navigation satellite on Saturday. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on what was described as only a mission for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The launch likely carried a Glonass navigation satellite. (11/9)
CesiumAstro Florida Expansion Adding Momentum, 100 Jobs to Space Coast Economy (Source: Florida Today)
CesiumAstro, a rapidly growing space-to-ground communications company headquartered in Austin, Texas, is investing $25 million in a new engineering-manufacturing facility near Melbourne Orlando International Airport. The expansion is projected to create 100 new jobs over the next 12 months. Chief Operating Officer Brett Paulson said Melbourne personnel will lead work on two products: a ground station and a space-based radio communications system that talk with each other over a specific frequency channel.
“We look at Melbourne as one of our star engineering hubs. So we want it to be an engineering hub of excellence for us," Paulson said. "In Denver and Austin, there’s a lot of fighting for talent. In Melbourne, there’s a lot of great talent — and that’s going to start, too. So we just want to get there and get that talent," he said. (11/2)
AI Could Flag Astronaut Health Issues on Future Mars Missions (Source: Florida Today)
“The worst thing, the thing that keeps me up at night, figuratively speaking at least, is the thing we haven’t thought of,” said Mark Shelhamer, the former chief scientist for NASA's Human Research Program who now works as a scientist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Shelhamer has studied the health risks of long-duration spaceflight, including radiation exposure and bone loss.
One of his ideas is to use artificial intelligence to help provide early clues about astronaut health so doctors can get ahead of any potential problems. He believes AI can help monitor the medical and psychological well-being of the crew: using onboard artificial intelligence to monitor the crew, spacecraft and mission as an interconnected system, flagging changes that could signal emerging problems. While unclear exactly what this system would look like or how it could work, Shelhamer believes it could hold significant potential. (11/2)
Russia Already Using Its Own Starlink Rival Over Ukraine, Kyiv Intelligence Says (Source: United 24)
Russia has begun using its Rassvet satellite communications network for military operations over Ukraine, potentially allowing its drones to adjust flight paths in real time and operate with greater resistance to Ukrainian electronic warfare systems. A representative of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR), confirmed that Russia is already employing the satellite network, developed as a domestic alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink. However, the system remains limited in its capabilities. Russia currently lacks enough satellites to provide continuous coverage over Ukraine, meaning communications are available only during periods when the spacecraft pass over specific areas. (11/7)
How Does Sand Flow on the Moon? GraviTower Enables New Insights (University of Bremen)
Understanding how sand, dust, and other granular materials move on the Moon or Mars is crucial for many future missions – from safe landing to on-site resource utilization. :ocated at the University of Bremen’s Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity, an international research team has investigated how reduced gravity affects the flow of granular materials. The results demonstrate the great potential of the Bremen research laboratory for international exploration research.
The study addresses the question of how granular materials, such as gravel or Moon surface dust, flow under reduced gravity – and more specifically, under what conditions they stop flowing. Such a “clogging” event can occur, for example, when granular material flows through a narrow opening. At the GraviTower in Bremen, the researchers were able to precisely investigate the behavior of different sand types under Martian and lunar conditions, and demonstrate that the probability of clogging increases significantly under reduced gravity. The extent of this effect depends on the properties of the material in question. (10/29)
ETH Zurich Develops its Own Satellite Mission (Source: ETH Zurich)
ETH Zurich is developing the ETHOS research satellite in collaboration with the Physical Meteorological Observatory Davos, the University of Bern and EPFL. The satellite uses four instruments to simultaneously measure solar radiation and changes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. With ETHOS, ETH Zurich is assuming full responsibility for a complete satellite mission, from the planning stages through to launch, for the first time. (11/2)
Second Successful Launch of the SyLEx Sounding Rocket (Source: Ariane Group)
ArianeGroup has built the second SyLEx sounding rocket (Système de Lancement d'Expériences, or Experiment Launch System), which was successfully launched on November 4 under the direction of the French Defense Procurement and Technology Agency (DGA) from its Missile Testing Centre in Biscarrosse. This successful launch of the single-stage version carried a payload for DGA and the French Ministry for the Armed Forces and Veterans. This was the second launch of the SyLEx system and its first operational flight, following a successful demonstration flight in November 2025. Developed in less than three years for DGA, SyLEx provides France with its first sovereign suborbital launch capability. (11/4)
Prometheus Reusable Rocket Engine Reaches New Development Milestone with Hot-Fire Test (Source: Ariane Group)
On 29 October, the Prometheus reusable rocket engine reached a new development milestone with the validation of its operation integrated with the P5 test bench owned by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). This milestone once again demonstrated the engine's ability to complete several hot-fire tests with stabilized operation in a single test day. Meanwhile, ArianeGroup teams are preparing an improved version of Prometheus®, known as Mark 2, for its test campaign that will take place at ArianeGroup's Vernon test center. (11/6)
Varda's W-8 Capsule Returns Safely from Orbit as Three Vehicles Operate in Space (Source: Varda)
Varda Space Industries, the leader in orbital pharmaceutical processing and hypersonic reentry, today announced the successful reentry and recovery of its W-8 capsule, which landed at the Koonibba Test Range at 5:58am Pacific time after 35 days in orbit. W-8 launched on Oct. 1, 2026, simultaneously with the W-9 vehicle, the first time two commercial reentry vehicles were launched together. (11/5)
Embry‑Riddle Researcher Helps Solve Mystery Around Heating of Sun’s Corona (Source: ERAU)
Based on 27 years of research into a space weather phenomenon that creates powerful surges of energy — combined with brand-new images from the surface of the sun — Dr. Katariina Nykyri has proposed an answer to a long-standing mystery: how the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, is heated to more than a million degrees, hundreds of times hotter than its visible surface. Interpreting this process is important to life here on Earth, said Nykyri, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University. (11/5)
NASA Unveils $10B Moon Base Contract as SpaceX, Blue Origin Join Lunar Gold Rush (Source: Fox Business)
NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and six other aerospace companies are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar delivery contracts as the agency advances plans to establish a permanent base on the moon. The announcement, made at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expands NASA's commercial lunar program, bringing together private companies to deliver scientific equipment, technology and infrastructure to the moon's south pole.
The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a maximum combined value of $10 billion over 10 years, with the figure representing a ceiling for future task orders, not money already awarded to participating companies. Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA selected Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar delivery missions. (11/7)
Caltech Robotic Space Demo Successfully Builds in Space (Source: Caltech)
A robotic truss builder that was conceived, designed, and built by Caltech researchers and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has successfully built a structure in space—without the help of astronauts—for the first time. The truss builder, part of DARPA's Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints held in nearby dispensers to repeatedly assemble identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss. (11/5)
Germany's Rheinmetall Announces Record Growth and Profitability (Source: Rheinmetall)
Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall AG is heading into the final stretch of the 2026 fiscal year with record growth in sales and earnings. The first nine months of the year have seen the Group expand its revenue by more than a third and significantly increase its profitability. The technology group’s order backlog remains at a very high level. (11/5)
Orbital Lasers Signs R&D Contract with JAXA to Develop LiDAR Altimeter Payload for HTV-X Demonstration (Source: Orbital Lasers)
Orbital Lasers announced that it has signed a research and development (R&D) contract with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to develop the LiDAR altimeter payload, building on the conceptual design, prototyping, and evaluation conducted under a previous contract with JAXA signed in fiscal year 2024. The payload is planned for installation aboard HTV-X, the new unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft, for an on-orbit demonstration. the mission payload comprising a LiDAR altimeter and imager system (the “LiDAR altimeter payload”). (10/30)
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