October 11, 2025

Recycle the ISS (Source: Space News)
NASA plans to spend approximately $1 billion of taxpayer money to destroy the International Space Station in 2030. The ISS contains over $1.5 billion worth of space-grade materials already in orbit. Instead of throwing this asset away, we should redirect that funding to develop the technology to recycle it. This approach saves a valuable asset, prevents wasteful spending and seeds a new, American-led industry in space, ensuring our economic and strategic leadership over competitors like China. (10/11)

A Call to Arms for British Space Investors (Source: Space News)
The United Kingdom is taking strides to bolster its military and defense investments in space, but the public funding being made available for the U.K.'s space startups isn't enough to do the job, argued Mark Wheatley and Andrew Turner. They call on London-based investors to get off of the sidelines and make the private investments necessary to mobilize the U.K.'s financial strength in the interest of space security and leadership.

"The government will remain the backbone of national defense, but our view is that resilience in the contested domains can’t be built by the state alone," they wrote. "It requires partnership between ministers, financiers, industry and innovators. Acting together, we can make up the lost ground and build a world-leading defense sector." (10/11)

Prestwick Spaceport FFailure 'Echoes Global Trend' (Source: Insider)
A space industry expert has outlined many of the issues that led to the collapse of the Prestwick Spaceport project. Karen Jones, senior project leader at the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy in the United States, is one of the authors of Spaceportopia: Lessons from the Global Proliferation of Launch Sites and said that the failure of the project echoed issues being faced globally.

She and her colleagues warn that governments and councils are pouring millions into prestige projects that rarely deliver the promised returns. Many of the issues raised in the report mirror the problems faced by the Prestwick project – which was a key part of the Ayrshire Growth Deal before being formally scrapped last month. (10/10)

Seattle Space Week Offers Tips for Starry-Eyed Entrepreneurs (Source: Geekwire)
Most weeklong tech events have opportunities for entrepreneurs to make contacts and trade tips, serious sessions where CEOs and public officials share their visions, and happy hours where future deals are made. But how many “tech weeks” include a show-and-tell featuring a military-grade Jet Gun? That was one of the bonus attractions during Seattle Space Week, a smorgasbord of events served up by Space Northwest and its partners. (10/10)

Putin OKs Plan to Turn Russian Spacecraft Into Flying Billboards (Source: Ars Technica)
These are tough times for Russia's civilian space program. In the last few years, Russia has cut back on the number of Soyuz crew missions it is sending to the International Space Station, and a replacement for the nearly 60-year-old Soyuz spacecraft remains elusive. Roscosmos, Russia's official space agency, may have a plan to offset the decline. Late last month, Putin approved changes to federal laws governing advertising and space activities to "allow for the placement of advertising on spacecraft."

Rocket-makers have routinely applied decals, stickers, and special paint jobs to their vehicles. This is a particularly popular practice in Russia. Usually, these logos represent customers and suppliers. Sometimes they honor special occasions, like the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight mission by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (10/10)

China Launches Gravity-1 Rocket From Sea (Source: Xinhua)
China sent a Gravity-1 carrier rocket into space from waters off the coast of Haiyang on Saturday. The rocket placed three satellites into their designated orbits. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore mission. A wide-field satellite and two experimental satellites were onboard. The Gravity-1 carrier rocket has a low-Earth-orbit payload capacity of 6.5 tonnes and is capable of delivering a 4.2-tonne payload to a 500-km sun-synchronous orbit. (10/11)

Netherlands Commits to “Maintain” ESA Contribution Levels Through 2028 (Source: European Spaceflight)
The Dutch government has decided to contribute €344.3 million to European Space Agency (ESA) over the next three years. The government also announced that, with the addition of its national space programs, the country would spend a total of €550 million from 2026 to 2028. (10/11)

Saturn's Moon Mimas May Have an Ocean (Source: Space.com)
The case for a newborn ocean on Saturn's moon Mimas continues to build. Research mapping the thickness of the world's icy crust not only provides a window for how old an existing ocean might be but also probes where the crust might be at its thinnest — the perfect spot for future missions to detect the ocean. At the same time, examination of Mimas' largest crater is providing further constraints on the age range of the potential ocean. (10/10)

Space Prep to Bring Commercial Satellite Prep Capabilities to Kennedy Space Center (Source: Space Coast Daily)
Located inside the gates of Kennedy Space Center, Space Prep’s state-of-the-art launch-preparation complex offers scalable satellite integration and testing facilities that were once accessible only to a select few. Space Prep is pioneering launch preparation with the first true commercial multi-tenant facility designed for the next phase of space commercialization. Drawing upon best-in-class private real estate and technical expertise, the complex is purpose-built for adaptability and scale. (10/8)

How a Giant Asteroid Gauged Out the Moon’s Largest Crater (Source: Cosmos)
About 4.3 billion years ago, an asteroid collided with the Moon’s far side in a glancing blow which left behind an oblong basin as deep as 8.2km. Now, new research has revealed the giant asteroid that created the South Pole-Aitken basin (SPA), the Moon’s largest crater, slammed into the lunar surface from a northerly direction.

The team compared SPA’s oblong shape to other giant impact basins in the solar system which have independent evidence about the motion of the projectile which created them. Their new analysis reveals that SPA’s shape narrows toward the south, indicating the impact came from the north. This means the down range end of the basin, closer to the Moon’s South Pole, should be covered by a thick layer of material which was kicked up from the lunar interior by the impact. (10/9)