November 28, 2025

Europe Still Lacks a Unified Vision for Space (Source: Le Monde)
Does Europe have the necessary resources to match its ambitions in the space sector? As outer space has become an arena for military, technological, digital and economic rivalry among the world's major powers, Europe faces a double setback. France is on the verge of losing its leadership role in a field in which the continent is losing ground. The Bremen summit, which brought together the space ministers of the 23 European Space Agency (ESA) member states on November 26 and 27, was intended to keep hope alive by safeguarding an increased budget.

While it signaled the growing influence of Germany and Italy at France's expense, it also exposed Europe's weaknesses: disunity and the lack of a clear vision. The Bremen ministerial meeting underscored the emergence of a new kind of competition, driven in particular by Germany and Italy, who are ready to increase their contributions to ESA's funding. France, constrained by its own budgetary limits, has found it increasingly difficult to keep up and now risks losing influence over the allocation of European programs. (11/27)

European Space Agency to Play a Greater Role in Defense (Source: Politico)
The European Space Agency's members approved a record €22.1 billion three-year budget and widened its mandate to include security and defense — a big change for an organization that had been dedicated "exclusively" to the peaceful use of space. The ESA called the move a "historic change." (11/27)

Poland and ESA Discuss Plans for New Security Center (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency and the Republic of Poland are considering the creation of a new ESA centre focusing on security to be located in Poland. The announcement was made as part of the outcomes of ESA's Ministerial Council (CM25), taking place in Bremen, Germany. The focus of the potential center in Poland would be complementary to existing security and resilience activities, particularly at the European Space Security and Education Centre (ESEC) in Belgium. It would also support efficient and coherent development of European space security and resilience capabilities. (11/27)

China Has No Intention of Engaging in Space Race with Any Country (Source: Global Times)
When asked to comment on that the US' claims that after establishing the Space Force, it has gained dominance over Russia and China in the space domain, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China has always adhered to the peaceful use of outer space and opposes an arms race or the weaponization of outer space. China has no intention of engaging in a space race with any country, nor does it seek so-called space superiority, said Mao. (11/28)

Baikonur Launch Pad Damaged After Russian Soyuz Launch to ISS (Source: Reuters)
A Russian Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut on board successfully docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, Russian space agency Roscosmos said. But the agency later reported that the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan had sustained damage from the launch. It said the damage would be quickly repaired. (11/28)

China Has 3 Reusable Rockets Lined Up for Launch as They Vie to Make History (Source: SCMP)
The race to launch China’s first reusable rocket is heating up, with three contenders now lined up at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the country’s northwest for flights that could make history. On the pads stand the state-owned Long March 12A, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3, and Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 – all three of which are expected to be used to build China’s massive internet satellite constellations and to compete internationally on low-cost, rapid-turnaround missions.

Both the Long March 12A and Zhuque-3 are aiming for December lift-offs that will try to reach orbit and bring their first stages back to Earth about 400km downrange. Tianlong-3 is also designed for reuse, but is not expected to attempt a landing on its debut flight. A Beijing-based rocket engineer familiar with the matter said the Long March 12A’s technical readiness was “on par” with Zhuque-3’s. But he said there had been “internal considerations” about which rocket should get the historic first attempt. (11/27)

Farside Regolith is Stickier (Source; Wonders in Space)
China’s Chang’e-6 mission returned the first soil from the Moon’s far side, and tests show it is far stickier and more cohesive than samples from the near side. The fine, sharp, and jagged particles, shaped by billions of years of impacts in the South Pole–Aitken basin, can form much steeper slopes, reaching up to about 70 degrees before collapsing. This unusual behavior could affect how rovers, landers, and future astronauts move, drill, and build there, making the ground harder to work with but potentially useful for stronger, more stable structures. (11/27)

Flight Goes Supersonic (Source: LinkedIn)
Several companies, from Boom Supersonic to Lockheed, are working on technological advancements reducing the sonic boom at high Mach speeds. On October 28, NASA and Lockheed Martin finally got the X-59 Quiet Supersonic aircraft into the air for the first time. Boom Supersonic is leading the commercial charge with 64–80-seat planes priced at business-class levels. United, American, and a handful of others have placed deposits or options for more than 100 airframes. What this means is the second era of supersonic flight has begun and should be a viable product in the back half of this decade. (11/26)

World's Largest Neutrino Detector Starts Up — with Incredible Results (Source: SCMP)
The world’s largest “ghost particle” detector, located in southern China’s Guangdong province, has shattered expectations in just two months. Initial results from the vast new Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) have shown a record level of precision, surpassing decades of cumulative data from other global experiments on neutrinos.

The immediate success has confirmed that the detector is ready to tackle fundamental questions, potentially uncovering new laws of physics and solving the mystery of matter’s very existence. From data collected between August 26 and November 2, Juno was able to measure two key neutrino oscillation parameters with a precision 1.6 times greater than the previous 50 years of experiments combined, the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced on Wednesday. (11/26)

Former Astronaut Fires Back After Trump Threatens Him With Execution (Source: Futurism)
In a video posted to X-formerly-Twitter last week, Democratic lawmakers — including senator and former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly — encouraged members of the military to “refuse illegal orders.” “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” they said in the video. “Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution.”

Both president Donald Trump and the Department of Defense have since threatened Kelly — who was an aviator for the US Navy for decades and flew 39 combat missions — with everything from court-martial proceedings to public execution. Kelly has since issued a statement rebuking the threats and forcefully arguing that he’s “upheld” his oath to the Constitution he swore after joining the US Navy at the age of 22. (11/24)

Lightning on Mars Spells Trouble for Future Missions and Search for Life (Source: Connect Sci)
Lightning has been detected on Mars for the first time, confirming longstanding theories that the dusty and windy Martian atmosphere could see electrical charges transferred. Finding lightning could reveal new insights into the habitability of Mars and potential risks to future missions. Researchers found 55 electrical events which had acoustic signatures characteristic of lightning. Almost all of these coincided with high winds with only 1 occurring during winds outside the strongest 30% recorded during the study period. (11/26)

SmartSky Won’t Block Gogo 5G Air-to-Ground Network Despite Legal Win (Source: Space News)
SmartSky Networks does not plan to seek an injunction to block Gogo’s 5G air-to-ground (ATG) rollout across the United States, despite prevailing in a patent-infringement lawsuit tied to the technology. (11/26)

NASA Astronauts Celebrate Thanksgiving with Russian Cranberry Sauce (Source: NPR)
About 250 miles above the Earth, NASA astronauts on board the ISS enjoyed an off-duty day for Thanksgiving, along with a group meal that featured some celebratory foods. "This is my second Thanksgiving in space, so I highly recommend it," said Mike Fincke, in a video message beamed down from the outpost. (11/27)

Space Force Seeks Innovative New Battle Management, C2 Tools (Source: Air & Space Forces)
For the last few years, through a little-known program called Kronos, the Space Force has been consolidating and modernizing its suite of legacy systems that provide satellite operators with intelligence tools and command-and-control capabilities. Now, USSF is reaching out to commercial firms to prototype and integrate new battle management tools on a faster and more continuous cadence to match the growing threats in orbit. (11/26)

Why the UAE Must Build its Own Orbital Access Capability (Source: Gulf News)
It is only natural and fair for any nation to aspire and build its own orbital access capability and infrastructure. While the pursuit of outer space is a sovereign right, only a handful of countries have successfully achieved it. Regardless of the economic and/or technological reasons that may be used to explain this fact, the strategic value of independent access to outer space has grown immensely. Indeed, outer space will continue to grow in strategic and economic importance over the next many decades.

I argue that the UAE must begin building its own domestic orbital launch capability without delay. This must become a national priority, and it must be pursued in parallel to all the already established and /or achieved strategic goals. The UAE has been one of the most active countries in space, in the region. The National Space Strategy, released in 2019, made space an integral part of the UAE’s strategic, economic, and investment landscape. (11/26)

Exploration and the UK Emerge as the Biggest Losers of CM25 (Source: European Spaceflight)
Following the conclusion of ESA's Ministerial Council 2025 (CM25) meeting, the budget for the agency’s Human and Robotic Exploration program and the UK’s contribution to the agency have emerged as the most significantly reduced. While the UK’s total spending was reduced by just €172 million, to €1.706 billion, its contribution as a percentage of the total budget fell from 11.2% to 7.7%, the largest decline of any country by a considerable margin.

Human and Robotic Exploration saw an undersubscription, but Space Transportation recorded a dramatic oversubscription, rising from just under €3.9 billion to over €4.4 billion. This was largely driven by the oversubscribed European Launcher Challenge initiative, which doubled its expected subscriptions, bringing in €900 million.

In addition to Spain, there were significant funding increases from Poland, Canada (an ESA Cooperating State), Denmark, and Austria. Germany’s contribution to ESA programs rose sharply from €3.47 billion to just over €5 billion, with the country now accounting for 23.11% of all contributions to the agency. (11/27)

Regolith Ignorance Is the #1 Driver of Lunar Budget Overruns (Source: Space Geotech)
For over fifty years, lunar geotechnics has operated under a silent, consequential error: the assumption that the Moon’s regolith behaves as a normally consolidated granular medium, where present overburden defines past stress, and strength rises monotonically with depth due to self-weight densification alone. This notion, codified in The Lunar Sourcebook, was a necessary simplification in its time. But it is no longer tenable.

The data refute it. Apollo core densities, penetrometer resistances, and shear-strength measurements, reanalyzed rigorously in Engineering the Lunar Sites for Construction (de Moraes, 2025), reveal a consistent, site-validated truth: "Lunar regolith is overconsolidated. At 1 meter depth in mature mare, OCR* = 2.5; in highlands, OCR* = 1.3. Nowhere, not even at 10 cm, is OCR* = 1."

This is not statistical noise. It is a systematic mechanical state, rejected at p < 10⁻¹⁵ across all Apollo sites. The regolith’s strength arises not from burial, but from gigayear-scale processing by micrometeorite impacts, thermal fatigue, and electrostatic binding; forces absent in terrestrial soil mechanics. (11/26)

NASA Renews Commitment to Europe's Life-Hunting Mars Rover Despite Trump Budget Cuts (Source: Space.com)
NASA will help Europe get its long-delayed Mars life-hunting ExoMars rover off the ground, even though President Donald Trump's proposed NASA budget cuts the collaboration in a drive to reduce spending on science. "I've got yesterday a letter from the NASA administration to confirm the contributions of NASA to Rosalind Franklin," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said. (11/27)

Eumetsat Members Clear Administrative Hurdles, Approve Billion-Dollar EPS-Sterna Constellation (Source: Space Intel Report)
The 30-nation Eumetsat organization approved development of full development of the EPS-Sterna constellation of polar-orbiting satellites to provide hydrological and meteorological measurements to help predict heatwaves and storms, with the first satellites to be launched in 29. (11/27)

US-Russian Soyuz Crew Launches to ISS on Thanksgiving Day (Source: Space.com)
Chris Williams of NASA, together with his Soyuz MS-28 crewmates Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, both cosmonauts with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, lifted off for the ISS on Thursday, beginning a planned eight-month expedition with a coincidental but well-timed celebration. (11/27)

Inaugural Space Rider Flight to Occur in 2028 (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA has announced that the inaugural flight of its reusable Space Rider vehicle is expected in 2028. Space Rider is an eight-meter-long reusable spacecraft designed to carry technology demonstration and scientific payloads into orbit for up to two months before returning them to Earth. The spacecraft employs a steerable parafoil to enable precise landings for recovery, refurbishment, and reuse.

During a contract signing between ESA and the Portuguese Space Agency on 27 November to establish the Santa Maria Space Hub, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher announced that the first Space Rider flight is planned for 2028. Serving as the program’s designated landing site, Santa Maria will form a key part of the vehicle’s ground infrastructure. (11/27)

ESA and Norway Explore Possibility of Arctic Space Center (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency has signed a letter of intent with Norway to advance the prospect of a new ESA Arctic Space Centre to be hosted in Tromsø. The Arctic is an important scientific ecosystem as well as being significant economically and geopolitically. It is also a region where climate change is particularly pronounced, with rates of warming up to four times greater than the rest of the planet. Space-based technologies and services can help monitor and mitigate climate change, while also supporting sustainable development, civil safety and security and energy management in the region. (11/27)

ACME Space Plans Test of Balloon-Launched Space Factory (Source: Space News)
London-headquartered ACME Space has unveiled plans to begin hardware tests of its balloon-launched orbital manufacturing vehicle Hyperion next year and hopes to commence commercial operations in 2027. The Hyperion Orbital Factory Vehicle (OFV) is designed to carry up to 200 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO), using a hydrogen-filled balloon. After the hydrogen balloon ascent, the system separates and fires its micro-rocket engine at stratospheric altitudes. The orbital capsule is released at 100 kilometers and continues to the target orbit. (11/27)