November 11, 2026

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)