November 12, 2026

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)