October 9, 2025

DLR's ATHEAt Flight Experiment Achieves Hypersonic Milestone Over Norway (Source: Space Daily)
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has successfully launched its ATHEAt flight experiment from Andoya, Norway, marking a major advance in reusable space transportation technology. The sounding rocket lifted off on 6 October, flying for approximately four minutes and surpassing Mach 9 - conditions comparable to atmospheric re-entry. The rocket climbed beyond 30 kilometers in altitude, with onboard sensors capturing data on aerothermal loads and structural performance. (10/9)

Space Ocean and Space Nukes Forge Alliance to Develop Deep Space Power Systems (Source: Space Daily)
Space Ocean Corp. signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Space Nuclear Power Corp. (Space Nukes) to explore the integration of advanced nuclear reactor technology into future deep-space missions. The collaboration centers on testing Space Nukes' 10-kilowatt nuclear reactor aboard Space Ocean's ALV-N satellite. Upon meeting key performance milestones, Space Nukes will become a core supplier of compact fission systems for Space Ocean's lunar and planetary missions.

Editor's Note: There is a shortage of facilities at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport sited for nuclear payload processing, while there are several companies and programs aimed at sending nuclear powered spacecraft or nuclear power generators into space. (10/9)

Raytheon and Anduril Achieve Breakthrough Test in Advanced Rocket Propulsion (Source: Space Daily)
Raytheon and Anduril have completed a successful static fire test of an advanced solid rocket motor under contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate. The tested propulsion system featured a Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) rocket motor, one of the most challenging designs in the field. Editor's Note: HLG motors us ~90% of the propulsive stage's internal volume for propellant, as opposed to 80-85% for non-HLG motors. This requires advances in thermal management, grain design, and high-tolerance casings. (10/9)

Rocket Lab Widens iQPS Partnership with Three More Dedicated Electron Launches (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab has signed a new multi-launch agreement with Japan's Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS), adding three dedicated Electron missions from New Zealand beginning in 2026 and making Rocket Lab the primary launch provider for the QPS-SAR constellation. The additional flights lift iQPS's upcoming Electron manifest to seven, on top of four already booked. Each mission will deploy a single SAR satellite. (10/9)

Trump Jeopardizing US Role as Scientific Leader: Nobel Officials (Source: Space Daily)
Donald Trump's assault on science could threaten the United States' position as the world's leading research nation and have knock-on effects worldwide, Nobel Prize officials in Sweden said. Since taking office in January, the US president has cut billions of dollars in funding, attacked universities' academic freedoms and overseen mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies. Next week, the Nobel Prizes will be announced in Stockholm and Oslo, and chances are high that researchers working in the United States will take home some of the prestigious awards. (10/9)

University of Mississippi Law School Launches First Fully Online Air and Space Law Master's Degree (Source: Space Daily)
The University of Mississippi School of Law has introduced the nation's first fully online Master of Science in Air and Space Law, designed to equip professionals for leadership roles in the fast-growing aerospace sector. Created in collaboration with instructional design firm iDesign, the program delivers a comprehensive legal foundation for those working in aviation, commercial space, and emerging air mobility industries. (10/9)

Space Force Sees Surge in Foreign Military Sales (Source: Aviation Week)
The US Space Force has seen a significant increase in foreign military sales cases over the past four years, with projections indicating $10 billion to $12 billion in demand for space-related sales by 2030. The sales have expanded beyond GPS user equipment to other areas of the Space Force's portfolio. (10/8)   
 
Space Force Launches Billion-Dollar Working Capital Fund (Source: Space News)
The US Space Force's newly announced working capital fund is projected to exceed $1 billion to streamline military agencies' access to commercial space services. Operating under the Air Force Working Capital Fund, this initiative uses a revolving fund model, allowing customers to pay for services and reinvesting revenues to sustain the fund. The program began with a $120 million deposit and anticipates managing over $1.2 billion each year, providing a scalable financial platform to support evolving commercial space requirements. (10/8)

Stoke Raises $510 Million for Fully Reusable Rocket (Source: Space News)
Launch vehicle developer Stoke Space announced Wednesday it raised $510 million, bringing the total it raised to nearly $1 billion. The Series D round was led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, which invests in companies developing “critical technologies relevant to the national interest,” with other new and existing investors participating. The company had closed a $260 million Series C round nine months ago. Stoke said it will use the funding to accelerate development of Nova, a medium-lift vehicle whose first and second stages are intended to be reused. Stoke secured a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract for Nova earlier this year, but the company has not announced a date for the vehicle’s first launch. (10/9)

AST and Verizon Agree to Space-Based Network Arrangement (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile said Wednesday that Verizon had signed a definitive agreement to use its planned space-based cellular network. The deal enables Verizon to provide direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity to its customers from some point in 2026, building on a strategic partnership announced in May 2024 that included plans for a $100 million investment in AST. AST signed a similar definitive revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T last year. Shares in AST closed up 8% Wednesday as investors’ concerns about the competitive threat posed by SpaceX’s D2D ambitions eased. (10/9)

European Defense Spending and Golden Dome May Reshape Commercial Space (Source: Space News)
A wave of defense spending in Europe and renewed military investment in the United States are reshaping the commercial space industry. Investors and executives said those two trends, both linked to policies by the Trump administration, have changed the outlook for space companies this year. European investments are focused on surveillance, communications infrastructure and military space projects designed to ensure strategic autonomy, while the U.S. trends are linked to the Golden Dome missile defense system. Executives say there are now more investors interested in space companies as a result.

Editor's Note: Looks like European nations are wisely using dual-use space investments to meet their defense-spending obligations to NATO. (10/9)

Space Force Creates Fund to Ease Access to Commercial Space Services (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has established a working capital fund with a projected value of more than $1 billion to help facilitate military agencies’ access to commercial space services. Space Systems Command said Wednesday that the Enterprise Space Activity Group (ESAG) was established at the start of the month under the Air Force Working Capital Fund. ESAG will help military users purchase services such as commercial satellite communications outside of annual appropriations cycles. The new fund began operations with an initial $120 million deposit and is expected to handle more than $1.2 billion annually. (10/9)

Space Force Picks Muon Space to Demo Satellite Earth Observation, Weather Forecasting (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force awarded a contract to Muon Space to demonstrate how its satellites can be used in weather forecasting. Space Systems Command announced Wednesday it awarded Muon Space a Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) fixed price Other Transaction Authority agreement, a type of public-private partnership deal used by the government to tap commercially available technologies, valued at $44.6 million. The award covers in-orbit demonstrations of the company’s environmental monitoring technology in support of military applications such as weather forecasting. Muon will launch three satellites for the Space Systems Command’s prototype demonstration. (10/9)

Blue Origin Launches Suborbital Tourist Flight at Texas Site (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin launched six people on a suborbital spaceflight Wednesday. The company’s New Shepard vehicle lifted off at 9:40 a.m. Eastern from its West Texas site on the NS-36 flight, landing 10 minutes later. The six people on board included one repeat customer, Clint Kelly III, who previously flew on New Shepard in 2022. This was the eighth flight of New Shepard this year, and a company executive said last month that Blue Origin plans to move to weekly flights over the next two years as it introduces additional vehicles capable of higher flight rates. (10/9)

Arianespace Sets November 4 for Next Ariane 6 Launch (Source: Arianespace)
Arianespace set an early November date for the next Ariane 6 launch. The company said this week the launch of the Sentinel-1D radar imaging satellite is planned for Nov. 4 from French Guiana. The launch will be the third for the Ariane 6 this year and fourth overall for the vehicle. Arianespace said last month it plans four Ariane 6 launches this year, down from earlier projections of five. (10/9)

ArianeGroup CEO Exits (Source: Alstom)
The CEO of the prime contractor for the Ariane 6 plans to step down to take a job outside the space industry. ArianeGroup announced Wednesday that Martin Sion had informed the company he would not seek to extend his contract as CEO, which is scheduled to expire in March 2026. Neither the company nor Sion provided further explanation, but French train manufacturer Alstom announced Thursday that Sion would join the company as CEO in April. (10/9)

Study Looks at Mars Crew Personality Types (Source: Space.com)
Mars missions will need a wide range of personality types, a new study argues. Researchers, in a paper published Wednesday, used computer simulations to learn how people with different personality traits would work together on a long-duration mission to Mars. The simulation used “agents” with different personality traits to simulate astronauts on the mission. Researchers said crews with different combinations of traits did better than those who were all similar to one another. (10/9)

Blue Origin Transports New Glenn Booster to Launch Site Ahead of Mars-Bound Mission (Source: Spaceflight Now)
Blue Origin is one step closer to its second ever launch of its New Glenn rocket. On Wednesday morning, teams rolled the 189-foot-tall booster from its facilities near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin its journey out to LC-36. The booster, named ‘Never Tell Me the Odds,’ a nod to the famous line from Star Wars, will be used during the upcoming launch of NASA’s Mars-bound Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. A launch date hasn’t been announced, but it’s likely in early November. (10/8)

Sabca Secures €85 Million Ariane 6 Operational Phase Contract (Source: European Spaceflight)
ArianeGroup has awarded an €85 million contract to Belgian aerospace and defence company Sabca for the production of Thrust Vector Control (TVC) systems for 27 Ariane 6 rockets. Sabca and ArianeGroup signed an initial contract for the production of the first batch of Ariane 6 TVC systems in July 2020. The TVC systems allow both the Vulcain 2.1 core-stage engine and the Vinci upper-stage engine to be steered. (10/8)

Study Finds No Benefit to NASA's Reliance on Industry for Spacecraft Development (Source: Futurism)
For decades, NASA has increasingly leaned on corporate contractors to develop its spacecraft. Triumphs have included SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles, which can now reliably shuttle astronauts to the ISS and beyond. The widely parroted idea is that players in the free market will be able to operate more efficiently than NASA’s own stock of engineers, who masterminded the agency’s triumphs of decades past, like the Apollo Moon missions and the Space Shuttle.

But are corporations actually more efficient at realizing NASA’s goals? A recent paper in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets set out to settle the score. For proponents of corporate partnerships with NASA, the results are embarrassing: the paper found that the contractors were just as inefficient as the government.

Unfortunately, the paper may be falling on deaf ears. Since rising to office, the Trump administration, with a helping hand from Elon Musk, has gutted some 20 percent of NASA’s staff, including over 2,000 senior staffers with “core mission” experience. Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, has been handed the keys to the proverbial kingdom. (10/7)

Giant Asteroid Struck North Sea, Unleashing 330-Feet Tsunami (Source: SciTech Daily)
For decades, scientists have debated the origin of the Silverpit Crater in the southern North Sea. New evidence now shows that the structure was created by the impact of an asteroid or comet roughly 43 to 46 million years ago. (10/7)

Defense to ‘Anchor’ Exploding Satellite Market Over Next Decade (Source: Breaking Defense)
The number of satellites projected to be launched over the next decade will dwarf the number of those now on orbit — but even though the bulk of those new birds will be owned by commercial and civil government entities, it is the defense sector that will “anchor” the market through 2034, according to a new analysis. NovaSpace’s report states, “more than 43,000 satellites will launch over the next decade, reshaping competition across orbits and applications and fueling a $665 billion market in manufacturing and launch services.” (10/7)

We Finally Know How The Lights Switched on at The Dawn of Time (Source: Science Alert)
We may finally know what first lit up the cosmic dawn in the early Universe. According to data from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, the origins of the free-flying photons in the early cosmic dawn were small dwarf galaxies that flared to life, clearing the fog of murky hydrogen that filled intergalactic space. (10/5)

Planning Commission Recommends County Approval of Virginia Spaceport Rezoning (Source: SPACErePORT)
The Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority received preliminary approval on Wednesday for their request to have two large parcels near the Wallops Island spaceport rezoned to support space launch operations and launch-related manufacturing (likely for Rocket Lab and/or Firefly Aerospace). The request will now go to the county commission for final approval.

One audience member strongly urged Virginia Space to increase their focus on "rocket tourism" and efforts to attract and cater to the large number of regional residents who would want to visit the area for launch viewing. (10/8)

Iceye Eyes New Funding Round Valued at $2.5B Amid Security Tailwinds (Source: Mach 33)
European radar imaging startup Iceye is reportedly considering a fresh funding round at a $2.5 billion valuation, reflecting elevated demand from defense customers across Europe and the Middle East. The firm has launched 54 satellites to date and is scaling toward a target output of 150 satellites annually.

If executed, the raise would provide critical growth capital for scaling manufacturing, R&D, and international expansion. Given the defense orientation of its customer base, Iceye is well positioned to capture cross‑border contracts. Investors will watch execution risk closely, including satellite yield, margins, and geopolitical exposure tied to sensitive imaging capabilities. (10/8)

Verizon Taps AST SpaceMobile to Extend Connectivity via Satellites in 2026 (Source: Mach 33)
Verizon and AST SpaceMobile have struck a commercial agreement to leverage AST’s direct-to-device (D2D) satellite infrastructure beginning in 2026, enabling Verizon’s 850 MHz low-band spectrum to reach remote and underserved U.S. areas. The deal builds on their 2024 strategic partnership and represents a broad expansion of Verizon’s terrestrial network footprint into orbital layers.

The move gives AST deep access to Verizon’s infrastructure and customers without bearing the full commercial risk of market rollout. For Verizon, it represents a hedge and competitive lever against rivals deploying DTC from space like T-Mobile/Starlink and AT&T via AST also. The announcement triggered a double-digit surge in AST’s share price (now up 100% in the last month), reflecting investor confidence in the company’s ability to monetize satellite DTC services. (10/8)

U.S. Government Shutdown Drags On, NASA Operations Largely Halted, Backpay Threatened (Sources: Mach 33, Axios)
The U.S. Senate again failed to pass a continuing resolution, extending the federal government shutdown with no immediate path to reopening. Approximately 15,000 of NASA’s 18,000 civil servants have been furloughed, leaving only about 3,100 exempt employees to maintain critical functions such as ISS mission control and Artemis program safety operations. The FCC and FAA remain similarly impacted, halting most licensing and regulatory activity. Bill Nye and The Planetary Society organized a “Save NASA Science” rally in Washington to highlight the disruption to ongoing research.

The prolonged funding lapse increases the likelihood of delays in new contracts, grants, and regulatory approvals across NASA, the FCC, and the FAA, raising execution and timing risk for aerospace firms reliant on government partnerships. Extended disruption could also compound schedule slippages for major programs such as Artemis II, new satellite authorizations, and FAA launch licensing, potentially affecting commercial operators’ revenue timelines and investor confidence.

And unlike previous shutdowns, the furloughed federal workers may not be compensated for their forced time off, according to a draft White House memo. If the White House acts on that legal analysis, it would dramatically escalate President Trump's pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown by denying back pay to as many as 750,000 federal workers after the shutdown. (10/8)

OBR CTM and SATIM Partner to Enhance Maritime Situational Awareness (Source: SATIM)
Poland's Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A. (OBR CTM) and SATIM announced a strategic partnership that is focused on bringing a more complete and reliable maritime picture for Polish Ministry of Defense end users and international partners. Through this partnership, SATIM, a Polish defense-tech startup pioneering AI-based analysis of satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, will focus on integrating its advanced detection and classification software OREC into Digital Baltic. (10/8)

October 8, 2025

Space Infrastructure Investments Surge to Five-Quarter High (Source: Space News)
Investment in space infrastructure reached its highest level in more than a year during the third quarter. A report by early-stage investor Space Capital said global investments in core space infrastructure climbed to a five-quarter high of $4.4 billion. That was thanks to investments in satellite manufacturing in the United States and in Chinese launch companies. According to Space Capital, 60% of all satellite manufacturing funding rounds tracked over the past 15 years have occurred since 2021, reflecting growing confidence in mass-production models and dual-use hardware that aims to serve defense and commercial demand. Space Capital said it does not expect that trend of increased investment in infrastructure to slow. (10/8)

Blue Origin Wins $78.25 Million Space Force Contract to Expand Launch Processing Capacity (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin won a Space Force contract to expand satellite processing facilities at Cape Canaveral. The $78.2 million contract, announced Tuesday, was secured through a “Commercial Solutions Opening” (CSO) competition, a procurement method the government uses to attract private-sector innovation and to share project costs with commercial partners. Blue Origin’s contract marks the second CSO award of the year targeting satellite processing improvements. Lockheed Martin subsidiary Astrotech won a $77.5 million contract in April to expand facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base. (10/8)

Stoke Space Reportedly Raising Another Massive Round of Funding for its Nova Rocket (Source: GeekWire)
Stoke Space is said to be raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a funding round that it hasn’t yet publicly acknowledged. Sources said the funding round could total as much as $500 million, and would value Stoke at nearly $2 billion. That figure would be roughly twice as much as the $944 million valuation that was cited by Pitchbook as of January. The round’s lead investor is said to be Thomas Tull’s United States Innovative Technology Fund. Editor's Note: Stoke is leasing LC-14 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (10/7)

Spain's Sateliot Demonstrates IoT Satellite Service (Source: Space News)
Spanish startup Sateliot says it has demonstrated Internet of Things (IoT) services via satellite using a 5G protocol. The startup said Tuesday it sent data from one of its four operational LEO satellites to an nRF9151, a low-power cellular module from Norway’s Nordic Semiconductor that is typically used in sensors for tracking or monitoring. The data was sent via the same network protocols as a regular mobile network. The system used a global 5G standard called 3GPP Release 17 that Sateliot argues will allow satellites to seamlessly integrate into terrestrial networks without the need to modify device hardware. Sateliot raised 70 million euros ($81 million) earlier this year and has long-term ambitions for a constellation of hundreds of satellites. (10/8)

Tug-of-War Over Discovery Shuttle (Source: Space News)
The future of the shuttle Discovery continues to be a hot topic in Congress. A provision in the budget reconciliation bill passed in July included $85 million for a “space vehicle transfer” interpreted to allow the move of Discovery from the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington to Space Center Houston. Last month, four Democratic senators asked leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to prevent any additional federal funds from being spent on the effort, citing estimates that the move would cost far more than the amount included in the bill. Texas’s two senators countered with a letter this week seeking to block that effort while claiming that the Smithsonian was distributing “misinformation” about the costs of the move. (10/8)

SpaceX Launches California Starlink Mission on Wednesday (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Another day means another launch of Starlink satellites. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and put 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The booster for the mission made its 29th flight, one behind the company’s current record for booster reuse. (10/8)

Thales Alenia Opens "Smart Factory" for Satellites in Italy (Source: Thales Alenia)
Thales Alenia Space opened a “smart factory” in Italy for producing satellites. The Space Smart Factory, located in Rome, is designed to incorporate digital systems and automation to enable high-rate production of smaller satellites, with a goal of manufacturing more than 100 per year. The facility cost more than 100 million euros, supported in part by the Italian government using pandemic relief funds. While intended to be used to build smaller satellites for constellations, the factory's first program will be the larger Sicral 3 GEO satellites for the Italian military. (10/8)

Starbase Streamers Could be Blocked (Source: Texas Monthly)
Media companies that stream activities at Starbase are worried SpaceX could shut them down. The newly incorporated city of Starbase adopted a zoning plan this summer that classified as residential property an area that some use for cameras to provide live feeds of activities at Starbase, including testing and launches. Grandfathering rules in Texas mean that, for now, those cameras can continue to operate, but some are concerned that Starbase city officials could eventually move to evict them. Others note that SpaceX benefits from the coverage. (10/8)

ExoMars Orbiter Spies Interstellar Comet (Source: Space.com)
European spacecraft observed an interstellar comet as it flew near Mars. ESA said a camera on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft was able to observe comet 3I/ATLAS during that comet’s relatively close approach to Mars last week, coming as close as 30 million kilometers from the planet. The images clearly show the comet’s coma of gas and dust surrounding it. Scientists hope other data might provide information about the comet’s composition. NASA spacecraft at Mars also attempted to observe the comet, but the ongoing federal government shutdown, now entering its second week, has kept NASA from releasing any details. (10/8)

From CubeSats to Classrooms: Inspiring Young Space Leaders (Source: Star Sciences)
From middle school CubeSats to international conferences, Kevin Simmons is empowering the next generation of aerospace innovators. Hear how students as young as 11 are designing satellites, presenting papers worldwide, and proving that passion beats age every time. Click here. (10/7)

Ghana Hosts Space Conference as Africa’s Space Economy Targets $22.6 Billion (Source: News Ghana)
Ghana is positioning itself at the forefront of Africa’s space technology revolution as Accra welcomes the Maiden Ghana Space Conference from Oct. 6-8 at the University of Ghana, marking a significant milestone in the country’s technological ambitions.

The three-day conference, organized by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Ghana in collaboration with the University of Ghana, Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), Ghana Meteorological Agency, All Nations University, Spacehubs Africa, and Agbedus Consult, brings together government officials, international organizations, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and global space experts to explore how satellite technology can drive sustainable development. (10/5)

China is Developing Ways to De-orbit Space Junk. Should We Be Worried? (Source: Space.com)
China is developing the capability to remove space debris from orbit, according to a top official. China will work on its space situational awareness capabilities in order to track objects and assess the chances of collisions, while also coordinating with other countries, Bian said. It will also take a more proactive role with regard to debris.

China's actions to address the issue of debris will no doubt be widely welcomed, but they may also spark some concerns. Active debris removal is a dual-use capability, meaning it can be used for civilian purposes but also for military ends. The ability to remove a defunct rocket stage or satellite from orbit could also be used to target an adversary’s spacecraft. (10/7)

Shield or Spark? The U.S. Golden Dome and the New Missile Arms Race (Source: Space Daily)
The launch of the US 'Golden Dome' missile defense initiative has already set in motion ripple effects across the globe. Rival nations are considering their own layered missile defense architectures, and experts warn this may trigger a new era of competitive missile development. What began as a domestic shield is now fueling a missile defense arms race, with competitors racing to counter, replicate, or surpass America's capabilities. (10/6)

300 Space Advocates Rally in D.C. to Save NASA Science (Source: Planetary Society)
Nearly 300 people from across the country traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Save NASA Science Day of Action. They came from all walks of life and a range of political identities. Some had decades of professional experience; most had none, holding instead a personal passion for space exploration. All came on their own dime and on their own time. They shared a single motivation: to support NASA's science program, which is facing its largest proposed cut in history. (10/7)

October 7, 2025

Honeywell, Redwire Partner on Quantum-Secure Satellites (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
Honeywell and Redwire have formalized joint development of quantum-secured satellite communications. The agreement leverages Honeywell's expertise in quantum optical payloads and Redwire's capabilities in agile satellite platforms. By combining their technologies, the companies aim to develop a fully integrated satellite system by mid-2026, targeting both civil and defense applications as part of a broader initiative supported by the European Space Agency. (10/7)

Call for Papers: 2025 Sacknoff Prize (Source: Space 3.0)
Awarded since 2011, The Sacknoff Prize for Space History is designed to encourage original research by university students in the field of space history. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to submit their original manuscript for consideration! Winners receive an $850 cash prize; publication in the peer-reviewed history journal, Quest; and an invitation to present their paper at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) by its Aerospace Special Interest Group (Albatross). The due date is 2 December 2025. Click here. (10/7)

Cleveland to Space: How NASA Glenn is Advancing Lunar and Mars Exploration (Source: Cleveland.com)
NASA is looking to explore the moon and Mars in the next few decades, and advanced technologies under development at the NASA Glenn Research Center will help make that possible. NASA Glenn is helping Artemis with several research projects. The agency is spearheading a project to build a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2030.

A permanent moon base -- used for scientific research, resource extraction, military strategy, and launching missions to Mars -- would need both solar power and nuclear fission. The agency plans to build a 100-kilowatt plant on the moon using nuclear fission, using technology overseen by NASA Glenn. In addition, NASA Glenn is working on the development of the gridded-ion thruster, the propulsion system planned for the orbiting spaceship Gateway. (10/6)

More Layoffs Coming to JPL (Source: Orange County Register)
JPL on Oct. 6 confirmed that a number of layoffs coming this month will once again hit the venerable science hub. NASA did not answer how many employees would be laid off in this next round. However, JPL rebuffed recent online suggestions that they would be in the thousands. Distressed JPL employees have suggested there could be between 3,000 and 4,000 dismissals by Oct. 15.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, called the 3,000 to 4,000 number “vastly incorrect,” adding: “All I know is it is correct that they said layoffs would be in October,” Chu said, citing her source as Caltech lobbyists in Washington D.C. (10/7)

Rocket Test Proves Bacteria Survive Space Launch and Re-entry Unharmed (Source: RMIT)
An Australian-led study has found the spores of Bacilus subtilis, a bacterium essential for human health, can survive rapid acceleration, short-duration microgravity and rapid deceleration. The spores of bacteria were launched high into the sky, then studied once their rocket fell back to earth, in what is believed to be the first study of its kind in real conditions outside the lab. (10/6)

Study with Ties to Florida Tech Could Explain What NASA Telescopes Cannot (Source: Florida Today)
It's the question on the minds of many: are there worlds similar to Earth in our galaxy? A new model, with ties to Florida Tech, may provide clearer answers to a mystery faced by astrophysicts: Why it is that some planets around a certain type of star have not proved promising for life?

TRAPPIST-1b showed hardly any evidence of an atmosphere or water. This left the question: What makes these planets either contain or lack water -- or even the elements needed for potential life? Howard Chen, assistant professor at Florida Tech College of Engineering and Science: Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, has worked to solve this mystery. (10/7)

What Parts of the Cape Canaveral Spaceport Remain Open? (Source: Florida Today)
While Florida will not see NASA’s SLS liftoff until next year, according to a NASA document released before the shutdown, NASA's Artemis moon missions are considered exempt. Kennedy Space Center is marked by NASA as OPEN and there is still activity on the grounds. A total of 1,053 are estimated to be furloughed at Kennedy Space Center. NASA police are still stationed and active near the gates to KSC property. Private companies located within KSC can continue operations on their sites. This includes companies like SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin.

So, for example, SpaceX is able to continue its weekly Starlink satellite launches. As for the Space Force side of the Cape, while nonessential employees have been furloughed, personnel who protect life and property remain on site. This includes the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, which released a forecast ahead of the upcoming SpaceX rocket launch.

NASA’s next science mission expected to launch is the ESCAPADE mission to Mars, scheduled to launch within the next month atop a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral. Projects which have already seen funding prior to this current shutdown shall continue, unless access to the closed NASA facilities or NASA civil servant involvement is required. (10/6)

SpaceX Launches Tuesday Starlink Mission at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites early Tuesday morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:46 a.m. Eastern, placing 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the first in more than a week from the Cape, a gap linked to stormy weather in Florida and in the Atlantic. (10/7)

Taylor Swift Not Interested in Spaceflight (Source: BBC)
The life of a showgirl does not include going to space. Asked on a BBC Radio 2 interview if she was interested in going to space, Taylor Swift made it clear she had no desire to do so. “Never! Why would I do that? There’s no reason to do that,” she said. She added space is “cold” and “scary” and that, even if she did go to space, people wouldn’t believe it. Her response was more animated than when the same host posed a similar question earlier this year to Mariah Carey: “I think I’ve done enough.” (10/7)

Rocket Lab Readies Synspective Launch From New Zealand (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab’s next launch will be for its biggest customer. The company said Monday its next Electron launch is scheduled for Oct. 14 from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, carrying a StriX radar imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective. That company signed a contract with Rocket Lab last week for 10 additional Electron launches, bringing its backlog of Electron launches to 21. (10/7)

FCC Plans "Space Month" Regulatory Reforms (Source: Space News)
The FCC is embarking on space-related regulatory reforms in a “Space Month” initiative announced Monday. Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Apex’s new satellite manufacturing facility in southern California, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission would overhaul licensing and spectrum rules amid mounting competition from China. One proposal would create an “assembly line” licensing process that will be faster than the current system.

A second proposal would revise siting rules for Earth stations in the upper microwave bands, known as UMFUS, to enable more intensive use of spectrum and simplify approvals for operators. His speech underscored the geopolitical urgency behind the reforms as launches get underway in China for tens of thousands of broadband satellites that would rival U.S.-based Starlink. (10/7)

Cubic Defense Seeks Military Use of Flat-Panel Satcom Terminal (Source: Space News)
Cubic Defense is pursuing military customers for its flat-panel satellite communications terminal. The military technology contractor developed a family of electronically scanned array satellite terminals with support from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate. AFRL recently extended a contract awarded in 2023 to support work on the terminals, designed to work across multiple orbits and networks. The terminals, called Vector, are intended to meet a growing Pentagon demand for “multi-domain” networks linking operations across land, air and space, the company said. (10/7)

Colorado Considers Roadblocks to Space Command Transfer (Source: KOAA)
A Colorado congressman hinted that the state’s congressional delegation might put up “roadblocks” to moving Space Command headquarters to Alabama. In an interview, Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) said he has been talking with the state’s senators “about ways that we might continue to try and throw some roadblocks in it,” suggesting that delays in the move might make it clear that transferring the command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville is “probably not as practicable as they thought.” Those roadblocks could involve having the senators block confirmations of the administration’s nominees. Crank also said that even if the command does move, Colorado might instead get some military space roles, perhaps as part of Golden Dome. (10/7)

ESA Considers Buying ISS Cargo Mission (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Space Agency is proposing to buy a cargo mission to the International Space Station. ESA issued a call for proposals last week for a single cargo mission to the ISS that would launch by the fourth quarter of 2028 to meet the agency’s obligations to support station operations. Those requirements have been met through barter arrangements with NASA, and it was not clear why this mission would be needed. ESA said the mission would require delivering 4,900 to 5,000 kilograms of cargo to the station and would be open to American companies, but with a preference for European ones. Those requirements make Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus the leading contender. The Cygnus cargo module, capable of carrying 5,000 kilograms, is built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy. (10/7)

New Research Suggests Red Dwarf Systems are Unlikely to Have Advanced Civilizations (Source: Universe Today)
Thanks to the huge spate of exoplanet discoveries, multiple rocky planets have been found orbiting within the habitable zones (HZs) of red dwarf stars. For decades, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether these systems could be our best bet for finding evidence of life beyond Earth. In a recent study, Professor David Kipping addresses two key facts that could mean humanity is an outlier. Based on the age of the Universe and the relatively rare nature of our Sun, he concludes that astrobiologists examining red dwarf planets may be looking in the wrong place. (10/5)

Agency Shutdown Messaging Draws Hatch Act, Antideficiency Act Challenges (Source: FNN)
The Office of Special Counsel has received multiple complaints about federal agencies sharing political messages during the shutdown, while one nonprofit is alleging the messaging violates the Antideficiency Act. Public Citizen has filed nine complaints with OSC over the first three days of the shutdown. The group alleges agencies are violating the Hatch Act by using “explicitly partisan messaging” blaming Democrats for the shutdown.

HUD’s website now states, “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government.” The Small Business Administration followed suit on Wednesday with a “special message” at the top of the SBA website stating that “Senate Democrats” voted to block a “clean” stopgap funding bill. Other agencies have since posted similar messages on their websites. Editor's Note: NASA's websites thus far have not violated Hatch Act protections against politicization. (10/6)

Satellite Broadband Market to Break $20 Billion by 2030, as Satellite Constellations Disrupt Established Services (Source: Juniper Research)
A new study by global tech strategists Juniper Research has found that global satellite provider revenue from fixed satellite broadband will increase from $10 billion in 2025 to $20 billion in 2030. This revenue growth will be enabled by rapid investment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) technology, which allows satellite providers to improve the latency they offer, whilst also reducing costs for satellite launches. (10/6)

France Sponsors Studies on Next-Generation Platforms for In-Orbit Refueling (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
The French space agency CNES has selected three companies for a strategic Research & Technology (R&T) initiative focused on next-generation in-orbit refuelable platforms. Dawn Aerospace, Infinite Orbits and Exotrail will participate in the effort to advance France and Europe’s understanding and development of sustainable, autonomous space operations and in-orbit servicing capabilities. (10/6)

Chinese IoT Constellation Completes First Phase for Global Communications (Source: Space Daily)
A Chinese satellite network dedicated to Internet of Things (IoT) services has achieved global surface coverage, excluding polar regions, with the deployment of its first-phase constellation of 64 satellites. The milestone was reached following the launch of 11 Geely-06 satellites from a sea platform in Shandong province. The deployment marks the culmination of six launches between 2022 and 2025, ensuring both reliability and continuous availability of the network.

Geespace, the satellite division of Geely Holding Group, designed the constellation to support 20 million users worldwide. The system can manage up to 340 million messages per day, serving 5 million high-frequency users and an additional 15 million medium- and low-frequency accounts. Data packets of up to 1,900 bytes can carry text, voice, and images.

The first-phase network will grow to 72 satellites, enhancing resilience and capacity. Longer term, Phase Two envisions 264 satellites capable of direct-to-smartphone communication, while Phase Three projects 5,676 satellites to provide global broadband connectivity. With Phase One operational, Geespace plans to expand commercial IoT services worldwide. (9/26)

Detection of Phosphine in a Brown Dwarf Atmosphere Raises More Questions (Source: Space Daily)
Phosphorus is one of six key elements necessary for life on Earth. When combined with hydrogen, phosphorus forms the molecule phosphine (PH3), an explosive, highly toxic gas. Found in the atmospheres of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, phosphine has long been recognized as a possible biosignature for anaerobic life.

Now a team of researchers has reported the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of a cool, ancient brown dwarf named Wolf 1130C. The phosphine was detected using observations obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope. The mystery, however, is not why phosphine was found, but why it's missing in other brown dwarf and gas giant exoplanet atmospheres. (10/6)

Mapping the Universe Made Faster with New Computational Tool (Source: Space Daily)
As cosmology data sets grow larger and increasingly complex, a new tool allows researchers to run advanced analyses with only a laptop in a fraction of the time once required. Dr. Marco Bonici led an international collaboration that developed Effort.jl, an emulator designed to streamline studies using the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure (EFTofLSS). The system blends advanced numerical methods with preprocessing strategies to achieve rapid, precise results. (10/1)

ESA unveils Pulse Framework to Streamline Mission Management (Source: Space Daily)
The European Space Agency has launched Pulse, a new initiative designed to transform mission monitoring and control across its expanding portfolio of space operations. Developed under ESA's Operations Directorate, Pulse provides a European, royalty-free, multi-mission solution that spans from spacecraft assembly and integration through to operations in low Earth orbit and deep space.

Pulse is conceived as an operational framework rather than a single software tool. By leveraging technologies such as the European Ground Segment - Common Core (EGS-CC), the framework integrates telemetry, event management, information exchange and execution processes. ESA says it will reduce fragmentation between missions, partners and control centers, while improving responsiveness and interoperability. (9/30)

Cosmic Constants May Explain Away Dark Matter and Dark Energy (Source: Space Daily)
For decades, astronomers have assumed that dark matter and dark energy dominate the cosmos. New research challenges that foundation, proposing that these unseen components may be illusions caused by the gradual weakening of nature's fundamental forces as the universe ages. Rajendra Gupta suggests that if the strengths of forces like gravity vary over time and across space, the resulting effects could mimic both dark matter and dark energy. (10/6)

TakeMe2Space and AICRAFT Partner to Deliver Orbital Data Centre Infrastructure (Source: Space Daily)
AICRAFT of Australia and India's TakeMe2Space (TM2S) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate AICRAFT's edge computing systems into the TM2S satellite constellation from 2026. The collaboration will begin with a hosted payload mission in 2026, after which AICRAFT's high-performance, low-power edge devices will become a core part of TM2S' orbiting platform. This alliance will enable users to design, test, and deploy satellite applications almost instantly. As part of this enabling infrastructure, AICRAFT will supply both terrestrial and flight-qualified hardware, including new product lines. (10/1)

Sierra Space Clears Design Milestone for Missile Tracking Satellites in SDA Tranche 2 (Source: Space Daily)
Sierra Space has completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Space Development Agency's (SDA) Tranche 2 Tracking Layer, confirming readiness to begin production of missile tracking satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The program will see Sierra Space deliver two orbital planes, totaling 18 satellites, each carrying advanced infrared sensors designed to detect and track ballistic, hypersonic, and emerging threats. (9/30)
 
Opening Lines of Communications for Space Safety (Source: Space Review)
At last week’s International Astronautical Congress, leaders of space agencies talked about their plans even if they weren’t always talking with one another. Jeff Foust reports, though, that there are signs of closer coordination between countries and companies regarding critical space safety issues. Click here. (10/7)
 
How China is Preparing to Dominate the World (Source: Space Review)
China is making rapid advances in space, from lunar exploration to satellite constellations. Claude Lafleur discusses those advances and how they could set up China to be the dominant space power in the near future. Click here. (10/7)
 
Gemini’s Wing and a Prayer: Postscript (Source: Space Review)
Dwayne Day adds a postscript to his historical review of the efforts to develop a parawing for Gemini with a look at the role that an aircraft originally developed for a classified program played in testing of the system. Click here. (10/7)
 
So You Want To Go To Mars: Where Do You Start? (Source: Space Review)
Exploration of the Moon and Mars offers challenges that go beyond the technology needed for such missions. Jonathan Coopersmith reviews a book that offers an extensive review of those issues. Click here. (10/7)

October 6, 2025

Firefly to Acquire SciTec for $855 Million (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace announced Sunday it will acquire defense contractor SciTec for $855 million. The acquisition is intended to expand Firefly’s footprint in the defense market, where Firefly is trying to capture opportunities in the Golden Dome program. SciTec has secured major contracts with the U.S. Space Force for next-generation missile warning data systems that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning. Firefly, which raised about $1 billion going public this summer, will pay $300 million in cash and $555 million in shares to purchase SciTec. Once the deal is finalized, SciTec will operate as a Firefly subsidiary led by Jim Lisowski, current CEO of SciTec. He will report to Firefly’s CEO Jason Kim. (10/6)

Eurospace Merger Negotiations Stick on Workshare Arrangements (Source: Reuters)
Negotiations to combine the space businesses at three European companies have run into more problems. A report in a French newspaper Monday said that Thales Alenia Space and Leonardo asked for more time to complete a deal with Airbus Defence and Space to create a satellite joint venture, citing issues with how work would be split among the companies. The companies may need several more weeks to complete those negotiations, a source said. A deal on creating the joint venture was expected this summer. (10/6)

Space Cybersecurity a Big Concern for DoD and Intel Officials (Source: Space News)
The biggest concern that intelligence officials have about space assets involves cyber attacks. Chris Scolese, director of the NRO, said at a recent conference that he is worried less about kinetic or directed-energy anti-satellite weapons than cyber, because that is much cheaper for adversaries to pursue. The NRO itself saw a breach this summer when hackers compromised its Acquisition Research Center website, which contractors use to submit bids. That did not directly hurt space systems but it showed cyber adversaries are probing every corner of the ecosystem, including the industrial base. (10/6)

New Satellite Will Help Cyber Defenders Train to Stop Hackers in Orbit (Source: Air and Space Forces)
To help the military and industry develop new cyber defenses, technology contractor Deloitte has launched a microwave oven-sized satellite into low-Earth orbit to act as “an on-orbit, live-fire cyber training range,” said Deloitte Managing Director Brad Pyburn. Deloitte-1, a 22-pound cubesat launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., in March, will allow Deloitte and its government and private sector partners “to conduct training operations, test [the satellite], even attack it, and make sure it’s resilient and responds in the way that you want. (10/2)

SpaceX Has a Few Tricks Up its Sleeve for the Last Starship Flight of the Year (Source: Ars Technica)
On its surface, the flight plan for SpaceX's next Starship flight looks a lot like the last one. There are, however, some changes to SpaceX's flight plan for the next Starship. Most of these changes will occur during the ship's reentry, when the vehicle's heat shield is exposed to temperatures of up to 2,600° Fahrenheit. Like on the last Starship flight, SpaceX has removed some of the ship's thousands of ceramic thermal protection tiles to "intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle."

Several of the missing tiles are in areas where tiles are bonded directly to Starship's stainless steel structure, without a backup ablative layer, according to SpaceX. Engineers are refining the heat shield's design to make it robust against damage during reentry and landing. Any heat shield damage would require refurbishment, risking SpaceX's goal of making Starship fully and rapidly reusable.

One of the new test objectives will be a "dynamic banking maneuver" during the final phase of the trajectory "to mimic the path a ship will take on future flights returning to Starbase," SpaceX said. This will help engineers test Starship's subsonic guidance algorithms. The next flight—Flight 11—will mark the second time SpaceX has reused a Super Heavy booster flown on a previous mission. SpaceX said 24 of the 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines launching on the booster next month are "flight-proven." (9/30)

Commercial Space’s Data Mirage: Why Early-Stage Ventures Must Face Reality (Source: Courtney Stadd)
Space an ecosystem brimming with ambition, ingenuity, and genuine technical achievement. But it’s also one that suffers from a persistent problem: magical thinking. This is not the starry-eyed enthusiasm of the young engineer sketching a Mars lander on the back of a napkin — that kind of optimism can be productive fuel. The magical thinking we see today is more insidious. It resides in C-suites, government offices, and particularly in the investor community.

And that’s the problem. Everyone who’s taken even a basic statistics course knows that global market forecasts are, by necessity, built on multiple layers of assumptions. Those assumptions — sometimes dozens of them — each represent an experienced but nonetheless subjective judgment made by a market analyst. The best reports document these assumptions in detail, but the moment the headline number gets into a press release, those caveats evaporate.

One of the most troubling consequences of this overreliance on headline forecasts is that it often replaces the far more laborious, far more necessary work of building a realistic market model. In the absence of hard data — and let’s be honest, in much of commercial space the data is sparse — leaders must rely on informed intuition. That means grounding assumptions in experience, historical analogs, and a sober assessment of the competitive landscape. (9/23)

Firehawk Aerospace Achieves Critical Milestone with Successful Tests of Solid Rocket Motors (Source: Firehawk)
Firehawk Aerospace has successfully completed the flight tests of an additively manufactured Javelin and Stinger-class Firehawk Analog systems, using 3D-printed propellant for the launch motors of each system. These tests are the final milestone of a Phase III SBIR contract with the Army Applications Laboratory (AAL) which also included a hybrid rocket engine system flight test earlier this year. (9/30)

Space-Time Does Not Exist – Here’s Why That Matters (Source: SciTech Daily)
Space-time is a map of happenings, not a real object. Understanding this distinction clears up confusion about time. Whether or not space-time exists should not be considered controversial or even conceptually difficult once we are clear on the meanings of “space-time,” “events,” and “instants.” Believing in the existence of space-time is no more viable than holding onto the old notion of a celestial sphere: both are observer-centered models that are powerful and convenient for describing the world, but neither represents reality itself. (10/4)

50-Year-Old Data Reveals Venus's Clouds Are Mostly Water (Source: Science Alert)
Reanalyzing old data with our modern understanding seems to be in vogue lately. However, the implications of that reanalysis for some topics are more impactful than others. One of the most hotly debated topics of late in the astrobiological community has been whether or not life can exist on Venus – specifically in its cloud layers, some of which have some of the most Earth-like conditions anywhere in the solar system, at least in terms of pressure and temperature.

A new paper just added fuel to that debate by reanalyzing data from the Pioneer mission to Venus NASA launched in the 70s – and finding that Venus' clouds are primarily made out of water. That doesn't mean that it's water in the traditional sense of how we think water vapor makes up clouds here on Earth. The dihydrogen monoxide in Venus' clouds seems to be tied up in hydrated materials rather than standing alone as pure water droplets. (10/5)

The Epic Hunt for a Planet Just Like Earth (Source: BBC)
We can now infer that most stars have planetary systems – and yet, of the thousands of exoplanets found, we have yet to find a planetary system that resembles our own. The quest to find an Earth twin – a planet that resembles Earth in size, mass and temperature – continues to drive modern-day explorers like us to search for more undiscovered exoplanets.

After three decades of observing, a wealth of different planets have emerged. We started with the hot Jupiters, large gas giants close to their star that are among the easiest planets to find due to both deeper transits and larger radial velocity signals. But while the first tens of discovered exoplanets were all hot Jupiters, we now know these planets are actually very rare.

With instrumentation getting better and observations piling up, we have since found a whole new class of planets with sizes and masses between those of Earth and Neptune. But despite our knowledge of thousands of planets beyond the Solar System, we still have not found systems truly resembling the Solar System, nor planets truly resembling Earth. (10/5)

Earth May Not Be So Special After All, New Study Finds (Source: SciTech Daily)
New research suggests that planets outside our solar system contain far less surface water than scientists once believed. Contrary to earlier theories that these exoplanets might be covered by deep global oceans, the study shows they lack the thick water layers that were often imagined.

For years, scientists thought such planets might collect vast amounts of water during their formation and later sustain massive global oceans beneath hydrogen-rich atmospheres. These hypothetical worlds have been called Hycean planets, a term derived from “hydrogen” and “ocean.” “Our calculations show that this scenario is not possible,” says Caroline Dorn. (10/3)

NASA's Asteroid Deflection Test had Unexpected and Puzzling Outcome (Source: New Scientist)
After NASA smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, its orbit slowly but surely changed over the next month, and astronomers can’t explain why. In 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) flew a nearly-600-kilogram satellite into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, which orbits a larger one called Didymos. Before the impact, Dimorphos completed an orbit every 11 hours and 55 minutes. Observations soon after revealed that the collision had reduced the orbital period by about 30 minutes, but in the following weeks and months, the orbit shrank even further, by another 30 seconds. (10/1)

NASA Kicks Sierra Space to the Curb (Source: Motley Fool)
NASA is tired of waiting for Dream Chaser to get off the ground, and Sierra's IPO window is closing fast. Back in 2023, the privately held company raised $290 million in new funds to complete development of its Dream Chaser spacecraft -- and surged ahead to a $5 billion private market valuation, making Sierra Space 5X a unicorn stock.

For space investors, that's what it's felt like waiting for Sierra Space to do something interesting these last several years. It's been nearly a decade since NASA awarded Sierra Space (technically, its parent company Sierra Nevada Corp.) a role in its $14 billion CRS-2 project to send Commercial Re-Supply spacecraft to the ISS. Valued at roughly $628 million per launch, and with Sierra expected to run seven of the launches, the contract felt like a windfall for Sierra Space.

After 10 years of no Dream Chaser flights, NASA's tired of waiting for Sierra's phantom spacecraft. Now, NASA's telling the company it needs to either prove Dream Chaser can fly, after which NASA might permit it to fly to ISS and pay for the flights -- or else admit Dream Chaser is a mirage and let SpaceX and Northrop handle the work of resupplying the space station. In the meantime, NASA's shutting off the funding spigot to Sierra. (10/4)

Astronomers Stunned by Black Hole Growing Beyond Known Limits (Source: SciTech Daily)
Astronomers have identified a black hole growing at one of the fastest rates ever observed. The finding, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, may help clarify how certain black holes were able to gain such immense mass relatively soon after the Big Bang. This particular black hole is about a billion times heavier than the Sun and lies roughly 12.8 billion light-years away.

The black hole fuels what scientists classify as a quasar, a brilliant celestial object that shines brighter than entire galaxies. Its extraordinary luminosity comes from the vast amounts of material spiraling around and being pulled into the black hole. X-ray results show that its black hole is growing at a pace that surpasses the typical threshold expected for such objects. (10/3)

October 5, 2025

As Flight Delays Loom, SpaceX Puts Up Defense in Rocket vs. Airplane Debate (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The competition for airspace is just beginning as the space age kicks into high gear on the Space Coast. At the center of it all is SpaceX, which seeks to bring its game-changing Starship to Florida but with a sobering cost, delaying as many as 12,000 commercial flights each year. SpaceX said the so-called aircraft hazard areas defined in the studies “are extremely conservative by nature and are intended to capture a composite of the full range of worst-case outcomes, but not any single real-world operation.”

“SpaceX fully anticipates actual, implemented (aircraft hazard areas) will be both far smaller in geographic scope and far shorter in duration, validated by the robust flight data and heritage we are building.”

“There’s a method and a reasoning for what they’re asking for,” said John Couluris, vice president of Blue Origin’s lunar permanence division, referring to SpaceX’s plans. “And so we all have to get used to this idea that the 2020s are going to be like — and the 2030s and beyond — it’s going to be beyond what we’ve been used to.” (10/5)

Russia: NASA Might Deploy Nuclear Weapons to the Moon (Source: TASS)
NASA may deploy nuclear weapons to the Moon under the cover of the Artemis program, Alexander Stepanov, military expert with the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, told TASS.

"A manned base is part of the Artemis program, aimed at developing space exploration technologies, preparing for longer space missions, and adapting and training astronauts. The construction site will be the Shackleton Crater on the Moon’s South Pole. Nuclear energy will be used to supply power. This particular aspect is probably the most important one because this marks a step towards bringing nuclear technologies not only to orbit but also to near space. The odds are high that nuclear weapons will be deployed in near-Earth and near-Moon space," he pointed out. (10/4)

Dark Energy Might Be Emerging from the Hearts of Black Holes (Source: Scientific American)
Black holes are eaters of all things, even radiation. But what if their rapacious appetites had an unexpected side effect? A new study suggests that black holes might spew dark energy—and that they could help explain an intriguing conflict between different measurements of the universe. (10/4)

Bell Plans to Release Direct-to-Cell Satellite Service in 2026 (Source: SpaceQ)
Bell, working with Texas-based AST SpaceMobile, says it plans to deploy direct-to-cell service to the Canadian market in 2026 following successful testing in New Brunswick. The two companies accomplished a few types of tests recently that they say will help improve communications in parts of Canada underserved by traditional telecommunications networks. (10/3)

Bill Nye Leads Charge to Save NASA Science From Deep Trump Cuts (Source: Axios)
A proposed 47% cut to NASA science from the Trump administration has sounded the alarm among scientists and space advocates — and Bill Nye is leading the charge to stop it. Driving the news: Nye — known as "the Science Guy" — will join more than 300 advocates from a coalition of nearly 20 science and education groups in Washington for a Day of Action on Monday, urging Congress to save NASA science. (10/5)

Pentagon Figures Show ULA’s Vulcan is Getting More Expensive (Source: Ars Technica)
Around this time each year, the US Space Force convenes a Mission Assignment Board to dole out contracts to launch the nation's most critical national security satellites. ULA will receive $428 million for two missions, or $214 million for each launch. That's about 50 percent more expensive than SpaceX's price per mission. Part of this price difference could be explained by SpaceX's reuse of Falcon boosters, whereas ULA's Vulcan rocket is a disposable design.

But look back and you'll find ULA's prices for Space Force launches have, for some reason, increased significantly over the last few years. In late 2023, the Space Force awarded a $1.3 billion deal to ULA for a batch of 11 launches at an average cost per mission of $119 million. A few months earlier, Space Systems Command assigned six launches to ULA for $672 million, or $112 million per mission. (10/4)

New Glenn Not Yet Ready for NSSL Missions (Source: Ars Technica)
The New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin is also part of the Space Force's roster of rockets, but must complete at least one more successful flight before receiving military certification for the Pentagon's exclusive National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions. (10/4)

China’s ‘Near Space’ Legal Warfare (Source: SpaceNews)
Where does sovereign airspace end and space begin, and is there a boundary in between called near space that blurs legal and geopolitical distinctions? That’s what Todd Pennington, senior research fellow for space strategy and policy at National Defense University’s Institute of National Strategic Studies, and Cornell University student Emmy Kanarowski explore in a recent opinion article breaking down China’s activity and scholarship around near space. 

When China-aligned sources refer to near space it normalizes the notion that there is a place between air and space in which the rules differ from those of the adjacent domains. This is not true under current law. Is this narrative a knowing misstatement of law, intended as a pretext of legitimacy for Chinese incursions into other states’ sovereign airspace? Is it part of an effort to propose a new rule of international law in which near space is a legally distinct place? Is it merely designed to sow confusion and distrust in existing principles of international law? Perhaps, it serves all these purposes. (10/3)

Chinese Investors Purchased Direct Stakes in SpaceX (Source: Oligarch Watch)
In newly unsealed testimony, a SpaceX insider said that Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company has taken direct investment from Chinese investors, ProPublica reports. “They obviously have Chinese investors, to be honest,” SpaceX investor Iqbaljit Kahlon testified during a deposition last year. Some of the Chinese investors, Kahlon continued, are listed “directly on the cap table,” a reference to SpaceX’s capitalization table, a list of shareholders.

Because of its role as a key U.S. defense contractor, SpaceX executives have previously warned that money from Chinese investors could attract regulatory scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. SpaceX is the second most valuable privately held company in the world, making its shares extremely sought after. (10/3)

MDA Extends Deadline for Golden Dome Proposals (Source: Air and Space Forces)
The Missile Defense Agency is giving potential bidders an extra week to file proposals in response to its Golden Dome solicitation, the agency said, noting industry’s “considerable interest.” The Sep. 10 request for proposals for SHIELD, or the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense effort, kicked off a competition for up to $151 billion in contracts to develop and integrate homeland missile defense capabilities.

The 10-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract will enable MDA to establish a pool of qualified companies to which the Pentagon can issue task orders for prototyping, experimentation, testing, and other activities. (10/3)

October 4, 2025

UK Boosts Satellite Security with £500,00 Investment in New Laser Detection Technology (Source: Forces News)
The UK government has today announced a new £500,000 investment in cutting-edge detection technology that spots lasers that adversaries may use to dazzle satellites and intercept communications. Currently under development, the new sensors will determine the characteristics of lasers based in space or on the ground and whether they pose a threat to the satellite, providing the military with crucial information to protect and defend the UK and allied space systems and assets. (10/3)

Vandenberg Space Force Base Breaks Annual Launch Record with SpaceX Rocket (Source: KTLA)
Vandenberg Space Force Base reached a milestone Friday morning as SpaceX set a new annual launch record for the site. The rocket launched from the Santa Barbara County base carrying 28 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. It marked Vandenberg’s 52nd launch of the year. (10/3)

Jeff Bezos Predicts We'll Have Gigawatt Data Centers in Space in 20 Years (Source: PC Mag)
The Amazon founder says placing data centers into orbit will allow them to harness the abundant solar energy, making them more cost-effective than their Earth-bound counterparts. Bezos was asked to predict what the world might look like in the years to come. In response, the billionaire discussed his rocket company, Blue Origin, before talking about the construction of data centers in Earth’s orbit. (10/3)

SpaceX and ULA Contracted for USSF/NRO Launches in FY 2026 (Source: Via Satellite)
Under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, SpaceX is to launch five NSSL Phase 3, Lane 2 missions through September 2026 for the Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office, while ULA is to launch two. Blue Origin did not receive any missions but may in fiscal 2027. The SpaceX assigned missions have a total price of $714 million and the ULA assigned missions have a total price of $428 million. (10/3)

SpaceX Sets Date for Next Starship Launch in South Texas (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
SpaceX has set a date for the 11th launch of its Starship megarocket from South Texas — Oct. 13. A 30-minute launch window opens at 6:15 p.m., according to the commercial space company which announced the plans this week along with a hype video for the giant spacecraft that’s in development at the Starbase complex outside Brownsville. It will be the 11th flight of the 400-foot-tall rocket. (10/3)

Embry‑Riddle Faculty Create a New Forum for U.S.-Japan Space Security Collaboration (Source: ERAU)
Security Studies and International Affairs faculty member Dr. Alice Dell’Era, with Drs. Elisabeth Hope Murray and Teha Cooks, recently won Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s first grant funded by the Japan Foundation to launch an ongoing speaker series addressing the importance of international diplomacy in space policy. The project aims to advance understanding of how the U.S. and Japan work together to strengthen space security and will provide Embry‑Riddle students and faculty with the opportunity to engage directly with leading American and Japanese space security experts. (10/3)

University of Colorado Endowed Professorship in Space Policy and Law to Expand Global Collaboration (Source: University of Colorado)
Through a generous investment in the future of space governance, CU Boulder donors Dale and Patricia Hatfield have given $2.5 million to establish the Hatfield Endowed Professorship in Space Policy & Law. Underscoring the university’s commitment to leadership in this fast-evolving field, the professorship will drive teaching and research on space policy and law, with broad implications for national security, global communications, navigation, weather forecasting and international collaboration. (10/3)

Female Astronauts on Key Role in Space Exploration (Source: CGTN)
At the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, CGTN's Wu Lei spoke with pioneering astronauts - including South Korea's first astronaut, Dr. Yi So-yeon, and veteran Canadian astronaut Julie Payette. He asked for their insights on the growing role of women in space. Click here. (10/4)

Iran to Launch “Zafar-2” and “Paya” Satellites Using Foreign Launch Vehicle, Support China Lunar Efforts (Source: Borna News)
In line with Iran’s 10-year space roadmap and the Seventh Development Plan, various programs led by research centers and universities are underway in the field of space science and exploration. This includes the development of biological capsules and reusable research platforms with precise control and guidance systems — effectively serving as space laboratories for sub-orbital and orbital tests related to living in space, radiation effects, and environmental changes on biological species.

Following the launch of a 500-kilogram recoverable capsule in 2023, the research and development of a new generation of these platforms has begun, with significant progress achieved in design and manufacturing. Iran will also participate in China's international lunar research, the Chang’e-8 project. (10/4)

Iran Prepares Chabahar Spaceport for First Solid-Fuel Launch (Source: Wanaen)
The head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) has announced that preparations are underway for the first solid-fuel launch from the Chabahar National Spaceport, while also revealing new details about upcoming satellite launches and international collaborations. Speaking at World Space Week 2025, ISA chief Dr. Hassan Salarieh highlighted the strategic role of the Chabahar National Spaceport, located in southeastern Iran. (10/4)

NASA Research Balloon Lands Unexpectedly on Texas Farmland (Source: KXAN)
It was an ordinary morning on the farm until it wasn’t. While getting ready for the day, Ann Walter was told that, floating high above them, was a massive parachute-like balloon gliding silently across the sky. They stood there in awe, snapping photos and videos before carrying on with their morning routine. The research balloon landed in a farmland in Hale County on Thursday morning. (10/3)

Malaysia Formalizes Participation in International Space Treaty (Source: Malaysian Reserve)
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) announced that Malaysia has formalised its participation in the international space treaty, the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (REG 1975), by depositing its instrument of accession with the United Nations on Sep. 26. (10/4)

Surprise Asteroid Flies by Earth at Only 250 Miles Away (Source: Space.com)
A small asteroid just gave the Earth a close buzz. The little space rock, called 2025 TF, safely passed within roughly 250 miles of our planet on Tuesday (Sep. 30) at 8:49 p.m. EDT. That flyby puts the asteroid at the same approximate altitude as the International Space Station. (10/3)

SpaceForest Aims to Capture 70% of European Demand for Suborbital Flights (Source: European Spaceflight)
Polish rocket builder SpaceForest has set an ambitious goal of capturing up to 70% of the European demand for suborbital flights. SpaceForest conducted the first two flights of its 11.5-meter-tall suborbital PERUN rocket in 2023, both of which were aborted mid-flight after encountering anomalies. In October 2024, the company received €2.4 million in co-funding from the European Space Agency’s Boost! program to upgrade the combustion chamber of its in-house developed SF-1000 hybrid rocket engines. The company aims to return the rocket to flight later this month. (10/4)

Peter Beck Discusses Neutron Development as Maiden Flight Nears (Source: NSF)
Rocket Lab’s ambitious push to launch its Neutron medium-lift rocket before the end of the year is entering the home stretch, with CEO Sir Peter Beck telling NSF that his team is “literally sleeping in the factories” to meet the aggressive timeline. “We’ll be there on the last day of December until the last hour trying to get a launch away,” Beck said in a recent interview. “We run green light schedules, meaning there is no fat in everything. Nobody’s waving the white flag yet.”

The 141-foot-tall reusable launch vehicle has passed several critical milestones in recent months. In April, Rocket Lab qualified Neutron’s carbon composite second stage by applying 1.3 million pounds of tensile force — 125% of its maximum operating pressure — while testing flight software, avionics, and guidance systems under cryogenic conditions. The first stage top section, including the distinctive “Hungry Hippo” reusable fairings and aerodynamic canards, completed qualification in May. (10/3)

Gilmour Space Plans Return to Flight Next Year (Source: Space News)
Gilmour Space expects to return its Eris rocket to flight next year (2026) Gilmour Space plans return to flight next year This follows the company's inaugural launch attempt in July 2025, which unfortunately ended in failure. The maiden flight of the Eris Block 1 rocket took place on July 30, 2025, from Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland, Australia, but failed after just 14 seconds of flight. (10/3)

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Taste of Space to Offer Fall 'Galaxy of Flavors' (Source: Florida Today)
Attention fall foodies: get ready to snack on seasonal comfort dishes while exploring the cosmos. For the fifth year, Taste of Space: Fall Bites! will return to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Guests can experience a "galaxy of flavors" with fall comfort dishes landing on the menu from Oct. 3 to Nov. 16. (10/3)

Arkisys Awarded Astrobee Sustainer Contract! (Source: Arksys)
Arkisys is proud to continue the groundbreaking NASA Astrobee mission through an unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA), ensuring the robotic platform aboard the International Space Station (ISS) remains sustained and maintained. Astrobee now becomes part of our customer services portfolio, offering a vital bridge between ground-based testing for Rendezvous & Proximity Operations (RPO) and fully space-qualified orbital testing. (10/3)

Shutdown Exception Allows Continued Work on Artemis (Source: CNN)
A document recently posted to NASA’s website shows that more than 3,000 employees will continue showing up to work during the government shutdown. That’s 2,000 more people than under a previous shutdown plan that did not include the Artemis exemption. Much of the ongoing work will revolve around Artemis II, a crewed test flight around the moon set to take off as soon as February.

With four astronauts slated to fly on that mission, work on the project “is obviously very safety critical,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s acting deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, during a September 23 news briefing. “We anticipate being able to request (and) being able to continue to move forward on Artemis II in the event of shutdown,” Hawkins said then.

But the exceptions spelled out in NASA’s shutdown plans this week go even further, allowing work to continue on Artemis III — the landmark moon-landing mission currently slated for mid-2027 — as well as Artemis missions expected to fly later this decade or next. The roughly $100 billion Artemis program is well over budget and running behind the ambitious schedule mapped out during President Donald Trump’s first term. (10/3)

Surveying Io's Surface with the UNAGI Lander (Source: Phys.org)
What type of lander could touch down on Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io? This is what a recent paper presented at the AIAA 2025 Regional Student Conference hopes to address. This study has the potential to help scientists and engineers develop new mission concepts from all levels of academia and industry. The researchers introduced UNAGI, which is a unique mission concept that is designed to use Jupiter's magnetic field as "propellant" to lower it to Io's surface without the need for actual propellant for its descent.

The team refers to this landing method as the electrodynamic tether (EDT) propulsion system that uses Jupiter's powerful magnetic field to interact with the lander's 50-kilometer (31-mile) tether, thus enabling corrections during the lander's descent and will deploy airbags upon touchdown. Once this occurs, the scientific payloads will begin their mission of examining Io's internal composition, surface changes from volcanic activity, outgassing and plume activity, tectonic activity, Io's interactions with Jupiter's magnetic field, and comparing Io's processes with the other Galilean moons (Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto). (9/30)

The 5 Worst Things To Ever Happen On The ISS (Source: BGR)
The ISS has faced its share of close calls, technical malfunctions, and sudden emergencies. Any of these could have spiraled into a catastrophe, from thrusters that spun the entire outpost uncontrollably to flying space junk that barely missed the ISS. These incidents remind us how fragile life can be beyond Earth's atmosphere. Click here. (10/2) 

The US Wants an Inhabited Lunar Village Within 10 years, While Other Space Agencies Prioritize Earth (Source: Union Rayo)
The United States, through NASA administrator Sean Duffy, announced at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2025) in Sydney that within 10 years it plans to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon. Not just an outpost, but a ‘’lunar village’’ powered by nuclear energy. This ambitious statement underscores the determination of the United States to lead global space exploration and expand humanity’s reach beyond Earth. (10/2)

Scientists Discover First Evidence of Lava Tubes on Venus (Source: Universe Today)
Venus and Earth both are geologically active and have been shaped by volcanism. Venus's surface is dominated by vast volcanic plains, enormous shield volcanoes and vast lava flows. Like Earth, Venus has been resurfaced by molten rock erupting from its interior, creating landscapes that bear striking resemblances to volcanic regions on our own planet. Understanding these volcanic features, including the underground structures they create, offers a window into the geological processes that have shaped both worlds and provides clues about why they took such different evolutionary paths.

An international team has been studying radar images and topographic data from earlier Venus missions. They focused their attention on the planet's large shield volcanoes, those exceeding 100 kilometers in diameter to search for signs of collapsed lava tubes. They identified four clear curving chains of pits that appear to mark where sections of underground tubes have collapsed. These tubes have been found on the Moon and Earth, but until now, their existence on Venus remained purely theoretical. (9/29)

Tata's Nelco Adopts New Path to Satellite Internet Ambition (Source: Live Mint)
Tata Group-owned Nelco LTD has received the government's preliminary approval to resell satellite internet services to consumers by partnering with companies like Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper, and Jio Satellite. The company applied for a virtual network operator license to provide global mobile personal communications by satellite service and has received a 'letter of intent' from one of these companies. (10/2)

China’s Rocket Factories Aim to Beat SpaceX with Car-Style Mass Production (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Scientists in China claim the country is transitioning into a revolutionary new era of aerospace manufacturing. The new form of manufacturing will produce rockets and satellites as efficiently as auto plants make cars. This new method, which requires vast structural reform across the nation’s aerospace industry, is known as “final assembly pull”. It is inspired by lean manufacturing principles utilized in the automotive industry. (9/29)

Extreme Battery Tech Powers One-of-a-Kind Rover (Source: New Atlas)
It’s hard to think of a more challenging environment for an automotive battery than the surface of the Moon. For Artemis V, planned for 2030 or later, astronauts are to have on hand an open buggy that can carry them across the lunar surface while suited up. Three consortiums are competing to supply the buggy, dubbed the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV).

One, Lunar Outpost, is drawing on automotive giant GM for its battery, chassis and autonomous control elements, and GM recently previewed how it will meet NASA’s battery demands. It's eye-opening to recognize that the battery powering the original Lunar Rover was a throwaway item, not rechargeable when it ran down. That limited the Rover to a 57-mile (92-km) total range, which the Apollo 15 crew shared with the two missions that followed it.

The LTV will bring a much better return for the effort expended in getting it to the Moon, offering astronauts the sort of utility you’d expect from a terrestrial car. Its rechargeable battery pack is expected to serve for 10 years and give it a lifetime range of at least 19,000 miles (30,000 km). (10/2)

Space Rapid Capabilities Office to Put Radars on Sats to Warn of Space-Bound Threats (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office (SpRCO) intends to award two vendors contracts by the end of the year to demonstrate that Space Force satellites can be equipped with small, inexpensive on-board radar systems to warn of potential threats from nearby satellites. While small — worth $3 million each for 24 months — the planned SBIR awards are part of a larger effort to promote what the SpRCO calls real-time “own-ship awareness” for US national security satellites. (10/2)

Europe Teams with Japan on Asteroid Mission, Beefs Up Space Cooperation with South Korea (Source: Space.com)
Europe is deepening cooperation with South Korea and Japan as it looks to expand its international cooperation activities on Earth and in space. ESA and the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for enhanced cooperation. The agreement will allow the agencies to use each others' ground stations for telemetry, tracking and command functions. The MoU also covers future areas of cooperation including space science, exploration, human spaceflight, in-space infrastructure and beyond. There is also an intention to work together on space weather. (10/3)

1 to 2 Starlink Satellites are Falling Back to Earth Each Day (Source: EarthSky)
It might not be long before you look up and see a fiery, slow-moving object streaking across your night sky and, clearly, breaking into pieces. That’s if you haven’t seen such a thing already. There are currently one to two Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every day, according to retired Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. (10/3)

New Approach to Gravitational Wave Detection Opens the Milli-Hz Frontier (Source: Phys.org)
Scientists have unveiled a new approach to detecting gravitational waves in the milli-Hertz frequency range, providing access to astrophysical and cosmological phenomena that are not detectable with current instruments. The new detector concept uses cutting-edge optical cavity and atomic clock technologies to sense gravitational waves in the elusive milli-Hertz frequency band (10⁻⁵–1 Hz). (10/2)

Space Force Eyes Aggressor Satellites to Add Realism to Test and Training (Source: Air & Space Forces)
In a push to make testing and training more realistic, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said he wants to put live aggressor satellites in orbit to mimic adversary tactics. The concept is comparable to the Air Force’s practice of using aggressor or “red air” platforms to train pilots; in this case, an operator acting as the enemy would be operating a real satellite as a training asset. (9/30)

Planet Y? Astronomers Find Fresh Clues of Hidden World in Our Solar System (Source: CNN)
The search for an unknown planet in our solar system has inspired astronomers for more than a century. Now, a recent study suggests a potential new candidate, which the paper’s authors have dubbed Planet Y. The planet has not been detected but merely inferred by the tilted orbits of some distant objects in the Kuiper Belt — a large ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit. Something, the researchers said, must be disturbing these orbits and tilting them.

Planet Nine and Planet Y aren’t mutually exclusive, and they could both exist, he said. Planet Y search started about a year ago when he was trying to find out whether the shape of the Kuiper Belt is flat. “The planets of the solar system have slight tilts up and down, but overall, they kind of almost etch out grooves on a record,” Amir Siraj said, referring to the orbits of the solar system’s planets being on nearly the same plane. (10/3)

Electron: The Quiet Workhorse Powering Momentum (Source: MarketBeat)
Rocket Lab’s stock is consolidating in a bullish base, with investors eyeing the critical $55 resistance as anticipation builds for Neutron’s maiden launch. Despite Neutron grabbing the headlines, Electron remains the company’s backbone, with 70 launches to date and expanding multi-launch contracts. Q2 results showed launch revenue up 58.5% YOY, as Electron’s reliability, flexibility, and growing cadence continue to drive momentum and validate Rocket Lab’s execution. (10/2)

October 3, 2025

Space Force Considers Ranges in Texas, Virginia, and More for Future Launches (Source: Air and Space Forces)
To ease the strain at Vandenberg and the Cape, the Space Force is exploring partnerships with spaceports in other states, said Lt. Gen. Phillip Garrant. The goal, he said, would be to prioritize flying heavy and super heavy rockets out of Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg and then look for other locations that have the capacity to support smaller vehicles.

Texas and Virginia are two options USSF is considering, Garrant said. Texas state leaders have been “very aggressive” in wanting to expand launch access beyond SpaceX’s Starbase site in Boca Chica, Garrant said. In Virginia, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility supports a number of small launch companies and is growing to support larger vehicles like Rocket Lab’s Neutron. (10/2)

Shutdown Cancels FAA Public Meeting on Starship Expansion in Texas (Source: FAA)
The FAA is cancelling this virtual public meeting on the draft Tiered Environmental Assessment for Updates to Airspace Closures for Additional Launch Trajectories and Starship Boca Chica Landings of the SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy Vehicle at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas (Draft Tiered EA) due to the lapse in government funding. Interested parties are encouraged to submit written comments on or before October 20. (10/3)

Agencies Go Overtly Political with Shutdown Messaging. Not NASA (Source: FNN)
NASA's website currently includes the following message: "NASA is currently closed due to a lapse in government funding. Employees can visit nasa.gov/shutdown for additional information." Other agencies' websites are posting overtly political messages during the shutdown, like this one from the Treasury Department: “The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism. As a result, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s websites will only be sporadically updated until this shutdown concludes.”

Also, at least one agency has amended their personnel's email auto-replies, like this one from the Dept. of Education: “Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently on furlough status.” ... “Those were not my words,” the employee said. (10/3)

Australia's HEO Plans GEO Belt Imaging (Source: Space News)
An Australian company that has become a leader in imaging spacecraft in low Earth orbit is setting its sights higher. HEO announced this week that it is aiming to move beyond its current work using remote sensing satellites to perform “non-Earth imaging” of other spacecraft in low Earth orbit. That includes plans to place cameras on spacecraft in the geostationary belt to observe objects there. The company said it will also pursue efforts to image asteroids as they pass close to Earth, using GEO spacecraft. (10/3)

Analyst Backs Up Trillion Dollar Golden Dome Estimate with Data (Source: Space News)
An analyst who projected trillion-dollar costs for the Golden Dome missile defense system has provided new details about his assessment. Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said he is making available his “Defense Future Simulator,” a tool he developed to create cost estimates for Golden Dome.

He used the simulator to estimate in a recent report that Golden Dome could cost $3.6 trillion over two decades, far higher than government figures. Those higher costs, he said, come from space-based interceptors that Golden Dome will need to counter hypersonic missiles. As many as 250,000 are thought to be required to provide global coverage at any given moment. (10/3)

Starlab Space Displays Space Station Mockup at IAC (Source: Space News)
Starlab Space used IAC to show off a mockup of its proposed station. The model in its booth showed the full eight-meter diameter of the proposed station but only a fraction of its full height. Starlab, a joint venture of Voyager Space and several other companies, recently announced new partnerships and plans to manufacture the module in New Orleans. (10/3)

SERVIR Earth Observation Finds Alternative Support After NASA and USAID Funding Cut (Source: Space News)
A program to use Earth observation data to address global challenges continues despite the loss of support from NASA and others. As SERVIR marked its 20th anniversary earlier this year, the program officials learned that NASA was dropping its support. That move came after USAID, which had provided the bulk of SERVIR funding, pulled out. Regional institutions, universities, foundations and government agencies from around the world then came together to establish the SERVIR Global Collaborative, allowing the program to continue despite the lack of U.S. government funding. Financial support, much of which is undisclosed, is coming from public and private organizations. (10/3)

Russians Jam UK Satcomms (Source: BBC)
Russians are attempting to jam British military satellite communications on a regular basis. Maj. Gen. Paul Tedman, head of U.K. Space Command, said in an interview that Russian satellites are flying close to British satellites in an attempt to capture transmissions being sent to them. He added that Russia is also trying to jam those communications on a weekly basis. (10/3)

NASA Smallsat to Ride on Vulcan Launch (Source: NASA)
A NASA smallsat space science mission will hitch a ride on a Vulcan Centaur rocket. NASA said this week that the SunRISE mission, featuring six cubesats to study radio bursts from the sun, will fly as a secondary payload on a Vulcan launch for the Space Force in 2026. NASA did not disclose the cost of the launch services. (10/3)

Mars Orbiters to Observe Interstellar Comet (Source: Sky & Telescope)
Spacecraft orbiting Mars will turn their attention to a passing interstellar object. The comet, called 3I/ATLAS, arrived from interstellar space and, as it passes through our solar system, will come within about 29 million kilometers of Mars on Friday. Both NASA and ESA spacecraft orbiting Mars will make observations of the comet during that close approach. Scientists hope to get better images of the comet and other data about its composition. (10/3)

China Launches New Fengyun Meteorological Satellite (Source: GCTN)
China launched a new Fengyun meteorological satellite, which will also contribute to a global green mission, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday. A Long March-4C rocket, carrying the Fengyun-3 08 satellite into the preset orbit. (9/27)

What’s Open at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center? (Source: AL.com)
Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center – one of the agency’s largest field centers – manages parts of the programs that will remain in operation. The center employs about 6,000 people and also oversees an annual budget of about $5 billion worth of human spaceflight, science and technology development efforts for NASA.

Although satellite operations will continue, the shutdown could cause delays or cancellations of future launches. Activities that will cease during the shutdown include public access to NASA centers and facilities. Tours and public education visits to NASA Centers will be canceled. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center serves as the visitor’s center for Marshall. Tours from the Space & Rocket Center to Marshall have been canceled but other Space & Rocket Center activities, including a camp this week for visually impaired students, are not affected, since it is a state agency. (10/2)

Orbital Traffic Surges: 13,026 Active Satellites as of October 1, 2025 (Source: Look Up)
The past year set yet another record with 3,664 satellites launched. As of October 1, 2025, there are 15,965 satellites catalogued around Earth, including 13,026 active satellites, a 23% year-on-year increase (+2,477 net new satellites, i.e., launches minus deorbiting). This surge illustrates the accelerating deployment of commercial constellations delivering telecommunications and Earth-observation services. It continues a long-term trend: just six years ago, fewer than 2,000 satellites were operational. (10/2)

Six Billion Tons a Second: Rogue Planet Found Growing at Record Rate (Source: Phys.org)
Astronomers have identified an enormous "growth spurt" in a so-called rogue planet. Unlike the planets in our solar system, these objects do not orbit stars, free-floating on their own instead. The new observations, made with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tons a second. This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a rogue planet, or a planet of any kind, providing valuable insights into how they form and grow. (10/2)

Unknown Bacteria Has Developed in the Chinese Space Station (Source: Evidence Network)
An unknown bacterium, never before seen on our planet, has been discovered in the Chinese space station Tiangong. This discovery, worthy of science-fiction scenarios, raises new questions about life in orbit and microbiological risks. Named Niallia tiangongensis, after the station where it was born, this species intrigues scientists because of its unique characteristics and its adaptation to the space environment.

According to the study carried out as part of the China Space Station Habitation Area Microbiome Program (CHAMP), the microbiome of the Tiangong station differs markedly from that of the International Space Station (ISS). The researchers found a dominance of microbes associated with humans, but also marked functional and genetic diversity, with mutations probably linked to adaptation to the extreme conditions of space: microgravity, increased radiation, confinement and strict cleaning cycles. (9/30)

Patrick Space Force Base Library Celebrates 75 Years of Service to the Community (Source: Space Coast Daily)
The Patrick Space Force Base Library marked its 75th anniversary last month, celebrating decades of learning, innovation, and community connection with an event that brought together Airmen, Guardians, families, and retirees to honor the library’s legacy. On September 4, more than 80 people attended the 75th anniversary celebration, transforming the library into a historic gallery with decades of photographs and scrapbooks on display. Guests enjoyed food, drinks, and entertainment, including face painting for children. (10/2)

Senators Cruz and Cornyn Want To Chop Up Space Shuttle Discovery (Source: NASA Watch)
OMB wants NASA and the Smithsonian to figure out how to cut Space Shuttle Discovery apart into pieces to move it. As you will recall that option was ruled out when Space Shuttle Endeavour was moved to Los Angeles on the now-defunct 747 carrier and then moved through the streets where utilities were moved and trees were cut down. Every effort was taken to preserve the integrity of this historic space ship. Now Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are only interested in snagging a tourist attraction – not a precious historic relic that deserves to be preserved – and certainly not chopped up like a leftover exhibit from a state fair and tossed on a flatbed. (10/1)

From Inner to Outer Space (Source: ESA)
For four days, an international crew of astronauts descended underground to live and work together, cut off from the outside world. Marco Sieber shared the expedition with NASA’s Jasmin “Jaws” Moghbeli, Makoto Suwa from Japan’s space agency JAXA and Mohammad Al Mulla from MBRSC, the Emirati space agency.

Marco’s role for the first two days and nights was to scout the 3.5 km long cave in the Italian Apennines, staying focused for hours on end under real exploration conditions. He was the first one into the unknown. The use of artificial light in constant darkness alters the perception of time and of color. (10/1)

An Asteroid Might Be Heading for the Moon. Should We Nuke It? (Source: NBC)
If an asteroid is on a collision course with the moon, what should humanity do? Try to nudge the space rock out of the way before it strikes? Obliterate it with a nuclear explosion? Those are the questions explored in a recent paper from more than a dozen researchers, including several NASA scientists. And they're not purely hypothetical: An asteroid known as 2024 YR4 is estimated to have a 4% chance of hitting the moon in 2032.

Various key characteristics about asteroid 2024 YR4 aren’t known, including its mass, which would be critical in figuring out how to properly “disrupt” it without creating more problems. “If the explosion is not enough, you’re just going to create a debris field anyway,” said Julie Brisset, interim director of the Florida Space Institute, who wasn’t involved with the paper. (10/1)

Portal Space Systems Brings Solar Thermal Propulsion System Up to Full Power During Test (Source: Geekwire)
Portal Space Systems says it has successfully tested its solar thermal propulsion system at operational temperatures inside a vacuum chamber, marking a first for the commercial space industry. The test marks a key step in the development of Portal’s 3D-printed heat exchanger thruster, known as Flare. The thruster is part of a propulsion system that converts concentrated sunlight into heat. That heat would, in turn, warm up an ammonia-based propellant to produce thrust and send Portal’s Supernova satellite platform where it needs to go. (9/30)

Our Solar System's Asteroid Belt is Slowly Disappearing (Source: Live Science)
The asteroid belt is slowly disappearing because asteroids are being ground into dust by mutual collisions and ejected from the belt by gravitational resonances with Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. A new analysis published on October 2 estimates the belt is losing mass by about 0.0088% each year, a rate that was significantly higher in the past when the belt was much more massive. This ongoing loss has reduced the overall bombardment of Earth and the Moon over billions of years, a process supported by geological evidence. (10/2)

China Works to Improve Orbital Coordination with US (Source: Space News)
China is improving communications with the United States on space safety. Alvin Drew, NASA’s director of space sustainability, said the agency heard from its Chinese counterpart, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), recently about a potential close approach of their spacecraft. CNSA informed NASA it would maneuver to avoid a close approach. That is a change from past interactions, he said, which primarily involved one-way communications from NASA to CNSA with little or no acknowledgement from China. Others at the conference said that Chinese constellation operators have contacted OneWeb and SpaceX about conjunctions, suggesting a change in policy in China about such interactions. (10/2)

DoD Wants Closer Coordination with Space Startups (Source: Space News)
The U.S. military is taking steps to better understand how startups can fit into its plans. In recent weeks, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, who leads procurement for the Space Force, paid visits to Northwood Space, a startup building next-generation antennas, as well as commercial space station developer Vast. These visits by Purdy and other military officials are meant to size up the commercial space sector’s progress firsthand, and how their work might fit national security needs as the Pentagon works to improve procurement. A mix of executive orders, new contracting approaches and closer ties between defense leaders and investors has some experts believing this latest reform drive may be different from the past. (10/2)

Starlink-Compatible Radios Sought for Golden Dome Interceptor Satellite Demo (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is seeking proposals for satellite antennas that can communicate directly with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. Space Systems Command (SSC), through its spectrum warfare office, said the project is in support of the Golden Dome missile defense initiative. The planned demonstration would use radio-frequency communications terminals to establish satellite-to-satellite links between a Starlink payload and a mock space-based interceptor. SSC is seeking low size, weight and power radios that can be demonstrated on-orbit within 12 months. (10/2)

Germany's Massive Space Investment Could Change the Game in Europe (Source: Space News)
Germany’s planned massive investment in military space systems could be a game-changing moment for the German and European space industry. German defense minister Boris Pistorius said last week that the country would spend 35 billion euros ($41 billion) on military space projects over the next five years. While details about the projects that will be funded remain scarce, space industry officials in Europe say the program could be a watershed moment for the industry and encourage other European countries to invest more in space. (10/2)

Lockheed Martin Studying Orion Use Alternatives (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin is studying what it would take to offer the Orion spacecraft as a service, including to non-NASA customers. Lockheed announced an agreement with a nonprofit, BioAstra, to study a concept for a deep space biomedical research mission using Orion. Lockheed intends to use the study to see what is required to offer Orion to customers other than NASA. The company announced in July it was exploring a shift from traditional contracts to a service-based approach for Orion in response to NASA policy changes on Artemis. Lockheed believes that it can move gradually towards a services model, taking over capabilities currently provided by NASA. (10/2)

The Exploration Company Still Studying Reentry Failure (Source: Space News)
The Exploration Company is still investigating what went wrong in the final phases of a test flight of a reentry capsule in June. The Mission Possible spacecraft successfully operated in orbit after launch on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission and survived reentry, but controllers lost contact soon after reentry and the capsule’s parachutes did not deploy. An executive with The Exploration Company said the firm is still working to figure out what happened during that final phase of the mission. The European company is pressing ahead with its Nyx capsule, slated to make a flight to the International Space Station in 2028, and the company doesn’t expect what happened to Mission Possible to have a major effect on those plans. (10/2)

Blue Origin's Next New Glenn On Track (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin says it is making good progress toward its second New Glenn launch. A company executive said processing of the rocket and its payload, NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars mission, is going well. The company has not disclosed a specific launch date, although a NASA official said last week that the launch would likely take place in late October or early November. (10/2)

Nations Have a Responsibility to Inform of Potential Space Cyber Threats (Source: Space News)
A former White House official says states have a responsibility to inform citizens, including commercial spacecraft operators, of cyber threats. Diane Howard, former commercial space policy director for the National Space Council, said states have a responsibility to “share credible threat intelligence proactively” to provide warnings of cyber threats, including to space systems. That is based on the experience from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which included cyberattacks on ViaSat’s KA-SAT network and SpaceX’s Starlink. Government action to help satellite operators ward off cyberthreats could also help stabilize markets, she noted. (10/2)

ExLabs Wins Space Force Contract for Reconfigurable Satellites (Source: Space News)
Startup ExLabs won a Space Force contract to support work on its reconfigurable satellites. The $1.9 million “direct to phase 2” SBIR award from Space Systems Command will allow ExLabs to advance development of SERVSAM, a “heavy-class” reconfigurable spacecraft. SERVSAM will be based on the company’s Space Exploration and Resource Vehicle that it has been developing for deep space missions, such as to the asteroid Apophis. (10/2)

Southern Hemisphere's First Optical Ground Stations are Ready (Source: Space News)
The University of Western Australia has completed what it calls the first optical ground station network in the Southern Hemisphere. TeraNet, announced Thursday, includes two ground stations in Western Australia and a third, mobile ground station. The network is designed to support high-speed laser communications with satellites. (10/2)

Blue Origin's Next New Shepard Passengers Named, One Remains Anonymous (Source: Blue Origin)
The manifest for Blue Origin’s next New Shepard flight includes both a repeat customer and an anonymous one. The company announced Wednesday five of the six people who will fly on the NS-36 mission in the near future. They include Clint Kelly III, who flew on the NS-22 mission in 2022. Four others are executives and entrepreneurs. Blue Origin said a sixth person elected to remain anonymous until after the flight. (10/2)