December 22, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Smallsat company Axelspace signs multi-launch agreement with launch integrator Exolaunch
Exolaunch acts as the agent for the satellite company to find the right launch provider.
- Pale Blue to provide thrusters for Axelspace microsatellite
The deal is for a demo flight in 2027.
- Video of Dawn Aerospace’s Mk-II Aurora drone as it reaches 20 kilometer altitude in 118 seconds
Beats the F-15 Streak Eagle’s 1975 record by 4 seconds.
- ISRO successfully tests deployment of the Gaganyaan drogue parachutes
Fun video of the test.
- NordSpace’s commercial Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) on Newfoundland gets its environmental assessment approved
One of two new spaceport startups on Canada’s eastern seaboard.
- Rocket Lab wins its largest satellite contract award yet, $816 million to build 18 missile tracking satellites for the Pentagon
Rocket Lab continues to establish itself strongly in all aspects of space, from rockets to satellites.
- Notice to Airman (NOTAM) suggests China will attempt the first launch of its reusable Long March 12A on December 23, 2025
The launch will be from China’s Jiuquan spaceport, with the interior landing zone probably the same used by the Zhuque-3 rocket two weeks ago. Note that this is not the first Long March 12A NOTAM, so there are no certainties about this launch.
- Today, December 21, 2025, marks the tenth year anniversary of SpaceX’s the first successful landing of an orbital class Falcon 9 booster
The video at the link, by National Geographic, unfortunately turns this historic event into a fake movie drama, with music and editing to rob it of its reality. Go here to watch the actual live stream. That landing changed rocketry forever. As I wrote the next day:
Despite living in a time when freedom is denigrated, when free speech is squelched, and when oppressive regulation and government control is the answer to every problem, the enduring spirit of the human soul still pushed through to do an amazing thing.
SpaceX’s success is only the beginning. The ability to reuse the engines and first stage will allow them to lower their launch costs significantly, meaning that access to space will now be possible for hundreds if not thousands of new entrepeneurs who previously had ideas about developing the resources of the solar system but could not achieve them because the launch costs were too high.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Smallsat company Axelspace signs multi-launch agreement with launch integrator Exolaunch
Exolaunch acts as the agent for the satellite company to find the right launch provider.
- Pale Blue to provide thrusters for Axelspace microsatellite
The deal is for a demo flight in 2027.
- Video of Dawn Aerospace’s Mk-II Aurora drone as it reaches 20 kilometer altitude in 118 seconds
Beats the F-15 Streak Eagle’s 1975 record by 4 seconds.
- ISRO successfully tests deployment of the Gaganyaan drogue parachutes
Fun video of the test.
- NordSpace’s commercial Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) on Newfoundland gets its environmental assessment approved
One of two new spaceport startups on Canada’s eastern seaboard.
- Rocket Lab wins its largest satellite contract award yet, $816 million to build 18 missile tracking satellites for the Pentagon
Rocket Lab continues to establish itself strongly in all aspects of space, from rockets to satellites.
- Notice to Airman (NOTAM) suggests China will attempt the first launch of its reusable Long March 12A on December 23, 2025
The launch will be from China’s Jiuquan spaceport, with the interior landing zone probably the same used by the Zhuque-3 rocket two weeks ago. Note that this is not the first Long March 12A NOTAM, so there are no certainties about this launch.
- Today, December 21, 2025, marks the tenth year anniversary of SpaceX’s the first successful landing of an orbital class Falcon 9 booster
The video at the link, by National Geographic, unfortunately turns this historic event into a fake movie drama, with music and editing to rob it of its reality. Go here to watch the actual live stream.That landing changed rocketry forever. As I wrote the next day:
Despite living in a time when freedom is denigrated, when free speech is squelched, and when oppressive regulation and government control is the answer to every problem, the enduring spirit of the human soul still pushed through to do an amazing thing.
SpaceX’s success is only the beginning. The ability to reuse the engines and first stage will allow them to lower their launch costs significantly, meaning that access to space will now be possible for hundreds if not thousands of new entrepeneurs who previously had ideas about developing the resources of the solar system but could not achieve them because the launch costs were too high.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
“Rocket Lab continues to establish itself strongly in all aspects of space, from rockets to satellites.”
Rocket Lab is impressive. They do a lot for such a new company. This is what can happen when Britain’s BCC doesn’t put you out of business.
But $800 million to build 18 early warning satellites? I gotta laugh. At what or with whom, I will decide later.
I spent some time working on verification testing for the payload of one set of three such satellites, and the company I worked for was charging a whole lot more than $800 million for each satellite. To make 18 for that price shows just how wasteful hiring that company was.
So, am I laughing at Rocket Lab for believing that they can do tens of billions of dollars worth of satellites for less than a billion dollars total? Am I laughing because my previous company charged more than a billion dollars for each of its satellites? Maybe I am laughing at the American taxpayer for overpaying for those previous satellites — which means that I gotta thank most of you readers for paying my salary, for a while, on an overblown, overpriced project. Thank you. Sorry that I couldn’t give you Rocket-Lab-like value for your tax dollar.
I should have stuck with commercial communication satellites. They were cheaper, but still twice the price of the 18 Rocket Lab satellites. Although, come to think of it, maybe those commercial satellites also would have been that cheap, too, if we had been making them in lots of 18. The incremental price of the original 1990s set of Iridium satellites eventually dropped to around $5 million each. Part of the secret to low cost satellites is to make them in large quantities, like most other mass production lines. Another part of the secret is to not build satellites for the U.S. military.
My recommendation to Rocket Lab is to get those satellites completed and airborne before the Pentagon can think of changes to the requirements document.