An evening pause: Performed live 2013. I know this song is a bit over-played this time of year, but this performance brings a freshness to it well worth experiencing. And it is about what Christmas actually celebrates.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Change is coming to Artemis!
The White House today released a new executive order that has the typically grand title these type of orders usually have: “Ensuring American Space Superiority”. That it was released one day after Jared Isaacman was confirmed as NASA administrator by the Senate was no accident, as this executive order demands a lot of action by him, with a clear focus on reshaping and better structuring the entire manned exploration program of the space agency.
The order begins about outlining some basic goals. It demands that the U.S. return to the Moon by 2028, establish the “initial elements” a base there by 2030, and do so by “enhancing sustainability and cost-effectiveness of launch and exploration architectures, including enabling commercial launch services and prioritizing lunar exploration.” It also demands this commercial civilian exploration occur in the context of American security concerns.
Above all, the order demands that these goals focus on “growing a vibrant commercial space economy through the power of American free enterprise,” in order to attract “at least $50 billion of additional investment in American space markets by 2028, and increasing launch and reentry cadence through new and upgraded facilities, improved efficiency, and policy reforms.”
To achieve these goals, the order then outlines a number of actions required by the NASA administrator, the secretaries of Commerce, War, and State, as well as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy (APDP), all coordinated by the assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST).
All of this is unsurprising. Much of it is not much different than the basic general space goals that every administration has touted for decades. Among this generality however was one very specific item, a demand to complete within 90 days the following review:
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Kenya spaceports
The Kenyan government has now initiated a project to establish a second commercial spaceport on the country’s coast, located near the town of Kipini.
As stated in the document made public on December 16, 2025, the government is looking to recruit a skilled transaction advisor who is capable of analyzing the technical, financial, legal, environmental, and social feasibility of the construction of the spaceport based on a PPP model. The strategy utilizes Kenya’s location on the equator, which provides some benefits in satellite launches, among them lower fuel consumption, lower launch costs, and easier satellite placement in low-inclined orbits around the earth’s equatorial region.
…Under the plan, the transaction advisor will prepare a detailed feasibility study in line with the PPP Act, 2021. The study will include concept designs, launch vehicle options, infrastructure requirements, lifecycle cost estimates, and a phased implementation plan for the facility.
As shown on the map to the right, this new facility would be to the north of the San Marco offshore platform that had been used for eight launches by Italy from the ’60s to the ’80s and that the Italian rocket company Avio is now planning to re-open.
The Kenyan government apparently wants to build its own a launch site that it can offer to others to use.
Thunderbird, with cut-out showing interior and person
for scale. Click for original images.
The startup Max Space yesterday unveiled a new larger and upgraded inflatable module, dubbed Thunderbird, that it proposes to sell to the various space stations being built in the U.S. and globally.
Thunderbird Station is built to support 4 or more crew members continuously, with an incredible 350m³ of pressurized volume, more than triple that of a standard ISS module. Launched on a single standard Falcon 9 rocket, the full expandable habitat launches compactly and expands 20x once deployed in orbit, requiring no in-orbit assembly. The interior features a novel reconfigurable architecture, morphic interior structure,that allows astronauts to dynamically adapt the space for research, manufacturing, or living during a mission. The design was developed in collaboration with veteran astronauts to take full advantage of three-dimensional volume in microgravity, not just traditional floor and wall space, to create the most spacious and functional habitable volume ever built. [emphasis in original]
The company also announced that it plans to fly a much smaller demonstration mission of this inflatable module design in the first quarter of 2027, launching on a Falcon 9 rocket and dubbed Mission Evolution.
The primary objective is to test and verify the on-orbit deployment of the expandable module with its exceptional micrometeoroid protection layers. After many years of successful ground testing and development, the flight unit is in full production and is scheduled for launch Q1 2027 onboard a scheduled SpaceX launch.
Max Space first appeared in 2024 when it announced its intention to fly an inflatable demo mission by 2025. Obviously that schedule has undergone some significant delays, though it appears the company used the time to refine its designs considerably. Its management includes one former NASA astronaut and one former member of the Bigelow space station team that built the first private orbiting inflatable modules, Genesis-1, Genesis-2, and BEAM (still operating on ISS).
The company is not trying to build its own space stations. Instead, it is marketing its inflatable modules to all the other space station startups as a quick way to get an additional large module added to their stations.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
Australian spaceports: operating (red dot) and proposed (red “X”)
Click for original image.
The South Korean rocket startup Innospace — about to attempt its first orbital launch from Brazil on December 19, 2025, earlier this week signed an agreement with Australia’s Southern Launch spaceport to launch its rockets from there.
Leading space mission service provider Southern Launch has signed South Korean launch service provider Innospace to conduct space missions from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex and the Koonibba Test Range. This strategic partnership enables Innospce to conduct a diverse range of missions from Southern Launch sites, including orbital satellite launches and suborbital technology demonstrations.
Beginning in 2026 and continuing for at least the next decade, this agreement strengthens South Australia’s position as an emerging global hub for space innovation.
Whether or not its launch from Brazil’s long unused Alcantera spaceport is a success, it appears Innospace was looking for another spaceport option closer to South Korea. Moreover, Southern Launch has been an on-going active launch site for suborbital launches as well as a landing zone for spacecraft, unlike Alcantera which has sat unused for decades. That activity probably makes it a more viable place to operate.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
Rocket Lab tonight successfully placed into orbit a set of Space Force technology test satellites dubbed DISKSat, its Electron rocket lifting off from Wallops Island in Virginia.
DISKSat is a new standard satellite design, shaped like a flat disk about a yard across and developed by the Aerospace Corporation. The idea is that these disk-shaped satellites will more efficiently fit payload into the standard cylindrical fairings used by rockets. This mission includes four that will be deployed in low Earth orbit, but during the mission will also test operation in much lower orbits than satellites normally fly. I suspect the flat design reduces the atmospheric drag at those low orbits, thus allowing the satellite to remain in orbit for longer time periods.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
168 SpaceX
84 China
17 Rocket Lab (a new record)
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 140.
An evening pause: Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Falcon 9 1st stage after landing for 30th time
In the past twelve hours there was one launch abort at T-0 and three successful launches.
First, Japan’s space agency JAXA attempted to launch a GPS-type satellite using its H3 rocket, built by Mitsubishi. The countdown reached T-0 but then nothing happened. The launch was then scrubbed because of an issue in the ground systems. No new date was announced.
Next, Arianespace, the commercial division of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched two European Union GPS-type satellites, Galileos 33 and 34, its Ariane-6 rocket lifting off from French Guiana.
This was Arianespace’s seventh launch in 2025, the most it has achieved since 2021, though still about 20-30% lower than the numbers it generally managed in the 2010s.
Finally, SpaceX followed with two launches on opposite coasts. First, its Falcon 9 rocket launched 29 Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the first stage completing its sixth flight by landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Shortly thereafter the company launched another 27 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first stage (B1063) completed its 30th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. This stage is now the third Falcon 9 booster to reach 30 reuses:
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An evening pause: Music by Hicham Chahidi.
As I watched this I could not help think once again of the Jewish saying that practically describes all Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat!”
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Link here.
Lots of work on going, all aimed at not only getting ready for the next test flight of Starship/Superheavy, but to make the facility capable of regular and frequent launches, including construction of a facility that will be able to produce the oxygen and nitrogen needed for the rocket, rather than having to depend on numerous truck shipments.
Both China and the American company ULA successfully completed launches since yesterday.
First, China placed the third satellite in an new Earth observation constellation, its Long March 4B rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.
Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, the satellite will join the Ziyuan III 02 and 03 satellites already in orbit to form a high-precision observation constellation. Equipped with a stereoscopic mapping camera, multispectral camera, and laser altimeter, it will capture high-resolution 3D imagery critical for geographic data collection and natural resource management.
It appears however that this constellation is used by China’s military, so I suspect its purposes do not exactly match this description. China’s state-run press also provided no information as to where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
Next, ULA launched another 27 Leo satellites for Amazon, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Amazon now has 181 satellites in orbit, with a requirement to get about 1,600 in orbit by July 2026 to meet its FCC license obligations. As it took about eight months to get those first 181 satellites into space (with SpaceX launching 72), Amazon’s three launch providers, ULA (42 launches), Arianespace (18 launches), and Blue Origin (27 launches), will have to ramp up their launch rate significantly to get even close to meeting those obligations in the next six months. There is also a question whether Amazon can manufacture enough satellites at a fast enough pace for those rockets.
As for the rocket, ULA now has only ten Atlas-5 rocket left in stock, with four reserved for Leo launches and six for Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule.
This was also ULA’s sixth launch in 2025. The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
166 SpaceX
84 China (a new record)
16 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 166 to 138.
An evening pause: As has become my own tradition, I always begin the Christmas/Hanukkah season’s evening pauses with this particular piece, because it not only speaks to both religions, it is amazingly beautiful to hear.
The video replays her singing the same thing three times. There is a good reason, as she almost appears to have begun singing as a lark, and the acoustics of the church astonish her. The repeats help bring out this amazing quality.
