Tag: competition

House hearing on Artemis yesterday signals strong doubts about the program in Congress

10:54 am

Artemis logo

The space subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee yesterday held a hearing on space, one day after the Senate held its own hearing on the nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator.

The House hearing however was not about Isaacman, but was apparently staged to highlight what appears to be strong reservations within Congress about NASA’s Artemis program, as presently structured. Its timing, just after the Isaacman hearing, was clearly aimed at garnering as much publicity as possible.

Video of the hearing can be seen here.

The focus of the hearing was also on China, and how there is real fear in Congress that its space program is outstripping NASA’s. Both the Republican committee chairman and the ranking Democrat stressed these concerns, and the need to beat China to the Moon and beyond.

More important, all four witnesses pushed the same point.

The rallying cry at this hearing as well as yesterday’s is the “race” with China.

…Foushee asked each of the witnesses for one-word answers to the question: is NASA on track to get back to the Moon before Chinese taikonauts arrive?

Not all succeeded with one word, but their sentiment was similar. Cheng replied “no, I am very pessimistic.” Swope: “worried.” Besha: “maybe.” Griffin: “no possible way…with the present plan.”

Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin was the most blunt in his criticism of NASA.
» Read more

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Airbus signs China’s Qianfan or Spacesail constellation to provide internet on its airplanes

10:14 am

In what is a major coup for one of China’s planned large constellations, Airbus yesterday agreed to use the Qianfan or Spacesail constellation to provide Wi-Fi service on its airplanes.

At a satellite internet industry ecology conference in east China’s Shanghai on Thursday, Airbus signed a market cooperation agreement on the satellite internet service with Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co., Ltd. The Spacesail Constellation will provide high-speed, low-latency broadband satellite services via the high-speed connectivity system on aircraft, enhancing the in-flight experience for passengers.

The two parties will also work together to meet the needs of airlines, and promote the development of intelligent, personalized services based on low-orbit broadband communication technology.

Starsail is a direct competitor to Starlink. China has so far launched 119 satellites out of a planned first phase constellation of 648. Later phases could increase the constellation to as many as 10,000 satellites.

It seems puzzling why Airbus went with this Chinese constellation, rather than either Starlink or Amazon’s Leo (formerly Kuiper). Starlink is far more developed, while Leo has more satellites in orbit (154 to 119) than Spacesail. And both are private companies from the capitalistic west, not pseudo-companies controlled by the Chinese communists.

Maybe this deal is preliminary to a major purchase of Airbus airplanes by China. China wanted its system on those planes, and so Airbus agreed to go along.

Regardless, this deal tells us that this Chinese internet constellation is going to be a major competitor to both Starlink and Leo.

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China launches two small test communications satellites

9:35 am

China today successfully placed two experimental communications satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Kuaizhou-1a rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

China’s state-run press provided no information on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed. The rocket is supposedly owned and operated by a Chinese pseudo-company, but its solid-fueled heritage clearly comes from military missiles, and thus could only have been developed and used under the full supervision of China’s military.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

159 SpaceX
76 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 159 to 128.

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Boeing is still not off the hook for its malfeasance behind the two 737-Max crashes that killed 346

3:06 pm

Boeing Logo

It turns out that one week after a judge approved a plea deal in early November between Boeing and the Justice Department that would allows the company to avoid a criminal prosecution for its malfeasance and fraud that led to two 737-Max airplane crashes that killed a total of 346 people — thus dismissing the pending criminal charges — the families of the victims filed an appeal, asking a higher court to overturn that deal.

The families had argued before U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) non-prosecution agreement violated the judicial review provisions, which was reached behind closed doors without the families’ statutory right to confer. The writ of mandamus argues that no substantive proceedings before Judge O’Connor were held before he made his decision in favor of Boeing.

…DOJ initially presented Judge O’Connor with a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) that he rejected. Instead of coming back with something more stringent, DOJ presented Boeing with the lesser punishment of an NPA in which Boeing would merely pay a $243.6 million penalty, give $444.5 million to be divided amongst the 346 families, and make additional investments in its safety and compliance. In exchange, the DOJ agreed to dismiss the criminal charge against Boeing. On November 6, Judge O’Connor approved this revised NPA and granted the government’s motion to dismiss.

The families now look forward to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse this decision through its writ of mandamus. In the writ, Paul Cassell, pro bono, attorneys for the families and professor of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, argued on behalf of the families’ that the government’s NPA with Boeing would not provide sufficient oversight of Boeing and failed to account for the fact that Boeing’s criminal behavior was found to have caused the deaths of 346 crash victims. Boeing’s CEO and its lawyers had admitted to the fraud in a guilty plea issued four years ago.

In 2021 Boeing itself pleaded guilty to malfeasance and corruption charges, and was given three years to clean up its act or face criminal prosecution. When after three years Justice found Boeing had instead lied to it while doing little to fix things, it first proceeded with prosecution, only to suddenly back off and make this plea deal.

Thus, the families’ case is strong. Boeing is an admitted criminal and has also done nothing to change its behavior. Whether the families can get the plea deal overturned, however, remains unknown. The legal system no longer can be trusted when it comes to big government contractors like Boeing. The government acts routinely to protect them (as Justice is doing here), and thus there will be heavy political pressure on the courts to turn down this appeal.

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France’s space agency CNES found liable for environmental damage at French Guiana spaceport

9:36 am

French Guiana spaceport
The French Guiana spaceport. The Diamant launchsite is labeled “B.”
Click for full resolution image. (Note: The Ariane-5 pad is now the
Ariane-6 pad.)

France’s space agency CNES, which has taken back management from Arianespace of the French Guiana spaceport it owns, has now been found liable for destroying a protected habitat as it began construction to upgrade the old abandoned Diamant rocket launch site into a pad for several of Europe’s new commercial rocket startups.

In March 2022, the regional environmental authority of French Guiana (DGTM) formally informed CNES that it could not begin demolition or earthworks at the Diamant site without first securing the legally required species and water-law authorisations. Despite this, the agency leveled the area in the preceding weeks, with the environmental NGO CERATO discovering the destruction in April 2022.

In August 2022, the DGTM carried out an unannounced inspection of the Diamant site and found further destruction of protected habitats linked to the agency’s PV2 solar farm project. In October 2022, the PV2 project manager informed DGTM that CNES had known about the presence of protected species on the PV2 site since 1 July 2022, yet began earthworks anyway.

In response to repeated flouting of DGTM procedures, the Prefect of French Guiana, the top regional authority, issued a stop-work order requiring CNES to halt all works at both sites.

It appears this stop-work order has contributed to delays in construction. The news now is that the case appears to have been settled.

The agency has been ordered to repair the damage within three years or face a fine of €50,000. It will also be required to finance ecological compensation actions elsewhere on the grounds of the Guiana Space Centre. The conclusion of the lawsuit will allow the agency to fully resume construction at the site, which it had been ordered to stop in late 2022.

In other words, CNES has been told to spend money elsewhere at the spaceport to make the local environmental authorities happy. It remains unclear how these delays have or even will impact the plans of the Spanish rocket startup PLD, which hopes to do the first orbital launch of its Miura-5 rocket from this site in 2026. PLD expects the first flight-worthy Miura-5 to be delivered to French Guiana early next year, so the delays in French Guiana have not yet effected its plans. That might now change if the site won’t be ready as planned.

This whole story however does indicate a fundamental problem within all of Europe’s space regulatory infrastructure that in the future is likely to hinder the development of its new commercial space industry. Europe’s leadership likes its red tape, and has done nothing to reduce it as it has shifted from the government-run model (where it controls and owns everything) to the capitalism model (where it buys what it needs from an independent competing private sector).

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China’s Zhuque-3 copycat Falcon 9 reaches orbit on first launch; 1st stage crashes

10:32 pm

Zhuque-3 at launch
Screen capture from China’s
state-run press

The methane-fueled Zhuque-3 rocket built by China’s Landspace pseudo-company successfully reached orbit today on its first launch, though the attempt to land the first stage vertically for later reuse failed when it crashed near its landing zone.

The reusable rocket, designed by the Beijing-based commercial space company LandSpace, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s northwest at noon on Wednesday. After reaching a low-Earth orbit, the first stage of the rocket – the lower section that lifts the vehicle off the ground – appeared to catch fire in the air before crashing near the target recovery site.

I think a video of that failed landing can be seen here, though I cannot be sure, as it appeared to go up on youtube immediately at launch time, almost too soon.

For the Landspace pseudo-company, getting this rocket to orbit on the first try is a major success. It plans several more launches in the coming months, with each attempting a similar landing. Based on SpaceX’s history in this matter, it should not take it long to achieve its first landing success.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

158 SpaceX
75 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 158 to 127.

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SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites

3:26 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 25th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. With this flight, this booster, B1077, has now tied the space shuttle Endeavour in reuses, and is only three behind the Columbia shuttle.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

158 SpaceX (a new record)
74 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 158 to 126.

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All eight ports on ISS occupied for the first time; Longest manned mission about to start?

9:56 am

ISS as presently configured
ISS as presently configured. Click for original.

For the first time in its more than quarter century history, all eight docking ports on ISS are occupied, as shown in the graphic to the right.

For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module. The eight spacecraft attached to the complex are: two SpaceX Dragons, Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.

This milestone follows the reattachment of the Cygnus XL spacecraft, supporting the Northrop Grumman-23 commercial resupply services mission for NASA, which was removed last week by the robotics officer at the agency’s Mission Control Center in Houston using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. The Cygnus XL movement was coordinated between NASA, Northrop Grumman, and Roscosmos to provide appropriate clearance for the arriving crewed Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft on Nov. 27.

Cygnus will remain attached to the orbiting laboratory until no earlier than March 2026, when it is scheduled to safely depart and dispose of up to 11,000 pounds of trash and unneeded cargo when it harmlessly burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.

This situation will not last of course, and in fact it may never happen again before the station is retired around 2030. First, Cygnus will leave in March. Second, one Russian Soyuz capsule will leave shortly, as the presence of two simply indicates a crew rotation is underway.

Third, it is presently unclear when the Russians will be able to launch further Soyuz or Progress capsules. » Read more

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China reveals its plans for the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule docked to Tiangong-3

9:28 am

The Tiangong-3 station, as presently configured
The Tiangong-3 station, as presently configured,
with two Shenzou capsules docked at either end.

Having successfully docked Shenzhou-22 as a lifeboat to its Tiangong-3 space station last week, China’s state-run press yesterday outlined its plans for the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule that is still docked to the station but cannot be used by its crew because of cracks in one viewport.

First, China’s space operations have decided to attempt a return of the capsule back to Earth, unmanned, so the damage can be inspected in greater detail. Before that happens however the astronauts on board the station will do their own inspection, including the possibility of adding a patch.

During a subsequent spacewalk, the Shenzhou-21 crew, who are now undertaking a six-month orbital stay, may be tasked with inspecting the cracked viewport. They may also perform protective work on it using specialized devices delivered by the Shenzhou-22 launch — a procedure still being validated in ground tests, said Ji in a recent CCTV interview.

A day prior to their planned return on Nov. 5, the Shenzhou-20 crew spotted an anomaly on the viewport’s edge — a triangular, paint-like mark. They photographed it from multiple angles and under different lights, while the station’s robotic arm cameras were employed to take supplemental external pictures.

The flaw was later identified as “penetrating cracks,” said Jia Shijin, chief designer of the crewed spaceship system from China Academy of Space Technology. “The space debris responsible is preliminarily judged to be less than a millimeter in size, but struck with extremely high speed.”

This description of the damage is the most detailed China as yet revealed. These details certainly fit the description of an impact from an outside source, though considering China’s general lack of transparency some skepticism should still be retained. For example, we still do not know if these “penetrating cracks” mean the capsule is no longer holding its atmosphere, or if the crew has closed the capsule’s hatch to keep the air loss to a minimum.

Either way, it appears China’s engineers are concerned that this damage could cause a major break-up of the capsule during re-entry, and are thus considering options for covering it during that return.

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German rocket startup Isar gets launch contract from ESA

8:25 am

The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace yesterday announced it has won a launch contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to place a satellite carrying a number of experimental payloads into orbit before the end of 2026.

Satellite launch service company Isar Aerospace has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch the ΣYNDEO-3 mission under the European Union’s In-Orbit Demonstration and In-Orbit Validation Programme (IOD/IOV). The launch will be carried out from Isar Aerospace’s dedicated launch complex at Andøya Space in Norway from Q4 2026.

…Redwire is the prime contractor for the ΣYNDEO-3 mission and will be delivering its Hammerhead spacecraft for a launch onboard Isar Aerospace’s launch vehicle Spectrum to a low Earth orbit (LEO). The spacecraft was built and integrated at Redwire’s state-of-the-art satellite processing facility in Belgium. The spacecraft aggregates 10 innovative payloads from six countries and institutions: Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the EC.

Isar has yet to reach orbit with its Spectrum rocket. The first launch failed in March only seconds after launch. A second attempt is presently scheduled for sometime prior to December 21, 2025, lifting off from Andoya.

This is the second new launch contract Isar has announced in the past two weeks, and the third since September. At the moment it appears it is gaining momentum pending that first launch later this month, especially because a successful December launch would make it the first European rocket startup to successfully reach orbit.

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SpaceX gets Air Force approval to launch and land Starship/Superheavy at Cape Canaveral

12:01 am

Cape Canaveral

The Air Force announced late yesterday [pdf] that it will now allow SpaceX to launch its Starship/Superheavy rocket at Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral in Florida (as shown on the map to the right) as many as 76 times per year, with twice that number of landings.

The DAF [Department of Air Force] decision authorizes SpaceX to use SLC-37 at CCSFS [Cape Canaveral Space Force Station] to support Starship-Super Heavy launch and landing operations, including the redevelopment of SLC-37 and the other infrastructure improvements required and analyzed in the FEIS [Final Environmental Impact Statement]. Under this ROD [record of decision], upon execution of the real property agreement and associated documentation, and as analyzed in the FEIS while adhering to the mitigation measures specified in Appendix A to this ROD, SpaceX is authorized to: (1) undertake construction activities necessary to re-develop SLC-37 and associated infrastructure for Starship Super Heavy operations; (2) conduct prelaunch operations, including the transportation of launch vehicle components and static fire tests; and (3) conduct up to 76 launches and 152 landings annually once a supplemental analysis of airspace impacts by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is completed. [emphasi mine]

The deal also requires SpaceX to do some road upgrades in order to transport the rocket from its Gigabay to the launch tower. The company immediately announced on X yesterday that it has already begun construction, and expects to have three pads in Florida before all is done.

The final environmental impact statement [pdf] was released on November 20, 2025, and concluded in more than 200 pages that there will be no significant impact from these launch operations, something that should be self-evident after more than three-quarters of century of rocketry at the Cape. The existence of the spaceport acts to protect wildlife, because it limits development across a wide area.

The report suggested that some turtle species and one mouse specie might “affected adversely”, but it it also appears that risk was considered minor and not enough to block development. To deal with this however the impact statement requires SpaceX to do a number of mitigation actions, similar to what it is required to do at Boca Chica.

One fact must be recognized, based on the red tape and delays experienced by SpaceX during the Biden administration. Had Kamala Harris and the cadre that ran the White House under Biden had been in office now, this approval would almost certainly have not happened, or if it did, it would have likely been delayed for a considerable amount of time, into next year at the earliest. It is certain that Trump is clearing the path to prevent red tape and the administrative state from slowing things down unnecessarily.

This announcement also strengthens the likelihood that SpaceX will do at least one launch of Starship/Superheavy from Florida in 2026. And if not then, by 2027 for sure.

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Two launches today, by Arianespace and SpaceX

10:36 pm

Today there were two launches worldwide, one from South America and the second from the U.S.

First, Arianespace launched a South Korea imaging satellite from French Guiana, using the Vega-C rocket built and owned by the Italian rocket company Avio. Based on the July 2024 agreement, this is the next-to-last Vega-C flight that Arianespace will manage. After the next flight, Avio will take over management of its own rocket, cutting out this government middle man, though that agreement also allowed customers who had previously signed with Arianespace for later flights to stay with it as the managing organization.

Either way, Arianespace’s responsibilities will soon be limited solely to the Ariane-6 rocket, which itself has a limited future, being expendable and too expensive to compete in the present launch market.

Next SpaceX launched another 27 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

As the Vega-C launch was only the sixth for Europe in 2025, it remains off the leader board for the 2025 launch race:

157 SpaceX (a new record)
74 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 157 to 126.

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A detailed look at Europe’s $1 billion commitment to its nascent commercial rocket industry

11:12 am

The European Space Agency

Link here. In announcing last week the European Space Agency’s (ESA) budget for the next three years, along with its general overall goals, the European council (dubbed CM-25) also apparently committed about $1.45 billion to its “European Launcher Challenge”, a program created in 2023 and designed to encourage the development of new European rockets, owned and operated by independent competing startups.

The article at the link provides a good overall summary of major increase in funding for this program, including which ESA countries are contributing the most and why. The key quote however is this:

In July 2025, ESA shortlisted Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, PLD Space, MaiaSpace, and Orbex to proceed to the initiative’s next phase. It then began discussions with the host country of each company to assess its willingness to contribute to that company’s participation in the European Launcher Challenge.

During his post-CM25 address, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher revealed that Member States had committed double the anticipated amount for the European Launcher Challenge, with the final figure exceeding €900 million. While the funding model’s structure suggests that only the UK, Spain, France, and Germany contributed, post-CM25 disclosures have indicated that a few additional countries also committed funds to the programme.

Germany appears to be the biggest contributor, supplying more than a third of the total fund ($422 million). This isn’t surprising, since Germany also has the most rocket startups, three, two of which are on that shortlist (Rocket Factory and Isar). Spain is next with a contribution of $196 million, aimed helping the rocket startup PLD. The UK is next, also contributing $196 million, likely to be used to support its Orbex startup that wants to launch from its Saxavord spaceport in the Shetland Islands.

A variety of other ESA nations, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Norway, have also outlined their contributions, for a variety of space-related startups unrelated to rockets.

France also appears to have donated a significant amount, but has not made that number public. Its MaiaSpace startup is one on that shortlist above, but France also has one or two other rocket startups that might eventually qualify for aid.

The bottom line is that ESA here is committing funding to aid the development of rockets and space infrastructure that it won’t own or control, a major shift from its past policy of owning and controlling everything through its Arianespace pseudo-commercial company, what I call the Soviet- or government-run model. Instead, these ESA nations are going to help fund a range of competing private rockets, which will own the rockets and operate them for profit. ESA will simply become one of their customers, following the capitalism model that the U.S. switched to in the previous decade.

This increased commitment to capitalism in the ESA suggests that we should see some real progress by these startups in the next three years.

If you think the launch records being set this year are breath-taking, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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After being linked for almost six months, China’s Shijian 21 and Shijian 25 separate

9:32 am

After rendezvousing and doing repeated docking tests in June and July and then remaining linked since then, China’s Shijian 21 and Shijian 25 test satellites have now separated.

Optical ground observations Nov. 29 made by S2a systems, a Swiss company which develops and operates customized systems for optical space surveillance worldwide, reveal that the two satellites have now separated in geosynchronous orbit, close to the geostationary belt (GEO) at 35,786 km above Earth’s equator. The orbits of the pair are inclined by 4.6 degrees with respect to GEO.

The article at the link speculates that the spacecraft were doing refueling tests while docked, but while a good guess this has not been confirmed anywhere. China has said nothing.

Shijian-21 was launched in 2021, and was used to grab a defunct Chinese geosynchronous satellite and tug it to a graveyard orbit. Shijian-25 was launched in January 2025, apparently intended to test robotic servicing of satellites. These maneuvers with Shijian-21 appear to be part of those tests. Whether those tests included refueling is uncertain, though possible. If Shijian-21 proceeds to do additional satellite tug maneuvers then it will strongly suggest this refueling occurred and was successful.

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SpaceX launches another 29 Starlink satellites

12:51 am

SpaceX in the early morning hours today successfully launched 29 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

156 SpaceX (a new record)
74 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 156 to 125.

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South Korean rocket startup Innospace announces date for inaugural launch

10:24 am

The South Korean rocket startup Innospace late last week announced that it has delayed the date for the first launch of its Hanbit-Nano rocket a few days in order to correct a “minor anomaly” during testing in Brazil.

During the avionics integration test, INNOSPACE performed a detailed analysis of a minor signal anomaly observed in a specific segment of the test and confirmed the tolerance range of the integration profile affected by flight-environment variations. To further validate the findings, the company carried out a second test using a Brazilian Air Force aircraft under conditions closely replicating the actual flight environment, allowing for a comprehensive review of response characteristics and signal stability across all integration items.

The launch was previously scheduled for a launch window from November 22nd to December 17th, taking place from Brazil’s long unused Alcantara spaceport on its northeast coast. The new window now runs from
December 16th to December 22nd. The launch itself is now scheduled for December 17th.

If this launch is successful, South Korea will have leapfrogged past India, Japan, and Australia to be the first Asian country to have a private company successfully launch a rocket.

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New Australian rocket startup completes suborbital launch

10:13 am

Proposed Australian spaceports
Australian spaceports: operating (red dot) and proposed (red “X”)
Click for original image.

A new Australian rocket startup, AtSpace, announced earlier this week it had successfully launched a test suborbital rocket from the commercial spaceport Southern Launch on the south coast of Australia.

At 09:22 AM [on November 27th], the 12.2m tall vehicle rocketed from Southern Launch’s Koonibba Test Range, performed perfectly and flew close to the target altitude of 80km. The four-and-a-half-minute flight validated AtSpace’s hybrid propulsion technology before safely returning to Earth as planned.

According to the press release, the company was able to recover the rocket afterward.

The company’s website says it was founded in 2021, and plans an orbital rocket dubbed Kestral, using hybrid fuels. No target dates for a first launch however are provided.

AtSpace is Australia’s second rocket startup to launch, following Gilmour Space’s failed launch attempt from its own Bowen spaceport on the east coast of Australia. Gilmour hopes to try again next year.

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China launches classified payload into orbit

9:51 am

China early today successfully placed a classified satellite into orbit, its Long March 7A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport in southern China.

Video of the launch can be seen here.

China’s state-run press provided no information about the satellite or payload.

China's communists to its citizens
China’s communists to its citizens “Nice business you got here.
Shame if something happened to it.”

In related news, that state-run press made official what had been rumored in late October, that the government has now formed a special agency to supervise the pseudo-companies in its faux commercial rocket industry.

In other words, the government has decided the little freedom it gave these pseudo-companies was too much. It is now going to coordinate their efforts from above, and do so much more tightly. I suspect this decision was prompted by the success of some of these companies — taking advantage of that small measure of freedom. The government’s has gotten some new rockets and satellite constellations. Now it can step in and take over, like the mobsters communist governments are.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

155 SpaceX
74 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 155 to 125.

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SpaceX launches another Transporter mission, including dozens of smallsats

11:52 am

SpaceX today successfully completed its fifteenth Transporter mission of smallsats, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The two major customers for this mission were Planet Lab, placing 36 satellites for its imagery constellation, and Exolaunch, which acts as a launch manager for smallsat companies. It placed 58 payloads in orbit for many various companies. Another launch manager company, SEOPS, launched 7 payloads, while the European aerospace company OHB launched 8. Among the other payloads was Varda’s fifth re-usable capsule.

The rocket’s two fairings completed their fourth and fifth flights respectively. The first stage (B1071) completed its 30th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. With this launch this booster become the second SpaceX first stage to achieve at least thirty flights. As the rankings for the most reused launch vehicles below show, SpaceX now has four boosters close to becoming the most reused rockets ever.

39 Discovery space shuttle
33 Atlantis space shuttle
31 Falcon 9 booster B1067
30 Falcon 9 booster B1071
29 Falcon 9 booster B1063
28 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle

Sources here and here.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

155 SpaceX (a new record)
73 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 155 to 124.

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ESA’s member nations approve a major budget increase

9:28 am

The European Space Agency

At the council meeting of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) member nations taking place this week in Bremen, Germany, the council approved a major 32% budget increase for the agency over the next three years.

The largest contributions in the history of the European Space Agency, €22.1 bn, have been approved at its Council meeting at Ministerial level in Bremen, Germany.

Ministers and high-level representatives from the 23 Member States, Associate Members and Cooperating States confirmed support for key science, exploration and technology programmes alongside a significant increase in the budget of space applications – Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications. These three elements are also fundamental to the European Resilience from Space initiative, a joint response to critical space needs in security and resilience.

“This is a great success for Europe, and a really important moment for our autonomy and leadership in science and innovation. I’m grateful for the hard work and careful thought that has gone into the delivery of the new subscriptions from the Member States, amounting to a 32% increase, or 17% increase if corrected for inflation, on ESA’s 2022 Ministerial Council,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

How ESA will use this money however remains somewhat unclear, based on a reading of the various resolutions released in connection with this announcement. As is typical for ESA, the language of every document is vague, byzantine, and jargon-filled, making it difficult to determine exactly what it plans to do. Overall it appears the agency will continue most of the various projects it has already started, and do them in the same manner it has always done them, taking years if not decades to bring them to fruition (if ever). It also appears the agency will devote a portion of this money to create new “centers” in Norway and Poland, which as far as I can tell are simply designed to provide pork jobs for those nations and ESA.

The resolutions also placed as the agency’s number one goal not space exploration but “protect[ing] our planet and climate” (see this pdf), a focus that seems off the mark at a very base level. While I could find nothing specifically approving the odious space law that attempted to impose European law globally (and has been vigorously opposed by the U.S.), the language in this document suggests the council still heartily wants to approve that law, and if it doesn’t do so in total it will do so incrementally, bit by bit, in the next few years.

The most hopeful item among these resolutions was the €4.4 billion the council reserved for space transportation, with the money to be used to pay for upgrades to both the Ariane-6 and Vega-C rockets and the facilities in French Guiana, as well as expand ESA’s program encouraging the new rocket startups from Germany, Spain, and France. If ESA uses this money wisely — mostly for the latter item — it will do much to create for itself a competitive launch industry, something it presently does not have.

It will take a bit of time to see how these decisions play out. It remains very unclear at this moment if Europe is choosing the Soviet or the capitalism model for its future in space.

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Russia launches three astronauts to ISS

9:58 am

Russia today successfully sent three new astronauts to ISS, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Video of the launch here. Meanwhile, the rocket’s lower stages and strap-on boosters fell inside drop zones 300 to 1500 kilometers down range from Baikonur.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

154 SpaceX
73 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 124.

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European Space Agency faces reality: Its partnerships with NASA are fading

10:48 am

The European Space Agency

It appears that the European Space Agency (ESA) is now recognizing that two of its major partnership deals with NASA are likely going to fall apart, and it has therefore begun putting forth new proposals to repurpose those projects during a meeting in Germany this week of its member states.

The two projects are ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter intended to bring Perseverance’s Mars samples back to Earth, and its service module for NASA’s Orion capsule. In the former case, NASA’s decision to cancel the Mars Sample Return Mission leaves that orbiter in limbo. NASA might still fly a sample return mission, but it will almost certainly not do it as originally planned, involving numerous different components from many different sources in a complex Rube-Goldberg arrangement. ESA is now considering repurposing this orbiter as a research spacecraft studying the Martian atmosphere while also being a Mars communications satellite for other missions.

As for the Orion service module, ESA is now recognizing that it is unlikely NASA will continue funding Orion after it completes its presently scheduled missions, totaling at most four. ESA has contracted to build six service modules, and is now studying options for using the last few in other ways, such as a cargo tug in low Earth orbit.

ESA officials are also reviewing its entire future at the conference, considering how private enterprise has completely outrun it in all ways. Its expendable Ariane-6 rocket is a long term financial bust, being too expensive to compete in the modern launch market of reusable rockets. Its proposed IRIS2 satellite constellation will cost too much and launch far too late to compete with the private constellations already in service or being launched by SpaceX, AST-SpaceMobile, Amazon, and China.

To counter this trends, ESA has already made some major changes, shifting ownership and control of its rockets back to the private companies that build them. However, its bureaucracy has appeared resistant to this change, and is apparently lobbying for more funding and control at this week’s meeting, asking the member nations to increase their funding to the agency, giving it a total budget of 22.2 billion euros. There has also been lobbying by ESA supporters for a new Space Law that would supersede the individual space laws of its member states, and also attempt to impose its regulations on non-member nations, beyond its sovereign authority. That law is strongly opposed by the U.S., the private sector, and even some of ESA’s member nations.

The bottom line however is that the nature of the European Space Agency is undergoing major changes, with its work increasingly shifting to its member nations instead of being part of a cooperative effort. While ESA bureaucrats continue to push to protect and strengthen their turf, ESA’s member nations have been increasingly pushing back, and winning that battle.

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South Korea successfully launches its Nuri rocket for the third time

9:37 am

South Korea today successfully launched its government-built Nuri rocket for the third time, placing in orbit one large satellite to study the Earth’s aurora and a dozen cubesats.

This was the first Nuri launch since 2023. In the interim the government has made some moves suggesting it was transferring control of the rocket from its space agency KARI to one of its larger aerospace companies, Hanwah Aerospace. That transfer so far appears mostly superficial, as KARI appears to still control ownership.

As this was South Korea’s first launch in 2025, there is no change to the 2025 launch race leader board:

154 SpaceX
73 China
15 Rocket Lab
14 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 123.

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Vast signs preliminary astronaut deal with the Maldives

8:01 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Artist rendering of Haven-1 with docked
Dragon capsule

Continuing a string of international agreements during the past few weeks, the space station startup Vast yesterday announced it has signed what appears to be a preliminary deal with the Maldives to fly astronauts to its proposed Haven-1 space station.

The agreement outlines that Vast and the MSRO [Maldives Space Research Organisation] will commit to exploring ways to engage the Republic of Maldives space sector. Through the partnership, the organizations will pursue astronaut flight opportunities aboard Vast space stations for agency astronauts, such as Haven-1, the world’s first commercial space station or Vast-provided private astronaut missions to the International Space Station. Both organizations will also collaborate on the development of educational programs and outreach activities, including projects conducted by MSRO astronauts onboard the ISS or Haven-1. These programs are aimed at specifically engaging schools, universities, and other educational institutions in the Republic of Maldives. [emphasis mine]

Vast has similar agreements with Uzbeckistan, Colombia, and the Czech Republic, as well as the European Space Agency. In every case, the agreement hints at Vast providing a space station visit for each country’s or organization’s astronauts, but no firm commitments. I now suspect that these are all preliminary agreements, pending the successful launch of Haven-1 in the first half of next year. Vast plans to keep Haven-1 in orbit for three years, during which it wants to fly four 30-day manned missions, using a Dragon capsule as the ferryboat.

At the moment the company has not announced any passengers or crews for those manned missions. Once Haven-1 is in orbit and operating, however, we should expect astronaut flights to be announced from one or more of these countries.

In a sense, Vast is doing the same thing that Axiom did with India, Poland, and Hungary, signing up each to fly astronauts to ISS. Both space station startups are simply hunting for passengers. And both know that every single third world nation in the world wants to fly its own astronauts in space. Vast, like Axiom before it, is now offering them a cheap way to do it.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Russia launches classified military satellites

10:12 am

Russia today successfully launched a set of classified military satellites, its Angara-1.2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northeast Russia.

Russia’s state-run press provided no further information, not even confirming the number of satellites launched. The rocket’s path was north over the Arctic, to put the satellites in a polar orbit.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

154 SpaceX
73 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
14 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 122.

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Two suborbital test launches in Poland during the past month

10:03 am

According to different reports, it appears Poland successfully completed two different suborbital test launches since October, both launching from Poland’s Central Air Force Training Range in Ustka.

First, on October 24, 2025 a consortium of private and government entities successfully launched a three-stage suborbital rocket.

The project began in early 2020 and received roughly 18.6 million zł (€4.1 million) in EU funding through the European Regional Development Fund. The consortium is led by state-owned aerospace company WZL-1, and includes the Military Institute of Armament Technology (WITU) of the Ministry of Defence, and defence manufacturer ZPS Gamrat. While initially intended to carry payloads into space, WITU has stated that the technology could also be used for the development of anti-aircraft and tactical missiles.

According to a government official, the rocket reached a planned altitude of 40 miles, short of space.

Next, on November 22, 2025, the Perun rocket built by the Polish startup SpaceForest was launched (translated by Google):

On Saturday, just before 2 PM, the company SpaceForest successfully launched its Perun suborbital rocket from the Central Air Force Training Ground in Ustka, Poland. The rocket carried research payloads from across Poland. This was the third test flight of this rocket.

According to Marcin Sarnowski, a representative of SpaceForest, the flight went according to plan. The launch time was announced approximately 40 minutes before the countdown, in accordance with the company’s earlier announcements. The flight was visible from the beach. “During the flight, we managed to test many systems and experiments. We will know all the details soon,” said Sarnowski.

It increasingly appears Poland is developing its own rocket industry. SpaceForest for example has deals to launch its suborbital rocket from multiple spaceports in the Azores, on a ocean platform in the North Sea, and in Norway’s Andoya spaceport.

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Twin Escapade Mars orbiters take first images to test instruments

9:21 am

Escapade camera test
Click for original image.

The two twin Escapade Mars orbiters, built by Rocket Lab, that were launched last week by Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket have both successfully activated and tested their optical and infrared cameras.

The optical picture to the right, reduced to post here, shows the side of one solar panel on one of the orbiters.

The images prove the cameras are working well. The visible-light image also suggests that the spacecraft should have the sensitivity to image Martian aurora from orbit. The infrared camera will be used at Mars to better understand how materials on the surface heat up and cool down during Mars’ day-night cycle and over the planet’s seasons.

The second ESCAPADE spacecraft also successfully took its first photos, but it was targeted toward deep space, so the images were simply black.

The NASA press release did not explain why the second spacecraft’s camera was pointed in that manner. One would think the engineers would want it to look at the spacecraft in order to test its pointing and resolution. It could be it is placed in this manner and cannot be changed, or it could be there is a problem not mentioned by the release.

The two spacecraft are taking a different path to Mars than normal. Both will remain as Lagrange Point 2, a million miles from Earth until November 2026, when they will then be sent back towards Earth to slingshot past to arrive at Mars in September 2027. This plan allowed the spacecraft to be launched with greater flexibility, rather than be tied to the launch windows that occur every two years that all other Mars probes have used.

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Vast signs deal with Colombia’s space agency

8:01 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule

The space station startup Vast last week signed an agreement with the space agency of the South American country of Colombia to do cooperative research, linked to Vast’s planned space stations.

The agreement suggested it would be used mostly to encourage educational and research opportunities for Colombia’s universities and schools. However, the press release added this tidbit:

Both organizations intend to work together to identify joint initiatives that leverage Vast’s spacecraft, including Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station, with AEC’s [Columbia’s space agency] growing ecosystem of data analytics, connectivity, and science education programs.

Vast already has similar agreements with Uzbeckistan, the Czech Republic, and the European Space Agency. Its Haven-1 single module station, set to launch next year for a three-year mission during which it will be occupied four different times for several weeks, still has no confirmed passengers or crews. One can’t help wondering if these international deals hint at the possibility that one or all of these international partners will fly astronauts there.

It is also possible Vast has been hunting for passengers, and as yet has not been able to convince anyone to buy a ticket. I expect everyone is waiting to see the condition of Haven-1, after it launches.

There is one problem that might make any final deal with Colombia difficult: Its Marxist president does not have a very good relationship with the Trump administration.

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China launches unmanned Shenzhou-22 capsule to its Tiangong-3 station

9:23 pm

UPDATE: The capsule successfully docked with Tiangong-3 as planned, thus giving its three astronauts a lifeboat again.

China tonight (November 25, 2025 Chinese local time) successfully launched an unmanned Shenzhou-22 capsule to its Tiangong-3 station, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

China moved very fast to get this rocket and capsule integrated and stacked and ready to launch, less than three weeks. This speed was essential because the three-person crew on Tiangong-3 had no usable lifeboat capsule which they could use should something go wrong and they needed to evacuate. Their capsule, Shenzhou-21, had been used by the previous crew to get back to Earth because that crew’s capsule, Shenzhou-20, had been damaged by “space debris,” according to China’s state-run press.

The capsule is scheduled to dock with Tiangong-3 later in the day, about six hours after launch.

No word by China’s press where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

154 SpaceX
73 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 121.

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