Tag: competition

Leftist lawsuit against beach closures at Boca Chica appealed to higher Texas court

10:59 am

The leftist anti-Musk activists groups have now appealed the dismissal of their lawsuit against the law allowing more frequent beach closures at Boca Chica for Starship/Superheavy launches.

The lawsuit was filed by Save the Rio Grande Valley (SaveRGV), the Sierra Club, and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas against Cameron County, the Texas General Land Office, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, and the Texas attorney general. When the case was reviewed by the lower court in Cameron county, it dismissed it entirely, saying the activist groups had no standing and had failed to show any harm from the law.

The activists then appealed to a higher court.

The Thirteenth Court of Appeals found the Plaintiffs have standing and that immunity had been waived for each Defendant. The case was remanded to the trial court to proceed on the merits, but Defendants appealed the Thirteenth Court’s ruling to the Supreme Court of Texas.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court of Texas will occur on January 13, 2026. In the more rational world of America until two decades ago, the case would be thrown out again, since the law that initially limited these beach closures was legally revised by the state legislature.launches. Just because these leftists don’t like it doesn’t mean they and the courts have the right to cancel legal legislation.

We no longer live in that more rational American world, however. Politics now rule, and it is leftist politics that most often win, regardless of the law or rationality.

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Iraq and SpaceX close to signing Starlink deal

9:28 am

Meetings this week between SpaceX officials and the Iraqi government appear to have finalized an agreement that would allow Starlink to be marketed inside Iraq.

The meeting on Thursday concluded with discussions on “the final procedures related to granting satellite internet licenses, including the license designated for SpaceX, as well as avenues for strengthening cooperation in the telecommunications sector, the services provided by the company, and its prospective coverage areas,” the statement added.

It is not clear if the deal has been signed, or is simply written and still needs review. Based on the little information provided, it sounds as if SpaceX will be marketing its terminals directly to Iraqi citizens. I suspect however that some Iraqi government entity will demand a cut, and might even demand the right to do the marketing itself, as a number of other nations have done.

Regardless, Starlink continues to expand worldwide, and in doing so makes censorship increasingly difficult for the petty power-hungry thugs that run many of these third world nations. And when Amazon Leo begins operations, that censorship will become even more difficult.

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Avio to build $500 million rocket facility in Virginia

9:18 am

The Italian rocket company Avio has selected Virginia as the location where it will build a $500 million solid-fueled rocket facility as part of establishing its American-based division.

Italian rocket builder Avio has announced that it has selected the state of Virginia to build its planned US-based production facility. The $500 million project forms part of the company’s expansion of its defence business.

Avio founded its wholly owned US subsidiary, Avio USA, in 2022 to capitalise on a market opportunity created by constrained solid rocket motor production capacity relative to surging demand for tactical propulsion solutions. Since then, the company has signed contracts with the US Armed Forces, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin.

Avio presently builds the Vega-C solid-fueled rocket, which until this year was managed and controlled by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) commercial division, Arianespace. That arrangement however is ending. Beginning next year, Arianespace will be out of the picture. Avio is already marketing its own rocket, as indicated above, and as part of that process the company has been expanding operations, such as creating this U.S. division.

And for Avio this situation presents a great opportunity. The only company producing solid-fueled rockets and missiles in the U.S. appears to be Northrop Grumman, and the lack of competition has made its rockets expensive. There is room for competition. Moreover, the decisions of the Biden administration to provide the Ukraine a very large percentage of the Pentagon’s missile stock means there is a big need to replenish those stocks.

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Turkey begins construction of spaceport in Somalia

9:07 am

Somalia

According to statements by one Turkish official this week, his nation has begun building its own spaceport on the southeast coast of Somalia at a location not yet specified.

Türkiye has begun construction of a space launch facility in Somalia, marking the country’s entry into an exclusive group of nations with oceanside spaceports, Board Chairman of Baykar Selcuk Bayraktar announced on Thursday. “Türkiye now has a space launch station. Normally, you need to be by the ocean. Türkiye has a 30 kilometer by 30 kilometer area in Somalia,” Bayraktar said during a panel at Take Off İstanbul 2025. “When you have oceanside access, you can deploy launch vehicles, meaning you have a spaceport. There are 12 such places in the world. Because Somalia is part of our heartland geography, there will be a space station there,” he noted.

This plan has been in the works since earlier this year, though few real details (such as its specific location) have not been released. It appears however that Turkey wants to use it to test both ballistic missiles and eventually launch orbital rockets. The location on the coast will permit test flights of bigger missiles that Turkey cannot do from its present test sites inside Turkey.

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China launches nine more Guowang internet-of-things satellites

8:56 pm

China today successfully launched another nine internet-of-things satellites for the Guowang (or SatNet) constellation, its Long March 12 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

China’s state-run press did not reveal the number of satellites, but the previous three Long March 12 launches that carried Guowang satellites all launched nine, so I think it is safe to assume nine launched today as well. This was the sixteenth launch for this constellation, which now has about 119 satellites in orbit, with a planned 13,000 once complete.

The Long March 12 is expendable. Though the launch proceeded over the ocean, one drop zone for the rocket’s lower stages was in the Philippines, where authorities warned its citizens to avoid those zones and to exercise caution if they see any likely rocket debris.

An upgraded version, the Long March 12A, with a first stage designed to land vertically and be reused, is scheduled to launch sometime in the next two weeks.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

164 SpaceX
82 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 164 to 134.

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French startup The Exploration Company now building an in-orbit servicing spacecraft

12:28 pm

The French startup The Exploration Company, which has been developing an unmanned cargo spacecraft called Nyx to supply the commercial space stations under development, has now also gotten funds from the European Space Agency (ESA) to build an in-orbit spacecraft designed to provide refueling and servicing capabilities as well.

More information here.

In a 25 November update on its progress with an ESA-funded project, the company revealed that it is also working on a spacecraft called Oura, designed to refuel satellites in orbit, thereby extending their operational lifespan.

…As part of the 25 November update, the company announced that it had been awarded a Phase B2 contract for the InSPoC-1 programme. The Phase B2 development of the project will include activities up to Technology Readiness Level 6, which represents the development of a prototype and its demonstration in a relevant environment.

Once again, this contract from ESA is radically different than its past policy of building and owning everything itself. Instead, it is hiring this French company to develop this capability, which this French company will then own and be able to sell for profits to others.

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Pentagon decides New Glenn must fly four times before its certifies it for military launches

11:33 am

Pentagon officials yesterday announced that before it will certify Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for commercial military payloads, it must complete two more successful orbital launches, for a total of four flights.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will have to complete four successful orbital flights as its pathway to certification under the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said Dec. 10 at the Spacepower conference. Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said Blue Origin selected the four-flight benchmark and the government agreed. “The government is supporting a four-flight certification for New Glenn,” he told reporters. The rocket has logged two successful missions so far, and Garrant said a third launch is expected “earlier in the new year than later.” If upcoming flights stay on track, he added, “I think they’re going to be in a fantastic place to become our third certified provider and compete for missions.”

If certified, Blue Origin would join SpaceX and United Launch Alliance as the Space Force’s third heavy-lift launch provider.

It is surprising that the military is requiring four successful flights from Blue Origin, but required only two from ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, and certified that even though there were problems on Vulcan’s second flight.

These extra flights should not cause a significant delay, since Blue Origin is expecting to complete a number of launches in 2026 to meet its obligations under its Amazon Leo contract

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Chinese astronauts complete spacewalk inspecting damaged Shenzhou capsule

12:53 pm

Two Chinese astronauts yesterday completed their first spacewalk since arriving on China’s Tiangong-3 space station, during which they inspected the damaged viewport on the Shenzhou-20 capsule as well as installed a cover to protective that damage when the capsule returns to Earth.

Shenzhou-21 mission commander Zhang Lu and rookie crewmate Wu Fei began an extravehicular activity (EVA) at 9:28 p.m. Eastern, Dec. 8 (0228 UTC, Dec. 9), when Zhang opened the Wentian experiment module airlock hatch and exited the Tiangong space station.

The more than eight-hour EVA concluded at 5:42 a.m. Eastern (1042 UTC) Dec. 9, with the pair safely back inside Tiangong. Zhang and Wu, wearing Feitian EVA suits with red and blue markings respectively, were assisted by the space station’s robotic arm, crewmate Zhang Hongzhang from inside Tiangong, and teams in mission control. New, upgraded Feitian suits were delivered to Tiangong via the July Tianzhou-9 cargo mission.

The first series of tasks centered on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, the return module of which suffered a suspected debris impact to a viewport window, rendering the spacecraft unsafe to return its three-astronaut crew to Earth in early November. At around 12:19 a.m. Eastern, Zhang Lu approached the viewport window of the Shenzhou-20 return module while attached to the Tiandong robotic arm and photographed and assessed the damage.

China has said that the damage was caused by a millimeter-sized object that impacted at high speed. It has yet however to release any images of the damage, and provided no other details.

Thus, we still do not know the damage’s exact nature, other than what that state-run press has told us. It could very well be that this damage was caused by some other factor that China does not wish to reveal.

NOTE: This is a recreation of a post published on December 10, 2025 that was lost during this morning’s server outage.

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Unconfirmed anonymous sources at Reuters and Bloomberg claim SpaceX is planning a public stock offering

12:46 pm

Two stories from Reuters and Bloomberg yesterday suggest Elon Musk is considering making SpaceX a publicly traded company, with an initial stock offering sometime in 2026. From the Reuters’ report:

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise more than $25 billion through an initial public offering in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket-maker’s valuation to over $1 trillion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The company’s move towards a public listing, which could rank among the largest global IPOs, has been largely driven by the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite internet business, including plans for direct-to-mobile service and progress in its Starship rocket program for moon and Mars missions.

SpaceX has started discussions with banks about launching the offering around June or July, the person said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential information.

Since both stories rely entirely on anonymous sources, we should not take either very seriously. I only post this now merely to put it on the record. And though Elon Musk has since hinted there might be some truth to both, he has also been very vague about his plans. While a public offering would garner him a lot of cash, it would bring with it a lot of regulatory headaches that would seriously interfere with what he wants to do. In the end I think (and hope) he will decide it ain’t worth it. Starlink right now is bringing in enough money to allow him to accomplish everything, and more.

If anything, these stories illustrate again the corruption in our modern propaganda press. Such stories would have been considered junk four decades ago. Then it was traditional practice that a story needed at least two independent sources, one of which was not anonymous. No longer. Anyone can push any lie, and these news outlets will publicize it, for the sake of clicks.

NOTE: This is a recreation of a post published on December 10, 2025 that was lost during this morning’s server outage.

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SpaceX completes its 11th launch this year for the National Reconnaissance Office

1:46 pm

SpaceX today successfully placed its 11th payload into orbit this year for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The rocket’s two fairings were both new, flying their first mission.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

162 SpaceX (a new record)
79 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 162 to 131.

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Academia makes its first comprehensive attempt to plan science missions to Mars using Starship

1:28 pm

Figure 2-2 from the NAS report
Figure 2-2 from the National Academies
of Science report

A new report released today by the National Academies of Science, entitled “Highest Priority Science for the First Human Missions to Mars,” is essentially the first attempt by the planetary science community to plan its future science missions to Mars using the gigantic capabilities that SpaceX’s Starship is expected to provide them.

You can download the report here.

Even though the report made the search for life on Mars its big priority — a bugaboo that NASA and the science community trots out repeatedly to garner clicks from the ignorant propaganda press — this report is radically different then all previous similar NASA studies proposing future Mars exploration, as indicated by the graphics from figure 2-2 of the report to the right. Unlike those past studies, which were badly limited by the inadequate capabilities of any spacecraft NASA could send to Mars, this new report recognizes how much the game is changed by SpaceX’s Starship.

First, the new panel did not attempt to place any limit on any landing zones. Earlier reports had forbidden landings in the high latitudes or high altitudes because of the risks to NASA’s proposed landers. Starship overcomes much of those risks, giving researchers much greater flexibility.

Second, the focus of the missions will not be solely devoted to scientific or geological research, as had been the case for all previous similar reports by NASA and the academic community. Instead, the proposed research goals includes important engineering and human exploration requirements outside of science, including efforts to use the resources on Mars itself as well as find locations better suited for human habitation. Once again, the vastly greater capabilities of Starship influenced this change.

Even more important, the study doesn’t assume the future missions will be unmanned, as all previous NASA reports have done. In fact, it does the opposite, proposing multiple 30-day manned missions, as shown in the graphic. One set of three missions would go to three different locations, while another set of three missions would focus on one place in particular.

Much of this shift towards manned flight I think stemmed from the presence on the panel of representatives from the private companies SpaceX and The Exploration Company (a French startup), as well as an engineer from the National Academy of Engineering. Previously studies were almost always entirely dominated by planetary scientists, so the goals outlined were always focused on their interests. Now the idea of human exploration has become prevalent.

The panel’s work was clearly also influenced by the realization that SpaceX’s Starship is not only far more capable, its first flights are just around the corner. SpaceX plans sending it numerous times to Mars in the very near future, as shown in the graphic below that Elon Musk released during a presentation in May 2025.
» Read more

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Three astronauts return from ISS in Soyuz capsule

9:09 am

Early today one American and two Russians safely returned to Earth, their Soyuz capsule touching down on the plains of Kazakhstan after spending more than eight months on ISS.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tuesday alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, wrapping up an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station to benefit life on Earth and future space exploration. They made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 12:03 a.m. EST (10:03 a.m. local time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after departing the space station at 8:41 p.m. on Dec. 8, aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.

Over the course of 245 days in space, the crew orbited Earth 3,920 times, traveling nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the space station on April 8. This mission marked the first spaceflight for both Kim and Zubritsky, while Ryzhikov completed his third journey to space, logging a total of 603 days in space.

There remains on ISS one Soyuz, with its crew of three, with a planned return in July 2026. Getting its replacement crew launched however remains an unknown right now because of the damage to the Soyuz-2 rocket launchpad in Baikonur that occurred when they were launched two weeks ago. Roscosmos has provided no public updates about its plans to fix the pad or replace it, and until such plans are revealed, the Russians have no ability to launch any further manned missions.

This is why I speculated earlier that the present Soyuz crew might be starting an extended mission, awaiting repairs to the launchpad.

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China completed two launches today

11:42 pm

China today completed two launches from two different spaceports, one a pseudo-commercial launch and the other a classified military payload.

First China launched the fifteenth set of satellites in the Guowang or SatNet internet-of-things satellite constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China. According to China’s state-run press, this brings the total number of Guowang satellites in orbit to about 110, fewer than I had previously estimated. The final plan calls for a constellation of 13,000.

The second launch took place on December 9th (in China), with a Long March 4B rocket lifting off from China’s Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China, placing a classified satellite into orbit.

With both launches, China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. This is especially critical with the Long March 4B, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuels that can dissolve your skin.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

161 SpaceX
79 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 161 to 131.

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SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites, sets new record for Falcon 9 reuse, dominates the world in rocketry

5:07 pm

First stage after landing for the 32nd time
First stage after landing for the 32nd time

SpaceX today launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket (B1067) flew for its 32nd time, a new record for a Falcon 9 first stage. As shown in the rankings below of the most reused launch vehicles, this stage is now just one flight from tying the space shuttle Atlantis:

39 Discovery space shuttle
33 Atlantis space shuttle
32 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.

Nor will it be long before SpaceX’s fleet surpasses all the shuttles.

Meanwhile in the 2025 launch race SpaceX’s dominance is overwhelming, as shown by the leader board:
» Read more

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More than 300 companies in discussions in connection Space Force’s “Golden Dome” project

9:40 am

According to guarded remarks by the head of Trump’s “Golden Dome” project, he has been in negotiations with more than 300 aerospace companies as the Space Force begins preliminary design work on this missile defense system.

President Trump’s Golden Dome czar says he has held “one-vs.-one” talks with more than 300 private companies in recent months to hash out the secretive architecture of the futuristic missile defense shield that the administration is determined to put into operation over the entire U.S. homeland by mid-2028.

In his first public remarks since being named to the position in June, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force, told an audience at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum that although the layered design of the Golden Dome remains classified, he is confident that “our industry partners have a pretty good insight into what we’re doing.”

The project, which remains mostly cloaked in secrecy, received $24.5 billion in funding this year from Congress, with that number expected to rise considerably in later years.

My sense from Guetlein’s remarks is that right now the project is simply gathering already existing missile defense assets under one roof in order to get something operational by 2028 as ordered by Trump. Guetlein is also getting the enthusiastic support of the industry — which sees big bucks flowing their way from Golden Dome in the coming years. Many of the new space startups have been shifting operations from civilian space to this military project in anticipation of this funding.

While the concept is not unreasonable, considering the success seen with the Pentagon’s Patriot system and Israel’s Iron Dome, the secret structure so far of Golden Dome is almost guaranteed to lend itself to corruption and wasteful spending, a systemic problem within our present federal government.

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Korean Air and Hyundai Rotem sign deal to develop methane-fueled rocket engine

9:15 am

Two South Korean companies, the airline company Korean Air and the railroad company Hyundai Rotem, have signed a partnership agreement to develop a methane-fueled rocket engine by 2030, funded by the government’s Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement (KRIT).

Korean Air will lead the development of the engine’s turbopump, a core component often described as the heart of the propulsion system. The turbopump compresses liquid methane and oxidizer at extremely high pressures and speeds. Its development requires advanced engineering capable of handling cryogenic temperatures of -180°C to several hundred degrees, while rotating tens of thousands of times per minute.

Hyundai Rotem is a division of the automobile company Hyundai, but its focus is building railroads. The press release does not say what it will do as part of this partnership.

It is also unclear from the press release whether these companies will be own this engine for sale to others, or are developing it for the government. If the latter, the project will have a much more limited potential.

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Japanese startup Ispace expands deal with Japan Airlines

9:04 am

The Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace has now expanded its partnership deal with Japan Airlines (JAL) and two other associated JAL companies aimed at building transportation infrastructure to, from, and on the Moon.

The new agreement outlines the co-creation of systems and infrastructure supporting future lunar bases with high-frequency transportation to the lunar surface. Leveraging maintenance technology, air traffic control, and operations management expertise developed by JAL and JALEC in the aviation field, the two companies will aim to advance a sustainable presence on the Moon.

With the addition of JALUX to the partnership, the companies will explore new collaborations regarding space-related services for the public within the JAL Group. Consideration will also be given to sales cooperation for payloads sales utilizing ispace’s lunar transportation service. By combining ispace’s lunar transportation via its lander with the JAL Group’s aviation expertise and customer network, the partnership is expected to provide lunar transportation opportunities to diverse stakeholders.

A lot of vague PR language, but it does appear the goal is to develop lunar transportation products for what the companies expect to be a growing industry on the Moon.

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Russia and India agree to orbit their space stations in the same inclination, the same as ISS

8:02 am

India's Bharatiya Antariksh Station as outlined in 2024
India’s Bharatiya Antariksh Station as outlined in 2024.
Click for original image.

According to statements made by Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov at a conference in New Delhi this week, Russia and India have agreed to orbit their planned new space stations in the same inclination as ISS, 51.6 degrees, and coordinate their operations at both stations.

By choosing the same orbital geometry for ROS [Russian Orbital Station] and BAS [Bharatiya Antariksh Station], Moscow and New Delhi are effectively planning a continuous “replacement belt” in low Earth orbit. After the ISS is retired, crewed spacecraft launched from Russia and India would still be able to reach a major laboratory complex without radically changing launch trajectories or infrastructure, and—crucially—could, in principle, travel between the two stations with relatively modest maneuvers compared with a full plane-change.

Bakanov’s New Delhi comments build on a broader Roscosmos–ISRO understanding that the two stations should be able to support cross-visits, resource sharing and coordinated operations once both are flying.

This high inclination is required because spacecraft launching from Russia’s high latitudes can’t reach lower inclinations practically. India could put its station at a lower inclination (being at a lower latitude), but if this story is true, it apparently has decided there are advantages using an orbit that will allow cross-missions with Russia, including launches from Russia.

India plans to launch the first module of its station in 2028, and have the entire station operational by 2035. Russia says it will launch is station’s first module by 2027, with full operations beginning by 2030. While both schedules are likely to see delays, we should expect India to get its station built, while Russia will likely struggle to launch even one module.

In fact, I suspect this deal is Russia’s effort to find some partner that can carry it in the future, when its own station gets delayed.
» Read more

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites

5:37 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 28 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its 12th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leader board in the 2025 launch race.

160 SpaceX (a new record)
77 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 160 to 129.

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SpaceX to launch another secondary private stock sale, hints at going public

9:44 am

UPDATE: Elon Musk has posted on X that this story is “not accurate.”

According to reports yesterday, SpaceX is about to launch another secondary private stock sale that double the value of the company.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.

At the elevated price, Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.

At $800 billion, SpaceX would be the world’s most valuable private company.

As for going public, nothing is confirmed. Musk has made some comments suggesting he is considering the idea, but at the same time has noted the problems such a act would cause him.

Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn’t love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw “spurious lawsuits,” and can “make it very difficult to operate effectively.”

It seems to me it would be a big mistake for Musk to do this. As a public stock-trading company, Musk would lose the freedom he presently has with SpaceX.

Meanwhile, this new private stock offering has done wonders for the value of Echostar’s stock, now that the company’s own stake in SpaceX after selling it some of its FCC licensed spectrum.

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China launches another set of Guowang satellites

9:18 am

China today successfully launched the 14th set of the Guowang internet of things satellites (also called SatNet), its Long March 8A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

China’s state-run press made no mention of the number of satellites launched. Based on previous launches by the Long March 8A, it was probably nine, bringing the total number of Guowang satellites in orbit to about 114, after fourteen launches. The final plan calls for a constellation of 13,000. Should take awhile to complete.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

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

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 159 to 129.

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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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