Aerospace News, Space Commerce & Government Programs

Curated space commerce and aerospace program news, updated periodically with primary-source announcements.

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Recent News

  • SpaceX reported that a newly deployed satellite from the Chinese Kinetica 1 rocket launch passed within ~200 m of Starlink-6079, part of the Starlink global internet constellation at ~560 km LEO, without prior coordination or deconfliction, underscoring the growing risk of untracked close conjunctions in crowded orbital regimes (Space.com report also: Daily Galaxy)
  • A new orbital dynamics study (“An Orbital House of Cards: Frequent Megaconstellation Close Conjunctions”) finds megaconstellation traffic has compressed the time until a potential catastrophic collision would occur (the “CRASH Clock”) to ~2.8 days absent avoidance maneuvers, down sharply from ~121 days in the pre-mega constellation era, reinforcing the need for robust SDA and collision-risk mitigation infrastructure — arXiv paper by Thiele et al.
  • SpaceX launched a record-setting F9 Starlink mission, flying a booster for the 32nd time in 2025 and deploying the 3,000th Starlink satellite of the year into LEO — SpaceX Launches (also: Spaceflight Now)
  • NASA issued a revised acquisition strategy for Phase 2 of its CLD program, updating contract plans for certifying commercial stations and sustaining research in LEO — NASA Commercial Space Stations (also: NASA CLDC Procurement)
  • A commentary in *Fortune* highlights the broader space debris challenge for ambitious orbital projects like proposed “data center in the sky” constellations, noting that hypersonic debris (~28,000 km/h) in LEO poses a pervasive risk to long-lived infrastructure and emphasizing the need for improved debris tracking and SDA cooperation — Fortune coverage (opinion/analysis context)
  • Blue Origin announced the six-person crew for its New Shepard mission NS-37, including ESA engineer Michaela Benthaus, the first wheelchair user slated to fly above the Kármán line on the vehicle — Blue Origin Mission Brief (also: Space.com)
  • Rice University hosted the 2025 U.S.-Japan Space Forum on commercial LEO stations, bringing government, industry, and academic leaders together to discuss future CLD cooperation and orbital partnership frameworks — Rice University News
  • NASA reported a first for the ISS, with all docking ports simultaneously occupied by eight visiting spacecraft during Expedition 73 operations, underscoring current traffic levels in LEO logistics — NASA ISS Blog
  • Roscosmos launched Soyuz Soyuz MS-28 toward the ISS; despite subsequent reports of ground-equipment damage at Baikonur, the spacecraft completed rendezvous and docking nominally (mission status and docking confirmed) — NASA ISS Blog (status); Reuters (pad equipment damage)
  • ESA Council at Ministerial level (CM25) confirmed €22.1 billion in subscriptions and advanced new program proposals across exploration, Earth observation, and launch sectors — ESA Press Release
  • CMSA executes a rapid-response mission ~11 days after the debris incident: Shenzhou-22 performed autonomous fast rendezvous & docking to deliver supplies and ensure crew return options — CMSA (Chinese; use translator) (also: Xinhua English)
  • CMSA — Official mission updates and notices (site in Chinese; use built-in browser translate for details) — CMSA Updates
  • Blue Origin’s New Glenn NG-2 completed its second orbital mission, deploying NASA’s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft and landing its reusable first-stage booster on the barge *Jacklyn* — Blue Origin
  • & SpaceX scheduling two Falcon 9 Starlink launches—Group 6-87 from Florida and Starlink 10-2 from Vandenberg—sustaining high-cadence broadband deployments — SpaceX (Florida), SpaceX (Vandenberg)
  • Starlab named Leidos as lead for U.S. assembly, integration and testing (AI&T) of its commercial station — Source [migrate → CLD]
  • Rocket Lab’s Electron deployed iQPS’s QPS-SAR-14 to a 575 km SSO on mission “The Nation God Navigates” — Source
  • Copernicus Sentinel-1D launched from Kourou, adding C-band SAR capacity for Earth-safety monitoring — CNES
  • ESA selects the HOBI-WAN human-organoid biotech experiment for the ISS I-HAB, advancing in-space manufacturing & life-science R&D — ESA

To see older items go to Recent News — Archive below.

← 📑 Process    🛫 Flight Watch    ℹ️ FAQ    🛰️ Space Op News →   

Government Programs Driving PPP

  • NASA Artemis: Artemis II assembly and mission status — Mission page, Status update
  • ESA/EU: Ariane 6 commercial cadence; IRIS² secure connectivity — Ariane 6, IRIS²
  • U.S. Space Development Agency: Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche-1 — SDA release
  • China (CNSA): Chang’e-6 far-side sample return; Tiangong operations — CNSA
  • India (ISRO): Gaganyaan and national space-station roadmap — TOI
  • Japan (JAXA): SLIM precision landing tech proof for future missions — JAXA

Earth & Airspace Commercialisation

  • Launch/Reentry in the NAS: FAA’s SDI brings live launch/reentry telemetry into ATC workflows — FAA SDI; new operators feed data direct to SDI — FAA update.
  • AAM corridors: NASA + partners test tools for remotely piloted operations and future air-taxi integration — NASA AAM news, Mission page.
  • BVLOS scale-up: UK CAA roadmap and trials toward routine BVLOS by 2027 — CAA roadmap; funding for live trials in shared airspace — CAA trials.
  • U-space integration: EUROCONTROL and partners progress UTM into wider ATM — EUROCONTROL; SESAR demonstrations continue — SESAR U-ELCOME.
  • Urban air corridors: UAE maps air-taxi and cargo-drone routes toward 2026 service start — Reuters.
  • ATC modernisation: FAA launches vendor challenge to upgrade TFM — FAA TFM.
  • Space–air integration policy: FAA Space Operations office coordinates launch impacts within the NAS — FAA Space Ops.

See Orbital & Beyond Commercial Headlines →

Commercial Headlines

Asteroid Mining — Proposals & Milestones

Curated history of proposals and enabling policy/tech. We’ll keep adding notable studies, demos, and commercial moves here.

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Space Elevators & Resource Logistics — Studies & Milestones

Notes: Earth elevators traditionally anchor near the equator to align with GEO; recent work examines non-equatorial options. Lunar and small-body elevators (e.g., Ceres) are substantially less material-limited, and may mature first as part of cislunar logistics and ISRU.

  • — Formation of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) to coordinate global R&D, conferences, and standards — ISEC.org
  • — The “Spaceline” concept proposes a tether from the Moon toward Earth that could be feasible with existing materials; reduces the hardest part of Earth-to-GEO/GTO access — Penoyre & Kipping (ArXiv 1908.09339) (LEO ⇄ cislunar logistics)
  • — JAXA STARS-Me “mini space elevator” CubeSat tether demo launched; early step toward on-orbit elevator dynamics testing — Nohmi M., “Past Results and Future Missions of STARS Series Satellite” (ISSFD 2019)
  • — NIAC Phase I Final Technical Report: lunar space-elevator infrastructure for cislunar development (foundational feasibility, architecture, and ops concepts) — NIAC Final Report (Pearson et al.)
  • — Obayashi (Japan) floats a 2050 Earth elevator vision contingent on breakthrough tether materials (carbon nanotubes/graphene class) — Wired (2012) (vision; not a funded program)

Recent News — Archive

  • Copernicus Copernicus Sentinel-1D (C-band SAR) declared ready for launch, strengthening Europe’s space-based Earth/space-safety monitoring capacity — ESA
  • ISRO launched LVM3-M5 carrying CMS-03 to GTO; spacecraft separation confirmed — Source
  • CMSA announces selection of Pakistani astronaut for short-duration mission aboard China’s space station — Global Times (also: Reuters)
  • Johns Hopkins University & SpaceNews launch a new public Discovery Series on the space economy and security — JHU Hub
  • ESA media invitation: presence in Tokyo alongside Europe’s Space Summit — policy & cooperation signals for 2026+ — ESA
  • NASA moved to broaden competition for the Artemis III lunar lander amid schedule pressure — source
  • JAXA’s HTV-X1 cargo vehicle launched on H3 en route to the ISS — source
  • SpaceX flew another Starlink batch, pushing its annual cadence past the 2024 record — source
  • Airbus launches SpainSat NG II secure-communications satellite for Spain — Airbus Press Release (also: Euronews)
  • U.S. Executive Order signaled streamlined regulation to accelerate commercial space activity — source
  • Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales sign MoU to merge space activities into a new European satellite company — Airbus Press Release (also: Reuters; The Guardian; Le Monde)
  • United 737 MAX struck by weather balloon at 36 000 ft — cockpit windshield cracked, emergency landing in Salt Lake City; renews calls for unified air-to-orbital collision tracking. The Weather Channel (also: The Independent; NDTV)
  • JWST detects complex organics (COMs) in ice around protostar ST6 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) — University of Maryland (also: ScienceAlert)
  • SpaceX sets new annual launch record; latest Starlink batch deployed — SpaceX Updates (also: Reuters)
  • Starlab, Orbital Reef, and CLD programs announce design-review and funding updates — Starlab Space (also: SpaceNews)
  • In-space manufacturing progress: Varda and partners complete reentry and new contract phase — Varda Space (also: TechCrunch)
  • India’s GalaxEye announced the 160 kg “Drishti” satellite (target Q1 2026) — a multi-sensor EO platform fusing SAR and MSI for single-pass, all-weather imaging — GalaxEye (official) (also: Times of India)
  • Blue Origin flew its 15th New Shepard tourism mission (NS-36), carrying six passengers — source
  • Rocket Lab secured a multi-launch SAR contract with Japan’s iQPS; AST SpaceMobile announced a Verizon deal — source
  • Report from ESPI warns of growing traffic in cislunar space and calls for enhanced tracking & command-control infrastructure — ESPI Report

Older verified items moved here from Recent News.