Isar Aerospace reaches orbit from continental Europe
The 28 m, two-stage Spectrum carried six CubeSats and an experiment to test technologies in orbit.
Reusable rockets, Earth observation, constellations: orbit is becoming infrastructure.
Orbit is becoming infrastructure: reusable launchers driving down the cost per kilogram, constellations that connect and observe, Earth observation feeding agriculture, weather forecasting and climate monitoring. The section follows flights, commissionings and order books — SpaceX of course, but also the Chinese, Indian, Japanese and European launchers the general press skims over.
The angle stays the journal’s: what changes concretely, quantified and sourced. A launch is not a feat but a price per kilogram; a constellation is not a project but a number of active satellites and a service rendered. We distinguish the test flight from the commercial cadence, and the announcement from the signed contract.
The 28 m, two-stage Spectrum carried six CubeSats and an experiment to test technologies in orbit.
The European-Japanese spacecraft is due to enter Mercury orbit on November 21.
EOS-05 is India’s first dedicated imaging satellite intended for the geosynchronous platform.
The storm is an atmospheric wave in the jet stream, not simply a cloud formation.
The ESA probe MPO and JAXA’s Mio will remain connected until December as they approach Mercury together.
LX/V-CLASS adapts York’s existing S-CLASS and LX-CLASS lines for the drag-heavy orbit.
The two fairing halves open during flight and stay attached to Neutron’s first stage.
Ground-based observers first spotted hints in 2024; Hubble traced the feature back to 2023.
The SpEED Demon mission released four probes from one rocket, creating a five-point snapshot of the same layer.
The object is the size of a large star but produces energy comparable to an active black hole.
Zhishenxing-1 is now in flight verification after its first launch from Jiuquan.
The observatory is traveling to Sun-Earth L2, where it will prepare for science operations.
Hardware for Artemis III, IV, V and possible VI missions is moving through production at the same time.
Infleqtion will build hardware for NASA’s Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder, a technology-demonstration mission.
The Seattle startup uses accelerated helium plasma to reproduce solar-wind damage in ilmenite.
Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot installed a replacement Space-to-Ground antenna after a difficult first attempt.
NASA Langley is firing simulated rocket plumes into lunar soil to track debris during landings.
Serendipity flight-tested a satellite carrying its autonomous Alchemy pharmaceutical factory.