WARSAW, Poland — The European Space Agency and Lithuanian space startup Astrolight are building the first optical ground station (OGS) in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland as a way to bolster ground communications and to help protect against signal interference or piracy. Based on laser technology, the station is to provide greater space-to-ground connectivity than radio frequency (RF), enhance disaster detection and rescue and support critical infrastructure management.

Irvine, Calif., November 25, 2025 — Terran Orbital Corporation is pleased to announce that Cheryl Paquete has joined the company full-time as Chief Financial Officer, transitioning from her previous temporary role into a permanent leadership position. Cheryl brings nearly 20 years of leadership in finance and business operations at Lockheed Martin Space, where she most recently led high-value portfolios across Deep Space Exploration, Commercial Satellites, Weather & Earth Science, and advanced development programs.

The rise of peer adversaries and new offensive weapons is changing communications requirements from military command headquarters to the warfighting edge. That brings an increased need for secure, reliable networking capacity to meet real-time response demands of modern battlefield situations. Rapid communications will also be integral to achieving the vision of the Golden Dome multi-layer defense system proposed by the current administration.

Earth observation company BlackSky was the confidential customer for the latest Rocket Lab launch, placing into orbit a satellite that has already returned its first images.

China’s uncrewed Shenzhou-22 spacecraft has arrived at the Tiangong space station, reestablishing a lifeboat for the crew and ending the orbital outpost’s first operational emergency.

An order for Oman’s first geostationary communications satellite has lifted the global tally for this year to six, matching all of 2024 with a month still to go but still well below the industry’s former double-digit annual pace.

NASA has revised its commercial crew contract with Boeing, reducing the number of Starliner missions to four, the first of which will carry only cargo.

Amazon has unveiled the final production version of Leo Ultra, the company’s highest-performing enterprise terminal for the satellite broadband constellation it aims to bring into service next year.

Star Wars is back in vogue with President Trump's executive order to establish the “Golden Dome” missile defense shield. It will feature an ambitious space-based boost-phase interceptor program in addition to terrestrial systems. While admittedly the holy grail of defense against ballistic missiles, the obstacles that plagued its discontinued predecessor, “Brilliant Pebble,” under the Strategic Defense Initiative, remain unaddressed. The technological breakthroughs in launch capacity, decreasing costs of sending mass into space and faster data transfer have led to renewed hope for space-based missile defense, but the fundamental hurdle — physics, not technology — remains to be effectively overcome.

China conducted a pair of launches last week, adding new spacecraft to its opaque TJS and Shijian satellite series.

In this episode of Space Minds, Senior Staff Writer Jeff Foust moderates a panel at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, the next installment of the Center’s Discovery Series.

Col. Brian Chatman: The volume is here to stay. The next step is making sure the infrastructure can keep up

A new German military space policy outlines the ambitions the country has fueled by tens of billions of euros of new spending over the next several years.

A member of the European Parliament said there is widespread support there for the proposed European Union Space Act, while acknowledging that the draft released this summer can be refined.

The first booster in the new generation of Starship vehicles suffered significant damage during a Nov. 21 test, adding to doubts about the vehicle’s development schedule.

The company is pitching Blue Ring as a workhorse for military missions that demand aggressive maneuvering in orbit

Europe must move quickly to craft a large-scale strategy for space-based data centers or risk ceding a potential pillar of future digital infrastructure to global competitors, according to the European Space Policy Institute.

WARSAW, Poland — Finnish SAR constellation operator Iceye and Japan’s aerospace and defense company IHI Corporation recently signed a deal to develop an Earth observation satellite constellation for security, civilian and commercial use. Under the latest deal, IHI Corporation ordered four satellites and an associated image acquisition system from Iceye, with the option to purchase 20 additional satellites at a later stage.

MILAN — The European Space Agency has tapped a consortium led by Thales Alenia Space Italy to develop its Argonaut lunar lander and has outlined a division of labor for the program across several European firms.

Starlab Space has secured funding from an investment group as development of its proposed commercial space station reaches a critical phase.

A week after successfully launching and landing the current version of New Glenn, Blue Origin announced a series of upgrades to the vehicle.

Rocket Lab launched a payload for an undisclosed commercial customer Nov. 20, just hours after the company announced plans for the launch.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman says work on the service's "objective force" analysis is nearly complete, publication likely in 2026

The deal strengthens domestic access to energetics and propellants at a time of rising demand for munitions

Humanity is losing the genetic diversity that sustains life on Earth at a pace that should alarm every nation. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, about 75% of the world’s crop varieties have disappeared in the last century. According to Marie Haga, former Executive Director of the Global Crop Trust, it’s closer to 80%. In the United States alone, more than 17,000 named varieties of apples once existed; today only about 5,000 remain.