Week in images: 01-05 December 2025
Friday, 05 December 2025 13:05
Week in images: 01-05 December 2025
Discover our week through the lens
Northrop Grumman continues solid rocket motor development and test program
Friday, 05 December 2025 11:55
Northrop Grumman tested a solid rocket motor Dec.
Orbex trails other European Launcher Challenge companies as U.K. delays funding decision
Friday, 05 December 2025 11:10
Orbex received far less funding than the other four ESA European Launcher Challenge companies after the U.K.
China faces temporary emergency launch gap after space station lifeboat crisis
Friday, 05 December 2025 11:07
China could be without emergency launch capability to Tiangong space station for months, leaving no rapid-response option for any new crisis following the Shenzhou-20 incident.
Mobile networks want to use the satellite airwaves we need to track climate change
Friday, 05 December 2025 11:00
Surprisingly, this space economy isn’t for everyone
Friday, 05 December 2025 11:00
Projections for the booming space economy often come with trillion-dollar headlines, but the lion’s share of near-term revenue looks destined for just a handful of massive constellations with the funds to invest in vertical integration.
The space economy isn’t for everyone
Friday, 05 December 2025 11:00Projections for the booming space economy often come with trillion-dollar headlines, but the lion’s share of near-term revenue looks destined for just a handful of massive constellations with the funds to invest in vertical integration.
Astrobee: AI-guided robot navigates space station corridors with improved speed and safety
Friday, 05 December 2025 09:52?️
Verifying that you are not a bot
Congress warned that the U.S. faces a new space race with China
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
Washington DC (UPI) Dec 4, 2025
The United States has entered a consequential new era of competition with China in space - one that lawmakers said will shape global power, economic security and military advantage for generations.
House Science, Space and Technology Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., posed the issue during a hearing Thursday as a question for the future.
"Will huma
The United States has entered a consequential new era of competition with China in space - one that lawmakers said will shape global power, economic security and military advantage for generations.
House Science, Space and Technology Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., posed the issue during a hearing Thursday as a question for the future.
"Will huma NASA extends ISS National Lab management contract through 2030
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
Washington DC (UPI) Dec 4, 2025
The Center for Advancement of Science in Space will continue to manage the International Space Station National Laboratory for at least another five years, CASIS announced on Thursday.
CASIS has managed the ISS National Lab since 2011, after Congress created it to enable researchers to build a "robust market" in low Earth orbit by leveraging the unique environment that exists in space, CAS
The Center for Advancement of Science in Space will continue to manage the International Space Station National Laboratory for at least another five years, CASIS announced on Thursday.
CASIS has managed the ISS National Lab since 2011, after Congress created it to enable researchers to build a "robust market" in low Earth orbit by leveraging the unique environment that exists in space, CAS UK plasma thruster test positions Pulsar Fusion for larger satellite propulsion
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
London, UK (SPX) Dec 05, 2025
Pulsar Fusion and partners have tested what they describe as the largest space plasma engine yet fired in Britain, designed to provide high-thrust in-space propulsion for heavier satellites. The engine, which the company reports is roughly ten times larger than its previous plasma thrusters, was demonstrated at the University of Southampton on 29 January in a large vacuum chamber to replicate on
Pulsar Fusion and partners have tested what they describe as the largest space plasma engine yet fired in Britain, designed to provide high-thrust in-space propulsion for heavier satellites. The engine, which the company reports is roughly ten times larger than its previous plasma thrusters, was demonstrated at the University of Southampton on 29 January in a large vacuum chamber to replicate on Small satellite mission targets maritime activity monitoring from orbit
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
The OTTER Optical Traffic Tracking Experiment for Responsive Space satellite has entered service in orbit to support maritime monitoring following its launch on 28 November 2025 into an orbit at about 500 kilometres altitude. The nanosatellite has a mass of roughly six kilograms, is comparable in size to a shoebox and deployed its solar panels and instruments after separation from the launcher.
The OTTER Optical Traffic Tracking Experiment for Responsive Space satellite has entered service in orbit to support maritime monitoring following its launch on 28 November 2025 into an orbit at about 500 kilometres altitude. The nanosatellite has a mass of roughly six kilograms, is comparable in size to a shoebox and deployed its solar panels and instruments after separation from the launcher. Gels may have given early Earth chemistry a place to organize into life
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
An international team from Japan, Malaysia, the UK, and Germany has proposed that life on Earth may have emerged within sticky, surface-bound gels that formed before the first cells. The researchers argue that these prebiotic gels, attached to mineral or other surfaces, could have provided both structure and chemical environments that helped early chemistry progress toward biology.
The tea
An international team from Japan, Malaysia, the UK, and Germany has proposed that life on Earth may have emerged within sticky, surface-bound gels that formed before the first cells. The researchers argue that these prebiotic gels, attached to mineral or other surfaces, could have provided both structure and chemical environments that helped early chemistry progress toward biology.
The tea Greece deploys first national ICEYE radar satellites for disaster monitoring
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
Paris, France (SPX) Nov 28, 2025
Two new ICEYE radar satellites have entered service under Greece's National Small Satellite Programme, expanding the country's capacity to track floods, wildfires, landslides and other hazards as well as areas of security interest on land and at sea.
The pair of synthetic aperture radar spacecraft were launched on 28 November 2025 on SpaceX's Transporter-15 rideshare mission from Vandenber
Two new ICEYE radar satellites have entered service under Greece's National Small Satellite Programme, expanding the country's capacity to track floods, wildfires, landslides and other hazards as well as areas of security interest on land and at sea.
The pair of synthetic aperture radar spacecraft were launched on 28 November 2025 on SpaceX's Transporter-15 rideshare mission from Vandenber Italian Earth observation fleet gains eight new IRIDE satellites
Friday, 05 December 2025 08:21
Paris, France (SPX) Nov 28, 2025
Italy's IRIDE Earth observation programme has expanded with the launch of eight Eaglet II satellites, adding a second constellation to the growing national fleet. The spacecraft rode into orbit on a Falcon 9 mission that lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 19:44 CET on 28 November, with deployment completed about an hour after launch and signals from all satellites later
Italy's IRIDE Earth observation programme has expanded with the launch of eight Eaglet II satellites, adding a second constellation to the growing national fleet. The spacecraft rode into orbit on a Falcon 9 mission that lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 19:44 CET on 28 November, with deployment completed about an hour after launch and signals from all satellites later