BREMEN – The European Space Agency’s Human and Robotic Exploration (HRE) program fell short of its budget request at the ministerial, with member nations agreeing to contribute 2.66 billion euros ($3.08 billion), accounting for roughly 70% of the 3.77 billion euro ask. ESA set its overall budget at 22.1 billion euros — a significant increase compared to the €16.9 billion approved in 2022.

A Soyuz spacecraft delivered two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the International Space Station Nov. 27 for an eight-month stay.

LONDON - London-headquartered ACME Space has unveiled plans to begin hardware tests of its balloon-launched orbital manufacturing vehicle Hyperion next year and hopes to commence commercial operations in 2027. The Hyperion Orbital Factory Vehicle (OFV) is designed to carry up to 200 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO), using a hydrogen-filled balloon to overcome the thickest part of the atmosphere. Once in orbit, Hyperion OFV will serve as a microgravity manufacturing facility for biomedical and materials companies.

HELSINKI — Chinese commercial launch firm Landspace is preparing to attempt the country’s first orbital launch and booster landing this weekend with its Zhuque-3 rocket. Airspace closure notices issued under the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) indicate a launch attempt from the vicinity of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center between around 11:00 p.m. Eastern Nov. 28 and 1:00 a.m. Nov. 29 (0400-0600 UTC, or 12:00-2:00 p.m.

ESA and Norway have signed a letter of intent and formed a joint working group to assess the feasibility of a new ESA Arctic Space Centre.

Victoria, Canada / Seoul, South Korea – November 27th, 2025 – Pacific Geomatics Limited (PacGeo), a Canadian satellite imagery distributor, today announced a strategic partnership with SI Analytics (SIA), a leader in AI-driven Earth observation solutions, to expand the global reach of SuperX, a Generative AI-based satellite imagery super-resolution solution built on multi-resolution Foundation Models. The collaboration brings together SIA’s state-of-the-art generative AI technology and PacGeo’s regional distribution and customer network to provide unparalleled imagery enhancement that enables advanced geospatial analysis and image interpretation for governments, defence agencies, and commercial organizations in Canada.

ESA wrapped up the first day of a critical ministerial conference sounding upbeat about progress in securing funding for the next three years, despite a few warning signs.

SmartSky Networks does not plan to seek an injunction to block Gogo’s 5G air-to-ground rollout across the United States, despite prevailing in a patent-infringement lawsuit tied to the technology.

BREMEN, Germany -  As the 23 member states of the European Space Agency meet this week to decide its budget for the next three years, its three major contributors - Germany, France and Italy - are signaling they will heavily support the agency. Yet even as ESA leaders push for unity, officials from those countries have hinted that their backing is driven by sharply different national priorities.

NASA has selected Northrop Grumman to provide cargo delivery services to the International Space Station once a spacecraft designed to deorbit the station is installed.

ESA and its supporters will discover in the next two days how successful they have been in convincing European governments to significantly increase investments in space and bolster European autonomy.

The Space Systems Command issued multiple awards for space-based interceptor (SBI) prototype demonstrations through competitive Other Transaction Agreements

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.