By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: China's space rescue gap, satellite companies get a small fraction of rural broadband subsidies, space industry growth is not evenly distributed and more.
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Top Stories
Sending a replacement Shenzhou spacecraft to the Tiangong space station has created a gap in Chinese rescue capabilities that could last for months. China launched the uncrewed Shenzhou-22 spacecraft to Tiangong last week to replace Shenzhou-20, which has a crack in a window caused by a micrometeoroid or orbital debris impact. China's human spaceflight agency, CMSEO, operates a "one launch, one on standby" protocol that keeps a spare Shenzhou spacecraft and Long March 2F rocket on standby for emergencies. With that spare used for Shenzhou-22, China faces a gap in emergency capabilities until Shenzhou-23 can be delivered and readied at the Jiuquan launch site. China is accelerating completion of the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, now expected to be delivered to Jiuquan in January, although it will still then need to be integrated with the rocket. [SpaceNews]
Amazon Leo and SpaceX's Starlink will get on a small fraction of rural broadband subsidies. The two companies stand to get about 4% of the nearly $20 billion that states have proposed for rural broadband buildouts through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Fiber players such as Comcast and AT&T won 86% of funding across all the states in the program. SpaceX has previously sent letters to protest state decisions that sidelined satellites in favor of terrestrial technologies, after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said in June it would apply a technology-neutral approach for the $42.5 billion Biden-era program that previously favored fiber. [SpaceNews]
Small launch vehicle developer Orbex got far less funding than the other four companies in the European Launcher Challenge. The European Space Agency announced last week that member states agreed to provide more than 900 million euros ($1.05 billion) to the five companies in the program, designed to provide launch contracts and vehicle development funding for new entrants. Financial data released earlier this week by ESA, though, showed members agreed to provide just under 35 million euros to Orbex, while the other four received between 169 million and 205 million euros each. The United Kingdom, where Orbex is headquartered, decided not to immediately allocate 112 million of its 144 million euro subscription to the program. The U.K. Space Agency said this week that it is working with multiple partners and will allocate the funds "in due course." [SpaceNews]
Trusted Space, a government contractor focused on mission engineering and analysis tools for satellite operations, has raised funding from Washington Harbour Partners. The investment firm said Thursday it made a strategic investment of undisclosed size into Trusted Space, part of a new cohort of mission-software engineering firms applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to applications ranging from battle management to space domain awareness, space exploration and mission data processing. Washington Harbour focuses on technology companies serving government and national-security markets, and has recently invested in space startups Turion Space and Quindar. [SpaceNews]
While the overall space industry is growing, that growth is not evenly distributed. Manufacturing satellites represents a $316 billion revenue opportunity over the next decade, research by Analysys Mason has concluded, including $179 billion for communications satellites. However, for communications satellites, roughly $153 billion is already earmarked for Starlink, Amazon Leo, and China's Qianfan and Guowang constellations, leaving $26 billion open for competition. Similarly, launch is dominated by SpaceX, while efforts by major companies to vertically integrate rocket and spacecraft development limit opportunities for many suppliers. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:42 p.m. Eastern and placed 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the fourth Falcon 9 mission in as many days, all carrying Starlink satellites. [Space.com]
NASA quietly delayed a countdown rehearsal for the Artemis 2 mission after discovering a "blemish" on the Orion spacecraft. The four astronauts assigned to the mission were scheduled to conduct the Countdown Demonstration Test on Nov. 19, but mission commander Reid Weisman said in a social media video several days later that the test was postponed to some time in December. NASA, which had previously not announced that the test was delayed, said it postponed the rehearsal after "a blemish was found on the crew module thermal barrier, preventing hatch closure." The agency did not disclose additional details about the issue but said the Artemis 2 launch is still planned for no later than April. [Spaceflight Now]
Northrop Grumman tested a solid rocket motor as part of a company effort to demonstrate new technologies. The 22-inch Solid Motor Adaptable, Scalable, Half Time/Cost, or SMASH!22, motor, completed a static-fire test at a company facility in Utah on Thursday. The motor tested new manufacturing technologies and approaches as part of the company's Solid Motor Annual Rocket Technology Demonstrator, or SMART Demo, program. That program develops and tests solid rocket motors annually to support work on missile and space systems. [SpaceNews]
NASA has completed assembly of its next large space telescope. The agency said Thursday that workers recently joined the inner and outer portions of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in a clean room at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The telescope is now ready for final testing before a launch planned for as soon as the fall of 2026. Roman features a wide-field camera to support studies of dark matter and dark energy, as well as a coronagraph instrument to block light from individual stars to observe exoplanets orbiting them. [NASA]
The latest LEGO space-themed set features a Space Launch System rocket that will lift off. The NASA Artemis Space Launch System Rocket set, part of its Technic lines, includes gears that, when turned by a hand crank, will cause the SLS to rise. Its two solid rocket boosters will also separate, as will the Orion spacecraft on top. The set goes on sale in January for $59.99. [collectSPACE]
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FROM SPACENEWS |  | Ever wanted to pick the brains of the reporters who power SpaceNews? Join us today at 12 PM ET for your chance to engage with our newsroom team during a subscriber-only live conversation. Chief content and strategy officer Mike Gruss will lead a discussion with reporters Jeff Foust, Sandra Erwin, Jason Rainbow and Debra Werner on their latest coverage and what's on the horizon as we look ahead to 2026. Subscribe now and submit your questions. | | |
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| A Fashionable Industry
| "Today, the fashion industry still dwarfs the space industry. Now, forgive the comparison, but I couldn't think of anything sexier. They're still bigger than us. But, if you look to the future, in the 2050s, the space industry is going to produce more economic activity."
| – George Pullen, chief economist of MilkyWayEconomy, speaking at Italian Space Day in Washington Thursday.
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