By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Guetlein defends Golden Dome secrecy, House China hearing focuses on U.S. policy shortfalls, SpaceX aiming for record-setting valuation in stock sale and more.
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Top Stories
The general overseeing the Golden Dome pushed back against criticism regarding a lack of details about the missile defense initiative. Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday, Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein said his office has held extensive private engagements with industry, meeting with more than 200 companies. He said he is using those interactions to share information rather than through public forums. Reporting directly to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, Guetlein said he has been granted wide authorities to draw resources from across the military and sees Golden Dome as a test case for closer industry partnerships. He added he hoped to be able to share more details about Golden Dome next year. [SpaceNews]
Castelion, a startup working on hypersonic missiles, has raised $350 million. The company said Friday it raised a Series B round from several venture capital firms, which it will use to scale up production of hypersonic missiles. The company last month unveiled plans for a 1,000-acre campus in New Mexico dedicated to next-generation hypersonic systems, including production and testing of solid motors. The company was founded two and a half years ago by several former SpaceX employees who wanted to pursue a "clean sheet" approach to hypersonic missile development. [SpaceNews]
A hearing about China's space capabilities focused much of its attention on American policy shortfalls. The hearing Thursday by the House Science Committee's space subcommittee looked at China's growing space capabilities, including plans to land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade. Some committee members, though, noted that the ability of the United States to compete with China is hampered by policy changes such as layoffs and proposed budget cuts at NASA. One witness, former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, argued that NASA's current approach to return humans to the moon won't work, citing challenges with SpaceX's Starship, and he called on NASA to dump that architecture. Other witnesses expressed varying degrees of concern that China would land humans on the moon before NASA returns. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX has won approvals from the Department of the Air Force to build a Starship launch complex on Cape Canaveral. The Air Force approved plans to convert Space Launch Complex 37, previously used by the Delta 4, into a Starship launch complex with two pads, handling up to 76 launches per year. That approval came after the completion of an environmental study that found little significant impact from Starship launches and landings other than the noise they would create. The report, though, downplayed any damage that noise would cause, especially outside the boundaries of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. [SpaceNews]
The proposed European Union Space Act could result in hundreds of millions of euros in lost revenue for European and American space companies. A study released last week by the Progressive Policy Institute found that the increased costs companies will face to comply with provisions of the act would result in higher prices and decreased demand, resulting in 245 million euros ($285 million) in reduced annual revenue for European companies. American companies exporting to Europe, who would also be bound by the legislation's provisions, could lose 85 million in annual revenues. The act could also result in as much as 3.4 billion euros in reduced long-term investment in European space companies. The European Commission, which released a draft of the act in June, is working on a revised version after receiving more than 100 comments on the draft. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX is reportedly seeking a record-setting valuation in a new sale of stock while contemplating an IPO. The company is offering shares at a price that would value the company at $800 billion, double its valuation in a recent sale and surpassing OpenAI as the most valuable private company. The secondary sale of stock would not raise money for SpaceX but instead allow shareholders, such as company employees, to sell stock they own. SpaceX's chief financial officer has also told investors that the company is preparing for an IPO late next year. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk denied on social media over the weekend that the company was raising money at a $800 billion valuation, although reports made clear the valuation was tied to a secondary offering. He did not address reports the company was contemplating an IPO. [Wall Street Journal]
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Other News
China conducted two launches less than 24 hours apart. A Kuaizhou-1A rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 4 a.m. Eastern Friday and put into orbit two VHF Data Exchange System satellites. A Long March 8A rocket lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport on the island of Hainan at 2:53 a.m. Eastern Saturday, placing into orbit an unspecified number of satellites for the Guowang broadband constellation. Previous Long March 8A launches for Guowang have each carried nine satellites. [Xinhua]
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites on Sunday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:58 p.m. Eastern and deployed 28 satellites into low Earth orbit. The launch was intended to be the first in a doubleheader that day, but weather postponed another Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites from Florida. [Spaceflight Now]
NASA has extended an agreement with a nonprofit to manage the ISS National Lab, likely for the final time. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) announced last week that NASA extended the cooperative agreement where CASIS manages access to ISS resources designated by law as a national lab through 2030, the scheduled retirement date for the station. CASIS has managed the ISS National Lab for NASA since 2011, flying more than 900 research payloads to the station during that time. More than half have been for companies seeking to explore the potential of using the microgravity environment for applications ranging from biotech to manufacturing. [SpaceNews]
Chinese broadband megaconstellation company Shanghai Spacesail Technologies said it has struck an agreement to incorporate broadband services on Airbus airliners. Spacesail said it signed a "market cooperation agreement" with Airbus to explore incorporating Spacesail's services on Airbus aircraft, but provided few details on schedules or where those services will be offered. Spacesail is developing the Qianfan, or "Thousand Sails," constellation. [Xinhua]
Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) is changing its name to SSC Space. The company announced Monday the name change, which will take effect at the beginning of next year. SSC says the new name "better reflects the company's global presence and business focus," noting that it already operates as SSC Space in several markets. [SSC]
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FROM SPACENEWS |  | Meet the 2025 Icon Award Winners: This year's recipients range from a company that successfully landed on the moon to an agency leader who transformed NASA's relationship with industry, making room for commercial lunar landers in the first place. On Tuesday, Dec. 2 in Washington D.C., we awarded this year's Icon Awards during a program at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center. Learn more about what made this year's class stand out. | | |
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The Week Ahead
Monday: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Rescheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 4:14 p.m. Eastern. Taiyuan, China: Projected launch of a Long March 6A carrying an undisclosed payload at 5:12 p.m. Eastern. Washington: The Senate Commerce Committee holds an executive session to vote on sending to the full Senate several nominations, including that of Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. International Space Station: Scheduled undocking of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft returning three people to Earth at 8:41 p.m. Eastern. The spacecraft will land in Kazakhstan at 12:04 a.m. Eastern Tuesday.
Jiuquan, China: Anticipated launch of a Long March 2D carrying an undisclosed payload at 10:41 p.m. Eastern. Tuesday: Tuesday-Wednesday: Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday: Wednesday-Friday: Thursday: Thursday-Friday: Saturday: Sunday: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Rescheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 8:37 a.m. Eastern. Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 9:43 p.m. Eastern.
Jiuquan, China: Anticipated launch of a Hyperbola-1 rocket carrying an undisclosed payload at 11 p.m. Eastern.
Monday, Dec. 15:
Sriharikota, India: Scheduled launch of a an LVM3 rocket carrying the BlueBird-6 satellite for AST SpaceMobile at 1:10 a.m. Eastern. Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of an Atlas 5 carrying a set of Amazon Leo satellites at 3:35 a.m. Eastern. Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Scheduled launch of a Proton M carrying the Elektro-L 5 weather satellite at 6:52 a.m. Eastern.
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