Space · Wednesday, 28 October 2026

01 Briefing what happened

A US military spy agency says China may put laser weapons in orbit by the late 2020s, and shows its secret spaceplane

The Defense Intelligence Agency's report on threats in space lists China's ground lasers, its refuelling and grabbing tools, and a robot spaceplane that has been catching small satellites, while Europe's answers are still on paper.

missions flown by China's robot spaceplane since 2020

the longest lasted about nine months, and the fourth has been up since February [1]

36,000 km

up, where China refuelled a satellite last year

the DIA says no other country has refuelled one above low orbit [1]

2.5 years

the longest flight of the US X-37B, the spaceplane China's looks like

the US Space Force flies two X-37Bs in turn [1]

The lead story — what happened

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the US military's own spy agency, published an open report on threats to the United States in space on Monday, 26 October. [1]
It says China already has several lasers on the ground that can disrupt, weaken or damage satellites in low orbit. [1] Low orbit is the band of space below about 2,000 km. [2]
By the late 2020s, the DIA says, China may put directed-energy weapons, beams such as lasers, in space itself. [1] It may also build stronger ones on the ground that can reach satellites much higher up. [1]
The DIA says China's military likely sees these beams as ideal weapons against satellites, because they can switch one off for a while or for good. [1] One use is to dazzle a satellite's camera so it cannot see. [1]
The report also carries the first sharp public picture of China's robot spaceplane. [1] A US-owned imaging satellite, run by the company then called Maxar and now called Vantor, took it in 2024; the DIA did not say when or from how far. [1]
The spaceplane looks much like the X-37B, a small robot shuttle flown by the US Space Force, with wings, cargo doors and a dark heat shield. [1] China has flown four missions since 2020, the longest about nine months, and the fourth has been up since February. [1]
Tracking data studied by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer who keeps a public record of spaceflights, show the spaceplane let a small satellite go in June and caught it again in July. [1] It did the same again in August and September. [1]
The DIA also lists a Chinese robotic arm that could pull a spacecraft out of orbit, and TJS, a growing fleet of Chinese satellites that routinely move close to foreign ones. [1] China refuelled a satellite last year about 36,000 km up, which no other country has done above low orbit. [1]
On Russia, US intelligence officials say it wants to put a nuclear weapon in space. [1] Its Nivelir system is designed to fire objects from one satellite into another, and Russia's military simulated an attack with it in 2020. [1]
Earlier this month a Russian satellite came within tens of metres of a radar satellite owned by ICEYE, a Finnish company whose pictures help Ukraine, US officials said. [1][2]
The United States has such tools too. [1] Its Space Force flies inspector satellites high above Earth, and last month the Air Force Secretary, Troy Meink, said the US Defense Department has weapons in space, the first country to say so. [1]

China's spaceplane, longest flight9 months

US X-37B, longest flight30 months

The longest flight of each robot spaceplane, in months. The US craft has stayed up about three times as long as China's longest so far.

Who is involved

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

the US military's spy agency; it published the report on threats in space
China's military

China's armed forces; they run the robot spaceplane, the TJS satellites and the ground lasers the report describes
Russia

its satellite came within tens of metres of ICEYE's this month; US officials say it wants a nuclear weapon in space
Vantor

a US satellite-picture company, called Maxar in 2024; its satellite photographed the Chinese spaceplane
Jonathan McDowell

an astronomer who logs every spaceflight; his tracking showed the spaceplane catching a small satellite

How it unfolded

2020 China flies its first spaceplane mission; Russia simulates an attack with Nivelir [1]
2024 a Maxar satellite photographs the Chinese spaceplane [1]
Feb 2026 China's fourth spaceplane mission launches [1]
Jun-Sep the spaceplane lets a small satellite go and catches it, twice [1]
Oct a Russian satellite comes within tens of metres of ICEYE's [1]
26 Oct the DIA publishes its report and the spaceplane picture [1]

Where this points

The next marker is the landing of China's fourth spaceplane, in orbit since February, which will show whether its flights are growing past the nine months of the longest so far. [1]

Signals on this beat

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing, and the arrow is where it is heading.

Satellites moving close to others High↑

China's TJS satellites routinely move close to foreign ones, the DIA says. [1] A Russian satellite got within tens of metres of an ICEYE radar satellite this month. [1] Astroscale, a Japanese space clean-up company, now offers guard craft to keep such visitors away. [2]

Europe paying for its own space defence Building↑

The European Defence Fund, the EU's money for joint defence research, put about 4.5 million euros into a study of craft that can grab hostile satellites. [3] A Ukrainian and a Danish company are testing a satellite for a network Ukraine would control itself. [5] Astroscale says one guard craft would cost about 1% of the satellites it protects. [2]

Cheaper parts for small satellites Building↑

MP Space, an Australian start-up, says its satellite batteries cost a fifth to a third less than most others. [7] Its batteries first flew last week, on a shared SpaceX launch. [7] Ukraine's test satellite and the UAE's first home-built commercial satellite both rode SpaceX's Transporter-18 shared launch. [5][10]

Crewed flights waiting for 2027 Steady→

Virgin Galactic, a US space-tourism company, now plans its first paid flight on its new spaceplane early in the April-to-June quarter of 2027. [6] Vast, a US company, plans to launch Haven-1, its first private space station, in early 2027. [10]

The rest of the day

9 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
A possible sixth dwarf planet beyond Pluto

Astronomers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a new telescope that photographs the whole southern sky, announced a likely dwarf planet on Tuesday, called 2026 ED138. [4] A search program by Matthew Holman and Kevin Napier of the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics found it among billions of Rubin measurements. [4] It is about 46 times as far from the Sun as Earth, beyond Pluto at about 40. [4] It is 600 to 1,500 km across, and older pictures going back to 2016 helped trace its path. [4]

Pluto40 x
2026 ED13846 x
Distance from the Sun, counted in Earth-Sun distances. The new object sits a little beyond Pluto.

Why it matters — Only five dwarf planets are recognised now: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. [4] To join them it must be shown to be round, which needs more observations, and it stayed hidden because it sits in a patch of sky crowded with stars. [4]
03
A space-junk firm offers bodyguard satellites

Astroscale, a Japanese company that builds craft to catch space junk, says the same tools could guard important satellites from attack. [2] Alex Godfrey, its head of defence, told Space.com a guard craft could be ready to launch in under three years. [2] He said one would cost about 1% of the value of a fleet like Skynet, the UK's 8.4 billion pound military communications satellites. [2] He wants European countries to share a patrol, each guarding allies' satellites near its own. [2]

Why it matters — Astroscale has signed no contract for it yet, and the UK government promises money for this kind of work only from 2030. [2] The pitch follows the Russian satellite's close pass at ICEYE's in the lead story. [2]
04
The EU funds a study of satellite-grabbing craft

The European Defence Fund chose OSMOS X, a French start-up, to lead a study of how to answer threats in orbit. [3] The study runs 30 months, is worth about 4.5 million euros, and joins seven groups, including ones from France, Germany, Poland and Italy. [3] The goal is a craft that can approach a hostile satellite, grab it and weld on a jammer or an engine, without making debris. [3] It ends with a design on paper; nothing flies under it. [3]

Why it matters — OSMOS X has not flown anything yet, and its first test flight is due before the end of next year. [3] Its chief says four such craft could reach any spot on the high ring of satellites over the equator within two days. [3]
05
Ukraine tests a satellite of its own

Himera, a Ukrainian maker of military radios, and GomSpace, a Danish satellite builder, said on 27 October that their Obria Nano satellite is working in orbit and being tested. [5] It launched on 1 October on SpaceX's Transporter-18 shared ride. [5] The pair plan a network of satellites giving Ukraine communications under its own control. [5] Five days earlier ICEYE and Nokia signed a letter with Ukraine's defence ministry to explore a national satellite internet network. [5]

Why it matters — Ukraine's forces lost drone links this month when Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet, and Starshield, its military version, were limited. [5] Neither European project is expected to replace Starlink, and Himera and GomSpace gave no size, cost or satellite count. [5]
06
Virgin Galactic's new spaceplane moves to New Mexico

Virgin Galactic, a US space-tourism company, planned to fly D1, the first of its new Delta spaceplanes, from its factory in Arizona to Spaceport America in New Mexico on 28 October. [6] D1 rides under Eve, a four-engine carrier plane that releases the spaceplane at about 45,000 feet, or 13.7 km. [6] Flight tests start later this year. [6] The company now aims to begin paid flights with D1 early in the April-to-June quarter of 2027. [6]

Why it matters — A second spaceplane should start paid flights around the middle of 2027. [6] The company says its new timetable leaves extra time to test the spaceplanes' flight software. [6]
07
Cheaper satellite batteries raise 16 million dollars

MP Space, an Australian start-up set up in 2024 by two former Tesla engineers, raised 23 million Australian dollars, about 16.1 million US dollars. [7] Its batteries flew for the first time last week on SpaceX's Bandwagon-5 shared launch, and it says it has orders for more than 500 spacecraft. [7] It says they cost a fifth to a third less than most others. [7] It plans to make about 5,000 parts a year by the end of next year. [7]

Why it matters — Satellite makers now mostly choose between slow, costly suppliers and building their own power systems, the company says. [7] It also wants to make power parts about ten times bigger for the larger satellites that Starship, SpaceX's giant new rocket, would carry. [7]
08
Crashing stars may have made early black holes

A new study in The Astrophysical Journal, led by Claire Williams of UCLA, suggests crashes between stars could explain why giant black holes appear so early. [8] The James Webb Space Telescope has found some only 400 to 500 million years after the Big Bang, sooner than theory expects. [8] In the team's computer runs of crowded young star clusters, stars merged again and again into one huge star. [8] Such a star may collapse into a big black hole when it dies. [8]

Why it matters — The study also links the crashes to Little Red Dots, small, red objects Webb sees in the early universe that may be black holes hidden in gas. [8] It is one proposed answer, and no explanation is widely agreed yet. [8]
09
Two rings of wreckage round a dead star

Astronomers led by Nicola Gentile Fusillo of the University of Trieste found two separate rings of gas around WD J1328-1450, a white dwarf. [9] A white dwarf is the small, dense core left when a star like the Sun dies. [9] The rings are split by a gap and spin at different speeds. [9] They are probably shaped by two bodies, one a few kilometres wide and one perhaps the size of Pluto or the Moon. [9]

Why it matters — The inner body must be very strong inside, or the dead star's pull would tear it apart. [9] One of the team says the system is a glimpse of what planets like ours may look like after their star dies. [9]
10
Sunita Williams says recovery took two years

Sunita Williams, a US astronaut, spent 286 days on the International Space Station after Boeing's Starliner capsule had technical failures on what was meant to be an eight-day test flight in 2024. [10] Speaking in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, she said recovering from that trip took almost two years. [10] After an earlier mission it took one. [10] She now advises Vast, a US company that plans to launch Haven-1, a private space station, in early 2027. [10]

After an earlier mission1 year
After the 286-day stay2 years
How long Sunita Williams says her body took to recover. She said almost two years, drawn here as two.

Why it matters — She said she was about ten years older than on her previous flight, and getting used to gravity again was tough. [10] The space station is due to close in 2030 or 2031, and companies like Vast want to replace it. [10]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a world pulls itself round only once it is big enough

Gravity squeezes every body toward its centre, and only past a certain size does that squeeze beat the strength of its rock or gas.

The twist

Rock gets no stronger as a body grows, but the weight pressing on its centre keeps rising, so size alone decides when the rock bends and the world turns round.

The picture

Body by a dead stara few km

2026 ED138600-1,500 km

The small body holds together only by the strength of its own rock. The big one may be heavy enough for its own gravity to have pulled it round, which astronomers must now check.

How it works

Gravity pulls every part of a body toward its centre
More mass means a harder squeeze on the middle
The material pushes back: rock with its stiffness, a star with its hot gas
In a small body the material wins, so it stays lumpy
In a big one gravity wins: rock slumps into a ball, and a giant star falls in on itself

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

A possible sixth dwarf planet beyond Pluto

Astronomers know 2026 ED138 is 600 to 1,500 km wide, but must still check whether its own gravity has pulled it round, which is the test for a dwarf planet.
Crashing stars may have made early black holes

Stars that merge again and again build one star so heavy that, when it dies, its gas can no longer hold it up and it collapses into a black hole.
Two rings of wreckage round a dead star

The few-kilometre body inside the rings survives only because its rock is strong, since the dead star's pull would tear apart anything weaker.

Where you've seen this

Mountains

Gravity limits how tall a mountain can grow before the rock at its base gives way, and weaker gravity is one reason Mars has a volcano far taller than any mountain on Earth.

Animals

An elephant needs much thicker legs for its size than a mouse, because an animal's weight grows faster than the strength of its legs.

Water drops

A small drop stays round because its surface holds it together, while a big spill spreads flat under its own weight.

The catch

No single size marks the line for every world: ice gives way sooner than rock, and a fast spin can stretch a world until it looks like an egg.

And the whole of it

Earth crossed this line long ago, and every bridge, bone and mountain on it is built for the pull that made it round. From here, 2026 ED138 is a faint moving dot, so learning its shape needs more looking from very far away.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

On 26 October the US military's spy agency published what it says China is building to attack satellites, with a sharp photo of China's secret spaceplane. [1] In the same days Astroscale, a Japanese company with a large UK arm, and OSMOS X, a French start-up, offered guard and grabbing craft against hostile satellites. [2][3] Neither has flown one: Astroscale says it needs under three years, and the EU-funded OSMOS X study ends in a design on paper. [2][3]

Why it works on us — A clear photo of a secret machine feels like proof of a new threat, though the DIA's report reveals little new about what the spaceplane actually does. [1]

Who gains

Astroscale, a Japanese space clean-up company — It can sell tools built to catch space junk as guards for military satellites, at about 1% of the value of the fleet guarded. [2]
OSMOS X, a French start-up — It gets about 4.5 million euros of EU defence money to lead a study before it has flown anything. [3]
Vantor, a US satellite-picture company — The published photo shows its satellites can picture other spacecraft, and it already sells pictures to the US military. [1]
GomSpace, a Danish satellite maker — It built the test satellite for a network Ukraine wants under its own control, so that it depends less on outside providers such as SpaceX. [5]
MP Space and its investors — Satellite makers that want cheaper batteries have already ordered for more than 500 spacecraft. [7]

Who pays

ICEYE, a Finnish radar-satellite company — Its satellite, which supplies pictures to Ukraine, was approached by a Russian satellite and is still being watched by it. [1][2]
Ukraine's armed forces — They still depend on SpaceX's network, and their own is at the testing stage with no size or date. [5]
European taxpayers — EU and UK money is going into studies and future funding for craft that do not exist yet. [2][3]
Virgin Galactic's waiting customers — Paid flights on the new spaceplane are now planned for 2027, after more software testing. [6]
Sunita Williams — A test flight meant to last eight days kept her in space for 286 days, and her recovery took almost two years. [10]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

What China's spaceplane does in orbit, and whether China has more than one.

The DIA report reveals little new about its work, and it is not publicly known how many China has. [1]
02

Whether China will really put laser-type weapons in space by the late 2020s.

The DIA says China 'may' do it, and gives no power levels for the ground lasers it says China already has. [1]
03

How close the Russian satellite came to ICEYE's, and why.

US officials told Ars Technica it came within tens of metres, Payload says within 50 m, and Space.com says it now lingers about 480 km away. [1][3][2] Payload says it is not clear what it was doing. [3]
04

Who would pay for Europe's guard satellites, and when.

Astroscale has signed no contract, and the UK government promises money for this kind of work only from 2030. [2] The EU study ends in a design, not a craft. [3]
05

How big Ukraine's own satellite network would be.

Himera and GomSpace did not give the satellite's specifications, the money behind the project or how many satellites they plan. [5]
06

Whether 2026 ED138 is round enough to be a dwarf planet.

Its width is known only as 600 to 1,500 km, and more observations are needed to tell whether its gravity has pulled it round. [4]
07

Whether Virgin Galactic keeps its new 2027 dates.

The company moved its timetable to leave more time for testing flight software, and D1 has not yet started flight tests. [6]
08

How giant black holes grew so early.

Crashing stars are one proposed answer, but there is no widely agreed explanation yet. [8]
09

What the two bodies around the dead star WD J1328-1450 are.

Nobody has seen them; their sizes are worked out from the shape of the gas rings they are thought to carve. [9]

04 Hope carry this

The Rubin Observatory found a world 600 to 1,500 km wide beyond Pluto that had hidden for years in a crowded patch of stars. Rubin will photograph the whole southern sky again and again for ten years.

Also true today

MP Space's first satellite batteries flew last week, and the young Australian company already has orders for more than 500 spacecraft.
Sunita Williams spent 286 days on the space station when her eight-day test flight went wrong. Almost two years later, she says she is finally getting back up to speed.