Space, in brief

Amazon has built its 1,000th internet satellite, at its factory in Kirkland, Washington state, in the US. [1][2]

Its first 27 satellites took six months to build. [1] It now builds 27 a week. [1][2]

Only 396 are in orbit, out of the 3,232 its first network needs. [1][2]

The rockets are the hold-up. Vulcan, a rocket from the US company ULA, was grounded by a fault in its nozzle, which Amazon says is now fixed. [1][2]

Amazon says its next satellites fly on Vulcan within weeks, then on a European Arianespace rocket and one more Vulcan before the year ends. [1]

Amazon says 396 satellites are already enough to start, and it plans to begin selling service in 2026. [1]

Amazon was supposed to have 1,616 satellites up by 30 July. [2] The FCC, the US regulator for airwaves, waived that deadline but made every satellite launched after it give way to Starlink's signals. [2]

Amazon can win that priority back from October 2027 if it shows the satellites are built and the rockets are booked. [2]

Amazon claims download speeds of 1 gigabit a second and uploads of 400 megabits. [1] It puts Starlink at about 350 and 40, its own comparison. [1]

To build this fast, Amazon rewrote decades-old satellite tests using methods from gadget factories, cutting checks that took weeks down to hours. [1][2]

The man in charge, Rajeev Badyal, ran Starlink in its early years until Elon Musk fired him eight years ago for moving too cautiously. [1][2]

Starlink, run by SpaceX, has more than 11,000 satellites, about two-thirds of all working spacecraft in low orbit. [3] It had 12 million customers at the end of June. [5]

Why it matters. Watch the next Vulcan launch, which Amazon says is weeks away and will carry Leo satellites: if it flies, the gap between 1,000 built and 396 in orbit starts to close. [1]

On Tuesday the US Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, proposed five changes to Part 450, the rule the US aviation regulator uses to license commercial rocket launches and returns from orbit. [8] The rule took effect in March 2021 to speed licensing up, but companies complained it did the opposite. [8] It produced 14 licences in five years. [8] One change deletes the single word 'hypothetical', because some applicants read the rule as asking them to guess where people might live in future. [8] Public comments close on 4 November. [8]

Why it matters. The changes are meant to help reach a US government goal of 1,000 commercial launches and returns a year by 2030. [8] By March every older US launch company had moved its licences onto this rule. [8]

SpaceX agreed on Thursday to buy licences for up to 14 megahertz of airwaves in the 800 MHz band from Grain Management, a company that invests in digital networks. [5] SpaceX says these low airwaves will let its Starlink Mobile phone signal reach inside buildings, not only work under open sky. [6] Earlier this week the FCC approved 15,000 SpaceX satellites that connect straight to ordinary phones. [7] The new deal still needs FCC approval. [5]

Why it matters. SpaceX says it will join those satellites with phone masts on the ground and compete with T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. [6] T-Mobile shares fell more than 11% after hours, and AT&T and Verizon about 6.6%. [7]

Astronomers using MeerKAT, 64 radio dishes in South Africa, caught a fast radio burst in March 2024 that left its galaxy about 10 billion years ago. [10][12] A fast radio burst is a flash of radio waves lasting a few thousandths of a second, and nobody knows for sure what makes them. [12][11] The James Webb Space Telescope then found the faint, small galaxy it came from, which was making stars quickly. [11][12] It is about twice as far back as the old record, the team reported in Science on Thursday. [12][10]

Why it matters. Radio waves slow slightly as they pass through the thin gas between galaxies, so each burst measures matter no telescope can see. [10] The team has Webb time once a year for three years to chase more of them. [10]

Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway of NASA, Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia splashed down in the Pacific off California on Thursday. [13][14] They flew up in February to replace a crew sent home early after NASA's Mike Fincke fell ill, NASA's first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight. [13] Their own replacements arrived three weeks late because their capsule needed repairs. [14] Adenot, from France, spent more than 230 days in space, the longest flight by any European astronaut. [15]

Why it matters. The old European record was 201 days, set by Italy's Luca Parmitano in 2019 and 2020. [15] Seven astronauts from the US, Russia and Canada stay on the station, and SpaceX's next cargo flight to it is set for 13 October. [13][16]

American Airlines will put Starlink Wi-Fi on its whole main fleet, more than 1,030 planes, starting next year. [4] In May its deal with SpaceX covered only 500 planes. [4] United already flies Starlink on 724 planes, about 41% of its fleet, and Starlink now works with 48 airlines. [4] Delta chose Amazon's network earlier this year, but that service will not start on Delta's planes until 2028. [4]

Why it matters. Airlines are one of the business customers Amazon says Leo was built for. [1] American's more than 165 million passengers a year will be on Starlink instead. [4]

China will grow its space station from a T shape to a cross by adding one more module, Yang Liwei, a deputy head of China's crewed space agency, said this week. [17] He spoke at the International Astronautical Congress in Antalya, Turkey, and gave few dates. [17] China also plans to fly a space telescope with a 2-metre mirror beside the station. [17] For its first crewed Moon landing, due by 2030, it has finished landing trials of its Lanyue lander and test firings of its Long March 10 rocket. [17]

Why it matters. A Chinese Moon landing needs a crew ship, a lander and a big rocket to work together, and China says it has now tested parts of all three. [17] It is also adapting reusable rockets to cut the cost of flying crews. [17]

NASA asked Axiom Space, the US company building its next Moon spacesuits, to study a 'sortie suit'. [18] That is a slightly stripped-down version that could be ready while work on the full suit goes on. [18] It is meant for the Artemis IV and V Moon missions. [18] Axiom's chief executive, Jonathan Cirtain, said NASA is deciding now. [18] Axiom will hand NASA a test suit before the year ends, and a suit for a spacewalk at the space station next year. [18]

Why it matters. Cirtain says the full suit contract needed 30,000 documents covering 4,000 risks before its design review. [19] Now that NASA has set what Artemis IV needs, the suit can be cut to fit that mission, he said. [18]

NASA has delayed its call for companies to build a private successor to the International Space Station. [19] It says it needed time to work through the many comments on a draft it published in July. [19] Blue Origin, Vast, Voyager Technologies and Axiom Space are expected to bid, and NASA plans to pick two and then one, 14 to 15 months later. [19] Axiom's chief called the draft overly prescriptive, saying it will slow the contest without reducing risk. [19]

Why it matters. Builders also worry about rides for crews once SpaceX stops flying its Dragon capsule. [19] Blue Origin said it will not pay to build a crew ship on its own, and that crew and cargo flights make up two-thirds of what a station costs once it is built. [19]

NASA's head, Jared Isaacman, and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed an agreement to work together on nuclear reactors for space, NASA announced on Thursday. [20] It covers research, fuel, testing and launch, but its full text does not appear to have been published. [20] NASA wants a reactor for a Moon base, Lunar Reactor-1, ready to launch by 2030. [20] Before that, Space Reactor-1 is to power a craft called Freedom, due to leave for Mars in December 2028. [20]

Why it matters. That reactor would make more than 20 kilowatts to drive Freedom's electric engines and deliver three small helicopters to Mars. [20] NASA has shown little public evidence that either date is on track. [20]

India's telecoms ministry said on Thursday that its process for approving satellite internet is fair, hours after Elon Musk accused unnamed 'oligarchs' of blocking Starlink. [21] Starlink and the satellite ventures of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, the two companies that dominate India's phone market, have early approval. [21] All three still wait for airwaves and final clearance. [21] India's ministry said the three are at about the same stage, with security checks under way for each. [21] Starlink has waited four years. [21]

Why it matters. The consulting firm Deloitte expects India's satellite internet market to be worth $1.9 billion by 2030. [21] The US government has pushed for Starlink's access in trade talks with India, and the two have not yet agreed a trade deal. [21]

Donald Trump's August financial filing shows his accounts bought between $1 million and $5 million of SpaceX bonds on 18 August, CNBC reports. [9] A bond is a loan to a company, and these pay 5.35% a year until 2031. [9] Two days later he signed a policy calling for more than 1,000 US launches and returns a year by 2030. [9] Trump's spokesman, Davis Ingle, said Trump does not direct the trades and his money is managed independently. [9]

Why it matters. CNBC notes that SpaceX is a major launch company for NASA and the US military, so a policy that wants more launches helps it. [9] The licence changes proposed this week are the first step toward that same 1,000-a-year goal. [8]

SpaceX now aims to launch 21 data-relay satellites for the US Space Development Agency no earlier than Saturday, 10 October. [22] A Falcon 9 stopped in the final minute of its count on 5 October, and SpaceX gave no reason. [22] The satellites were built by Northrop Grumman, a large US defence company. [22] Three earlier launches put 63 satellites of this first batch, called Tranche 1, in orbit. [22]

Why it matters. The network is meant to pass missile warnings and secure messages between US and allied forces, and the batch is due to start working in 2027. [22]

Fortastra, a Californian start-up building spacecraft to protect US satellites, said on Thursday it has raised $30 million. [23] Founded in 2025, it has flown two test satellites, one on a SpaceX shared launch this month. [23] Its next, much closer to a finished design, could launch in early 2028. [23] It plans one craft a year at first, and says it may one day build hundreds a year. [23]

Why it matters. Fortastra expects investors to grow more willing now that the US Air Force's top civilian, Troy Meink, said last month that the US runs weapons in space. [23] Fortastra says it wants to give troops ways to deal with a hostile satellite that do not threaten everyone else's. [23]

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to study 21 young star systems full of warm dust, the kind left when large rocky bodies smash together. [24] Only about 1% of young stars show it. [24] In eight systems the dust is rich in silica, a sign of violent crashes between Mars-sized bodies. [24] Those eight sit only around stars younger than 300 million years, the team reported on Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal. [24]

Why it matters. Earth's Moon is thought to have formed in such a crash about 4.5 billion years ago. [24] These systems show what our own solar system may have looked like while Earth was forming. [24]