Space, in brief

The US Space Force has given SpaceX special access to the most detailed version of its list of objects in orbit, The Guardian reported on Sunday. [1]

It is the first time a company has been given this level of access to the list. [1]

The list is built from military radars and telescopes on the ground, and it follows objects in low orbit down to about 10 cm across. [1]

SpaceX uses it alongside Stargaze, its own tracking system of cameras and radars on Starlink satellites, which sees objects only down to about half a metre, and less accurately. [1]

In return the military gets observations from Stargaze. [1] A Space Force spokesperson said it is making swaps like this with several companies, without naming them. [1]

The military has kept this data close because it could expose the limits of US defences. [1]

The civilian job of warning satellite operators about crashes was meant to move to TraCSS, a US system set up in Trump's first term to take it over from the military. [1]

In 2025 DOGE, Musk's cost-cutting team in the US government, fired many TraCSS staff. [1] The Trump administration then tried to cut most of its $65m budget for 2026, and the US Congress put the money back. [1]

The Trump administration has proposed cutting TraCSS to nearly zero for 2027, and the US House of Representatives has put the money back again. [1]

Cole Donovan, a former TraCSS worker, says the deal makes SpaceX the de facto source for space traffic coordination in the US. [1]

A former official at NOAA, the US weather and oceans agency, told The Guardian that SpaceX has been responsive on safety, and blamed the US government for failing to set clear rules. [1]

Starlink flies about 11,000 satellites [1], out of roughly 16,000 working satellites in orbit, by the European Space Agency's count. [2]

More than 57,000 pieces of junk larger than 10 cm circle Earth out of control, double the count of less than ten years ago, the European Space Agency estimates. [3]

Experts quoted by The Verge last week said SpaceX holds a monopoly on launches in practice, though not in law. [4]

Why it matters. The next decision is the final US budget for 2027: the House has put TraCSS's money back, while the Trump administration wants it cut to nearly zero. [1]

SpaceX ran a static fire, a test firing a rocket's engines while it is held down, at Starbase in Texas on Sunday. [5] It is readying Flight 15, the next test of its giant reusable rocket, for November. [5] On that flight it plans to try to catch both the booster and the upper stage with its tower for the first time. [6][9] SpaceX and NASA have also filed a draft plan to grow its Roberts Road site in Florida from 167 acres to nearly 400. [5] It still needs public comment and approval. [5]

Why it matters. The first Starship launch from Florida, Flight 16, could come in late January if the booster and ship meant for it finish testing in time. [5] Florida has no stand for test-firing ships yet, so each ship must be finished in Texas and sent by barge. [5]

The Planetary Society, a public group that backs space science, introduced the three winners of its 2026 STEP Grants on 21 October. [8] The grants come every two years and are paid for entirely by its members. [8] All three study small worlds such as asteroids and the icy bodies beyond Neptune. [8][10] A team at Lowell Observatory in Arizona is building a cheap polarimeter, a tool that reads how light is lined up after it bounces off an asteroid. [8] It uses off-the-shelf lenses and 3D-printed parts, so other observatories and skilled amateurs can copy it. [8]

Why it matters. Brightness alone can leave an asteroid's size unsure by up to ten times, the gap between a 10 m rock that burns up in the air and a 100 m one that could wreck a city. [8] The other two grants grow AsteroidDB, a shared store of over 15 million brightness readings, and CORA, which predicts when an asteroid will pass in front of a star. [8]