Space, in brief

Russia's President Vladimir Putin called Elon Musk 'a real genius' on Wednesday. [1]

Putin said Russia is in close contact with Musk about satellites. [1]

Musk runs SpaceX, the US rocket company that owns Starlink, a satellite internet service. [1]

Putin spoke at a summit with African leaders in Moscow. [2]

Putin said 'a certain level of discipline and order' in orbit matters to both sides. [2]

Reuters Breakingviews says Ukraine's Starlink trouble shows the risk of relying on one company. [4]

Watch whether SpaceX confirms the contact Putin described; so far it has said nothing. [1]

Russia's own satellite internet, Rassvet, has about 26 working satellites, against roughly 10,000 for SpaceX's Starlink. [2]

Putin says Russia keeps in close contact with SpaceX so the two networks stay out of each other's way. [2]

Praise for one famous man is easy to remember, while a count of 26 satellites against 10,000 is the part that explains why Russia needs the talks. [2]

Russia's president praised Musk and said it is very important to stay in close contact with SpaceX in orbit. [2]

It depends on a network one company controls, and a one-night limit in mid-October stopped its medium-range drone attacks. [2]

What Russia and SpaceX actually discuss, and who takes part.

Only Putin and Russia's embassy have described the contact, and SpaceX did not reply to the BBC. [1][2]

How many satellites each network really has.

Putin said Starlink has more than 5,000, the Guardian estimates about 10,000 working, and SpaceX says it has launched about 13,000. For Rassvet the Guardian estimates 26 working, and the BBC says a couple of dozen are in orbit. [2][1]

The US Air Force got back cargo pods that flew to space in SpaceX's Starfall capsule. [5]

Starfall launched on 20 October on Bandwagon-5, a SpaceX shared ride. [5]

It splashed down in the Pacific, and the Air Force confirmed the recovery on 26 October. [5]

The pods held medical kit, food rations and survival gear. [5]

Sensors inside measured heat, shaking and shocks through launch, re-entry and splashdown. [5]

Starfall is a disc 3.1 metres wide that can bring back up to 1,000 kg. [5]

The Air Force is studying rockets that could rush supplies to troops anywhere on Earth. [5]

It hopes such flights could one day carry tens of tons each, far more than Starfall. [5]

Why the military signs up its helpers long before a crisis

Checking a company and signing a contract takes months

A crisis gives hours, not months

So the buyer signs and pays a little in calm times

The company is checked, trusted and linked in already

When trouble comes, one call switches the help on

The slow part of getting help is the checking and the paperwork, not the help itself. So it is done, and paid for, before anyone needs it.

The Space Force spent three years of trials setting up its reserve of tracking firms. One of them says it can add tracking within hours of a call.

Three years of trials and $1.37 million mean six firms are already checked and signed before any satellite breaks up.

Canada pays NordSpace C$20 million now for ten years of pad access, and pays for each mission only when it orders one.

The Air Force flew medical kit and rations in a company's capsule now, to learn how cargo survives long before it needs to rush supplies.

A deal signed in calm times only helps if the company can still do the job when the call comes, and money paid to firms that are never called can look like waste.

In a crisis, the people being helped see only the help arriving fast.

The US Air Force flew its cargo pods in the capsule to test delivering supplies by rocket. [5]

The US Air Force recovered its cargo pods from the Pacific after they flew to orbit and back in SpaceX's Starfall capsule. The pods carried medical kit, food rations and survival gear.

United Launch Alliance says its Vulcan rocket will fly again on 13 November. [6]

ULA, owned half by Boeing and half by Lockheed Martin, launches for the US military. [6]

Vulcan has been grounded for 9 months after a booster nozzle failed in February. [7]

The nozzle broke on a strap-on booster made by Northrop Grumman. [7]

The return flight uses a redesigned nozzle and carries 40 satellites for Amazon Leo. [7]

Amazon Leo is Amazon's satellite internet network, a possible rival to Starlink. [6]

Amazon has booked 38 Vulcan launches to build it. [6]

The Space Force wants data from these company flights before trusting Vulcan with military satellites again. [6]

It moved six missions from Vulcan to SpaceX, and gave ULA six later ones instead. [6]

Vulcan's return flight carries 40 of its Leo internet satellites, and it has 38 Vulcan launches booked. [7][6]

Vulcan has been grounded for 9 months, and six of its military missions moved to SpaceX, with six later ones given back. [7][6]

What made Vulcan's booster nozzle fail in February.

ULA and Northrop Grumman have not named the root cause, only 'several potential contributors'. [6][7]

When the Space Force will let Vulcan carry military satellites again.

It wants data from Vulcan's company flights first, and Spaceflight Now's question about what work remains had no answer. [6][7]

Two astronauts were due to leave the space station at 12:00 UTC on Thursday. [8]

NASA's Anil Menon and Canada's Joshua Kutryk were fitting a new solar panel. [8]

It is the seventh of eight new roll-out panels being added since 2021. [8]

The station's first eight solar wings were built to last 15 years. [8]

They arrived between 2000 and 2009 and have lost power as they aged. [8]

With all eight new panels, the station's power rises from 160 to about 215 kilowatts. [8]

Kutryk will be the first Canadian to walk in space since 2019. [8]

The extra power must last until the station is retired and brought down in 2030. [8]

The eighth and last panel goes up on another spacewalk on 5 November. [8]

Canada's defence department will pay NordSpace C$20 million for ten years of launch pad access. [9]

NordSpace is a young launch company with a spaceport in Newfoundland and Labrador. [9]

Each mission costs extra and is paid for only when Canada orders it. [9]

Canada also promised Maritime Launch Services C$200 million over ten years. [9]

That money commits Canada to a pad at Maritime's spaceport in Nova Scotia. [9]

Canada cannot launch astronauts itself, so its missions depend on NASA. [9]

The deals come as Canada uses Kutryk's flight to push new space plans. [9]

Canada pays NordSpace C$20 million now for ten years of pad access, and pays for each mission only when it orders one.

Canada promised them C$20 million and C$200 million over ten years for launch pad access. [9]

They fund C$20 million and C$200 million launch pad deals, and each mission ordered costs extra. [9]

NASA's Perseverance rover drilled a rock sample on Mars on 24 October. [10]

It was the rover's first sample in more than a year. [10]

Scientists say the sample, called Singita, may be among the oldest rocks on Mars's surface. [10]

The rock was probably once about 1 km underground, until an impact threw it up. [10]

It lies outside Jezero, a crater made by an impact about 3.9 billion years ago. [10]

So Singita is likely at least that old, and maybe hundreds of millions of years older. [10]

Its exact age can only be found if the sample is brought back to Earth. [10]

The rover will stay in the area and try for two more samples. [10]

How old the Singita rock really is.

Its age can only be measured if the sample comes back to Earth. [10]

NASA's Perseverance rover drilled a new rock sample on Mars on 24 October, its first in more than a year. The rock, called Singita, may be among the oldest on the surface of Mars.

Virgin Galactic named its new spaceplane Apeiron on Wednesday, after a public vote. [11]

People in 83 countries voted on the name. [11]

A carrier plane called Eve then flew it from Arizona to Spaceport America in New Mexico. [23]

The flight took 1.5 hours. [23]

Engineers there will finish its software, then run test flights. [12]

Virgin now expects Apeiron's first paid flight early in the second quarter of 2027. [12]

That date slipped again this week, from February 2027. [22]

About 675 people still hold tickets. [11]

A seat that cost about $200,000 in 2014 now costs $850,000. [11]

The US has gone 10 months without a space tourism flight. [12]

About 675 people are still waiting for a seat, and paid flights have been stopped since June 2024. [11][12]

Whether Apeiron will carry paying passengers in 2027.

Virgin Galactic has moved the date again, from February 2027 to the second quarter, to finish its software. [22][12]

The US Space Force signed its first deals to use companies' satellite-tracking networks in a crisis. [13]

Six firms signed, including Anduril, LeoLabs and Slingshot Aerospace. [13]

Two are from outside the US: EOS of Australia and NorthStar of Canada. [13]

The six deals are worth $1.37 million in total. [13]

The plan took 3 years of trial runs to set up. [13]

NorthStar says it can scale up its tracking within hours when called. [13]

The plan is often compared to US airlines that agree to lend planes to the military. [13]

The Space Force wants extra eyes ready if a satellite suddenly breaks up or moves. [13]

Similar deals are planned for satellite links and for launches. [13]

Three years of trials and $1.37 million mean six firms are already checked and signed before any satellite breaks up.

Meanwhile the US military is signing up companies before it needs them: six tracking firms for a crisis, and SpaceX's Starfall capsule for rocket-delivered cargo. [13][5]

Space Force deals mark them as trusted enough to be called on in a future fight, and more firms are queuing to join. [13]

How often the Space Force will actually call on its six tracking firms.

The officer running the plan said they want to see how much it gets used over the next year. [13]

Rendezvous Robotics, a start-up in Colorado, raised $20 million on Wednesday. [14]

It makes tiles about one metre wide that join together in space to form a satellite. [14]

The tiles use electromagnetic forces to pull and lock themselves together. [14]

Many new satellites need solar panels and antennas too big to fit inside a rocket. [14]

Its next test sends 32 tiles to the space station, no earlier than December. [14]

In 2028 it plans to send 7 tiles into open space to build one satellite. [14]

Tiles could also be swapped when a part breaks, instead of building a new satellite. [14]

Shield Space, a British start-up, launched a group of UK space companies on Wednesday. [15]

The group wants to build a company-run force to defend British and NATO satellites. [15]

Members include Goonhilly, Magdrive and Optera. [15]

Project SPEAR, its first plan, would join members' kit into one system against threats. [15]

The UK government has not yet approved SPEAR. [15]

Its founders point to a Russian satellite that flew close to an ICEYE satellite this month. [15]

Shield's chief says the group wants to show the government the companies already exist. [15]

Whether the UK government will back Project SPEAR.

Shield Space built the plan for a UK space strategy goal, but the government has not approved it. [15]

Seraphim Space, a British investor in space start-ups, opened the Seraphim Academy on Thursday. [16]

Each start-up gets up to a year of help and $150,000 of investment. [16]

It replaces Seraphim's start-up programme, which ran from 2018 to 2025. [16]

It plans to take up to 15 companies a year for the next ten years. [16]

Seraphim has backed more than 150 companies, and 11 grew to be worth over $1 billion. [16]

Its director says more investors now look at space, so a first pitch must be stronger. [16]

NASA and the US Department of Agriculture signed a deal on Saturday to share satellite data. [17]

The aim is better information for farmers about crops, droughts and disasters. [17]

NASA's head Jared Isaacman and farm secretary Brooke Rollins signed it in Alabama. [17]

It is NASA's second deal like this with another US department this month. [17]

The first, with the US Department of Energy on 8 October, covers nuclear power in space. [17]

Isaacman said joining NASA's data with the farm department's knowledge can improve what farmers are told. [17]

Comets probably did not bring Earth the chemicals life started from, a new study says. [18]

Researchers at Cambridge University published it in the journal Scientific Reports. [18]

Comets carry hydrogen cyanide, a chemical that can build some of life's parts. [18]

In 2014 Europe's Rosetta probe found glycine, a building block of proteins, on a comet. [18]

But a comet hits Earth so fast that the heat destroys many of those molecules. [18]

The team's models found the bombardment was too short to deliver enough. [18]

Lead author Richard Anslow called the idea romantic but 'highly unlikely'. [18]

The comet idea was never widely accepted, and this study makes it less likely. [18]

Physicists say a black hole might split in two if it spins near top speed. [19]

Scientists have long known that colliding black holes merge into a bigger one. [19]

Splitting breaks a rule of heat physics, unless the black hole spins very fast. [19]

The two pieces must also move apart instead of falling straight back together. [19]

The study, by a team including Francesco Sannino in Naples, appeared on 22 October. [19]

Sannino says tiny black holes from the early universe are most likely to split. [19]

Gamma-ray telescopes such as Fermi could look for signs of such splits. [19]

How likely a black hole is to split at all.

Sannino says no single probability can be given yet, because it depends on how gravity behaves beyond Einstein's theory. [19]

Flexell Space, a Korean company, will test new solar cells on two small satellites. [20]

Satoro, a company in Singapore, will build the satellites. [20]

They are due to launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets in 2027 and 2028. [20]

The cells are thin films, aimed at being cheap, large and very light. [20]

Flexell has already flown cells twice on Korean rockets, in 2025 and October 2026. [20]

The tests will check how the cells' power changes over time in orbit. [20]

A new report says building a giant space sunshade could begin within 20 to 40 years. [21]

The Planetary Sunshade Institute, a non-profit in Los Angeles, published it this month. [21]

Researchers say a shade between Earth and the Sun could cool the planet by 1 C. [21]

ARIA, a UK government research agency, paid for the report with a 400,000 pound grant. [21]

It would need rockets that haul millions of tonnes into deep space. [21]

Cornell climate scientist Daniele Visioni doubts it could work before the end of the century. [21]

Critics say such ideas distract from the need to cut greenhouse gases. [21]