This Week in Space Tech: Nov. 10 to 16, 2025 | Currently In Space | Currently In Space
This Week in Space Tech: Nov. 10 to 16, 2025
Big rockets, Mars hardware, quantum sensors, and European in-orbit servicing all took center stage between 10 and 16 November 2025, in a week that showed how broad the modern space economy has become.
Welcome to This Week in Space Tech, covering the period from 10 to 16 November 2025. Heavy launchers proved their value, spaceplanes crept closer to flight, and a cluster of deals in quantum technologies, smallsats, and in-orbit services changed the startup landscape.
Big rockets
Blue Origin’s second New Glenn flight lofted NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes on 13 November, validating the heavy launcher for deep space work and finally delivering a clean, on target booster landing on the recovery ship Jacklyn. The mission used a clever long duration Earth orbit loiter and later gravity assist to keep a 2025 departure viable, underscoring how trajectory design can compensate for missing classical Mars windows.
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V 551 also flew on 13 November with ViaSat 3 EMEA, one of the last heavyweight geostationary communications missions for the venerable rocket as Vulcan takes over the manifest.
SpaceX’s late night Starlink launch on 10 November quietly broke Florida’s annual launch record, showing that even with new time of day constraints, high volume constellation operations are not slowing down.
Spaceplanes and new launchers
Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane completed a slate of pre flight tests at Kennedy, including EMI and runway tow exercises, clearing the way for acoustic testing in December and a first orbital mission targeted for late 2026. The vehicle’s roadmap is shifting from pure ISS logistics toward national security and free flight missions, which could give Sierra Space a more diversified revenue base than a single NASA cargo line.
Rocket Lab confirmed that its reusable Neutron rocket will debut in 2026 rather than this year, after engine and structures work proved more involved than expected, but the company stressed that it wants a clean first orbital shot rather than a rushed demo.
Firefly Aerospace wrapped up its investigation into an Alpha ground test anomaly, blaming process contamination rather than a design flaw, and signaled that its next small launcher flight is back on the calendar for the coming months.
Constellations, GEO and life extension
Amazon officially retired the Project Kuiper branding in favor of Amazon Leo, positioning its broadband constellation as a core consumer and enterprise connectivity product rather than a long running R and D effort. Company executives highlighted that Leo now runs one of the largest satellite production lines on the planet and is preparing to lean harder on partners such as Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ESA’s Ariane 6 for deployment.
SES signed a landmark deal with French in-orbit services startup Infinite Orbits for Europe’s first commercial geostationary satellite life extension mission, using the Endurance docking vehicle to add roughly five years of life to at least one GEO asset. The agreement reinforces a broader trend: operators are starting to treat propulsion and station keeping as separate services that can be bought as needed, rather than baked into every replacement satellite.
Startup capital and quantum in space
French smallsat manufacturer U Space closed a 24 million euro Series A, backed in part by France’s Definvest fund, to scale its nanosatellite production line and compete more aggressively for constellation work in Europe and beyond. The round builds on an earlier seed raise and positions U Space as one of the few European smallsat players with both government and commercial traction, at a time when sovereign capacity is a political priority.
In North America, quantum computing company IonQ agreed to acquire Skyloom Global, a specialist in space based optical communication terminals, as it pushes toward a global quantum key distribution network blending ground and orbital infrastructure.
Canadian startup SBQuantum secured a new ESA contract to advance quantum diamond magnetometers for space, with an eye on precise magnetic field mapping that can support both Earth observation and future navigation services.
Policy backdrop
All of this unfolded under a new FAA emergency order that restricts US commercial space launches to nighttime windows between 22:00 and 06:00, a direct consequence of the prolonged federal shutdown and air traffic control staffing strain.
Launch providers had to thread their schedules through these curfew style limits, which explains the cluster of pre dawn and late evening launches on the Space Coast during the week.