This Week in Space Tech: Nov. 3 to 9, 2025
A busy week saw Europe strengthen launch autonomy, rideshare workhorses keep humming, and policy shifts reshape when rockets can fly.
Welcome to This Week in Space Tech, your weekly roundup of the companies and startups driving the business of space.
Launches and spacecraft
Ariane 6 delivered Copernicus Sentinel-1D to orbit on Nov 4, the rocket’s fourth flight. First signal was acquired by Norway’s Troll station at 23:22 CET, keeping Europe’s all-weather radar imaging coverage continuous.
Rocket Lab’s Electron lofted iQPS’s YAM-6 synthetic-aperture radar satellite from New Zealand on Nov 5, a step toward the Japanese startup’s planned 36 satellite constellation.
SpaceX flew two Starlink batches: 28 satellites from Vandenberg on Nov 6 with a droneship landing, then 29 from Florida’s Pad 39A on Nov 9 using veteran booster 1069.