This Week in Space Tech: Oct. 13 to 19, 2025
A crowded week delivered big rocket milestones, fresh broadband satellites, a key national security launch, and new rules that shape where and how companies can fly.
Launches and flight tests
SpaceX flew Starship Flight 11 from Starbase, completed a hypersonic reentry, and splashed down as part of its iterative test program.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper added 24 spacecraft on the KF-03 mission aboard a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, bringing the constellation past 150 satellites.
Rocket Lab’s Electron lofted Synspective’s seventh StriX radar imaging satellite from New Zealand, continuing the startup’s SAR buildout under a multi-launch deal.
Two more Starlink batches flew: a predawn Florida mission on Oct 15 and a Vandenberg launch on Oct 18 that marked SpaceX’s 50th Vandenberg flight this year.