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AST SpaceMobile unveils $1.3 billion engine deal with Firefly Aerospace to power new heavy-lift rocket
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-07 02:18
AST SpaceMobile and Firefly Aerospace have struck a $1.3 billion deal to license engines for a
Falcon 9 launches from California on classified mission for U.S. Space Force
Also covered by: Space.com
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 22:00
On Nov. 6, 2026, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base for the classified U.S. Space Force mission USSF‑432 (publicly called R‑4), carrying 23 satellites on the Starshield platform. The rocket followed a south‑easterly trajectory, and its first‑stage booster B1095 successfully landed on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific. The launch is part of a series of similar missions that began in August, but the Space Force has not yet confirmed the mission’s success or provided details on the satellite deployment.
CesiumAstro Secures $730M Series D at $4.5B Valuation to Deploy Synchronicity Constellation
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 22:28
Phased‑array communications developer CesiumAstro raised $730 million in a Series D round, boosting its valuation past $4.5 billion. The new capital will accelerate the company’s push to commercialize its high‑throughput, low‑latency satellite communications platform. CesiumAstro’s technology promises faster data transfer for space missions and improved terrestrial broadband services. This funding positions the startup as a major contender in the emerging space‑based connectivity market.
Supercomputing Tech Demo Schedule
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 16:03
NASA will showcase its latest supercomputing innovations at the Supercomputing 2026 conference, with a dedicated exhibit hall booth #4038 featuring live demos and expert talks. Over three days, specialists will present on topics ranging from type‑safe Fortran templates and OpenMP target offload to high‑resolution hydrology simulations and modular data‑center architectures. Attendees can catch sessions on Nov. 17 and 18 that cover everything from mixing software versions to agentic SI interfaces for mapping water extremes. The event promises a deep dive into how NASA’s cutting‑edge HPC tools are driving scientific discovery.
Stoke Space evaluating expansion of Cape site for second Nova pad
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 21:19
Stoke Space has secured Right of Entry to land north of its existing SLC‑14 at Cape Canaveral, enabling engineering and environmental work for a second launch pad that will support its Nova rockets. The company plans to use the new site, historically LC‑15, to boost high‑cadence launch and re‑entry operations as it moves toward the larger Nova Block 2 vehicle. With its first Nova Pathfinder flight slated for mid‑2027 and a $1 billion Series E funding round, Stoke is positioning the Cape Canaveral complex for rapid‑reuse launch capability. This milestone marks the first formal step toward expanding Eastern Range infrastructure for fully reusable spaceflight.
Starship Flight 15, a dual catch attempt, awaits FAA green light
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 15:31
SpaceX is finalizing preparations for Starship Flight 15, with Booster 22 and Ship 42 cleared for a no‑earlier‑than launch on Nov. 13 after completing full‑duration static fires.
AST SpaceMobile To Build New Blacklift Rocket
Also covered by: Space.com
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 15:03
AST SpaceMobile is developing its own 20‑ton reusable Blacklift rocket to launch its BlueBird D2D broadband satellite constellation into low‑Earth orbit, with a first flight targeted for late 2028. The vehicle will use Firefly Aerospace’s Miranda and Vira engines, for which the company has a $1.3 billion contract covering 36 engines and three years of engineering support before it plans to license the engines itself. By building its own launch vehicle, AST SpaceMobile aims to secure regular, unconstrained access to orbit and improve economics amid tightening commercial launch availability. The move is intended to level the playing field with rivals such as SpaceX, which already operates in‑house launch capabilities.
Op-ed: Why Did Russia Bother with X36?
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 13:30
Russian satellite Kosmos 2612 closed in on Ukraine‑supporting ICEYE‑X36, prompting the U.S. To label the maneuver an on‑orbit weapons operation. The close approach, which required months of planning and significant fuel, was designed to gather precise data on ICEYE’s radar antenna, enabling Russia to craft a jammer or spoofer that can blind or falsify the satellite’s imagery. By targeting the dominant ICEYE constellation, Russia could degrade Ukraine’s intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities across the battlefield. The intelligence gathered is expected to be used to field this countermeasure within the next year, potentially crippling Ukrainian targeting infrastructure.
On this day in space! Nov. 6, 1572: A German astronomer discovers the Tycho supernova with the naked eye, but everyone thought the cosmic explosion was a 'new star'
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 22:05
On November 6, 1572, German astronomer Wolfgang Schulër spotted a brilliant new star in Cassiope
Giant exoplanet emerges from the dark when the James Webb Space Telescope turns out the starlight
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 17:00
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a previously hidden exoplanet, 51 Eridani b, by employing a new starlight‑blocking technique. The method, called Physics‑based Learning for Imaging Planets (FLIP), creates a digital twin of the telescope to model and subtract the star’s glare with unprecedented precision. FLIP outperformed traditional image‑processing by up to 15 times, enabling the recovery of the planet that had been obscured in earlier JWST data. This breakthrough paves the way for discovering more unseen exoplanets and could support future missions such as NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory.
Hera probe gets 1st good look at asteroid system clobbered by NASA's DART mission | Space photo of the day for Nov. 6, 2026
Original Publication Date: 2026-11-06 15:00
Europe’s ESA Hera spacecraft has captured its first close‑up of the Didymos binary asteroid system, the same target that NASA’s D