Not The Final Frontier

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Orbital launches are so hot right now.

Globally, we’ll achieve a record number of space-bound launches in 2025, hitting an expected 300 trips into orbit or beyond by the end of the year.

SpaceX is the five-hundred-pound gorilla in the space launch race, successfully launching 1,596,879 kg (not including classified and rideshare missions) of cargo, crew, and satellites into orbit, across a staggering 175 to 180 launches in 2025.

Their Falcon 9 rocket’s established failure rate is less than 1%, well short of any safety standard for commercial air travel, but good enough to be the most successful orbital-class rocket in history.

Most of those launches carried Starlink satellites. As of October 2025, there were 8,811 Starlink satellites in orbit, of which 8,795 are working.

With its own space-based internet service plans, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Amazon announced a name change and a new service, Amazon Leo. Remember how they want all of your business? They want all of SpaceX and Starlink’s business, too.

Blue Origin has already launched 150 Leo satellites into orbit, with plans for thousands more. Its network was opened up for early testing by some corporate customers earlier this month.

Blue Origin is also testing its new SpaceX Falcon killing competitor, the New Glenn rocket.

New Glenn is a larger, more powerful rocket than the Falcon 9, with a greater payload capacity for launching stuff into Low Earth Orbit.

Also, Honda has bold ambitions for space (ah, yes, the power of dreams).

In June of this year, Honda launched and landed a prototype, 20-foot-long reusable rocket at its research facility in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island.

It took SpaceX about 15 years to launch and return a rocket to the ground.

Honda did it in less than half of that.

Space is only going to get more crowded.

Global satellite operators have announced plans to launch over 70,000 low Earth orbit satellites over the next five years.

Newly announced space-based projects are getting a lot more science-fiction-y.

Google and other tech giants are talking about putting AI data centres in space.

DARPA and start-up Star Catcher Industries are both experimenting with beaming electricity generated by orbital solar arrays back to Earth via microwaves.

California-based start-up Reflect Orbital has applied for a license to launch a giant mirror into space. They plan to operate a constellation of more than 4,000 solar reflectors to boost solar power production in twilight hours.

China plans to deploy GPS-type satellites around the moon, with a supporting constellation closer to Earth, to improve object detection and support its lunar ambitions.

Vast, a privately-held American aerospace company headquartered in Long Beach, aims to launch the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, around mid-2026, followed by a crewed mission launched by SpaceX.

That’s a lot of space junk.

Low Earth Orbit is already a chaotic space junk yard.

There are millions of pieces of space junk flying around up there.

In 2026, we’re gonna be shooting something up into space nearly every day.

Space is no longer the final frontier.

It’s just another place where we store electronics (much of which is broken), like those cables and boxes behind the broom in your office networking closet.

In case you were wondering, Elton John was right.

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

BYD‘s Denza brand has officially delivered its 300,000th D9, marking a milestone event at the recent “Denza Night” gathering in Beijing. During Denza Night, the company announced that the D9 will soon be available for sale in the EU. carnewschina.com

BYD recalled 88,981 plug-in hybrids over a potential battery-related safety hazard. reuters.com

Xiaomi announced that its 500,000th vehicle has rolled off the production line in Beijing, just a year and seven months after the launch of its EV unit. eletric-vehicles.com

Xpeng launches X9 EREV with 1,602-km range, formally kicking off EREV super cycle. cnevpost.com

GWM’s Wey G9 Hi4 RHD MPV has been launched in Thailand at an MSRP of $73,000 USD. carnewschina.com

China’s Pony AI plans to triple its global robotaxi fleet by the end of 2026. techcrunch.com

China forecasts auto exports of over 6.8 million vehicles by the end of 2025. carnewschina.com

While US-based car reviewers go gaga over Chinese EVs, their audiences wonder why they can’t buy them. theverge.com

Tesla’s EU sales were down 48.5% YoY in October. theverge.com

Tesla FSD software may not be approved by the EU regulator after all. techcrunch.com

Tesla faces a new class action, this time over the Powerwall recall that leaves people with bricked batteries. electrek.co

Elon finally admits that other automakers don’t want to license Tesla’s Full Self-Driving tech. electrek.co

Elon slashes Tesla robotaxi fleet goal from 500 to ~60 in Austin. electrek.co

China unveils the world’s first autonomous military drone capable of hunting submarines. interestingengineering.com

Anduril faces setbacks from drone crashes. reuters.com

A Unitree G1 humanoid robot was trained to dribble, pass, and shoot like a pro basketball player. interestingengineering.com

China’s National Development and Reform Commission warned of the risks of a bubble forming in the country’s humanoid robotics industry. The agency called attention to the proliferation of similar robots from more than 150 companies, which could overwhelm the market and squeeze out fundamental research and development initiatives. bloomberg.com

The Donald’s administration pressured the IEA to include a scenario in its latest model that projects steadily rising oil and gas demand through 2050. nytimes.com

US oil production rose to a record high in September. reuters.com

Crude futures fell marginally on Friday as investors considered oil’s geopolitical risk premium amid drawn-out Russia-Ukraine peace talks. reuters.com

Shell has signed a long-term deal to supply Ferrari with renewable energy until the end of 2034 to help the luxury carmaker reduce carbon emissions. reuters.com

Battery recycling firm Redwood Materials cut dozens of jobs as the start-up scales back some of its ambitious projects to refocus on tapping into demand for grid-scale batteries. bloomberg.com

Scientists at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and carbon-materials specialist Toyo Tanso have unveiled a carbon electrode that allows a lithium-air battery to operate at higher output, survive longer, and scale into batteries ideal for use in eVOTL and other electric aircraft. aerospaceglobalnews.com

Chinese solar equipment has been flooding African markets, partly as a ripple effect of the US-China trade war. It’s one of several factors helping the continent gain traction with electrification. dw.com

China has launched the world’s first carbon dioxide–based power generator, using supercritical CO2 instead of steam to produce electricity with an efficiency of over 50%. oilprice.com

Solaris is a prototype, concept self-charging solar motorcycle. The bike has an intelligent energy management system that tracks energy distribution, storage, and collection onboard, and a digital cockpit that provides real-time performance data and charging metrics. newatlas.com, maskarchitects.com

ICYMI: The FBI seized a rare 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR Roadster worth $13 million tied to Ryan James Wedding, the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned drug trafficker. motortrend.com

Canadian Members of Parliament from multiple parties slammed Stellantis on Tuesday for failing to show up to a committee hearing about the federal government’s multimillion-dollar funding deals with the global automaker. cbc.ca

GM has not met a two-week deadline imposed by the Government of Canada to submit a plan for “next steps” at its idled CAMI Assembly Plant. autonews.com

GM’s software team has lost three top executives in the past month. techcrunch.com

Scout Motors, on a tight timeline to begin output in late 2027, is set to take a significant step forward in 2026 when preproduction vehicles start rolling down the line at a new factory in South Carolina. autonews.com

Uber and WeRide are now deploying fully driverless vehicles as part of their robotaxi service in the UAE. theverge.com

In a very Canadian response, the Canadian federal government says it will resume US trade talks “when appropriate”. (Sorry, not sorry.) reuters.com

The Chinese parent company of Netherlands-based Nexperia accused its Dutch unit of conspiring to build a non-Chinese supply chain and permanently strip it of control, escalating tensions between the two sides. reuters.com

China’s Wingtech has appealed decisions stripping it of control of its Nexperia chipmaking subsidiary. reuters.com

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I hope you are having a fantastic day!