The Italian EO IRIDE program with OBH Italia as the prime has added eight satellites to their second constellation, Eaglet II.

The Eaglet II satellites lifted off on board a Falcon 9 rocket at 19:44 CET (10:44 local time), November 28th, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, U.S. All satellites were placed into orbit about one hour after launch. Acquisition of signal for all satellites was confirmed several hours later by OHB’s Mission Control Centre in Rome.

Data from the IRIDE satellites, of which there are now 16 in orbit, will support products such as maps, monitoring services and multi-temporal analysis. Each satellite in the Eaglet II constellation carries a multispectral, high-resolution optical instrument, as well as an Automatic Identification System (AIS) instrument.

OHB Italia is the prime contractor for the satellite. They will orbit at an altitude between 467 km and 625 km above Earth’s surface and provide images with ground resolution of about 2 m. The Flight Operations Segment (FOS) was developed by Telespazio on SITAEL’s PLATINO platform and Leonardo’s hyperspectral radar sensor.

Dawn Aerospace and Cosmoserve Space have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to partner on enabling sustainable and scalable in-space servicing through refueling and debris removal technologies.

The strategic MoU expresses both parties’ intent to explore future collaboration on integrating Dawn’s refuelable propulsion systems and in-space refueling service; Loop, with Cosmoserve Space’s debris capture and removal missions.

Active debris removal represents one of the most complex challenges in space operations, requiring precise maneuvering, extended mission durations, and reliable propulsion systems. By combining Dawn Aerospace’s refueling and propulsion capabilities with Cosmoserve Space’s debris-removal platforms, the partnership aims to enhance mission endurance and reduce the environmental impact of space activity.

The key focus area of the MoU includes the investigation of technical interfaces, operational synergies and potential future missions, using the core technologies of both companies.

Kymeta Corporation and Innovative Rocket Technologies Inc. (iRocket) have engaged in a strategic collaboration to further develop, integrate and test Kymeta’s new, conformal, multi-orbit technology within iRocket’s missile interceptors.

As the Pentagon increases its reliance on commercial providers for defense technology, specifically satellite services, this partnership will enable a new generation of always-connected, highly responsive interceptor systems – a capability widely viewed as essential to the future Golden Dome vision for continental defense.

By integrating its conformal technology into iRocket’s missiles, Kymeta will enable multi-orbit, real-time satellite connectivity that delivers mid-course updates, improves accuracy, and enhances resilience in contested environments.

Kymeta’s conformal antenna innovation leverages the distinctive electromagnetic properties of metamaterials, the company’s proven engineering foundation. The conformal antenna innovation supersedes gimbaled or phased array systems, enabling a surface-integrated design that blends seamlessly into the interceptor’s body, reducing drag and detectability, while improving performance.

The lightweight, low profile of metamaterial components, combined with iRocket’s cutting-edge propulsion and interceptor capabilities, will deliver significant improvements in mission performance. These include:

• Enhanced interceptor performance: precise, agile beam steering for sensors and communications dramatically improves accuracy and effectiveness
• Reduced size, weight and power (SWaP): elimination of bulky mechanical parts, enabling smaller, lighter, and more power-efficient systems critical for range, speed, and maneuverability
• Superior signal detection and security: dynamic, low-power beamforming enhances tracking and communication while minimizing thermal and electromagnetic signatures for survivability in contested environments
• Comms resiliency: multi-orbit and multi-band connectivity supports a full PACE communications framework

iRocket views this partnership as a catalyst for breakthrough capabilities. This initiative marks a new chapter in leveraging advanced technologies for national security and defense, providing resilient, always-connected interceptor capability that will underpin the Golden Dome’s continental defense architecture. The two companies will begin joint development and testing immediately, with initial integration trials planned for second half of 2026.

With the U.S. government pushing to integrate cutting-edge commercial technology into military capabilities faster, and more flexibly, than traditional rigid procurement strategies allow, our work with iRocket meets this need and demonstrates how our metamaterial technology and their advanced rockets can jointly deliver critical new defense capabilities,” said Manny Mora, President and CEO of Kymeta. “We have demonstrated the power of our metamaterials for mobile, multi-orbit satellite communications. Now, we are applying that same innovation to help solve some of the most complex challenges in missile defense and space domain awareness.”

Integrating Kymeta’s metamaterial technology is a game-changer for our missile and space platforms,” said Asad Malik, Founder, Chairman and CEO of iRocket. “This collaboration will enable us to build smarter, faster, and more efficient systems that can outperform existing technologies. It is a critical step toward advancing our mission of delivering rapid, responsive, and reusable capabilities to the defense and space sectors.”

Included in the satellites is Spire’s next-generation Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder—a compact, space-ready sensor built to demonstrate global weather forecasting from space

Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) has now shipped nine satellites, all designed and built by the company’s in-house manufacturing team, have journeyed to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California prior to their launch aboard SpaceX’s upcoming Falcon 9 Twilight mission.

The mission includes the company’s Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder (HyMS) satellite demonstrator, a compact, space-ready sensor built to advance global weather forecasting from space.

Developed in collaboration with the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council’s RAL Space and STAR-Dundee Ltd., HyMS is designed to capture detailed internal views of the Earth’s atmosphere, measuring important atmospheric variables including temperature, humidity, and precipitation. As a first-of-its-kind hyperspectral microwave mission, it will aim to help forecasters better understand how weather systems form and evolve in real time.

In addition to the HyMS demonstrator, the Falcon 9 Twilight launch will include seven, Spire-built satellites for customers and one constellation replenishment satellite supporting the company’s operational data missions. All the satellites were designed, built, and tested by Spire’s teams in Glasgow, Scotland.

With more than 200 satellites launched across more than 40 launch campaigns, Spire’s vertically integrated approach – designing, manufacturing, testing, and operating satellites in-house – enables rapid iteration and deployment of new technology that helps customers across government and commercial sectors make faster, data-driven decisions.

HyMS marks a meaningful step in expanding how we observe Earth’s atmosphere from space,” said Theresa Condor, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Global. “Two of the most impactful sources of data for improving forecast accuracy are radio occultation and microwave observations, areas where Spire is uniquely positioned to lead. This mission is a critical milestone on that path to delivering deeper atmospheric insights from space.”

Portal Space Systems has introduced Starburst, an ESPA-class rapid-maneuverability spacecraft, and confirmed Starburst-1 will launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 in Q4 2026 for the company’s first free-flying mission with live payloads—this mission will demonstrate rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), rapid re-tasking, and rapid orbital change for national security and commercial use cases.

Starburst is built to bring maneuverability to proliferated space architectures, giving operators a maneuverable bus that can be delivered to an orbit of interest and maneuver rapidly within LEO, MEO, or GEO. It is being developed in sync with Portal’s trans-orbital vehicle, Supernova, which is designed for cross-domain transitions from LEO to cislunar and a 6 km/s-class maneuverability profile. The two platforms share many core subsystems and manufacturing processes, including Supernova’s high performance RCS thrusters which will serve as the main translational propulsion for the Starburst vehicle. The shared architectures mean the 2026 mission will demonstrate the Starburst product while simultaneously validating key systems for Supernova. Starburst will be available for customer missions in 2027.

Starburst-1 will fly to sun-synchronous orbit (SS0) for a one-year primary mission. Targeted maneuverability is 1 km/sof total delta-v and will host two payload partners onboard. TRL11 will provide full-motion video with onboard edge processing to enable mission assurance through real-time health monitoring while capturing visuals for documenting mission outcomes. Zenno will demonstrate superconducting magnet technology for fuel-free control authority and precision interactions during close operations, using the world’s most powerful magnetic actuator ever built and flown to space.

Our strategy is to deliver what customers need now and accelerate what they’ll need next,” said Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems. “Starburst gives operators a maneuverable bus that supports proliferated architectures in the orbit that matters to them. Supernova brings the trans-orbital reach. Flying Starburst-1 in 2026 lets us field capability quickly and advance the shared systems that raise confidence for Supernova’s 2027 debut.”

Zenno is building next-gen hardware for maneuverability in space, leveraging solar energy and Earth’s magnetic field to drive real impact,” said Max Arshavsky, Founder and CEO at Zenno. “Portal’s Starburst platform embodies that vision, and we’re proud to provide its debut flight with our Supertorquer – the world’s most powerful magnetic actuator ever flown.”

Together, these payloads highlight how on-orbit maneuverability converts sensing into decision speed for defense and commercial use cases.

About Portal Space Systems
Portal Space Systems is a next-generation spacecraft company headquartered in Washington state. The company builds reconfigurable, maneuverable spacecraft designed to support defense and commercial missions on operational timelines. Portal emerged from stealth in 2024, earned STRATFI support, raised one of the largest publicly announced seed rounds in the sector.

INNOSPACE (KS:462350) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Madari Space to cooperate on the joint development and commercialization of space data centers in the UAE.

Through this MOU, INNOSPACE and Madari Space will jointly explore new space business, focusing on the establishment of space data centers, the development of launch and satellite operation–linked services, and the identification of related commercialization opportunities.

The two companies will collaborate to identify launch service opportunities in line with the growing global demand for space-based technologies, while also exploring pathways for technical integration and sustainable business models. INNOSPACE will leverage its comprehensive service portfolio, encompassing system development, component and system-level environmental testing, launch operations, and data transmission, whereas Madari Space will contribute its specialized expertise in orbital data center development and strong regional networks. Together, the partners aim to advance practical collaboration toward establishing next-generation, space-based data infrastructure platforms.

Madari Space, headquartered in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, is a space data center development startup that combines high-capacity data storage technology and satellite-based high-performance computing to provide secure, reliable, and AI-driven data solutions for global users. Supported by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) under the UAE Ministry of Finance, the company is developing a next-generation data storage and processing infrastructure operating in LEO. In collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Madari Space plans to launch a pilot orbital data center system into LEO in 2026.

This collaboration reflects our shared ambition to push the boundaries of how nations secure and manage their most critical data. Madari Space brings a new model of sovereign, orbital data infrastructure designed for reliability, privacy, and advanced AI processing. We are committed to supporting South Korea’s efforts to strengthen the protection of national data assets and look forward to engaging with the Korean government on future initiatives,” said Dr. Shareef Al Romaithi, Founder and CEO of Madari Space.

This MOU marks a strategic starting point for building new space technologies and business models through collaboration with a UAE company. The combination of INNOSPACE’s integrated service platform and Madari Space’s regional network and expertise in space data centers will serve as a solid foundation for creating long-term, global business opportunities in the sector,” said Soojong Kim, Founder and CEO of INNOSPACE.

Another group of SpaceX smallsats were launched Tuesday, November 18th at 7:12 p.m. ET, to meet up with the Starlink constellation. SpaceX will be busy again on Thursday with two launches and one each planned for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Photos captured by Satnews.

Tuesday’s Falcon 9 launch of Group 6-94 sent 29 Starlink smallsats to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the 12th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, Fram2, SXM-10, MTG-S1, and now six Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

York Space Systems earlier this month completed the initial commissioning of the Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT) payload aboard the BARD mission, marking a significant step forward in validating the mission’s concept of operations (ConOps) and advancing next-generation, wideband space communications capabilities for NASA.

During a precisely scheduled continuous wave pass, York’s mission operations team achieved first-contact telemetry download with outstanding results. Data returned with no anomalies, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) confirmed real-time acquisition of signal with an exceptionally strong carrier-to-noise ratio, and a clean loss of signal was observed at the conclusion of the pass—together confirming seamless end-to-end performance.

Telemetry highlights confirmed that every system performed exactly as designed. Signal strength matched predictions, planned operations ran without error, and the amplifier, synchronization, and Doppler correction all worked seamlessly. Temperatures and power levels stayed well within safe limits, and no commands were rejected or fault flagged. Together, these results confirm the spacecraft’s health and validate the mission’s meticulous planning and execution.

This achievement validates the full ConOps and establishes a strong operational foundation for the mission’s next phase. York will now move into rigorous verification of pointing performance to enable high-fidelity data transfers with government and commercial networks in geostationary orbit, beginning with TDRS.

Launched in July of 2025, BARD was procured as a commercial mission from York and developed in collaboration with NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The mission will provide a flight demonstration of the APL-designed and built PExT payload, an advanced communications payload designed to enable real-time interoperability between government and commercial satellite relay networks – a first-of-its-kind capability supporting NASA’s shift toward a commercial communications architecture.

This milestone demonstrates not only the robustness of our integrated systems, but also the precision and expertise of our operations team,” said Michael Lajczok, CTO at York. “From spacecraft maneuvering to payload execution, every component of the mission is performing exactly as designed. It’s a strong validation of our ability to deliver on complex, high-performance communications missions for government and commercial customers.”