Chemical Facility Security News: Short Takes – 11-18-25

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Short Takes – 11-18-25 – Space Geek Edition

Rocket Lab Successfully Launches HASTE Mission for Defense Innovation Unit, Missile Defense Agency. RocketLabCorp.com press release. Pull quote: “The mission was contracted to Rocket Lab through the DIU’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) program, an initiative supporting test and evaluation of new and emerging hypersonic technologies through low cost, responsive and long endurance flight testing. The mission launched within 14 months of contract signing, demonstrating streamlined operational benefits for government customers through Rocket Lab’s commercial speed, innovation, and efficiency. The mission also exemplified the cost and schedule savings that commercial liquid launch vehicles can bring to the MDA test community for developmental testing, non-traditional targets testing, and risk-reduction payload testing activities.”

China’s space ambitions hit a new gear. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The commission estimates that China has built a state directed commercial ecosystem in roughly a decade, with companies that look private but follow government priorities. This gives Beijing an industrial base that scales quickly and serves strategic goals. The report calls this a “formidable technological, economic and geostrategic challenge to the United States.””

Dcubed to demonstrate in-space manufacturing of solar arrays. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The spacecraft will carry a blanket of rolled-up solar cells. “We unroll it in space and print a structure on it that stiffens it,” Thomas Sinn, chief executive of Dcubed, said in an interview. That structure uses a resin cured by ultraviolet light, which he said offers a low-power method of producing it.”

China to launch Shenzhou-22 spacecraft Nov. 25 to provide lifeboat for astronauts. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The move comes after the Shenzhou-20 crew needed to use the recently-arrived Shenzhou-21 spacecraft to return home Nov. 14 after space debris damaged their own Shenzhou-20 spacecraft. This leaves the Shenzhou-21 astronauts apparently without a lifeboat in the case of a catastrophic emergency, such as depressurization or fire aboard Tiangong.”

Stranded Chinese Astronauts Return to Earth, but Space Junk Threats Remain. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “The agency also revealed that it had found tiny cracks in one of the windows of the crew’s Shenzou 20 return capsule—rendering it unusable.”

Space rescue services needed? 2 'stranded' astronaut incidents are a 'massive wake-up call,' experts say. Space.com article. Pull quote: “That trio of Chinese astronauts — Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie — have been orbiting Earth for more than six months. Prior to the landing delay, the Shenzhou 20 trio had handed over operation of the Tiangong space station to the newly arrived Shenzhou 21 crew. They were due to return back to Earth under parachute on Nov. 5., but the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced the landing wave-off the same day, explaining that the crew's spacecraft "is suspected of being struck by small space debris and impact analysis and risk assessment [s] are underway."”

China continues assessment of Shenzhou-20 crew return after suspected debris strike. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Potential concerns would include possible damage to the spacecraft’s thermal protection system or parachute deployment structures, both of which are critical for safe atmospheric reentry and landing. As well as assessing data, inspections of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft could have been carried out by Tiangong’s 10-meter-long robotic arm, capable of crawling, in combination with a smaller, fine manipulation arm to provide close-up imagery of any potential impact.”

Three Chinese astronauts stranded in space after debris hits their return capsule. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “The taikonaut trio — Wang Jie, Chen Zhongrui and Chen Dong, collectively known as the Shenzhou-20 crew — has been living on China's Tiangong space station since April 24. They were due to return to Earth Wednesday (Nov. 5) following a successful handover period with the Shenzhou-21 crew, who arrived on the station on Halloween (Oct. 31). However, earlier on Wednesday, at around 10:30 a.m. local time, representatives from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced that the astronauts' return had been postponed, via a statement posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo.”

Infinite Orbits and SES to collaborate in Europe’s first commercial life extension mission. News.SatNews.com article. Pull quote: “Following an in-orbit demonstration, Infinite Orbits will extend the lifespan of at least one of SES’s GEO satellites by five years, with further missions under consideration in the years ahead. This will make Infinite Orbits the first European company to carry out such a mission, and only the second in the world.”

FAA ends commercial launch curfew. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The FAA announced Nov. 16 that it canceled an emergency order issued 10 days earlier that placed restrictions on activities in the National Airspace System (NAS). The restrictions were prompted by rising absenteeism among air traffic controllers who had not been paid since early October because of the shutdown.”