Space Race Heats Up: Record Rocket Launches, New Alliances & a Visitor From Beyond – Space News Roundup (Oct 3–4, 2025)
Key Facts Record Launches Fuel a Satellite Frenzy The first days of October saw rocket launch activity reach new heights. In California, SpaceX continued its torrid pace – a Falcon 9 blasted off from Vandenberg SFB on October 3 carrying 28 Starlink internet satellites to orbit space.com. This mission marked SpaceX’s 125th Falcon 9 launch of the year, an unprecedented cadence that underscores the company’s dominance in orbital access. In fact, over 70% of SpaceX’s 2025 launches have been for Starlink deployment, rapidly building the largest satellite constellation in history space.com. The latest batch brings Starlink’s active fleet to roughly