Space news

Gerroa, Australia (SPX) Dec 19, 2025 Fusion is the cosmic process that powers stars, shapes galaxies, and enables the chemical diversity needed for life. From the earliest stars to modern planetary systems, fusion converts hydrogen into heavier elements, forging the matter that makes up worlds, atmospheres, and living organisms. The Sun's steady fusion output governs Earth's climate and underlies all biological and technological energy flows, from photosynthesis to fossil fuels.

Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Planning Date: Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 The weekend drive starting from the “Nevado Sajama” drill site brought Curiosity back into the “Monte Grande” boxwork hollow. We’ve been in this hollow before for the “Valle de la Luna” drill campaign, but now that […]

The White House issued a sweeping executive order on space policy Dec. 18 covering topics from NASA’s exploration plans to space security. The post Trump signs sweeping executive order to assert U.S. dominance in space appeared first on SpaceNews.

A recently issued Executive Order revises how the government implements Space Policy Directive-3, removing the longstanding expectation that basic space situational awareness (SSA) services, including conjunction warnings, would be provided without charge. This decision marks a departure not only from SPD-3, but from more than a decade of United States practice in which Congress and […] The post What problem is charging for Space Situational Awareness supposed to solve? appeared first on SpaceNews.

Also, the Trump administration wants to put some nuclear power reactors there, too.

Whose Moon Mascot design will join the Artemis II astronauts on their historic voyage around the Moon in early 2026? Between March 7 and Jun. 16, 2025, NASA worked with crowdsourcing company Freelancer to seek design ideas from global creators for a zero gravity indicator that will fly aboard the agency’s Artemis II test flight. Zero gravity […]

New constellation would provide security for NATO’s eastern flank, German brigade in Lithuania The post Germany awards $1.9 billion SAR satellite deal to Rheinmetall-Iceye venture appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA Space Apps announced Thursday 10 winners of the 2025 NASA Space Apps Challenge. During this two-day hackathon, participants gathered at 551 local events across 167 countries and territories to showcase their STEM skills and proposed ways to transform NASA’s open data into actionable tools. More than 114,000 participants came together to address challenges created […]

The Expedition 74 crew’s research schedule was filled with biomedical duties and artificial intelligence on Thursday to promote crew health and spark innovation on and off the Earth. Spacesuit tailoring and advanced science hardware maintenance rounded out the day for the seven residents aboard the International Space Station.

The STP-S30 mission was moved up five months on the launch manifest for Rocket Lab. This was the 20th launch of an Electron rocket in 2025.

Justin Hall, left, controls a subscale aircraft as Justin Link holds the aircraft in place during preliminary engine tests on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, at NASA’s Armstong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Hall, chief pilot at the center’s Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory, and Link, a pilot for small uncrewed aircraft systems, are […]

Like a game of cosmic bumper cars, scientists think the early days of our solar system were a time of violent turmoil, with planetesimals, asteroids, and comets smashing together and pelting the Earth, Moon, and the other inner planets with debris. Now, in a historical milestone, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has directly imaged similar catastrophic […]

In a historical milestone, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope witnessed the catastrophic collisions in a nearby planetary system. As they observed the bright star Fomalhaut, scientists saw the impact of massive objects around the star. The Fomalhaut system appears to be in a dynamical upheaval, similar to what our Solar System experienced in its first few hundred million years after formation.

The airliner you board in the future could look a lot different from today’s, with longer, thinner wings that provide a smoother ride while saving fuel. Those wings would be a revolutionary design for commercial aircraft, but like any breakthrough technology, they come with their own development challenges – which experts from NASA and Boeing […]

Launched in March, NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky in 102 colors. While not visible to the human eye, these 102 infrared wavelengths of light are prevalent in the cosmos, and observing the entire sky this way enables scientists to answer big questions, including how a dramatic […]

Jared Isaacman was sworn in Thursday as NASA’s 15th administrator by District Judge Timothy J. Kelly. The oath was taken during a ceremony held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington.  As NASA administrator, Isaacman will lead the agency in bold pursuit of exploration, innovation, and scientific discovery.  “I am deeply honored to be sworn […]

Deal backed by $150 million Series E equity and debt round The post HawkEye 360 expands defense footprint with acquisition of Innovative Signal Analysis appeared first on SpaceNews.

From Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V leapt into

In 2025, NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, marked a year of progress by supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign, celebrating historic milestones, and continuing its role as a trusted propulsion test partner at America’s largest rocket propulsion test site. “For more than six decades, NASA Stennis has proudly represented the Gulf Coast region […]

Watch the replay of the media information session in which ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair Renato Krpoun (CH) update journalists on key decisions taken at the ESA Council meeting, held at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 17 and 18 December 2025.

NASA Science encourages all people to actively participate in science through activities and resources developed by a collaborative network of project teams drawing on NASA SMD assets (science content, experts, data, etc.). Your team can apply to be part of this program. Opportunity NASA SMD seeks a portfolio of projects that together : Projects NASA seeks a […]

The NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) Payroll Office (NPO) reviews, validates, and delivers time and attendance data to the Department of the Interior (DOI) Interior Business Center (IBC) for NASA Centers.  NPO acts as liaison between Centers, employees and IBC for other payroll related activities such as supplemental payments, prior pay period adjustments  (PPPA) and […]

NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley continued to make strides in research, technology, engineering, science, and innovation this past year. Join us as we take a look back at some of the highlights from 2025. From Supercomputers to Wind Tunnels: NASA’s Road to Artemis II By combining the technologies of the NASA Advanced […]

NASA’s DiskSat technology demonstration mission will test the performance of a new small spacecraft platform designed to expand the capabilities of current small spacecraft. By demonstrating the advantages of a flat, disk-shaped architecture over the conventional CubeSat design, DiskSat aims to enable lower-cost space missions, broaden scientific opportunities, and increase overall access to space. At […]

At a time when space is unmistakably a contested warfighting domain, the United States risks slowing its own progress not because of a lack of technology or talent, but because Congress has failed to act on renewing authority for critical small business innovation funding. Senior Space Force acquisition officials have publicly warned that the lapse […] The post Congress’s SBIR standoff is slowing Space Force innovation — it must act now appeared first on SpaceNews.

The 5th Annual Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) Exploration Community Event hosted by the Coastal Virginia STEM Hub and the NASA eClips Education Team from the National Institute of Aerospace Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) lit up the Professional Workforce Development Center at Virginia Peninsula Community College on Saturday, November 8, 2025.

NASA astronaut and retired United States Navy Capt. Lee Morin has retired from the agency after 30 years of service. He served as a mission specialist on STS-110 and went on to oversee the Rapid Prototyping Laboratory and technology development for the International Space Station and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, as well as its Artemis […]

For the first time, astronomers using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have traced a budding outflow of gas from a cluster of young stars in our galaxy — insights that help us understand how the universe has evolved as NASA explores the secrets of the cosmos for the benefit of all. The cluster, called Westerlund […]

The vote on Dec. 17 closes out a year-long nomination process featuring the removal and renomination of the commercial astronaut.

In this episode of Space Minds, host Mike Gruss talks with Dr. Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo about what he calls "almost a watershed year" for the Space Development Agency. The post 2025 was “almost a watershed year” for the Space Development Agency appeared first on SpaceNews.

Recent analysis by Reeves in the Mitchell Institute’s “Charting a Path to Space Superiority: The Cross-Domain Imperative” identifies the need for centralized command and control (C2) of counterspace capabilities under U.S. Space Command to ensure unity of effort. However, Reeves’s critique of the United States Army’s development of counterspace capabilities fundamentally misunderstands the Army’s role […] The post The Army’s contribution to joint space operations appeared first on SpaceNews.

The space community welcomed the confirmation of Jared Isaacman as NASA’s next administrator, expressing hope he can lead the agency forward and relief that a long confirmation process is over. The post Space community celebrates Isaacman confirmation appeared first on SpaceNews.

"It's hard to describe how epic this comeback was after our first Falcon 9 launch failure."

Swedish small satellite manufacturer AAC Clyde Space has secured up to SEK 140 million (€12.8 million) in new funding through a directed share issue, with Stockholm-based venture capital firm Bonnier Capital becoming its largest shareholder. The company will use the proceeds of the share issue to fund its commitments to the INFLECION maritime domain awareness […] The post AAC Clyde Space Secures Funding for INFLECION Satellite Constellation appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 NASA and commercial partners are using a small satellite mission called DUPLEX (Dual Propulsion Experiment) to demonstrate new propulsion options for small spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit and on future missions deeper into the solar system. Two micropropulsion systems that draw propellant from spools of polymer fibers are now undergoing an in-space test campaign after the CubeSat's deplo

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2025 Space-themed sweepstakes slots have become a standout genre for players who crave mystery, exploration, and cinematic visuals. These games create entire universes inside their reels - from glowing nebula fields to alien planets and interstellar soundscapes.

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 Southern Launch and Lux Aeterna have signed a contract to conduct orbital re-entries of Lux Aeterna's reusable satellite infrastructure to the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. The partnership will support the future of circular space manufacturing and operations with rapid, reliable, and flexible access to orbit, enabling governments, businesses, and research organizations to maximise the

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 A team from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has for the first time excited the atomic nucleus of the isotope thorium 229 with laser light while the atoms are embedded in a non transparent solid host. The experiment demonstrates that nuclear laser excitation is possible even when the surro

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, has cleared a major test campaign at Sandia National Laboratories that is intended to show the 1,000-pound lunar rover can withstand the stresses of launch and flight on its way to the Moon's South Pole. "We've built a rover that is designed to go and prospect for water on the moon, but the vehicle must be certified for miss

Kourou (AFP) Dec 17, 2025 Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket successfully placed two satellites into orbit to join the EU's rival to the GPS navigation system on Wednesday after the mission blasted off from French Guiana. It was the fourth commercial mission of the Ariane 6 launch system since the long-delayed single-use rockets came into service last year. The rocket launched into cloudy skies from Europe's spaceport

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 Every living organism must operate in environments that change over time, such as seasonal shifts between heat and cold or alternating years of drought and heavy rain. University of Vermont scientist Csenge Petak set out to examine how such environmental fluctuations affect evolution and whether they help or hinder populations as they adapt to new conditions. Working with UVM computer scie

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 New Euclid satellite observations indicate that collisions between galaxies trigger the most powerful active galactic nuclei in the universe. The results strengthen the link between galaxy mergers and rapid growth phases of supermassive black holes at galactic centers. Active galactic nuclei are periods when supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies accrete surrounding matter and

London, UK (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 A University of Cambridge philosopher argues that current evidence about consciousness is too limited to determine whether artificial intelligence becomes conscious, and that a reliable test for machine consciousness is unlikely to emerge for a long time, if at all. Dr Tom McClelland contends that as artificial consciousness moves from science fiction into an ethical concern, the only justifiabl

Washington, United States (AFP) Dec 17, 2025 The US Senate on Wednesday approved President Donald Trump's re-nomination of billionaire Jared Isaacman to head NASA, following months of backtracking and uncertainty over the space agency's future. The 42-year-old businessman made his fortune in online payment processing and has a personal passion for space. He will take over as administrator of the US agency at a sensitive time - when it

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 Careful reanalysis of measurements gathered more than a decade ago indicates that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, likely lacks a vast liquid-water ocean beneath its ice, contrary to earlier interpretations of Cassini data. Instead, the work suggests that an icy journey downward from the surface would encounter extensive high-pressure ice, slushy layers, and pockets of meltwater closer to the rocky

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 A joint team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology KAIST and the Unmanned Exploration Laboratory UEL has developed a transformable airless wheel designed to help small rovers access steep lunar pits and lava tubes. The wheel targets subsurface sites considered promising for future human habitats because they shield against cosmic radiation and extreme temperature swings.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025 After nearly five years operating inside Mars Jezero Crater, NASA's Perseverance rover has logged almost 25 miles (40 kilometers) of driving while engineers certify that its mobility hardware and other subsystems can keep working for many more years. Built and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Perseverance is following up the long-running Curiosity rover

Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. student at Purdue University  NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is currently trekking towards exciting new terrain. After roughly four months of climbing up and over the rim of Jezero crater, the rover is taking a charming tour of the plains just beyond the western crater rim, fittingly named “Lac de Charmes.” […]

A long and winding road to reach NASA's headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman as NASA’s 15th Administrator this afternoon by a vote of 67-30.  Isaacman’s path was more convoluted than usual with President Trump nominating him in January, […]