Space news

NASA says it is “very unlikely” the agency will be able to recover a Mars spacecraft that has been out of contact for more than a month. The post NASA pessimistic about odds of recovering MAVEN appeared first on SpaceNews.

From civil science and exploration missions to national security, there are many space activities to look forward to in 2026. There will be at least three missions heading to the moon, Vast’s Haven-1 is scheduled to launch as the first prospective commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destination. But perhaps more importantly, there will be a […] The post Space operations will become more dynamic this year appeared first on SpaceNews.

Funding backs expansion of “virtual constellation” that aggregates imagery from commercial operators The post SkyFi raises $12.7 million to scale satellite data marketplace appeared first on SpaceNews.

China conducted a pair of Long March rocket launches Tuesday, kicking off what is likely to be a record-breaking year for the country. The post China’s first launches of 2026 send Yaogan spacecraft into unusual orbit, loft Guowang satellites  appeared first on SpaceNews.

From the ESA Blogs.

The Swedish government has committed SEK 1.3 billion (approximately €121 million) to purchase ten satellites to build out a sovereign intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system. On 12 January, Sweden announced a SEK 5.3 billion (approximately €494 million) spending package focused on expanding national defence capacity. The funding forms part of a SEK 25 billion […] The post Sweden to Acquire 10 Surveillance Satellites for €121 Million appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 07, 2026 A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo have demonstrated a method to back up quantum information by encrypting qubits during copying, providing redundancy while remaining consistent with the no-cloning theorem. Quantum computing stores and processes information in qubits, which can be implemented in individual electrons, photons, atoms, ions or tiny electrical currents.

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 09, 2026 Controlling light across scales, from microscopes and telescopes down to nanometers, is a central challenge in modern optics. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have now demonstrated a nanoscale mirror whose reflectivity can be switched on and off electrically using quantum effects in an atomically thin material. Physicists Tom Hoekstra and Jorik van de Groep of the UvA-Institute o

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 Stringent quality control is essential in the pharmaceutical industry, as both cosmetics and pharmaceutical products must maintain a high standard of quality. Any deviation from these standards poses a significant threat to their market survival. Customers believe that every product will work with every use. In vitro release testing (IVRT) is a crucial process that enables manufacturers to meet

San Francisco, United States (AFP) Jan 13, 2026 A trial in the lawsuit brought by Elon Musk against OpenAI CEO Samuel Altman and other defendants - including tech giant Microsoft - is scheduled to begin April 27, according to a federal court order issued Tuesday. The legal showdown will center on Musk's claim that OpenAI and Altman abandoned the startup's original nonprofit, public-benefit mission and misled him while turning the lab in

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 As lunar exploration intensifies, the cislunar space is experiencing increasing congestion. Traditional two body Keplerian elements, which have long been the standard for Earth orbiting objects, prove insufficient for accurately describing the complex orbits near the Earth Moon Lagrange points due to the chaotic and non integrable nature of three body dynamics. This fundamental deficiency

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 NASA is getting ready to send four astronauts around the Moon with Artemis II, laying the foundation for sustainable missions to the lunar surface and paving the way for human exploration on Mars. As the agency considers deep space endeavors that could last months or years, it must develop ways to feed astronauts beyond sending supplies from Earth. That is why NASA is launching the Deep Sp

Beijing, China (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 Low-Earth orbit slots are finite, nonrenewable and increasingly scarce. Once they are occupied or effectively locked by early movers, latecomers face severe constraints on their ability to deploy satellite systems critical for communications, navigation, remote sensing and digital services. Under the long-standing "first-come, first-served" principle of the International Telecommunication

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Aerospacelab, a satellite manufacturing and design company, has been selected by Xona Space Systems to produce eight additional satellites for Pulsar, a low Earth orbit navigation constellation designed to deliver high performance positioning, navigation and timing services. The new order is intended to bridge early commercial demand, with launches scheduled to begin in late 2026 as Xona develop

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 12, 2026 The EUMETSAT Council has formally endorsed the EUMETSAT Polar System Sterna (EPS Sterna), clearing the way for a new constellation of polar orbiting microsatellites that will deliver frequent microwave measurements of atmospheric temperature, humidity and cloud properties. The decision confirms EPS Sterna as a mandatory programme for EUMETSAT and authorises full scale activities targeting the la

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 10, 2026 After a string of dramatic failures, the huge Starship rocket from SpaceX had a fully successful test on Oct. 13, 2025. A couple more test flights, and SpaceX plans to launch it into orbit. A month later, a rival rocket company, Blue Origin, flew its almost-as-large New Glenn rocket all the way to orbit and sent spacecraft on their way to Mars. While these successful flights are exci

by Poornima Apte for MIT News Boston MA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Going to the moon was one thing; going to Mars will be quite another. The distance alone is intimidating. While the moon is 238,855 miles away, the distance to Mars is between 33 million and 249 million miles. The propulsion systems that got us to the moon just will not work. Taylor Hampson, a master's student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineeri

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 In a key step toward sustaining crews on future lunar missions, Nimbus Power Systems has completed a campaign of shock and vibration tests on its advanced, gravity independent fuel cell hardware in cooperation with Blue Origin. The tests reproduced the harsh launch and ascent environments expected for NASA Artemis crewed missions, and the fuel cell met all specified performance targets while mai

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Diffraqtion, a space startup spun out of MIT and the University of Maryland, has closed a pre-seed funding round to advance satellite constellations and telescope systems powered by a novel quantum camera. The round is led by QDNL Participations, with participation from milemark+ capital, Aether VC, ADIN, Offline Ventures, and a non-dilutive DARPA SBIR Direct-to-Phase 2 contract that supports sp

Berkeley, United States (SPX) Jan 12, 2026 For 21 years, between 1999 and 2020, millions of people worldwide loaned UC Berkeley scientists their computers to search for signs of advanced civilizations in our galaxy. The project - called SETI@home, after the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) - generated a loyal following eager to participate in one of the most popular crowd-sourced projects in the early days of the int

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 In near weightless conditions aboard the International Space Station, viruses that infect bacteria continue to attack their hosts but follow an altered evolutionary trajectory compared to the same systems on Earth. A new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin Madison used Escherichia coli and its bacteriophage predator T7 to probe how microgravity reshapes the coevolution

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Firefly Aerospace has announced a Block II configuration upgrade for its Alpha small launch vehicle, with qualification testing for the new second stage hardware now underway at the companys Rocket Ranch test facility in Briggs, Texas. The Block II program is intended to boost reliability, streamline manufacturing, and improve launch operations to better support commercial, civil, and national s

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Nullspace Inc. has released a new version of its electromagnetic simulation suite that targets large-scale antenna and radar applications with faster frequency analysis and streamlined CAD preparation for RF engineers. The company positions the software as a way to shorten design cycles and time-to-market for complex RF systems by combining high-accuracy solvers with new automation features.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 EdgeCortix Inc. reports that its Sakura II edge AI co-processor has demonstrated high levels of radiation resiliency in heavy ion testing conducted under the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program. The results mark the second time an EdgeCortix device has completed this test campaign, following earlier work in 2024 on the Sakura I co-processor. According to the new NASA report, Sakura

New Delhi (AFP) Jan 12, 2026 An Indian rocket hit a snag during its launch Monday, forcing a deviation in flight path as it carried an Earth observation satellite and commercial payloads, the country's space agency said. The PSLV-C62, a four-stage launch vehicle, "encountered an anomaly" towards the end of the third stage, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, without saying exactly what went wrong.

Satellite-based maps show northern wildland fires becoming more frequent and widespread as temperatures rise and lightning reaches higher latitudes.

An increasingly flammable landscape combined with more lightning strikes is leading to larger, more frequent, and more intense fires than the landscape is adapted for.

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), long hailed as the reliable workhorse of the Indian… The post India’s workhorse PSLV needs to solve third stage issue following second consecutive failure appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

Firefly Aerospace says it will upgrade its Alpha launch vehicle, making changes intended to improve the reliability of a rocket that has experienced several failures. The post Firefly to upgrade Alpha rocket to improve reliability appeared first on SpaceNews.

SAN FRANCISCO – A Jan. 13 hearing underscored the importance of ongoing collaboration between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. armed services. U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy witnesses discussed their heavy reliance on datasets and weather models provided by NOAA and said their agencies are working closely to ensure NOAA’s […] The post Congressional hearing highlights military’s reliance on NOAA data appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Starlink 6-98 mission will add 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 1:08 p.m. EST (1808 UTC).

The change will allow the U.S. Space Force to expedite the process of building out its GPS constellation in medium Earth orbit. The launch date for the next satellite, GPS III Space Vehicle 09, could be within weeks.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 5:05 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Jan. 14, for the undocking of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission from the International Space Station, pending weather conditions. On Jan. 8, NASA announced its decision to return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to Earth from the space station earlier than originally planned […]

SpaceX continues to make rapid progress on its Starship program infrastructure, with significant developments at… The post Starship launch infrastructure progress at Starbase/Cape ahead of 2026 Launches appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

In this photo from early January 2026, teams prepare to encapsulate NASA’s Pandora small satellite, NASA-sponsored Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS), and the Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope (BlackCAT) CubeSat, inside a SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairing. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Pandora small satellite lifted off at 5:44 a.m. PST Sunday, Jan. […]

MILAN — The European Space Agency and Luxembourg’s ClearSpace announced Jan. 12 a new collaboration on an in-orbit servicing and active debris removal mission called PRELUDE, one that will involve two small spacecraft designed to test close-proximity operations and could eventually enable satellite life extension, repair and removal in orbit. Officials are targeting a 2027 […] The post ESA and ClearSpace announce PRELUDE in-orbit servicing and debris removal mission appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA, along with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announced Tuesday a renewed commitment to their longstanding partnership to support the research and development of a fission surface power system for use on the Moon under the Artemis campaign and future NASA missions to Mars. A recently signed memorandum of understanding between the agencies solidifies […]

Deal tied to planned IPO aims to expand solid rocket motor capacity The post Pentagon commits $1 billion to L3Harris missile unit as ‘anchor investor’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

Expedition 74 is preparing to split up as four crew members turn their attention to Wednesday’s departure. The homebound quartet—representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission—spent Tuesday packing cargo, reviewing return to Earth procedures, and transferring hardware aboard the International Space Station.

Expedition 74 is preparing to split up as four crew members turn their attention to Wednesday’s departure. The homebound quartet—representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission—spent Tuesday packing cargo, reviewing return to Earth procedures, and transferring hardware aboard the International Space Station.

NASA is getting ready to send four astronauts around the Moon with Artemis II, laying the foundation for sustainable missions to the lunar surface and paving the way for human exploration on Mars. As the agency considers deep space endeavors that could last months or years, it must develop ways to feed astronauts beyond sending […]

A widespread demand for nuclear power has led some to call this period a “nuclear renaissance,” one that will continue to build momentum in 2026. This growing need is being driven by two primary use cases: small modular nuclear reactors for cloud infrastructure and terrestrial data center needs, and nuclear electric reactors for lunar surface […] The post There’s no end in sight for a space ‘nuclear renaissance’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 China has submitted plans for more than 200,000 satellites to the International Telecommunication Union, underscoring a drive to secure orbital positions and radio spectrum as global competition for low Earth orbit intensifies. The applications on the ITU website cover more than a dozen planned satellite constellations, with individual networks ranging from a few dozen spacecraft to systems appr

Irvine, United States (SPX) Jan 08, 2026 University of California Irvine astronomers have reported the discovery of the largest known stream of super heated gas in the universe flowing out of a nearby spiral galaxy called VV 340a. The team describes the finding, made with data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and other facilities, in the journal Science under the identifier 10.1126/science.adp8989. The observations show sup

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 NASA mission controllers have acquired full signal from the agency's Pandora small satellite, confirming the health and initial operations of the exoplanet observatory following launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Jan. 11, 2026. The spacecraft rode to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East, sharing the flight with the Star-Planet Activity Re

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 Temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius and pressures of millions of atmospheres drive water into a superionic state in which hydrogen ions move freely through a solid lattice of oxygen atoms. In this exotic phase, which forms only under extreme conditions, water behaves like a hybrid of solid and liquid and shows very high electrical conductivity. Because this phase can efficient

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 What astronomers know about the birth of a black hole has long mirrored the objects themselves, tending to be dark, difficult to observe, and seemingly quiet despite their immense gravitational influence. Stellar mass black holes form in the final gravitational collapse of massive stars with several tens of the mass of the Sun, and these heavyweights were thought not to produce bright supernova

London, UK (SPX) Jan 08, 2026 Physicists at the University of Oxford have contributed to a new experimental study that shows iron rich asteroids can withstand far more energy than previously estimated before breaking apart. The work provides direct insight into how metallic asteroid material behaves under impact like conditions and could help refine planetary defense strategies. Recent demonstration missions such as NA

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 Using high resolution images from several Mars orbiters, an international team led by the University of Bern has identified a system of fan deltas in southeast Coprates Chasma that record the highest stand of an ancient ocean in Mars Valles Marineris. The geomorphologic structures, preserved today as scarp fronted deposits near the lower end of the canyon system, closely resemble classic river d

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 For decades scientists have puzzled over why the moons two hemispheres look so different despite sharing a common origin in the early solar system. The near side that always faces Earth is dominated by dark flat volcanic plains called maria that create the familiar man in the moon pattern seen with the naked eye. In contrast the far side has a much thicker crust and appears as a rugged hea