Space news

The acquisition brings missile-warning and space data analytics capabilities The post Parsons buys Altamira for $375 million to expand space and intelligence portfolio appeared first on SpaceNews.

"It comes up almost every time that I see him. Continuous human presence and no gap."

The French space agency CNES and the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, have partnered to launch a €1 million challenge focused on the use of artificial intelligence to analyse satellite data. Originally announced at the Paris Air Show in June 2025, the challenge forms part of the Île-de-France Region’s AI Challenge framework, launched in 2019 […] The post CNES Launches €1 Million AI Space Data Challenge appeared first on European Spaceflight.

The company’s ground station transmitted time and tracking signals to a spacecraft in orbit The post TrustPoint demonstrates non-GPS navigation for LEO satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.

Atomic-6’s composite material will get its first in-orbit test The post Portal Space selects ‘Space Armor’ debris shield for 2026 mission appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Space Force is trying to modernize how satellite operators train for conflict in orbit The post Slingshot wins $27 million Space Force contract for AI training system appeared first on SpaceNews.

This collection of new images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showcases protoplanetary disks, the swirling masses of gas and dust that surround forming stars, in both visible and infrared wavelengths. Through observations of young stellar objects like these, Hubble helps scientists better understand how stars form. These visible-light images depict dark, planet-forming dust disks […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Hydrosat, a thermal imagery startup focused on water-resource management, has raised $60 million in Series B funding from equity investors and sovereign wealth funds. With the influx […] The post Hydrosat raises $60 million in Series B funding appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission safely splashed down early Thursday morning in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, concluding a more than five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov returned to Earth at […]

Four space station crewmates undocked and plunged back to Earth Thursday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast six days after NASA ordered them home early because of a medical issue.

Four astronauts splashed down near San Diego this morning, four weeks earlier than planned. One of the four is experiencing a “medical condition.” NASA declines to specify the person or […]

A Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the California coast Jan. 15, bringing back four people from the ISS more than a month early because of a medical issue. The post Crew-11 makes early return from ISS appeared first on SpaceNews.

Plato, the European Space Agency’s mission to discover Earth-like exoplanets, successfully passed a first round of tests designed to ensure that the spacecraft is fit for launch. As this video shows, the tests consist of vigorously shaking the spacecraft to mimic the powerful jolts and vibrations that Plato will experience during launch.

At 3:41 a.m. EST, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California.   This completes a stay in space of 167 days for the four-person crew. The mission returned to Earth earlier than originally planned as teams monitored a medical concern with a crew member living and working aboard the orbital laboratory. The crew member […]

At 3:41 a.m. EST, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California.   This completes a stay in space of 167 days for the four-person crew. The mission returned to Earth earlier than originally planned as teams monitored a medical concern with a crew member living and working aboard the orbital laboratory. The crew member […]

An Indian startup is entering the satellite servicing market with plans to develop low-cost spacecraft to extend the lives of satellites. The post Indian startup Aule Space enters satellite servicing market appeared first on SpaceNews.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov has completed its deorbit burn as expected ahead of splashdown.  Four minutes before splashdown, the drogue parachutes will deploy at about 18,000 feet in altitude while Dragon is moving approximately 350 mph. Less than a minute later, at about 6,000 feet in […]

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov has completed its deorbit burn as expected ahead of splashdown.  Four minutes before splashdown, the drogue parachutes will deploy at about 18,000 feet in altitude while Dragon is moving approximately 350 mph. Less than a minute later, at about 6,000 feet in […]

After more than 10 years in orbit, the first Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, Sentinel-2A, is still finding new ways to contribute to Earth observation. With its younger siblings, Sentinel-2B and Sentinel-2C, now leading the mission’s core task of delivering high-resolution, ‘camera-like’ images of Earth’s surface, the European Space Agency is pushing Sentinel-2A beyond its original remit.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 For decades, GPS has been treated as a stable, almost invisible layer of modern technology - always present, always reliable. Yet as 2026 approaches, subtle but meaningful changes are beginning to reshape how global navigation systems operate behind the scenes.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 Transcribing audio to text is a crucial process in many industries, from media to education and customer service. The ability to convert spoken words into written form makes content more accessible, searchable, and shareable.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 ispace inc has been selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to conduct an analysis on how to limit harmful space debris in lunar orbit and manage spacecraft end of life on the Moon as activity around the lunar environment increases. The contracted study is titled "Analysis for Space Debris Mitigation in Lunar Orbit and Disposal Management on the Lunar Surface" and reflects growing con

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 GPS has long been perceived as a finished system - dependable, standardized, and largely unchanged from the user's point of view. For most people, navigation simply works, and that reliability creates the illusion of stagnation.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 When the four member crew of Axiom 2 launched on a 10 day mission in May 2023, their time in orbit carried a dense manifest of biomedical experiments aimed at probing human physiology under spaceflight conditions. A new analysis led by scientists at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging uses blood samples from that mission to position spaceflight as a model system for studying biologica

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 The space industry handles some of the most complex data in existence. Satellite images cover millions of square kilometers. Telemetry from a single spacecraft involves thousands of data points. The position of millions of objects in orbit must be tracked to prevent collisions

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 Since the James Webb Space Telescope began science operations in December 2021 some 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, astronomers have been puzzled by compact, intensely red sources scattered through its deep images of the early universe. These so called little red dots appear when the universe is only several hundred million years old, then seem to vanish about a billion years later, prompting

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have renewed their long standing partnership to develop a fission surface power system that can operate on the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign and future missions to Mars. The agencies plan to deploy a lunar surface reactor by 2030 to support sustained human and robotic activities and to advance U.S. leadership in space exploration and commerce.

Live coverage is underway on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel as NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, are about an hour away from splashing down aboard their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.   The deorbit burn is scheduled to begin at 2:51 a.m. EST. Splashdown remains on schedule for approximately 3:41 a.m. Weather conditions remain favorable and are “go” at the primary splashdown site off the coast of […]

A collection of fish-shaped clouds hovered above the glacial lake in Patagonia in December 2025.

At 5:20 p.m. EST, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission undocked from the International Space Station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

NASA’s integrated SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission is inching closer to launch – literally. The agency is targeting no earlier than 7 a.m. EST, Saturday, Jan. 17, to begin the multi-hour trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in […]

NASA’s live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 undocking is now underway on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

NASA’s live undock coverage for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission now will begin at 5 p.m. EST on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.  Learn more about the mission by following the @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Chinese commercial firm CAS Space launched its first Lihong-1 suborbital flight and recovery test mission, seeing a successful parachute descent of the capsule. The post CAS Space conducts first suborbital launch and capsule landing test appeared first on SpaceNews.

At 3:29 p.m. EST, the hatch closed between the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the International Space Station in preparation for the return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission.

At 3:29 p.m. EST, the hatch closed between the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the International Space Station in preparation for the return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission.

The three astronauts and cosmonaut are scheduled to undock from the space station at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and splashdown off the coast of California at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 UTC).

NASA’s live coverage is underway on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel for the return of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission.

NASA’s live coverage is underway on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel for the return of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 5:05 PM EST (22:05 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, for… The post Crew-11 set for undocking and splashdown after medical situation forces early return appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

The New York–Newark–Jersey City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which spans 23 counties across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and has a population of about 19.9 million, is pictured at approximately 3:29 a.m. local time Dec. 20, 2025, from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above the Atlantic coast. Crew members aboard the […]

A delay in one European Space Agency mission is creating an opportunity for an earlier, and more capable, launch for another ESA spacecraft. The post ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission moves up launch appeared first on SpaceNews.

When President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress in May 1961 and declared that the United States would land a man on the moon before the decade’s end, his purpose was not to invent the space program, but to impose a clear objective, a deadline and the resources to unify these efforts. The success of […] The post Taiwan’s Moonshot: why ‘T-Dome’ needs systems engineering, not just a shopping list appeared first on SpaceNews.

If you stayed in a hotel last night, there’s a good chance you saw that familiar placard in the bathroom: “Help save the planet — hang your towel and we won’t wash it.” At a recent panel, I asked the audience how many had seen that sign. Most hands went up. Then I asked them […] The post Space sustainability will evolve into a data-driven system appeared first on SpaceNews.

Boulder-based startup plans 2026 demonstrations tied to space domain awareness The post ThinkOrbital raises seed funding to advance X-ray space inspection appeared first on SpaceNews.

A small reentry capsule demonstrator developed by Spanish space logistics startup Orbital Paradigm survived the failure of its PSLV launch vehicle on 12 January and successfully transmitted 190 seconds of flight data. Valencia-based Orbital Paradigm was founded in 2023 and is developing a reusable capsule called Kestrel that will be able to host payloads of […] The post European Capsule Demonstrator Survives Launch Failure appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Earth’s global surface temperature in 2025 was slightly warmer than 2023 – but within the margin of error the two years are effectively tied according to an analysis by NASA scientists. Since record-keeping began in 1880, the hottest year on record remains 2024.  Global temperatures in 2025 were cooler than 2024, with average temperatures of […]

SpaceX’s 2026 IPO plans were an early Christmas present for space investors who were already bullish about the year ahead. The move helps push the industry further into the mainstream investment and public consciousness. It also paves the way for others to go public in a capital-intensive business. Despite ongoing financial uncertainty, demand for sovereign […] The post Bringing outsiders into the space fold appeared first on SpaceNews.

Just-forming stars, called protostars, dazzle a cloudy landscape in the Orion Molecular Cloud complex (OMC). These three new images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope were taken as part of an effort to learn more about the envelopes of gas and dust surrounding the protostars, as well as the outflow cavities where stellar winds and jets […]

The global security environment is becoming more volatile, not less. The war in Ukraine grinds on. China is increasingly assertive in the Indo-Pacific. The Middle East remains unstable. North Korea continues to test missiles and challenge regional stability. Together, these dynamics are straining the international system in ways not seen since the early Cold War. […] The post When allies can’t count on U.S. ISR, commercial space becomes strategic appeared first on SpaceNews.