Space news

French small-launch startup Latitude is pushing toward a maiden flight of its Zephyr rocket within… The post French startup Latitude targets 2026 for first launch while following market-driven approach appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

Blue Origin aims to start deploying more than 5,400 satellites from late next year for its own Starlink broadband competitor, targeting up to 6 Tbps capacity for enterprise, data center and government customers. The post Blue Origin plans bespoke high-speed Starlink rival appeared first on SpaceNews.

Sound and hearing studies as well as Earth observations kept the Expedition 74 trio busy on Wednesday. The International Space Station residents also worked on cargo transfers, downloaded radiation data, and kept up lab maintenance.

NASA will host two astronauts at 10 a.m. CST Friday, Jan. 23, for a media opportunity at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, who served as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission, will  discuss their recent mission to the International […]

In fall 2025, more than 50 educators and over 1,500 young people across Maine and New Hampshire participated in NASA’s Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Green Down, a citizen science (also known as participatory science or community science) initiative that engages students and volunteers in tracking seasonal changes in plant life. By observing and documenting leaf color change and leaf drop, participants contributed valuable data used by scientists studying how ecosystems respond to a changing climate.

The goal of NASA’s Universe of Learning (UoL) is to connect the public to the data, discoveries, and experts that span NASA’s Astrophysics missions. To make this possible, the NASA’s UoL team creates engaging STEM experiences that let people explore data and discoveries from NASA’s Astrophysics missions and learn from the experts behind them.

With data speeds of up to 6Tbps, one could stream a lot of HD movies.

NASA researchers have successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make future aircraft more efficient by improving how air flows across a wing’s surface, saving fuel and money. On Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, the Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test article reached speeds of approximately 144 […]

The Exploration Company is in talks to acquire Orbex, the U.K.-based small launch vehicle developer that has reportedly been in financial distress. The post The Exploration Company in talks to acquire Orbex appeared first on SpaceNews.

This Jan. 17, 2026, image shows NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s massive Crawler-Transporter, upgraded for the Artemis program, carries the powerful SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B in preparation for the Artemis II mission. […]

Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require intense heat to form and these “dirty snowballs” spend most of their time in the ultracold Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Now, looking outside our solar system, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope […]

Orbex’s Danish subsidiary, Orbital Express Launch ApS, is set to file for bankruptcy, with its facilities officially closing on 20 January and approximately 90 employees losing their jobs. UK-based Orbital Express Launch (Orbex) established its business in Denmark in October 2016. According to the company, its Copenhagen-based business carried out work in propulsion, testing, software, […] The post Orbex’s Subsidiary in Denmark to File for Bankruptcy appeared first on European Spaceflight.

The United States cannot beat China without accelerating digital transformation: cloud-native services, edge computing, AI/ML-driven autonomy, software-defined payloads, zero-trust cybersecurity, network maneuver and automated DevSecOps pipelines. Digital transformation drives the pace at which militaries convert data into decisions, and decision dominance enables proactive deterrence.  Choices made today about software, data, resilience and partnerships will therefore […] The post Accelerating digital transformation is the keystone to deterring space war appeared first on SpaceNews.

Starfish Space has won a contract from the Space Development Agency to deorbit satellites in a missile-tracking and communications constellation, evidence that deorbiting services are moving into the mainstream. The post Starfish Space wins SDA contract to deorbit satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.

UK-based rocket builder Orbex has signed a letter of intent to sell its business to European space logistics startup The Exploration Company. Orbex was founded in 2015 and is developing a small launch vehicle called Prime. The company also began work on a larger, medium-lift launch vehicle called Proxima in December 2024. On 21 January, […] The post The Exploration Company in Talks to Buy UK Rocket Builder Orbex appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 An international team of astronomers has developed a new way to extract solar polar magnetic information from more than a century of historical observations, improving prospects for predicting future solar cycle activity. The work combines data from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory in India with modern measurements to reconstruct the behavior of the Sun's polar magnetic field over more than 100

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 Astronomers have assembled the most detailed view so far of planetary systems in a long elusive stage between their birth and maturity, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) has produced the sharpest images yet of 24 debris discs, the dusty belts that remain once the main phase of planet formation is

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 A Simon Fraser University cosmologist reports that new theoretical work on primordial magnetic fields could move researchers closer to resolving the longstanding Hubble tension, the mismatch in measurements of how fast the universe is expanding today. The Hubble tension arises because two precise approaches to determining the Hubble constant give significantly different results, despite dr

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 An international team has shown that natural electromagnetic chorus waves, long known in Earths magnetosphere, also occur in Mercurys much weaker magnetosphere with strikingly similar frequency behavior. The work uses coordinated observations from the BepiColombo Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter Mio during six Mercury flybys between 2021 and 2025, together with decades of data from Earths GEOTAIL

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 New experiments show that key molecular building blocks for life can form spontaneously on icy dust grains in deep space long before planets emerge from collapsing gas clouds. In a laboratory at Aarhus University and at the HUN-REN Atomki facility in Hungary, researchers Sergio Ioppolo and Alfred Thomas Hopkinson reproduced the extreme conditions in giant interstellar dust clouds, where te

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 Quantum mechanics describes a microscopic world in which particles exist in a superposition of states, being in multiple places and configurations at once, encoded in a mathematical object called a wavefunction. But this picture clashes with everyday experience, where objects appear in definite locations and configurations, never in superpositions. To account for this, standard quantum the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, but none has captured scientific attention quite like Europa, which likely hides a global salty ocean beneath an icy crust that may contain twice as much water as all of Earth's oceans combined. A new modeling study led by Washington University in collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) suggests that, despite this ocean,

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 A new geophysics study proposes a mechanism that could move life-sustaining nutrients from the battered surface of Europa down into its buried global ocean, improving the odds that the Jovian moon could support microbial life. Europa, one of Jupiters largest moons, holds more liquid water beneath its frozen shell than all of Earths oceans combined, but the ocean is sealed away under thick

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 While Io, the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, appears completely dry and devoid of water ice, its neighbor Europa is thought to harbor a vast global ocean of liquid water beneath an icy crust. A new international study co-led by Aix-Marseille University and Southwest Research Institute finds that this stark contrast in water content was imprinted at birth as the moons formed a

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 Over the years, passing spacecraft have observed mystifying weather patterns at the poles of Jupiter and Saturn. The two planets host very different types of polar vortices, which are huge atmospheric whirlpools that rotate over a planet's polar region. On Saturn, a single massive polar vortex appears to cap the north pole in a curiously hexagonal shape, while on Jupiter, a central polar vortex

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 ExLabs has partnered with Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology and its Planetary Exploration Research Center to deliver university-led payloads to the surface of asteroid Apophis during its close approach to Earth in 2029. The ApophisExL mission is described as the world's first commercial deep-space rideshare and is supported through mission design and operations collaboration with NASA's Jet

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 20, 2026 A long-standing idea in planetary science proposes that water rich meteorites arriving late in Earth history delivered a major share of the planet's water inventory. A new study led by researchers at Universities Space Research Association and the University of New Mexico uses the Moon's surface record to impose strict limits on that scenario, concluding that impacts over the last 4 billion year

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 Gilmour Space Technologies has raised 217 million Australian dollars in private equity funding to accelerate the next phase of its sovereign space operations in Australia. The Series E round was jointly led by the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and superannuation fund Hostplus, with participation from Future Fund, Blackbird, Funds SA, HESTA, NGS Super, Main Sequence, QIC,

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 Stratolaunch has completed a significant capital raise to accelerate the growth of its hypersonic test and flight services business, adding Elliott Investment Management L.P. as a new investor alongside existing backer Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The new funding is intended to rapidly expand Stratolaunch's role in the American defense industrial base through higher production rates and mor

Atlantic Council report urges shift toward resilient satellite architectures to blunt potential Russian attacks The post U.S. vulnerable to Russian escalation in space, new report warns appeared first on SpaceNews.

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NASA is ending financial support for several planetary science groups as part of a broader drawdown of the agency’s advisory structure. The post NASA to end support for planetary science groups appeared first on SpaceNews.

SWISSto12 has announced that during the 2025 ESA Ministerial Council meeting, Member States committed €73 million in additional funding for the Renens-based satellite manufacturer’s HummingSat project. In early 2022, ESA and SWISSto12 signed a contract to begin work on the HummingSat Partnership Project with the aim of developing a micro-geostationary satellite. Part of the agency’s […] The post SWISSto12 Secures €73 Million in New ESA Funding for HummingSat Project appeared first on European Spaceflight.

The 18th European Space Conference (ESC) will take place on 27 and 28 January 2026 at the Square Convention Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

Some stars appear to defy time itself. Nestled within ancient star clusters, they shine bluer and brighter than their neighbours, looking far younger than their true age. Known as blue straggler stars, these stellar oddities have puzzled astronomers for more than 70 years. Now, new results using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are finally revealing how these 'forever young' stars come to be and why they thrive in quieter cosmic neighbourhoods.

From the ESA Blogs.

Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent. This rapidly evolving process creates a ‘sky’ of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides.

To land on the right foot on the Red Planet, European engineers have been dropping a skeleton of the four-legged ExoMars descent module at various speeds and heights on simulated martian surfaces.

Tens of thousands of people fled to safety as blazes spread throughout the country’s Biobío and Ñuble regions.

The colors show the star’s final breath transforming into the raw ingredients for new worlds.

NASA will observe its annual Day of Remembrance on Thursday, Jan. 22, which includes commemorating the crews of Apollo 1 and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. The event is traditionally held every year on the fourth Thursday of January, as all three astronaut accidents happened around the end of the month. “On NASA’s Day […]

‘Minibus’ shifts money to GPS, backs commercial services and cuts proposed MILNET constellation The post Defense appropriations bill for 2026 funds Space Force at $26 billion, presses Pentagon on Golden Dome appeared first on SpaceNews.

After 27 years of service, NASA astronaut Suni Williams retired from the agency, effective Dec. 27, 2025. Williams completed three missions aboard the International Space Station, setting numerous human spaceflight records throughout her career. “Suni Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight, shaping the future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station […]

NASA announced Tuesday the selection of three new science investigations that will strengthen humanity’s understanding and exploration of the Moon. As part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, American companies will deliver these research payloads to the lunar surface no earlier than 2028. “With CLPS, NASA has been taking […]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jan. 15, 2026 — Space Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1983 to advance the global space community, today announced it will host Innovate Space: Finance […] The post Space Foundation to Host Innovate Space: Finance Forum in Partnership With Texas Space Commission appeared first on SpaceNews.

Microbiology research to protect astronaut health and spacecraft hardware topped the science schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. Earth observations and life support maintenance rounded out the day for the Expedition 74 trio.

NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA Tournament Lab offers the contract capability to run external crowdsourced challenges on behalf of NASA and other agencies. The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announces the “Supplements, Facts First: […]

As NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft continues a series of flight tests over the California high desert in 2026, its pilot will be flying with a buddy closely looking out for his safety.  That colleague will be another test pilot in a separate chase aircraft. His job as chase pilot: keep a careful watch on things as he tracks the […]

Although there has been a pause in launch operations as SpaceX transitions Starship to the… The post Florida Starship progress with launch sites at KSC and Cape appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

When NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket launches the agency’s Artemis II mission to the Moon, four CubeSats, or small satellites, will be hitching a ride inside the rocket’s Orion stage adapter (OSA). All four Artemis II CubeSats are provided by countries that are signatories of the Artemis Accords. Payload deployment, which begins approximately five […]