Space news

A new job posting suggests the debate may be swinging back toward reusing GS2.

Expedition 74 wrapped up the week with more preparations for the upcoming launch and arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission. The orbital trio also studied space physics and human research while resupplying and inventorying lab supplies and tools aboard the International Space Station.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘We helped usher in the modern era of AI in NGA.’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘Serving the country and pushing the boundaries of human existence is very purposeful.’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘I loved thinking about how to make science possible for America and for the world’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘You need competent people in the government to direct and make decisions.’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘Now it’s time to turn the baton over to others. I hope there’s somebody else to grab that baton.’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘People knew that they could come to us to figure out how to get things done.’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘As far as I know, I’m still the assistant administrator of NESDIS.’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year decline since the end of World War II. In total, more than 5,000 people who were part of the federal space workforce left their positions. […] The post ‘Leaders can be replaced, institutional knowledge cannot’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

In 2025, more than 322,000 civil servants left jobs voluntarily or were dismissed out of a workforce of roughly 2.4 million. The 13% drop in staffing is the largest single-year […] The post Exodus: The shrinking federal space workforce appeared first on SpaceNews.

Week in images: 02-06 February 2026

United Launch Alliance is preparing for the launch of the USSF-87 mission for the U.S. Space Force no earlier than Feb. 12, which will fly from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA has selected two Earth science missions for development, one focused on studying the atmosphere and the other on terrestrial ecosystems and ice. The post NASA selects two Earth science missions for development appeared first on SpaceNews.

Depending on when you read this, NASA will be weeks — perhaps days — from one of its biggest missions in years. On Jan. 17, NASA rolled out the Space Launch System rocket, with Orion spacecraft mounted on top, to the launch pad for the Artemis 2 mission. The launch will be the first time […] The post Over the moon and under the radar appeared first on SpaceNews.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 05, 2026 Life on Earth has traditionally been viewed as running on two main energy sources, sunlight captured by photosynthesis and chemical energy derived from reactions such as microbes feeding on reduced compounds in soils, sediments, and oceans. A new review introduces a third, largely overlooked energy source that may help drive global biogeochemical cycles, mechanical force converted into usa

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 05, 2026 Physicists have traditionally divided all elementary particles in three dimensional space into just two categories, bosons and fermions, depending on how systems of identical particles behave when the particles exchange places. In standard quantum theory, experimental observations in three dimensions point to a strict binary: when two identical particles swap positions, the combined quantum stat

San Francisco, United States (AFP) Feb 3, 2026 Tech firms are floating the idea of building data centers in space and tapping into the sun's energy to meet out-of-this-world power demands in a fierce artificial intelligence race. Elon Musk's decision to have his rocket company SpaceX take over his artificial intelligence outfit xAI has added fuel to the debate about whether orbiting data centers are feasible or foolish. - Who are the

Paris, France (AFP) Feb 5, 2026 Four astronauts could blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) next week, after setbacks including a mysterious medical evacuation of the previous crew, last-minute rocket problems, and some scheduling conflicts with NASA's Moon mission. The crew was scheduled to launch on February 11, Elon Musk's SpaceX company said this week it was grounding all flights on its Falcon 9 rocket whi

Paris, France (AFP) Feb 5, 2026 When the International Space Station comes back to Earth in 2030, it will mark the end of three decades of peaceful international cooperation - and an era when space became central to our daily lives. Since November 2000, there have always been several humans on board the football field-sized scientific laboratory, whipping around the planet at eight kilometres per second. With a new

China appears set for an in-flight abort test of its new-generation Mengzhou spacecraft next week in a key step for the country’s human spaceflight plans. The post China set for in-flight abort test of Mengzhou crew spacecraft appeared first on SpaceNews.

From the ESA Blogs.

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot is preparing to launch to the International Space Station for her first space mission: εpsilon.

With fewer cars on the road, planes in the air and factories running, the skies seemed cleaner during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, while there was a decline in pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, scientists were surprised to see that methane surged in the early 2020s and then dropped – and now they know why.

In late January 2026, a strong, moisture-laden storm dropped snow across nearly the entire state, spanning from the Appalachians to the Atlantic Coast.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tomorrow.io raised $175 million to fund DeepSky, a satellite constellation designed to gathering vast quantities of atmospheric data for artificial intelligence models. With the money provided by private equity investors Stonecourt Capital and HarbourVest Partners, Tomorrow.io plans to rapidly expand its “space infrastructure and intelligence platform, enabling unprecedented global atmospheric sensing and […] The post Tomorrow.io banks $175 million for DeepSky weather constellation appeared first on SpaceNews.

Golden Dome deputy program manager Marcia Holmes: ‘We are going to be easier to work with’ The post Pentagon casts Golden Dome as model for faster, risk-tolerant defense buying appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved plans for Starship launches from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A as SpaceX shifts Falcon 9 launches away from the historic pad. The post FAA approves Starship launches from LC-39A appeared first on SpaceNews.

Two next-generation satellite missions announced Thursday will help NASA better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters. “NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to study our home planet to deliver life-saving data into the hands of disaster response and decision-makers every day for the benefit of all, while […]

SpaceX Dragon arrival preparations and artificial intelligence research to improve crew operations continued aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The Expedition 74 crew also checked out new medical hardware and trained to use emergency gear while keeping up orbital lab maintenance.

What does a welder do? A welder uses tools that join two or more parts through forces such as heat or pressure. Metals are the materials most commonly used in welding, but it’s also possible to weld thermoplastics or wood. Welders use their hands, skills, and problem-solving abilities to create something new. At NASA, welders […]

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission is preparing to launch for a long-duration science mission aboard the International Space Station. During the mission, select crew members will participate in human health studies focused on understanding how astronauts’ bodies adapt to the low-gravity environment of space, including a new study examining subtle changes in blood flow. The experiments, […]

The new year has not started well for China, with two failures among its first… The post Despite initial setbacks, Chinese spaceflight expected to see exciting 2026 appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

This new Hubble image, released on Jan. 30, 2026, is the sharpest taken of NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. A lenticular, meaning “lens-shaped,” galaxy is a type whose classification sits between more familiar spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. It is also less common than spirals and ellipticals — partly […]

In this episode of Space Minds, Mike Gruss sits down with a panel of experts at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center to discuss the future of the United States […] The post The future of the Space Force in a competitive, congested and contested space environment appeared first on SpaceNews.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher joined French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace for an event celebrating the first spaceflight of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher joined French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace for an event celebrating the first spaceflight of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot.

"We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments."

Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy said the Space Force is taking a closer look at companies developing technologies to mine asteroids. The post Deep space, dim objects: Why asteroid mining caught the Space Force’s eye appeared first on SpaceNews.

European space logistics startup The Exploration Company has successfully completed a controlled splashdown test of a subscale prototype of its Nyx spacecraft. Founded in 2021, The Exploration Company is developing a reusable space capsule called Nyx that will initially be used to ferry cargo to and from low Earth orbit destinations. Planned variants of the […] The post The Exploration Company Completes Nyx Splashdown Tests appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Quindar’s software aims to cut cost and complexity of satellite ground operations The post Satellite servicing startup Starfish taps Quindar for mission operations software appeared first on SpaceNews.

Voyager Technologies and Max Space, a company working on expandable habitats, plan to work together to see how that technology could be used for lunar exploration. The post Voyager Technologies and Max Space partner on lunar infrastructure appeared first on SpaceNews.

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 04, 2026 New research from Australian and Chinese scientists is filling key gaps in the evolutionary story of some of the oldest fishes on Earth, including early lungfishes closely related to land vertebrates. In two separate studies, researchers have re-examined fossil material from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia and described a new lungfish species from 410 million-year-old

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 04, 2026 Species that are not native to an area can displace the species that already live there, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Nature has identified invasive alien organisms as one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Liverpool have now produced a systematic scan of which alien vascular plants could

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 02, 2026 Near Earth asteroids are small bodies whose orbits cross or come close to Earth, making them key tracers of Solar System formation and evolution as well as potential impact hazards for our planet. An international team led by researchers at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has completed a one year observing campaign to better classify these objects. From Octobe

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 04, 2026 BlackSky Technology Inc. has secured multiple Gen 3 Assured services contracts totaling seven figures with a new international defense customer following an early access period for the capability. The company reports that the expansion agreements signal a rapid shift by the customer toward advanced space-based dynamic monitoring as they scale to support time-sensitive tactical intelligence, surv

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 05, 2026 Your favorite space sim lies to you every single time you hit the throttle. Developers prioritize "fun" over "physics" because actual interstellar combat involves math that would melt your brain and your GPU simultaneously

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 02, 2026 Of the more than 4,500 stars known to have planets, one puzzling statistic stands out. Even though nearly all stars are expected to have planets and most stars form in pairs, planets that orbit both stars in a pair are rare. Of the more than 6,000 extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, confirmed to date - most of them found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey S

Logos Space Services has secured U.S. regulatory approval to deploy up to 4,178 low Earth orbit broadband satellites. The post FCC clears Logos to deploy more than 4,000 broadband satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.

SAN FRANCISCO — Morpheus Space raised $15 million in a Series A+ funding round announced Feb. 5. “This funding is intended to accelerate our production as we focus on bringing our GO-2 Electric Propulsion System fully to market,” Morpheus CEO Kevin Lausten told SpaceNews. “It’s about getting the product in the hands of our customers.” […] The post Morpheus raises $15 million in Series A+ round appeared first on SpaceNews.