Space news

“The NRO is always looking for innovative ways to bring on new partners,” said Chris Scolese, director of the NRO The post National Reconnaissance Office adds HEO, SatVu and Sierra Nevada to commercial imaging program appeared first on SpaceNews.

Executives say customers care less about how data moves than what it enables The post Laser-linked satellite networks moving from concept to capability appeared first on SpaceNews.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Australia is applying space-related products and services to national and regional challenges through an independent not-for-profit organization, the Australasian Space Innovation Institute (ASII). ASII, which began operations in January, builds on the work of the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, a consortium established in 2019 to bolster research and development of space […] The post Australia Space Innovation Institute applies space technologies to address terrestrial challenges appeared first on SpaceNews.

COO Mark Peller said ULA is aiming for between 18 and 22 launches in 2026 The post ULA seeks to rebuild launch cadence after CEO’s exit appeared first on SpaceNews.

MILAN — Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder announced Feb. 4 that the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will receive 58 million euros ($69 million) to build a Human Exploration Control Center to support future robotic and human exploration missions. The total cost of the facility is 78 million euros and in addition to the Bavarian funding, DLR […] The post Germany funds 78 million euro human exploration control center appeared first on SpaceNews.

Amazon announced its first LEO maritime broadband reseller agreements Feb. 10, as it prepares to deploy another batch of satellites this week on the inaugural flight of Europe’s Ariane 64 rocket. The post Amazon Leo nets anchor maritime resellers appeared first on SpaceNews.

Written by Michelle Minitti, MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 6, 2026 The results from our first visit to the “Nevado Sajama” drill location were intriguing enough to motivate our return to do a deeper dive into the minerals and compounds locked in this rock with SAM (the Sample Analysis at Mars […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW – The Aerospace Corp. is sharing DiskSat technology with industry partners as the first four pancake-shaped spacecraft undergo commissioning. Orbotic Systems, a Southern California startup focused on space debris remediation, and San Francisco-based edge computing startup Satylt have signed the first DiskSat commercial licensing agreements. “This is an opportunity for commercial, international, government […] The post Aerospace attracts partners for DiskSat demonstrations appeared first on SpaceNews.

Non-venture investment in space startups surged last year to its highest level since a 2021 spike driven by a wave of special purpose acquisition company mergers, according to BryceTech analysis. The post Non-venture space startup investment hits post-SPAC high appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA astronaut Chris Williams pointed a camera out a window on the cupola as a set of CubeSats were deployed outside the Kibo laboratory module by a small satellite orbital deployer into Earth orbit. Students from Mexico, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan designed the shoe-boxed satellites for a series of Earth observations and technology demonstrations. CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites – small spacecraft […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Spaceium, a startup planning to establish a network of in-space refueling and repair stations, demonstrated the actuator for its robotic arm in space.   Extensive testing of Spaceium’s actuator, which flew on Transporter-15, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare launched in November, confirmed its accuracy.“We tested the actuator first, because our technology revolves […] The post Spaceium demonstrates refueling actuator in orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA and SpaceX have completed a weather review and have waived off Crew-12’s Thursday, Feb. 12, launch opportunity to the International Space Station due to unfavorable forecasted weather conditions. Meanwhile, the Expedition 74 crew focused on astronaut health research, cargo operations, and lab maintenance.

This stunning image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dramatic interplay of light and shadow in the Egg Nebula, sculpted by freshly ejected stardust. Located approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Egg Nebula features a central star obscured by a dense cloud of dust — like a “yolk” nestled within a […]

On 10 February 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a contract with OHB Italia for the development of the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses). Launching in 2028, Ramses will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis before its rare close encounter with Earth. The mission will provide unique insight into the physical properties and behaviour of asteroids, and strengthen international collaboration and European capabilities in planetary defence.

A satellite to be built by Canadian startup Galaxia for launch in 2027 is being lined up for a study aimed at improving California-based Apolink’s proposed in-orbit data relay services. The post Apolink and Galaxia team up to improve planned data relay capability appeared first on SpaceNews.

From the ESA Blogs.

The broadest planned survey by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will reveal hundreds of millions of galaxies scattered across the cosmos. After Roman launches as soon as this fall, scientists will use these sparkly beacons to study the universe’s shadowy underpinnings: dark matter and dark energy. “We set out to build the ultimate […]

NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 5:15 a.m. EST, Friday, Feb. 13, for launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Mission teams completed a weather review Tuesday morning and have waived off the Thursday, Feb. 12, launch opportunity due to forecast […]

As NASA prepares to launch a new crew to the International Space Station, the agency has yet to decide which spacecraft it will use for the next crew-rotation mission. The post NASA, Boeing still working on Starliner return to flight appeared first on SpaceNews.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2026 Solar engineer and ABC Solar founder Brad Bartz will deliver a keynote-style talk titled "The Palos Verdes Landslide: Who Turned the Power Back On?" during an upcoming community event at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles on March 14, 2026. The presentation blends scientific storytelling with real-world engineering experience, exploring how fundamental physics principles translate into resilient

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2026 The boreal forest, the world's largest terrestrial biome, is warming faster than any other major forest type and is now measurably shifting northward. A new analysis of the biome from 1985 to 2020 confirms that boreal forest cover has expanded and migrated toward higher latitudes over the past four decades. In a study led by Feng and colleagues and published in Biogeosciences in February 2

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 06, 2026 The EUMETSAT Council has confirmed that the organisation will remain a key contributor to the European Commission's Destination Earth initiative as it enters Phase Three later this year. Launched in 2022, Destination Earth aims to build highly accurate digital twins of the planet to simulate and predict how natural processes interact with human activities, supporting better-informed decisi

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 06, 2026 Scientists at the University of California, Irvine report that human driven climate change is causing nitrous oxide, a major greenhouse gas and ozone depleting substance, to break down in the atmosphere more quickly than previously estimated. Using two decades of data from NASA's Microwave Limb Sounder, they find that the atmospheric lifetime of nitrous oxide is shortening at a rate that introdu

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 06, 2026 Nanshan district in Shenzhen has built one of the densest hardware and robotics clusters on the planet, centered on a 10-kilometer stretch of Liuxian Avenue known locally as Robot Valley that packs together startups, factories and research labs. Inside this corridor, an embodied intelligent robot serving customers in a cafe has become a shorthand scene for how quickly hardware ideas now re

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 04, 2026 In collaboration with the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Oshima College, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) has developed a new regenerator material composed solely of abundant elements such as copper, iron and aluminum that can achieve cryogenic temperatures around 4 K (minus 269 degrees Celsius) without using any rare earth metals or liquid helium. The work targets

Washington, United States (AFP) Feb 9, 2026 NASA on Monday delayed by one day the journey of four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) over weather conditions. The US space agency is now targeting February 12 for the lift-off of Crew-12's mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a window opening at 5:38am local time (1038 GMT). "Mission teams completed a weather review on Monday and elected to waive off a Wedne

Satellite data has captured the intensity of rainfall over the Iberian Peninsula during three severe winter storms, and the extent of flooding that followed around the Tajo River and basin in Portugal.

Munich-based Earth observation data provider Constellr announced on 10 February that it has closed a €37 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding raised to date to €75 million. The Series A round was led by Alpine Space Ventures and Lakestar, both venture capital firms. Founded in 2020, Constellr provides thermal Earth observation […] The post Earth Observation Data Provider Constellr Closes €37 Million Series A appeared first on European Spaceflight.

From the ESA Blogs.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 ReOrbit has launched Space Cloud, a multi year initiative to build a distributed network of software enabled satellites that can move and process data securely in orbit, in collaboration with Google Cloud. The company describes the project as a space based data center network that will combine on board computing, advanced networking and cloud style orchestration to support government, military a

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Firefly Aerospace is preparing its next Alpha rocket mission, Flight 7 "Stairway to Seven", as a dedicated return-to-flight test from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Alpha FLTA007 rocket will launch no earlier than February 18 on a mission focused on achieving nominal performance of both the first and second stages rather than deploying an operation

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Vantor has secured a 5.3 million dollar Luno B contract with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to provide AI powered global change detection services that support NGA mapping and intelligence missions. Under the agreement, the company will detect and deliver automated insights on real time changes to the Earths landscape, focusing on updates to terrain and land use. The contract

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Astroscale Japan Inc., a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc., has been selected as an implementing organization under the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Space Strategy Fund Program. The company will develop electric propellant refueling technology to underpin future geostationary orbit servicing missions, advancing capabilities for on-orbit satellite support and logistics. The Space

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Momentus Inc. has entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA for a new low Earth orbit mission that will test technologies for in-orbit servicing, assembly, and autonomous operations. The collaboration centers on using the companys Vigoride 7 Orbital Service Vehicle as a host platform for multiple demonstrations designed to improve how spacecraft maneuver, communicate, and work together in spa

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 China has introduced a new satellite short messaging service that uses the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System to maintain communication when ground-based mobile networks are unavailable. The service is aimed at providing a reliable link during emergencies and in remote areas where cellular coverage cannot be guaranteed. China Space-Time Information Co., Ltd., the national operator of BeiDo

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, generates electromagnetic ripples that stretch more than half a million kilometers through the giant planet's space environment. A new analysis of data from NASA's Cassini mission shows that this modest world acts as a large scale generator of Alfven waves that carry energy and momentum along Saturn's magnetic field lines. An international team led by

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Gas giants are large planets composed mainly of hydrogen and helium with dense cores but no solid surfaces. Astronomers have long debated how the most massive of these worlds form and where the boundary lies between true planets and brown dwarfs. A new investigation of the HR 8799 planetary system using the James Webb Space Telescope provides key evidence that even very massive gas giants can gr

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Volcanic activity is a key force shaping the surfaces of rocky planets, and new work from Italy indicates that Venus hosts a giant empty lava tube beneath its surface. Using radar images from NASA's Magellan mission, a team at the University of Trento has identified a skylight feature in the Nyx Mons region that reveals a large underground cavity interpreted as a lava conduit. The study, p

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 For many years, scientists viewed the deep ocean as a nutrient poor realm where microbes in the water column scraped by on scarce resources. New research from the University of Southern Denmark now shows that these dark waters receive a significant and previously overlooked energy subsidy from sinking organic particles. The study, led by biologists at

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Amino acids discovered in samples from the Bennu asteroid may have formed in an icy, radioactive environment in the early solar system, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The findings challenge long-held assumptions that these building blocks of life on asteroids formed primarily in the presence of warm liquid water. The team analyzed a small amount of Bennu material,

London, UK (SPX) Feb 06, 2026 A new electric propulsion laboratory for satellite engines has opened at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, providing UK space companies with access to advanced testing and development facilities. The Disruptive Experimental Electric Propulsion (DEEP) Lab has been built by space technology company Magdrive with support from the UK Space Agency's Space Clusters Infrastructu

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026 Voyager Technologies has secured a new Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity mission management contract from NASA's Johnson Space Center with a ceiling of 24.5 million dollars over four years to support International Space Station operations through 2030. Under the agreement, Voyager will provide full service mission management for ISS payloads, anchoring recurring mission execution across mu

Munich-headquartered hypersonic systems startup Hypersonica has emerged from stealth, announcing the closure of a €23.3 million Series A funding round and a successful test launch of a missile prototype. Founded in December 2023, Hypersonica is developing what it describes as the first privately funded European hypersonic strike capability, with operations currently spanning the UK and […] The post Hypersonic Systems Startup Emerges from Stealth with Series A and Test Launch appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Update — 10 February 2026: NASA and SpaceX have announced they are now planning to launch the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station no earlier than 10:15 GMT / 11:15 CET (05:15 ET) on Friday 13 February, due to forecast weather conditions along the flight path of the Dragon spacecraft. All the dates and times have been updated in the article.

Join ESA teams to watch live the launch and docking of Crew-12, marking the beginning of a nine‑month mission to the International Space Station.

The country’s northern regions are accustomed to snow, but unrelenting storms have snarled transportation and caused other challenges this winter.

A little more than a year after dismissing the moon as a “distraction,” Elon Musk says SpaceX will focus on lunar settlement before sending humans to Mars. The post Musk says SpaceX focus is on the moon rather than Mars appeared first on SpaceNews.

The launch manifest is full this week, with eight launches scheduled from different launch sites… The post Launch Preview: Vulcan to launch USSF-87, SpaceX to launch Crew-12 to ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

Four crew members are set to launch to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission, where they will conduct research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory. The crew will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft […]

The launch is now targeting no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 12, but that too could face challenges from a weather standpoint.