Space news

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon began a spacewalk at 8:35 a.m. EDT outside the International Space Station to prepare the 3B power channel for the future installation of new roll-out solar arrays. Once installed, the arrays will provide additional power to support critical station operations, including its safe and controlled deorbit.

Rockets, rovers and landers have dominated the attention of the commercial space industry as the United States focuses on sending humans back to the moon, but a handful of companies […] The post Three companies building the tech to grow crops on the moon appeared first on SpaceNews.

Rocket Lab launched a Japanese radar-imaging satellite Aug. 6, more than a month after the previous launch attempt was aborted. The post Rocket Lab launches 8th iQPS satellite appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA is streaming live coverage as two NASA astronauts prepare for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 8:35 a.m. EDT and last about six and a half hours. Watch online at: https://www.nasa.gov/live

HELSINKI — Commercial launch company Orienspace has kicked off preparations for an IPO coaching process while closing a funding round for accelerating its reusable Gravity-2 rocket. The Shandong-based company, formally […] The post Chinese launch startup Orienspace targets IPO, secures funding for reusable Gravity-2 rocket appeared first on SpaceNews.

The footage shows the simultaneous deployment of two landing legs from the ExoMars landing platform, in two sequential pairs.

This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month takes us to a fantastical realm within our home galaxy, where piercing starlight and billowing winds sculpt dust clouds into inventive shapes. This scene is from the Carina Nebula, which lies just 7500 light-years away in the constellation Carina (the Keel).

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 6 – New… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. New Sharpest […]

The ocean’s ebbs and flows reveal dynamic tidal flats and a well-traveled shipping route along the coast of Germany.

NASA and Roscosmos have agreed to continue exchanging seats between Soyuz and Crew Dragon spacecraft, but that agreement does not yet extend to Starliner. The post NASA and Roscosmos continue seat barter agreement appeared first on SpaceNews.

Blue Origin has traced the explosion of its New Glenn rocket during a static-fire test in May to a valve in the rocket’s BE-4 engine. The post New Glenn explosion linked to rocket engine valve appeared first on SpaceNews.

"The models are forecasting something outside the envelope of anything we have ever observed."

The head of the French space agency CNES told lawmakers in April that a subscale prototype of a future reusable full-flow staged-combustion rocket engine is expected to be tested for the first time in 2028. CNES President François Jacq disclosed the target in written answers submitted to the French National Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee ahead […] The post CNES Sets 2028 Target for Hot-Fire Test of New High-Thrust Rocket Engine appeared first on European Spaceflight.

A first of its kind measurement of a magnetar may have captured empty space behaving in a way physicists have predicted for 90 years, but never directly observed. The results published Wednesday in Nature. Fast facts Scientists using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) conducted more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E […]

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon have been given the go by mission managers for Thursday’s spacewalk to prepare the International Space Station for future upgrades to its power system. The spacewalkers will spend about seven hours in the vacuum of space building a modification kit on the station’s Starboard 6 truss segment where a roll out solar array is slated to be installed later this year.

Technicians joined the Orion crew and service modules together on July 30, 2026, inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew module will carry and sustain NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas, and Frank Rubio, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, while the service […]

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded contracts to Capella Space, Iceye U.S. and Umbra to expand the U.S. government’s use of commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The […] The post Capella, Iceye and Umbra win NRO radar-data contracts appeared first on SpaceNews.

Description This composite of seven images from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover shows Earth, visible as a small bright dot moving from upper left to lower right, passing behind the Martian moon Phobos on July 2, 2026, 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The black background is the result of […]

Earth and the Martian moon Phobos dance together in a series of images recently acquired by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Earth appears as a point of light in the Martian sky, disappearing behind the crescent of Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons. This is the first time humanity has captured from the surface of […]

Another wave of constellations has staked claims for communications satellites in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO), but what hope do newcomers have alongside the industry’s entrenched, vertically integrated giants? A mix of […] The post Finding room in Starlink’s shadow appeared first on SpaceNews.

The European Space Agency is offering European researchers and companies a rare and exciting opportunity to run their innovative software directly in deep space aboard ESA’s Hera mission, millions of kilometres distant.

The International Space Station hosts hundreds of science experiments at a time. Some experiments can take hours to perform, and researchers need to account for astronauts’ limited time. Fully automated devices, like Redwire’s  ADvanced Space Experiment Processors (ADSEPs), have been designed to conduct more space science with less crew time. Within each ADSEP facility there […]

The mood was celebratory at the ribbon-cutting for Muon Space’s San Jose, California, manufacturing facility in June. State, local, United States Space Force and Pentagon representatives lauded the startup and, […] The post Satellite manufacturing thrives in California despite cost and regulatory pressures appeared first on SpaceNews.

Europe’s forests are losing more biomass than previously thought, with disturbances such as drought and pests causing increasingly large losses from some of the oldest forests in Europe. This situation has deteriorated markedly since 2018.

Europe risks becoming dependent on foreign orbital computing infrastructure as U.S. companies and China’s government-led push accelerate the development of space-based data centers, according to the European Space Policy Institute. The post Think tank warns Europe’s orbital compute gap is widening appeared first on SpaceNews.

A total solar eclipse is coming to Europe. The European Space Agency (ESA) will broadcast live from 19:30 CEST on 12 August, allowing you to experience this rare event from anywhere in the world.

The BlueBird 11-13 mission is the third time SpaceX will fly satellites to orbit supporting AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-device constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled during a window that opens at 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 UTC).

Neuraspace, the Portuguese space traffic management startup, announced around $18 million in fresh funding Aug. 5 to expand European space domain awareness and defense capabilities. The post Neuraspace raises $18 million to expand sovereign space awareness appeared first on SpaceNews.

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 5 – Spokes… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Brad Croslin […]

The coastal dune field in Brazil looks like a desert but fills with freshwater lagoons every year.

Voyager Technologies remains upbeat about the prospects for its Starlab commercial space station but is hoping for some tweaks to NASA’s plans to support the station’s development. The post Voyager seeks relaxed requirements in NASA commercial space station RFP appeared first on SpaceNews.

During its first earnings call since going public, SpaceX officials said today the next Starship test flight, IFT-14, will put operational Starlink Version 3 satellites into orbit. If they get […]

SpaceX plans to start deploying upgraded Starlink satellites into orbit on the next flight of its Starship vehicle, scheduled for as soon as the end of the month. The post SpaceX to begin Starship orbital flights appeared first on SpaceNews.

The companies, along with a third unidentified vendor, won $615 million in contracts for the AMTI satellite program The post Rocket Lab, STR win Space Force contracts for airborne-target tracking technologies appeared first on SpaceNews.

Arctic communications award will fund an expansion of Telesat’s Lightspeed, taking the planned LEO network to 225 spacecraft The post Telesat lands $1.63 billion Canadian defense contract appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Expedition 75 crew continued preparing for a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday to augment the International Space Station’s power system. The orbital residents also installed advanced Earth observation hardware, continued space exercise research, and kept up lab maintenance.

After a previously targeted launch date in November, NASA has moved up the next International… The post Crew-13 pilot reflects on career, training, and upcoming science ahead of flight to ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will continue to evaluate data from Spire Global’s Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder (HyMS) under a $3 million contract extension announced Aug. 4. […] The post NOAA purchases Spire hyperspectral microwave sounder data appeared first on SpaceNews.

Using ground-based telescopes and space-based assets, NASA and SpaceX are tracking a used Falcon 9 upper stage from a commercial mission expected to impact the Moon on Wednesday, Aug. 5, near the Einstein and Bell craters. The impact poses no danger to Earth and NASA scientists are planning to collect lunar data from the event […]

Using continuous imagery from NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, scientists predicted the near-Earth arrival of a solar eruption to within 30 minutes in an initial proof of concept test. The results, presented Tuesday at the Committee on Space Research Scientific Meeting and under review at the journal Space Weather, could […]

The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Danielle Lopez, Jennifer Claudio, and Duncan Mifsud. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond. Space Biosciences Star of the Month: Danielle Lopez Danielle Lopez is the […]

Your challenge is to tell us the location of the satellite image and why it is interesting.

SpaceX is recovering the intact Ship 40 from the Indian Ocean after its soft landing… The post While SpaceX recovers Ship 40, Ship 41 prepares for testing ahead of Flight 14 appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

NASA is making progress in building the Moon Base, which will become a resilient outpost near the Moon’s South Pole for science, technology, and eventual human operations. To advance lunar surface infrastructure development, commercial partners such as Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Voyager Lunar Systems are working toward delivering landers by 2028. These […]

The Starlink 17-53 mission is the 90th Falcon 9 rocket launch of the year. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 10:05 a.m. PDT (1:05 p.m. EDT / 1705 UTC).

Technicians installed a commemorative plaque, seen in this July 28, 2026, photo, on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The plaque honors the legacy of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer and one of the architects of the agency’s modern science program. It also features a memory card containing a total of 1,350,144 […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Rubicon Space Systems completed hot-fire testing of its Velox 5-newton ASCENT monopropellant thruster, paving the way for on-orbit operations in 2027. “The program demonstrated performance beyond our […] The post Rubicon ASCENT thruster moves from hot-fire testing to production appeared first on SpaceNews.

Startups and established spacecraft manufacturers are investing in engines designed to give small satellites more freedom to change orbit The post Military demand shapes market for satellite propulsion appeared first on SpaceNews.

While SpaceX says there is a “significant” amount of life left in its Crew Dragon fleet, the company has hedged on how long it will continue flying the spacecraft. The post Future of Crew Dragon weighs on commercial spaceflight industry appeared first on SpaceNews.

Demand for microgravity research and manufacturing is brewing — perhaps literally.When SpaceX launched the first test flight of Starfall, its commercial reentry capsule, on June 23, the company did not […] The post SpaceX’s new Starfall program offers validation and competition for reentry startups appeared first on SpaceNews.