Space News

In an encore performance before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, entrepreneur… The post Isaacman hearing overviews bold vision for NASA appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA Administrator could be approved by the Senate in the next three weeks. During his mostly-friendly second confirmation hearing today, the top Republican and Democrat […]

Senate Commerce Committee leaders said they hope to swiftly confirm Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator as he delivered a “message of urgency” about returning astronauts to the moon before China. The post Isaacman, senators emphasize urgency in returning humans to the moon appeared first on SpaceNews.

MDA selected 1,014 vendors for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program The post Missile Defense Agency clarifies ‘SHIELD’ vendor selection is not a Golden Dome preview appeared first on SpaceNews.

"We are in a great competition with a rival that has the will and means to challenge American exceptionalism."

Engineers are using a satellite link between two European Space Agency facilities to advance teleoperated robotics systems that could enable future lunar explorers to study the Moon from afar.

For decades, building a space mission meant a hard choice between two imperfect models. The first was the traditional prime: capable, proven, and thorough, but slow and expensive. Customers paid […] The post A New Industrial Age in Orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.

Select walls at NASA’s Johnson Space Center have been transformed into works of art. Each piece reflects creativity, collaboration, and the spirit of discovery. Painted by Texas students, the murals honor the legacy of the International Space Station and 25 years of continuous human presence in space.  The International Space Station Program Mural Project began […]

Perseverance confirmed a long-suspected phenomenon in which electrical discharges and their associated shock waves can be born within Red Planet mini-twisters. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has recorded the sounds of electrical discharges —sparks — and mini-sonic booms in dust devils on Mars. Long theorized, the phenomenon has now been confirmed through audio and electromagnetic recordings […]

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4535, which is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden). Through a small telescope, this galaxy appears extremely faint, giving it the nickname ‘Lost Galaxy’. With a mirror spanning nearly eight feet (2.4 meters) across and its location above Earth’s light-obscuring […]

The French Space Agency, CNES, has been found liable for destroying protected habitats on the grounds of the former Diamant launch facility, which is now being redeveloped to support a new commercial launch site and the testing of reusable demonstrators. The agency has been ordered to repair the damage within three years or face a […] The post CNES Found Liable for Destroying Protected Habitat at New Launch Facility appeared first on European Spaceflight.

This will be the second hearing for the commercial astronaut, billionaire and entrepreneur following his first go around in April. This hearing is scheduled for Dec. 3 beginning at 10 a.m. EST (1500 UTC).

TAMPA, Fla. — Asset-financing specialist SLI plans to buy two small GEO satellites from U.S. startup AscendArc in a deal valued at more than $200 million, betting that operators will increasingly choose to lease spacecraft rather than buy them outright. The post SLI bets on satellite leasing with $200 million commitment to AscendArc appeared first on SpaceNews.

Speaking at the 2025 SpaceNews Icon Awards, Purdy said the pace of progress outside government is setting the agenda for how the service develops technology. The post Space Force top buyer says rapid commercial innovation is reshaping military space strategy appeared first on SpaceNews.

Hazardous Materials Summary Tables (HMSTs) are a compilation of the chemical, biological, and flammability hazards of materials on a given flight or mission. HMSTs are required by Safety for all Programs, including but not limited to ISS, Commercial Crew Program (CCP), Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and Gateway. Johnson Space Center (JSC) toxicologists evaluate the […]

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Human missions to Mars will require robust shelters that can be built without hauling heavy materials from Earth, pushing engineers and scientists to focus on in situ resource utilization of the planet's regolith. A new perspective article describes how carefully selected microbial communities could turn Martian dust into structural elements for habitats, while also contributing to life-support

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Researchers have developed micro and nanoscale reconfigurable robots that capture and release carbon dioxide in confined life support systems such as crewed spacecraft, submarines, and sealed shelters. The team led by Prof. Hui He at Guangxi University reports that these micro nano reconfigurable robots, or MNRM, use sunlight as an energy source while moving through the system to avoid local ove

Norwich, UK (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 The first step on the Moon was one of humanity's most exciting accomplishments. Now scientists are planning return trips - and dreaming of Mars beyond. Next year, Nasa's Artemis II mission will send four astronauts to fly around the Moon to test the spacecraft before future landings. The following year, two astronauts are expected to explore the surface of the Moon for a week as part of Na

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Iridium Communications Inc. has secured a five year indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract from the US Space Force Space Systems Command Commercial Space Office worth up to 85.8 million dollars. The System Infrastructure Transformation and Hybridization contract covers technology refreshes, lifecycle upgrades, and security improvements for the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Servic

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Observations with the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope have produced a large gallery of debris disks around nearby young stars, revealing where unseen asteroid- and comet-scale bodies are colliding and generating dust. Gael Chauvin, SPHERE project scientist and co-author, said: "This data set is an astronomical treasure. It provides exceptional insights into the properties of debr

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Astronomers using NASAs James Webb Space Telescope have identified a massive spiral galaxy that resembles the Milky Way but existed when the Universe was only about 1.5 billion years old. Named Alaknanda, after a Himalayan river paired with the Mandakini which shares its Hindi name with the Milky Way, the system appears as a mature, disk dominated spiral at a time when galaxies were expected to

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 LandSpace, a private Chinese rocket company, has flown its ZQ 3, or Rosefinch 3, carrier rocket for the first time, marking China's initial orbital mission using a reusable rocket architecture, although recovery of the first-stage booster was not successful. The ZQ 3 Y1 vehicle, built mainly from stainless steel, lifted off at noon from a dedicated launch service tower at the Jiuquan Satel

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 To prepare new autonomous systems for Mars, NASA teams have been testing drones, a legged robot, and a winged flyer concept in harsh desert environments in California, New Mexico, and Virginia. The work is part of 25 Mars Exploration Program technology projects funded this year to extend the reach and capability of future Red Planet missions. At Death Valley National Park and in the nearby

Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry (TEC) monitors airborne contaminants in both spacecraft air and water. In-flight monitors are employed to provide real-time insight into the environmental conditions on ISS. Archival samples are collected and returned to Earth for full characterization of ISS air and water. Real-time in-flight air analytical instruments include the Air Quality Monitors (AQM), […]

Chinese commercial launch provider LandSpace achieved a major milestone with the successful maiden flight of… The post China pushing for reusability milestone with Zhuque-3 launch and near-landing appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

The agreement brings “AI pilot” software to space as the Pentagon seeks capabilities for close proximity operations, swarm coordination and defensive satellite maneuvers The post Shield AI partners with Sedaro to demonstrate autonomous satellite operations appeared first on SpaceNews.

Readers of this magazine have known for years what we, as investors, have also known for years: that the space sector is not some marginal realm of human activity, to be left to a handful of specialists operating on the sidelines of normal life. Rather, space is the backbone of the world economy, a domain […] The post Germany’s space defense strategy marks a turning point. Private investors must now respond appeared first on SpaceNews.

When a Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California late Nov. 16, it did something that was unprecedented a decade ago but unremarkable today: it landed the first stage, in this case on a pad next to where it lifted off. SpaceX noted that the launch, carrying the Sentinel-6B Earth science […] The post The next steps in the quest for full rocket reusability appeared first on SpaceNews.

Nuclear power startup Antares announced a $96 million Series B round Dec. 2 to fund work on developing small nuclear reactors, including for space applications. The post Antares raises $96 million for nuclear reactors on Earth and in space appeared first on SpaceNews.

True to its promise, the European Space Agency’s EarthCARE satellite is now being used to calculate directly how clouds and aerosols influence Earth’s energy balance – the all-important balance that regulates our climate. In doing so, EarthCARE is poised to sharpen the accuracy of climate models, the very tools that guide global climate policy and action.

Is it an insect? A strange fossil? An otherworldly eye, or even a walnut? No, it’s an intriguing kind of martian butterfly spotted by ESA’s Mars Express.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 For the first time in the history of the International Space Station, all eight of its docking ports are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft on the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. The visiting vehicles now attached are two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, the Cygnus XL cargo ship, JAXA's HTV-X1 cargo vehicle, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft,

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Leaf Space is providing ground segment services for 31 satellites on a single upcoming SpaceX rideshare mission, the largest number of spacecraft it has supported on one launch to date and representing about 30 percent of all payloads on the flight. These newly supported spacecraft join 140 satellites already operating through the company's Leaf Line ground station network, used by commerc

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 The China National Space Administration has set up a Commercial Space Department to serve as a dedicated regulator for the country's expanding private space sector. The new office is responsible for overseeing commercial launches, satellite operations, and related services while coordinating policy and planning for non-state space activities. Officials have tied the move to the Action Plan

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Every rocket launch discards large amounts of material and releases substantial greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances into the atmosphere, prompting researchers to examine how circular economy principles could be built into space activities from the outset. In a commentary published December 1 in the Cell Press journal Chem Circularity, sustainability specialists and space scient

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 NASA's Perseverance rover identified light-colored rocks in Jezero crater that consist of white, aluminum-rich kaolinite clay. These rocks formed after prolonged exposure to water leached other minerals from parent rocks and sediments. The process required millions of years of rainfall in a humid environment. Perseverance's SuperCam and Mastcam-Z instruments analyzed the kaolinite fragment

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 An international team including astronomers from the University of Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS has used the James Webb Space Telescope to study helium escaping from the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-107b. The analysis, published in Nature Astronomy, links this large-scale atmospheric escape to the evolution and present-day properties of the planet. A

Paris, France (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Planetek Italia has placed the AI eXpress 1 Plus (AIX-1+) satellite in orbit, completing the first generation of its AI eXpress constellation for in-orbit artificial intelligence processing of Earth observation data. AIX-1+ launched on November 28, 2025, at 10:44 a.m. PT (7:44 p.m. GMT+1) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission (Transporter 15) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Orbit Fab has secured up to $3.8 million in funding through the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency's Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications to lead a European consortium that will advance satellite refuelling technology. The Advancing Satcom Technology with Refuelling and Logistics (ASTRAL) project will receive total UK funding of up to $3.8 million (3.3 million euros),

Tucson AZ (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 Seventy light-years from Earth, astronomers studying the star Kappa Tucanae A have identified dust heated to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit orbiting very close to the star, where such material should either vaporize or be blown out of the system. The team has now detected a companion star moving through this same inner region, offering a new way to investigate how this hot exozodiacal dust f