Spaceflight is written every day: successes, anomalies, contracts, technical milestones. This page aggregates the best English-language and European dispatches for a single overview.
NEW YORK — A study published last week in Nature Astronomy has proposed a new satellite design and technique to detect thermonuclear warheads in space. Funded in part by the […] The post Nature study identifies a new way to spot nuclear weapons in orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.
New research led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has revealed the identity of a puzzling near-Earth object by precisely tracking its motion through space and using powerful observatories that image faint celestial objects. This object has a dual personality: Past images hadn’t revealed obvious cometlike activity, suggesting it might be […]
DIU solicitation aims to move long-studied technology toward military use by fiscal 2030 The post Defense Innovation Unit seeks commercial path to deliver electrical power from orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.
In this episode, David Ariosto speaks with SpinLaunch CEO Massi Ladovaz. They discuss what attracted Ladovaz to reimagining how to launch spacecraft, the changing needs and challenges of building constellations […] The post Building the infrastructure for a shifting space economy with Massi Ladovaz appeared first on SpaceNews.
Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, to be the next chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, testified July 16 before the Senate Armed Services Committee in a confirmation hearing The post Trump’s pick to lead Space Force defends plan to more than double budget appeared first on SpaceNews.
The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to launch its solar storm-monitoring CubeSat on an Ariane 6 rocket. Scheduled for launch in early 2027, the Henon CubeSat will be flown as a secondary passenger alongside ESA’s PLATO telescope, which will be tasked with finding Earth-like exoplanets. According to the agency’s 16 July press release, […] The post ESA Selects Ariane 6 to Launch Deep Space CubeSat appeared first on European Spaceflight.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope takes us 4.4 billion years in the past with this July 3, 2026, image of a young galaxy cluster, MACS J0553.4-3342. The cluster is composed of two actively merging sub-clusters, roughly equal in mass. Each sub-cluster is anchored on an immensely bright and massive elliptical galaxy, easily identifiable as the […]
The Office of Space Commerce defended its proposal for a mission authorization scheme for novel space activities, arguing it would provide certainty for companies while limiting regulatory burdens. The post Office of Space Commerce makes its case for mission authorization appeared first on SpaceNews.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, July 16, 2026 – Bluestaq today announced the launch of BLUESTAQ / ARQ, the company’s commercial data infrastructure platform. / ARQ is built for organizations in healthcare, […] The post Bluestaq Launches BLUESTAQ / ARQ Defense-Grade Data Infrastructure Now Available for Commercial, Government, and Enterprise Organizations appeared first on SpaceNews.
Expedition Sound is a podcast series by the European Space Agency (ESA) in which you’re invited to explore the Universe through your ears. Guided by sonifications – the translation of data into sound – host Zsófi Szalavári travels from our Sun out into the depths of space to uncover what the space telescopes of ESA’s science missions teach us about the Universe.
From the ESA Blogs.
Swissto12 said it has raised $70 million in fresh funding to keep up with growing demand for its small geostationary satellite manufacturing business. The post Swissto12 raises $70 million to accelerate small GEO satellite production appeared first on SpaceNews.
With liftoff scheduled for September, excitement is building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana as two cutting-edge Earth observation satellites, FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C, have arrived to begin their launch campaigns.
Canadian wildfires sent plumes of smoke streaming over Ontario, Quebec, and parts of the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.
Just about two months after the first Block 3 Starship flight with Booster 19 and… The post Starship Flight 13: Potentially the final Suborbital Flight appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.
The mission will also test out a series of improvements to the launcher to help push it closer to full reusability. Liftoff from pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, is scheduled during a 90-minute window that opens at 5:45 p.m. CDT (6:45 p.m. EDT / 2245 UTC).
The Tranche 1 Transporter Layer E (T1TL-E) mission is the third batch of operational satellites launched to support the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture satellite constellation. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 1:32 p.m. PDT (4:32 p.m. EDT / 2032 UTC).
Testing new aerospace concepts in flight remains one of NASA’s most effective ways to advance knowledge and reduce risk. The Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, supports this mission by using small, remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft as cost‑effective platforms to mature innovative ideas, accelerate learning, […]
A meteorite recovered immediately upon its fall to Earth on July 16, 2024, is helping NASA scientists uncover new clues about ancient water, the chemical evolution of primitive asteroids, and the ingredients that may have helped make life possible throughout the early solar system.
The 4½-year award will fund simulated satellite-defense scenarios The post Space Force awards Slingshot $69 million for AI-enabled training technology appeared first on SpaceNews.
China reached a major milestone less than a week ago with the first successful recovery… The post China’s first recovered booster returns to port as LandSpace aims for first land recovery appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.
Before Artemis astronauts land on the Moon’s surface in 2028, NASA will conduct the Artemis III demonstration mission in 2027, allowing teams on Earth and in orbit to practice rendezvous and docking operations between commercial human landing systems and the Orion spacecraft. Data from that mission, along with future uncrewed demonstration missions at the Moon, […]
NASA astronaut candidate Anna Menon and her children watch as a Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio lifted off for the Soyuz MS-29 mission at 7:47 p.m. local […]
Description Billions of years ago, an hours-long Martian sandstorm blew so intensely that sand ripples began to climb upon one another as they moved across the surface. These layers of sediment eventually hardened into the multilayered rocks seen in this image, which was taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Dec. 12, 2024, the 4,391st Martian […]
In his final public speech as Space Force chief, Gen. Chance Saltzman called for combat credibility, stronger alliances and realism about the limits of procurement reform The post Saltzman’s farewell warning: Prepare for war in space to preserve peace appeared first on SpaceNews.
Washington, D.C. — July 15, 2026 — The Commercial Space Federation (CSF), the leading trade association representing the commercial space industry, today announced the launch of its State and Local […] The post Commercial Space Federation Launches State and Local Council to Align States on National Space Capacity and Strengthen the U.S. Industrial Base appeared first on SpaceNews.
Description This view looking back up at the outside lip of the 490-foot-tall (150-meter-tall) rim of Jezero Crater was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance on May 15, 2025, the 1,505th day, or sol, of the rover’s mission to Mars. The bright-colored rocks exposed across the slope, running from middle left to middle right of […]
Description This orbital map shows the path NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took to get to a location the science team has dubbed the “Broom Point member,” a sequence of layered bedrock likely more than 3.9 billion years old. As planned, the rover landed inside Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. It investigated the crater’s western delta […]
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has uncovered evidence that a 245-foot-thick (75-meter-thick) stack of ancient rock on the rim of Jezero Crater was built by repeated asteroid impacts. Referred to as the “Broom Point member” by the rover’s science team, this sequence of layered bedrock is likely more than 3.9 billion years old, making it among […]
NAPA, Calif. – Florida startup Satellite Orbital Access and Removal (SOAR) announced a partnership July 15 with the University of Texas, El Paso, (UTEP) to develop a passive system to […] The post Startup working with University of Texas focuses on trapping small debris appeared first on SpaceNews.
European satellite operator SES and Airbus have secured a site at the NL Space Campus in Noordwijk for the Eagle-1 optical ground station. The announcement comes less than two months after the launch of the system’s satellite component was once again delayed, this time until no earlier than late 2027. SES and Airbus Netherlands signed […] The post SES and Airbus Secure Site for Quantum Communications Ground Station appeared first on European Spaceflight.
NAPA, Calif. – Icarus Robotics, the New York startup developing dexterous mobile robots for space missions, selected KULR Technology Group to provide batteries for Joy, a free-flying platform destined for […] The post Icarus Robotics taps KULR to provide batteries for Space Station robots appeared first on SpaceNews.
Sending humans to Mars and returning them safely to Earth would be one of the most complex endeavors that humans have ever carried out. The number of issues that must […] The post Laying the groundwork for the first human mission to Mars appeared first on SpaceNews.
ESA experts explain the science of eclipses, including visibility and key opportunities for scientific observation.
Join a national community of precipitation reporters providing critical data to improve scientific understanding and forecasts.
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a giant planet outside our solar system, called an exoplanet, hiding within one of the most intensely studied planetary systems in our Milky Way galaxy. The young, nearby star Beta Pictoris was already known to host two giant planets: Beta Pictoris b, one of the first […]
"I pretty much, at that point in time, gave up on being an astronaut."
Investment in satellite companies reached $8.1 billion in the first half of 2026, already surpassing every previous annual total tracked by early-stage investor Space Capital. The post Satellite investment sets annual record halfway through 2026 appeared first on SpaceNews.
"The ISS radiators are expensive and heavy. We're focused on making them cheap and light."
WASHINGTON — The Japanese government wants to sharply increase the number of launches despite struggles with both current and new launch vehicles. In sessions at the Spacetide conference in Tokyo […] The post Japan seeks to ramp up launch activity appeared first on SpaceNews.