NASA's new Artemis plan has a 2027 rehearsal in Earth orbit, then a 2028 Moon landing with SpaceX or Blue Origin, whichever lander is ready first.
Latest in Space
NASA ends Swift observatory's mission ahead of re-entry
NASA has ended the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory's mission after drag pulled it down to 275 km. The 2004 gamma-ray hunter should re-enter within weeks.Rocket Lab's 98th Electron lofts HawkEye 360 Cluster 16
Rocket Lab's Electron put three HawkEye 360 radio-hunting satellites into a 520km orbit on 23 October. It was the 98th Electron launch.NASA's Roman telescope starts its final checkout phase
NASA says the Roman Space Telescope entered science commissioning on 22 October. It launched on 30 August and is now fine-tuning its images.Japan's MMX set to launch for Mars moon Phobos on Tuesday
JAXA's MMX is due to lift off on an H3 rocket at 6:11am Tuesday, Adelaide time. It aims to bring Phobos samples to Australia in 2031.Russia's Cosmos 2612 closes in on radar satellite ICEYE-X36
Russia's Cosmos 2612 was about 5 km from ICEYE-X36 on 16 October, LeoLabs says. One tracker projects a pass within metres on 18 October.Blue Origin's $330M Florida push aims for 50 launches a year
Blue Origin is spending $330 million at Rocket Park and wants FAA approval for up to 50 New Glenn launches a year from LC-36, up from 12.Webb and NOEMA find a stellar bar in early galaxy GN20
GN20 is seen 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and is mostly gas, so it shouldn't have a bar of stars yet. Webb found one 23,000 light years long.Chandra ties the Treble Clef to a galaxy cluster collision
Chandra and LOFAR show VLSS J0318.9+5755 is a radio phoenix revived when two galaxy clusters collided behind the Milky Way.NASA stacks Artemis III boosters and fits four RS-25 engines
NASA completed SLS booster stacking for Artemis III and installed all four RS-25 engines, with a short-stack pad test still ahead.ESA's Aschbacher prices European crew launches at €10 billion
ESA chief Josef Aschbacher says Europe could launch its own astronauts in about ten years for €10 billion. Ministers decide in Rome on 15 December.NASA puts Artemis II Moon flyby data online for anyone
NASA has released more than 800 GB of Artemis II Moon data, including 11,000 images and 8.5 hours of crew audio from the April flyby.NASA releases final RFP for commercial space stations
NASA released its final call for commercial space station proposals on Friday. Bids are due 8 December, with contracts expected in spring 2027.ESA's Hera spots the Didymos asteroids and gets ready to brake
ESA's Hera saw the Didymos asteroids from 236,500 km on 7 October, two years after launch. A 93-minute braking burn on 15 October begins its arrival.ESA and Vast sign a three-year pact for life after the ISS
ESA signed a three-year agreement with Vast in Antalya on 5 October to plan European astronaut and research missions on its Haven space stations.NASA's SPRITE and SSPICY smallsats launched on Transporter-18
NASA's SPRITE CubeSat and Starfish Space's Otter 24C, flying the SSPICY mission, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 from Vandenberg on 1 October 2026.Smile, the ESA and China space mission, starts its science work
ESA and China's Smile spacecraft was cleared for science on 23 September. Its UV camera can watch the northern lights for 45 hours at a stretch.Webb sorts 21 extreme debris disks by the size of their crashes
NASA's Webb and Spitzer data cover 21 extreme debris disks. About one-third point to Mars-sized crashes like the one thought to have made our Moon.NASA picks three PRISM payloads to scout the Moon for Moon Base
NASA picked three PRISM payloads on 30 September for Moon Base. One will check whether the Moon's Marius Hills pit opens into a lava tube.ESA hires Airbus and OHB to study a European-led space station
ESA has two Airbus- and OHB-led teams studying a European-led space station for after the ISS. The nine-month studies began in June.
