News without the noise
Space news: launches, missions, telescopes and discoveries, from NASA, ESA, SpaceX and the rest of the industry.
194 articles · page 4 of 5
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on September 19, a milestone the observatory marked with an observation aimed at measuring the expansion rate of the universe. Hubble has now traveled more than 5 billion miles over its 36-year lifetime, exceeding 1.7 million total observations.
A new European report has raised serious concerns about the risk of cascading orbital collisions, a scenario known as the Kessler syndrome that was dramatized in the 2013 film Gravity.
· 2 sourcesNASA administrator Jared Isaacman has declared the agency will only pursue international partnerships that offer clear benefits, as the race to the Moon enters a new phase focused on exploiting water ice and other resources near the lunar south pole. Speaking to military leaders and defense contractors near Washington, Isaacman said the 21st-century Moon race is no longer just about national prestige but about strategic control of valuable extraterrestrial real estate.
· 2 sourcesNASA's Perseverance rover has discovered igneous rock in the Margin Unit of Jezero Crater, a finding that upends expectations of sedimentary deposits and reveals a complex history of water activity on early Mars, according to a study published in Communications Earth & Environment.
NASA has added $946 million to SpaceX's commercial crew contract, funding three additional Crew Dragon flights to the International Space Station (ISS) while the future of crewed access to low Earth orbit remains uncertain.
Italian launch services provider Avio has reported a surge in customers seeking launch opportunities after SpaceX stopped accepting new orders for commercial Falcon 9 flights, according to the company's CEO.
NASA has awarded SpaceX three additional crew rotation missions to the International Space Station — Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17 — through a $946 million contract modification. The award, announced Thursday, extends SpaceX's role as the primary U.S. crew transportation provider under the agency's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract through 2030, bringing the total contract value with the company to $5.92 billion.
NASA is preparing to order two additional crewed missions from Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and invest in fixing its thruster issues, as well as supporting certification on a new launch vehicle, multiple sources told Ars Technica. The moves come after SpaceX informed NASA it intends to retire the Crew Dragon vehicle by 2030, leaving the U.S. without an operational crew spacecraft for routine astronaut missions to low-Earth orbit.
NASA has reaffirmed its commitment to sharing all scientific data, Moon rock samples, and discoveries from the Artemis program with the global research community, a principle now upheld by all 71 signatory countries of the Artemis Accords. The agency recently concluded a two-part virtual workshop series focused on putting that open-science pledge into practice.
United Launch Alliance, the joint rocket venture owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is facing growing financial difficulties that could finally compel its owners to sell the company, according to industry analysts, as nearly every other US rocket company has embraced reusability and diversification strategies.
The European Space Agency is moving 'full steam ahead' with its Envision mission to Venus after NASA determined it would be unable to fulfill its commitment to provide a US-built radar instrument, the mission's project scientist has confirmed. The orbiter, set to launch on an Ariane 6 rocket, will map the planet's surface at 10 times higher resolution than the last NASA radar mission to Venus in the 1990s, giving scientists an unprecedented view of the world hidden beneath thick clouds of sulfuric acid.
· 2 sourcesLess than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the United States Space Academy, NASA has convened the first meeting of the Presidential Commission on the academy and issued a Request for Information to governors interested in hosting the institution.
The commander and pilot of NASA's Artemis II mission, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, have been named the first astronauts to join the space agency's emeritus program five months after splashing down from the Moon. The new status allows them to continue supporting Johnson Space Center in Houston while pursuing outside opportunities.
· 2 sourcesElon Musk's The Boring Company has closed a $3 billion Series D round at a $23 billion valuation, led by the United Arab Emirates, while French startup The Exploration Company this week announced a $450 million Series C – the largest ever for a European space company. The dual fundraises highlight a widening gap in scale between US and European private infrastructure ventures, though both signal strong investor appetite for long-shot transport and space projects.
· 2 sourcesNASA has awarded a Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Relativity Space Inc., adding the company's Terran R launch service to its roster of available vehicles for future agency missions. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which runs through December 2032, now includes Terran R alongside other providers.
NASA's Curiosity rover has now spent 5,000 Martian days (sols) on Mars, a milestone the mission marked during its ongoing traverse through the foothills of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. The achievement underscores the longevity of a rover originally designed for a two-year primary mission.
European space startup The Exploration Company (TEC) has raised $450 million in what it calls the largest-ever Series C round by a European space company, betting that a growing queue of orbital payloads and sovereignty concerns will create demand for a non-SpaceX alternative.
Stoke Space announced Tuesday a $1 billion Series E funding round, co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital, bringing its total capital raised to $2.3 billion. The company also revealed plans for a larger Block 2 version of its Nova rocket capable of lifting 15 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration, as it targets its first orbital launch next year.
· 2 sourcesThe UK government has corralled £7.8 billion of cross-departmental spending into a new space strategy intended to boost economic growth and national security through to 2030, covering orbital collision warnings, low Earth orbit communications, military intelligence, launch capabilities, and space science.
Stoke Space Technologies has completed the initial closing of a $1 billion Series E funding round to develop fully reusable rockets, challenging SpaceX’s dominance in low-cost launch. The company plans to use the capital to scale production, increase flight frequency, and fund a second-generation vehicle capable of carrying 15 metric tons to low-Earth orbit by 2029.
German launch startup Isar Aerospace has successfully placed its Spectrum rocket into low-Earth orbit, becoming the first company in Europe to launch a fully commercial orbital vehicle. The milestone flight, which lifted off Saturday evening from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, deployed payloads and marked a dramatic turnaround from a failed test launch in March.
· 4 sourcesGermany's Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket into orbit from the Andoya spaceport in Norway on Saturday, becoming the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe and bolstering Europe's drive to secure independent access to space.
· 3 sourcesThe BepiColombo spacecraft has separated from its Mercury Transfer Module, beginning its final glide into orbit around Mercury after nearly eight years in space. Controllers confirmed the successful jettison on September 3, with the spacecraft now relying on its own solar panels for power ahead of orbit insertion scheduled for November 21.
The European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission has cleared a major milestone this week, entering the final stretch of an eight-year interplanetary voyage to Mercury. The nearly $2 billion robotic science mission, launched in 2018, is now travelling at the correct speed for Mercury's gravity to capture it into orbit later this year, ending a long spiral toward the Sun.
NASA has decided to use a simplified spacesuit variant — the 'Sortie Suit' — for its first crewed lunar surface missions, aiming to accelerate the Artemis program's timeline for landing astronauts at the Moon's south pole as early as 2028. The decision, made at the direction of Artemis Program Manager Jeremy Parsons during an internal meeting this week, involves working with contractor Axiom Space to develop the new suit.
· 2 sourcesToyohiro Akiyama, the first Japanese citizen to travel to space and the first journalist to file reports from orbit, has died at age 84 from lower gastrointestinal bleeding, according to Japanese news agencies.
· 2 sourcesNASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract to develop the Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation communications system designed to provide high-bandwidth, reliable data relay and navigation services for current and future Mars missions. The firm-fixed-price contract, valued at up to $700 million, requires delivery of a telecommunications orbiter by December 31, 2028, with the network expected to be operational at Mars by 2030.
A nonprofit organization, the Fermi Explorer Mission, has announced plans to launch a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri by the end of 2029, using a novel trajectory discovered by an AI system developed by Physical Superintelligence (PSI), a new AI physics research lab that launched today with $58 million in funding. The mission aims to complete the journey within 80,000 years at a cost of just $15 million.
The European Space Agency's Cluster mission is drawing to a close as the final two satellites of the quartet, Samba and Tango, are set to reenter Earth's atmosphere. Samba reentered on August 31, losing contact at 21:26 UTC and destroying itself at 21:39:38 UTC. Tango is expected to follow tonight at 21:30:31 UTC, ending a mission that began in 2000 and was originally designed for two years.
After a highly scrutinized decision to fly the Artemis II Orion capsule with its existing heat shield, NASA has confirmed the shield performed successfully during the spacecraft's reentry following a lunar mission, according to post-splashdown assessments.
· 2 sourcesA private group led by mathematician and physicist Philip Johnston has announced plans to launch a mission to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth, with the goal of making it the 'cheapest possible' interstellar probe.
For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency's near-term focus is on aerial drones, with the SkyFall mission—a fleet of three helicopters—set to launch as soon as late 2028 alongside the Space Reactor-1 "Freedom" mission, which will demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion in deep space.
· 3 sourcesNASA's Roman Space Telescope is now in the commissioning phase of its three-month journey from Earth to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), where engineers will methodically turn on, adjust, and calibrate the observatory's systems before science operations can begin.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a $4.3 billion observatory featuring a 300-megapixel camera and a refurbished spy mirror, launched Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, beginning a mission to unravel the Universe's most enigmatic forces. The telescope's vast field of view—100 times wider than Hubble's—will complement the James Webb Space Telescope's deep-field studies, marking only the second NASA-led astrophysics mission to launch this century after Webb's 2021 debut.
· 3 sourcesNASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope overnight, a mission designed to peer back across 11 billion years of cosmic history and test whether the leading model of dark energy — the mysterious force accelerating the universe's expansion — is fundamentally wrong. Recent data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and the Dark Energy Survey have raised tantalising hints that dark energy may not be constant, but weakening over time, a finding that would require astrophysicists to rewrite their understanding of the cosmos.
President Donald Trump unexpectedly dialed into NASA's post-launch news conference for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday morning at Kennedy Space Center, interrupting the standard briefing to congratulate the mission team.
· 2 sourcesNASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched successfully aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 30, 2026, beginning a three-month, one-million-mile journey to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point. The observatory will survey billions of galaxies from its vantage beyond the Moon, with scientists hoping its data will illuminate dark energy and reveal exoplanets directly.
· 2 sourcesPresident Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday establishing the United States Space Academy, a new national institution intended to educate and train engineers, operators, and service members for the growing space sector. The academy will be located at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and a presidential commission chaired by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will deliver recommendations within 120 days.
· 5 sourcesPresident Trump awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four Artemis II crew members during a ceremony Friday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, recognizing the first astronauts to fly around the Moon since the Apollo era.
· 2 sourcesNASA has debuted a bold new paint scheme on one of its T-38 Talon jets, the supersonic trainers flown by astronauts for over half a century. The Artemis-themed livery, unveiled August 27, 2026, features a black-and-white base with blue and red stripes, the Artemis program logo, and a moon graphic on the rear fuselage — a visual statement of the agency's renewed push to return humans to the lunar surface.
· 2 sourcesNASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched from Florida on Sunday, carrying a repurposed spy satellite into space on a mission to explore dark energy, exoplanets, and the hidden structure of the cosmos. The launch came just hours after President Donald Trump, who had twice proposed canceling the project, phoned into NASA's post-launch press conference to celebrate the achievement.
· 7 sourcesNASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived at the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, following its transport from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Tuesday. The spacecraft, encapsulated in its payload fairing, is scheduled to lift off no earlier than Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
A Seattle-based company has announced an ambitious plan to extract helium-3 from the Moon's surface, claiming it could collect the equivalent of 15,000 years of solar wind bombardment in just four hours. The effort, reported by Ars Technica, targets an isotope prized for its potential in nuclear fusion power generation, but faces significant technical and economic challenges.
· 2 sourcesSpaceX has announced plans to invest $100 billion in a sprawling new spaceport in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, designed to support thousands of annual Starship launches, with construction slated to start in 2027 and the first launch targeted for 2029. The project, which would create an estimated 3,000 direct and 8,100 indirect jobs, includes five launch complexes, propellant production, and deep-water shipping capabilities, but comes with significant environmental and technical challenges given the company's mixed record and Starship's unproven reusability.
India’s long-delayed crewed space program, Gaganyaan, will finally see its first test launch this year, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr V. Narayanan announced on National Space Day. The program had previously missed deadlines to fly in 2022 and 2025. If successful, India would become only the fourth nation to launch humans into space using its own vehicle, after Russia, the United States, and China.
SpaceX is dramatically reducing launch operations from Florida's Space Coast this year, a senior company official confirmed Tuesday, marking a significant shift away from the Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center pads that have made the region the world's busiest spaceport for a decade. The move signals a strategic pivot as the company redirects resources toward the forthcoming Starship program, though it has already increased activity from its West Coast facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
· 2 sourcesLouisiana Governor Jeff Landry announced Tuesday that SpaceX will commit up to $100 billion to develop 'Starbase Louisiana,' a massive spaceport on the state's Gulf coast. The facility, which will include Starship factories, multiple launch towers, and on-site propellant production, is designed to replicate and expand upon SpaceX's existing Starbase in southern Texas.
· 3 sourcesSpaceX and Nvidia have announced plans to launch at least one data center rack into orbit next year, with the first space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system scheduled for a Q4 2027 deployment and significant expansion in 2028, according to statements from Elon Musk and a joint press release.