SpaceX Now Targeting Early April for Next Starship/Superheavy Test Flight
SpaceX announced on March 7 that it is targeting early April for the 12th Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight. Booster 19, the first Block 3 Superheavy prototype, has been rolled to Pad 2 and is undergoing fueling‑system checks, ambient pressure tests, and static‑fire rehearsals with a reduced engine count. Meanwhile, Starship prototype 39 is in the assembly building completing its own tanking and launch‑pad preparations. The accelerated cadence highlights SpaceX’s rapid‑iteration model compared with NASA’s slower, simulation‑heavy SLS development.
SpaceX Launches 25 More Starlink Satellites
SpaceX successfully launched 25 additional Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The rocket’s first stage marked its seventh flight, achieving a precise drone‑ship landing in the Pacific. With this mission, SpaceX’s 2026 launch tally of 29...
NASA Awards ULA’s Centaur-5 Upper Stage for Future SLS Launches
NASA announced a sole‑source contract awarding United Launch Alliance (ULA) the Centaur‑5 upper stage for future Space Launch System (SLS) flights after Artemis‑3. The decision leverages the proven RL10 engine heritage, compatibility with Mobile Launcher 1, and ULA’s existing work with...
Sierra Space Raises $550 Million in Private Investment Capital
Sierra Space announced a $550 million Series C equity round, valuing the company at $8 billion post‑money. The financing, led by LuminArx Capital with participation from General Atlantic, Coatue and others, follows a strategic pivot from NASA‑focused civilian contracts toward defense and...
New Webb Data Says Asteroid 2024 YR4 Will Miss the Moon in 2032
New James Webb Space Telescope observations collected on Feb. 18 and 26 refined the orbit of near‑Earth asteroid 2024 YR4, eliminating any chance of a lunar impact on Dec. 22, 2032. The asteroid is now projected to miss the Moon by about 13,200 miles (21,200 km)....
March 4, 2026 Zimmerman/Batchelor Podcast
Robert Zimmerman’s new release, *Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8*, chronicles the historic 1968 mission that first took humans to another world. The book launches in three formats—print, ebook, and audiobook—each featuring a foreword by Valerie Anders and a fresh introduction...
NASA Initiates New Program to Grab Talent From the Private Sector
NASA has launched the NASA Force program, in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management, to recruit high‑impact technical talent from the private sector for two‑year federal assignments. The initiative mirrors OPM’s Tech Force effort and offers participants a pathway...
The First Orbiting Private Space Telescope Releases “First Light” Image
Blue Skies Space’s privately owned telescope Mauve has achieved its first‑light observation, capturing a five‑second ultraviolet exposure of the bright star eta Ursae Majoris. Although its 5‑inch mirror is far smaller than Hubble’s, the space‑based platform delivers clarity beyond any ground‑based instrument....
Japan to Do Vertical Tests of Its Own Grasshopper-Type Demo Stage This Month
Japan’s space agency JAXA is set to conduct two vertical take‑off and landing (VTVL) test flights of its 24‑foot RV‑X demonstrator later this month. The first hop, scheduled for March 6, will take place at the Noshiro Rocket Testing Center on...
Russia Completes Repairs to Soyuz-2 Launchpad at Baikonur
Roscosmos announced that repairs to the Soyuz‑2 launchpad at Baikonur’s Site 31 are complete, enabling a Progress MS‑33 cargo flight to the International Space Station on March 22, 2026. The refurbishment involved 150 workers from four contractors, who painted 2,350 m², replaced attachment devices, overhauled...
Indian Rocket Startup Agnikul Completes Static Fire Test of Three-Engine Cluster
Indian private launch firm Agnikul released a 40‑second static‑fire video of its three‑engine cluster for the Agnibaan orbital rocket. The engines, fully 3D‑printed and driven by electric‑motor pumps, were calibrated to synchronize six pumps, six motors and six control algorithms....
Rocket Lab Completes In-Space Commissioning of Two Escapade Mars Orbiters
Rocket Lab has finished in‑space commissioning of the twin ESCAPADE Mars orbiters, now operating at Earth‑Sun Lagrange Point 2. The company will hand operational control to the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, which will conduct science activities before the...
SpaceX Completes Its Second Starlink Launch Today; Firefly Scrubs Launch
SpaceX placed 29 Starlink satellites on its second launch today, marking a rapid cadence and the 26th successful Falcon 9 first‑stage recovery on a drone ship. The launch underscores SpaceX’s operational advantage as it heads toward 27 missions in 2026, outpacing...
SpaceX Launches 25 More Starlink Satellites
SpaceX successfully lofted 25 additional Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking another milestone for its broadband constellation. The Falcon 9’s first stage completed its 20th flight and returned to a drone ship in the Pacific. With 26 launches so...
Cargo Dragon Successfully Returns to Earth
NASA’s Cargo Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific on Feb. 26, 2026 after a six‑month stint on the International Space Station. During its stay the vehicle fired its thrusters six times, raising the station’s orbit and proving a commercial...
Rocket Lab Completes Another HASTE Suborbital Mission
Rocket Lab completed its seventh HASTE suborbital mission, repurposing the first stage of an Electron rocket to launch an Australian Hypersonix test vehicle from Wallops Island. The flight marks the company’s second Department of Defense hypersonic test in three months...
Japanese Rocket Startup Space One to Attempt Third Orbital Launch This Weekend
Tokyo‑based Space One has set a third attempt to launch its Kairos small‑rocket for Sunday, March 1, 2026, from the private Spaceport Kii in Wakayama. The mission will loft five satellites, including one built by the Taiwan Space Agency, after two earlier...
Europe’s Jupiter Probe Juice Releases Its First Image of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas
ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has released its first image of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas, captured on 6 November 2025, seven days after the comet’s perihelion. The picture shows a bright coma, an extended tail and fine structures such as jets, rays and...
Webb Imaged a Star Before It Went Supernova
The James Webb Space Telescope has produced the first infrared image of a star before it exploded as a supernova, identifying the progenitor in galaxy NGC 1637. By aligning archival Hubble data with Webb’s MIRI and NIRCam observations from 2024, astronomers...
Exolaunch Integrates Five Satellites in Isar’s Spectrum Rocket
Exolaunch has completed integration of five university CubeSat payloads for Isar Aerospace’s second launch attempt, slated for 19 March 2026 from Norway’s Andoya spaceport. The payloads—CyBEEsat, TRISAT‑S, STS1, Platform 6 6UXL and FramSat1—represent student projects from Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway. Isar’s first...
SpaceX Launches 25 More Starlink Satellites
SpaceX launched 25 additional Starlink satellites from Vandenberg aboard a Falcon 9, marking the booster B1063’s 31st flight and successful drone‑ship landing. The launch pushes SpaceX’s 2026 tally to 21 missions, outpacing all other providers combined. Reuse statistics place the B1063...
February 20, 2026 Quick Space Links
The post shares three space‑related items: Starlab’s full‑scale mock‑up displayed at Johnson Space Center, a reminder that Atlantis delivered the Destiny module to the ISS 25 years ago after three spacewalks, and the launch of Robert Zimmerman’s book *Genesis: the...
India Negotiating a Possible Gaganyaan Docking at ISS
India’s space agency ISRO is in talks with NASA to conduct an uncrewed docking of the Gaganyaan orbital module to the International Space Station. The agreement would include extensive astronaut and ground‑crew training, as well as joint work on docking,...
Engine Problems for Japan’s Lunar Lander Company Ispace
Japanese lunar lander firm ispace announced delays in its third mission after encountering development problems with the VoidRunner engine, a joint effort with Agile Space Industries. The engine replacement forced redesigns, pushing the NASA‑backed CLPS mission from 2026 to 2027....
Fairing From India’s Bahubali Rocket Launched in December Found in Maldives
A fisherman off a remote Maldivian island recovered fragments that appear to be the fairing from India’s LVM3 (Bahubali) rocket, which launched AST SpaceMobile’s sixth Bluebird satellite in December. Similar debris was reported on a Sri Lankan island in late...
Has Roscosmos Gotten Its Baikonur Soyuz-2 Launchpad Fixed Already?
Roscosmos is said to have finished repairs on Baikonur Site 31, the Soyuz‑2 launchpad, by February 10, 2026. The pad was rendered inoperable after a service platform fell into the flame trench during the November launch, an incident attributed to improper attachment. Earlier...
FAKE Chandrayaan-2 Images of the Apollo 11 and 12 Landing Sites
A recent blog post debunks two circulating images that claimed India’s Chandrayaan‑2 lunar orbiter photographed the Apollo 11 and 12 landing sites. The author confirms the pictures are fabricated and do not match authentic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos. Earlier reports had...
NASA Provides Update on Artemis-2 Repairs for Future Dress Rehearsal Countdown
NASA posted an update on Artemis‑2 fuel‑leak repairs ahead of a second wet dress rehearsal. Engineers expect to reconnect the affected interfaces by Feb 9 and will test plate dynamics at Stennis Space Center. Countdown changes include a closed Orion hatch,...
A New American Satellite Constellation Gets FCC Approval
Satellite startup Logos received partial FCC approval for its planned 4,178‑satellite internet constellation, authorizing use of K‑, Q‑ and V‑band frequencies. The network will span seven orbital shells between 870 km and 925 km with inclinations from 28° to 90°. FCC rules...
Russia Launches Classified Nine Satellites
Russia successfully placed nine classified military satellites into orbit using a Soyuz‑2 rocket launched from the Plesetsk spaceport. The Fregat upper stage first released a primary payload at roughly 330 km before maneuvering to about 500 km to deploy the remaining eight...
Voyager Technologies and Max Space Team up to Develop Inflatable Planetary Structures
Voyager Technologies, the lead of the Starlab consortium, and Max Space, developer of the Thunderbird inflatable station, have announced a partnership to co‑develop inflatable planetary habitats for lunar and Martian use. The collaboration will combine Voyager’s single‑module Starlab, slated for...
French Startup The Exploration Company Completes First Splashdown Tests of Nyx Capsule Prototype
The Exploration Company, a French cargo‑capsule startup, completed its first splashdown tests of a 1:4‑scale Nyx prototype on 13‑28 January at the CNR‑INM towing tank in Rome. The 135‑kg mockup underwent 20 drops at varying heights and speeds, equipped with pressure...
Israeli Weather Satellite Startup Raises $175 Million in Investment Capital
Israeli weather‑data startup Tomorrow.io announced a $175 million financing round to launch DeepSky, an AI‑native satellite constellation. The company has already deployed 13 smallsats that deliver a 60‑minute global revisit, feeding its AI‑driven analytics platform used across critical industries. DeepSky will...
Astronomers Use SphereX Infrared Space Telescope to Study Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas
NASA’s SphereX infrared space telescope has detected a suite of organic molecules—including methanol, cyanide and methane—in the coma of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas as it brightened in December 2025. The comet’s activity surged two months after perihelion, driven by the release of...
SpaceX Wants Revisions to Federal Rural Grant Program that Has Awarded It $733 Million
SpaceX is requesting revisions to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which has awarded the company $733 million in rural broadband grants, including $109 million in Texas. BEAD, originally a $42 billion initiative under the bipartisan infrastructure law, was halved to...
Isaacman: SLS Stands on Very Thin Ice
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman reaffirmed support for Artemis‑2’s March launch while warning that the Space Launch System (SLS) is not the most economical solution. He highlighted SLS’s historically low flight rate and the recent wet‑dress rehearsal that was aborted due...
Dumb Science: Researchers Claim Jupiter Is 0.0028% Thinner than Previously Measured
Researchers using NASA's Juno spacecraft have refined Jupiter's dimensions, finding the planet’s equatorial radius is about 4 km smaller and its polar flattening 12 km less than previously reported. The new measurements place Jupiter’s mean radius at 71,484 km, a 0.0028% reduction at...
Fuel Leaks Cause Artemis-2 Dress Rehearsal Countdown to Terminate at T-5:15, Several Minutes Early
NASA terminated the Artemis‑II wet dress rehearsal at T‑5:15 after two separate liquid hydrogen leaks were detected. The first leak forced a hold and a recycle of the countdown, while the second leak prevented the planned run to T‑33 seconds...
Russia in Discussions with Malaysian Province About Potential Spaceport
Russia’s commercial space arm Glavcosmos is negotiating with Sabah, Malaysia, to build a new spaceport. Technical studies cite the province’s geography as ideal for low‑earth and sun‑synchronous launches, and the project could generate over 2,000 high‑income jobs. The move follows...
Amazon Asks FCC for Time Extension for Launching Its Leo Constellation
Amazon has filed a request with the FCC to extend the July 30, 2026 deadline for deploying half of its Leo satellite internet constellation. The company currently operates 181 satellites, far short of the 1,616‑satellite interim milestone. Amazon blames launch‑vehicle...
Russian Defunct Military Satellite Breaks up in Graveyard Orbit
A Russian military geosynchronous satellite launched in 2014 was moved to a graveyard orbit in 2025 after its fuel depleted. On 30 January 2026 the defunct spacecraft spontaneously fragmented, an event captured on video by Swiss tracking firm S2A Systems....
Orbex Failure Occurred Partly because UK Government Withheld Promised Funding
Orbex, a UK‑based small‑sat launch startup, collapsed after the British government delayed launch licences and withheld most of the promised £100 million grant. The company shifted from the Sutherland to the Saxavord spaceport, incurring extra costs, and ultimately received only €34.9 million...
Russian Official Says Soyuz Launchpad Repair Likely Delayed
Russia’s sole Soyuz launchpad at Baikonur, essential for ISS crew and cargo flights, will likely miss the promised late‑March completion deadline, according to Roscosmos infrastructure chief Barmin. The delay stems from harsh winter conditions and a patchwork of components, including...
Two American Launches This Evening
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off from New Zealand, delivering South Korea’s first test smallsat for a planned observation constellation over the Korean peninsula. Later, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral, with the booster completing its fifth...
Ariane-6 Gets a New Government Launch Contract
Ariane-6 secured a new launch contract to deploy the Galileo L18 pair of second‑generation navigation satellites for the European Union. This marks the rocket’s fifth GPS‑type mission for the EU, underscoring Brussels’ commitment to European launch sovereignty despite higher costs...
Webb Finds Another Unexpected Galaxy in the Very Early Universe
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified a galaxy, MoM‑z14, that existed just 280 million years after the Big Bang. The object is unexpectedly bright—about 100 times brighter than models predicted for such an early epoch—and shows unusually high...
Scientists Produce New Estimate of the Thickness of Europa’s Icy Crust
Scientists analyzing Juno’s 2022 Europa flyby have refined the moon’s ice‑shell thickness to roughly 29 ± 10 km (about 18 ± 6 miles). The study finds that surface fractures and shallow scatterers are too small and shallow to channel nutrients from the surface to the subsurface...
Musk: Next Starship/Superheavy Test Launch in Mid-March
Elon Musk announced that SpaceX plans a Starship/Superheavy test launch in roughly six weeks, targeting mid‑March. The statement implies that engineers have fixed the tank‑rupture problems that plagued recent Superheavy tests and that a new version‑3 booster is ready. Launch‑pad...
Dragonfly’s Rotors Complete Testing
The Applied Physics Lab announced that Dragonfly’s rotor system has completed its first round of testing in Titan‑like conditions, evaluating stress, vibration, and aeromechanical performance. The next steps involve fatigue and cryogenic trials to simulate the harsh environment of Saturn’s...
ESA Awards Startup Rocket Factory Augsburg a Two-Launch Contract
The European Space Agency awarded German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) a two‑launch contract under its Flight Ticket Initiative, targeting the Lurbat demonstrator mission and a CubeSat launch for Indra Space. The agreement signals ESA’s confidence in RFA as a...