
Apollo moon rocks remain U.S. government property, making their purchase or sale illegal under federal law. A 2002 theft of 8 kg of lunar material resulted in an eight‑year prison term, underscoring the seriousness of the offense. NASA’s Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility, which houses 842 pounds of Apollo samples, recently opened a sealed Apollo 17 core for the first time in 50 years. The agency permits limited access through a certified loan program for qualified researchers and educators.

China’s reusable Shenlong space plane lifted off from Jiuquan on Feb 6, 2026, marking its fourth orbital mission. The vehicle’s prior flights ranged from a two‑day test to multi‑year stays, each releasing one or more satellites. Unlike the U.S. X‑37B, Shenlong...

On Feb 16, 2026 a minor G1 geomagnetic storm lit up the night skies over Iceland and eastern Canada. The VIIRS sensor aboard NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured grayscale images of the auroral displays across the Denmark Strait and Canadian provinces. The storm,...

The Lunar Gateway, a planned orbiting space station, is a cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis program, intended to support crewed lunar missions, scientific research, and technology testing for future Mars trips. Although most international hardware has already been built and is...
Doñana National Park, Spain’s flagship wetland, is losing surface water at an accelerating pace, according to ESA Sentinel‑2 satellite analysis. Researchers using machine‑learning classification found a marked decline in wet area, volume and depth since 2005, projecting potential desiccation within...

Elon Musk told xAI staff he wants a Moon‑based factory to produce AI‑focused satellites and launch them with a massive electromagnetic catapult. He believes that within two to three years space‑based compute will be the cheapest way to run AI...