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China’s Astronaut Center completed its first cave‑survival training, involving 28 astronauts and trainees in a month‑long program in Chongqing’s Wulong district. Participants endured 8 °C temperatures, 99 % humidity, darkness and confined spaces while conducting mapping, scientific tasks and emergency drills. The exercise targeted risk‑response, teamwork, physical endurance and, critically, psychological resilience for extreme environments. Officials say the program will feed directly into future lunar and deep‑space mission preparedness.
Southwest Research Institute and UT San Antonio re‑examined Apollo 11, 16 and 17 lunar soils with modern transmission electron microscopy to quantify how space weathering alters far‑ultraviolet (FUV) reflectance. The study linked the presence of nanophase‑iron particles in grain rims...
Researchers from the Beijing Institute of Technology, the China Academy of Space Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have introduced a theoretical model that couples electrostatic forces with contact‑mechanics to predict whether low‑velocity charged lunar dust grains stick to...
Northrop Grumman's new five‑segment solid rocket boosters will power NASA's Artemis II launch, the first crewed mission of the Space Launch System, slated for early February 2026. Each 177‑foot booster delivers 3.6 million pounds of thrust, together providing 7.2 million of the SLS’s...
Over half of methane exhaust from lunar landers can migrate across the Moon, reaching the opposite pole within two lunar days and becoming trapped in permanently shadowed regions. Simulations of ESA’s Argonaut mission show 42 % of exhaust settles at the...
Denmark’s University of Copenhagen will lead the ESA‑backed Mani mission, slated for a 2029 launch, to map the Moon’s north and south polar regions in three dimensions. The satellite will capture high‑resolution images from multiple angles, using shadow analysis to...
The Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world’s largest space launch facility, sits in southern Kazakhstan about 200 km west of the city of Baikonur. Operated by Russia’s Roscosmos under a 1994 lease, it has supported more than 400 orbital launches since its first...
SpaceX provably has revenues of less than $20bn and loses money after the merger with xAI, but is targeting a $1.75 TRILLION IPO. So FTAV explored how Musk might try to pull off what could be the biggest bagholder operation...
ESA’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured the May 2024 solar superstorm’s effects on the Red Planet, revealing unprecedented electron spikes in the upper atmosphere. A radiation monitor on TGO logged a dose equivalent to 200 Earth days in...
Ursa Major announced the successful hot‑fire of its upgraded Hadley H13 liquid rocket engine, marking the first flight test of the latest variant. The company has integrated additive manufacturing across roughly 80% of the engine’s parts, streamlining production and cutting...
Elon Musk’s decision to block Russia from using Starlink satellites has hampered Russian drone and artillery operations, highlighting the strategic power of private space assets. After initially supplying Ukraine with terminals, Musk later restricted their use against Russian territory following...
MWC 2026: Can Elon Musk’s Starlink Mobile defy physics? RF experts weigh in #MWC26 🖇️https://t.co/hmQXnCNSio 🖇️ https://t.co/3Dp4fYFcYe
The Deep Space Network (DSN), established in 1963 under JPL, provides continuous 360‑degree coverage through three antenna complexes in the United States, Spain, and Australia. Over six decades it has evolved from 26‑meter dishes to 70‑meter giants, supporting iconic missions...
In August 2025, NIST, NOAA and biotech firm Rhodium launched seven reference materials—including cholesterol, house dust and a freeze‑dried human liver—on a Falcon 9 to the International Space Station. Six of the samples are NIST standard reference materials (SRMs) that meet...
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...
Apparent FAILURE of Kairos during first stage flight, for the third time in a row Failure appeared to be about 1 min into flight.
LAUNCH at 0210 UTC Mar 5 of Kairos rocket flight 3 from Kii spaceport, Japan
SatNews unveiled a fully redesigned website that preserves its entire 52,000‑story archive while delivering current headlines such as SpaceX’s pending IPO and Germany’s €35 billion LEO commitment. The platform is divided into seven dedicated channels—Missions & Constellations, Business, Defense, Government, Launch,...
A year and a half ago I published a story with my simple plan for saving Artemis. https://t.co/q8yk0zTW3O Here it was in a nutshell: https://t.co/jSbtdKb3zE
Virgin Galactic has become the sole commercial sub‑orbital tourism operator after Blue Origin announced it will cease space‑tourism activities. The company’s newly upgraded Delta spacecraft, designed for a two‑day turnaround, is slated for its inaugural flight by the end of...
The Government Accountability Office released a critical review of the Space Development Agency’s missile‑warning satellite program, highlighting a heavy reliance on contractor‑provided technology‑readiness assessments and an aggressive two‑year acquisition cadence. GAO found that SDA lacks an enterprise‑wide schedule, has limited...
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...
Nvidia announced a senior hire for an orbital data‑center system architect, offering a base salary between $224,000 and $356,500. The role will design end‑to‑end AI compute solutions that operate from the GPU chip through satellite platforms and inter‑satellite links. The...
Operation Epic Fury, a joint U.S.–Israeli strike against Iranian infrastructure, relied on coordinated space‑based uplink/downlink jamming and cyber disruption before kinetic weapons were employed. The campaign highlighted how militaries exploit a legal gray zone where non‑kinetic effects avoid the traditional...
There were quite a few changes to the Senate Commerce NASA Auth bill compared to the draft that was circulating last week, plus the amendments adopted today. https://t.co/Ad2s6yclcs
The NASA authorization act approved by the Senate Commerce Committee today includes a study of a human Mars mission—sort of. https://t.co/EAOJaNPxtN
Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg discussed the rollout of the ViaSat-3 constellation in a Thursday Morning Conversation with Via Satellite. The second ViaSat-3 satellite is set to enter service within weeks, with a third slated for a spring launch and later...
A five‑day dry‑immersion simulation revealed that healthy female participants experience altered blood‑clotting dynamics in microgravity, with delayed initiation but faster, more stable clot formation. The study, published in Acta Astronautica, examined 18 women using rotational thromboelastometry and found no hormonal...
HawkEye 360 announced a $23 million addition to its Series E round, attracting new investors Ghisallo, Principia Growth and Sixty Degree Capital alongside existing backer Strategic Development Fund. The infusion follows a $150 million debt‑equity package used to acquire Innovative Signals Analysis (ISA)...
Encouraged to see the provisions in the Senate's NASA authorization bill (reported out of ctee today) supporting @chandraxray : #SaveChandra https://t.co/vEpAy3Mn9H
NASA’s Eclipse Megamovie project has released its full dataset from the April 8 2024 total solar eclipse. The collection comprises 52,469 photographs taken by volunteers at 143 U.S. observatories, creating the first white‑light eclipse dataset covering over 90 minutes of coronal observations....
The US Senate's new 'reauthorization' bill offers a major endorsement for NASA's revamped Artemis plans. Seriously, this is a really great legislation overall. No idea how Isaacman got this done so quickly, but he delivered. https://t.co/g7MeTnqlSm
Canada and India marked the 30th anniversary of their space collaboration by agreeing to a new Implementing Arrangement that expands joint work in atmospheric science, space robotics, human spaceflight, quantum communications and AI‑driven aerospace. The deal builds on agreements from...
NASA astrobiologist Dr. Caleb Scharf introduces the Interplanetary Habitable Zone (IHZ), a multidimensional extension of the classic Goldilocks concept that incorporates power availability, radiation risk, transport difficulty, and material resources. His agent‑based simulation shows how a technological civilization might migrate...
MDA Space posted a record C$1.63 billion in 2025 revenue, a 51% year‑over‑year jump, driven largely by its Satellite Systems division. That segment surged 85.5% to C$1.1 billion, fueled by contracts for Low‑Earth‑Orbit constellations with Globalstar and Telesat Lightspeed. Adjusted net income...
NASA and CNES’s SWOT satellite has completed its first year of global river monitoring, analyzing nearly 1.6 million observations across 127 000 river segments. The study, published in Nature, shows total river volume fluctuations of about 83 trillion gallons—roughly 28 % less than previous...
The proposed language to cap NASA's launch procurement at 50 percent from any one company has been dropped from the final NASA reauthorization bill. I wrote about this issue on Monday: https://t.co/x4jDOwadVr
Launcher startup @PLD_Space, fresh from its $209M equity round led by @ME_JP_official and including Spanish govt, on the road to planned inaugural flight this yr from @esa @CNES Guiana Space Center. Transport vessel already booked. @defis_eu.https://t.co/rpPd1GDsBX https://t.co/n23Zg1E14q
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....
Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons has been appointed Capsule Communicator (Capcom) for NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed lunar flight in over five decades. As the sole voice from Mission Control to the four‑person crew, she will translate complex flight‑control data...
Mutable Tactics, a British AI startup, secured $2.1 million in pre‑seed funding to build software that lets swarms of military drones operate autonomously when satellite navigation and communications are unavailable. The round was led by Seraphim Space, with participation from the...
We're about to see a duopoly in space internet: Starlink vs Amazon's LEO constellation. We also have competitors in China and elsewhere. This drives Abundance.
In this episode, host explores the growing problem of orbital debris and its potential as a springboard for asteroid mining. Joel Sercel, CEO and founder of TransAstra, explains how his company’s capture technology can safely remove defunct satellites and repurpose...
Former investment banker Raphael Roettgen revived a space‑focused SPAC in early 2026 after a four‑year hiatus, raising about $230 million in trust to seek a merger with a space‑related company. The new vehicle, Space Asset Acquisition Corp., reflects a broader revival...
GomSpace announced a €7.6 million contract with Rome‑based VirtuaLabs to deliver a satellite cluster for space‑based RF environment monitoring. The partnership blends GomSpace’s modular satellite platforms with VirtuaLabs’ electronic‑warfare payload expertise, targeting institutional‑grade ISR capabilities. Delivery of the fully integrated cluster...
"Today, the star [in DC] is Starlink," says Alpine Group's Rhod Shaw at the ACA Connects Summit. #Summit2026
Senate Commerce Committee favorably reported the NASA authorization act on a voice vote. Lots of amendments included in it, which were not discussed during the brief markup.
British firms developing satellite communications will share £30 million from the UK Space Agency’s Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C‑LEO) programme. The second funding round is designed to move technologies from testing to deployment, emphasizing smarter hardware, AI‑enhanced data delivery, and...
Gilat Satellite Networks announced a multi‑million‑dollar order from a leading in‑flight connectivity integrator for its AeroStream Ka‑band wideband amplifiers. The hardware, including 60 W Ka‑band block upconverters, will be delivered over the next 24 months to equip commercial aircraft. Gilat notes...
Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31, the only pad used for crewed Soyuz flights, was out of service after a Nov 27, 2025 launch damaged its service cabin and infrastructure. Roscosmos announced on March 3 that a 150‑person team completed extensive repairs, replacing 2,350 square meters...
