Space News

Rocket Report: ULA flies into uncertain future; Falcon 9 family hits 700 launches

“I can tell you SpaceX has already gone captive."

A galaxy spinning out of sync

Though the spiral galaxy in this new image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It’s one of over one thousand galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies bound together by gravity.

Earth from Space: Laguna Colorada

From the ESA Blogs.

ESA Awards €20M in Contracts to Study Future IRIS2 Services

The European Space Agency has awarded 18 contracts worth a combined €20 million to study potential future evolutions of the European Union’s IRIS2 secure communications service. Signed on 17 September, the contracts bring together nearly 80 European companies to study new satellite-based secure connectivity services and associated mission concepts. According to ESA, the solutions will […]

APOD: 2026 September 18 – Messier 33: The Triangulum Galaxy

Starship’s upcoming missions: Waiting on Orbit, Building toward the Cape

SpaceX is now targeting Starship Flight 14 no earlier than Monday, September 28, pending regulatory…

NASA Awards Launch Services for StarBurst Gamma-Ray Detector

NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the agency’s StarBurst mission, a small satellite designed to investigate neutron star mergers and the origins of short gamma-ray bursts. StarBurst will launch aboard a Bandwagon rideshare mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida […]

NASA Invites Media to SpaceX’s 35th Resupply Launch to Space Station

Media accreditation is open for the next cargo launch that will deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. The 35th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for NASA will lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket. NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than October to launch […]

NASA Unveils Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle

Fifty years ago, on Sept. 17, 1976—Constitution Day of America’s bicentennial year—NASA unveiled its first space shuttle orbiter, OV-101, to the public. NASA had originally planned to name the vehicle Constitution, but a letter-writing campaign changed the agency’s plans. Nearly 100,000 fans of the Star Trek television series wrote the White House urging that the […]

Satrec Initiative to build 10-centimeter-class optical satellites for Hanwha constellation

PARIS — South Korean company Satrec Initiative is working with parent company Hanwha Systems to provide high-resolution Earth imagery for the synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) constellation announced in July. Satrec Initiative, acquires 25-centimeter optical […]

Simera Sense and IDOM partner to develop and produce xScape350 optical system as demand for high-resolution EO imagery surges

LEUVEN, BELGIUM and BILBAO, SPAIN – 17 September 2026—Simera Sense, a leading European provider of optical payload solutions for small satellites, today announced a strategic partnership with IDOM, one of […]

NASA to order more Starliner missions and help certify a new rocket to keep it flying

"They should fly their capsule. The government paid a lot of money for that."