Space News

APOD: 2026 August 20 – The Elephant’s Trunk in Cepheus

Hypersonic missile startup Castelion raises $1 billion

Company founded by former SpaceX executives aims to produce a low-cost hypersonic weapon and a broader portfolio of longer-range strike and missile defense weapons

Eartheye Space forges strategic partnership with IN2

SAN FRANCISCO – Risk-management firm IN2 will have access to Eartheye Space multi-sensor satellite tasking and analytics through a memorandum of understanding signed Aug. 19. IN2 will include Eartheye satellite […]

Space Force Funding Could Be Record High, If Congress Agrees

The Administration is requesting $71 billion for the U.S. Space Force in FY2027, more than twice what it has now. An analysis by the Aerospace Corporation concludes it is the […]

Stoke Space conducts second stage fit checks, completes first stage engines ahead of Nova debut

While Starship is grabbing headlines, another fully reusable vehicle is advancing towards a potential 2026…

LandSpace becomes first commercial Chinese company to land an orbital-class booster

The August 19 landing of its ZhuQue-3 rocket marked the first landing of a Chinese-made rocket using landing legs as well.

No-Go for Katalyst’s Reboost of NASA’s Swift Observatory

Katalyst Space and NASA concluded today that reboosting the Swift Observatory with Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft will not be possible due to attitude control problems. They still plan to conduct some […]

NASA TechLeap Prize: Orbital Clarity Challenge

The Orbital Clarity Challenge — the sixth in the NASA TechLeap Prize series — is a collaborative effort between NASA’s Heliophysics Division, Flight Opportunities program, and Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. The Heliophysics Division studies space weather, including how it heats and expands Earth’s outer atmosphere during intense solar activity, creating orbital drag through atmospheric density changes. The […]

Parse.ly Test

NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX is targeting 11:39 a.m. EST Saturday, Dec. 5, for the launch of its 21st commercial resupply services (CRS-21) mission to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. CRS-21 will deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment for NASA and is the first […]

ATMOS Moves Forward with Phoenix 3 as Phoenix 2 Launch Slips

German space logistics company ATMOS Space Cargo has completed an early-stage design study for its reusable Phoenix 3 spacecraft. The announcement comes just two months after the company pushed the launch of its Phoenix 2 spacecraft from the second half of 2026 to early 2027. Work on the Phoenix 3 study was conducted with the […]

Katalyst Space and NASA abandon plans for Swift reboost

Katalyst Space and NASA have called off plans to use the company’s Link spacecraft to raise the orbit of the agency’s Swift gamma-ray observatory, citing attitude-control problems with the spacecraft.

NASA Updates Next Steps for Commercial Swift Boost Mission

Due to an ongoing commercial spacecraft attitude control issue, NASA and Katalyst Space announced Wednesday the LINK spacecraft will not capture or boost an agency satellite to a higher altitude to extend its science mission as planned. However, LINK still will attempt to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to […]