Space

NASA completed the early return of International Space Station astronauts when the SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon Endeavour capsule splashed down Jan. 15 in the Pacific Ocean off the San Diego coast.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon Endeavour capsule undocked from the International Space Station on Jan. 14 for a scheduled Jan. 15 splashdown and recovery.

The National Reconnaissance Office expects to launch its first mission of the year as early as Jan. 16, the office said Jan.14.

Nearly nine months after the Trump administration released its fiscal 2026 budget proposal to slash NASA funding by 24%, Congress is poised to reject the cuts.

SkyFi, a space startup that specializes in satellite imagery and analytics, raised $12.7 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round.

CNES is transforming the Guiana Space Center (known as CSG, under its French acronym) into a hub where multiple operators offer launch services.

France has yet to find a ride to space for its twin-nanosatellite “Yoda” demonstration program for geostationary patrol against potential unfriendly spacecraft.

Airbus plans to test a software-defined satellite to underpin efforts to develop non-terrestrial 5G connectivity infrastructure.

Open Cosmos received Ka-band spectrum rights through Liechtenstein as the European space tech company prepares to deploy an LEO broadband satellite system.

Startup sees space-based radar as cheaper than aircraft-based AWACs.

Startup Array Labs is attempting to develop formation-flying radar satellites to study the feasibility of conducting “persistent, wide-area” airborne moving target indication missions from space.

Firefly Aerospace plans to introduce upgrades to its Alpha rocket after the company suffered several mishaps with the launcher.

Axiom Space has revealed new details of its space station assembly plan.

NASA plans to seek ideas to help advance concepts around bringing crewmembers to Mars and providing a power grid for missions to the planet or the Moon.

Low-cost launch startup Stoke Space is testing flight-capable Zenith engines in the buildup to the first orbital test flight of its Nova rocket.

Europe’s meteorological agency Eumetsat gave the formal go-ahead to the EPS-Sterna program, which aims to grow a system of 20 weather monitoring satellites.

Australia agreed with Luxembourg-based satellite communications provider SES to extend the life of the IS-22 satellite’s UHF satcom services for military use.

Portugal has become the 60th nation to sign the Artemis Accords governing deep-space exploration.

The International Space Station crew held a change-of-command ceremony Jan. 12 in advance of the Crew-11 astronauts’ planned early return to Earth.

A Jan. 11 SpaceX rideshare launch carried 40 payloads to orbit, including 10 satellites from Kepler Communications.

MaiaSpace, an ArianeGroup subsidiary developing a small, reusable launcher, has plans for a larger version with twice the payload, CEO Yohann Leroy said.

China’s CAS Space says it has completed the first suborbital test flight of its Li Hong-1 reentry capsule, containing microgravity experiments.

Sweden is joining the list of European countries buying Iceye synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites.

India suffered a third-stage failure on its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket on Jan. 12, leading to the loss of 15 satellites and a reentry capsule.

Eutelsat says it will buy another tranche of satellites from Airbus to build out its OneWeb low-Earth-orbit broadband communication system.