Space

US confirms it has weapons deployed in orbit

The Air Force says on-orbit weapons defend US forces, in a first public admission.

ESA launches satellites to track plant health, oceans

A Vega-C rocket carried Europe's FLEX satellite and Sentinel-3C into orbit before dawn Tuesday, expanding how closely scientists watch Earth's plants and seas.

SpaceX flies its 700th Falcon rocket mission

The milestone flight also finished SES's O3b mPOWER satellite network, 20 years after Falcon's first launch attempt.

Rocket Lab protests NASA's $700M Mars deal with Blue Origin

Rocket Lab is formally challenging NASA's decision to give Blue Origin a $700 million Mars satellite contract.

Macron calls for European crewed spaceflight in 10 years

The French president wants Europe flying its own astronauts within a decade, announced days after SpaceX and Blue Origin skipped his Paris space summit.

NASA's Chandra finds a brand-new class of X-ray objects

Astronomers found 84 mysterious 'hypersoft' X-ray sources across six galaxies that don't match any known type of object.

The Exploration Company raises $450M to rival SpaceX

The Munich startup's Series C is Europe's largest ever for a space company, funding a reusable capsule and a new rocket engine.

White House urges firms to skip France's space summit

SpaceX, Blue Origin and others pulled out of Macron's Paris summit just before it starts this week, sources say.

Europe signs its first-ever Moon rover into being

ESA and a Luxembourg-based startup formalized the deal to build MAGPIE, aimed at the Moon's icy south pole.

Isar Aerospace reaches orbit from European soil

The German startup's Spectrum rocket became the first ever to reach orbit launching from mainland Europe.

China unveils 30-satellite plan to shield moon crews

The tiny satellites would give constant warning of solar storms, the radiation bursts that put astronauts on the moon in real danger.

Hubble spots a mysterious 10-sided cloud pattern at Saturn

NASA's Hubble telescope found a giant 10-sided wave of clouds circling Saturn's south pole — a shape nobody has seen there before.

NASA picks Blue Origin for new Mars communications network

The $700 million contract puts Blue Origin, not SpaceX, in charge of relaying signals between Mars missions and Earth.

Türkiye becomes 71st nation to sign Artemis Accords

NASA welcomed Türkiye as the newest signatory to its coalition of countries committed to peaceful space exploration.

Roman telescope launches, Trump calls to celebrate

NASA's dark-energy telescope launched Sunday despite past budget threats, and Trump called in to celebrate its liftoff.

NASA's Roman telescope set to launch on Falcon Heavy

NASA's next big space telescope, built to study dark energy, is set to lift off from Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Sunday morning.

Trump signs order to create a US Space Academy

The executive order creates a commission to design the nation's first Space Academy, training people for NASA and the new Space Force.

Navy SEAL-turned-astronaut Jonny Kim leaves NASA

Jonny Kim, a doctor and former Navy SEAL, is leaving NASA after nearly a decade to return to active-duty military service.

Roman Space Telescope reaches SpaceX hangar for launch

NASA's next big observatory is now mated to its Falcon Heavy rocket, five days ahead of its planned Aug. 30 launch.

NASA's Pandora satellite starts studying alien worlds

The small satellite is now observing planets outside our solar system and the stars they orbit.

NASA sets Aug. 30 launch for Roman Telescope

The next-generation observatory built to probe dark energy launches on a Falcon Heavy, if Sunday's target date holds.

China postpones Chang'e-7 moon launch before liftoff

A storm near the launch site forced China to pull its most ambitious lunar mission with no new date set.

Trump to award Artemis II crew Space Medal of Honor

The four astronauts who flew around the moon on Artemis II will receive the nation's highest space honor at a Houston ceremony on Aug. 28.

Trump signs policy targeting 1,000 rocket launches a year

A new White House policy aims to grow U.S. rocket launches and reentries to over 1,000 a year by 2030.

China's Chang'e-7 launches for the moon's south pole

The uncrewed mission carries a lander, rover, and hopping probe to hunt for water ice, launching as soon as Aug. 24.

LandSpace becomes China's first private rocket landing

The Zhuque-3 rocket landed its booster using legs Wednesday, a first for any private Chinese company.

First French woman spacewalks, ISS antenna waits

Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to spacewalk, but she and NASA's Anil Menon ran out of time to finish the repair.

China launches two rockets after Long March blast

Six days after a Long March 7A exploded on liftoff, China launched two more rockets back to back to prove its program still works.

SpaceX launches two rockets 38 minutes apart, a record

One rocket lifted off from Florida, the next from California, beating SpaceX's own record by 27 minutes.

SpaceX closes $60B deal to buy AI coding startup Cursor

The rocket company, now public under its official name Space Exploration Technologies, folded the coding startup into its xAI division.