Space — September 2026

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.