Tag: NASA
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NASA’s Lunar Timeline Hinges on Axiom Space, a Startup With an Uneven Record
The report frames Axiom as a critical supplier whose readiness could determine whether NASA meets its goals. It describes the company as having an uneven record, a characterization that carries weight given how much the lunar return rests on its deliverables. Axiom is responsible for the spacesuits astronauts would wear on the lunar surface, as…
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NASA Opens Astronaut Applications, Eyeing Crews for the Moon and Mars
The call comes as NASA frames the coming period as one of expanded human exploration. The next generation of astronauts will train to operate on the lunar surface, live and work beyond Earth, and take on missions the agency says will push the boundaries of human exploration farther than ever before. NASA last opened applications…
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Starfish Loses Otter 24C as Fault Protection Error Ends $15M NASA Inspection Mission
Otter 24C launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare on October 1 and established contact with the ground shortly after deployment. The mission, formally the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability mission, was designed to approach and inspect multiple defunct US satellites to gather data for potential future deorbit missions. The spacecraft was headed to a graveyard…
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NASA Astronauts Cast Midterm Ballots From the International Space Station
“Yes, you can even vote from space! All three U.S. crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials,” Menon wrote in an X post this morning. The post included a 29-second video in which Menon, wearing an “I voted”…
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Isaacman Teases New X-Plane Reveal at Max Power Event, Insists SR-71 Is “Just Being Cleaned”
Isaacman made the remarks on a new edition of NASASpaceflight’s The Flame Trench podcast, posted online last Friday. The comments come amid speculation since September about whether NASA has been exploring returning an SR-71 to flight. At a conference that month, Isaacman appeared to tease that possibility, showing an image of a distinctly Blackbird-like silhouette…
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NASA Sets Artemis III Around Three Launches, With Blue Origin’s Lander Flying First
Artemis III is now planned as a low-Earth-orbit checkout and rendezvous campaign rather than a single-launch profile or an immediate surface landing. It is designed to exercise the three major flight elements together, gather operational data, and build experience ahead of a later crewed lunar landing attempt. Isaacman framed the approach as a deliberate departure…
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Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman Named JPL Deputy Director
The appointment places a recently flown human spaceflight commander in senior management at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. Wiseman joins as the laboratory approaches its 90th anniversary since being founded by Caltech. JPL is NASA’s only federally funded research and development center. During the Artemis II test flight, Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and…
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NASA and USDA Sign Agreement to Expand Satellite Data for American Farmers
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins signed the MoU at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the latest stop on NASA’s Inspiration Tour. The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two agencies across several areas of remote sensing and data work. Under the agreement, the agencies will work together…
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NASA Ends 22-Year Swift Mission After Private Rescue Spacecraft Fails to Boost Orbit
NASA had hoped to extend Swift’s life. In September 2025, the agency awarded a $30 million contract to the Arizona company Katalyst Space Technologies to rescue the observatory, which was falling back to Earth due to atmospheric drag. Swift has no thrusters capable of counteracting that drag, so Katalyst built a refrigerator-sized spacecraft called LINK,…
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NASA Tests New Rotor Airfoil Designed to Extend Mars Helicopter Flight Range Twenty Fold
Ingenuity made history as the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet. The SkyFall mission, scheduled for launch in 2028, builds on that work with a trio of helicopters bound for Mars. Both missions use a blade with a curved edge reminiscent of but distinct from blades used on Earth. Researchers are now looking…