NASA Spaceflight
• Eleanor Day
Russia’s Progress MS-35 cargo spacecraft is expected to launch from Kazakhstan on Sept. 16, shortly after Progress MS-33 departs the International Space Station. The mission will sustain the station’s logistics pipeline, delivering cargo and supplies to the orbiting complex.
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Russia’s Progress MS-35 cargo spacecraft is expected to launch from Kazakhstan on Sept. 16, shortly after Progress MS-33 departs the International Space Station. The mission will sustain the station’s logistics pipeline, delivering cargo and supplies to the orbiting complex.
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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman describes broad leadership and organizational reforms while repositioning the agency around building a permanent base on the moon. He frames China and Russia’s strategy for the lunar South Pole as creating urgency for U.S. exploration and national space policy.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency is looking to its 1960s playbook as it seeks to “get our swagger back.” Speaking at the WSJLI Technology Council Summit, Isaacman framed a restoration of NASA’s historic mission focus as central to moving the agency forward.
A new breakthrough could make it possible to produce rocket fuel on Mars rather than transport it from Earth. Local production would reduce the mass a Mars mission must launch and carry, potentially improving mission architecture and expanding the feasibility of sustained exploration beyond Earth.
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Avio completes the second successful Vega C launch of 2026, deploying the European Space Agency’s FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C Earth-observation satellites from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The mission places two science and environmental-monitoring spacecraft into orbit and demonstrates continued Vega C operations.
A new instrument aboard a CubeSat could extend advance warnings of solar storms by a factor of 10. The capability would improve monitoring of solar radiation, helping characterize space-weather conditions that can affect spacecraft, satellite operations and other space-based systems.
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Rocket Lab says NASA’s decision in a Mars spacecraft procurement appears inconsistent with the stated eligibility criteria. The company’s challenge raises questions about how the agency applied requirements in selecting an awardee for a mission involving Mars exploration.
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A Vega-C rocket launched Europe’s FLEX and Copernicus-3C—also identified in coverage as Sentinel-3C—spacecraft from Kourou on Sept. 14. The mission adds new European capabilities for monitoring plant health, ocean conditions and broader Earth-system changes amid a busy global launch schedule.
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