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• Jeff Foust
NASA and the European Space Agency are defining the infrastructure needed to support a sustainable lunar base, while Northrop Grumman and the Canadian Space Agency are adapting work from NASA’s planned Gateway station for future lunar-base applications.
Space Exploration & Science Missions
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NASA and the European Space Agency are defining the infrastructure needed to support a sustainable lunar base, while Northrop Grumman and the Canadian Space Agency are adapting work from NASA’s planned Gateway station for future lunar-base applications.
The private LINK spacecraft, launched last month on a mission to save a NASA space telescope, has itself encountered trouble. Engineering teams report progress as they work to recover the spacecraft, adding a second layer of operational risk to an already complex in-space rescue effort.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has completed initial tests of a lightweight radar antenna for the planned SkyFall mission, which would deploy three small helicopters on Mars. The ground-penetrating system is designed to search for subsurface frozen water while enabling airborne exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA has freed up enough power from Voyager 2’s dwindling supply to keep one of the 48-year-old probe’s remaining science instruments operating for another year. The successful, risky “Big Bang” maneuver may offer a path to prolong Voyager 1’s scientific mission as its power reserves decline.
Redwire subsidiary SpaceMD will fly up to 32 mini-labs aboard a future SpaceX Starfall mission, marking the reentry vehicle’s first dedicated mission. The agreement expands Redwire’s role in commercial microgravity research and establishes an initial payload commitment for Starfall’s planned operations.
A Redwire subsidiary focused on space biotechnology and pharmaceuticals has agreed to fly dedicated microgravity research payloads aboard SpaceX’s Starfall reentry vehicle. The mission will provide a purpose-built platform for biotech and pharmaceutical experiments in the space environment.
As the U.S. prioritizes returning humans to the moon, commercial space companies are turning to a downstream challenge: producing food in lunar environments. Three firms are developing technologies intended to grow crops on the moon, addressing a critical requirement for sustained human presence beyond Earth.
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