Space Exploration & Science Missions News

Bloomberg • Allyson Versprille

NASA invites competitors to challenge SpaceX's Artemis moon-landing contract amid Starship delays

NASA has opened a competition for companies to bid on the crewed lunar-landing contract currently held by SpaceX, citing delays with the Starship vehicle. The move signals agency frustration with schedule slips and seeks redundancy ahead of upcoming Artemis missions.

2025-12-09T20:10:38.681807-08:00

Space.com

JWST confirms earliest-known supernova, detects its host galaxy from the Cosmic Dawn

2025-12-09T14:26:53.883333-08:00

collectSPACE

Artemis IV astronauts to land with and deploy lunar outpost rover — first human-robot surface partnership beyond Earth

2025-12-09T02:31:32.173292-08:00

NASA

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan, returning Jonny Kim and two Roscosmos cosmonauts after eight‑month ISS mission

2025-12-08T19:50:51.856165-08:00

Space Exploration & Science Missions News Timeline

slate.com

Inside NASA under Trump: the official 2027 Moon goal meets 'Moondoggle' skepticism Officially the U.S. plans to land astronauts on the Moon in 2027 and press on to Mars thereafter. Inside NASA under President Trump, many staff describe a far different reality — dubbing the programme a 'Moondoggle' and questioning the agency’s ability to meet the official timeline.

2025-12-09T23:57:52.934940-08:00

Inside NASA under Trump: the official 2027 Moon goal meets 'Moondoggle' skepticism

Bloomberg

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NASA invites competitors to challenge SpaceX's Artemis moon-landing contract amid Starship delays NASA has opened a competition for companies to bid on the crewed lunar-landing contract currently held by SpaceX, citing delays with the Starship vehicle. The move signals agency frustration with schedule slips and seeks redundancy ahead of upcoming Artemis missions.

2025-12-09T20:10:38.681807-08:00

NASA invites competitors to challenge SpaceX's Artemis moon-landing contract amid Starship delays

Space.com

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JWST confirms earliest-known supernova, detects its host galaxy from the Cosmic Dawn James Webb has confirmed the earliest-known supernova as the source of a gamma‑ray burst and, for the first time at this distance, detected the event's host galaxy. The explosion occurred when the universe was roughly 730 million years old (≈13 billion years), and Webb's rapid follow-up corroborated other observations.

2025-12-09T14:26:53.883333-08:00

JWST confirms earliest-known supernova, detects its host galaxy from the Cosmic Dawn

Space.com

Seven‑hour gamma‑ray burst in July 2025 is longest on record, suggests exotic black‑hole origin Telescopes recorded a gamma‑ray burst in July 2025 that lasted seven hours — the longest GRB ever observed when most last milliseconds to minutes. Its unprecedented duration suggests a new, exotic class of explosive event; astronomers say a rare form of black hole is a leading candidate.

2025-12-09T13:04:26.740819-08:00

Seven‑hour gamma‑ray burst in July 2025 is longest on record, suggests exotic black‑hole origin

Space.com

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National Academies: First crewed Mars missions should prioritize search for life A new National Academies report lays out a detailed blueprint for the first three crewed expeditions to Mars, declaring that the highest science priority for initial missions is a search for past or present life and prebiotic chemistry. The study frames life detection as the central objective guiding mission planning.

2025-12-09T08:12:57.765295-08:00

National Academies: First crewed Mars missions should prioritize search for life

SpaceNews.com

U.S. Should Stop Treating China’s Lunar Ambitions as a Race Framing China’s lunar ambitions as a head‑to‑head race with the United States risks pushing Washington into reactionary policies that prioritize speed over sustainable strategy, international cooperation and durable cislunar governance. Policymakers should recalibrate rhetoric and planning to balance competition, collaboration and resilient capabilities.

2025-12-09T06:05:18.489844-08:00

U.S. Should Stop Treating China’s Lunar Ambitions as a Race

collectSPACE

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Artemis IV astronauts to land with and deploy lunar outpost rover — first human-robot surface partnership beyond Earth NASA will send astronauts on Artemis IV to land with and deploy a lunar outpost rover to study lunar dust and surface conditions, marking the first time humans will work alongside a robot on another celestial body. MAPP hardware will accompany the crew named for the second Artemis landing.

2025-12-09T02:31:32.173292-08:00

Artemis IV astronauts to land with and deploy lunar outpost rover — first human-robot surface partnership beyond Earth

NASA

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Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan, returning Jonny Kim and two Roscosmos cosmonauts after eight‑month ISS mission NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky undocked Monday evening aboard their Soyuz ferry, reentered and touched down on the Kazakhstan steppe early Tuesday, completing an on‑schedule, approximately eight‑month mission to the International Space Station.

2025-12-08T19:50:51.856165-08:00

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan, returning Jonny Kim and two Roscosmos cosmonauts after eight‑month ISS mission

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