Space Exploration & Science Missions News

SpaceNews.com • Jeff Foust

NASA’s Budget Shortfall Prompts Calls for Agency Overhaul

NASA is confronting a deepening budget crisis that threatens core programs from planetary science to human exploration. Agency leaders and stakeholders see this funding pinch as a catalyst to streamline costs, recalibrate mission priorities and strengthen partnerships with commercial and international partners.

2025-06-04T04:03:27.710196-07:00

Ars Technica

Trump withdraws NASA administrator nominee as draconian budget proposal threatens Mars, SLS and Orion

2025-06-03T09:36:03.268268-07:00

Ars Technica

NASA study finds nuclear thermal propulsion crucial for crewed Mars missions

2025-06-03T12:43:30.043954-07:00

SpaceWatch Global

ispace’s Resilience Lander Set for June 5 Lunar Touchdown

2025-06-03T04:26:39.833922-07:00

Space Exploration & Science Missions News Timeline

SpaceNews.com

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NASA’s Budget Shortfall Prompts Calls for Agency Overhaul NASA is confronting a deepening budget crisis that threatens core programs from planetary science to human exploration. Agency leaders and stakeholders see this funding pinch as a catalyst to streamline costs, recalibrate mission priorities and strengthen partnerships with commercial and international partners.

2025-06-04T04:03:27.710196-07:00

NASA’s Budget Shortfall Prompts Calls for Agency Overhaul

GeekWire

Simulation Forecasts Rubin Observatory Will Uncover Millions of New Solar System Objects A new computer model projects that the Vera Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time will detect millions of previously unseen asteroids, comets and small bodies, dramatically expanding current solar system inventories and reshaping near-Earth object tracking strategies.

2025-06-03T22:12:28.152870-07:00

Simulation Forecasts Rubin Observatory Will Uncover Millions of New Solar System Objects

Live Science

Solar 'Cannonballs' Directly Observed Stripping Mars’ Atmosphere, Study Finds After nearly a decade in orbit, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has, for the first time, directly measured the solar wind–driven loss of atmospheric ions—so-called ‘solar cannonballs’—confirming a key mechanism responsible for Mars’ dramatic water and atmosphere depletion over billions of years.

2025-06-03T14:02:50.255498-07:00

Solar 'Cannonballs' Directly Observed Stripping Mars’ Atmosphere, Study Finds

Ars Technica

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NASA study finds nuclear thermal propulsion crucial for crewed Mars missions NASA’s recent analysis concludes that nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is the sole viable technology to deliver human explorers to Mars within acceptable mission durations and mass constraints. The study outlines NTP’s performance advantages over chemical rockets, emphasizing higher specific impulse and reduced transit times essential for crew safety.

2025-06-03T12:43:30.043954-07:00

NASA study finds nuclear thermal propulsion crucial for crewed Mars missions

Space.com

Fred Espenak, astronomy's 'Mr. Eclipse', dies at 71

2025-06-03T10:02:22.238097-07:00

Fred Espenak, astronomy's 'Mr. E

Ars Technica

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Trump withdraws NASA administrator nominee as draconian budget proposal threatens Mars, SLS and Orion President Trump has pulled his nominee to lead NASA, coinciding with a draconian fiscal proposal that would cancel major programs—including the Mars Sample Return, Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft—and slash the agency’s funding, raising uncertainty over its leadership and future mission portfolio.

2025-06-03T09:36:03.268268-07:00

Trump withdraws NASA administrator nominee as draconian budget proposal threatens Mars, SLS and Orion

SpaceWatch Global

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ispace’s Resilience Lander Set for June 5 Lunar Touchdown ispace will attempt to land its Resilience lander on the Moon at 3:24 p.m. EDT on June 5, 2025, aiming for Mare Frigoris. The mission, supported by ESA’s global ground stations, could make Resilience the third private spacecraft to achieve lunar touchdown and the first operated by a non-US company.

2025-06-03T04:26:39.833922-07:00

ispace’s Resilience Lander Set for June 5 Lunar Touchdown

Associated Press

Milky Way Planetarium Show Unlocks Solar System Mystery Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History say a new planetarium show about the Milky Way has unexpectedly unlocked a longstanding solar system mystery. By analyzing immersive visualizations typically used for public outreach, scientists identified features that eluded traditional telescopic observations.

2025-06-03T02:45:36.562665-07:00

Milky Way Planetarium Show Unlocks Solar System Mystery

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