Japan Launches MMX to Bring Back a Piece of Phobos
JAXA launched MMX on 20 October 2026 on a mission to orbit Phobos, land a rover and bring at least 10 grams of the Martian moon back to Australia in 2031.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
Space & Science Tech
Spaceflight, satellites, and research breakthroughs with a tech angle.
27 storiesLatest: Nov 2, 2026
Editor's pick
NASA Asks Industry Whether Commercial Spacecraft Could Boost or Retire Hubble
NASA's 29 October 2026 request for information asks industry about boosting Hubble, servicing it, or bringing it down safely. Nothing is funded or scheduled.
TPW Editorial9 min read
SpaceX Wants 80,000 Cell Sites, the Ground Half of a Fourth US Carrier
SpaceX is in talks to lease access to at least 80,000 US cell sites, about half the country's towers, as it builds the ground layer of a fourth carrier.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
SpaceX Flies Starfall a Second Time, and Leaves the Ending Unstated
SpaceX launched its Starfall return capsule for the second time on 20 October, on a Falcon 9 rideshare with 31 customer payloads. The outcome is unconfirmed.
By TPW Editorial9 min read
SpaceX Launches CRS-35 With the Final Pair of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays
SpaceX launched NASA's CRS-35 cargo mission on October 13, 2026, carrying the fourth and final pair of ISS roll-out solar arrays and 6,300 pounds of supplies.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
SpaceX's Starship Reaches Orbit for the First Time on Flight 14
SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time on Flight 14 on September 28, 2026, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, then splashed down in the Pacific.
By TPW Editorial9 min read
NASA Picks PRIMA, a Billion-Dollar Far-Infrared Telescope, for a 2033 Launch
NASA selected PRIMA, a $1.2 billion far-infrared space telescope, as the first Probe Explorers mission in its Explorers Program, targeting a 2033 launch.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
Google Is Sending Four TPUs to Orbit in Its First Suncatcher Test
Google's Project Suncatcher will launch the MVP satellite on October 1, carrying four TPUs to test whether AI compute can survive and work in Earth orbit.
By TPW Editorial7 min read
NASA Activates Roman's 300-Megapixel Wide Field Instrument and Checks Out the Coronagraph
NASA powered up the Roman Space Telescope's 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument in September 2026 and ran early checks on its planet-imaging coronagraph.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
Impulse Space Adds $308 Million to Series D, Taking the Round to $808 Million
Impulse Space raised a $308 million Series D extension on 16 September 2026, taking the round to $808 million at a reported valuation of $5.6 billion.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds a 222-Metre Crater That Formed on the Moon in 2024
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found a 222-metre crater on the Moon that formed in 2024, the largest newly formed crater identified in the solar system.
By TPW Editorial9 min read
Rocket Lab’s 96th Electron Lofts a 12th StriX Radar Satellite for Synspective
Rocket Lab launched its 96th Electron on September 19, 2026, carrying a 12th StriX radar satellite for Synspective and extending a 100% success record.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
NASA Extends SpaceX Crew Contract With $946M for Three More ISS Missions
NASA awarded SpaceX $946 million on September 18, 2026 to add Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17 to its CCtCap contract, lifting the total value to $5.92 billion.
By TPW Editorial7 min read
The US Confirms It Has Weapons in Orbit, Ending Decades of Ambiguity
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed the US has on-orbit space control weapons, the first public admission of deployed space weapons. Here's what it means.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
SpaceX Sets September 22 for Starship's First Orbital Flight and Its First Paying Payload
SpaceX is targeting September 22 for Starship's first orbital flight, a roughly ten-hour mission that would deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites for the first time.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
Vega-C Launches Europe's FLEX and Sentinel-3C to Watch Plants and Oceans
A single Vega-C launch has put two European Earth-observation satellites in orbit, one to track ocean and climate change, the other to measure plant health.
By TPW Editorial7 min read
Open Cosmos Raises €300 Million to Industrialize Europe's Satellite Supply
Open Cosmos raised €300 million on 14 September to expand satellite manufacturing and sovereign connectivity, the latest round in a European space funding wave.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
SpaceX Flies 700th Falcon Mission, Completing SES's O3b mPOWER Constellation
SpaceX launched the final three SES O3b mPOWER satellites on Sept. 13, the 700th flight of its Falcon rocket family and its 107th orbital mission of 2026.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
Hubble's N44 Superbubble Becomes a Clock for Star Formation
A new Hubble image of the nebula N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud pairs a 210-light-year superbubble with a census of nearly half a million stars.
By TPW Editorial8 min read
Isar Aerospace Reaches Orbit, Giving Europe Its First Private Launch
On only its second flight, Germany's Isar Aerospace reached orbit from Norway, the first commercial European company to launch satellites itself.
By TPW Editorial7 min read
ESA to Build Its Own Radar for the EnVision Venus Mission as NASA Steps Back
ESA is pressing ahead with a European radar for its EnVision Venus orbiter after NASA signalled it is unlikely to deliver the US-built VenSAR instrument.
By TPW Editorial9 min read
IBM and NASA Open-Source a Foundation Model for the Moon
The NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model turns decades of lunar observations into an open model and dataset, beating prior methods on key surface features by up to 23%.
By TPW Editorial3 min read
Hubble and Webb Team Up to Find the Faintest Trans-Neptunian Objects Yet
Hubble and Webb joined forces for the deepest survey of trans-Neptunian objects, finding 27 tiny icy worlds that preserve the early solar system's history.
By TPW Editorial9 min read
ISRO's GSLV-F17 Lifts EOS-05, India's First Geosynchronous Imaging Satellite
ISRO's GSLV-F17 placed the 2,367-kilogram EOS-05 into a transfer orbit on September 4, ending an eight-month launch drought and giving India a persistent eye in the sky.
By TPW Editorial9 min read
How Reusable Rockets Fly Again: The Engineering of Booster Landings
Staging throws away a rocket's most expensive part. Here is how Falcon 9 boosters land themselves, and why propulsive reuse changed launch economics forever.
By TPW Editorial10 min read
Orbital Debris and Space Traffic Management, Explained
Orbital debris is a long-lived by-product of spaceflight. Here's how it forms, how satellites steer clear of it, and why cleanup and governance remain hard.
By TPW Editorial13 min read
NASA's Roman Space Telescope Launches on a Million-Mile Hunt for Dark Energy
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched Aug. 30 on a Falcon Heavy, beginning a five-year survey with a field of view more than 100 times Hubble's.
By TPW Editorial9 min read