NASA & NEWSPACE

• Firefly awarded Spacecraft Processing Operations Contract from NASA, allowing the company to compete for task orders to support missions launching from Vandenberg. 
• Intuitive Machines will design and manufacture a multi-satellite communications infrastructure—likely three geostationary craft—for an undisclosed customer in a deal valued at over $600 million.
• Private company LandSpace achieved China’s first successful land-based recovery of a reusable liquid oxygen-methane booster (the Zhuque-3 Y2).

GLOBAL REPORTS

• Wenchang hosting Chang’e-7 international payload teams for workshop Aug 23, followed by the mission’s launch set for Aug 24 morning (local time), and an afternoon Wenchang Space Forum.
• At the 10th India SatCom, Broadband India Forum revealed that there are now about 400 space startups in India.
• The European Space Agency has paused its “Block 3” upgrades for the Ariane 6 rocket to cut down on high program costs.

BEYOND EARTH

• LRO images of the Falcon 9 stages impact crater on the Moon reveal the new crater is less than 10 feet deep, and 60 feet wide across the rim. 
• Astronomers have uncovered definitive evidence that dwarf galaxy LKH merged with the Milky Way 11.8 billion years ago, extending our galaxy’s known history by 1.8 billion years.
• The discovery of a massive, rocky “mega-Earth” named GJ 523b, 23 times more massive than Earth, challenges current planet formation models.

NASA & NEWSPACE

• Blue Origin is constructing LC-36B at Cape Canaveral to support New Glenn 9×4 (9 boosters and 4 upper-stage engines) launches, while New Glenn 7×2 will launch from LC-36A after its rebuild. 
• Virgin Galactic opened public voting to name its new “Delta-1” SpaceShip vehicle, which is planned for test flights in October. 
• NASA subcontractor Paragon Space was forced to lay off 70 people due to cancellation of the HALO module contract.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• Early reporting indicates the Long March 7A failure from Wenchang is unlikely to affect the launch of China’s Chang’e-7 mission on the Long March 5 set for the morning of August 24.
• India concluded its 9th India-U.S. Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting, and had a successful ground static test of the solid booster stage (SS1) of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle.
• Rocket Lab Germany GmbH is being established to advance satellite manufacturing and launch services across Europe.

BEYOND EARTH

• Uranus’ major moons, except for Miranda, have a deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio that is nearly five times higher than the planet’s, indicating they did not form from Uranus.
• Corundum identified in Martian data in 2026 is an unexpected surprise as Mars lacks the plate tectonic activity and specific silicon-depleted chemistry usually needed to form it.
• The first-ever identified globular cluster stellar stream beyond the Milky Way Galaxy has been identified in UGC 9050-Dw1, about 115 million light-years from Earth.

NASA & NEWSPACE

• NASA and Northrop Grumman are repurposing Gateway HALO technologies into three Lunar Infrastructure Demo (LID) missions to tackle extreme temperature swings at the lunar South Pole.
• SpaceX stock has fallen significantly from its post-IPO peak above $200, though the company’s 2026 second-quarter revenue hit $7.8 billion.
• Intuitive Machines completes Goonhilly and COMSAT acquisition, becoming first company to own full lunar mission chain: spacecraft manufacturing + lunar landers + Earth-based antennas.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter captured the first-ever pictures of the Falcon 9 upper stage crash site after it struck the Moon on August 5, NASA’s LRO to image site on Aug 12.
• ISRO successfully completed its second Gaganyaan air drop test, verifying the capsule’s parachute system ahead of its first planned uncrewed Gaganyaan-1 orbital test flight late 2026 / early 2027.
• ESA is offering developers the opportunity to run their software on the HERA spacecraft in 2027 while it orbits Didymos and Dimorphos binary asteroid system.
• China is creating a planetary protection lab in its Anhui Province to handle Mars sample returns, the first of which is planned launch in 2028 and return in 2031. 

BEYOND EARTH

• Maui’s Inouye Telescope imaged the Sun in the greatest detail yet, revealing small-scale swirls on its surface (the photosphere) and confirming Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) phenomena. 
• A new study indicates that Jupiter’s radiation may induce composition-dependent glows in salty ice, offering a potential method to map Europa’s surface chemistry.
• Scientists have confirmed that a mysterious Milky Way object, LHAASO J1912+1014u, is a natural cosmic accelerator blasting out protons at energies roughly 100 times higher than Earth’s Large Hadron Collider.

NASA & NEWSPACE

• The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will impact the Moon, creating a flash of light and plume of ejecta, on August 5 at 06:34:33 UTC near the Einstein and Bell craters (the Earth-facing edge around the 10 o’clock position).
• Rocket Lab was awarded its largest contract to date—$266 million from the USSF, and signed an agreement with Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS) for three launches on Electron.
• Eighteen new NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) awards, totaling $3.2 million, will fund research to construct lunar infrastructure, explore Venus, and study planetary rings.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• ISRO’s Gaganyaan program has cleared critical hardware testing for the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3), capsule, and escape systems while Gaganyatris astronauts completed basic training in Russia.
• Long March 7A launch on July 29 marked the 50th flight from Wenchang Launch Center, which began operations in 2016.
• ispace Japan will launch its 2028 lunar lander aboard the H3 rocket, marking the company’s first mission using a domestically developed vehicle.

BEYOND EARTH

• The LINK rescue spacecraft is caught in a multi-axis spin, jeopardizing its mission to grapple and boost NASA’s Swift probe.
• Curiosity rover imaged “a sea of polygons”, honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, at Mars’ Valle Grande. 
• 2026 Kavli Prize winner Amina Helmi explains how the Gaia spacecraft revolutionized galactic archaeology, letting her team trace ancient galaxy collisions and subsequent star formation.

NASA & NEWSPACE

• Highly anticipated SpaceX Starship Flight 13 achieved many mission successes: Super Heavy hard splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, deployed 20 Starlink satellites, Starship soft landing in Indian Ocean.
• Astronauts and engineers increasingly question whether a safe, practical landing at the lunar south pole is realistic for Artemis IV.
• Relativity Space expanding test and launch infrastructure in Florida, including a production facility for its Terran R rocket. 
• Indigenous groups and conservationists have filed an emergency injunction to block the transfer of 727 acres of public land to SpaceX until the courts rule on the ongoing lawsuit.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• JAXA successfully completed a two-minute burn test of the Epsilon S rocket’s second-stage engine, clearing the path for a potential launch attempt in FY2026.
• The demonstration model for South Africa’s lunar radio astronomy experiment will soon be shipped to CNSA for testing and approval ahead of the 2029 Chang’e-8 mission.
• The South Australian Government signed an MoU with Space Florida to explore potential for launch, landing and spaceport projects.
• India’s Mission ShakthiSAT begins training program next month with 20 participants for an all-girls lunar CubeSat mission.

BEYOND EARTH

• An ‘Exosatellite‘, roughly the size of Jupiter, found in CD-35 2722 system orbiting a brown dwarf which is orbiting a small sun.
• After a 321-day hibernation, the New Horizons probe will begin transmitting stored data on heliospheric plasma before commencing new study on hydrogen distribution in the outer heliosphere.
• Juno came within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Jupiter’s moon Io, taking the first measurements of temperatures below its surface. 

NASA & COMMERCIAL PARTNERS

• SpaceX Starship Flight 13 automatically aborted as multiple raptor engines failed to ignite. May attempt flight as early as July 20.
• NASA and Draper cancel lunar lander CLPS CP-12 contract – this mission was the Team Draper Commercial Mission 1 (aka ispace Mission 3) to Schrödinger Basin on the Moon’s far side.
• Orion capsule will have two SpaceX’s Starlink mini laser terminals installed externally to support Artemis III mission’s communications. 

GLOBAL REPORTS

• China’s Long March 5 being prepped for final integration and testing with Chang’e-7 probe at Wenchang, aiming for late August. 
• ISRO updates rules for key mission personnel amid numerous requests for voluntary retirement and resignation.
• Roscosmos agrees to funding ISS operations through 2030, astronaut seat swap arrangements and to coordinate satellite tracking to avoid collisions. 

BEYOND EARTH

• A newly located supermassive black hole sets a record for the most distant ever found at 662 million years after the Big Bang.
• Miniature X-ray machine tested during 2025 Fram2 Crew Dragon flight became first-ever X-rays taken in space.
• Titan’s abundance of hydrocarbons and water ice could be vital for a refueling station supporting long-term deep space exploration.

NASA & COMMERCIAL PARTNERS

• Fire on the Moon combustion experiment, recently detailed by astronaut Butch Wilmore, is expected to be among the payloads aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 mission launching in late 2026.
• NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft concluded a successful extended mission testing lunar technologies, serving as a cost-effective testbed for autonomous navigation and deep-space communications.
• Blue Origin states it is developing seven Blue Moon lunar landers while reconstructing launch pad, and seeking to raise US$10 billion at a $130 billion pre-money valuation.
• Ars Technica reports on Artemis III progress: mobile launcher 90% of damage fixed, boosters being prepped for stacking, ‘spacer’ to arrive by December.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• China successfully launched Long March 10b and tested sea-based booster recovery system.
• Canadian astronaut, and first non-American to visit the Moon, Jeremy Hansen announces his retirement from CSA-ASC.
• ISRO preparing for next Launch Vehicle Mark-3 flight, conducts successful flight acceptance test of CE-20 cryogenic engine; also tested main parachute system for the Gaganyaan crew module.
• ispace contracted SpaceX to deliver up to 500 kg to the lunar surface NET 2020 for US$50M; will begin offering rideshare services to customers.

BEYOND EARTH

• JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 performed flyby of asteroid Torifune on July 5 and transmitted detailed images. 
• Juno mission, having gone through threatens of defunding, just surpassed its 10th year in Jupiter’s orbit (July 4).
• Milky Way Galaxy may be larger, more massive than previously believed.

NASA & COMMERCIAL PARTNERS

• Another round of awards, totaling nearly $600 million, to be given to NASA commercial partners for lunar missions (Astrobotic $297.9M, Firefly Aerospace $144.2M, Intuitive Machines $148.3M).
• Engineering model of Perseverance rover (dubbed “Promise”) may be repurposed for lunar mission with multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
• Blue Origin is repairing and redesigning launch pad after New Glenn explosion damaged LC36A at Cape Canaveral, could take at least 12 months.
• Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2, launching late 2026, to use the NVIDIA Jetson platform to perform the first edge AI processing in lunar orbit.
• NASA will send a FIFA World Cup 2026 soccer ball to the Moon if the US men’s team wins the tournament (US women’s team has won 4 times).

GLOBAL REPORTS

• ESA is working to procure lunar topographical data from outside sources for its Argonaut lander, which is planned to land near the Moon’s South Pole in 2030 and deliver about 1,500 kg of cargo.
• China is aiming to launch the Long March 10B this week for its first orbital flight and sea-recovery attempt, ahead of the Long March 10A + Mengzhou spacecraft’s space station debut later this year, testing critical technologies for its 2030 crewed lunar missions.
• The Lunar Codex and ILOA Hawai’i announced collaboration to launch cultural archives to the Moon on ILO-1 mission.

BEYOND EARTH

• Wrist joint on the ISS Canadarm2 robotic arm replaced during 7-hour, 20-minute spacewalk by Jessica Meir and Chris Williams.
• Perseverance rover discovered a record-breaking concentration of organic molecules in mudstones within Jezero Crater’s “Bright Angel” outcrop on Mars.
• Potentially habitable ‘Super-Earth’ exoplanet GJ 3378b discovered only 25 light years from Earth.

NASA & ARTEMIS

• NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to discuss the next set of lunar lander missions and awards this Tuesday 30 June.
• Eric Berger reports the work for the Lunar Gateway’s planned Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) has ceased.
• A NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) analysis indicates aging infrastructure will need $1 billion to complete necessary upgrades to support Artemis launches.