Space FrontPage

In a sweeping reset of America’s return-to-the-moon strategy, newly appointed NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced Friday that the agency will restructure its Artemis program, adding a crucial preparatory mission in 2027 and redefining the timeline for landing astronauts on the lunar surface. Isaacman acknowledged that NASA’s earlier plan to land astronauts near the moon’s south pole in 2028 was overly ambitious without an additional stepping-stone mission to validate critical technologies and operational procedures. “We’re going to get there in steps,” he said in an interview with CBS News and later during a press conference. “We’ve got to get back to basics.”

NASA’s plans to send astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than half a century have hit another setback. Engineers troubleshooting the Artemis II mission encountered problems repressurizing helium tanks in the upper stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket late Friday, forcing officials to order a rollback of the towering vehicle from Launch Complex 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for further investigation.

SpaceX has cleared a major hurdle in preparing its next-generation Starship system for flight, successfully testing the upgraded water-cooled top deck on the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) at Pad 2 earlier this week. The full-scale demonstration validated the system’s ability to withstand the punishing heat and acoustic forces expected from the 33 Raptor 3 engines that will power the new Block 3 Super Heavy booster.

An independent review of the first — and so far only — crewed test flight of Boeing CST-100 Starliner has concluded that the mission amounted to a potentially life-threatening “Type A mishap,” NASA officials revealed Thursday, describing a cascade of technical failures compounded by flawed decision-making and leadership shortcomings.

NASA engineers and contractor teams successfully loaded more than 750,000 gallons of supercold propellants into the agency’s towering Space Launch System on Thursday, marking a major milestone toward launching four astronauts on a historic lunar flyby mission as early as March 6.

The United Arab Emirates has announced a three-year extension of its pioneering Mars mission, reinforcing the Gulf nation’s long-term ambitions in space exploration and its drive to become a major player in the global space economy. The decision will keep the Emirates Mars Mission — centered on the Hope probe — operating through 2028, marking nearly a decade of activity since the spacecraft’s launch and underscoring the UAE’s commitment to sustained deep-space operations.

NASA is preparing to once again fully fuel its towering Space Launch System rocket in a critical launch countdown rehearsal this week, as the agency works toward clearing the path for the Artemis II mission to carry astronauts around the Moon.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule executed a precise Valentine’s Day docking with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, restoring the orbiting laboratory to its full seven-member complement after operating with a reduced crew for nearly a month.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. — February 12, 2026

Moving at a pace slower than a casual bicycle ride, NASA’s towering Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule made their way to the launchpad in January, marking a quiet but historic milestone on the road back to the Moon. On Jan. 17, 2026, the nearly football-field-tall Space Launch System and its Orion spacecraft stack rolled out from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center to Launch Complex 39B at just under one mile per hour. The deliberate crawl stood in sharp contrast to what awaits on launch day, when the rocket is expected to accelerate to more than 22,000 miles per hour, sending four astronauts on a crewed journey around the Moon.

A pre-sunrise rocket engine test at Florida’s Space Coast has pushed NASA and SpaceX another step closer to launching their next long-duration astronaut mission to the International Space Station. At 3:16 a.m. EST (0816 UTC) on Sunday, Feb. 8, SpaceX conducted a static fire of its Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. During the brief but critical test, all nine Merlin 1D engines on the rocket’s first stage ignited simultaneously for roughly 10 seconds at Space Launch Complex 40, confirming engine performance and validating key vehicle systems ahead of flight.

SpaceX’s next crewed mission for NASA is officially back on the launch calendar after U.S. regulators cleared the company’s workhorse rocket to return to flight.