Stay updated with the latest events in spaceflight.
At ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), teams work around the clock to fly spacecraft across the Solar System and monitor Earth from orbit. Among them are women leading spacecraft operations, managing teams and helping shape the culture of ESA’s mission control.
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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2026 In classic Washington style, the United States has found a way to keep 'winning' the new Moon race even as its flagship program slips, bloats and mutates. With the latest Artemis overhaul, NASA isn't just re-planning a mission sequence - it's helping Trump's America quietly rewrite the rules of the game so that almost any outcome can be spun as victory.
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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2026 NASA says it has finally found the "back to basics" recipe to get Americans back on the Moon by 2028. A new intermediate mission, standardized hardware, a faster launch cadence: on paper, the Artemis overhaul looks like a sober course correction after years of drift.
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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2026 NASA says it has finally found the 'back to basics' recipe to get Americans back on the Moon by 2028. A new intermediate mission, standardized hardware, a faster launch cadence: on paper, the Artemis overhaul looks like a sober course correction after years of drift. Look a little closer, though, and the same changes read like a managed soft-landing for a program that is structurally broken and
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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2026 NASA's latest reboot of the Artemis Moon program comes with familiar language: 'back to basics,' 'muscle memory,' 'step-by-step,' and an explicit nod to the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo playbook. The agency wants to fly more often, change hardware less, and build up capability incrementally, just like the 1960s. The problem is that Artemis is trying to cosplay Apollo in a world with very different politics, partners and rivals - and the gaps are showing.
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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 8-14, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. […]
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Spacecraft Release
The Northrop Grumman NG-23 Cygnus will be unberthed from the ISS before initiating a destructive reentry into the Earth's atmosphere taking waste along with it.
Rollout
NASA will roll out their second fully stacked Space Launch System (SLS) rocket back to LC-39B after a rollback from the pad to investigate issues with the upper stage helium tanks. The rollout is expected to take up to 12 hours.
EVA
Two astronauts will exit the station’s Quest airlock to prepare the 2A power channel for future installation of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays. Once installed, the array will provide additional power for the orbital laboratory, including critical support of its safe and controlled deorbit.
Founded: 1998-11-20
The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component was launched into orbit in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving in November 2000. It has been inhabited continuously since that date. The last pressurised module was fitted in 2011, and an experimental inflatable space habitat was added in 2016. The station is expected to operate until 2030. Development and assembly of the station continues, with several new elements scheduled for launch in 2019. The ISS is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised habitation modules, structural trusses, solar arrays, radiators, docking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and American Space Shuttles.
Founded: 1986-02-20
Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space.
Founded: 1973-05-14
Skylab was a United States space station launched and operated by NASA, and occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974 – the only space station the U.S. has operated exclusively. In 1979 it fell back to Earth amid huge worldwide media attention. Skylab included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems necessary for crew survival and scientific experiments. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 170,000 pounds (77,000 kg). Lifting Skylab into low earth orbit was the final mission and launch of a Saturn V rocket (famous for carrying the manned Moon landing missions). Three missions delivered three-astronaut crews in the Apollo command and service module (Apollo CSM), launched by the smaller Saturn IB rocket. For the final two manned missions to Skylab, a backup Apollo CSM/Saturn IB was assembled and made ready in case an in-orbit rescue mission was needed, but this backup vehicle was never flown.