Space Explored

NASA has a new idea for a lunar rover, but the vehicle itself is already familiar. During a June 30 Moon Base update, the agency unveiled PROMISE – the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration. The proposed rover mission began life as an Earth-based engineering testbed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and is being studied to see if it can be modified to survive on the Moon.

In the last decade, SpaceX has transitioned from just a commercial launch company to a full-scale aerospace contractor for hire. From its early NASA contracts to being the sole supplier of crewed access to space, we are now seeing it take a grasp on the defense market.

Florida’s aerospace development agency, Space Florida, has approved a strategic investment in Seagate Space, a St. Petersburg startup developing offshore launch infrastructure, signaling growing interest in ocean-based spaceports as launch demand continues to increase.

For decades, lunar exploration was defined by astronauts, rovers, and orbiters. But as NASA pushes deeper into the Artemis era, a new class of robotic explorer is quietly emerging, one that could significantly change how humanity navigates the Moon: small autonomous hopping drones.

NASA’s next great observatory is no longer a distant concept sitting quietly in development labs. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now entering its final stretch toward launch, and across the space community, anticipation around the mission has grown dramatically in recent months.

Blue Origin suffered a major blow last month when its New Glenn rocket experienced a catastrophic anomaly during a static fire test at Launch Complex 36 on Florida’s Space Coast. The test was being conducted without its mission payload attached – a batch of Amazon LEO internet satellites that had been scheduled for launch in early June.

On June 29, a Blue Origin New Glenn exploded during a pre-launch test on SLC-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Debris is now expected to wash up on public beaches in the coming days; here is what officials are telling you to do if you find it.

During a pre-launch static fire, a fully stacked rocket for Blue Origin’s fourth New Glenn rocket suffered a failure, leading to its destruction and damage to the launch pad’s infrastructure.

Sometime this year, SpaceX will officially hit the public market as what is the largest IPO in history. The company hopes to raise $75 million through share sales and continue to grow its valuation. But why does SpaceX think it’s worth so much?

In the month of April, the US launched 18 rockets into space. Nearly all of them were successful. While the vast majority were for SpaceX Falcon 9s launching the company’s Starlink satellites, it was still a diverse set of rockets, including NASA’s Space Launch System, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, and ULA’s Atlas V.

Blue Origin is set to launch its third New Glenn rocket tomorrow, April 19, in the early morning hours. The mission will carry with it a satellite for AST SpaceMobile, but it will also fly something that has already flown before: the booster.

In what is likely the biggest week in Starship development since the last flight of its full rocket, SpaceX completed two static fires of its next-generation Starship rocket down in Starbase, Texas. Both tests are major steps forward in getting both the booster and upper stage, called the ship, ready for Starship flight 12.

On April 1, 2026, NASA launched its biggest mission in recent years. With that, photos of the Artemis 2 mission have taken the internet by storm as the general public have found interest in the historic mission. Our team of photographers, along with other media outlets, were able to place photos closer to view the launch closer than any human can witness the launch, here are our favorites.

At 6:32 PM ET Wednesday afternoon, NASA launched its Artemis 2 mission from Kennedy Space Center. This mission is the first crewed mission of the Artemis Program, an initiative to return humans to the surface of the Moon.

Later today, NASA is set to launch its Artemis 2 mission around the Moon. This is the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The launch will be live streamed from various sources, including official and unofficial streams. Here’s your guide for how to find all of today’s and future coverage.

NASA’s Artemis 2 mission to the Moon is set to launch as soon as later tonight, and it will be the most influential mission to space in recent history. But why? This will not be our first time going to the Moon, and they aren’t even landing. So why is Artemis 2 so important?

After waiting years, the time is finally here for another launch of NASA’s Space Launch System with Artemis 2. This time the stakes are much higher as a crew of four will be riding on top and will circle the Moon, a first since Apollo 17 back in 1972.

As NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope advances toward launch, the mission is beginning to transition from a completed observatory into an active scientific program. In recent weeks, the agency has opened the first round of community science proposals for the telescope.

As NASA’s Artemis program moves from planning into early missions, public attention tends to focus on the spacecraft carrying astronauts back to the Moon. Heavy-lift rockets, crew capsules, and lunar landers dominate the conversation around humanity’s return to deep space. Yet beneath those visible systems, another layer of the space economy is beginning to take shape. 

At the edge of the Arctic, buried deep inside a frozen mountain on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lies one of humanity’s quietest insurance policies. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault stores more than a million seed samples from around the world to form a living archive designed to protect the genetic diversity of Earth’s crops in the event of disaster.

Astrolab and Interlune announced plans to collaborate on integrating excavation technology with Astrolab’s FLEX rover platform. Prototype testing is expected to take place at the Texas A&M University Space Institute, currently under construction near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

On Thursday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced changes to the Artemis mission profiles that will lead to at least a one-year delay in returning humans to the lunar surface. However, the agency believes these changes will strengthen the program overall, allowing for faster launch turnarounds and better testing of flight hardware before it’s needed for surface ops.

Virgin Galactic has become one of the most intriguing, controversial, and headline-grabbing players in the commercial space industry. Founded in 2004 as part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the company set out to make space tourism a reality by flying paying customers to the edge of space on reusable suborbital spaceplanes. While its journey has been far from smooth, the company is positioning itself for a comeback in 2026 after an extended operational pause.

NASA has signed a contract with Vast for the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, with a launch targeted no earlier than summer 2027. The mission is expected to last up to 14 days in orbit and will fly aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.