April 4, 2026

DoD Budget Request Tops Historic $1.5 Trillion Amid War Spending (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Trump administration is set to propose a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, including a $1.15 trillion base budget and $350 billion from a reconciliation bill. The budget allocates $760 billion for weapons development and procurement, with significant funding for shipbuilding, the Golden Dome missile shield and the F-35 program. The proposal marks the first time the baseline defense budget has reached $1 trillion. (4/2)

Massive Budget Cuts for US Science Proposed Again by Trump Administration (Source: Nature)
For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump has proposed significant cuts to the budgets of major US science agencies. Released Friday, the White House’s plan for federal spending next year also includes a ban on using federal funds for subscriptions and publishing fees for some academic journals.

The plan proposes cuts to federal agencies that fund or conduct research on health, space and the environment. Some of the steepest cuts would be made to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): the budgets of both would fall more than 50% in 2027 compared to their current levels (see ‘Budget crunch’). The budget for the US National Institutes of Health would drop 13%. (4/3)

How the Space Force Supported NASA’s Artemis II Launch (Source: Air and Space Forces)
In many ways, the Space Force’s role in NASA’s Artemis II mission is the same as any other launch it supports. Space Launch Delta 45, which oversees operations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, will ensure the launch is safe and the base is secure, and will monitor weather risks in advance.

But the size, nature, and level of public interest in NASA’s first crewed lunar flight since 1972 means those routine range support tasks require more personnel, more analysis, and more security guardrails than a standard launch.

One of the biggest differences is the amount of personnel required to support Artemis II. Lt. Col. Gregory Allen, commander of the delta’s 1st Range Operations Squadron, said that for a typical launch, about four or five operators are “on console” at the range’s mission control center. Artemis will require around 28 crew members. That’s primarily because the Boeing-built rocket that’s flying the mission, the Space Launch System, lacks an onboard command-destruct system, known as an automated flight safety system. (3/31)

NASA’s No. 1 Priority: Artemis II Toilet Fixed Before Trip to Moon (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The first-ever toilet in deep space barely made it into orbit before NASA astronauts had to roll up their sleeves and make some repairs. There was no plumbing backup, of course — there is no actual plumbing on the Orion spacecraft, as urine is vented out into space and fecal matter is collected for later disposal. Instead, the crew of the historic Artemis II mission headed around the moon reported a blinking fault light on their lunar latrine. (4/2)

Department of War Confirms Hypersonic Missile Test at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
The Department of War has confirmed that the secretive March 26 launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was a successful hypersonic missile test. The missile test had not been publicly announced — but it was foreshadowed by a rarely seen Coast Guard-Department of Homeland Security launch-hazard zone for mariners that stretched over a narrow section of the Atlantic Ocean. (4/2)

In-Orbit Logistics Companies Call for Clearer Demand Signals from Gov (Source: Via Satellite)
Clare Martin, executive vice president at orbital servicing company Astroscale, said orbital refueling is a key element in the vision for a space infrastructure layer laid out by U.S. Space Command Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting.

“Refueling is coming very, very soon,” Martin said. “Those are key elements, but they’re not sufficient. There will be a need for inspection services, there will be a need for removal, there’ll be a need for repair. And all of those elements together is what will give you a full logistics infrastructure in space.”

Robert Hauge, president of Northrop Grumman subsidiary SpaceLogistics, sees deorbiting as the most promising capability for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) servicing. He said with the number of satellites in space growing so large, it could take over a century for these satellites to leave orbit once deactivated. (4/2)

Lunar Lander Developers Say They Are Ready To Meet Anticipated Increased NASA Demand (Source: Keith Sadlocha)
Can the current landers carry the mass need to build out the lunar site? No — the small "current" robotic landers highlighted in recent developer statements cannot carry the masses required to build a lunar power grid or habitats. Larger cargo landers now in development for NASA’s Artemis program can (and are explicitly planned to). The current-generation CLPS landers from Firefly Aerospace (Blue Ghost) and Intuitive Machines (Nova-C) are designed primarily for delivering science payloads, instruments, small rovers, hoppers, and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface—not for transporting the heavy infrastructure needed to construct a full lunar base or outpost.

Early concepts suggest dozens to hundreds of tons of landed mass over many missions are required for even a basic sustainable outpost. Much of the heavy construction would rely on in-situ resource utilization to reduce what must be shipped from Earth, plus larger landers or human-rated systems (e.g., Starship-class vehicles under development for Artemis). Firefly and Intuitive Machines have expressed ambitions to scale up production and support NASA's goal of more frequent deliveries (potentially monthly by ~2027 under "CLPS 2.0" or evolved contracts), including larger variants. (3/23)

Earth Formed From Material Exclusively From the Inner Solar System, Planetary Scientists Show (Source: Phys.org)
Planetary scientists compared existing data on the isotopic ratios of a wide range of meteorites, including those from Mars and the asteroid Vesta, with those of Earth. Isotopes are sibling atoms of the same element (same number of protons) that have a different mass (different number of neutrons). The researchers analyzed this data in a new way and arrived at a surprising conclusion: the material that makes up Earth originates entirely from the inner region of the solar system. Material from the outer solar system, by contrast, is likely to account for less than two percent of Earth's mass, or even nothing at all. (3/30)

Musk's Exploding Megarocket Puts $8B in Space Investments At Risk (Source: Politico)
Starcloud is a startup that’s racing to build massive data centers in space that supporters say could limit the strain artificial intelligence is placing on terrestrial electric grids. But the fate of Starcloud — and dozens of other space startups seeking to upend the mining, pharmaceutical and telecoms industries — depends on whether Elon Musk can figure out how to get SpaceX’s Starship megarocket to stop exploding.

Starcloud is one of 47 companies whose business models rely on the increased capacity or lower launch costs that the SpaceX CEO has for years promised Starship would already be able to deliver, according to an exclusive analysis from the financial data provider PitchBook. The largest and most powerful rocket ever built, Starship prototypes have unexpectedly burst into flames more than a dozen times, interrupting commercial air travel and sending shrapnel into Mexico.

Those space startups — including ones working on orbital data centers, asteroid mining and microgravity pharmaceutical manufacturing — have collectively raised more than $8 billion from investors and could soon be at risk if Starship continues combusting. A decade ago, Musk claimed SpaceX would build a rocket capable of carrying mankind to Mars by 2025. Now, with his megarocket still grounded, his goal is to return astronauts to the moon by the end of President Donald Trump’s term and visit the red planet in 2030. (3/31)

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS May Be Nearly 12 Billion Years Old — So Ancient Its Star System May No Longer Exist (Source: Space.com)
The interstellar comet that recently dominated headlines, 3I/ATLAS, could be between 10 and 12 billion years old, a new assessment of the comet's isotopic composition has shown. This so-called "invader" in our solar system is only the third object on record to enter our cosmic neighborhood from beyond. If these new age estimates of the comet are true, they would suggest 3I/ATLAS was born within a few billion years of the birth of the Milky Way. (3/30)

Webb Telescope Spots Mysterious Explosion That Defies Known Physics (Source: Science Daily)
A record-breaking cosmic blast that lasted hours instead of seconds may reveal a brand-new way black holes destroy stars. Astronomers have spotted a bizarre cosmic explosion that refuses to play by the rules—and it’s leaving scientists scrambling for answers. GRB 250702B, detected by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and a global network of observatories, lasted an astonishing seven hours—far longer than typical gamma-ray bursts, which usually fade in under a minute. (3/30)

Unexpected Metal in Rocks on Mars Hints at The Possibility of Ancient Life (Source: Science Alert)
The discovery of abundant nickel in a once waterlogged region of Mars offers yet another hint that the red planet may once have offered suitable conditions for life. In Neretva Vallis, an ancient channel that once carried water into the Jezero Crater delta, researchers found nickel in concentrations higher than ever seen before in the bedrock of Mars. Placed in its broader geological context, the metal offers clues about the chemical history of the region and adds a new piece to the puzzle of the planet's past habitability. (4/1)

JD Vance Believes Extraterrestrial Aliens are Demons (Source: Entertainment Weekly)
Vice President JD Vance has a theory about aliens and UFOs. Rather than real-life extraterrestrials, he believes they’re demons. "I don't think I don't think they're aliens. I think they're demons," he said. Vance is the latest politician to wade into little-green-man discourse, following Donald Trump's demand for the release of the so-called "UFO files," and Barack Obama claiming that aliens are "real," though he hasn't seen them.

"When I came in, I was obsessed with the UFO files," the vice president told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Friday, referring to the cache of files related to "alien and extraterrestrial life" that President Donald Trump called to release in February. Vance said that he hasn't had even a "peek" at said files, due to the demands of "the economy and national security and things like that."

"I've already had a couple of times where I'm like, 'All right, we're going to Area 51. We're going out to New Mexico. We're gonna sort of get to the bottom of this.' And then the timing of the trip just didn't work out. But trust me, anybody who's curious about this, I'm more curious than anybody, and I've got three years of the very tippy top of the classification. I'm gonna get to the bottom of it," he said. (3/29)

Varda Flies Navigation Payload, Heat Shield Tests on Sixth Reentry Mission (Source: Space News)
Varda Space Industries announced the launch of its W-6 vehicle with SpaceX's Transporter-16 today, marking the company's sixth mission overall and its first launch of 2026. W-6 carries a suite of advanced payloads designed to expand the technical foundation for autonomous hypersonic flight and next-generation thermal protection systems. The mission is funded through a partnership between the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and commercial space entities. (3/30)

In Our Search for Alien Life, Stars Might be Muddying Their Signals (Source: CBC)
A new study points to an overlooked complication in that type of search: space weather from stars, where potential signals originate, could be interfering. Since the earliest days of the hunt for intelligent life, scientists have zeroed in on a particular kind of transmission known as a narrowband signal — a beam of energy so tightly focused at a single frequency that it resembles a needle, says Vishal Gajjar. He says narrowband signals became a prime target because they are unlikely to arise from known natural astrophysical processes, especially when they’re detected in the same place more than once.

But despite decades of searching, scientists have been met largely with radio silence — prompting them to ask whether a fundamental property of the stars that planets orbit could be muddying the signals. Every star, including our own sun, says Gajjar, is surrounded by an interplanetary medium: a chaotic mix of plasma and magnetic fields stirred by stellar winds, flares and occasional violent eruptions of even more disruptive coronal mass ejections from the host star. If a narrowband signal passes through it, especially when it's stormy, it can become significantly broadened, which makes it wider and flatter than most instruments would catch, he says. (3/30)

‘Lighthouses in Space’: the Chinese Jam-Proof Satellite Network to Fill GPS Gaps (Source: SCMP)
Chinese researchers say they have built an 11-satellite network for a jam-resistant, high-accuracy optical navigation system, designed to provide positioning where GPS is unavailable or disrupted, for everything from self-driving cars and drones to deep-space missions. Optical navigation has also been used in the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, helping drones developed by companies such as Asio Technologies and General Atomics operate in environments where GPS signals are jammed.

While positioning systems such as GPS and BeiDou rely on satellites that beam radio waves, Tsinghua University’s new network uses coded light signals from “beacon” satellites. “What we’ve done is put those ‘lighthouses’ in space, using light-emitting satellites to guide everything from vehicles to spacecraft,” said Xing Fei. The system works by placing powerful light sources on satellites to send coded signals to Earth. Receivers on the ground detect the light and use its direction, along with the satellites’ known positions, to calculate where they are. (3/30)

Amazon, Delta Team For In-Flight Wi-Fi, Challenging Starlink (Source: Reuters)
Amazon's Leo satellite internet unit signed a deal with Delta Air Lines ​to provide in-flight Wi-Fi on 500 of the airline's planes starting in 2028, inking its second major partnership ‌in the skies as it races to launch more satellites and take on Elon Musk's Starlink. The deal ratchets up competition between Amazon's burgeoning satellite internet service and Starlink for a slice of the in-flight Wi-Fi market, even as Musk's satellite network remains far ahead in its satellite deployment and ​global service. (3/31)

Many Waters May Have Mixed on Mars (Source: Sky & Telescope)
Geologists like to say that “every rock tells a story.” The texture and the chemical and mineral compositions record a history of geologic events and environmental conditions. The older a rock is, the more history has happened to it. Like a palimpsest, the original story recorded in the rock may be erased and overwritten with a new one. Figuring out the overlapping stories can take years. That was the case for a drill sample the Curiosity rover took out of the Martian ground in a clay-rich region of Gale Crater called Glen Torridon in 2019. An analysis of the sample found evidence that a subsurface environment once existed where complex organic molecules could have formed. (3/25)

SpaceX Successfully Launches Three Greek Nanosatellites (Source:  Greek Reporter)
In a historic step for Greece’s space program, three Greek-made nanosatellites were successfully launched into space last Monday by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Developed under the ERMIS project -- the flagship for Greece’s €200 million ($229.5 million) National Microsatellite Program of Athens (NKUA) -- the three satellites are now in Low Earth Orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 kilometers. (3/30)

SpaceX to Appeal Namibia's Starlink License Rejection (Source: Business Insider)
Satellite internet provider Starlink, backed by billionaire Elon Musk, said it will pursue an appeal after the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) rejected its application to operate in Namibia, marking a setback in its expansion across Africa. In a statement this week, the company described the decision as a “disappointing outcome”, adding that it was particularly concerning for “the thousands of you who placed deposits, participated in the public consultation, and made your voices heard.” (3/28)

China Planning Human Research Program at Space Station (Source: CGTN)
The China Manned Space Agency announced that it would solicit proposals for a space human research program starting April 1, targeting major strategic, fundamental, and forward-looking scientific issues related to the long-term healthy survival of humans during future space station flights and lunar landing missions. The program aims to create a space human atlas, establish a space human research database, and yield a series of innovative research outcomes that can benefit both the health of taikonauts on long-duration orbital missions and the public on Earth. (3/28)

Europe to Negotiate with NASA on Lunar Missions: ESA (Source: AFP)
The European Space Agency will negotiate future participation in NASA missions after the US space agency revamped its lunar program, the ESA head told AFP Wednesday. The US space agency announced recently it is suspending its so-called Gateway lunar orbital space station efforts in order to focus on building a base on the Moon's surface. This left the European role in future exploration unclear. The ESA had an agreement with NASA for three astronaut flights to Gateway. (4/1)

Arizona Site Used to Evaluate Parachutes for NASA’s Artemis II Flight (Source: KOLD)
NASA is preparing to send astronauts back toward the moon with the Artemis II mission, a roughly 10-day test flight designed to test the Orion spacecraft with a crew aboard. While the launch and mission operations will draw attention to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and deep space, some of the technology meant to bring the crew home safely was tested much closer to home in the Southwest.

The U.S. Army’s test center in Yuma played a key role in developmental testing for Orion’s parachute system, according to Mark Schauer with Yuma Proving Ground. Schauer said the capsule parachute system underwent years of testing at the range. “From 2011 to 2018, the Orion capsule parachute system underwent developmental testing here at our range,” he said. (4/1)

China Launches In-Orbit Experiments in Space Hospital Quest (Source: Xinhua)
Five medical research projects aimed at establishing the world's first space hospital, proposed by a university in south China's innovation hub Shenzhen, were transported to space aboard a test spacecraft on Monday. These projects will complete in-orbit experiments and tests over the next three years.

China launched a Lijian-2 Y1 rocket on Monday from a commercial aerospace innovation pilot zone in northwest China, with the Qingzhou Cargo Spacecraft Test Vehicle onboard. The test vehicle features 27 projects with a total payload of 1.02 tonnes and will conduct in-orbit tests at altitudes ranging from 200 to 600 kilometers. (4/1)

Isaacman Aims to Reinvigorate NASA’s Image, Starting with the Moon (Source: Politico)
New NASA head Jared Isaacman faces his first big test with the launch of Artemis, a crucial milestone in the race to beat China and return Americans to the moon. The effort comes after thousands of employees fled the agency last year and the White House proposed steep cuts to NASA’s budget. Isaacman is determined to change the narrative — and meet President Donald Trump’s ambitious timeline to land U.S. astronauts on the lunar surface.

“If we can do this after what the agency was subjected to in 2025, that’s a hell of an accomplishment,” said a congressional staffer, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “Isaacman is the quarterback. If all goes well, he will get too much of the credit. If all does not go well, he will shoulder way too much blame for a result caused by institutional decay.” (4/1)

Isaacman Signals Support for Reduced NASA Budget Proposed by President Trump (Source: NASA)
In an email to NASA employees on Friday, Administrator Jared Isaacman had this to say about the Trump administration's proposed budget reduction for the next fiscal year: "I strongly support the President’s fiscal policies and mandate to drive efficiency. The President’s Budget provides Congress and the public with the vision and resources to carry out our mission. The requested funding levels are sufficient for NASA to meet the Nation’s high expectations and deliver on all mission priorities."

"Achieving this will require disciplined focus on the highest-impact activities and rigorous stewardship of taxpayer resources. I am committed to maximizing every dollar of this budget in conjunction with funding from the Working Families Tax Cut Act to deliver results. I encourage the workforce to leave the politics for the politicians and remain focused on the mission. Artemis II and our astronauts on the space station are the highest priority, and there is no shortage of initiatives to progress, including building the Moon Base, launching SR-1 Freedom, igniting the orbital economy, and launching more missions of discovery. Stay focused on achieving the outcomes only NASA can create." (4/3)

Big Banks Seeking a Piece of SpaceX’s IPO Must Subscribe to Elon Musk’s Grok (Source: New York Times)
Elon Musk is requiring banks, law firms, auditors and other advisers working on the I.P.O. to buy subscriptions to Grok, his artificial intelligence chatbot, which is part of SpaceX, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Some of the banks have agreed to spend tens of millions on the chatbot, and they have already started integrating Grok into their I.T. systems, three of the people said. (4/3)

Redwire Awarded Contract to Deliver Quantum-Secure Spacecraft for European Space Agency's QKDSat (Source: Redwire)
Redwire Corp. has been awarded a contract to develop a quantum-secure satellite under ESA's Quantum Key Distribution Satellite (QKDSat), within ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) Partnership Projects program. Redwire will manufacture and deliver its European-built Hammerhead spacecraft, equipped with the QKD payload and Redwire’s ADPMS-3 suite of avionics.

For QKDSat, Redwire is part of a multi-country consortium that includes Honeywell Aerospace and aims to provide quantum key distribution via satellite to safeguard against communication data breaches. Honeywell’s UK team is leading an industrial consortium that includes: Redwire Space of Belgium; Craft Prospect and British Telecom of the United Kingdom; QTLabs of Austria, Honeywell’s team in Canada, and several key players in Czechia and Switzerland. (4/2)

SpaceX Delays Next Starship Launch by a Month (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that the company's next Starship test flight will take place in May and ‌not April as originally scheduled.
Musk posted on social media platform X that the next flight of Starship’s V3 vehicle was four to six weeks away, or in the first ⁠two weeks of May. Earlier, he said the first flight would take place in April. SpaceX's debut of the V3 Starship iteration has been delayed for months as the company has packed dozens of upgrades into the vehicle to make it more reliable and suitable for NASA missions like ‌landing ⁠on the moon under the Artemis program. (4/3)

1st Results From Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Reveal How Much We Still Don’t Know About the Moon (Source: Space.com)
The first science results from a private spacecraft on the moon are challenging long-standing ideas about how our natural satellite evolved. Researchers analyzing data from Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander, which landed on the moon in March 2025 and operated for about two weeks on the lunar surface, said the new measurements cast doubt on the decades-old view of the moon as divided between a hotter near side — the face visible from Earth — and cooler regions elsewhere. (4/3)

Six Apollo Lunar Astronauts Remain as NASA Sends Crew to Moon (Source: Douglas Messier)
As NASA launched its first crewed mission to the Moon in 53 years on Wednesday, six retired astronauts from the Apollo lunar program are still with us while 26 others have passed away. The surviving group includes four of the 12 men who walked on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is the oldest of the surviving astronauts at age 96. Still with us are Aldrin, David Scott, Fred Haise Jr., Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, Charles Duke Jr., and Russell "Rusty" Schweickart. All are currently 90 or older. (4/3)