Civil
Stories about US and international civil space missions, including those led by NASA and ESA.
Duffy Wants NASA To Leave the Earth Behind
NASA will begin “moving away” from Earth sciences, Acting Administrator Sean Duffy told Fox News last week—a sharp shift in the agency’s focus since it was established in 1958.
SmallSats Could Have Big Role in Solar Exploration, Too
Small sats have historically mainly made their homes in LEO, but more and more operators are shrinking the size of the platforms they send to GEO and beyond.
Op-ed: NASA’s New CLD Strategy Will Lose Mars, LEO to China
As a former space shuttle pilot and commander whose crews helped build the ISS, I am appalled that NASA has reportedly changed its plans for future commercial space stations.
NASA Wants To Hit the Accelerator On Lunar Atomics
The Trump administration’s first big change to the Artemis program is a plan to deliver a 100kw nuclear fission reactor to the lunar surface by 2030, with the job done almost entirely by the private sector.
NASA Releases Updated Software Catalog
NASA is continuing its tradition of not gatekeeping success by unveiling a major update to its public software catalog.
Global Space Economy Tops $600B For The First Time
The global space economy grew nearly 8% in 2024 to $613B, according to a report released Tuesday by the Space Foundation.
Duffy’s First Days at NASA Clouded by Budget Uncertainty
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took the helm for his first full day as NASA’s interim administrator on Friday.
NASA’s TRACERS Mission Eyes Space Weather’s Bottom-Line Risks
TRACERS, will investigate magnetic reconnection, one of the driving forces behind geomagnetic storms that can disturb Earth’s upper atmosphere, and pose hazards to satellites.
The UK’s Economic Future is Tied to Space
At the UK Space Conference this week, the UK Space Agency released a number of reports making a not-so-veiled case for increased government spending on the UK space industry.
NASA Begins Workforce Cuts Without A Spending Plan
US President Donald Trump’s budget envisions cutting nearly a third of all NASA employees.
States Vying to Welcome America’s Space Workforce
The headquarters of NASA and US Space Command are caught in a nationwide clash that has many in the US civil and military space workforce wondering: should I stay or should I go?
US and Korean Space Officials Push For Closer Collaboration
Officials from the two countries’ civil space programs met in Washington, DC on Monday for the fourth US-ROK Civil Space Dialogue, which culminated in a bilateral commitment to increase collaboration on civil, military, and commercial space missions.
Trump Team Plans To Push TraCSS Out of Government
The White House wants the long-awaited Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) to be handed over to a non-profit or private company, backtracking on a mandate in the first Trump administration to move it into the Office of Space Commerce.
