Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter during the week of May 3, 2026:

Human Space Exploration

• Why we need to treat Earth like a spaceship;
• The Moonbase moment
  Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
• To build a city on Mars, we might need to plunder the asteroid belt;
• Trump’s proposed NASA budget is a ‘horrible threat to our future’ in space, Planetary Society CEO says;
• NASA Laser Terminal enhances views during Artemis II mission;
• Artemis crew tells kids at town hall, Moon flight was “the best roller coaster ride you’ve ever been on”;

Space Science

• NASA’s Webb Space Telescope reveals a dark airless super-Earth that looks like Mercury;
• Astronomers unlock a sharper view from JWST using a ‘keyhole’ trick;
• Core of solar system’s largest moon may still be forming;
• Here’s what 6 years of driving on Mars did to the wheels on NASA’s Curiosity rover (video);
• How the rise of continents may have set the stage for life on Earth;
• Space junk falls back to Earth faster as sunspot numbers climb;
• Why does NASA’s Curiosity rover have a ‘lucky penny’ on Mars?;
• Jupiter is little smaller than we thought;
• A small object past Pluto may have a thin atmosphere;
• Interlune wins $6.9M NASA contract to create system to extract helium-3 and hydrogen from Moon dirt;
• Spaceflight is hard on the heart, yet artificial ones grow better in space than on Earth;
• Newton’s law of gravity passes its biggest test ever;
• DARPA selects three companies for lunar orbiter studies;

Other News

• China’s Nayuta Space raises fresh funding for aerodynamic-recovery rocket;
• ‘Whatever Russia is testing, it’s sophisticated’: 2 Russian satellites get within 10 feet of each other in orbit;
• Look up! The Halley’s comet meteor shower is just about to peak;
• Lockheed Martin joins collaboration with Firefly Aerospace and Seagate for off-shore launches
  Coalition Members in the News – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman;
• SpaceX aims for mid-May Starship Flight 12 launch with revised trajectory;
• NASA’s Kennedy Space Center director retires on heels of Artemis II success;

Major Space-Related Activities for the Week

• Tuesday marks the 65th anniversary of the Mercury Freedom suborbital launch of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard on the first U.S. human spaceflight, which spanned about 15 1/2 minutes. As a follow up, President John F. Kennedy committed the U.S. to launch astronauts to the Moon with the Apollo program by the end of the decade;
• On Monday, Ireland is to become the 65th signatory to NASA’s Artemis Accords, a set of principles for the civil, peaceful, cooperative and transparent human exploration of the Moon, Mars and other deep space destinations;
• The four day, 2026 U.S. The Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) conference got underway Sunday in Aurora, Colorado;
• The National Security Space Association (NSSA) is to hold an in-person briefing on the FY2027 national security space budget request on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. EDT from Arlington, Virginia;
• Meanwhile, the U.S. House and Senate are in recess this week, with the exception of pro forma sessions.

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter:
Don’t miss the latest developments in space policy, science, and exploration with Deep Space Extra, delivered directly to your inbox from Monday to Friday.