Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter during the week of Jan 12, 2026:

Human Space Exploration

• ‘This is NASA at its finest’: Crew-11 astronauts in good shape after smooth medical evacuation and splashdown, agency says;
• SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts return to Earth after 1st-ever medical evacuation of ISS;
• Prescriptions for space medicine;
• Space exploration speaks to the core of who we are;
• What time is SpaceX Crew-11’s medical evacuation from the ISS on Jan. 14?
• Peggy Whitson opens AIAA SciTech Forum, celebrating ISS era and the transition to commercial space stations
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
• Space station change of command sets stage for Crew 11 departure;
• NASA powers up a massive solar engine for the Moon
  Coalition Member in the News – L3Harris;
• NASA gearing up for Artemis II launch
  Coalition Members in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne, Amentum, Axiom Space, Boeing, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman;
• NASA will evacuate SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts from International Space Station on Jan. 14;

Space Science

• From a new flagship space telescope to lunar exploration, global cooperation and competition will make 2026 an exciting year for space;
• How Mars ‘punches above its weight’ to influence Earth’s climate;
• James Webb Space Telescope’s mysterious ‘little red dots’ may be black holes in disguise;
• NASA pessimistic about odds of recovering MAVEN;
• The universe should be packed with tiny galaxies so where are they?
• Readying for integration test, NASA adapts Dragonfly for long descent, thick air of Titan;
• New evidence that an ancient Martian ocean covered half the planet;
• ‘Backward and upward and tilted’: Spaceflight causes astronauts’ brains to shift inside their skulls;
• Unveiling the turbulent ‘teenage years’ of the universe;
• NASA won’t bring Mars samples back to Earth: This is the science that will be lost;
• NASA’s Pandora telescope will study stars in detail to learn about the exoplanets orbiting them;
• NASA funds new tech for upcoming ‘Super Hubble’ to search for alien life: ‘We intend to move with urgency’
  Coalition Members in the News – L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman;
• How the most common types of planets are created;

Other News

• Final FY2026 NASA/NOAA appropriations bill clears Senate, White House is next;
• Airplanes “lost” during a geomagnetic storm;
• Look up: Planetary scientist urges development of spacecraft that could divert a ‘planet killer’ comet
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• NASA bids farewell to historic test stands that built the space age;
• U.S. to build nuclear reactors on the Moon in next 4 years, energy department says;
• Enthusiasts used their home computers to search for ET — scientists are homing in on 100 signals they found;
• NASA welcomes Portugal as 60th Artemis Accords signatory;
• FCC approves SpaceX plan to deploy an additional 7,500 Starlink satellites;
• India’s PSLV launch fails during ascent, 16 satellites lost;

Major Space-Related Activities for the Week

• As the week gets underway, there is considerable focus on plans to return NASA’s SpaceX Crew Dragon-11 back to Earth from the ISS early Thursday with their crew for a Pacific Ocean splashdown and recovery off the coast of California earlier than planned due to a crew medical concern. The concern arose last week, prompting the postponement of a NASA spacewalk. Activities will be streamed at plus.nasa.gov.
• Meanwhile, a Congressional minibus appropriations measure approved by the U.S. House last Thursday that includes NASA’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year that began October 1 is now before the Senate. If approved by the Senate and signed by President Trump, NASA would be funded for 2026 at $24.4 billion, slightly less than the $24.8 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, but more than the $18.8 billion the White House Office of Management and Budget requested last May..

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