Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter during the week of September 13, 2026:

Human Space Exploration

• 50 years ago, NASA rolled out its 1st space shuttle Enterprise. The shuttle ‘was one of the things that really inspired me,’ ISS astronaut says;
• Russia launches Progress 96 with 3 tons of cargo to the space station (video);
• NASA chief outlines accelerated Moon-to-Mars strategy amid new space race;
• ‘If I wanted to go to space, I would have stayed at NASA’: What’s next for Artemis II astronaut Victor Glover after his mission to the Moon;
• No cities on the Moon there isn’t enough water, scientists say;
• The road to the asteroid belt runs through the Moon;
• NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shares zero-G curly hair tips from the ISS (video);

Space Science

• International Observe the Moon Night;
• Scientists find youngest exoplanet on record a ‘newborn’ named Elias;
• A glimpse of the solar system’s origins: Striking details on the molecules inside a meteorite;
• Regents approve A&M System to bid on management of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab;
• Hubble discovers a mysterious 10-sided wave forming on Saturn;
• NASA spacecraft discovers Moon crater bigger than Roman Colosseum;
• From 10 to 22 years: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s mission has just been extended;
• CubeSat instrument extends solar storm warnings 10x;
• NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will use gravity as a magnifying glass to find distant planets;
• Scientists say the universe isn’t slowing down after all;
• James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble discover 27 puzzling new objects orbiting the Sun far beyond Neptune;
• NASA’s next great observatory could spot oceans on distant worlds;
• Are living building materials the key to making a home on Mars?;
• The Sun may once have swallowed a super-Earth planet and could still be hiding the evidence;
• What’s carving active gullies on Mars? It’s not water;
• A star is exploding 45 million light-years away – here’s how you can see it;

Other News

• The Pentagon must prepare for battles around the Moon: Joint Chiefs chair;
• The battle for the future of space;
• Unexpected satellite explosion;
• Budget impasse imperils 1 in 10 Space Force programs, new chief says;
• NASA rushed engineers out of their labs. They say it risks future space missions;
• Djibouti signs the Artemis Accords as the State Department unveils new space partnership program;
• Where will the U.S. Space Academy be based? NASA wants class to start by 2028;
• Air Force and Space Force push for scale as supply-chain constraints persist;
• State department launches space catalyst partnership;
• The U.S. government is ‘sincere in its efforts to understand UAP’, new White House council chair says;
• Sophia Space and SLI set the terms for a $300M deal that will finance an orbital computing constellation
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
• Space startups raise big money in funding blitz as Europe aims to challenge U.S. dominance;
• Meink: U.S. has orbiting space-control weapons;
• NASA just proved satellites can navigate without GPS;
• CesiumAstro to expand with EXIM $300M credit agreement;

Major Space-Related Activities for the Week

• On Wednesday at 2:45 p.m. EDT, NASA is hosting a news briefing with the three Crew 12 NASA and European Space Agency astronauts plus a Russian cosmonaut now serving as members of the ISS’s Expedition 75. Options to watch online can be found at www.nasa.gov/nasalive. It’s anticipated the briefing may follow Wednesday’s rescheduled launch of Russia’s MS-35 Progress resupply mission to the seven-person ISS.
• On Tuesday, the U.S. House Appropriations Transportation-HUD subcommittee will host an oversight hearing on the FAA with FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation regulates the commercial space launch and reentry business. While aviation issues usually dominate the hearings, there is growing attention being given the commercial space launch industry in light of President Trump’s new National Space Transportation Policy that calls for 1,000 launches and reentries a year by 2030.
•  The American Astronautical Society’s Glenn Space Technology Symposium, slated for Tuesday and Wednesday, is to provide a focus on NASA’s plans for a Moon Base. NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya is Tuesday’s luncheon speaker, preceded by a panel with NASA’s Moon Base manager Carlos Garcia-Galan and representatives from Blue Origin, SpaceX, Lunar Outpost, AstroLab and Northrop Grumman. Later Tuesday, there’s a panel discussion regarding NASA’s planned Mars Telecommunications Network with participants from NASA’s Glenn and Goddard space centers.

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