NASA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NASA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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NASA & Agencies
India's Jio Unveils Sovereign LEO Constellation Plan as $10–15 Billion Bet on Connecting India From the Skies
Jio Platforms filed IPO papers alongside plans for a 1,600-satellite sovereign broadband constellation, challenging Starlink and OneWeb in India's increasingly contested orbital market.
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NASA & Agencies
How Do You Become a NASA Astronaut? The Process, the Odds, and What They Actually Look For
NASA selects roughly a dozen astronauts from thousands of applicants each cycle. The qualifications, the grueling two-year training pipeline, what actually disqualifies you, and why the evolving selection criteria signal the future of human spaceflight.
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NASA & Agencies
NASA Just Handed 14 Companies a $476 Million Contract to Watch the Earth
NASA expanded its Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program with 8 new vendors and 6 returning ones, pushing the contract ceiling to $476M through 2028.
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NASA & Agencies
NASA Greenlights Twin-Satellite Mission to Crack the Code of Space Weather's Atmospheric Grip
NASA's DAPHNE mission will send two identical satellites to study how Earth's lower atmosphere shapes conditions in space — and why that matters for GPS, satellites, and astronauts.
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NASA & Agencies
From Suriname to NASA Kennedy: Rohit Goeptar's Unlikely Path to the Launch Pad
A childhood in poverty, six years in the Marines, homelessness in Florida — and now Rohit Goeptar analyzes electromagnetic compatibility for NASA rockets at Kennedy Space Center.
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NASA & Agencies
A European at the Controls: ESA's Parmitano Named Artemis III Pilot as NASA and ESA Sign New Climate and Lunar Deals
NASA named ESA's Luca Parmitano pilot of Artemis III, ESA committed a third European Service Module, and the two agencies signed Earth-science and Lunar Pathfinder agreements around ESA's 347th Council in Noordwijk.
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NASA & Agencies
America's Lunar Economic Frontier: The Quiet Revolution in How We Plan to Use the Moon
The Moon sits 240,000 miles away — and Washington increasingly sees it not as a scientific destination but as the next great economic frontier, with commercial partners leading the charge.
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NASA & Agencies
Katalyst LINK Spacecraft Integrated for Swift Observatory Rescue Mission
NASA's aging Swift Observatory faces imminent orbital reentry after decaying from 600km to 400km altitude. Katalyst Space's LINK robotic servicing spacecraft, integrated onto a Pegasus XL rocket, launches in late June to grip the telescope with lidar-guided arms and boost it back to operational orbit using ion thrusters.
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NASA & Agencies
ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover: Still Alive, Still Going to Mars
ESA's ExoMars rover survived the loss of its Russian Roscosmos partnership and is being rebuilt for a European launch. If it gets to Mars, it will carry a drill no other mission has ever attempted.
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NASA & Agencies
India's space program is moving faster than anyone expected. Here's where it stands.
ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 south pole landing in 2023 and Aditya-L1 solar observatory marked a turning point. With Gaganyaan crewed flights approaching and a Venus mission on the books, India is building the infrastructure of a major spacefaring nation.
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NASA & Agencies
Russia in space, 2026: what's left of the program after four years of isolation
Roscosmos has shed international partners, lost Soyuz commercial launch contracts, and watched its GLONASS constellation degrade. What remains is a human spaceflight program, a military reconnaissance constellation, and ambitious plans whose funding remains unclear.
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NASA & Agencies
China's space station is done. Now it's being used.
Tiangong — China's modular space station — has completed its core assembly and is now hosting regular rotating crews for science, materials research, and technology demonstration. Understanding what China is actually doing in orbit matters as competition for the high ground intensifies.
