NASA & Agencies
Space agency and policy news from Cosmic Herald — NASA, ESA, ISRO, China's CNSA, budgets, and the politics of spaceflight.
-
NASA & Agencies
Veteran Astronaut Mike Fincke Retires From NASA After 30 Years and a January Health Scare in Orbit
NASA confirmed Aug. 12 that four-flight veteran Mike Fincke is retiring after 30 years with the agency, seven months after losing his voice for 20 minutes aboard the ISS forced an early end to his Crew-11 mission.
-
NASA & Agencies
Station Crew Preps for Three-Agency Spacewalk to Swap Out a Balky Antenna
NASA says Expedition 75's Anil Menon and ESA's Sophie Adenot will step outside the ISS on August 18 for a 6.5-hour spacewalk to replace a space-to-ground antenna on the Z1 truss.
-
NASA & Agencies
Typhoon-Delayed Michibiki-7 Set to Complete Japan's GPS Backup Constellation — and It's Carrying a U.S. Space-Surveillance Payload
After Typhoon Dolphin scrubbed one date and weather killed another, JAXA's H3 Flight 9 is now set to loft QZS-7 from Tanegashima on August 11 — completing Japan's seven-satellite GPS-augmentation system while hosting a second MIT Lincoln Laboratory surveillance payload for the U.S. Space Force.
-
NASA & Agencies
NASA and Northrop Grumman Repurpose Gateway's HALO Tech for Lunar South Pole Demo Missions
Facing scrutiny over Gateway's ballooning costs, NASA and Northrop Grumman are redirecting HALO module technology into three South Pole demo missions meant to prove out Moon Base hardware years before Gateway itself flies.
-
NASA & Agencies
Meir and Menon Head Outside to Rewire the Station's Power Grid for Its Next Solar Array
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon spent 6.5 hours outside the ISS on August 6 rewiring a power channel for a future solar array, the first of three spacewalks this month.
-
NASA & Agencies
NASA Unveils Crew-13 Lineup as Station Preps for a Busy Stretch of Spacewalks and Science
NASA introduced the four-person SpaceX Crew-13 team at Johnson Space Center on August 3, 2026, ahead of a mid-September Dragon launch, while Expedition 75 gears up for an August 7 spacewalk to prep a new solar array platform.
-
NASA & Agencies
ISRO and JAXA Lock Down the Handshake Between Chandrayaan-5's Lander and Its Japanese Rover
At a Bengaluru meeting in late July, Indian and Japanese engineers finalized how their lander and rover will talk to and power each other on the Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX mission to hunt for lunar water ice.
-
NASA & Agencies
NASA Cuts the Ribbon on Its First New Wind Tunnel in 40 Years
NASA opened the Flight Dynamics Research Facility at Langley on July 31, 2026 — its first newly built wind tunnel in over four decades, aimed at aircraft, autonomous flight, and Artemis-era spacecraft testing.
-
NASA & Agencies
Five University Teams Are Flying Balloons Into an Eclipse's Shadow for NASA
NASA has set its coverage plan for the August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse over Greenland, Iceland and Spain, while five NASA-funded university teams launch roughly 80 balloons into the eclipse shadow to study how the atmosphere reacts when the Moon briefly cuts off the Sun.
-
NASA & Agencies
NASA Astronaut, Two Cosmonauts Land in Kazakhstan After 241-Day Mission
Soyuz MS-28 parachuted onto the Kazakh steppe on July 26, closing out a 241-day Expedition 73/74 stint that carried NASA's Chris Williams and two Roscosmos cosmonauts more than 102 million miles around Earth.
-
NASA & Agencies
Two New Galileo Satellites Officially Join Europe's Navigation Constellation
SAT 33 and SAT 34 — the final pair of first-generation Galileo satellites — have officially entered service, with SAT 34 cleared on July 23, 2026, as Europe's aging satnav fleet heads toward a heavier, electric-propulsion successor.
-
NASA & Agencies
ESA Opens Launch Campaign for FLEX, the First Satellite Built to Watch Plants Glow
ESA is preparing FLEX, the first satellite dedicated to measuring the faint fluorescence plants emit during photosynthesis, for a September 2026 Vega-C launch alongside Copernicus Sentinel-3C from Kourou.
