Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
To prepare new autonomous systems for Mars, NASA teams have been testing drones, a legged robot, and a winged flyer concept in harsh desert environments in California, New Mexico, and Virginia. The work is part of 25 Mars Exploration Program technology projects funded this year to extend the reach and capability of future Red Planet missions. At Death Valley National Park and in the nearby

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
Human missions to Mars will require robust shelters that can be built without hauling heavy materials from Earth, pushing engineers and scientists to focus on in situ resource utilization of the planet's regolith. A new perspective article describes how carefully selected microbial communities could turn Martian dust into structural elements for habitats, while also contributing to life-support

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
Researchers have developed micro and nanoscale reconfigurable robots that capture and release carbon dioxide in confined life support systems such as crewed spacecraft, submarines, and sealed shelters. The team led by Prof. Hui He at Guangxi University reports that these micro nano reconfigurable robots, or MNRM, use sunlight as an energy source while moving through the system to avoid local ove

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
LandSpace, a private Chinese rocket company, has flown its ZQ 3, or Rosefinch 3, carrier rocket for the first time, marking China's initial orbital mission using a reusable rocket architecture, although recovery of the first-stage booster was not successful. The ZQ 3 Y1 vehicle, built mainly from stainless steel, lifted off at noon from a dedicated launch service tower at the Jiuquan Satel

Is it an insect? A strange fossil? An otherworldly eye, or even a walnut? No, it’s an intriguing kind of martian butterfly spotted by ESA’s Mars Express.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
The China National Space Administration has set up a Commercial Space Department to serve as a dedicated regulator for the country's expanding private space sector. The new office is responsible for overseeing commercial launches, satellite operations, and related services while coordinating policy and planning for non-state space activities. Officials have tied the move to the Action Plan

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
Leaf Space is providing ground segment services for 31 satellites on a single upcoming SpaceX rideshare mission, the largest number of spacecraft it has supported on one launch to date and representing about 30 percent of all payloads on the flight. These newly supported spacecraft join 140 satellites already operating through the company's Leaf Line ground station network, used by commerc

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
Every rocket launch discards large amounts of material and releases substantial greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances into the atmosphere, prompting researchers to examine how circular economy principles could be built into space activities from the outset. In a commentary published December 1 in the Cell Press journal Chem Circularity, sustainability specialists and space scient

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has launched Space TechEU, its first financing programme dedicated to companies in Europe's space sector, under its wider TechEU initiative. The bank presented the facility at the European Space Agency (ESA) Council of Ministers meeting in Bremen. Space TechEU will provide up to 500 million euro in EIB financing to companies across the space value chain, from upstream manufacturing and launch activities to downstream applications

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 03, 2025
Orbit Fab has secured up to $3.8 million in funding through the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency's Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications to lead a European consortium that will advance satellite refuelling technology. The Advancing Satcom Technology with Refuelling and Logistics (ASTRAL) project will receive total UK funding of up to $3.8 million (3.3 million euros),