NASA has approved the Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation (ROSA) project and contracted SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to launch the European Space Agency’s Mars rover in late 2028, even as the White House’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal would zero out funding for the same project. The $175.7 million launch contract, announced April 16, commits the […]

The post The Rosalind Franklin Paradox: NASA Signs a Launch Contract for a Mission the White House Wants to Kill appeared first on Space Daily.

In this episode of Space Minds, Mike Gruss talks with Col.

NorthStar Earth and Space plans to raise funds to expand the space-based sensor network behind its space situational awareness business by merging with Viking Acquisition Corp.

Russia has warned European governments of potential escalation across the continent after Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign reportedly inflicted severe damage on Russian oil and gas infrastructure, with claims of destroyed export terminals, refineries and drilling platforms cutting into export revenues. The threat, issued by the Russian Defence Ministry, follows reports of a wave of European […]

The post Moscow Threatens Continental Retaliation as Baltic Oil Terminals Burn appeared first on Space Daily.

The Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea became the deadliest maritime corridor in South and Southeast Asia last year, with reports indicating nearly 900 Rohingya refugees dead or missing in 2025. The figure appears to mark the highest annual death toll for Rohingya sea crossings, a grim milestone that has led advocates to compare […]

The post The Bay of Bengal Has Become a Graveyard: Inside the Deadliest Year for Rohingya at Sea appeared first on Space Daily.

The astronauts who flew around the moon on Artemis 2 said they were confident the Orion spacecraft is ready to support future missions.

Week in images: 13-17 April 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary and President To Lam wrapped a four-day state visit to China that put high-speed rail, not South China Sea tensions, at the center of the bilateral agenda. The trip produced signed cooperation deals on railways, public security, technology, and inter-party exchanges, and it set the terms under which Chinese engineering […]

The post Hanoi’s $75 Billion Question: Why Vietnam’s Rail Gamble Is Really About Beijing appeared first on Space Daily.

The mobile industry’s most ambitious plan to end cellular dead zones is colliding with an unglamorous obstacle: its own fragmentation. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, direct-to-device satellite services dominated the show floor, with contract announcements between constellation operators and mobile network operators arriving almost daily. Yet behind the momentum, a warning is hardening into […]

The post The Direct-to-Device Dream Collides With a Fractured Satellite Reality appeared first on Space Daily.