Pentagon acquisition reforms and the prospect of a budget surge are colliding with a thinned civilian workforce

Blue Origin will reuse a New Glenn booster for the first time on the rocket’s next launch, carrying a satellite for AST SpaceMobile.

China’s damaged Shenzhou-20 spacecraft returned safely to Earth after on-orbit internal repairs, concluding the country’s first human spaceflight emergency triggered by a suspected debris impact.

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us at the Brazilian-Bolivian border over part of the Pantanal region, a unique ecosystem, home to an impressive variety of plants and wildlife.

With the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process effectively complete, a key House appropriator says the next spending bill for NASA should build on that outcome.

Video: 00:09:35

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski captured these stunning timelapse videos during his 20-day stay aboard the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4, known as Ignis. Filmed from the Cupola – the Space Station’s iconic seven-windowed observation module – the footage showcases breathtaking views of Earth and the Moon from orbit.

Launched on 25 June 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, Sławosz conducted 13 experiments proposed by Polish institutions in collaboration with ESA, plus three ESA-led investigations. These spanned human research, materials science, biology, biotechnology and technology demonstrations.

The Ax-4 mission marks the second commercial human spaceflight

Week in images: 19-23 January 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Commercial space station developer Vast has hired another former NASA astronaut as the company delays the launch of its first station.