The time is ripe to end the “Wolf Amendment,” a congressional bar inhibiting civil collaboration between the United States and China in space. The impetus for the law was noble — an attempt to challenge human rights conditions in China and prevent leaks of space-related technology — but in practice the ban harms our security […]
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New Mexico — December 22, 2025 — Desert Works Propulsion (DWP) today announced the expansion of its domestic electric propulsion development and testing capabilities to address growing demand for advanced […]
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Japan’s flagship H3 rocket suffered an issue with its second stage late Sunday resulting in the loss of the Michibiki 5 (QZS-5) navigation satellite.
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Russia wants to revive a Soviet-era particle accelerator that has been abandoned since the 1990s. The Kurchatov Institute for High Energy Physics has allocated 176 million rubles ($25m) to assess the current condition of the unfinished 600 GeV Proton Accelerator and Storage Complex (UNK) in Protvino near Moscow. The move is part of plans to strengthen Russia’s technological sovereignty and its activity in high-energy physics.
Although work on the UNK was officially halted in the 1990s, construction only ceased in 2013. At that time, a 21 km tunnel had been built at a depth of 60 m along with underground experimental hall lighting and ventilation systems.
In February 2025, physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, president of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, noted in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper that enormous intellectual and material resources had been invested in the UNK’s design and development before it was cancelled.
According to Kovalchuk, Western sanctions provided an additional impetus to restore the project, as scientists that had previously worked in CERN projects could no longer do so.
“By participating in [CERN] projects, we not only preserved our scientific potential and survived a difficult period, but also enriched ourselves intellectually and technologically,” added Kovalchuk. “Today we are self-sufficient.”
Anatoli Romaniouk, a Russian particle physicist who has worked at CERN since 1990, told Physics World that a revival of the UNK will at least maintain fundamental physics research in Russia.
“If this project is realized, then there is hope that it will be possible to at least somewhat slow down the scientific lag of Russian physics with global science,” says Romaniouk.
While official plans for the accelerator have not been disclosed, it is thought that the proton beam energy could be upgraded to reach 3 TeV. Romaniouk says it is also unclear what kind of science will be done with the accelerator, which will depend on what ideas come forward.
Yet some Russian scientists say that it could be used to produce neutrinos. This would involve putting a neutrino detector nearby to characterize the beam before it is sent some 4000 km towards Lake Baikal where a neutrino detector – the Baikal Deep Underwater Neutrino Telescope – is already installed 1 km underground.
“I think it’s possible to find an area of high-energy physics where the research with the help of this collider could be beneficial,” adds Romaniouk.
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New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he wants NASA to move faster on programs such as Artemis but acknowledged he needs time to get up to speed on NASA’s activities.
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Rocket Lab successfully launched a Japanese radar imaging satellite Dec. 21 in the final flight of a record-setting year for the company.
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Blue Origin flew its final New Shepard suborbital mission of the year Dec. 20, carrying six people, including the first person who uses a wheelchair to travel to space.
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NASA’s safety advisers are recommending that the agency reconsider its Artemis lunar landing architecture as well as how it handles incidents such as the flawed Starliner test flight.
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L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab and Northrop Grumman won contracts to build 72 satellites
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Hungarian communications provider 4iG has agreed to invest $100 million in U.S.-based space station developer Axiom Space, broadening its footprint in the space industry amid a broader push toward vertically integrated capabilities in the industry.
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The European Space Agency expects to decide in February how to address a 20% funding shortfall in its exploration program.
The post ESA weighing options to address exploration funding shortfall appeared first on SpaceNews.
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