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Accelerate U.S. lunar exploration with a robotic sample return campaign

A lunar sample on display. Credit: NASA

A realistic and cost-effective path for the United States to advance the exploration and development of the moon, and to keep our nation in the forefront of that enterprise, is to dramatically increase robotic exploration efforts and to focus with urgency on a comprehensive campaign to collect and return geologic samples from a wide range […]

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Crafting a Democratic space policy in the Trump era

Richard Dalbello speaks at the 2024 SpaceNews Icon Awards. Credit: Jason Dixson Photography

In space policy today, Republican views dominate. The party holds majorities in the House and Senate, while the White House is stretching — or breaking — the limits of executive power. Democratic views on space are largely couched in terms of opposition to White House initiatives, such as proposed cuts in NASA’s budget or efforts […]

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Analysts say experience, not funding, is hindering European smallsat launchers

Biomass launch

London — Warsaw Increasing tensions with Russia have prompted defense spending boosts throughout Europe that will benefit fledgling smallsat launcher companies across the continent.  But Europe is still years away from meeting its own space access needs, analysts said.  The progress of European smallsat launcher developers has been slower than promised, with companies facing technical […]

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Why the U.S. shouldn’t simply race to Lagrange points 

Vigil

From the first satellite in orbit, to the first human in space, to the first steps on the moon, the United States government has always framed space exploration as a race. As U.S.-China space competition intensifies, so too does our American instinct to reach the next first. The Earth-moon Lagrange points may be next. In […]

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Q&A: The pace is picking up for Astroscale

Astroscale’s ADRAS-J inspector satellite approaching an H-2A upper stage in low Earth orbit. Credit: Astroscale

Through missions currently on the books for the Japan Space Agency JAXA, the U.S. Space Force, European Space Agency, UK Space Agency and Eutelsat OneWeb, the Tokyo-based on-orbit servicing company Astroscale aims to demonstrate inspection and proximity operations, rendezvous and docking, debris removal and refueling. When Astroscale was founded in 2013, the business was focused […]

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For new lunar collaboration, look to India and Japan

Representatives from ISRO and JAXA met in May 2025 for a Technical Interface Meeting about the Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX mission at ISRO Headquarters in Bengaluru. Credit: ISRO

The renewed interest in the moon can arguably be traced back to the 2009 discovery of water ice on the lunar surface. Much of the narrative in the intervening decade and a half has been set to a background score of a military drumroll slowly gathering pace. The competing visions vis-à-vis lunar exploration and exploitation […]

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Johns Hopkins, SpaceNews launch discussion series focused on the future of space  exploration

A panel of leading space industry executives will explore the trajectory of space technology over the next decade, examining how the long-imagined future depicted in comic books and science fiction […]

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Why the moon is not the South China Sea: reframing lunar space ahead of the next ‘race’

Concept art of a crewed lunar base. Credit: ESA – P. Carril

As the world watches the push for crewed lunar missions, it is tempting to frame the unfolding dynamic between the United States and China as a modern-day space race, with the lunar surface as the stage for a sovereignty contest. But equating the moon with contested maritime zones like the South China Sea, as a […]

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On the eve of the ISS’s 25th anniversary, humanity stares down a gap in its presence in space

Illustration of Axiom Space’s proposed space station. Credit: Axiom

On Nov. 2, 2000, the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft docked with the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. On board were Roscosmos cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev and NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd. They were known as Expedition 1, the first long-term crew to live on the ISS. Since their arrival, there have always been […]

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