Cislunar Space
Curated briefs on policy, launches, missions, and industry moves — every article cites public sources you can verify in-line.
A team re-analyzing 14 years of Hubble Space Telescope data has cast doubt on the 2012 claims of water vapor plumes on Jupiter's moon Europa, suggesting the original 99.9% confidence detection may have been statistical noise.
During the Starship V3 launch countdown, SpaceX announced a private Mars flyby mission led by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang, who previously completed the Fram2 polar orbit flight in 2025. No specific launch date has been set.
China's Shenzhou-23 crew officially unveiled on May 23, featuring Commander Zhu Yangzhu, pilot Zhang Zhiyuan, and Hong Kong payload specialist Li Jiaying, who will become the first Hong Kong astronaut to fly to space. Launch is targeted for May 24 at 23:08 BJT.
SpaceX successfully launched Starship Version 3 for the first time on May 22, with the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean respectively.
NASA announced on May 22, 2026 that it will for the first time open to competitive bidding the contract to operate the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose exclusive agreement with Caltech expires on September 30, 2028.
Rocket Lab's Electron rocket delivered the 9th StriX synthetic aperture radar satellite to sun-synchronous orbit for Japanese operator Synspective, marking the 9th launch under a 10-launch contract.