India is pushing ahead with plans to launch a space station for human habitation in 2028, a milestone that would make it the fourth nation to do so. The India Space Research Organisation is making rapid progress on the Bharatiya Antariksha Station as part of its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, Program Director Imtiyaz Ahmed told the Indo-Asian News Service on February 9. All told, India is working on nearly 80 satellites for scientific research, disaster management, security, navigation and Gaganyaan relays, Ahmed said. The ISRO previously had announced a 2028 launch date for the first module of a five-module space…
Apogee
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is entering what its leadership calls a pivotal moment, as a rapidly expanding constellation of proliferated low Earth orbit satellites begins to outperform expectations and reshape how United States intelligence and military users access space-based data. Speaking December 3, 2025, at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, U.S. Space Force Maj. Gen. Chris Povak, the NRO’s deputy director, said the agency already is seeing “great output” from its proliferated satellite architecture, which began launching in 2024 and now numbers nearly 200 spacecraft on orbit. The constellation — now the largest government-operated satellite fleet — supports…
New General Catalogue (NGC) 2283 resides roughly 45 million light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, NGC 2283’s central bar of stars is encircled by loosely wound spiral arms. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows NGC 2283 through the lens of Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument. Webb captured NGC 2283 for just 10 minutes to collect the data for this image, which is constructed from four snapshots taken with different near-infrared filters. The filters reveal the emission from NGC 2283’s sparkling stellar population, as well as light from hydrogen…
Space is no longer the empty, boundless frontier scientists observed during the early days of exploration. Today, Earth’s orbits are rapidly filling up — driven by exponential technological growth, declining launch costs and a burgeoning private sector. With the proliferation of satellite constellations, commercial and scientific ventures, and a growing list of spacefaring nations, the orbital domain is increasingly crowded, loosely regulated and beset with risk. Many experts agree that the need for robust, effective space traffic management (STM) is more apparent than ever, but a host of questions remain. Among them: In a domain with rivalries and competing private…
The most dangerous debris on orbit includes big, derelict Russian rocket bodies and fragments from a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test. In June 2025, a rocket body and a fragment passed within about 12 meters of one another, a leading space tracker said — not the most worrying close approach, but one that showcases low Earth orbit’s biggest threats. The encounter was reported by Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow with California-based LeoLabs, in his biweekly newsletter highlighting close orbital approaches, or conjunctions. The size of a city bus and the weight of a large, African elephant, the rocket body carries the…
A new player with a deep pedigree entered the field of national security in August 2025 with the deployment of payloads including an experimental navigation satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket. ULA, a joint venture of military contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing, had experienced a series of delays in Vulcan’s certification for military use. Two successful test launches in 2024 finally satisfied concerns, and the rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying U.S. Space Force mission USSF-106 to geosynchronous orbit (GEO). Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage ignited its engines repeatedly to maneuver and…
The Pentagon and the intelligence community are moving on several fronts to introduce satellites as a tool in pursuing moving targets on the ground and in the air. A batch of satellites enhancing existing assets will be launched in the next year to help the U.S. Space Force prepare for an operational ground moving target indication constellation, retiring Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt told the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in August 2025. In addition, demonstrations and prototypes are underway to prove space-based airborne moving target indication (AMTI), according to top generals with Space Force and U.S. Northern Command. Congress has…
It took 35 years for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reach the milestone of 1,000 licensed commercial space operations, but trend lines indicate that reaching the next 1,000 will be a lot quicker. The FAA marked the achievement in an August 2025 news release showcasing “American innovation as we push the boundaries of what’s possible in the final frontier,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “Together, the FAA and NASA are working to build a safe and vibrant U.S. commercial space industry that cements America’s leadership on the global stage.” The 1,000 operations reflect the growing importance of…
On July 30, 2025, a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. A little over an hour later, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite captured the passing tsunami in unprecedented detail. It recorded a wave height of more than 45 centimeters (1.5 feet), providing a real-world test for forecast models as the water surged across the Pacific Ocean. With that event, coastal communities were able to act, adding protections and bracing for tidal changes with a keener understanding of the wave’s timing and possible impacts. SWOT — a joint venture between NASA and France’s Centre National d’Etudes…
Spacefaring nations have been working since 2002 to reduce the risk space junk poses to the satellites that enable modern life. These efforts are focused on slowing the creation of more debris, but technology also is emboldening a new approach to the problem: collecting junk that’s already out there through a process known as active debris removal. Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Space Agency (ESA) are among those leading the way. Japan-based Astroscale took a big step forward in December 2024 when it positioned an inspection satellite within 15 meters of an old upper rocket stage during a…