NASA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NASA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Commercial
Varda Flies Two Capsules at Once, Lines Up Seven More Missions for 2027
Varda Space Industries put two reentry capsules, W-8 and W-9, into orbit on one Falcon 9 rideshare, plans to bring three vehicles home to South Australia before Christmas and has seven missions lined up for 2027. Its CEO is already worried about a rocket shortage once Falcon 9 retires.
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Commercial
NASA Issues Final Call for Commercial Space Station Proposals; Bids Due Dec. 8
NASA has released its final request for proposals for commercial space stations in low Earth orbit. Bids are due Dec. 8 and awards are expected in spring 2027, so industry now has two months to show that a privately run station can pay for itself.
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Commercial
NASA Hands Modulate Space $38 Million to Build 5G for the Moon
NASA has given Modulate Space a roughly $38 million fixed-price contract to build a 5G network with Wi-Fi 6, first as a lab "Network-in-a-Box" and then as a flight demonstration on the lunar surface in late 2028.
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Commercial
Katalyst's LINK Servicer Ends Its Bid to Save NASA's Swift Observatory
Katalyst's LINK spacecraft deorbited Sept. 25 after an 85-day, $30 million attempt to reboost NASA's Swift Observatory failed to reach capture — but Swift itself is back doing science as it sinks toward reentry.
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Commercial
NASA Opens Its Launch Catalog to Blue Origin's Super-Heavy New Glenn 9x4
NASA added Blue Origin's New Glenn 9x4 to its NLS II launch contract on Sept. 29, 2026. It makes the rocket eligible to compete for missions, but no mission, first-flight date or orbital demo has been announced.
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Commercial
Starship Reaches Orbit at Last, Drops 26 Starlink V3 Satellites, and Comes Home Early
On its 14th flight, Starship finally reached orbit despite early engine shutdowns on both stages, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and splashed down north of Hawaii about three hours after liftoff.
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Commercial
Starliner Gets a Reset: An Uncrewed Flight This Winter, Astronauts by 2028, and Vulcan Certification Work
NASA and Boeing outlined a new Starliner plan: an uncrewed engineering flight as soon as December, Woody Hoburg commanding a crewed flight by 2028, Vulcan certification for later flights as Atlas V retires, and about $359 million more for upgrades and certification.
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Commercial
An Asteroid-Mining Startup Bets Everything on a Spacecraft That Takes No Orders
AstroForge says its Autonomy-1 mission, launching on Stoke Space's debut Nova Pathfinder rocket in early 2027, will fly its entire mission without a single command from Earth.
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Commercial
Rocket Lab Challenges NASA's $700 Million Mars Orbiter Pick, Betting on a GAO Do-Over
Rocket Lab filed a GAO protest on September 11 against NASA's ~$700 million award of the Mars Telecommunications Network orbiter to Blue Origin, arguing the evaluation broke with Congress's own eligibility rules.
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Commercial
NASA Adds the Unflown Terran R to Its Launch Services Bench
NASA has added Relativity Space's not-yet-flown Terran R rocket to its NLS II launch contract, giving the company a shot at government payloads before it has even reached orbit.
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Commercial
SpaceX Notches 80th Starlink Launch of 2026 With a 19-Flight Veteran Booster
A Falcon 9 booster that once carried NASA's SPHEREx telescope flew a record 19th mission on Sept. 6, lofting 27 more Starlink satellites and marking SpaceX's 80th Starlink launch of 2026.
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Commercial
Falcon 9's Starlink Era in Florida Is Over. Vandenberg Just Became the Workhorse.
SpaceX's 80th Starlink mission of 2026 flies from California, not Florida, because Falcon 9's Cape Starlink run ended Aug. 25 after roughly 260 flights. Starship is supposed to pick up the slack before year-end, and the FAA has already cleared 44 launches a year at LC-39A.
