NEW FROM NASA

NEW FROM NASA NEWS

ARTEMIS 2

The Artemis 2 spacecraft was rolled back out to the pad recently and is being prepared for an April 1 launch, now scheduled for 6:24 PM EDT. Its mission has not changed much, but there have been big changes in the Artemis 3 mission, as well as the entire lunar exploration program. For more info on the Artemis 2 mission, see: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/inside-artemis-2-nasas-historic-astronaut-moon-mission-explained-video-series. See the Item of the Week entry below for full information on the updated lunar program, and its links to Mars.

NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel

“The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is a senior advisory committee that reports to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Congress. The Panel was established by Congress after the Apollo 204 Command and Service Module spacecraft fire in January 1967. 

“The Panel’s statutory duties, established under Section 6 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 1968, and as amended under 51 U.S.C. § 31101 are as follows:

1. Review safety studies and operations plans referred to it, including evaluating the Administration’s compliance with the return-to-flight and continue-to-fly recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and make reports thereon;
2. Advise the Administrator and Congress with respect to-

(A) the hazards of proposed or existing facilities and proposed operations;

(B) the adequacy of proposed or existing safety standards; and

(C) management and culture related to safety; and

1. Perform such other duties as the Administrator may request.”

The Panel is Chaired by Lt.Gen. Susan Helms. USAF (retired); the Panel members and their bios, and the annual reports (through 2025) are available here: https://www.nasa.gov/asap.

SpaceX Files Plans with FCC for One-million Satellite Data Center in LEO

“SpaceX is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for a satellite constellation of unprecedented scale intended to function as an orbital data center.

“In a filing with the FCC late Jan. 30, SpaceX proposed an orbital data center constellation of up to one million satellites in low Earth orbit. The satellites would operate at altitudes between 500 and 2,000 kilometers, in 30-degree and sun-synchronous inclinations, to maximize time in sunlight for solar power generation.

“A constellation of one million satellites would far exceed any system seriously considered. China filed plans with the International Telecommunication Union in late December for two constellations totaling nearly 200,000 satellites. In 2021, Rwanda filed ITU plans for constellations exceeding 300,000 satellites, linked to proposals by startup E-Space, which no longer appears to be pursuing such a system.”

The announcement does not address issues such as orbit management, the impact on ground-based astronomy, the environmental effects of deorbiting satellites, or space debris management. For the full quotes and more news on this topic, see: https://spacenews.com/spacex-files-plans-for-million-satellite-orbital-data-center-constellation.

NEW FROM NASA FYI

Here's Hoping 2026 is a Good Year for Space Exploration: It could well be, especially with the restoration of NASA’s budget. In addition to the flight of ARTEMIS II, the following advances are slated for this year.

• NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope completed construction recently and could be launched as early as this Fall. Its capabilities complement those of the James Webb Space Telescope and the Simonyi Telescope at the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. It will be used to find exoplanets, map billions of galaxies, and study dark matter and dark energy. For more on this wonderful instrument, see: https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov; https://www.stsci.edu/roman; and https://earthsky.org/space/nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope.
• The Indian Space Research Organization will conduct non-crewed test flights of a launch system that could make them the fourth nation capable of placing astronauts in orbit. For more about the ISRO, see: https://www.isro.gov.in.
• China plays its cards pretty close to the vest, but we do know that they are planning to launch another lunar landing mission, Chang’e 7, to the lunar south pole sometime in the mid-year. The mission comprises an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a small flying “hopper,” all looking for water ice in permanently-shadowed areas near the crater named for the famous polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. For more on China’s objectives, see: https://www.space-agencies.com/2025/10/09/change-7-and-8-the-chinese-missions-paving-the-way-for-human-exploration-of-the-moon.
• JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, will launch the Martian Moons eXploration mission (MMX) late this year. Once in orbit around Mars, it will spend three years examining its two moons at close range, then collect a sample from Phobos and return it to Earth. For more on this ambitious effort, see: https://www.mmx.jaxa.jp/en and https://www.mmx.jaxa.jp/en/science.
• I’ll end this segment with a SMILE, the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere link Explorer, a joint ESA/China satellite that will investigate the details of the interaction between the charged particles of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere. It’s due to launch some time in April or May. For more information about SMILE, see: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Smile/Smile_factsheet2 and https://english.news.cn/20240927/e5ca27fef8484f8c8665f3b228f2810b/c.html.

NEW FROM NASA LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION

NASA – ISRO Radar Satellite is Operational: “The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Earth-observing radar satellite’s first images of our planet’s surface are in, and they offer a glimpse of things to come as the joint mission between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) approaches full science operations later this year.

“Images from the spacecraft, which was launched by ISRO on July 30, display the level of detail with which NISAR scans Earth to provide unique, actionable information to decision-makers in a diverse range of areas, including disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, and agricultural management.”

For more information, see: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-isro-satellite-sends-first-radar-images-of-earths-surface.

Apollo 12 Graphic Novel Updated! Tuesday (11/19) was the 56^th anniversary of the landing on the Moon of Apollo 12’s LM, Intrepid, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Al Bean aboard. Celebrate this milestone two ways: See the two previous Items of the Week that spotlight the mission here and my personal hero, Al Bean, here. Also, check out the NASA graphic novel of the Apollo 12 mission augmented by info about Artemis (The NASA links to it are dead, but I downloaded it from Wikipedia Commons, and it is listed as being fully in the public domain; you can find it in the “Archive: Other Stuff” section of my website at: https://www.airandspacethisweek.com/otherstuff. 

JPL Von Kármán Lectures: Theodore von Kármán was an aerodynamics expert who came to the USA in 1930, fleeing rising tide of Nazism. He was a member of the National Academy of Science and one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL hosted a lecture series named for him that offered a number of interesting Space-related lectures, “Shake and Bake,” being one from last year. For more information on the Von Kármán Lectures, see the archive at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jpl-and-the-community/lecture-series .

Did you know that NASA has an entire Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center? The data they make relatable is really terrific, check it out at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Latest News Releases: https://www.nasa.gov/2026-news-releases

Media Contact Info:https://www.nasa.gov/news/media/info/index.html

JPL News:https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news