Vol 45, Week 42

NASA & NEWSPACE

• Voyager Lunar Systems’ (formerly Astrobotic’s) Griffin-1 lander passed environmental testing and is heading back to Pittsburgh for its final assembly and late 2026 launch.
• Rocket Lab’s Neutron debut launch is delayed to 2027 due to composite manufacturing issues. 
• First woman around the Moon, Christina Koch, will become NASA’s acting deputy chief engineer in November.
• SpaceX Starlink operators are seeking closer coordination to share international orbital data and jointly reduce the risk of satellite collisions.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• Japan’s Martian moon sampling spacecraft MMX is planned to launch Oct 19, arrive at Mars in Aug 2027, return 10g of samples to Earth 2031.
• The first UK national space mission, a debris removal satellite to launch in 2029, is open for public naming suggestions.
• More updates from IAC 2026: South Africa & Türkiye MoU, UAE & France lunar partnership, Luxembourg & Italy MoU extension, and Organization of Turkic States (OTS) agreement.

BEYOND EARTH

• Perseverance broke the off-world driving distance, reaching 28.10 miles over the 5.5 years since touchdown.
• During its September 2026 Earth flyby, the Juice spacecraft used a 9-hour eclipse to rehearse the power and science conditions it will face at Jupiter.
• JWST has captured the first direct image of 14 Herculis c, a giant exoplanet that is the coldest ever imaged.