July 6-12, 2026 | Vol 45, Week 27

NASA & COMMERCIAL PARTNERS

• Another round of awards, totaling nearly $600 million, to be given to NASA commercial partners for lunar missions (Astrobotic $297.9M, Firefly Aerospace $144.2M, Intuitive Machines $148.3M).
• Engineering model of Perseverance rover (dubbed “Promise”) may be repurposed for lunar mission with multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
• Blue Ghost Mission 2, launching late 2026, to use the NVIDIA Jetson platform to perform the first edge AI processing in lunar orbit.

GLOBAL UPDATES

• ESA is working to procure lunar topographical data from outside sources for its Argonaut lander, which is planned to land near the Moon South Pole in 2030 and deliver about 1,500 kg of cargo.
• China to launch the Long March 10B this week for its first orbital flight and sea-recovery attempt, ahead of the Long March 10A + Mengzhou spacecraft’s space station debut later this year, testing critical technologies for its 2030 crewed lunar missions.

CULTURE & EVENTS

• NASA will send a FIFA World Cup 2026 soccer ball to the Moon if the US wins the tournament.
• The Lunar Codex and ILOA Hawai’i announce collaboration to launch cultural archives to the Moon on ILO-1 mission.