The new space age: Artemis, the ISS, commercial stations, and the race to the moon and Mars.
We are living through the second space age. After decades of stagnation, launch costs have collapsed, commercial stations are rising, and nations are racing back to the moon, this time to stay.
This hub collects all of our space coverage: the final years of the International Space Station, the Artemis program and the new moon race over mining rights, and the scramble to build what replaces the ISS.
From splashdowns to solar arrays to the geopolitics of lunar mining, this is the complete picture. Bookmark this page; it updates every time we publish a new space story.
Four astronauts returned to Earth on October 8 after 237 days aboard the International Space Station. NASA's Jessica Meir now ranks in the agency's top 10 for total time in space.
SpaceX's CRS-35 cargo mission carries the final set of roll-out solar arrays for the International Space Station, plus an artificial retina, 3D heart tissue, and brain organoids.
After 28 years of continuous human presence in orbit, the ISS is headed for a fiery end. The scramble to replace it is the most important space story nobody's following.
Nations are racing back to the moon, but prestige is no longer the prize. The real contest is over water ice, helium-3, and who gets to write the rules for mining another world.
The moon is the prize, but the real competition is about who writes the rules for the next century of space.
Artemis is NASA's program to return astronauts to the moon and build a sustained presence there. Artemis II is the crewed flyby mission, with landings planned for later missions. The new moon race is driven less by prestige than by resources: water ice at the lunar poles and the legal questions around mining rights.
The ISS is in its final years. It received its last major power upgrade with final solar arrays launching in October 2026, and is being prepared for decommissioning. Commercial space stations are being built to take over research, manufacturing, and tourism in low Earth orbit.
Tranche 1 is the Space Development Agency's proliferated satellite network for missile tracking and military communications. SpaceX flew its fourth Tranche 1 mission in October 2026. It reflects a shift from a few large satellites to hundreds of smaller, cheaper ones that are harder to disable.
Launch costs have collapsed, making it economical to deploy hundreds of small satellites at once. Constellations now deliver broadband internet, Earth observation, and defense capabilities. The underlying race is over orbital slots and radio spectrum, which are finite and filling up.