🚀 Crew-12 Enters Station

🚀 New Crew Joins Station

🛰️ NASA Funding Withheld

🌕 Artemis II Faces Problem

🌌 Ancient Star Discovered

💰 Axiom Space Secures Big Investment

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), ESA (European Space Agency), and Roscosmos astronauts successfully boarded the International Space Station, beginning their long-duration science mission as the Crew-12 expedition alongside the existing Expedition 74 crew.

The crew's SpaceX Dragon spacecraft completed its journey, with hatches opening at 5:14 p.m. EST between the capsule and the station, marking the official start of their integrated operations aboard the orbiting laboratory.

This crew rotation ensures continuous human presence and research on the ISS, advancing scientific knowledge in microgravity and preparing for future deep space exploration missions, according to NASA mission planners and official agency statements.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructed NASA to pause financial commitments on critical science missions, sparking concern over the future of several major programs.

The temporary hold affects over 15 projects, including the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and follows a contentious proposal to reduce NASA’s planetary science budget from $2.7 billion down to $1.9 billion for fiscal year 2026.

Analysts warn this funding uncertainty could disrupt long-term mission planning and jeopardize the nation's leadership in space science, despite Congress passing a bill securing a stable $24.4 billion budget for the agency.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman pledged to solve recurring fueling problems with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket before the critical Artemis III crewed lunar landing mission takes place.

The issue originates from ground support equipment, specifically the Tail Service Mast Umbilicals, where hydrogen concentrations spiked above 16 percent during a recent Artemis II practice countdown, a significant safety concern for ground crews.

Isaacman stated the propellant loading interfaces will be redesigned for Artemis III, a necessary fix to prevent further costly delays and ensure the safety of astronauts on America's return to the Moon.

University of Warwick scientists, using ESA’s (European Space Agency) Cheops satellite, investigated the LHS 1903 system, uncovering a planetary architecture that directly challenges established theories of how solar systems are typically formed.

The system unusually presents a rocky-gaseous-gaseous-rocky planet order, with the final planet forming in a gas-depleted environment—a condition previously thought to be inhospitable for creating new worlds far from a star.

This finding provides the strongest evidence yet for "inside-out" planet formation, suggesting, according to ESA project scientist Maximilian Günther, that our understanding of planetary evolution may be fundamentally incomplete and requires significant revision.

Axiom Space announced it has secured significant new capital to advance the development of its commercial space station, a planned successor to the International Space Station, and its advanced extravehicular activity spacesuits.

The company raised $350M in a funding round co-led by Type One Ventures, which will directly support the critical design phase of its AxEMU spacesuits for NASA and the fabrication of its first station modules.

According to CEO Jonathan Cirtain, this investment keeps Axiom on schedule to meet crucial NASA deadlines, positioning the company to lead the emerging commercial low-Earth orbit economy after the ISS is decommissioned.