NASA is prepared to invest up to $200 million to work with commercial partners focused on advancing technologies for the Moon and near Earth space.

Russia’s Progress MS-19 resupply capsule was on course for a Feb. 17 automated docking with the International Space Station following launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying almost 3 tons of food, water, propellant and other supplies.

After a year’s hiatus, the Indian Space Research Organization returned its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle into service, sending an Earth-observation satellite and two small satellite rideshares into low Earth orbit.

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur who financed and commanded Inspiration4, SpaceX’s first private charter, plans a new venture with SpaceX for up to three more missions, culminating with the first crewed flight of the company’s Starship transport. 

All 18 segments of the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) large primary mirror have gathered their first photons from a target star, a major milestone in the months-long process of aligning the light-gathering elements of the space observatory to begin its mission of studying the first stars and galaxies.

Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expect that a data repository of satellites will be operational by 2024, providing U.S. government agencies and commercial space companies with a resource to prevent potential collisions as the number of spacecraft in orbit grows exponentially.

NASA has selected a pair of heliophysics missions for development that are intended to provide a better understanding of solar dynamics, the Sun/Earth connection and the changing space environment.

An inflight anomaly prevented an Astra Space rocket from delivering four small research satellites to orbit, according to NASA.