An estimated 5,000 spent rocket bodies and retired multinational spacecraft that circle the Earth—some with a mass of up to several tons—are part of a growing orbital debris population that poses a lingering collision threat to national security and civil space assets.

Listen to your experts, listen to your vehicle, and expect the unexpected. That’s the advice a panel of human spaceflight veterans has for SpaceX as the company prepares for its landmark Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month, which will restore the U.S. human orbital spaceflight capability lost after the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle.

Space situational awareness startup LeoLabs has launched the first automated collision-avoidance service for satellites.

In case SpaceX needs more time to begin commercial service of its Crew Dragon transportation system to the International Space Station, NASA has bought a seat aboard the next Russian Soyuz flight, scheduled to launch in October.

A future NASA Orion crew might find its way to an aging but still productive Hubble Space Telescope to conduct upgrades and repairs, says John Grunsfeld, who journeyed to the orbital observatory as a spacewalking mechanic on three shuttle missions. 

Plans to develop a British global navigation satellite system are facing cancellation over concerns the project would be too expensive.

The FAA has authorized a 12th commercial space launch site and continues to evaluate another site that was nearing a decision by the agency late last year.

When Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splash down in the Atlantic Ocean following their SpaceX Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station, it will mark the first time NASA astronauts have landed in the ocean in nearly 45 years.