Space News from SpaceDaily.com
February 17, 2026
ROCKET SCIENCE
China retrieves Long March 10 booster from South China Sea after test flight



Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
China has carried out its first maritime recovery of a rocket first-stage booster, retrieving the main stage of a Long March 10 heavy-lift carrier rocket from the South China Sea following a key test flight earlier this week. The China Manned Space Agency reported that the booster was recovered on Friday morning from a designated splashdown zone, marking the first time China has recovered major rocket components from the ocean. A crane lifted the stage from the water and placed it on a recovery ve ... read more

Previous Issues Feb 16 Feb 13 Feb 12 Feb 11 Feb 10
SPACE TRAVEL
International crew arrives at space station
Washington, United States (AFP) Feb 14, 2026
Four astronauts docked at the International Space Station on Saturday for a months-long research mission, replacing a crew forced to return to Earth early over a medical issue. ... more
MARSDAILY
Mars relay orbiter seen as backbone for future exploration
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 17, 2026
NASA has set clear goals at Mars: search for evidence of ancient life, understand the planet's climate and geology, and prepare for human exploration. Those objectives depend on a robust link betwee ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
Vietnam licenses Musk's satellite internet firm Starlink
Hanoi, Vietnam (AFP) Feb 15, 2026
Vietnam has granted a licence to Elon Musk's Starlink to operate its satellite internet services in the communist country, a government agency said. ... more
ROBO SPACE
Assistive home robot learns coordinated dual arm tasks by watching people
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have developed a new way for an assistive robot to learn how to move its arms autonomously by combining observational learning with communicati ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
Smart Dragon 3 rocket sends seven satellites to orbit from sea platform
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
China has launched a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket from a sea based platform off the coast of Yangjiang in Guangdong province, placing seven satellites into orbit on Thursday afternoon. Liftof ... more
MICROSAT BLITZ
Mexican Gxiba-1 CubeSat Starts Mission After Kibo Deployment
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
On February 3, 2026, the Mexican CubeSat Gxiba-1 was deployed from the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo on the International Space Station, beginning its on orbit mission. The small satellite was rel ... more
TECH SPACE
SatService to supply Q V band satcom ground station for Bundeswehr university
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 17, 2026
SatService GmbH, a Germany based provider of advanced satellite ground systems and a subsidiary of Calian Group Ltd, has secured a contract from the Federal Ministry of Defence of Germany to deliver ... more
TECH SPACE
Valen array advances multi-mission sensing tech
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 17, 2026
Northrop Grumman has introduced Valen, a new multifunction active electronically scanned array that the company describes as a generational leap in sensing technology for U.S. and allied forces. The ... more

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SINO.WIRE
TECH.WIRE
SPACE TRAVEL
Sophie Adenot, the second French woman to fly to space
Paris, France (AFP) Feb 13, 2026
When she was growing up, Sophie Adenot plastered her childhood bedroom with posters of rockets launching from Cape Canaveral. ... more
CLIMATE SCIENCE
Course correction needed quickly to avoid pathway to 'hothouse Earth' scenario, scientists say
Corvallis OR (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Scientists say multiple Earth system components appear closer to destabilization than previously believed, putting the planet in increased danger of following a 'hothouse path driven by feedback lo ... more
STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Photonic neurons push ultra-fast trading beyond electronic limits
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
In high frequency stock trading, the fastest systems typically capture the greatest advantage, putting a premium on shaving every possible fraction of a second from end to end latency. For years, th ... more
EARTH OBSERVATION
Satellite study revises methane loss high in Earth atmosphere
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 10, 2026
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat efficiently in Earth atmosphere, and scientists estimate that it accounts for about 30 percent of modern global warming despite being less abunda ... more
ENVIROMENT.WIRE
DISASTER.WIRE
NUKE.WIRE
EARTH OBSERVATION
When Earth's magnetic field took its time flipping
Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Feb 10, 2026
Earth's magnetic field is generated by the churn of its liquid nickel-iron outer core, but it is not a constant feature. Every so often, the magnetic north and south poles swap places in what ... more
EARTH OBSERVATION
New axis grid links complex earth data in space and time
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 04, 2026
A new axis based grid model illustrates how independent spatial, temporal, and parametric axes can be combined to describe complex earth observation data sets in a single coherent framework. T ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
UK space firm Skyrora explores buying assets of struggling rival Orbex
London (AFP) Feb 12, 2026
British company Skyrora, which designs and builds rockets to carry small satellites into space, announced Thursday it could acquire 'select' assets from its stricken rival Orbex, including its spaceport in Scotland. ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
Hypersonica completes milestone hypersonic missile flight test in Norway
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 17, 2026
Hypersonica has completed its first hypersonic test flight at Andoya Space in Norway, marking what the company describes as a major step toward a European sovereign hypersonic strike capability by 2 ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
xAI sees key staff exits, Musk promises moon factories
San Francisco, United States (AFP) Feb 11, 2026
Half of the original founding team at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has now departed after two co-founders resigned in rapid succession this week, raising fresh questions about talent retention ahead of an expected initial public offering. ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
NASA teams set for second Artemis II wet dress rehearsal
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 17, 2026
NASA is preparing for the second wet dress rehearsal of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft ahead of the Artemis II test flight, targeting Thursday, Feb. 19, as the day to load prope ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
Europe's most powerful rocket carries 32 satellites for Amazon Leo network into space
Kourou (AFP) Feb 12, 2026
The most powerful version of Europe's Ariane 6 rocket Thursday carried 32 satellites into space for the Amazon Leo network, which aims to rival Elon Musk's Starlink. ... more
SPACE TRAVEL
Texas AM partners with Aegis to orbit TAMU SPIRIT research hub on ISS
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 17, 2026
Texas A and M University has developed TAMU SPIRIT, a dedicated orbital research platform that will be deployed on the International Space Station in partnership with Aegis Aerospace. The platform w ... more
MOON DAILY
Chang'e-6 farside samples reshape lunar impact history
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the CAS Aerospace Information Research Institute, and collaborating institutions have used samples f ... more
IRON AND ICE
ESA signs Ramses spacecraft and cubesat deals for Apophis flyby
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
On 10 February 2026 the European Space Agency signed a contract with OHB Italia to develop the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, known as Ramses, securing the next phase of Europes dedicated m ... more
MARSDAILY
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4798-4803: Back for More Science
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 17, 2026
The results from our first visit to the 'Nevado Sajama' drill location were intriguing enough to motivate our return to do a deeper dive into the minerals and compounds locked in this rock with SAM ... more
EXO WORLDS
Hydrogen sulfide detected in distant gas giant exoplanets for the first time
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Hydrogen sulfide is what makes rotten eggs stink. But the discovery of this gas in the atmospheres of four distant, Jupiter-like planets is turning heads for a pleasant reason: It solves the mystery ... more
TIME AND SPACE
Muon study clarifies superconducting behavior in strontium ruthenate
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 10, 2026
Quantum materials and superconductors are inherently complex, and unconventional superconductors pose an even greater challenge because they fall outside standard theoretical descriptions. One promi ... more
TIME AND SPACE
Einstein probe catch may show black hole shredding white dwarf
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
An unusual high energy outburst captured by the China led Einstein Probe space telescope is offering a rare look at how an intermediate mass black hole may tear apart and consume a white dwarf star. ... more
EXO WORLDS
Cheops spots inside out exoplanet quartet
Paris, France (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
Many students learn memory tricks to remember the order of the Solar System's planets, with rocky worlds close to the Sun and gas giants farther out. Astronomers have now found a nearby planet ... more
TIME AND SPACE
Experiments settle debate over how Molybdenum 93 isomer releases stored energy
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
A team at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and collaborators has identified the dominant mechanism that releases energy stored in the nuclear isomer Molybdenum 93m. ... more
TIME AND SPACE
Infrared archive reveals quiet birth of new black hole in Andromeda
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
Astronomers have used nearly two decades of infrared and optical observations to watch a massive star in the Andromeda galaxy quietly collapse into a black hole instead of ending its life with a bri ... more
STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Swift observatory changes operations ahead of planned orbit reboost
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
NASA has adjusted operations of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to reduce atmospheric drag and prepare the spacecraft for a planned orbit-raising mission. On Feb. 11 the mission team temporarily ... more
TECH SPACE
JUNO VR system brings detector events into immersive 3D space
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Researchers working on the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment have developed a Unity-based virtual reality system that immersively visualizes detector geometry and event inf ... more
TECH SPACE
AI prosthetic arm speed shapes sense of body ownership in VR
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 16, 2026
When prosthetic limbs move on their own, they promise powerful assistance but can also feel alien to the person using them. Researchers at Toyohashi University of Technology have now shown that the ... more
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