Human Spaceflight

NASA launched the Artemis II mission on April 1, 2026 at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a ~10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon. The SLS core stage and Orion spacecraft performed nominally, with solar array deployment confirmed shortly after separation. On April 2, the crew completed a 5-minute, 55-second translunar injection burn that set Orion on course to reach a maximum distance of approximately 252,021 miles from Earth — surpassing the Apollo 13 record. The mission is a crewed test flight, not a lunar landing, and is intended to validate Orion life support, navigation, and deep-space systems ahead of Artemis IV.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 launched on February 13, 2026 at 5:15 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral SLC-40, aboard Dragon "Freedom" on a Falcon 9. Commander Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway (NASA), mission specialists Sophie Adenot (ESA — Epsilon mission, first 2022 ESA career astronaut to fly) and Andrey Fedyaev (Roscosmos) docked at ISS on February 14 at 3:15 p.m. EST in a Valentine's Day arrival. The mission restored ISS to a standard seven-person crew following the early medical evacuation of Crew-11 in January. Crew-12 will conduct eight months of science including pneumonia bacteria cardiovascular research, on-demand IV fluid generation for future space missions, and plant health monitoring.

Axiom Space announced $350M in mixed equity and debt financing on February 12, 2026, co-led by Type One Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Participants include 1789 Capital (associated with Donald Trump Jr.), Hungarian telecom 4iG (which separately committed $100M after flying a Hungarian astronaut on Ax-4), LuminArx Capital Management, and founder Kam Ghaffarian. JP Morgan served as sole placement agent. Funds go toward Axiom Station Module 1 (Payload Power Thermal Module, launching 2028 to ISS) and Module 2 (habitation module), plus the AxEMU spacesuit NASA contract (delivery targeted 2027 for Artemis III). CEO Jonathan Cirtain (assumed October 2025) confirmed both programs are on schedule. Company's last round was August 2023 ($350M, co-led by Aljazira Capital).

On February 11, 2026, China successfully conducted a combined maximum dynamic pressure abort test of the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft and the first powered flight of the Long March 10A rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan. The Mengzhou capsule abort system executed clean separation from the LM-10 first stage at ~11km altitude at maximum dynamic pressure. Four historic firsts: first ignition of LM-10 in prototype configuration; first maximum dynamic pressure abort test of a Chinese crewed spacecraft; first maritime splashdown of both a Chinese crewed capsule and rocket first stage; first use of the new Wenchang lunar mission launch pad. The LM-10 first stage recovered at sea after a controlled splashdown — demonstrating first-stage reuse capabilities. Recovery crews retrieved the capsule 80 minutes after liftoff.