Rocket Lab announced an $8 billion agreement to acquire Iridium on June 29, 2026.

Pegasus flew 46 times in 36 years.

The U.S. Space Force completed the VICTUS HAZE mission on July 1, 2026.

True Anomaly’s JACKAL-0004 spacecraft located, approached, and imaged the non-cooperative Puma target in 61 hours.

Rocket Lab received the alert for the Puma launch less than 17 hours before launch, or 16 hours and 42 minutes before launch.

Rocket Lab has used the New Zealand pad for Electron more than 60 times.

Pegasus delivered the GALEX, NuSTAR, IRIS, CYGNSS, ICON, and IXPE missions.

True Anomaly’s JACKAL-0004 spacecraft located, approached, and imaged the non-cooperative target in 61 hours.

VICTUS SOL will launch from a pad.

NASA and DARPA partnered on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations project in early 2023.

SNAP-8 was intended to power a human space station in low Earth orbit.

The Dragonfly spacecraft planned for Titan will use an MMRTG.

BWXT provided the nuclear reactor and high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for DRACO.

SNAP-50/SPUR was designed to produce 300 kilowatts to 1 megawatt of electric power.

The Air Force launched the SNAP-19C RTG on top of a mountain in the Himalayas to power a signals intelligence collection device for spying on China.

NERVA used a hot-bleed cycle that diverted hydrogen gas from the thrust nozzle to drive the turbopump turbine.

The Atomic Energy Commission began the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power program in the late 1950s to develop fission reactors and radioisotope generators for terrestrial and space use.

NERVA did not result in a flight-ready or near-flight-ready design.

Project Rover built nuclear reactors at the Los Alamos Laboratory’s Pajarito Site and tested them at the Nevada Test Site.

Project Rover’s first phase, Kiwi, involved building and testing eight reactors between 1959 and 1964.

The acting NASA administrator ordered NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate to release a request for proposals for a nuclear reactor system in July 2025.

SNAP-50/SPUR was envisioned for launch on a Saturn IB and for planetary missions including Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn orbiters, and a solar probe.

NASA’s 2025 nuclear reactor program seeks a reactor producing at least 100 kilowatts of electric power and weighing up to 15 tons.

NASA indicated by early 2026 that it planned both a Space Reactor-1 for in-space use and a Lunar Reactor-1 for lunar use.

NASA’s 2025 nuclear reactor program aims to have the reactor ready for flight by the end of 2029.

SNAP-10A operated for 43 days and produced 500 watts of power before a voltage regulator failure shut it down.

The Air Force launched the SNAP-10A reactor into orbit in 1965.

RTGs powered Viking 1 and Viking 2 with 85 watts total, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 with 165 watts total, and Cassini with three RTGs delivering 888 watts.

DARPA canceled the DRACO nuclear propulsion project in July 2025.

The JETSON contract was intended to mature high-power nuclear electric power and propulsion technologies and spacecraft design.

NASA selected three teams in June 2022 for phase 1 studies of fission surface power systems for the Artemis lunar exploration campaign.

The 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty effectively ended the Project Orion nuclear pulse drive program.

RTGs powered the Apollo lunar surface experiment packages on Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17.

NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission jointly ran the Rover and NERVA nuclear propulsion programs in the 1960s.

L3Harris Technologies finalized the design of the Next-Generation Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for future NASA deep space missions.

NASA’s Space Reactor-1 was announced to have a 20-kilowatt-electric output.

NASA’s Space Reactor-1 is part of the Skyfall mission to send small helicopters to Mars by 2028.

Lockheed Martin received an Air Force Research Laboratory contract in November 2023 for the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-Orbit Nuclear project.

The NASA phase 1 teams were tasked with designing a 40-kilowatt reactor weighing no more than six metric tons and capable of operating for 10 years.

DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract in July 2023 to develop and demonstrate a nuclear-powered spacecraft.

SNAP-8 included the construction of several test reactors at a NASA facility in Ohio.

The NASA phase 1 teams were led by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, and IX, a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy.

Chang’e 7 is expected to be on the launch pad in the second half of August if no major issues arise.

The upcoming launch will be the Long March 5’s third lunar-bound mission, the vehicle’s twelfth flight, and the nineteenth mission in the Long March 5 series.

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology produces the Long March 5’s first and second stages.

The Long March 5 and the Chang’e 7 spacecraft will undergo final assembly and testing at the Wenchang Space Launch Site.

Joint testing of the Long March 5 and Chang’e 7 is expected to take a few weeks before rollout to Launch Complex 101.

The Long March 5 will use a 5.2-meter-diameter fairing to encapsulate the complete Chang’e 7 spacecraft.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology manufactures the Long March 5’s four boosters.

Starting this year, the China Manned Space Agency manages Chang’e missions and their supporting satellites to improve spacecraft resource usage in support of sending taikonauts to the Moon this decade.