Nearly $30 billion has been spent on the Orion program.

The US lunar landing program has been a goal for at least eight years.

Full-scale testing of Orion’s heat shield on Earth is not possible.

A recent aviation incident in Virginia involved a captain continuing an approach that was fast and high, touching down about midfield after two go-around calls by the copilot, and a specialized deformable concrete surface prevented the airplane from leaving the runway.

NASA’s mitigation strategy for the Orion heat shield anomaly is to avoid the conditions believed to cause the anomaly rather than implement an immediate full redesign.

A redesign of the Orion heat shield is being developed for the next Orion vehicle.

Long landings are a persistent and widespread issue and can result from pilot choice to minimize time to the gate as well as from lack of skill in dynamic meteorological conditions.

Voyager Technologies will join the payload integration team for Axiom Mission 5 as part of Axiom Space’s contract with NASA.

NASA published an article on January 28, 2026 explaining that Artemis II will need to transmit crew voice, images, video, and health data reliably across distances of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

Axiom Mission 5 (Ax-5) is scheduled to launch from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida in January 2027 or later, with the crew planned to remain on the International Space Station for up to 14 days to conduct research activities.

Helios offers beta participation registration at https://www.helios-rs.com/helios-beta-lp.

The Tenchijin Water Pipe Freeze Warning Map visualizes water-pipe freeze risk at a 250-meter mesh using satellite-derived land surface temperature data and displays freeze risk in three levels based on the number of days below −4°C.

SKY Perfect JSAT’s ground station in Japan is selected as a facility to receive signals from the Orion spacecraft during Artemis II.

Helios scheduled Beta Phase 1 through April 2026 to optimize UI/UX and strengthen data search and viewing functions and scheduled Phase 2 from May 2026 to test advanced multimodal analysis and LLM-agent automation.

NASA’s Artemis communications plan uses the Near Space Network (NSN) to provide communications and navigation services in the mission’s early phase and transfers primary communications to the Deep Space Network (DSN) after Orion enters the translunar trajectory.

Tenchijin (Kabushiki Kaisha Tenchijin) of Chūō-ku, Tokyo, led by Yasuto Sakuraba, began providing a 'Water Pipe Freeze Warning Map' to municipalities on January 30, 2026.

Axiom Space (CEO Jonathan Cirtain) signed a purchase order with NASA for the agency’s fifth commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station on January 30, 2026.

Helios (Kabushiki Kaisha Helios) of Sumida-ku, Tokyo, led by Kyōhei Yashima and Kenichi Sasaki, began offering a beta version of the geospatial analysis platform Helios Platform on February 2, 2026.

NASA’s Deep Space Network operates large antenna complexes in California (USA), Spain, and Australia to enable near-continuous communications with spacecraft flying near the Moon.

Helios Platform combines a Large Earth Model (LEM) concept with large language models (LLMs) to enable chat-style analysis of satellite data and GIS data without specialist knowledge.

Helios Platform integrates optical satellite, SAR, drone, meteorological, and ground data and presents analysis results instantly on maps in response to natural-language user queries.

Tenchijin’s Water Pipe Freeze Warning Map enables water utilities and municipalities to communicate regional freeze risk to residents and encourage individual preventive measures to help prevent freeze-related water leaks.

The Japanese Waterworks Association reported that during the 2018 cold-wave damage period, about 22,000 water-supply pipe break incidents occurred and about 90% of those occurred at locations without frost protection measures.

The NASA contract award represents Axiom Space’s fifth consecutive commercial astronaut mission contract.

Italy has been active in the space sector since the 1960s.

Italian space law combines international space treaties, commercial and corporate law, air navigation law, and insurance law.

The Salerno Formazione Business School Master in Space Economics and Law is organized into eight modules of sixteen lessons each.

Salerno Formazione Business School provides further information at www.salernoformazione.com.

Expansion of space-industry markets, sustainable use of space resources, and related applications for mapping, weather forecasting, and telecommunications constitute a strategic challenge for Italy.

Salerno Formazione Business School was founded in 2007 and describes itself as a leader in the sector.

The Salerno Formazione Business School Master in Space Economics and Law will accept a maximum of 16 students and will begin next spring.

Italian Law 13 June 2025, n. 89 is the first Italian legislation specifically regulating the space sector.

Space tourism and material and immaterial space infrastructures have changed the human relationship with space.

The Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) was established in 1988.

The New Space Economy is a sector of production tied to the exploitation of extraterrestrial resources.

Salerno Formazione Business School has added a second-level Master in Space Economics and Law to its educational offerings.

Italy participates in activities of the International Space Station.

Satellites are being used for geopolitical purposes.

The Basic Space Law centralized Japan’s space policymaking by assigning responsibility to the Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy.

Before the Basic Space Law, Japan’s science and technology bureau controlled the space agencies.

The Space Security Initiative defines Japan’s three approaches to outer space as security from space, security in space, and furthering the space industrial base to create a virtuous cycle of security.

China conducted an antisatellite test in 2007.

Japan’s recalibration of its strategic posture toward outer space preserves normative commitments while fulfilling national security imperatives.

Safia Mansoor served as a Research Associate at the Maritime Centre of Excellence in Pakistan.

Japan is developing X-band communication satellites to strengthen its communications and command-and-control capabilities.

Japan has issued five Basic Plans on Space Policy: two in 2013, a third in 2015, a fourth in 2020, and a fifth in 2023.

The fifth Basic Plan on Space Policy issued in 2023 focuses on space security, economic dividends of the space sector, international cooperation, and harnessing space for disaster prevention.

Article 24(2) of the 2008 Basic Space Law underlies the formulation of the Basic Plan on Space Policy.

Safia Mansoor completed an MPhil in International Relations with a gold medal from Kinnaird College for Women.

Japan operates reconnaissance satellites that provide radar and optical imagery.