The coming year's space highlights include a NASA mission that will send astronauts around the moon and a Blue Origin lunar lander mission.

For the first time in more than half a century, humans are preparing to leave Earth’s orbit and head near the moon, with NASA’s Artemis 2 mission set to launch in 2026. Decades after the last Apollo astronauts gazed back at our celestial neighbor,

As early as next month, the United States and partnering countries will attempt to send humans to the moon for the first time in more than a

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the binary asteroid system Didymos in November 2026 to investigate the aftermath of NASA's 2022 DART impact, which successfully altered the orbit of the moonlet Dimorphos.

Xu Wang, senior researcher at the lab and a CU Boulder physics lecturer, is leading the DUSTER proposal. He said in the lab’s December statement on the funding that the project will help NASA better grasp how the dust and plasma environment works at the Lunar South Pole, where the Artemis missions will land.

The Artemis II mission, which could launch as early as February, is expected to send four astronauts on a trip to the moon, though they won't land on its surface.

At CES 2026, a small, two-wheel rover from South Korea offered a glimpse into how future lunar missions may unfold. The rover, named SCARABS, comes from the Lunar and Planetary Exploration Laboratory at UEL and focuses on compact design, hardware validation, and long-term lunar infrastructure rather than spectacle.

The Moon’s south pole has shifted from a distant curiosity to the most coveted real estate in the Solar System, and China’s Chang’e-7 mission is poised to probe its secrets in unprecedented detail. By combining a precision lander,