Top Stories of the Week From SpaceNews
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03/21/2025 | Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, Crew-9 comes home, ESA is pushing to make Europe more autonomous, Starliner may get another go, and more. | Our Top Story | | |
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| |  | By Jeff Foust, March 18, 2025
| A Crew Dragon spacecraft returned four people from the International Space Station March 18, including two NASA astronauts whose extended stay became entangled in sensationalism and political controversy.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom undocked from the station at 1:05 a.m. Eastern on the final leg of the Crew-9 mission. The spacecraft splashed down off the Florida coast near Tallahassee at 5:57 p.m. Eastern.
The spacecraft returned with NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander of Crew-9, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the mission's pilot. The two launched to the station on the spacecraft in September. Also on board were NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. The two arrived on the station in June on the Crew Flight Test mission of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, originally for a stay intended to be as short as eight days. Read More |  | Other News From the Week | COMMERCIAL | Chinese company targets crewed orbital spaceflight Zhang Xiaomin, chairman of Beijing Ziwei Yutong Technology Co., Ltd., also known as AZSpace, told Chinese media that, "we plan to officially conduct orbital manned flight tests in 2027 or 2028." So far, China's human spaceflight missions have been carried out solely by China's human spaceflight agency, CMSA, using Long March 2F rockets and Shenzhou spacecraft, but this may now change in the coming years. Read More
NASA examining options for another Starliner test flight At a briefing after the return of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to complete the Crew-9 mission March 18, Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said the agency expected another Starliner test flight, with or without people on board, before beginning crew rotation missions with the vehicle. Read More
Europe funds inflatable satellite drag sail demonstration A group of European companies has secured government funds to test an inflatable drag sail in space by 2028, designed to swiftly deorbit its host satellite after mission completion. Two-year-old Portuguese startup Spaceo is leading the consortium, which announced a 3 million euro ($3.3 million) contract from the European Space Agency March 18 for the demonstration in low Earth orbit. Read More | | | Loving SpaceNews This Week? Check out SpaceNext: AI, where we look at how artificial intelligence is becoming integral to the space industry, and how companies and agencies are using it for their missions. | | | MILITARY | U.S. restores satellite imagery support to Ukraine amid ceasefire tensions
The Trump administration has reinstated U.S. satellite imagery support for Ukraine, reversing a suspension imposed less than two weeks ago amid growing diplomatic tensions between Washington and Kyiv over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia. Read More
Space National Guard debate reignited with bipartisan legislation
A bipartisan push to establish a Space National Guard has resurfaced on Capitol Hill, challenging a compromise reached just months ago on how to structure the reserve component of America's newest military branch. The effort comes just months after Congress approved the Space Force Personnel Management Act, which eliminated the traditional distinction between active duty, Reserve, and Guard units. Read More | | | POLICY & POLITICS | ESA releases strategy document that emphasizes autonomy
The European Space Agency has released a strategy for its next 15 years that includes a greater emphasis on autonomy amid broader geopolitical changes. ESA released March 20 its Strategy 2040, a document that outlines the major goals and objectives for ESA for the next 15 years, "ensuring that space serves Europe in the most impactful and strategic way possible," as the document states. The ESA Council formally adopted the strategy at a meeting that concluded the same day. Read More
NASA gets extension to submit layoff plans
NASA has received an extension to a White House directive to develop a plan for cutting the agency's workforce, saying its current workforce has been too busy. In a statement to reporters late March 14, NASA said the administration granted the agency a one-week extension on a plan to reorganize and reduce the agency's workforce, citing several ongoing missions. Read More | | |
|  | OPINION |
|  | By Bhavya Lal, March 17, 2025
| The Apollo program, while a monumental achievement, was ultimately a demonstration of Cold War prowess โ a geopolitical triumph rather than a long-term exploration strategy. Its singular focus on beating the Soviet Union to the moon concealed critical flaws that would take decades to become fully apparent. Apollo's goal was clear: land Americans on the Moon before the Soviets. It was never designed to sustain exploration beyond that. And once that objective was achieved in 1969 and followed by a handful of repeat missions, political support evaporated, leaving neither a lasting rationale nor infrastructure for ongoing exploration. The missions succeeded in planting a flag but left little in the way of enduring capabilities โ a missed opportunity to create a springboard for future exploration. Read More
America's space strategy in a changing Middle East
By John B. Sheldon
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