Concerns about the budget and plans for NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) program came to a head last week when JPL laid off more than 500 employees, citing budget uncertainty about the program. Jeff Foust reports on the issues that have put the future of MSR into question for some.
A precursor to GPS was the Transit series of navigation satellites, dating back more than 60 years. Dwayne Day discusses some of the early Transit satellites that used nuclear rather than solar power.
The first lunar lander by Intuitive Machines is scheduled to launch this week, carrying NASA and commercial payloads. Jack Burns describes one of the NASA instruments on the IM-1 lander and the value of commercial access to the lunar surface.
The Space Shuttle was the biggest effort to develop a spaceplane that sough to make spaceflight as routine as aviation. Jeff Foust reviews a new history of the shuttle program that puts the vehicle into that broader context.