NASA's EVE exoplanet mission & NASA shifts space station strategy - Space News (Jun 11, 2026)

Imagine discovering that an entire class of planets seems to be missing from our galaxy, and that a new NASA mission might finally explain where they went.[6][14] Today is June 11th, 2026, and that is just one of the stories on our radar. Welcome to The Automated Daily, space news edition. The podcast created by generative AI. I’m TrendTeller, and over the next few minutes we’ll talk about a proposed mission to solve one of exoplanet science’s biggest mysteries, a major shift in NASA’s strategy for future space stations, the official end of a long-running Mars orbiter, the early return of a crew from the International Space Station, and a fresh burst of solar activity that could bring auroras to lower latitudes.[6][44][37] Let’s get into today’s orbit of news.

NASA's EVE exoplanet mission

First up, that mystery about the missing planets. Astronomers have noticed for years that when you look at the thousands of planets we have discovered around other stars, there is a puzzling gap in sizes between about one and a half and two times the radius of Earth, a pattern known as the exoplanet “radius valley.”[6][14][26] We see plenty of rocky worlds a bit larger than Earth and many mini-Neptunes wrapped in thick gas, but far fewer in the middle than models originally predicted.[14][26] A new piece at Universe Today highlights NASA’s proposed Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, or EVE, a mission concept designed to attack this problem head-on by watching how high-energy radiation from stars can strip away the atmospheres of close-orbiting planets over time.[6] The idea is that some planets may have started out as small Neptunes but had their gaseous envelopes blasted off by intense stellar ultraviolet light, leaving behind bare rocky cores that end up looking more like super-Earths.[6][14] By precisely measuring the extreme ultraviolet output of many stars, EVE would help scientists estimate how aggressively those stars erode planetary atmospheres, and therefore how planets migrate from one category into another over billions of years.[6][26] This matters because it ties directly into which planets might retain temperate, life-friendly atmospheres and which lose them, shaping our search for habitable worlds in a very practical way.[14] With more than six thousand confirmed exoplanets already cataloged, having a mission dedicated to the radiation environment that sculpts them could finally turn the “radius valley” from a mystery into a well-understood feature of planetary evolution.[14][26][6]

NASA shifts space station strategy

From exoplanets, we pivot to low Earth orbit and the future of space stations closer to home. A new analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies digs into NASA’s recently announced Ignition strategy, which lays out how the agency wants to maintain a long-term human presence in low Earth orbit once the International Space Station is retired around 2030.[44] For several years, NASA has encouraged companies to design fully independent commercial stations that would take over many of the ISS roles, from research and technology testing to hosting private astronauts.[44] The fresh twist described in this analysis is that NASA no longer plans to rely solely on stand-alone private stations, but instead wants to build its own government-owned core module, initially attached to the ISS, and then have commercial partners dock their modules to that core.[44] Under this updated vision, the NASA module would eventually detach from the ISS with the attached commercial segments to become a new, free-flying complex in its own right, blending public and private capabilities.[44] Advocates say this reduces risk for both NASA and industry by giving companies a more stable anchor and clearer demand signal, rather than asking them to finance and operate entire stations on their own from day one.[44] It also aligns with the broader Ignition strategy, which emphasizes U.S. leadership in space, the importance of continuous human presence in orbit, and a deliberate handoff from government-built to commercially supported infrastructure.[33] For listeners, the key takeaway is that the post-ISS era will not be a sudden drop-off but a carefully managed transition, and NASA is reshaping the rules to make sure that laboratories, astronauts, and industry all have somewhere to go when the ISS reaches its end of life.[44]

MAVEN Mars orbiter declared lost

Next, we head out to Mars, where one of NASA’s veteran spacecraft has reached the end of the line. NASA has confirmed that its MAVEN orbiter, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, is no longer recoverable and has officially concluded after more than eleven years in orbit around the Red Planet.[31][31] MAVEN was launched to study how Mars’ upper atmosphere interacts with the solar wind and to understand how the planet lost much of its air and water over time, turning from a potentially warmer, wetter world into the cold, dry planet we see today.[31] According to NASA’s review, contact with MAVEN was lost last December after the spacecraft passed behind Mars and apparently went into an unexpected rotation that its attitude control system could not correct.[31] That spin left MAVEN’s solar panels poorly oriented, draining its batteries and ultimately shutting down its communications system, a situation engineers have now concluded is irreversible.[31] The loss is disappointing, but the mission had already exceeded its planned lifetime by about a decade and provided a rich data set that researchers will be analyzing for years to come.[31] MAVEN’s findings have helped show how energetic particles and solar storms strip atmospheric gases from Mars, and how that process has varied over the planet’s history, giving us a clearer timeline of when Mars could have supported liquid water at the surface.[31][31] Even in its silence, MAVEN’s legacy continues in newer missions and in planning for future Mars explorers who will rely on this atmospheric knowledge for everything from aerobraking maneuvers to protecting equipment on the ground.[31]

ISS Crew-11 returns early

Back in Earth orbit, there is news from the International Space Station about a crew coming home earlier than planned. The four astronauts of SpaceX Crew-11 recently wrapped up their mission and met with reporters after landing, but their return came about four weeks ahead of schedule because one crew member experienced a medical issue.[13][13] NASA has not identified which astronaut was affected and has shared few medical details, emphasizing privacy, but described the concern as significant enough to postpone an upcoming spacewalk and accelerate the crew’s trip home.[13] The team splashed down off the coast of California in their Crew Dragon capsule and, instead of flying straight back to Houston as is customary, spent a night at a local hospital so doctors could evaluate the entire crew while keeping the affected astronaut’s identity undisclosed.[13] At the postflight news conference, Commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fincke, and mission specialists Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov all appeared in good spirits and spoke positively about their nearly six-month stay on the station.[13] They described the usual mix of science experiments, maintenance, and life in microgravity, and NASA officials stressed that early returns of this kind are rare but are handled using well-rehearsed contingency procedures to keep everyone safe.[13][16] The agency is now adjusting the space station’s activity schedule and future flight plan to account for the crew’s earlier departure, including rescheduling the postponed spacewalk once medical teams give the all clear.[33][39] For the public, this episode is a reminder that even with routine commercial flights and smooth operations, human spaceflight still carries medical and operational risks that require flexibility and caution.[13][13]

Solar storm heading toward Earth

We close with a look at our own star, which has been particularly active again. EarthSky reports that a coronal mass ejection, or CME, launched by a solar flare in the early hours of June 11 is now headed our way, though forecasters expect only a glancing blow around June 14.[37] The eruption originated from an active region on the Sun labeled AR4465 and showed up in coronagraph images as a so-called halo event, meaning it appears to surround the Sun in spacecraft imagery, a classic sign that at least part of the material is traveling roughly in Earth’s direction.[37] This new CME follows another from a stronger flare a few days earlier, continuing a pattern of elevated activity as Solar Cycle 25 ramps up.[37][47] According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, CMEs are vast clouds of magnetized plasma that can take anywhere from under a day to several days to travel from the Sun to Earth, depending on their speed.[48] When one of these clouds brushes past our planet, it can disturb Earth’s magnetic field, sometimes triggering geomagnetic storms that enhance auroras and, in stronger cases, affect satellites, radio communications, or power grids.[48][47] Forecasters expect this particular event to be on the mild side, with the potential for some auroral displays at higher latitudes but not the kind of severe storm that would cause widespread disruptions.[37][47] Still, with the Sun clearly in an active phase, space weather experts will be watching closely, and observers in the right locations may want to keep an eye on the sky over the weekend for possible northern or southern lights.[37][47][48]

That’s it for today’s trip through the cosmos. We talked about a proposed NASA mission that could finally explain why certain kinds of planets are missing from the exoplanet catalog, a major rethink of how future space stations will be built and operated, the official closeout of the MAVEN mission at Mars, the early but carefully managed return of Crew-11 from the International Space Station, and a new coronal mass ejection on course for a near miss with Earth.[6][44][31][13][37] If you found this roundup useful, consider sharing The Automated Daily, space news edition, with someone who likes to keep one eye on the sky. I’m TrendTeller, and I’ll be back with more space updates generated just for you. Stay curious, stay informed, and have a steady orbit of a day.

NASA's EVE exoplanet mission & NASA shifts space station strategy - Space News (Jun 11, 2026)

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