Artemis II Mission Delayed & SpaceX Starlink Expansion - Space News (Feb 26, 2026)

Our top story this morning: NASA is dealing with a significant setback on the Artemis II program. Yesterday afternoon, the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft completed their journey from Launch Pad 39B back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The roughly four-mile trek took about twelve hours, with the massive crawler transporter carrying the 322-foot-tall rocket at a snail's pace. Engineers discovered a helium flow issue in the rocket's upper stage during a fueling test on February 19th. While the rocket is now safely in the hangar, this means the Artemis II mission, which was originally targeted to launch four astronauts around the moon as early as March 6th, is now pushed back to no earlier than April 1st. Teams at the Vehicle Assembly Building will spend the coming weeks installing platforms to access and repair the helium system, replacing batteries across multiple rocket stages, and servicing the flight termination system. It's a frustrating delay, but NASA officials emphasize that safety and thorough testing always come first.

Switching gears to some more positive launch news: SpaceX had a successful mission yesterday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The company launched its 500th Starlink satellite of the year during the Starlink 17-26 mission. That's right—the 500th in just two months. Twenty-five new broadband satellites were delivered to orbit, and the Falcon 9 booster successfully landed on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' in the Pacific Ocean. With this launch, SpaceX now has over 9,700 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit, and the constellation is rapidly approaching the 10,000-satellite milestone. Each launch adds more capacity to their global broadband network, bringing internet coverage to increasingly remote regions of the world.

If you're planning to step outside tonight, keep your eyes on the evening sky. Jupiter is putting on a show, and it's the best planet-watching opportunity you'll get this week. The massive gas giant is shining at magnitude negative 2.7, making it the brightest object in the night sky after the moon. And speaking of the moon—tonight it's at waxing gibbous phase, and Jupiter is positioned just six degrees directly below it. That's roughly equivalent to a half-fist's width if you hold your hand up to the sky. You don't need any special equipment to see this. Just find a spot with a clear view toward the east-southeast about an hour after sunset. If you have binoculars or a telescope handy, you can actually resolve Jupiter's four large Galilean moons and see some detail in the planet's cloud belts. Recent observations show Jupiter's Great Red Spot continues to shrink and exhibit some surprising dynamic behavior, so it's worth taking a closer look.

Also happening in the evening sky right now: Mercury and Venus are having their own close encounter. On February 26th—that's today—Mercury passes about five degrees north of Venus in the western sky shortly after sunset. Venus is much brighter and easier to spot at magnitude negative 3.9, while Mercury is dimmer at magnitude 0.8. Both planets are low on the horizon, so you'll want to look about thirty minutes after sunset, ideally from a location with a clear western view. Through a telescope, if you wait until the sun fully sets, you can compare the two planets directly. Venus shows a nearly full disk at 98 percent illuminated, while Mercury displays a crescent phase at only 17 percent illuminated. This happens because both planets are on the sun-facing side of their orbits relative to Earth. It's a nice reminder of how orbital geometry shapes what we see from our perspective here on the ground.

On the political front, there's significant activity in Congress regarding the future of American spaceflight. The Senate Commerce Committee is set to take up legislation next week that includes two major provisions. First, they're proposing to extend the life of the International Space Station from the currently planned retirement date of 2030 all the way to 2032. This gives commercial companies more time to develop replacement space stations and prevents a gap in American crewed spaceflight activities in low Earth orbit. Second, the committee is adding a requirement that NASA must build a permanent base on the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program. These proposals have bipartisan support from both the committee chair and ranking member, and they're clearly motivated by competition concerns regarding China's space ambitions. Beijing is actively developing its own Tiangong space station and has announced plans for a crewed moon landing by 2030. Meanwhile, SpaceX continues developing its Starship rocket to serve as a lunar lander under the Artemis program, with Blue Origin working on a competing design. The space race dynamics are shifting, and Congress is responding by pushing for more ambitious timelines and sustained investment in American space exploration.