The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is having a “moment,” driven by a heavy lineup of high-profile milestones, public events, and accelerated lunar plans. The independent U.S. federal agency that manages the country’s civilian space program and conducts aeronautics and aerospace research is pushing forward with its “Artemis Acceleration” roadmap, which prepares for future Moon and even Mars landings.
However, the space agency is facing challenges that come with space exploration.
X-59 Quesst Reached New Milestones
Just over a year ago, NASA’s X-59 Quesst experimental supersonic jet made its maiden flight on October 28, 2025, and has since completed more than 40 test flights, including breaking the sound barrier for the first time this past June.
The testbed aircraft, which is built with a long, pencil-thin nose designed to shape shockwaves and reduce a traditional, loud sonic boom into a quiet “sonic thump,” recently flew across the country from Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), Calif., to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., where it conducted further test flights and transitioned to the next phase of testing: acoustic validation, which will focus on analyzing the sounds the X-59 makes.
“The X-59 is shaped so that when it flies at its intended quiet supersonic altitude of 55,000 feet and speed of Mach 1.4, people on the ground won’t hear a loud sonic boom – they’ll hear a thump projected to sound like a car door closing from about 20 feet away,” NASA explained.
Once acoustic validation is complete, NASA plans to fly the X-59 over selected public communities to gather human response data.
Life on Mars, Almost
It was also just over a year ago, on October 19, 2025, that four individuals entered a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, where they lived and worked to prepare for a future mission to Mars. The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) Mission 2 crew members operated as though they were on the Red Planet, where they grew crops, managed limited resources, navigated communication delays, and conducted suited extravehicular activities on a simulated Martian surface.
On Saturday, the four crew members “returned” to Earth, even though it just involved walking out of the hangar at JSC after 378 days.
The four-person team lived in a space not much larger than a three-bedroom house, but it wasn’t just the close confines they had to endure. NASA simulated the communication lag, which was up to 44 minutes during parts of the mission, and even a total two-week communications blackout, simulating the time when the Sun was between Earth and Mars.
The crew is now taking part in two weeks of post-mission evaluations and debriefs with NASA scientists, which will help inform how crews will need to adapt to the demands of daily life on long-duration missions.
NASA Calling For Industry Help
Last week, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI), calling up on the commercial space industry for proposals to “reboost” or service the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The space agency is seeking assistance from a private company to boost Hubble’s altitude to at least 600 kilometers (372 miles) by 2032 or offer a safe retirement/de-orbit solution before it crashes back to Earth in the 2030s.
Because of atmospheric drag in low-Earth orbit, Hubble’s orbit is slowly decaying, and NASA is turning to a private-sector partnership to extend the telescope’s final years or safely manage its end. Companies have until November 30, 2026, to submit their ideas and capabilities to the agency.
“Hubble still has important science ahead of it, and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible,” explained NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “If there are innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the life of an asset already in orbit, we owe it to the American taxpayer and the scientific community to explore them. Extending Hubble’s life would mean more discoveries, more science, and more opportunities to expand our understanding of the universe.”
The RFI seeks commercial interest in boosting Hubble to a higher altitude to extend its science lifetime; servicing the space telescope to enhance its capabilities; or performing a safe, controlled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere or orbital disposal at the end of Hubble’s mission.
“Hubble is a national icon that has fundamentally changed how humanity views our universe for more than 35 years,” added Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Commercial industry has rapidly evolved in recent years to offer new capabilities for in-space satellite capture and servicing. Given the time we have until Hubble’s anticipated re-entry, we are eager to explore the breadth of possibilities to boost Hubble to a higher orbit. At the same time, we develop the flagship mission to follow.”
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to Fall to Earth
However, even as efforts to save Hubble continue, the 3,200-pound Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the coming days, following a failed commercial rescue attempt earlier this year.
NASA had awarded a $30 million contract to Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies, which launched the LINK robotic spacecraft on July 3, 2026, to grapple and re-boost Swift. However, LINK suffered severe post-launch electronics malfunctions, reaction wheel failures, and an uncontrollable spin, forcing NASA to call off the rescue in August 2026. LINK managed an unassisted close approach that came within nine miles of the observatory in September, but it ran out of propellant and reentered Earth’s atmosphere on September 25, 2026.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was launched in November 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful and energetic explosions in the universe. It concluded operations last month, and although it will soon fall to Earth, it vastly exceeded its original two-year mission by more than two decades.
