New Space EconomyBusiness, Technology, and Trends

The landscape of human activity in space is undergoing a fundamental shift as the era of government-run orbital laboratories nears its conclusion. For decades, the International Space Station has served as the primary hub for microgravity research and international cooperation. However, with the facility's retirement scheduled for the end of this decade, a new group of commercial entities has emerged to build and operate the next generation of orbital outposts. As of February 2026, several key players are actively competing to provide the infrastructure necessary to maintain a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit.

Moon dust is not like household dust, beach sand, or desert grit. It is a component of the lunar regolith , the loose surface layer created by billions of years of micrometeoroid impacts, larger collisions, and continuous surface gardening. In everyday conversation, “dust” usually refers to the finest portion of regolith, but lunar exploration discussions often use the term broadly to include fine powders and small grains that behave like dust once disturbed.

Global Navigation Satellite System outages matter because satellite navigation is no longer only about maps and turn-by-turn directions. GNSS is also a timing utility. Many networks and industrial systems use GNSS as a common time reference to keep distributed equipment synchronized.

Space station life is built around constraints that are easy to grasp. There is limited space, limited privacy, limited resupply, and an ever-present requirement to maintain air, water, temperature control, and power. Those constraints produce narratives that resemble expedition literature, maritime accounts, and polar exploration stories, but with modern technology and a contemporary international workforce.

The Artemis program represents humanity's return to deep space, a domain where the margin for error is nonexistent. Unlike operations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where a return to Earth is mere hours away, a crew stranded in lunar orbit faces a multi-day journey home. The Orion spacecraft is a robust machine, but redundancy is the cornerstone of aerospace safety. If Orion were to suffer a catastrophic service module failure or a pressure vessel breach while in Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), the crew's survival would depend on a rescue capability that currently does not exist in a standby state.

The International Space Station is a permanently crewed laboratory where people live and work for months at a time. Even with careful medical screening and extensive preparation, ordinary health issues still happen. Headaches, congestion, skin irritation, minor injuries, sleep disruption, nausea, and allergic reactions remain possible during any mission.

The transition from the gravitational pull of Earth to the weightlessness of low Earth orbit represents one of the most significant physiological hurdles for human explorers. While popular culture often depicts space travel as a seamless experience of floating, the reality for many is a period of physical distress known as space adaptation syndrome. This condition, often compared to terrestrial motion sickness, involves a complex set of biological reactions as the human body attempts to make sense of an environment where "up" and "down" no longer exist. Understanding how the body navigates this shift is a primary focus for organizations like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency .

In early February 2026, Elon Musk discussed a concept described as building a large “catapult” on the Moon as part of a broader vision that links lunar industrial activity with space-based computing infrastructure. The account of this remark tied the “catapult” to a plan involving a lunar factory that produces satellites and then launches them into space using a non-rocket launch system. The framing presented the Moon as a place where manufacturing could happen closer to the operating environment of satellites, followed by rapid deployment to orbit or cislunar space.

The Moon is often perceived as a geologically dead world, a grey desolate landscape frozen in time. Yet, upon closer inspection, the lunar surface reveals features that defy simple explanations. Among the most perplexing of these are lunar swirls, sinuous markings of high albedo that loop across the regolith like bright paint spilled on a dark canvas. The most famous and prominent of these is Reiner Gamma , located on the visible side of the Moon in the immense lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum . Unlike craters or mountains, Reiner Gamma casts no shadows. It is a flat feature, a ghost upon the surface, yet it possesses a magnetic intensity that hints at a complex history involving comets, asteroid impacts, or ancient dynamos.

Space tourism has shifted from speculative concept to operational business. As of February 2026, private citizens have crossed the boundary of space on vehicles built and operated by commercial companies. Blue Origin has flown 98 passengers across 17 crewed missions of its New Shepard vehicle. Virgin Galactic completed 12 flights aboard its now-retired VSS Unity spaceplane before pausing operations to develop its next-generation Delta-class vehicle. SpaceX has enabled multiple private orbital missions, including Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn, as well as four Axiom Space missions to the International Space Station.

The results come from the Perseverance rover’s investigation of an ancient crater lake.

Public expectations about Unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) rarely form in a vacuum. They build over time through repeated exposure to familiar images and story structures that appear in film, television, gaming, internet culture, and news-like entertainment. Those patterns influence what people think a UAP should look like, how it should move, and how institutions should react when something unknown appears.

The vacuum of space has provided a canvas for video game developers since the earliest days of the medium. From the pixelated asteroids of the 1970s to the photorealistic nebulas of the current generation, space-themed games captivate audiences by offering experiences that are physically impossible in daily life. Players can command starships, colonize alien worlds, or fight for survival against extraterrestrial threats. The console market, dominated by giants like Sony Interactive Entertainment and Microsoft Gaming, has seen a surge in high-fidelity space titles that push hardware to its limits.

The global aerospace community turned its gaze toward the Wenchang Space Launch Site this week as the China National Space Administration executed a complex, multi-faceted flight test that marks a significant leap in its lunar exploration ambitions. The event, which took place at the coastal spaceport in Hainan, involved the simultaneous evaluation of the next-generation crew spacecraft, now officially designated Mengzhou, and a reusable booster prototype designed for the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket. This integrated test flight demonstrates a rapid maturation of technologies required for China's planned manned lunar landing before the end of the decade.

The landscape of human activity in low Earth orbit is undergoing a significant shift as private industry takes a leading role in maintaining a presence above the atmosphere. Axiom Space is at the center of this transition, operating as a commercial provider of spaceflight services and an infrastructure developer. Since its founding, the company has worked to bridge the gap between government-led exploration and a commercial economy in space. This effort involves regular crewed missions to the International Space Station and the construction of the first commercial orbital outpost.