The Space Development Agency’s transition to the U.S. Space Force should not add additional bureaucracy because the agency is already going as fast as companies can move to bring new systems to space and unnecessary oversight would slow down that process, the SDA’s leader said.

Muon’s small satellites will focus on dense, scientific-grade measurements of the atmosphere, ocean, and land processes.

NASA has reassigned astronauts that were to have flown on the first crewed flight test and first planned operational flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) as the company continues to work through a propellant valve issue that delayed a second attempt at an uncrewed test flight.

The upgrades should help prevent issues encountered during previous flights, including a debris strike that damaged a drogue parachute used during the descent of the Crew-1 mission in May.

The United Arab Emirates plans to follow its ongoing Mars mission with a second spacecraft, slated to launch in 2028, to explore seven asteroids in the main asteroid belt, culminating with a landing attempt in 2033.

Russia’s Soyuz MS-19 sprinted from launch to docking with the International Space Station early Oct. 5, delivering film actress Yulia Peresild, producer Klim Shipenko and veteran cosmonaut commander Anton Shkaplerov in the latest of a rapid-fire sequence of missions exposing nonprofessionals to the opportunities and challenges of human spaceflight.

The stratospheric balloon operator is jumping into the space tourism industry, announcing Oct. 4 it is accepting $500 deposits for its “edge-of-space” trips to an altitude of 100,000 ft.

Command of the seven-person International Space Station transitioned on Oct. 4 from Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.