Record numbers of U.S. men and women — just more than 18,300 — would like to pursue careers as NASA astronauts, according to a tally of applicants who made the Feb. 18 deadline to seek perhaps eight to 14 openings early next year.

SpaceX is ready to launch the SES-9 commercial communications satellite for Luxembourg fleet operator SES on Feb. 24. But the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company will not attempt a land-based recovery of the Falcon 9 core stage, owing to performance requirements needed to get the 5,330-kg spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit in the first quarter of this year.

NASA’s evolving, two-phase Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has an added potential to enhance a range of U.S. human exploration, planetary science and commercial space objectives through the possible addition of investigations, an agency-sponsored assessment says.

In the Air Force’s 2016 budget request, officials sought to focus on how to use space in the face of military threats and on developing the ability to deter and defeat potential attacks. That emphasis translated into funding for programs such as Space Fence and the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System. Since threats have continued to evolve, the Air Force is working with the intelligence community to make space systems more resilient in its fiscal 2017 request, says Winston Beauchamp, the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for Space.

Cargo deliveries to the International Space Station with the SpaceX Dragon capsule will have the highest price of the three private vehicles chosen for the second round of Commercial Resupply Services work, but NASA has high confidence of its chances for success.

The burgeoning space economy needs government regulation before it spins out of control, a young conservative House Republican congressman urged space-industry representatives Feb. 2.

NASA is using excess capability on the big new Space Launch System rocket to demonstrate nanosats beyond low Earth orbit for the first time.

Two small satellites developed by engineering students from in-state rivals Texas A&M and the University of Texas were deployed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 29.