Three NASA astronauts and one from the European Space Agency are the crew of the next Artemis mission, Artemis III. Instead of flying around the Moon like their predecessors, this crew will travel only as far as low Earth orbit. Their assignment is conducting critical rendezvous and docking tests with pathfinder versions of the Human Landing Systems being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin to take astronauts down to and back from the lunar surface in 2028. The companies say they’ll be ready for these tests, which NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said could happen as soon as this time next year.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of June 7-13, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

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Five of the seven crew members aboard the International Space Station temporarily sheltered in the Crew Dragon spacecraft today while two cosmonauts prepared to make extensive repairs to air leaks in one portion of the Russian segment. Ultimately Roscosmos decided to postpone the repairs and use sealant as they have in the past and the crew returned to regular duties. The leaks have been a problem for several years, but recently were thought to be under control. Late this afternoon NASA provided more information about today’s developments.

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NASA is moving up the launch date for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.  In April, the agency said it would lift off in early September, but NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has been hinting ever since that it might be in August. Today, it’s official — Roman is scheduled to launch on August 30.

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NASA is backing off its March announcement proposing a significant change to ensuring that at least one commercial space station is ready to replace the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of the decade. Facing backlash from the companies already building Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destinations, or CLDs, the agency agreed today to stick with the existing plan.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 31-June 6, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate and House are in session this week.

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The repercussions of last night’s explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket during a pre-launch test will take some time to assess. Among the key questions are not only what happened, but how badly the launch pad was damaged, which will determine how quickly launches can resume, and whether other hardware at the nearby Horizontal Integration Facility was damaged. All of the company’s customers will be impacted, but especially NASA’s Moon program.

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China’s three-man Shenzhou-21 (SZ-21) crew returned to Earth today after 210 days aboard the Tiangong space station. They landed not in the SZ-21 spacecraft, however, but SZ-22. SZ-22 was launched with no one aboard because the SZ-20 spacecraft was damaged by space debris and unsafe to bring the SZ-20 crew home. They had to use SZ-21’s spacecraft.  China keeps a rocket and spacecraft ready at the launch site for emergencies like this, enabling them to quickly launch SZ-22 to serve as SZ-21’s safe haven and ride home. The SZ-23 crew is now aboard Tiangong continuing the crew handovers that began at the end of 2022.

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Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded during a pre-launch test this evening. The company said all personnel are safe and accounted for following the “anomaly.”

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Pressing forward with plans to build a Moon Base as part of the Artemis program, today NASA announced awards of several service contracts to build and/or deliver landers and rovers to the Moon by 2028 as well as a “MoonFall” set of drones. The awards continue NASA’s recent practice of awarding firm fixed-price contracts where the companies design, build and launch spacecraft and NASA buys services from them.

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