October 1, 2025
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Breaking News
  • [ October 1, 2025 ] Report argues NASA is illegally using President’s Budget Request to circumvent Congress’ budgeting process News
  • [ September 30, 2025 ] Axiom Space taps Portuguese physiologist as first ‘Project Astronaut’ News
  • [ September 30, 2025 ] Ground testing anomaly destroys Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha booster intended for next flight Alpha
  • [ September 28, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9
  • [ September 26, 2025 ] Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser debut mission delayed again, no longer docking to station News

WFIRST

News

NASA to consider WFIRST launch options after mission passes key review

March 11, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA expects to select a launch vehicle next year to carry the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope — a multibillion-dollar flagship astrophysics observatory targeted for cancellation by the Trump administration — into space in 2025 after the mission passed a key review last month, agency officials said.

Mission Reports

Trump administration requests funding boost for NASA’s Artemis moon program

February 10, 2020 William Harwood

The Trump administration is requesting $25.2 billion for NASA in fiscal 2021, a 12 percent increase that includes $3.3 billion to kickstart development of a human-rated lander for the Artemis moon program. Nearly half of the budget request, $12.3 billion, is devoted to new and ongoing projects focused on the return to the moon and eventual flights to Mars.

News

Space Launch System, planetary exploration get big boosts in NASA budget

March 23, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s planned rocket to send humans back to the moon and the agency’s solar system exploration program were big winners in a $20.7 billion budget passed by Congress and signed by President Trump on Friday.

News

Trump budget aims to kick-start lunar exploration, cancels space telescope

February 12, 2018 Stephen Clark

The White House’s $19.9 billion NASA budget outline released Monday would continue development of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule and begin the deployment of a mini-space station around the moon as soon as 2022, but the proposal would cancel WFIRST, a flagship-class astronomy mission planned for launch in the mid-2020s.

News

WFIRST astronomy mission faces cuts to contain rising costs

November 3, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has directed the team developing the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, a flagship astronomy mission set for launch in the mid-2020s to study dark energy and exoplanets, to reduce the observatory’s scientific capabilities and keep it under a $3.2 billion cost cap.

News

With an eye on growing cost, NASA aims for 2025 launch of next ‘great observatory’

April 19, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA managers say the WFIRST mission, the next in the agency’s line of powerful observatories after the Hubble and James Webb telescopes, could cost around $3.2 billion after budgeting for a novel first-of-its-kind instrument to probe the make-up of planets around nearby stars and a bigger-than-expected launch vehicle.

News

NASA moves forward with mission using spy satellite telescope

February 18, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA has formally approved plans — a year ahead of schedule — for an infrared space telescope launching around 2024 to record unique wide-angle views of the cosmos, seeking answers to questions about mysterious dark energy and searching for habitable worlds around other stars.

News

NASA’s next flagship space telescope to get formal start

January 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA officials expect to officially kick off development in February of a multibillion-dollar observatory recycling a grounded top secret spy satellite telescope capable of studying dark energy and directly resolving planets around other stars.

News Headlines

  • Report argues NASA is illegally using President’s Budget Request to circumvent Congress’ budgeting process
    October 1, 2025
  • Axiom Space taps Portuguese physiologist as first ‘Project Astronaut’
    September 30, 2025
  • Ground testing anomaly destroys Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha booster intended for next flight
    September 30, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
    September 28, 2025
  • Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser debut mission delayed again, no longer docking to station
    September 26, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg
    September 25, 2025
  • ULA launches third batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites from Cape Canaveral
    September 25, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    September 25, 2025
  • SpaceX launches NASA, NOAA missions exploring the impacts of the Sun
    September 24, 2025
  • A geologist, a former SpaceX launch director and a commercial astronaut; meet NASA’s 10 new astronaut candidates
    September 22, 2025
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