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Space News for Saturday, February 28, 2026

Space News for Saturday, February 28, 2026

The Gist: Space News · Dr. Mason Nixon

February 28, 202613m 23s

Show Notes

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!<br>(00:10) Podcast Introduction<br>(00:23) NASA revises plans for future Artemis missions, cancels upgrades to SLS<br>(00:48) Rocket Lab delays Neutron debut to late 2026<br>(01:38) NASA announces major overhaul of Artemis moon program: “We’ve got to get back to basics”<br>(02:03) NASA Overhauls Artemis Program: Scraps SLS Upgrades, Adds 2027 LEO Test Mission<br>(02:21) U.S. Space Force Pivots to Hemispheric Security with SPACEFOR-NORTH Activation<br>(03:10) Space Systems Command Awards $44.9M Systems Engineering Contract to LinQuest<br>(03:30) Amazon Leo and Vanu Partner to Extend Mobile Broadband Across Rural Africa<br>(04:27) Intuitive Machines Secures $175M Strategic Investment to Scale Space Infrastructure<br>(05:27) Harnessing the Sun to Extract Oxygen on the Moon<br>(06:10) NASA’s Home for Experimental Flight Advances Aeronautics Mission<br>(06:28) NASA Adds Mission to Artemis Lunar Program, Updates Architecture<br>(07:14) Flight 12: Ship 39 rolls out to Masseys to begin testing<br>(08:04) NASA Pushes Crewed Moon Landing to Artemis IV<br>(08:47) Neutron’s First Launch Slips to Q4<br>(09:18) 'Pushing this competition': SpaceX's Starship might not fly on NASA's newly revamped Artemis 3 mission<br>(09:32) February finale: SpaceX wraps up month with three Starlink launches this week<br>(10:31) Apollo moon rocks may have finally solved an old lunar mystery<br>(11:09) The US Air Force's latest X-plane looks like a missile  —  that shoots other missiles<br>(11:35) NASA's Artemis 3 astronauts won't land on the moon after all. 'This is just not the right pathway forward.'<br>(12:24) Photons that aren't actually there influence superconductivity<br>