Space Current Affairs September 2026

NASA expanded its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with SpaceX on 18 September 2026 through a USD 946 million modification, adding three crewed Dragon flights - Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17 - to the International Space Station. The contract's total value rises to about USD 5.92 billion and now covers 17 operational missions, running through 2030. SpaceX handles ground processing, launch, in-orbit operations, crew return and capsule recovery, and provides lifeboat capability while Dragon is docked. Boeing, the programme's other provider, is expected to begin crewed Starliner flights to the ISS in the third quarter of 2027. Crew-13 launches in October 2026.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has identified a new impact crater on the Moon's near side that formed between 11 April and 22 May 2024. Named McGetchin, after Thomas McGetchin of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, it measures about 222 metres across and up to 43 metres deep, making it the largest known recent impact crater in the solar system — roughly three times larger than the previous record holder found by LRO a decade earlier. The impact scattered material over more than 100 km and left a 7-km-wide cold spot. Two studies were published in Science Advances on 15 September 2026.

ISRO and the European Space Agency (ESA) have extended their Cooperative Agreement until 8 January 2032, formalised through an exchange of letters in Paris on 10 September 2026 during the International Space Summit. The original agreement came into force in January 2002. The renewed framework covers human and robotic exploration, space weather and sustainable outer space activities, and was signed by ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan and ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. The agencies have cooperated for over two decades in Earth observation, satellite navigation and space science, and signed a Joint Statement of Intent on human exploration in 2025 and an Earth-observation calibration pact in March 2026.

The Republic of Turkiye became the 71st signatory of the Artemis Accords on 31 August 2026 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir signed for Turkiye, with Turkish Space Agency President Yusuf Kirac present and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman hosting. Turkiye is the seventh Middle Eastern signatory after the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan and Israel. NASA cited Turkiye's recent milestones, including astronaut Alper Gezeravci's Axiom Mission 3 flight to the ISS in 2024. Turkiye is preparing AYAP-1, its first lunar mission, targeting a hybrid-propelled spacecraft to the Moon in early 2027.

Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma laid the foundation stone on 21 September 2026 for the ISTRAC Advanced Radar Research Facility (IARRF) at Chandrapur in Kamrup Metropolitan district, in the presence of ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan and ISTRAC Director M.R. Raghavendra. The facility comes up under the NETRA (Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis) programme to strengthen India's Space Situational Awareness and safeguard orbital assets through advanced satellite and debris tracking. The first system installed will be a cloud-research radar, expected to be commissioned by February 2027. The Assam government allotted about 200 bighas (roughly 70 acres) of land free of cost for the project.

On 4 September 2026, ISRO launched the 2,367 kg EOS-05 Earth observation satellite aboard the 51.7-metre GSLV-F17 from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh). EOS-05 is India's first-ever imaging satellite in geosynchronous orbit, capable of continuous large-area monitoring using visible, infrared, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging for agriculture and disaster management. The three-stage GSLV-F17, with a 420.5-tonne lift-off mass and an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, placed it in a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee of 171 km, apogee of 31,260 km and inclination of 19.28 degrees, to be raised to about 36,000 km.