For most of the space age, rockets were built to fly once. After delivering a satellite to orbit, much of the vehicle was discarded. But that model is transforming as reusable boosters, smaller launch vehicles and shared launches are making space more accessible to companies, universities and countries beyond the traditional space powers.

This has become the focus of World Space Week 2026, observed from October 4 to 10 with the theme “Rocket Revolution.” The mission of World Space Week Association (WSWA) is to strengthen the link between space and society through public education, participation, and dialogue on the future of space activity using World Space Week as a focus.

The dates mark two milestones in space history: the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and the entry into force of the Outer Space Treaty on October 10, 1967.

Rockets, Reused

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has shown the potential of reusable rockets. Its first stage returns to Earth after launch and can fly again. The approach can reduce the need to build an entirely new rocket for every mission. Blue Origin’s New Glenn also has a reusable first stage, while Rocket Lab is developing a reusable version of its Electron launcher.

Smaller rockets and rideshare missions are opening another part of the market. A company with a small satellite no longer necessarily needs access to a large launcher or an entire rocket.

Nearly 15,000 Satellites are in Orbit

The OECD estimates that more than 14,000 operational satellites were in orbit at the end of 2025, rising to nearly 15,000 by mid-2026. Satellite observations supply more than 90% of the observations used in numerical weather prediction, according to the OECD. Earth-observation satellites also monitor crops, forests, oceans and cities, while their images can help map areas affected by floods and cyclones.

The global space economy was estimated at 550–600 billion dollars in 2025, with much of its value coming from services based on satellite communications, navigation and Earth-observation data.

India Opening Launch Sector

India is also moving towards a larger private space industry. In July 2026, Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-I became the first privately developed Indian rocket to conduct an orbital launch from Indian soil. It lifted off from Sriharikota on July 18 and placed two satellites, SCOPE and Grahaa, into low Earth orbit.

Interestingly, the Department of Space reported around 440 space-technology startups registered on the DPIIT Startup India portal as of August 2026. ISRO is also developing the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) for spacecraft weighing up to about 500 kg. A dedicated SSLV launch complex is being developed at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu.

More spacecraft, More Orbital Risks

A busier space environment brings its own problems. About 45,860 pieces of space debris are regularly tracked, according to the OECD. Millions of smaller fragments are too difficult to monitor individually. A collision can create thousands more pieces and threaten other spacecraft.

Satellite operators therefore need to track nearby objects, avoid collisions and plan for spacecraft disposal after missions end. For World Space Week 2026, the “Rocket Revolution” theme points to a space industry that is moving beyond occasional government missions. Rockets are being reused, private companies are entering the launch business and satellites are becoming part of everyday infrastructure. The challenge that has to be tackled is the increasingly busy orbital environment usable for the next generation of missions.

A planet orbiting once every 4 days around a white dwarf star HS 0209+0832  – about 270 light years in the direction of the constellation Pisces – is steadily losing its atmosphere to its host star. While many stars in solar systems beyond our own often feed on their planets, this particular star feeds on its own ashes.

The gaseous planet HS 0209+0832 b was discovered in 2024, when the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a NASA space telescope, found it orbiting the white dwarf star over the course of four days. The new study followed through with detailed observations from TESS data, NASA’s space-based Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, in addition to the ESO’s mountain-based Very Large Telescope, to study the star’s atmosphere and in turn inferring some chemistry occurring in the planet.

In a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday and funded by NASA, European Research Council, Fundación Occident and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, an international team of astronomers have reported imprints of niobium, a heavy element, in the atmosphere of a white dwarf star.

Astronomers predict the transiting young planet around the dead star is supplying that niobium back to its host. The sighting is evidence of a “second generation” planet, one of many candidates identified over several years, manifesting in a myriad different ways from spent gas ejected in the wake of stellar deaths.

It adds to a known coterie of planets now found orbiting dead stars, astronomers are busy studying to spot signs of life.

What are white dwarf stars?

White dwarves are an exotic stars, and are all that’s left off giant stars shedding their large gaseous skin in violent deaths. Our sun is destined one day to transform into a white dwarf, but only after swelling in size some five billion years from now to become a red giant when it will eclipse past the earth’s orbit. It would take several million years after that for the red giant sun to shed its gaseous exterior to become a white dwarf.

Planets if any, found orbiting these dead stars may have likely migrated from the new solar system’s outer reaches. All that’s left off the progenitor star’s past are imprints of light metals and other elements on the white dwarf’s atmosphere. Such planets have previously been spotted orbiting pulsars, a kind of neutron star, back in 1992. In fact, its discovery had marked the first ever detection of any planet orbiting a star beyond our sun.

In five billion years, our sun will evolve to become a red giant star. Credit: Svitlana Leonidivna Malchenko

Sighting niobium

Elements such as niobium don’t typically form in the core of stars like our sun. Chemical production usually limits to elements lighter than or until iron, with its 26 protons and 30 neutrons. Beyond that, slamming an extra proton or neutron will cause those to split, leaving iron to be the last element to be directly forged.

Niobium, with 41 protons and 52 neutrons, is thought to be born after absorbing slow passing neutrons when the red giant star dies to form a white dwarf star. This niobium hitches a ride along with rest of the contents of the red giant star, farther into the outer reaches of the system after the formation of the white dwarf.

These contents could create a new disc of circumstellar material with dust and gas that could condense one day to form new planets. The “second generation” planet found orbiting the white dwarf star from the new study, could have been born this way.

Alternatively, it may have been a planet in the outskirts like Neptune, migrating inwards, and enriching itself with niobium-rich star material.

Either way, the planet got too close to its host star, which is irradiating its newfound niobium-rich atmosphere, stripping it away and devouring it.

While it’s likely not a candidate planet for life as we know it to be found, it’s discovery can help ascertain how such worlds are formed in the aftermath of a star’s various phases of evolution.

The Artemis Accords now have 76 signatories, expanding the international framework around the next phase of lunar exploration. For India, the milestone comes weeks after NASA invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to participate in its planned Moon Base programme.

Albania, Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire and San Marino joined the Accords in September, taking participation to 76 countries. NASA says nearly 40% of the world’s nations are now part of the framework, which sets principles for peaceful, transparent and responsible exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.

India became the 27th signatory in June 2023. At the India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting in Bengaluru in August, NASA invited ISRO to participate in its Moon Base programme. The two countries also agreed to advance discussions on open scientific-data sharing under the Accords.

India’s Moon Base opportunity

The invitation does not specify what India will contribute. NASA has said every Artemis Accords signatory can participate through scientific payloads, technology demonstrations, CubeSats and other capabilities. Any specific Indian contribution would require further agreements.

India, however, is developing its own increasingly ambitious lunar programme. ISRO’s Chandrayaan-4 is planned as a lunar sample-return mission, designed to collect samples from the Moon’s polar region and bring them back to Earth. Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX, being developed with Japan’s JAXA, will study lunar polar volatiles in situ.

These missions could give India experience and scientific capabilities relevant to a future international lunar infrastructure.

ISRO Shaping the Data Conversation

Scientific data could be another area of Indian participation. In May 2026, ISRO led an initial Artemis Accords discussion on advancing open-data practices. NASA subsequently held two workshops focused on making lunar scientific data more accessible, interoperable and reproducible across countries.

That is significant as more lunar missions target the same regions. Shared standards could allow researchers to combine observations from different spacecraft instead of treating each mission’s data separately.

Moon – Space Coperation

India-US space cooperation is also expanding into human spaceflight. ISRO’s 2025–26 annual report records that Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla travelled to the International Space Station in June 2025 as part of the Axiom-4 mission and conducted seven microgravity experiments. ISRO also held discussions with NASA on potential cooperation related to Gaganyaan.

The Artemis relationship therefore sits alongside an existing programme of India-US cooperation, including the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.

What Changes for India?

The significance of the 76-country milestone lies in the network developing around it. The Artemis Accords cover scientific-data sharing, interoperability, non-interference between missions, emergency assistance and protection of historically significant lunar sites. NASA says signatories are now working through technical meetings and workshops to put these principles into practice.

For India, that creates several possible avenues: contributing technology or science to NASA’s Moon Base effort, sharing lunar data, and working with a growing group of countries on standards for increasingly crowded lunar operations. What India’s specific contribution to the Moon Base remains undecided. But with Chandrayaan-4, LUPEX and its human-spaceflight programme advancing alongside deeper NASA cooperation, India is entering the next phase of lunar exploration with its own capabilities already taking shape.