Space agencies and organizations continue to innovate as they explore space with sights currently set on the moon, Mars, and beyond.
With the United States still aiming its sights toward the stars decades after the end of the space race, here is a look at recent space endeavors from NASA, Space Force, SpaceX, and Blue Origin.
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NASA
NASA has been focused on various missions, including the Artemis program, which aims to return to the moon, but its latest telescope has provided a new view of the vast depths of outer space.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021, and NASA has been releasing images from the telescope since July 2022.
The telescope is a significant step forward from the Hubble Space Telescope, which has previously provided stunning images of outer space.
NASA calls the Webb telescope "an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity. The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today."
The powerful space telescope looks to search for the first galaxies, observe the formation of stars, and determine how galaxies have evolved, among other goals, per NASA.
The mission is expected to last five to 10 years, but the space agency says the telescope has a more than 20-year "science lifetime."
Space Force
The newest branch of the military, Space Force, looks to protect U.S. interests in space and protect the country from any dangers in space.
Space Force has been launching satellites and bolstering national security through partnerships with private companies, including SpaceX, and it is looking to further collaborate with private companies by opening a collaboration center near Washington, D.C.
The Commercial Space Marketplace for Innovation and Collaboration in Virginia is designed to help boost ties between private space companies and Space Force.
“The physical space and supporting services provided through COSMIC provide a place and means for us all to get together and best collaborate on commercial space capabilities, warfighter requirements, and how to best deliver those capabilities,” Col. Richard Kniseley, senior materiel leader for Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office, said in a statement.
SpaceX
SpaceX is one of the key players in the modern space industry and has been working with NASA on upcoming missions, including for human landing systems in some Artemis missions.
One of the missions SpaceX is looking to conduct is launching what they call the "world’s first commercial space station" in 2025.
Vast Haven-1, as the space station will be called, is scheduled to launch into space on a Falcon 9 rocket as early as August 2025 and looks to have two human flights to the space station.
"Haven-1 will be a fully-functional independent space station and eventually be connected as a module to a larger Vast space station currently in development," SpaceX said in a statement announcing the space station in May.
SpaceX says the creation of the space station is part of its mission to "create and accelerate greater accessibility to space and more opportunities for exploration on the road to making humanity multiplanetary."
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Blue Origin
One of the innovations Blue Origin has announced is its human landing system it has been contracted to design for NASA via a $3.4 billion agreement.
With the Artemis missions, including the one Blue Origin is creating a human landing system for, NASA is looking to test innovations it hopes to use for future missions to Mars and beyond.