Ongoing missions and data: what NASA, ESO and ESA sources show

The evidence assembled for this review comes from institutional pages of NASA, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the European Space Agency (ESA). It does not describe one single announcement or provide every technical detail of each project. It does, however, offer a snapshot of several strands of astronomy and space science: instrument development, data publication, asteroid-material analysis and the protection of ground-based observing.

A key point is to distinguish each item’s status. A scientific paper is not a new mission; a released catalog is not automatically a discovery; and an announced launch date does not confirm that a launch occurred. That distinction matters especially because several source descriptions are dated 2026.

An ecosystem of observing, data and analysis

ESA’s Space Science page presents news and resources for the public and media, particularly on the search for life on other planets and the origins of the Universe. This places the references in a broad field where exploration, astronomical observation and data analysis coexist, and where not every update necessarily concerns a specific mission.

NASA’s Astrophysics page says that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was planned for launch in fall 2026. The available wording is prospective: it reports an agency schedule and says the observatory would open an unprecedented window on the Universe. It supplies neither an exact date nor confirmation of final readiness or liftoff.

NASA’s recent-news page also mentions an image dated July 8, 2026, in which University of California, Berkeley engineers and managers watch the COSI detector assembly being slowly raised. COSI stands for Compton Spectrometer and Imager. This documents detector-handling or integration work on that date; by itself it does not establish COSI’s full schedule, flight platform or operational status.

Data for studying cosmic particles

An update from NASA’s HEASARC announces the August 4, 2026 release of the AMS-02 All Particle Rates Catalog. The source explains that the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS-02, is a cosmic-ray particle detector installed on the International Space Station in May 2011.

The catalog records incident rates for all particle species obtained by the instrument. Put simply, it makes available a record of how many particles of different detected types arrive at the experiment. Such a release is scientific infrastructure, enabling inspection and reuse of measurements. The available extract does not list its results, time coverage, instrumental uncertainties or conclusions about cosmic-ray origins.

From Bennu to astronomy publications

NASA’s laboratory astrophysics publication list includes a 2026 paper in The Planetary Science Journal, titled Physical analysis of Bennu samples reveals regolith production by collisional disruption on near-Earth asteroids. According to the cited title, physical analysis of Bennu samples links regolith production to collisional disruption on near-Earth asteroids. Regolith is loose surface material, including dust and rock fragments.

The evidence supports reporting the topic and bibliographic reference—volume 7, article 87, with a DOI linked by NASA—but not the methods, sample size, effect magnitude or full scope of the inference. It therefore cannot support a quantitative account of how all near-Earth asteroids evolve.

NASA’s TESS astrophysics-publications page also lists 2026 work on detached eclipsing binary systems toward the open cluster NGC 7209 and variable stars identified using TESS and SuperWASP data. TESS is NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The extract does not summarize those findings, but it does show that TESS data continue to appear in peer-reviewed research.

Ground-based astronomy and constellation pressure

A July 1, 2026 ESO press release adds the ground-based dimension. Its extract says a new ESO study found that current proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including extremely bright ones, would have “devastating consequences for astronomy.” Satellites crossing a telescope’s field of view can affect astronomical observations.

The same extract begins a statement about no more than 100,000 faint satellites, but is truncated before its condition, method and full conclusion. That number must therefore not be treated as a universal threshold or an unqualified recommendation without the complete study. The source does establish that ESO frames the issue as serious for astronomy.

What can be stated, and what remains open

• Supported: AMS-02 has been on the ISS since 2011, and a particle-rates catalog was announced in 2026.
• Supported: NASA cited COSI detector-assembly activity and a planned fall 2026 launch for Roman.
• Supported: 2026 publications concern Bennu samples and analyses using TESS data.
• Uncertain: the extracts do not confirm Roman’s launch, COSI operations, detailed paper findings or the exact conditions of ESO’s study.

Taken together, these references show space science sustained by complementary work: instruments are prepared, detectors collect measurements, archives release data products and samples help interpret small bodies. ESO’s warning also shows that the continuity of this work depends on retaining observing conditions compatible with astronomy.