NASA's New Direction: Commercial Moon and Mars, Space Stations, Multi-Purpose Habitat and Argonaut

The U.S. administration has submitted NASA’s 2026 Budget Request to Congress, introducing major changes that will shape the future for space startups. This budget not only affects U.S. companies but also impacts international partnerships with agencies like the European Space Agency (ESA) and JAXA, the Japanese space agency. In this video, we’ll explore the key funding requests and their implications for space startups, breaking it down into clear sections.

---------------
Supporting this channel would be greatly appreciated! Buy me a coffee here.

https://buymeacoffee.com/spacestartupnews
---------------

00:00 Intro
01:53 Phasing Out Of Legacy Human Exploration Programme
03:02 Commercial Space Stations
04:50 Commercial Moon and Mars
07:42 European Contributions to the Artemis Programme
08:01 Multi-Purpose Habitat (MPH) - Italian Space Agency (ASI)
08:48 Argonaut: Large Lunar Lander – European Space Agency (ESA)
10:30 Human Exploration of Mars
11:22 Space Technology Funding
12:17 Final Thoughts
13:27 Outro

Sources:

NASA FY 2026 Budget, Technical Supplement [PDF]: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/fy-2026-budget-technical-supplement-002.pdf?emrc=683a32b12eb45