Europe has a critical role to play in humanity’s return to the Moon. This week, Planetary Radio brings you voices straight from the 18th European Space Conference in Brussels, Belgium, where more than 2,000 of the world’s top space leaders gathered to shape the future of European space exploration — including ambitious plans for building GPS and communications infrastructure to support a permanent human presence on the Moon. Pictured: An artist’s impression of a far-future lunar base. Image credit: ESA - P. Carril.

How did New Zealand become one of the three leading rocket-launching nations? The country’s rank — just after the United States and China — is thanks to the success of Rocket Lab and its Electron rocket. Founder Peter Beck joined the latest Planetary Society book club meeting to talk about the stories captured in “The Launch of Rocket Lab.” You can watch the recording of the live virtual event here.

The House is showing its support for NASA Science. 103 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Congressional Planetary Science Caucus Co-Chairs Don Bacon (R-NE) and Judy Chu (D-CA) signed a bipartisan letter this week calling for $9 billion for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in the fiscal year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

Want to see what it’s like to be a planetary geologist? Join our newest travel partner, Planetary Experience Consulting, for a three-day, four-night expedition to New Mexico's finest planetary geology analog sites. Learn to identify intriguing samples, get a primer on suborbital human spaceflight, visit the New Mexico Museum of Space History, and command your own mission at the Las Cruces Challenger Learning Center. Led by planetary geologist Kirby Runyon. Learn more on our travel page.