SpaceX’s Starship completed its eleventh test flight on Oct. 13, successfully launching from South Texas and splashing down in the Indian Ocean. This final flight of the current 397-foot-tall Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage showed significantly less heatshield damage than Flight 10, marking a major improvement in the spacecraft’s durability. The mission deployed eight simulated Starlink satellites and successfully performed a Raptor engine … Continue reading SpaceX Starship land in the ocean after acing Flight Test 11

Two green-hued comets, C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and C/2025 R2 (SWAN), are visible in the Northern Hemisphere this fall, offering a rare chance to spot both in the same month. Comet Lemmon may become visible to the naked eye around Oct. 21 when it is closest to Earth, while Comet SWAN is best seen with binoculars or a small telescope about 90 minutes after sunset, peaking … Continue reading Two greenish comets are streaking across the night sky this month

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched for the 29th time on Tuesday, carrying 28 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s first stage, Booster B1071, successfully landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, just shy of SpaceX’s reuse record of 30 flights. The upper stage deployed the satellites into low Earth orbit about 60 … Continue reading SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites

Blue Origin rolled out the first stage of its second New Glenn rocket to the Cape Canaveral launch pad on Wednesday in preparation for an upcoming liftoff. The mission, expected late this month or in November, will carry NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes to Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere and its interaction with solar wind. Standing 320 feet tall when fully stacked, New Glenn features … Continue reading Blue Origin rolls out powerful New Glenn rocket for testing ahead of Mars launch

Astronomers captured rare images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed near Mars on October 3, using ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express orbiters. The comet, one of only three interstellar objects observed entering our solar system, was about 18.6 million miles from the orbiters and extremely faint compared to usual targets. First spotted in July by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Chile, … Continue reading Astronomers catch rare glimpse of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it flies by Mars

A small asteroid named 2025 TF safely passed Earth on Sept. 30 at roughly 250 miles (400 km) above the planet, near the same altitude as the International Space Station. About the size of a couch, the asteroid measures 3 to 9 feet (1.2–2.7 meters) in diameter and was detected a few hours after its closest approach by the Catalina Sky Survey. NASA’s Center for … Continue reading Surprise asteroid flies by Earth at only 250 miles away

Scientists have found that the molecular building blocks for life are “readily available” on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. The 314-mile-wide moon has liquid water, hydrothermal activity, and the necessary chemical elements to potentially support extraterrestrial life. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft previously detected tiny ice grains from cracks near Enceladus’ south pole containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, though sulfur has not yet been observed. Past … Continue reading Scientists find best evidence yet that icy moon Enceladus is habitable

Astronomers have observed a rogue planet, Cha 1107-7626, consuming gas and dust at an unprecedented rate of 6 billion tons per second, challenging the distinction between planets and stars. Rogue planets float freely through space without orbiting a star and are difficult to detect, though scientists estimate trillions may exist in the Milky Way. Cha 1107-7626, located about 620 light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon, … Continue reading Mysterious “rogue planet” spotted gobbling 6 billion tons of gas and dust a second

New data from ESA’s Gaia telescope reveal a massive wave rippling through the Milky Way’s disc, affecting stars tens of thousands of light-years from the center. Unlike the previously known rotation, warp, and wobble of the galaxy, this newly observed wave shows stars oscillating vertically above and below the disc in a pattern resembling a stadium “wave.” Astronomers tracked the motion using young giant stars … Continue reading Gaia discovers our galaxy’s great wave

Astronomers report that interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, heading toward the inner solar system, is much larger than previously thought, with a likely mass over 33 billion tons and a nucleus more than 3.1 miles wide. Observations from the Webb Space Telescope suggest it is mostly carbon dioxide with water ice in its core. First detected in July by NASA’s ATLAS system in Chile, the comet poses … Continue reading 3I/ATLAS, comet hurtling toward solar system, much bigger than previously thought

SpaceX completed its final September launch Sunday, sending 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on the Starlink 11-20 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Falcon 9 rocket, using booster B1063 on its 28th flight, lifted off at 7:04 p.m. PDT and successfully landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about 8.5 minutes later. This marked SpaceX’s 16th launch of the month—tying … Continue reading SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg

SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in under 41 hours with the Starlink 17-11 mission, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday night. The rocket deployed 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit just over an hour after liftoff. First-stage booster B1082, flying for the 16th time, successfully landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, marking the 153rd … Continue reading SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg

Asteroid 2024 YR4, once thought to have a small chance of hitting Earth, now poses a 4% chance of striking the Moon in December 2032. While a Moon impact wouldn’t directly harm humans, it could create a massive debris field, threatening satellites and space stations. Scientists suggest two main options: deflecting it, ideally by nudging its orbit early, or destroying it. Deflection requires accurate mass … Continue reading NASA: Nuclear Explosion Could Save Moon From Asteroid Strike in 2032

NASA has awarded Arizona-based startup Katalyst Space Technologies $30 million to save its $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (SWIFT) from falling into Earth’s atmosphere by pushing it to a higher orbit. Launched in 2004, SWIFT has been observing distant galaxies and black holes from low-Earth orbit, about 364 miles (585 km) above the planet, but its orbit is gradually decaying due to atmospheric drag, … Continue reading To save aging space observatory, NASA taps startup to push it farther in space

SpaceX launched its 86th Starlink mission of the year Thursday morning, sending 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 at 4:39 a.m. EDT. Weather conditions were largely favorable, with a 90% chance of launch success despite some mid- and upper-level clouds. The mission used Falcon 9 booster B1080, marking its 22nd flight, which successfully landed … Continue reading SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

The International Space Station (ISS), continuously inhabited for nearly 25 years, is set to be de-orbited around 2030 despite outliving its original 15-year mission. NASA is partnering with private companies to transition to commercial space stations, with a competition planned to select designs for a 30-day crewed demonstration mission. California-based Vast Space, in collaboration with SpaceX, plans to launch Haven-1 in May 2026, the world’s … Continue reading The world’s first commercial space station is getting closer to launch

NASA may send astronauts around the moon months earlier than planned, with the Artemis II mission potentially launching as soon as February. Artemis II, a 10-day crewed flight, will orbit the moon and return to Earth, marking the first humans beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, though it will not involve a lunar landing. The mission tests systems for Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, which … Continue reading NASA plans to send manned Moon mission by February 2026

Three satellites are scheduled to launch Wednesday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to study space weather and its effects on Earth. NASA focuses on astronaut safety, while NOAA handles civilian space weather predictions, with the mission aiming to understand how solar activity impacts technology and infrastructure. The satellites include SWFO-L1, NOAA’s first dedicated space weather observatory; the Carruthers Geocorona … Continue reading NASA launches urgent mission to protect GPS, power grids from solar storms

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sept. 22, carrying a batch of spy satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The mission, NROL-48, is the 11th flight supporting the NRO’s “proliferated architecture” network, which uses numerous smaller satellites instead of a few large, costly ones. These satellites aim to provide faster, more resilient intelligence, with increased coverage, revisit … Continue reading SpaceX launches 11th batch of ‘proliferated architecture’ US spy satellites

Astronomers observed a series of repeating gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in July, an unprecedented phenomenon in 50 years of GRB studies. Typically caused by the explosive death of a star or its destruction by a black hole, GRBs usually last milliseconds to minutes, but this event repeated three times over 24 hours, making it 100 to 1,000 times longer than typical bursts. The exact cause remains … Continue reading Repeating gamma-ray bursts are ‘unlike any other’ in 50 years, astronomers say

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered mysterious “dark beads” and a lopsided star-shaped structure in Saturn’s upper atmosphere above the planet’s famous hexagonal storm at the north pole. The features, seen with JWST’s Near Infrared Spectrograph, are unlike anything previously observed and remain unexplained. The dark beads drift in Saturn’s ionosphere, while the star-shaped pattern appears in the stratosphere below, and the two may … Continue reading James Webb telescope finds strange ‘dark beads’ in Saturn’s atmosphere

JAXA’s Akatsuki orbiter, launched in 2010, became the agency’s first interplanetary mission and entered orbit around Venus in December 2015. For over eight years, it monitored the planet’s atmosphere, mapping clouds, detecting lightning, and measuring temperature and atmospheric structure using multiple instruments. Communication with the spacecraft was lost in April 2024, and JAXA officially ended the mission on September 18, 2025, after recovery attempts failed, … Continue reading Japan’s Akatsuki Venus Orbiter Completes its Mission

SpaceX launched its 119th Falcon 9 mission of the year on Sept. 21, sending 28 Starlink satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral. The rocket’s first stage, booster B1085, landed safely on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” for its 11th flight, while the upper stage deployed the satellites about 64 minutes after liftoff. The company has also conducted four Starship test flights in 2025, … Continue reading SpaceX launches 28 Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast

Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft successfully arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sept. 18, a day after a thruster issue delayed its docking. Astronaut Jonny Kim used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture the freighter, which launched on Sept. 14 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. This NG-23 mission, the first Cygnus XL flight, delivered about 11,000 pounds of … Continue reading Northrop Grumman’s biggest-ever cargo spacecraft arrives at ISS on its debut mission

Astronomers have discovered a black hole growing at one of the fastest rates ever recorded, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The black hole, RACS J0320-35, has a mass of about a billion Suns and lies 12.8 billion light-years away, seen just 920 million years after the Big Bang. Producing more X-rays than any other known early-universe black hole, it powers a quasar and appears to … Continue reading NASA’s Chandra Finds Black Hole With Tremendous Growth