SPACE
- NASA Delivers Navigation System for Commercial Lunar Relay
by Katherine Schauer on 03/08/2026NASA delivered the NavCube3-mini payload on July 13 to Intuitive Machines for integration into Altus-1, the company’s first lunar relay satellite, marking an important milestone in the development of future lunar communications and navigation services. The lunar relays are designed to […]
- NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Discovers Field of Honeycomb Textures
by Stephen Carney on 29/07/2026As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across. The mission has […]
- NASA Announces New Spacecraft Technology Demonstration Mission at Moon
by Loura Hall on 24/07/2026NASA is working with industry to advance the next phase of cislunar infrastructure for the agency’s Artemis program and Moon Base, including orbital assets and demonstrations. Under a contract awarded to Advanced Space, the agency’s CAPSTONE 02 mission will demonstrate rendezvous and proximity […]
- Robotic Servicing Mission Launches with NASA Support
by Rob Garner on 22/07/2026Following its liftoff from Cape Canaveral on July 21 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) hosting the NASA-supported Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) payload is now en route to geosynchronous Earth orbit, where it will use its advanced robotics to […]
- Coilable Stacked Solar Sails for Very High delta-V Missions
by Loura Hall on 21/07/2026Artur Davoyan University of California, Los Angeles The goal of the proposed program is to enable the next generation of solar sails featuring very high characteristic acceleration–potentially up to 2 mm/s²–and large effective areas exceeding 10,000 m², to support future ultra–high delta-V […]
- A New Compact Instrument Enables High-Fidelity Measurements of Energetic Particles on CubeSats
on 21/07/2026A team of NASA-sponsored scientists and engineers has developed a novel approach to observing high-energy particles in the near-Earth space environment, incorporating miniaturized sensors into a compact, multi-view particle detection instrument unlike any before it. Built for NASA’s Relativistic […]
- Ontario Wildfire Smoke Moves East
on 16/07/2026Canadian wildfires sent plumes of smoke streaming over Ontario, Quebec, and parts of the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.
- Super Typhoon Bavi
on 09/07/2026The third category 5 tropical cyclone of 2026 crossed the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam before continuing toward Asia.
- NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Wakes from Hibernation in Good Health
on 07/07/2026Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto. On June 23, flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics […]
- NASA’s CAPSTONE Completes Extended Mission Testing Lunar Technologies
by Korine Powers on 06/07/2026As NASA prepares for a sustained human presence on the Moon, missions will increasingly require spacecraft that can navigate and communicate without a direct connection to Earth. NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, validated […]
- NASA’s SkyFall Helicopters at Work (Artist’s Concept)
by Rafael Alanis on 06/08/2026Description This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s three SkyFall Mars helicopters collecting data while flying over the surface of the Red Planet. The green frequency waves emanating from the helicopters’ large antennas depict collection of subsurface radar data. The red beams depict collect […]
- Antenna Testing for NASA’s SkyFall Mission
by Rafael Alanis on 06/08/2026Description SkyFall ground-penetrating radar engineer Maya Román connects a coaxial cable to a test antenna in the Environmental Test Lab’s electromagnetic interference testing chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The antenna was pointed up during test to […]
- NASA’s Perseverance Captures Phobos and Earth
by Rafael Alanis on 05/08/2026Description This composite of seven images from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover shows Earth, visible as a small bright dot moving from upper left to lower right, passing behind the Martian moon Phobos on July 2, 2026, 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The […]
- NASA’s Curiosity Views a Sand-Capped Butte
by Rafael Alanis on 29/07/2026Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed “Miraflores,” estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, with its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 11, 2026, the 4,923rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The butte was left behind as surrounding rock […]
- NASA’s Curiosity Discovers a Field of Martian Polygons
by Rafael Alanis on 29/07/2026Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree view of an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons on June 19 and 20, 2026, the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days, or sols, of the mission. The rover has found polygons several times in the past, but never so […]
- Mapping Io’s Hidden Heat With NASA’s Juno
by Rafael Alanis on 22/07/2026Description This graphic illustrates the areas of Jupiter’s moon Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during two close flybys. The black overlapping lines show the instrument’s footprints during Perijove 57 on Dec. 30, 2023, when the spacecraft […]
- NASA’s Juno Peers Beneath Io’s Surface
by Rafael Alanis on 22/07/2026Description This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, indicating heat rising from just beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. While infrared instruments measure the temperature of the moon’s surface, the lowest frequency microwave […]
- NISAR’s L-Band Radar Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica
by Rafael Alanis on 22/07/2026Description Data from the Earth-orbiting U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite’s L-band radar was used to produce an image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja — a mountaintop in East Antarctica — poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean. The obstruction […]
- The Growing Crescent of Mars as NASA’s Psyche Mission Approaches
by Rafael Alanis on 17/07/2026Description This composite of images taken by NASA’s Psyche mission shows the crescent of Mars grow as the spacecraft approached the planet for a gravity assist from May 2 to May 15, 2026. The series begins with the smallest crescent at the center of the of the image as Mars is farthest from […]
- NASA’s Psyche Mission Images Details of Martian Surface During Flyby
by Rafael Alanis on 17/07/2026Description Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA’s Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color mosaic created from four individual images acquired on May 15, 2026, during the spacecraft’s flyby of Mars. Psyche was traveling from right to left (northeast to southwest on Mars) […]
- SpaceX Junk Hits the Moon. Not a Good Sign
by Matthew Williams (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/houseofwilliams) on 07/08/2026The spent upper stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has struck the Moon, illustrating the hazard posed by debris in cislunar space. This problem will increase as launches to orbit and to the Moon become more common in the coming years.
- Astronomers Find a New Object from the Early Universe Using Webb Data
by Matthew Williams (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/houseofwilliams) on 07/08/2026Homer Dávila Gutierrez, director of SKYCR.ORG, has identified a gravitational arc candidate in the galaxy cluster MACS J0308.9+2645 from public data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The object had not been previously reported and is located at a photometric redshift close to 4.4. The preprint […]
- Preview to Totality: A Resource Guide to August 12th Total Solar Eclipse
by David Dickinson (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/david-dickinson) on 07/08/2026It’s almost show time. We’re just a few days away now, from the only total solar eclipse of 2026. While eclipses are a surety as the celestial gears of the Universe grind on, there are always a few unknowns leading up to eclipse day. We wrote a recent guide to the upcoming total solar eclipse […]
- Scientists Watch as a Distant World's Atmosphere Shrinks and Thins
by Carolyn Collins Petersen (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/cc-petersen) on 07/08/2026As dwarf planet Pluto moves along in its distant, high-obliquity 248-year orbit, its atmosphere is changing. That's because it's beginning to travel through colder, darker parts of the outer Solar System for the next 88 years. As a consequence, the mostly-nitrogen atmosphere is expected to grow […]
- Venus Isn't Dead After All
by Matthew Williams (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/houseofwilliams) on 06/08/2026Simulations conducted by researchers at ETH Zurich suggest a strong likelihood that Venus’s rift valleys are still geologically active rather than being mere relics of a bygone era, as had been previously believed. This finding reshapes our understanding of Earth’s sister planet and will […]
- Scientist Constructs "Big Picture" of Mars Water from Rover Data
by Carolyn Collins Petersen (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/cc-petersen) on 05/08/2026Rover data from more than 20 years ago has revealed clues to the existence of liquid water on ancient Mars. The NASA Spirit Rover carried a specialized instrument called a Mössbauer Spectrometer that performed mineralogical analyses of soil, rock, and dust on the surface of the Red Planet at Gusev […]
- See the Perseid Meteors on a New Moon Year
by David Dickinson (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/david-dickinson) on 04/08/2026You couldn’t ask for a better year for one of the top annual meteor showers. If skies are clear be sure to watch for one of the top skywatching draws of 2026: the August Perseid meteor shower. While the Perseids are a draw on any year, 2026 is special, and has a few things going for it in terms […]
- Interstellar Travel II: the Birth of Fusion Drives
by Matthew Williams (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/houseofwilliams) on 03/08/2026During the Space Age and Cold War, fusion-powered spacecraft systems were investigated as a possible means of reaching another star system within a human lifetime. Many of the proposed ideas are still on the table today, waiting for future advancements to make them realizable.
- Zodiacal Dust in Exoplanetary Systems Could Hinder Our Search For Life On Other Worlds
by Brian Koberlein (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/brian) on 03/08/2026Most exoplanetary systems have a plane of dust similar to the zodiacal dust of our solar system. This dust absorbs some of the very light we use to find biosignatures in exoplanet atmospheres, and could make our search for life more challenging.
- The Asteroid That May Be Three Worlds
by Mark Thompson (https://www.universetoday.com/authors/mark) on 01/08/2026We have been watching asteroid (44) Nysa for well over a century without ever really knowing what it looks like. Now the sharpest images ever taken of it, from two of the largest telescopes on Earth, have revealed two deep valleys running right around its circumference and the team behind them […]
- SpaceX West Coast launch surge continues with Starlink mission
by Steven Young on 08/08/2026Liftoff of the Starlink 17-38 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened at 9:35 a.m. PDT (12:35 p.m. EDT / 1635 UTC).
- Blue Origin identifies engine issue behind New Glenn explosion
by Will Robinson-Smith on 06/08/2026The Aug. 5 update from Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp offered the first explanation for what caused the company’s 98-meter-tall (320 ft.) to explode at the pad on May 28.
- NASA, Northrop Grumman repurpose Gateway elements for Moon Base demo missions
by Will Robinson-Smith on 06/08/2026The shift amplifies the agency’s marked shift from crewed operations in lunar orbit to focus on surface-based missions.
- SpaceX launches 3 AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
by Will Robinson-Smith on 05/08/2026The BlueBird 11-13 mission was the third time SpaceX flew satellites to orbit supporting AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-device constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 3:49 a.m. EDT (0749 UTC).
- SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
by Will Robinson-Smith on 04/08/2026The Starlink 17-53 mission is the 90th Falcon 9 rocket launch of the year. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 10:05 a.m. PDT (1:05 p.m. EDT / 1705 UTC).
- SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
by Will Robinson-Smith on 31/07/2026The Starlink 17-52 mission is SpaceX’s 90th orbital launch of the year so far. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 8:08 p.m. PDT (11:08 p.m. EDT / 0308 UTC).
- SpaceX launches classified payload for National Reconnaissance Office
by Will Robinson-Smith on 29/07/2026The NROL-95 mission was the third payload for the National Reconnaissance Office launched under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 procurement. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0710 UTC).
- SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from West Coast
by Steven Young on 25/07/2026Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California occurred at 8:51 a.m. PDT (11:51 a.m. EDT / 1551 UTC). The Falcon 9 placed 24 Starlink satellites into orbit.
- Super Heavy-Starship rocket chalks up mostly successful test flight
by William Harwood on 25/07/2026Powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, the 407-foot-tall two-stage rocket blasted off from SpaceX's "Starbase," Texas, launch site at 5:51 p.m. EDT, putting on a spectacular show for area residents and tourists as it climbed away atop some 16 million pounds of thrust.
- Critical NASA Deep Space ground station in Spain evacuated due to wildfires
by Will Robinson-Smith on 24/07/2026The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex is one of three critical sites around the world that communicate with spacecraft beyond the reach of near-Earth communications capabilities.