Space
Articles under the Space category.
MSR 2.0: NASA’s two-track race to bring Mars samples home
In 2025 NASA split Mars Sample Return into two competing designs to cut cost and time. Here’s how the heritage sky-crane path stacks up against industry heavy-lift options, what Europe’s orbiter contributes, and the milestones to watch before the 2026 downselect.
SPHEREx begins a 102‑color map of the entire sky, live
NASA’s SPHEREx has entered routine science, scanning the entire sky in 102 infrared colors and refreshing the atlas twice a year. Here is how this live, spectrum-rich map will accelerate discoveries from water-ice chemistry to cosmic inflation.
Euclid’s 2025 releases reboot the dark universe timeline
March’s public Q1 data and September’s Flagship simulations moved Euclid from pretty pictures to industrial cosmology. Here is how AI, citizen science, and Roman will sharpen dark energy tests by 2026 to 2028.
Tianwen-2 hits halfway to Kamoʻoalewa, resetting the 2020s
China’s Tianwen-2 has crossed the midway point to Earth’s quasi-moon Kamoʻoalewa. The halfway image, a 2026 rendezvous plan, and a 2027 return window could reset small-body science, planetary defense, and the pace of sample missions.
IMAP leads a three-spacecraft space-weather stack at L1
Three new spacecraft are headed to the Sun–Earth L1 point to turn space-weather warnings into real operational minutes. Here is what each mission measures, why Solar Cycle 25’s peak makes timing crucial, and the milestones to watch next.
The Moon’s First LTE Switch-On Starts a Space Internet
A 25-minute activation of Nokia Bell Labs’ LTE box on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 proved that standards-based cellular can survive launch, landing, and lunar vacuum. Here is how that small spark can scale into an interoperable lunar internet for rovers, hoppers, and ISRU.
Starship Flight 11: the week reusability jumps a gear
Starship Flight 11 is set for October 13 with a new landing-burn profile and a workhorse heat shield. Here is how those choices set up pad catches, faster turnarounds, near-term lunar cargo, and a clear three-flight roadmap.
Chang’e‑6 rewrites the Moon: cooler, drier, stranger
New analyses of Chang'e-6 lunar samples reveal an ultra-dry farside mantle, cooler interior temperatures, and longer-lived volcanism, reshaping formation models and near-term choices for Artemis, CLPS, and Blue Moon.
JWST’s dark star hints ignite a high stakes cosmic test
In late September and early October 2025, four cosmic‑dawn objects in JWST data were flagged as possible dark stars, with one showing a tentative helium 1640 absorption. The debate is on; here is what to watch next and why it matters.
Rubin’s First Images Ignite the Real-Time Sky Movie Era
With first images now public, Rubin Observatory shifts from construction to action. Over the next decade, its rapid all-sky cadence will speed near-Earth asteroid discovery and turn fleeting cosmic events into same-day science.
A Rogue Planet’s Record Feast: Cha 1107‑7626 in Real Time
Astronomers watched rogue planet Cha 1107-7626 brighten through summer 2025 as torrents of gas rained down, a record accretion burst on a planetary-mass world. The flare reveals star-like magnetospheric funnels and sets up a roadmap for Roman, the ELT, and ALMA to turn orphan planets from hints into a census.
Neutron’s Virginia Pad Opens, A Third Reusable Contender
Rocket Lab has lit up Launch Complex 3 at Wallops Island, shifting Neutron from design to operations. If engines and sea recovery perform, the United States could have a third reusable medium-lift workhorse as early as 2026.
New Glenn’s NG-2 sets Mars course with NASA’s twin ESCAPADE
Blue Origins second New Glenn flight is set to carry NASAs twin ESCAPADE orbiters toward Mars, signaling a faster, lower-cost model for interplanetary science and a more competitive launch market.
Euclid’s deep fields are turning cosmology into a live map
Euclid’s March 2025 quick data release spans 63 square degrees and tens of millions of galaxies. It has already unlocked a wave of strong lens candidates and early cosmic web structure, setting up a faster, open, AI-powered path to DR1 in October 2026.
The asteroid that slipped under our satellites at 428 km
A couch-size asteroid crossed the same altitudes as the ISS and mega-constellations at just 428 kilometers. Here is what we missed, what it really threatened, and a 24-month plan to detect the next one before it arrives.
Oasis-1 Will Map Lunar Fuel and Metals for a Moon Economy
Blue Origin and Luxembourg have unveiled Oasis-1, an ultra low lunar orbiter built to map water ice, helium-3, and metal-rich geology. If it flies on schedule, high-resolution resource maps could move lunar refueling and power from idea to plan.
Sapphire Canyon’s clues make Mars Sample Return urgent
A new peer-reviewed study of Perseverance’s Sapphire Canyon core reports mineral textures and organics that often track with microbial activity on Earth. Here is why those clues make a lean, faster Mars Sample Return the most important mission of the 2030s.
The Solar Radar Era Begins: IMAP and SWFO‑L1 Launch
On September 24, 2025, IMAP and NOAA’s SWFO-L1 rode a Falcon 9 to L1, completing a Sun-to-Earth data chain with Parker Solar Probe. Space weather is shifting from art to infrastructure, enabling minute-to-day decisions for crews, launch ranges, and satellites.