Space

A faint methane glow above dwarf planet Makemake changes how we explore the Kuiper Belt. Here is a practical two-track plan, from a real-time Kuiper Belt Watch to a lean flyby that rides a Jupiter assist.

A fresh Uranus moon from JWST and crisp April 2025 occultations reshape ring hazards and entry conditions. Here is a concrete two-year plan to de-risk and fast-track a Uranus Orbiter and Probe.

NASA has funded two rival paths to land a Mars Ascent Vehicle and bring Perseverance’s samples home. Lock the right interfaces in 2025, hold the 2026 downselect, and Earth could see Mars rocks in the mid‑2030s. Slip again, and China may claim first return.

NASA has brought VIPER back by tasking Blue Origin to prepare a 2027 south pole delivery. The option depends on Blue Moon MK1 completing its first landing later in 2025, a pivotal test for lunar logistics.

On October 3, 2025, the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS makes a rare pass by Mars. Here is what telescopes are racing to learn now—and the four concrete steps space agencies should lock in before the next one appears.

A new Nature Astronomy result reports complex organics in freshly ejected Enceladus plume ice, strengthening the case for a fast-tracked orbiter-lander. Here is a pragmatic plan to pivot funding and schedules now and make a definitive life search fly in the 2030s.

NASA has hired Katalyst Space Technologies to rendezvous with the Swift Observatory and push it to a safer orbit in 2026, a first-of-its-kind commercial capture that could reset how agencies extend satellite lifetimes in low Earth orbit.

Targeted for mid October 2025, SpaceX’s Flight 11 will trial a five engine landing burn and harsher heat shield conditions. Here is what those choices signal about rapid reuse, near term cislunar logistics, and how a clean run could pull 2026 to 2027 milestones forward.

China launched Tianwen-2 to sample Earth’s quasi-satellite Kamo‘oalewa and return material by 2027 before continuing on to active asteroid 311P/PANSTARRS. The dual-target mission showcases solar-electric propulsion and has clear planetary-defense value.

Parker Solar Probe’s 2025 inside-the-corona passes are turning solar physics into engineering data. Live readings of wind lanes, magnetic switchbacks, and CME birth zones now map directly to decisions for crews, constellations, and power grids.

ESA’s BepiColombo will now target Mercury orbit in November 2026 after a thruster power shortfall. The reroute preserves core goals, adds rich flyby science, and times the main campaign with an active Sun that could supercharge magnetosphere and exosphere results.

Peer-reviewed results from Chang'e 6 show the lunar farside mantle is ultra-dry, with fresh clues about long-lived volcanism and a surprising magnetic rebound. Here is what that means for ISRU bets, south pole site choices, Artemis vs ILRS strategy, and what to fly next.

Two commercial landers touched down days apart. Firefly’s Blue Ghost worked through a full lunar day, while Intuitive Machines’ Athena landed near the south pole and operated for just 12 hours on its side. Here is what those bookend outcomes proved about LTE comms, PRIME-1, and Artemis surface logistics.

LSST commissioning has begun, and Rubin Observatory’s minute-scale alerts are about to flood astronomy with millions of nightly signals. Here is how real-time discovery will reshape planetary defense, interstellar targets, and fast transients, and how to turn the firehose into results.

Hubble’s ultraviolet spectra caught nitrogen and water rich debris raining onto a nearby white dwarf. It is the clearest sign yet of an exo Kuiper Belt and how icy bodies seed rocky worlds.

ESA’s Proba-3 turns totality into a scheduled lab. By flying two small satellites 150 meters apart, the mission creates hours-long artificial eclipses that reveal the Sun’s inner corona and sharpen CME forecasts.

NASA has launched a dual-architecture race to bring Perseverance's samples home while China advances Tianwen-3 for a 2028 to 2031 return. What changed, the science we must not lose, and how the outcome could reshape Mars exploration this decade.

NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes are back at Astrotech in Florida for a fall launch on Blue Origin’s New Glenn. The mission will map Mars space weather to sharpen habitability science and reduce mission risk, while pointing to a faster, cheaper model for planetary exploration.