March 11th, 2026
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China’s next robotic lunar mission, Chang’e-7, is slated for departure later this year. Its target is the Moon’s south pole in a search for and detection of water ice. “Scientists around the world believe there’s water on the Moon, but no one has found any yet. Now China is going to look for it,” said […]
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NASA’s firm-fixed-price contract approach relies on selected lunar Human Landing System (HLS ) providers to design, build, and demonstrate their own lander hardware. SpaceX is developing its Starship lander, while Blue Origin is working on its Blue Moon lander. A NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report has taken a hard look at […]
The World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland has posted International Women’s Day: What NASA’s latest astronaut picks tell us about gender equality. “NASA’s latest Astronaut Candidate Class is 60% female, a stellar celebration of International Women’s Day, marking a giant leap for equality in the space sector.” For the first time, NASA’s latest Astronaut Candidate […]
It came from outer space. A very bright fireball shot across the sky from the southwest to the northeast and observed by people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The Sunday, March 8th event glowed for roughly six seconds. The fireball left a visible trail in the sky before fracturing into pieces. Some […]
China’s Shenlong (“Divine Dragon”) space plane launched from the country’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on February 6 and continues on its fourth-ever orbital mission. What’s up with this mysterious winged craft, a vessel very similar to the U.S. Space Force X-37B robotic space plane, also now zipping around Earth on its […]
That menacing meanie of a space rock — Asteroid 2024 YR4 — was identified last year as the most dangerous asteroid discovered in the last 20 years. An early and intense international observation campaign reduced the risk of this asteroid impacting the Earth as zero. However, a 4% impact probability remained that the object […]
The NASA Authorization Act of 2026 has been unanimously passed, legislation that authorizes a first permanent Moon base. The Act also rejects President Trump’s budget cuts of the space agency, and extends the International Space Station (ISS) while supporting future commercial space stations. On March 4, S. 933, the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2025 […]
Back on blastoff day late last year, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched a three person crew toward the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But there was more “blast” to the November 27, 2025 liftoff than intended. That takeoff impacted the pad at Baikonur — Russia’s only active send-off site to support crewed […]
Mars Guy investigates a new finding from the NASA Curiosity Mars rover – tiny parallel lines. Curiosity uses an autonomous targeting system to look for interesting features for its laser-powered Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to shoot at. The rover recently targeted a spot that displays tiny parallel lines that don’t look natural. “Spoiler alert: […]
The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) has released an official announcement regarding this year’s planned activities. In 2026, the country’s human space program will further advance two major missions: space station application and development, and manned lunar exploration. “Aiming to achieve China’s first lunar landing before 2030,” the CMSEO stated, “the development and construction […]
