May 21st, 2026
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China’s next human spaceflight is near at hand as technicians conducted a whole-system rehearsal for the piloted Shenzhou-23 mission to the country’s space station. The crewed spaceship will depart the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The combination of the spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket was transferred to the launching area last Saturday, with all […]
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The twelfth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch today, Thursday, May 21. The launch window will open at 5:30 p.m. “Central Texas Time” (CT). As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change. For status reports, keep an eye on this site […]
On Mars, could a robot get ticketed for swerving across Martian sands? Not if you’re VaMEx – short for the Valles Marineris Explorer – a wheeled automaton that makes swimming motions to explore the vast valley on the Red Planet. VaMEx is an initiative of the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). […]
There is no doubt that the Moon is a Disneyland of dust. Past moonwalkers have attested to that fact. The lunar surface cycles between hot and super-chilly temperature swings. It receives unfiltered solar radiation, solar wind flux, and continuous micrometeoroid bombardment. In the absence of atmospheric protection, the Moon’s landscape is exposed to radiation and […]
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of War released what it termed “new, never-before-seen files” on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, tagging it as a historic effort in transparency. The Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) collection came courtesy of the Trump administration’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, also known as PURSUE, in catch and release […]
Since the inception of the Human Landing System (HLS) program in 2019, NASA has obligated nearly $7 billion to lander development. It is projected that NASA will spend over $18 billion through fiscal year 2030. SpaceX and Blue Origin will design, build, and own their landers, while NASA will purchase the landing services. However, both […]
New research highlights growing risks to public understanding of “planetary defense” – an area of science that deals with the threat to Earth from asteroid and comet impacts, with potentially global consequences. Research professor Mark Boslough at The University of New Mexico has led the effort to appraise how misinformation emerges, spreads and persists in […]
The combination of the Shenzhou-23 piloted spacecraft atop the Long March-2F Y23 carrier rocket started its transfer over the weekend to a launch area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China. China’s crewed rocket launch adopts a method where, after the rocket and spacecraft arrive at the site, a series of pre-launch preparations are […]
Newly released images show NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover completing a new drilling into a large block target. This action comes after the robot’s drill became lodged into the “Atacama” drill hole. A careful dance of robot arm motions were employed — each one diligently planned by the team — to free Curiosity’s drill from the […]
NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) has released the 2026 Small Spacecraft Technology State-of-the-Art report. This report provides an extensive overview and assessment of the state-of-the-art (SoA) for smallspacecraft technologies publicly available as of April 2026. The report flags the fact that the pace of SmallSat technology advancement overall is rapidly accelerating. “Recent […]
