May 7th, 2026
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If the winds and whims of politics play out, U.S. President Donald Trump is to trek to Beijing for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14 and 15. No telling the outcome(s) from such a two-nation mind meld given the entourage that will accompany Trump, folks that typically engage in off-stage banter […]
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After “re-booting” the moon and establishing a base there, followed by dispatching expeditionary crews to the Red Planet…where to after that? Next month, a first of its kind gathering will blueprint an eventual human trek to tantalizing Titan, a giant moon of Saturn. An inaugural “Humans to Titan Summit” is on tap to make the […]
Planetary protection sounds like some sort of essential cosmic condom. The ongoing quest to look for life on other planetary bodies demands that we don’t haul life from Earth via spacecraft, a downer of a dilemma called forward contamination. At present, spacecraft microbial reduction protocols for outward-bound spacecraft prioritize bacterial spores. But it appears there […]
The Atacama drill target on Mars presented a challenge to the Curiosity rover and to the rover team reports William Farrand, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute. Downlinked data from the Mars machinery indicating that a successful drill hole was made in the Atacama target, Farrand explains, “but the rock being drilled […]
China’s Shenzhou-21 crew — Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang — has begun their one-month extended mission aboard the country’s Tiangong space station. The taikonaut trio entered the space station on November 1, 2025. The threesome have completed their initial six-month stay in orbit and are now working an extra month in space. With […]
“There was excitement in the air as the Curiosity Science Team kicked off a drill campaign at the Atacama site to characterize the first Mount Sharp layered-sulfate bedrock since leaving the boxwork terrain,” explains Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum A recent three-sol plan (4873-4875) focused on “drill […]
Expect new breakthroughs in China’s space exploration program in the near future. Leading researchers at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) note that critical space missions are scheduled this year and next. China will launch its latest lunar probe and its Hubble-class Xuntian Space Telescope, as well as hundreds of satellites to support […]
The Artemis II crew and NASA chief, Jared Isaacman, took part April 29, 2026 in White House discussion of that mission and the future of America’s return to the Moon plans. Go to: https://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/artemis-ii-crew-visits-the-oval/ President Trump welcomes the astronauts of the Artemis II mission to the Oval Office at: https://www.youtube.com/live/4hLYFGv9ktM?si=08P7Ybz2PUMHhcll
Colorado Springs, Colorado – Asteroid Apophis is a major rocky world visitor that in 2029 is whisking by Earth but also serves as a wake-up call for getting our planetary defense act together. This Friday the 13th 2029 Apophis passage is stirring up — as luck would have it — considerable multi-nation action plans […]
Earth’s moon is to be on the receiving end of a spent rocket stage in early August – the leftovers from a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch last year. Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched on January 15, 2025 and performed the first fully successful commercial lunar landing on March […]
