Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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October 15th, 2026
Artwork depicts the three SkyFall Mars helicopters collecting data while flying over the surface of the Red Planet.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Work has reached an accelerated mode in readying three Ingenuity-class helicopters for deployment at Mars by NASA’s Space Reactor‑1 Freedom spacecraft.
Slated for launch in 2028, SR-1 Freedom is the first fission nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft and is assigned the duty of dropping off the SkyFall entry capsule loaded with the trio of reconnoitering aerial vehicles at the Red Planet.
The SR-1 trajectory has Mars arrival of the SkyFall helicopters in northern spring to avoid dust storms.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story — “NASA’s SkyFall helicopters will ‘show us parts of Mars we’ve never seen before’, scientists say” – at:
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Image credit: Virgin Galactic
The suborbital Virgin Galactic’s next generation spaceship is on tap to evaluate sensor systems to collect space weather data during flights.
Under a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Virgin Galactic has joined research interests with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Warfare Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
Under the 24-month agreement, the spaceship will gather direct data at mesosphere and lower thermosphere levels during suborbital excursions – a region often tagged as the “ignorosphere.”
It’s a province not reachable by low-flying Earth orbiting satellites and high-flying aerial vehicles.
Credit: Virgin Galactic
Least-measured regions
“This layer of the atmosphere could shape everything from climate modeling to orbital tracking, yet it remains one of the least-measured regions of our planet,” noted Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses.
“We believe our spaceships can change that,” said Moses in a statement. “Our spaceships are built to fly into the mesosphere and lower thermosphere again and again. Each ship is designed to fly up to twice a week, and with our initial fleet we’re planning for around 125 flights a year, scaling to many more than that as the fleet grows. That’s a research cadence this region has never had,” he added.
Image credit: NOAA
Fill that gap
According to Shaun Ard, Senior Research Chemist at AFRL: “Understanding space weather dynamics in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere depends on consistent, high-quality observational data, which has remained limited at scale. This collaboration gives our researchers access to a platform particularly well-suited to fill that gap, supporting efforts to protect and advance space-based systems essential to modern infrastructure and exploration.”
Virgin Galactic signed a similar agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in December 2025.
Under that agreement, Virgin Galactic and LLNL are assessing the use of sensor systems aboard Virgin Galactic’s launch vehicle with the aim of gathering data and accelerating the development of next-generation high-altitude image-capture capabilities.
Image credit: NASA/Roscosmos
Late last week NASA launched its request for proposals via its “Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination Contract (CLDC).”
The October 9 RFP’s principal purpose is for NASA to acquire services from a commercially owned and operated LEO Destination that can provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective end-to-end services to succeed the International Space Station (ISS).
“This will ensure NASA has a sustained human presence in LEO for crew members to perform science and exploration,” the RFP explains.
For submissions to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, proposals are due by December 8, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. Central Time.
For a look at this RFP, go to:
https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/aee4374189ab4118b3ec0dcb00ae8408/view
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China is planning to open the country’s space station to other countries, intended to transform the orbital facility into a global research platform.
Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut and deputy chief designer of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), discussed the plan during the now underway 77th International Astronautical Congress in Türkiye’s Mediterranean city of Antalya.
In a China Central Television (CCTV) story, Yang noted that one of two Pakistani astronaut candidates — currently undergoing joint training with their Chinese counterparts – will carry out a short-duration flight mission as a payload specialist on the station in the second half of this year.
To date, 27 Chinese astronauts in 11 crews have been sent to live and work on the Tiangong space station, including the now-orbiting Shenzhou-23 team, who arrived at the outpost in late May.
Artwork depicts China’s Tiangong space station.
Image credit: China Manned Space Agency
Human Moon landing work underway
In related news, China Daily reports that China continues on a path to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. The country is “shifting from a long-term blueprint to tangible reality, with major infrastructure construction and hardware testing being carried out at pace by the nation’s space industry” the state-run news outlet adds.
The CMSA points out they are in full swing to push forward the construction of facilities and equipment required for lunar landing missions at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province.
Additionally, building of other ground support systems such as telemetry, tracking, command and communications, is underway, as are preparations for the landing site.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Major flight vehicles
Now in full-swing and progressing smoothly CMSA states, is development of major flight vehicles:
- the Long March 10 heavy-lift carrier rocket
- the Mengzhou crew spacecraft
- the Lanyue lunar lander
“A series of critical tests have been completed in succession, including the pad abort and the maximum dynamic pressure escape flight tests for the Mengzhou, the landing and takeoff tests for the Lanyue, and the static ignition and low-altitude flight tests for the Long March 10,” China Daily explains, citing the CMSA.
Chinese space authorities have been training astronauts for lunar expeditions, preparing them for the unique environment on the “silver sphere.” Once on the Moon, the major tasks of the Chinese astronauts will include driving a Tansuo rover to carry out scientific assignments and collect lunar samples.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Mars return sample
Viewed as the next step in its deep-space exploration program, China plans to collect martian samples and bring them back to Earth around 2028 via the Tianwen 3 mission. The primary scientific objective of this mission is to look for traces of life on the Red Planet.
Sun Zezhou, an expert on deep space exploration at the China Academy of Space Technology, told CCTV that the sample return Mars effort is challenging.
“At the beginning, we were also quite anxious when we encountered problems. We always had issues on various experiment. When the phone rang, we would feel nervous, thinking it was probably another experiment that didn’t turn out as expected,” Sun said. “We progressed and kept on testing key technologies on the ground. The more problems we encountered, the fewer errors we would face in the future, that is the rule.”
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Among the planets in the solar system, Mars is the most similar celestial body to Earth, said Sun.
“If we compare Earth as a young adult in its prime, Mars is more like an elder in its twilight years. As for the exploration of Mars, to put it most simply and directly, we want to understand the evolutionary process of our close neighbor and what insights it can offer us,” Sun concluded.
For details on China’s Mars sample return program, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2164187321174141
Image credit: China Daily/People’s Daily Online
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; left, Christina Koch, mission specialist; CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; and NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, right, pose for a group photo after viewing the Orion spacecraft in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The quartet splashed down Friday, April 10.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
More than 800 gigabytes of Artemis II lunar science data – some of it previously unreleased – was released today, posted to NASA’s Planetary Data System.
Most of the images from the mission were previously made public – although this Oct. 7 release is the official data archive with high resolution imagery and robust metadata.
Audio recordings
Other new material coming out includes the crew’s notes with annotated images, nearly a thousand new photos and videos from vehicle cameras, and more than 8.5 hours of audio recordings of the crew’s scientific observations from the lunar flyby.
In addition, a number of reports were issued, detailing lessons learned about integrating science into Mission Control.
Flash in the Pan…orama!
While not “moonbreaking” science results — those will come later with scientific publishing – there’s a treasure trove of Artemis II insights, including audio recordings of the four-person crew are as they observe the Moon, seeing flashes resulting from lunar impactors.
Interactive website
“The Artemis II Lunar Science Team is very proud to announce the release of an interactive multimedia web page exploring today’s release as well as three reports to accompany the data,” noted Kelsey Young, Artemis II Lunar Science Lead, on behalf of the Artemis II Lunar Science Team.
Image credit: NASA
Visit the interactive website at:
https://science.nasa.gov/feature/artemis-ii-preliminary-lunar-science-report/
Lunar science in this historic mission of Artemis II comes the first mission reports on crewed exploration of the Moon since the 1970’s, Young said.
A new beginning
“Our entire team put everything we had into not only the mission but in bringing these items to you today. Though our time as the active Lunar Science Team is ending, today marks a new beginning of you, the lunar community, being able to use the data to advance science discovery with this new tool in the planetary science toolbox,” said Young.
Data archives
The NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) announced the release of the data
archives from the Artemis II mission.
This release contains source, raw, processed, derived, browse, and document products from the
mission: crew handheld camera images, Orion vehicle camera images and video,
mission audio with transcripts and crew annotations, Orion storage locker
temperature and humidity data, mission documents, and SPICE kernels. The data
are archived at various PDS nodes.
Mission documents and Orion environment data at the Geosciences Node
Crew camera, Orion camera, and mission audio data at the Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node
SPICE data at the NAIF Node
The data may be accessed at:
https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/artemis2/index.htm
Or for a bundle-oriented view:
https://pds.nasa.gov/datasearch/subscription-service/SS-20261007.shtml
Images acquired by the crew with the Apple iPhone 17 are not included in this delivery and will be archived at a later date, according to the PDS team.
Image credit: NASA
Check out these detailed reports and data user guide at:
ARTEMIS II PRELIMINARY LUNAR SCIENCE REPORT:
ARTEMIS II LUNAR SCIENCE DATA USER GUIDE:
ARTEMIS II LUNAR SCIENCE OPERATIONS REPORT:
Image credit: NASA
Image credit: NASA
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Image credit: NASA
Hear from the Artemis II crew about impact flashes — bursts of light caused by pieces of space debris hitting the ground — that they saw while they were on the other side of the Moon, during a planned loss of comms.
Here’s what it was like at two key points in the story: when the crew witnessed the flashes, and when the Lunar Science Team received the news back at Mission Control.
Image credit: NASA
What else did the Artemis II crew see around the Moon? Their photographs, observations, drawings, and annotations created a unique scientific record that’s now available for you to explore:
https://go.nasa.gov/Artemis2LunarScience
Download this video (and additional versions) here:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/15103
The impact flash observations happened during a planned loss of communications while the Artemis II crew was on the far side of the Moon. Here’s what it was like at two key points in the story: when the crew witnessed the flashes, and when the Lunar Science Team received the news at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center in Houston.
Image credit: NASA
Earth’s Moon is a historical landmark – a celestial body continually peppered with robotic landers shot from our home planet as well as being an in-your-face world dotted with human footprints planted there by a dozen visiting moonwalkers from 1969 to 1972.
A recent gathering in Italy of the International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage looked at protecting lunar heritage with an eye towards guidelines for spacecraft de-orbiting onto the Moon’s surface.
Particular attention was paid to the risks posed by the impacts of de-orbited satellites and rocket stages, recently highlighted by the crash of a SpaceX upper stage onto the Moon’s surface last August.
As pointed out in the meeting, as lunar traffic increases, controlled crash landings of orbiters and rocket stages are becoming an attractive and sustainable end-of-mission disposal strategy.
Image credit: Korea Aerospace Administration
And that’s a problem.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Can we protect historic sites on the moon from the coming lunar rush?” – at:
Image credit: NASA
Could Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon be pushing the United States to a “Sputnik Moment” – the Cold War ‘heebie-jeebies’ stirred up when the former Soviet Union lofted Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to circle Earth in 1957?
Blake Burman, host of NewsNation’s “The Hill” broadcast aired on September 25, sat down with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to discuss a range of space issues. And one of those was probing the space agency chief about what Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) might be.
For details, go to my new Space.com story — “NASA chief Jared Isaacman wants to stay ‘open-minded’ about UFOs: ‘If it’s aliens, I think NASA should have a seat at the table’” – at:
Ground-based optical observations of the Queensland superbolide.
Image credit: Elizabeth A. Silber et al
Back on May 20, 2023, an asteroid plowed into Earth’s atmosphere over northwest Queensland, Australia. It produced 1 of the 20 most energetic bolide events reported by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) since 1988. It also was the most energetic fireball observed over Australia since satellite reporting began in 1988.
The Queensland superbolide has undergone significant scrutiny in a new research paper published by the American Astronomical Society.
Catastrophic fragmentation
The 3.7 meter diameter asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere over northwest Queensland, Australia, at and underwent catastrophic fragmentation at roughly 18 miles (29 kilometers) altitude.
The Queensland superbolide event provides an end-to-end observational benchmark for atmospheric entry models and planetary defense, reports the new research paper, led by Elizabeth Silber, a senior research and development physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Silber and colleagues present a multimodal analysis that brings together CNEOS optical data, trajectory determination, infrasound detections at six International Monitoring System stations, seismic observations, as well as thermal infrared imagery obtained by the Himawari-9 geostationary satellite.
Energy released
This 2023 event yielded a brilliant fireball visible from distances exceeding 600 kilometers and was accompanied by pronounced sonic booms.
Contextual map showing the event (star) and the six IMS stations, which detected the fireball (red triangles). Other nearby IMS stations that did not have any detections are also shown (black triangles).
Image credit: Elizabeth A. Silber et al
US Government (USG) space-based sensors, reported through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), recorded the total radiated energy released by the bolide, roughly 7.1 kilotons TNT equivalent.
Infrasound observations independently confirmed a multikiloton source, with Silber and colleagues reporting the first nighttime detection and mass quantification of a bolide dust cloud from geostationary orbit. That cloud persisted for over one hour, the research team notes, and yielded a dust mass of 10.9–32.8 metric tons (14%–43% of the pre-atmospheric mass).
Lingering dust cloud
That thermal infrared imagery from the Japanese Himawari-9 geostationary weather satellite captured the evolution of a lingering dust cloud at the burst altitude.
“To our knowledge, this represents the first detection and mass quantification of a bolide dust cloud using nighttime thermal infrared observations from geostationary orbit, providing an independent constraint on the disrupted mass of the impacting body through a technique previously applied only to volcanic ash,” explain the scientists analyzing the event.
As recorded by USG sensors, the optical brightness profile reveals multiple and distinct luminosity peaks, indicative of episodic fragmentation during the bolide’s atmospheric plunge.
US Government sensor derived lightcurve as a function of altitude of the bolide event.
Image credit: Elizabeth A. Silber et al
The International Monitoring System stations are operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Preparatory Commission. It is a global network of 53 (of a planned 60) infrasound stations designed for illicit explosion monitoring.
Search and recovery attempt
Interestingly, the incident also involved a meteorite search and recovery attempt. A team was dispatched to search for meteorite fragments within the bounds of the fall site near Blackbull for 7 days, between June 19-26, 2023. The search group took one day to rest midweek due to high temperatures at the fall site, however, no meteorites were recovered.
Photo showing the meteorite searching ground. Significant coverage of the ground by grasses and vegetation made searching for meteorite fragments extremely difficult.
Image credit: Elizabeth A. Silber et al
The small size of the predicted fragments, the heavily vegetated and the challenging and remote search terrain, including rugged terrain, dense vegetation, and limited accessibility within the predicted strewn field – all of these factors likely reduced the probability of successful recovery, the research paper indicates.
The Queensland superbolide is notable for the low altitude of its principal fragmentation and terminal disruption, with the research paper highlighting a number of other cross-discipline lessons learned that the event yielded.
For a look at this impressive, open access research paper – “The 2023 May 20 Queensland Superbolide: Multimodal Observations from Atmospheric Entry to Postdisruption Dust Cloud” – go to:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae9285/meta
Earth’s orbital environment is a finite resource.
That being the case, some Earth orbits are so crowded and carry deadly, high-velocity pieces of defunct satellite litter and rocket stages they jeopardize humanity’s future in space.
Today’s scenery in space is not a pretty picture.
And that’s the output from experts at the European Space Agency (ESA), waving a number of cautionary flags in its new Space Environment Report 2026.
For more explicit details, go to my new Space.com story – The risk of space debris falling to Earth and causing deaths — and is growing — experts say, go to:
