Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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October 20th, 2025
China’s Shenzhou-20 crew.
Image credit: CMSA/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Shenzhou-20 space station crew has been in orbit more than 170 days and are preparing for returning to Earth, slated for late October.
Now onboard China’s Tiangong space station, Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, continue a full agenda of space research tasks.
Since entering the space station in late April, the taikonaut trio have performed numerous research experiments prior to ending their six-month mission.
Behavioral tests
According to China Central Television (CCTV), in the field of space medicine, the crew has utilized laptops and specialized equipment to complete behavioral tests for several experiments, including studies on visual fields, functional training, and metacognitive monitoring.
They have also conducted Electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments to gather data on the effects of long-term spaceflight on a person’s perception and cognitive abilities.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Additionally, they have looked into perception of gravity from visual motion using a visual function measurement device, eye tracker, and testing software.
Metabolism measurements
The crew have collected and preserved saliva samples to study how changes in gut microbiota during long-term spaceflight affect human’s metabolism and gastrointestinal function.
The space travelers have also used a space Raman spectrometer to analyze metabolites in urine samples, with the collected information aimed at improving the metabolic indicator system and evaluation criteria.
China’s Tiangong space station as imaged by MAXAR satellite.
Image credit: MAXAR
Ultrasounding
In materials science, the crew has utilized a containerless cabinet experiment chamber, changed out samples, maintained the electrodes of the hardware, and replaced window cover lenses. Additionally, they have also installed samples for the fifth batch of microbial control technology cultivation chips, CCTV reports.
As for health monitoring, the Shenzhou-20 crew has performed ultrasounds on their abdomen, muscles, and cardiovascular system to help gauge their health during their stint in space.
Lastly, part of their tasks have them carrying out routine equipment inspections and station management activities.
For a new look at life onboard China’s space station, go to:
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The Launch of Rocket Lab by Peter Griffin, with introduction by Sir Peter Beck, Published by Blackwell & Ruth and distributed by Abrams Books; 312 pages; Hardcover, $60.00.
This stunning, large format book, tells the engaging story of Rocket Lab and how Peter Beck founded this powerhouse of an enterprise. As a self-taught rocket engineer without a college degree, Beck’s garage-based start-up in New Zealand has led to a 2,500 people strong, $22-plus billion publicly traded company now headquartered in Long Beach, California.
This compelling and well-written tale is authored by Peter Griffin, a New Zealand-based science and technology journalist who has been covering emerging technology, start-ups, and the tech sector for decades.
Illustrated by 175 color and black & white images, what’s portrayed in the volume is a first in-depth view of Rocket Lab’s past and where Beck and colleagues foresee as its future. Thanks to firsthand accounts from the engineers and team, The Launch of Rocket Lab delivers an enthralling behind-the-scenes look at this highly successful space company.
Imagineer, Peter Beck
“Somewhere between unlikely and impossible is where magic happens,” explains Beck. “This book captures the essence of Rocket Lab’s spirit. It’s not just a chronicle of our achievements but a testament to what can be accomplished when you dare to try and refuse to give up,” he explains in the volume’s introduction.
“Everyone thinks you are crazy until you do it; then you are just called a visionary,” Beck observes.
The book is divided into three parts: “Looking Upwards”; “The Age of Electron”; and “The Next Frontiers.” The contents are remarkably fresh, including Rocket Lab’s work on the CAPSTONE lunar mission, the soon-to-launch ESCAPADE Mars probes, the group’s highly anticipated Venus Life Finder mission, and nifty details about building the up-and-coming Neutron booster.
Venus Life Finder.
Image credit: Rocket Lab
Captured as well is the company’s funding challenges, near-misses, and failed missions – a non-hiccup-free journey to developing Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher.
Hat’s off to those laying out The Launch of Rocket Lab that tastefully makes use of breathtaking imagery that gives the book a feeling of time, space, and the thirst to thrust into space and set your sights on the unknown.
“Outsized ambition is really the story of Rocket Lab,” writes Griffin, the book’s author. “Rocket Lab is laying the groundwork for a future where it looks likely to play a pivotal role in the shape of the commercial space sector,” he adds.
Indeed, this story of innovation and stick-to-it passion should also become a lessons-learned short-course for fledgling space start-ups.
For more information on this book, go to:
https://www.blackwellandruth.com/books
Note: Special thanks to Kate Greenberg of Arply for the book and press materials.
The Red Planet as seen by Europe’s Mars Express.
Image credit: ESA/D. O’Donnell – CC BY-SA IGO
Future missions dedicated to searching for live today on Mars will require a clear understanding of the organic biosignature degradation processes in the planet’s shallow icy subsurface.
“We found that amino acids in the surface ice on Mars would survive over 50 million years of cosmic ray exposure, which is far greater than the expected age of the current surface ice deposits on Mars,” reports Alexander Pavlov of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Sampling location
Pavlov and colleagues explain that, based on their experiments, “locations with pure ice or ice-dominated permafrost would be the best places to look for recently deposited amino acids on Mars and, thus, should be considered as a target sampling location for future Mars missions searching for extant life.”
Image credit: ESA
The research — “Slow Radiolysis of Amino Acids in Mars-Like Permafrost Conditions: Applications to the Search for Extant Life on Mars” — has been published in the September 2025 issue of Astrobiology.
High chance of survival
Ice deposits on Mars have sublimated and continue to sublimate from low and mid-latitudes and redeposit in the polar regions of the Red Planet.
“Thus, any surface ice was exposed to ionizing radiation for a few million years. Therefore, if an abiotic or biological amino acid were deposited in the surface ice matrix on Mars somehow (e.g., spores or interplanetary dust particles), it would have a high chance of survival,” Pavlov and team members point out.
Mars expedition probes the promise that Mars was a home address for past, possibly life today.
Credit: NASA
Based on the results of this study, locations with pure ice and ice-dominated permafrost should be the best places to look for recently deposited amino acids on Mars, they conclude.
Buried water that freezes and does not melt in summer is called permafrost, common here on Earth in polar regions on Earth. On Mars it is planet wide.
To access the full paper — “Slow Radiolysis of Amino Acids in Mars-Like Permafrost Conditions: Applications to the Search for Extant Life on Mars” – go to:
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15311074251366249
Estimated drop zone of the Long March 8A Launch.
Image credit: PhilSA
Once again, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) has posted an advisory regarding rocket debris stemming from launch of a Chinese rocket.
Leftovers from China’s Long March 8A booster were projected by PhilSA to have fallen within identified drop zones approximately 118 nautical miles away from El Nido, Palawan, 137 nautical miles away from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, 45 nautical miles away from Tubbataha Reef Natural Park, and 34 nautical miles away from Hadji Muhtamad, Basilan.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Internet satellites
The Long March 8A rocket was launched from the Hainan International Commercial Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan early morning on October 16. This launch deployed the 12th group of low-orbit Internet satellites – and also marked the 600th launch of China’s Long March rocket series.
Details of the rocket drop zones were disclosed through a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) warning of an “aerospace flight activity.” PhilSA disseminated a pre-launch report to relevant government agencies and authorities prior to the launch.
Falling debris
“Unburned debris from rockets, such as the booster and fairing, are designed to be discarded as the rocket enters outer space,” the PhilSA advisory notes. “While not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas, falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats, and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone.”
Another China launch, another day of picking up the pieces. This photo was taken of China booster recovery earlier this year, back on August 14.
Image credit: Philippine Coast Guard
Additionally, PhilSA said there is also a possibility for the debris to float around the area and wash toward nearby coasts. “Additionally, the possibility of an uncontrolled re-entry to the atmosphere of the rocket’s upper stages returning from outer space cannot be ruled out at this time,” the advisory explains.
“PhilSA reiterates its advice for the public to inform local authorities if suspected debris is sighted. PhilSA also cautions against retrieving or coming in close contact with these materials that may contain remnants of toxic substances such as rocket fuel,” the advisory points out.
Image credit: Rohan Goes/Inside Outer Space screengrab
It appears that China’s Xinjishu Yanzheng 7 (XJY-7) spacecraft made a stunning sky show as it reentered October 16 over Tenerife, Canary Islands at around 3 a.m. local time.
The nearly 3-ton (2,700 kilograms) satellite was lofted in late December 2020 as New Technology Experiment No. 7 (XJY ) developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CAST). Some reports say it evaluated radar-scanning gear.
XJY-7 was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China by a Long March 8 Yao-1 carrier rocket.
Artwork depicting XJY-7 in orbit/.
Image credit: CCTV
“Resulting sky track matches well with what all-sky cameras recorded,” reports Marco Langbroek, a specialist in space situational awareness in the Netherlands. “Spanish research partners report to me there are detections by seismic stations as well,” he said.
One resident in Arona in the southern part of the island of Tenerife reported very loud explosions.
Meanwhile, Rohan Goes, posted a video on X that captured the sky fall.
Go to:
https://x.com/i/status/1978652462132191607
Also go to this video at:
Clutter in the cosmos.
Credit: Used with permission: Melrae Pictures/Space Junk 3D
A new and novel protection product has been created, ideal for fending off space junk. And what better name for that creation than “Space Armor (TM),” a multi-functional composite for spacecraft and astronauts.
Space Armor (TM) is fabricated with a proprietary fiber-to-resin manufacturing method courtesy of Atomic-6 of Marietta, Georgia.
“Satellites and astronauts are constantly threatened by millions of untrackable, hypervelocity particles in orbit,” states Atomic-6. “Like a loose pebble hitting your windshield on the highway, orbital debris can strike at any time to do significant damage to spacecraft.”
“We took the shot at making a tile and were blown away by the test results.”
For more details on this novel anti-debris technology, go to my new Space.com story at – “New space debris shield? Satellites and astronauts could suit up in novel ‘Space Armor’ – at:
Photo illustration by Thomas Gaulkin for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ January 2022 issue (used with permission)
Vanguard I satellite, a component of the Vanguard Project, is a small aluminum sphere designed to partake in the International Geophysical Year (IGY) — a series of coordinated observations of various geophysical phenomena during solar maximum, spanning July 1957 through December 1958.
Image credit: NASA
Back in 2022, it turns out that the longest-lived object in Earth orbit and a Russian rocket body passed within roughly 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers) from each other.
That U.S. non-operational payload was Vanguard 1, according to Darren McKnight, a senior technical fellow of LeoLabs, a group dedicated to space domain awareness.
In a conjunction review of the situation, McKnight notes that on August 29, 2022, an SL-14 Russian rocket body launched in 1986 and Vanguard 1 found themselves in close collision at an altitude of approximately 590 miles (950 kilometers) altitude above Earth.
Close-call events
“This conjunction was discovered when searching for events with the oldest object in Earth orbit: Vanguard 1,” McKnight reports.
Built by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Vanguard 1 was launched in March 1958 into a highly elliptical orbit (currently at roughly 3,800 kilometers by roughly 650 kilometers).
“As such, it spends most of its time outside of low Earth orbit (LEO). However, despite this non-treacherous orbit relative to most of the LEO population,” McKnight adds that the old Vanguard 1 has had a trio of close-call events since January of 2022.
Instrumentation onboard Vanguard 1 included a set of mercury batteries, a transmitter, two temperature sensors, and a beacon powered by six square solar cells — the first satellite on-orbit to be powered by photovoltaic cells. It remains the oldest artificial object orbiting Earth to this day.
Image credit: Naval Research Laboratory
Transiting space
“While the satellite has been orbiting the Earth for more than 67 years, the battery-powered transmitter onboard the spacecraft only lasted three months and its solar-powered transmitter remained functional for six years,” McKnight explains.
Transiting the space environment all these decades, Vanguard 1 has chalked up a distance equal to two roundtrips from the Earth to Pluto, McKnight notes.
Save Vanguard 1?
Recently, there was a new push to save Vanguard 1, snagging the tiny satellite and safely returning it to Earth.
A team that includes aerospace engineers, historians and writers recently proposed “how-to” options for an up-close look and possible retrieval of Vanguard 1.
Go to my Space.com story earlier this year – “Vanguard 1 is the oldest satellite orbiting Earth. Scientists want to bring it home after 67 years” – at:
Vanguard 1 launches in March 1958 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral Florida.
Image credit: Naval Research Laboratory
Image credit: SpaceX
On Monday, October 13, 2025, at 6:23 p.m. Central “Texas” Time, the SpaceX Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas on its eleventh flight test.
Go to this replay at:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-11
Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Following the flight, SpaceX posted this mission success update:
This was the final flight of the second-generation Starship and first generation Super Heavy booster, as well as the final launch from the current configuration of Pad 1. Every major objective of the flight test was achieved, providing valuable data as we prepare the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy.
The flight test began with Super Heavy igniting all 33 Raptor engines and ascending over the Gulf. The successful first-stage ascent was followed by a hot-staging maneuver, with Starship’s upper stage igniting its six Raptor engines to continue its flight to space.
Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Boostback burn
Following stage separation, the Super Heavy booster completed its boostback burn to put it on a course to a pre-planned splashdown zone off the coast of Texas using 12 of the 13 planned engines.
Under the same angle of attack tested on the previous flight, the booster descended until successfully igniting all 13 planned engines (including one that did not relight during the boostback burn) for the high-thrust portion of the landing burn.
The booster successfully executed a unique landing burn planned for use on the next generation booster. Super Heavy hovered above the water before shutting down its engines and splashing down.
Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Starlink simulators
After completing a full-duration ascent burn, Starship achieved its planned velocity and trajectory.
During flight, Starship successfully deployed eight Starlink simulators and executed the third in-space relight of a Raptor engine, demonstrating a critical capability for future deorbit burns.
Starship re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and was able to gather extensive data on the performance of its heatshield as it was intentionally stressed to test the limits of the vehicle’s capabilities.
Image credit: SpaceX
Banking maneuver
In the final minutes of flight, Starship performed a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly. Starship then guided itself using its four flaps to the pre-planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean, successfully executing a landing flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown.
Focus now turns to the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy, with multiple vehicles currently in active build and preparing for tests.
Image credit: SpaceX
This next iteration will be used for the first Starship orbital flights, operational payload missions, propellant transfer, and more as we iterate to a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle with service to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Image credit: SpaceX
SpaceX Starship’s eleventh flight test is ready to launch as soon as today, Monday, October 13. The launch window will open at 6:15 p.m. Central “Texas” Time (CT). For live coverage of the launch starting about one-half hour before liftoff, go to:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-11
Go to video clip at:
https://x.com/i/status/1977733468663562742
For launch details, go to:
SpaceX Starship: Flight Test Eleven Details
https://www.leonarddavid.com/spacex-starship-flight-test-eleven-details/
Image credit: SpaceX
Image credit: Mars Guy/NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars Guy looks at the surprising condition of spacesuit materials after 4+ years on Mars, outfitted to NASA’s Perseverance rover now exploring Jezero Crater.
“Every mission to the surface of Mars has in some way helped prepare for the eventual arrival of humans,” explains Mars Guy. “But no mission has gone as far as Perseverance with its effort to test the materials that will keep astronauts alive on the surface.”
Image credit: Mars Guy/NASA/JPL-Caltech
Go to the video at:
