Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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August 8th, 2026
Taking LEO Off the Board: Russian Thinking About Anti-Satellite Warfare is authored by Aaron Stein, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).
“The Soviet Union and Russia have invested in anti-satellite weapons to ensure that their nuclear deterrent remains credible. For both the Soviet Union and Russia, the destruction of American satellites was (and is) viewed as part of the country’s broader nuclear war plan and part of the opening salvo in a nuclear conflict with the United States,” Stein writes.
Spurred by an influx of spending for the upcoming Golden Dome space-based interceptor architecture, Stein points out that “Russian planners are increasingly incentivized to further bypass traditional treaty norms and leverage co-orbital nuclear weapons to achieve a catastrophic mass-kill of low-earth orbit tracking networks and space-based defenses.”
Image credit: DIA
Stein explains that the future is certain to feature a more militarized space domain.
For Stein to “take LEO off the board,” means that Russia could leverage a nuclear weapon to mass kill commercial satellites, including US space-based missile defense.
For sure such a tactic would also harm Russian satellites.
“However, given the rapid expansion of targets, the redundancies the US is now building, and the decreasing cost of launch,” Stein observes, “Russian strategists are thinking about how to negate these advantages. The urgency is certain to continue, as the United States continues to explore and invest in space-based missile defense.”
To access the report – “Taking LEO Off the Board: Russian Thinking About Anti-Satellite Warfare” – at:
https://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/web_stein-rsi-may-2026.pdf
Posted in 
Artistic interpretation of a reported incident potentially involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) near Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2023.
Image credit: Deptartment of Wars/FBI
The Department of War has published the fifth release of data regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
Chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said:
“Today, the Department of War is publishing the fifth release of declassified and historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The collection continues to be housed on WAR.GOV/UFO, and the Department will release additional files on a rolling basis.”
Go to:
Image credit: CCTV/IGCAGS/Inside Outer Space screengrab
A Chinese research team has completed an updated geologic map of the entire Moon featuring a scale of 1:5 million.
China’s Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (IGCAGS) detailed the geologic map on August 6.
Beyond its scientific data, the 2.8-by-1.2-meter map introduces a proprietary cartographic standard that identifies over 13,500 impact craters and 81 basins.
“This standard will be extended to future planetary geologic mapping, establishing an independent intellectual property framework for China’s deep space exploration,” said Yang Zhiming, director of the IGCAGS.
Rewriting geologic history of the Moon
Yang said the newly-released lunar map represents a significant scientific iteration from the 2024 version, adding that the map effectively rewrites the Moon’s geologic history based on the latest research findings.
“The lunar geologic history has indeed been rewritten — more precisely, refined and systematized,” said Yang.
Image taken by mini-rover of Change’-6 lander/ascender spacecraft on the far side of the Moon.
Image credit: CNSA
State-run Xinhua news agency reports that the new map “systematically updates the age boundaries of the Moon’s three ancient geologic periods, namely the Aitkenian, Nectarian and Imbrian periods, drawing on recent advances in international chronology.”
Return samples
Xinhua also adds that the Chang’e-5 returned to Earth samples confirmed volcanic activity on the Moon as recently as 2 billion years ago. Also highlighted were the findings from China’s Chang’e-6 return sample effort.
“The lunar samples and this map will provide a new starting point for scientific discussions regarding the lunar far side,” said Jin Ming, an associate researcher at the IGCAGS.
For a look at the map, go to this China Central Television (CCTV) video at:
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Inside Outer Space
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is testing ground-penetrating radar technology to look for subsurface frozen water on Mars.
Red Planet rotorcraft would be outfitted a flexible, fabric-based antenna that extends below the aircraft without interfering with landings or breaking at touchdown.
SkyFall is project to be released from NASA’s Space Reactor-1 Freedom in late 2028.
Image credit: NASA/JPLL-Caltech
Each of the trio of SkyFall helicopters will tote four instruments.
These vehicles follow in the wake of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. That craft flew 72 times over nearly three years, proving that powered, controlled flight is possible in the rarefied Martian atmosphere.
Check out this video that provides a whirl of information about SkyFall, go to:
Image credit: SpaceX
The dispersion of launch costs has shrunk over the years. A new paper noted that three effects could be causing this phenomenon.
- Historically it has been documented how there is a high degree of trial and error in the early application of technologies, leading to a wide dispersion in productivity outcomes.
- Space exploration began in a Cold War era and was dictated by the objective of showcasing scientific advancements. As a consequence, launch costs were a secondary concern, especially with respect to reliability. Spacefaring nations would want to launch using their home-based rocket technology irrespective of the cost.
- Starting in the 1980s, the private sector has become interested in placing its own satellites in space, predominantly for telecommunication purposes. Evidently, this has progressively led to a shifting focus toward profitability and cost minimization.
This research paper can be read at:
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag217/8732400
Average launch cost, world. This chart represents the time series estimate of the average cost of launching a kilogram of payload into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) between 1960 and 2025, expressed in 2024 US Dollars.
From Sputnik to Starship: Estimating the experience curve of space launch technology
Image credit: Alessio Terzi, et al.
Geopolitics and space access
Also, go to this companion research that highlights the following points:
- US launch costs are now over 3x cheaper than European ones.
- The US accounts for over 80% of global payload to orbit in 2025.
- Only the US and Europe display a space launch experience curve.
- Cost asymmetries reinforce strategic dependencies with security implications.
Go to “Geopolitics and space access: cost asymmetries and strategic dependence” at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176526003782
Image credit: Korea Aerospace Administration
The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) has released the lunar impact observation data acquired by the country’s Moon-orbiting Danuri spacecraft.
Danuri captured images of the pre-hit scene and after the impact of the roughly 4 ton upper stage of a SpaceX rocket.
The upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the area near the lunar ‘Einstein Crater’ at around 3:34 p.m. on the 5th (Korean time).
Imaging sessions
Danuri conducted an initial imaging session about 30 minutes before the impact, and then carried out an additional seven imaging sessions after the impact.
All spacecraft imaging was completed at around 7 a.m. (Korean time) on August 6.
Image credit: Korea Aerospace Administration
Imagery taken show changes in the lunar landscape near the impact site and traces of ejecta tossed onto the surface.
Using the orbiter’s ‘high-resolution camera (LUTI), researchers confirmed the surface changes.
Danuri’s ‘wide-angle polarimetric camera (PolCam)’ also imaged the same region.
Researchers plan to analyze how the reflection and polarization properties of light from the lunar surface changed before and after the impact.
Next flyover: LRO
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is will pass over the impact region on August 11, Mark Robinson of Intuitive Machines in Phoenix, Arizona told Inside Outer Space. He serves as the principle investigator for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera and also the PI for the NASA lunar imaging experiment ShadowCam onboard Korea’s lunar orbiter.
Close conjunction
Interestingly, there was the prospect of a worrisome close conjunction of the Falcon-9 upper stage and Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter.
“We noticed roughly late June that there is an incoming Falcon-9 upper stage toward the Moon, and also knew that it would be close to Danuri,” Eunhyeuk Kim, a senior researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) told Inside Outer Space.
There was a huge uncertainty in the predicted trajectory of the moon-bound rocket state, while the orbit information of Danuri was quite accurate, Kim added. Therefore, operators of Danuri could not neglect the probability of an incoming and close encounter.
However, around mid-July, the KARI/Danuri team made a maneuver of the spacecraft for the preparation of a near-total lunar eclipse on August 28. Kim said this maneuver brought a slight change in the phase of the spacecraft’s orbit, which canceled the probable conjunction between Danuri and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
The left image shows the impact site area as captured in October 2015 by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The right image shows the same region captured by Danuri’s LUTI at 6:07 p.m. on August 6; the yellow arrow indicates the impact site. Provided by NASA, KASA, and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)
Image credit: Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)
Go to this video provided by the Korea Aerospace Administration at:
https://youtu.be/411Xv9wJxws?si=MEBdFfkfWiURyKsK
Reports Jose Maria Madiedo at the Astrophysics Institute of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), they obtained video of the impact of the Falcon 9 stage on the Moon. “Note that the impact occurred just behind the Moon’s limb as seen from Earth, so we only see the dust cloud rising beyond the limb. The impact zone is invisible.”
Go to the IAA-CSIC video at:
Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Image credit: Capitol Records
Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) Image credit: Lowell Observatory
Scientists at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona report they detected a plume from the impact August 5 from that errant SpaceX rocket stage.
“We can safely say that we measured a response from the rocket stage impact as a sodium and lithium gas plume a few 10’s of kilometers in size lasting between 5 and 10 minutes after impact,” Carl Schmidt tells Inside Outer Space.
Schmidt is an assistant research professor at Boston University’s Center for Space Physics.
Schmidt said that his early analysis of what was observed is early and crude, “in order to recover a signal quickly.” Graduate students, he added, “are working slowly and carefully” on the data.
Two efforts
There were two efforts to observe the event at Lowell Observatory. One using fast imaging to record the brief light from the fireball, predicted to last a fraction of a second.
Observers at the 4.3-meter Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) in Happy Jack, Arizona, were also to use a long slit spectrograph to try and measure the sodium gas plume which was anticipated to persist for several minutes.
LDT is the 5th-largest optical telescope in the United States.
An illustration of the Moon with an arrow pointing to the predicted impact site for the Falcon 9 upper stage. Image credit: Bill Gray/Project Pluto
Unknown unknowns
The event was a literal “dust up” on the lunar landscape.
That Falcon 9 upper stage was a leftover from the launch that sent Firefly’s Blue Ghost-1 lander to the moon on Jan. 15, 2025. Also sent moonward on that flight was the Hakuto-R Mission 2, called Resilience, a robotic lunar lander developed by the Japanese company ispace.
The rocket stage collision on August 5 was pegged to occur near Einstein/Bell Craters near the lunar limb. What was not known: would the event be visible by ground and space-based assets.
Despite all the unknown unknowns, and modeling uncertainties, some specialists suggested if you’ve had the time and observational prowess, it was worth a look.
Such was the case for the Lowell Observatory.
How will Mars crews beat the martian environment, including dust, to perform duties on the Red Planet?
Image credit: Composite image by Ella Maru Studio for the National Academy of Sciences
Planting boots on Mars is hard enough. But getting “breathing room” on the Red Planet without inhaling toxic dust is yet another issue.
Given the outlook that future human crews will strut their right stuff across the Red Planet, NASA assembled earlier this year a Martian Dust Limit Working Group. Their task was to review what’s known and unknown about the toxicological hazard to human crews from exposure Mars dust.
Permissible exposure limit
That review was made to support the establishment of a permissible exposure limit for humans on the Red Planet.
The working group compiled a comprehensive set of expert perspectives regarding Martian dust toxicology, exposure pathways, and mitigation strategies.
Lunar dust haunted Apollo moonwalkers, termed the “dusty dozen.”
Image credit: NASA/Azita Valinia
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Mars dust is toxic. How will future astronauts deal with it?” – at:
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/mars-dust-is-toxic-how-will-future-astronauts-deal-with-it
A big bruiser of a rocket stage. SpaceX photo of one of the company’s Falcon 9 second stages, taken in 2022. A similar second stage is expected to impact the moon in August 2026.
Image credit: SpaceX
The Moon is in the cross-hairs of a SpaceX rocket stage, slamming into our celestial neighbor on August 5 at roughly 2:35:37.5 AM (US) Eastern Daylight Time reports astronomer, Bill Gray of Project Pluto.
That high-speed impact “may produce potential observables,” according to research led by Benjamin Fernando at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
— The impact flash: a brief flash of light lasting less than one second in duration produced by the vaporization of the impactor.
— The impact plume: a cloud of ejecta (and possibly vapor) lofted above the lunar surface and evolving on a timescale of minutes.
— The resultant crater: a final crater diameter of 20-30 meters is expected based on computer models.
— A double crater. This feature may be produced if the large rocket stage is “decapitated,” which may occur depending on the stage’s attitude at the time of impact.
Before and after impact pictures
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
After the impact several Moon-orbiting spacecraft are to make follow-up observations.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has acquired both baseline (before) and will take post-impact (after) imagery.
Buzz by flyby
Here’s an interesting note.
Credit: Korean Aerospace Research Institute
Korea’s Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter will experience a “close conjunction” with the rocket stage as it plunges into the lunar landscape. In near-miss terms – roughly on the order of a few kilometers or less – the rocket stage will zoom by the Korean spacecraft roughly two minutes prior to the stage’s impact.
Like LRO, Korea’s Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter has taken imaging of the crash site and follow-up imagery is planned in as close to real time as possible.
An illustration of the Moon with an arrow pointing to a predicted impact site for the Falcon 9 upper stage 2025-010D in August 2026, courtesy of Project Pluto. Image credit: Bill Gray/Project Pluto
Resources
Also, go to my previous stories:
Moon Plume: Saga of a Spent SpaceX Rocket Stage Impact
https://www.leonarddavid.com/moon-plume-saga-of-a-spent-spacex-rocket-stage-impact/
A SpaceX rocket will slam into the moon this August. Will we be able to see it?
A SpaceX rocket will crash into the moon this week, and scientists aren’t sure what to expect
