Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
Author: 
July 10th, 2025
The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission Seven successfully landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., March 7, 2025. The X-37B landed at Vandenberg SFB to exercise the service’s ability to recover the spaceplane across multiple sites.
Image credit: U.S. Space Force courtesy photo
U.S. President Trump’s “One, Big Beautiful Bill Act,” H.R. 1 includes $1 billion for the U.S. Space Force (USSF) X-37B military spacecraft program.
That classified robotic space plane effort – also called the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) program – carried out its seventh mission, landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on March 7, touching down after 434 days in orbit.
As for how that $1 billion would be spent, and when the next X-37B would depart, Inside Outer Space reached out to the space plane’s builder, Boeing.
Image credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space screengrab
I received a “thank you for the query” in response, and an inquiry-altering note to contact the Air Force for comment on the X-37 schedule and budget.
Space test platform
“The USSF X-37B program supports technology risk reduction, experimentation, and operational concept development for future re-usable space vehicles,” responded USAF Colonel Lori Astroth, Public Affairs Deputy Director for Space within the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs at the Pentagon.
X-37B space plane. Image credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The X-37B program “serves as a flexible space test platform to conduct various experiments that can be transported to space and returned to Earth,” Col. Astroth added. “Further information regarding X-37B’s cost and budget information is not releasable.”
Highly elliptical orbit
That last hush-hush flight of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7) featured the craft being hurled into a highly elliptical high Earth orbit via a Falcon Heavy rocket back on December 28, 2023.
After aerobraking to a low Earth orbit and completing its test and experimentation objectives, the space plane successfully performed its deorbit and landing procedures.
An onboard camera captured the X-37B and Earth during its OTV-7 flight, during which it also performed an aerobraking maneuver for the first time. Image credit: U.S. Space Force
As did the previous (OTV-6) space plane trek, OTV-7 also involved a service module that expanded the capabilities of the spacecraft.
“The successful completion of the novel aerobraking maneuver demonstrated the agile and flexible capabilities the X-37B provides the United States Space Force,” according to the statement issued by the Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs.
The aerobraking technique entails use of atmospheric drag over the course of multiple passes to change orbits while expending minimal fuel.
“While on orbit, Mission 7 accomplished a range of test and experimentation objectives intended to demonstrate the X-37B’s robust maneuver capability while helping characterize the space domain through the testing of space domain awareness technology experiments,” the statement notes.
OTV-6 was the first mission to introduce a service module that expanded the capabilities of the spacecraft.
Image credit: Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks
Flight roster
Here’s a listing of previous flights of the space plane:
OTV-1: launched on April 22, 2010 and landed on December 3, 2010, spending over 224 days on orbit.
OTV-2: launched on March 5, 2011 and landed on June 16, 2012, spending over 468 days on orbit.
OTV-3: launched on December 11, 2012 and landed on October 17, 2014, spending over 674 days on-orbit.
OTV-4: launched on May 20, 2015 and landed on May 7, 2015, spending nearly 718 days on-orbit.
OTV-5: launched on September 7, 2017 and landed on October 27, 2019, spending nearly 780 days on-orbit.
OTV-6: launched on May 17, 2020 and landed on November 12, 2022, circling Earth for 908 days.
OTV-7: lofted on December 28, 2023 and touched down on March 7, 2025, circling Earth for 434 days.
X-37B Air Force space plane.
Credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
First use technologies
The builder of the vehicle, Boeing, has previously noted that the X-37B makes use of several “first use in space” technologies including:
— Avionics designed to automate all de-orbit and landing functions.
— Flight controls and brakes using all electro-mechanical actuation; no hydraulics on board.
— Use of a lighter composite structure, rather than traditional aluminum.
— New generation high-temperature wing leading-edge tiles and toughened uni-piece fibrous refractory oxidation-resistant ceramic (TUFROC) tiles and advanced conformal reusable insulation (CRI) blankets.
According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, the Space Force is utilizing the X-37B system as an on-orbit testbed to try out new technologies, to better understand similar adversarial platforms and to design new training environments, citing comments to the publication in January by Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman.
Posted in 
ESA’s Space Rider.
Credit: ESA
The European Space Agency’s reusable spacecraft — Space Rider — has completed a second round of aerial drop tests from a helicopter, testing the craft’s paraglider guidance, navigation and control algorithms.
Last month’s testing of Space Rider followed a drop-test campaign in 2024.
Testing to date has been held at the Salto di Quirra range (Poligono Interforze del Salto di Quirra – PISQ), in Sardinia, Italy.
This drop-test campaign was led by Thales Alenia Space Italia, prime contractor for Space Rider and responsible for the reentry module. The campaign was bolstered by industrial partners Sener, CIMSA, Teseo and Meteomatics.
Objectives
The most recent two-week drop-test campaign had two objectives:
— qualification of the parachutes used to slow the spacecraft during descent
— testing the software that controls the parafoil, guiding the Space Rider’s reentry module to its precise landing site.
Space Rider models were dropped from a CH-47 Chinook Italian Army helicopter from altitudes ranging from 1 to 2.5 kilometers at Salto di Quirra.
Following drop test.
Image credit: Thales Alenia Space
The test campaign demonstrated that parafoil-assisted Space Rider will be able to land gently down to an accuracy of just under 500 feet (150 meters).
Following steps
A few more steps remain to complete the test verification of Space Rider’s descent and landing phase.
On the check-list is a system drop-test campaign, featuring a full mockup of the reentry module that will have the same weight, aerodynamic shape and landing gears. A final campaign will test landing stability by exploring worst-case scenarios of a Space Rider touchdown.
That test would utilize another model with a landing gear, accelerated on a roller-coaster-like rig and dropped onto a landing site. This “no rough landings allowed” campaign will ensure that the landing does not subject precious scientific payloads to excessive shocks.
Credit: ESA
Quick turnaround
The space-rated Space Rider is roughly the size of two minivans. Its missions, among others, range from pharmaceutical research to in-orbit manufacturing, to visiting orbital platforms.
Space Rider is intended to remain in Earth orbit for up to three months and then return through Earth’s atmosphere to precision-land on skids after a paraglider descent.
Once landed, Space Rider is designed for a quick turnaround, undergoing six months of maintenance before a return to space.
Image credit: ESA
A maiden voyage of the vehicle would use a Vega C+ booster, projected to fly in 2027.
Go to this video at:
https://dlmultimedia.esa.int/download/public/videos/2022/11/017/2211_017_AR_EN.mp4
Image credit: CMSA
Update: China’s Tianzhou-8 cargo craft has re-entered the atmosphere in a controlled manner at 06:42 Beijing Time on Wednesday (22:42 on Tuesday GMT), according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The Shenzhou-20 crew aboard China’s Tiangong space station viewed the departure of the Tianzhou-8 resupply cargo craft. It separated from the station combination on Tuesday stated the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
That cargo craft will re-enter the atmosphere in a controlled manner, the CMSA said, with most of the hardware destroyed during re-entry into the atmosphere. A small amount of debris will fall into the designated safe sea area.
Tianzhou-8 logo.
Image credit: CMSA
Payload transfer
Tianzhou-8 was lobbed into orbit atop a Long March-7 Y9 carrier rocket on November 15, 2024 from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern island province of Hainan.
About three hours later, the Tianzhou-8 cargo craft docked at the rear docking port of Tianhe, the core module of the Tiangong space station.Tianzhou-8 brought up to the orbiting outpost roughly six tons of consumables, propellants, experiment equipment, and scientific research supplies.
China’s Tiangong space station as imaged by MAXAR satellite.
Image credit: MAXAR
Once docked to the station, part of the Tianzhou-8 payload that was transferred by crewmembers into the facility included brick specimens made of synthetic lunar soil.
The material was later subjected outside the complex to appraise their mechanical, thermal and radiation resistance properties.
That research data is to be used for future construction purposes on the Moon.
Chinese team on lunar habitat construction is led by Ding Lieyun. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief scientist of the National Center of Technology Innovation for Digital Construction (NCTI-DC) at central China’s Huazhong University.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Go to these videos describing the Tianzhou-8 at:
Image credit: Heritage Broadcasting Service/Archaeological Legacy Institute/Archaeology Channel
Satellite imagery is playing a key role in locating Amelia Earhart’s long-lost aircraft believed to be resting in a lagoon of the Pacific island Nikumaroro.
On the 88th anniversary of the disappearance of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, a new search — named the Taraia Object Expedition — will start this November.
The Taraia Object was spotted in satellite and other imagery in the island’s lagoon. Nikumaroro is roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii.
Multi-phase effort
Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) and Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) are joining forces in a multi-phase effort to identify Amelia Earhart’s missing Lockheed Model 10 Electra plane.
Image credit: Heritage Broadcasting Service/Archaeological Legacy Institute/Archaeology Channel
Earhart and Noonan went missing on July 2, 1937 as they attempted to fly around the world.
Given success of the initial expedition to identity the aircraft, PRF and ALI plan to return for larger excavation efforts in 2026 to uncover and help return what remains of Earhart’s plane.
The Taraia Object is visible in satellite images, aerial photos, drone footage, and video footage of the lagoon.
Satellite imagery
The object of interest was initially identified in 2020 in an Apple Maps image captured by satellite.
Following that observation, ALI, with funding from a small group of donors, obtained a series of 26 additional satellite images spanning the time between 2009 and 2021.
Subsequently, ALI acquired three more satellite images from Google Earth, spanning the time from 2022 through 2024. In these satellite images, the object first became noticeable on April 27, 2015, a time shortly after Topical Cyclone Pam passed by the island in late March 2015.
That storm produced brutal storm-surge impact on Nikumaroro, apparently removing sediment that had covered the Taraia Object and made it visible from above. The whatever it is was most sharply defined in 2015 and 2016, then became less sharply defined by 2020 and 2021, and appears in images from 2022 through 2024 as a recognizable shape probably covered by a thin veneer of sediment.
Image credit: Heritage Broadcasting Service/Archaeological Legacy Institute/Archaeology Channel
Fuselage, tail?
According to expedition experts, the object in the satellite images is exactly the right size to represent the fuselage and tail of the Electra. It also appears to be very reflective and is likely to be metallic. It lies in very shallow water, largely covered by sediment.
The possible confirmation that the Taraia Object is indeed the Electra aircraft is Phase 1 of a potential three-phase project to take place in following years, including full-scale archaeological excavation (Phase 2) and recovery (Phase 3) of the aircraft wreckage.
Furthermore, there is evidence that Earhart and Noonan were marooned on the island and subsequently perished there.
To view a compelling overview of the Taraia Object investigation by Richard Pettigrew, executive director of Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), go to this Heritage Broadcasting Service (HBS) video at:
https://heritagetac.org/programs/taraia_object_amelia_earharts_aircraft-71eb03
Also available is a review of satellite imagery at:
https://www.archaeologychannel.org/taraia/images/TaraiaObjectAnimation022525.mp4
On the prowl at Jezero Crater, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is loaded with scientific equipment.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover within Jezero Crater has provided compelling evidence regarding the long-term evolution of the early martian atmosphere and hydrosphere.
The process of “serpentinization” — or the aqueous alteration of olivine-bearing rocks – is believed to have shaped both habitability and the long-term planetary evolution of early Mars.
Serpentinization also may have helped shape the habitability of aqueous environments on early Mars more generally and within Jezero crater specifically.
Geological context for the Máaz formation abrasion patches. (A) Modified photogeologic map of western Jezero crater. (B) Rover traverse during the first roughly 370 sols and location of four abraded targets of the Máaz formation, overlayed on a NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) mosaic.
Image credit: OEB, Octavia E. Butler
Samples collected
New research led by Nicholas Tosca, a professor of Mineralogy and Petrology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, points to the samples collected to date by the NASA robot “as potential archives of such astrobiologically significant processes.”
Samples extracted from the Jezero crater floor and cached by the Perseverance rover “are therefore among the highest priority targets for potential Mars sample return,” reports Tosca and research colleagues.
Ancient Jezero Crater is depicted in this artistic view, replete with shoreline of a lake that dried up billions of years ago.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL
Máaz formation
New geochemical and mineralogical data from multiple instruments aboard the Perseverance rover record serpentinization and associated hydrogen production in ancient igneous rocks of the Máaz formation, exposed on the Jezero crater floor, Tosca and team members report.
The first samples collected by robot were from the Máaz formation, a lava plain that covers most of the floor of Jezero crater.
Go to this just-published paper in Science Advances – “In situ evidence for serpentinization within the Máaz formation, Jezero crater, Mars” – at:
Image credit: White House
That nearly 900-page “One Big Beautiful Bill” has passed the House and Senate and now heads to President Trump’s desk for signing.
Brian Babin, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman, has saluted the Big Beautiful Bill, explaining that it marks “a bold step forward for America’s space program and science enterprise.”
The bill provides critical support to advance deep space exploration, land Americans back on the Moon, and continue laying the groundwork for future missions to Mars, Babin said in a statement.
Image credit: Watch U.S. Fly
“It also restores the R&D tax credit for domestic research, which will strengthen U.S. competitiveness and help fuel private-sector investment in innovation, the fastest-growing source of research funding in the country,” Babin adds. “These measures not only reaffirm our leadership in space but also reinforce America’s broader scientific and technological edge. I look forward to seeing this bill signed into law.”
The Gateway space station will operate in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit supporting crewed Artemis missions to the moon.
Image credit: NASA/Alberto Bertolin, Bradley Reynolds
Space Station, Moon and Mars
NASA and space investments in the bill include:
- $9.9 billion for NASA to support Artemis IV and V lunar missions
- Advances Mars mission development.
- Maintains U.S. leadership in low Earth orbit, and bolster center operations—including $300 million for Johnson Space Center in Houston. This total also includes funding for the continued operation and safe deorbit of the International Space Station, including support for the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle.
- Restoration of the R&D tax credit for domestic research expenses, allowing companies to fully deduct these costs and significantly boosting private-sector investment in U.S.-based research and development.
- Keeps funding the Gateway space station making $2.6 billion available through 2032.
Image credit: DIA
Golden Dome
Chairman Babin also raised concerns about the commercial launch excise tax, which could hinder the growth of the U.S. commercial space sector. “We intend to work closely with stakeholders to address these concerns in the forthcoming commercial space bill,” Babin said.
The bill also includes $25 billion for Golden Dome for America to support President Trump’s quest for a layered missile defense shield for America, including the development of space-based assets to support the system and rapidly accelerates defense against hypersonic threats to the homeland and deployed troops.
For a full account of space-related funding in the bill, go to “Trump Megabill Includes Billions for Artemis, ISS, Moving A Space Shuttle to Texas And More” by Marcia Smith at Spacepolicyonline:
For a read of the bill, go to:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
After touchdown in early March within the moon’s Mare Crisium impact basin, the Firefly Aerospace lunar lander became an on-duty robotic scientist.
Kicking up dust and rocks, the Blue Ghost Mission-1’s full-stop arrival on March 2 marked the start of executing NASA-backed Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) instruments.
The Moon lander wrapped up more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight) and operated just over 5 hours into the super-chilly lunar night – check mark accomplishments after performing the first fully successful commercial Moon landing.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander captured the Moon in the distance and Earth on the horizon from its top deck, showing the LEXI payload and X-band antenna.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
One of those investigations involved a distinctive deep dive into studying the interior of the Moon.
Get ready for the answers.
Go to my new Space.com story – “Private lunar landing: How Blue Ghost measured the Moon’s electric and magnetic fields” – at:
Specialists test fire an electrode to evaluate hardware used on the moon to measure electrical fields. (Image credit: SwRI/Space.com screengrab)
Image credit: CCTV+/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Moon exploration program may utilize specialized robots to explore lunar caves.
The country has officially completed its first teaching and practice base for the “simulated Moon underground space” program.
Research activities were carried out on June 25 at Jingbo Lake in Mudanjiang City of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.
Image credit: CCTV+/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Autonomous exploration
“The underground volcanic lava pipes by Jingbo Lake are the most similar environment on Earth to the underground space of the Moon,” says Li Jiaqi, a researcher at Peking University.
Inside the lava cave, two robots were engaged in autonomous exploration and multi-functional operations, adds Li Xianglong, a doctoral student at the Harbin Institute of Technology.
Image credit: CCTV+/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Decision-making capabilities
Compared with traditional lunar roving vehicles and exploration robots, the devices reportedly have stronger environmental adaptability and flexibility and have more precise perception, decision-making and operation capabilities.
Image credit: CCTV+/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Kang Yi, a Peking University undergraduate student at the School of Earth and Space Sciences, points out that the data collected in deploying a seismometer will serve as a reference for China’s future deployment of seismometers on the Moon.
Go to this informative China Central Television+ (CCTV) video at:
Image credit: GAO
NASA: Assessments of Major Projects is a just-released report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) – the 17th annual assessment of these projects.
In fiscal year 2025, NASA planned to invest about $74 billion in its major projects to continue exploring Earth, the Moon, and beyond. This is the GAO’s 17th annual assessment of these projects.
In the last year, four of 18 major projects had cost overruns—when costs incurred are more than NASA planned for. And three had schedule delays.
Orion cost growth
The four projects that experienced annual cost growth collectively reported over $500 million in overruns. NASA’s human spaceflight crew capsule — the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle — accounts for over $360 million of this total annual cost growth.
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space.
Image credit: Lockheed Martin
Since 2009, most major projects that completed the development phase (e.g., building and testing designs) avoided significant cost overruns. But three of the 53 projects in our analysis accounted for almost half of the total overruns during this period.
NASA’s acquisition management remains on our High Risk List.
Go to this GAO highlights page at:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-107591-highlights.pdf
For the full report, go to:
Heads up…today is International Asteroid Day!
This impactful festivity is a global opportunity to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard.
Also this Day is designed to inform the public about the crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in case of a “credible” near-Earth object threat.
Asteroid Day was co-founded by astrophysicist and musician Brian May of the rock band Queen, along with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, filmmaker Grig Richters, and B612 Foundation President Danica Remy.
Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart.
Image credit: B612 Foundation/Danica Remy
Event horizon
For those fortunate to be in the area of Meteor Crater in Winslow, Arizona and Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, a unique Asteroid Day celebration is being staged.
For details, go to: https://www.asteroiddayaz.com/
Flagstaff’s “Big Impact Event” will highlight the Meteor Crater, formed 50,000 years ago, representing the best preserved meteor impact site in the world.
Meteor Crater is 700 feet deep, more than an astronomical 4,000 feet across, and 2.4 miles in circumference.
Also, to locate the global events being organized, go to:
Image credit: USGS/American Museum of Natural History/Barringer Crater Company.
Giant hole
Thanks to the USGS, the American Museum of Natural History and the Barringer Crater Company, here’s the story on the famous Meteor Crater.
In 1903, a mining engineer named Daniel Barringer bet his entire fortune on a giant hole in the Arizona desert. He believed the geological feature near Winslow, Arizona wasn’t a volcano (as experts claimed).
Rather, Barringer saw the site as a massive meteorite impact. He was so convinced of his idea, he spent 26 years drilling for the giant iron space rock he thought was buried beneath it.
Everyone thought he was crazy. Scientists mocked him. He died broke.
Credit: NASA/Don Davis
Never too loud
But decades later, it was confirmed that Barringer was right about the impact. He just didn’t know that the meteorite had mostly vaporized on impact, leaving no huge chunk behind to locate.
It wasn’t until the 1960s—long after his death—that scientists finally proved it was a meteor crater using knowledge from nuclear blast studies.
Today, the site is called Barringer Crater, in honor of the man who saw the truth when no one else could.
“Sometimes, being right comes too late…but never too loud,” explains the USGS, the American Museum of Natural History and the Barringer Crater Company.
Eye of the illustrator captures asteroid Apophis near Earth.
Credit: Dan Durda – FIAAA
A sky full of “random forest”
Meanwhile, jump to today and a new development about using the latest machine learning technology to classify asteroids.
A machine learning application has been developed to detect Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHAs) and mitigate asteroid collision risk with the Earth by applying three classifiers: the K-Nearest Neighbors, Naïve Bayes, and Random Forest.
Real-time PHA detection
“Even though each classifier has its strengths, the data showed that the Random Forrest was better than the other two classifiers because it performed the most effective data interactions and disparity. The asteroid’s orbital parameter was essential to classify the PHA,” the research paper appearing the Journal of Physics: Conference Series concludes.
Furthermore, the research output helped to monitor the PHA easily. Real-time PHA detection is essential for an early warning system to protect the Earth from PHA, the research team explains.
For access to the paper – “Machine Learning Application to Classify Asteroids Based on Orbital Parameters” – go to:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2866/1/012047/pdf
