May 20th, 2025
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Space junk that came to rest in New South Wales, Australia has undergone analysis by NASA orbital debris specialists. Back in July 2022, the trunk section from the SpaceX Dragon Crew-1 mission reentered and over the following month, several fragments were recovered. One of the surviving fragments located was a portion of the Dragon’s trunk, […]
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Blue Origin is set to reveal a new piece of space infrastructure to support lunar operations. Called the “Transporter,” the vehicle can be launched on a single New Glenn booster to low Earth orbit. It would be fueled up by left over propellant from the booster’s 2nd stage, then haul the hydrogen and oxygen […]
China’s is preparing to enter the asteroid sample-return mission business, launching before month’s end its Tianwen-2 robotic probe. To be launched within the coming two weeks from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, the Tianwen-2 robotic probe was moved to the launch preparation area at the center last Sunday. Tianwen-2, an orbiter and […]
“It has been a tumultuous few weeks, and we know there are many issues weighing heavily on our community,” explains a communiqué issued today from the Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG). The OPAG community message addresses a “serious concern” regarding recent removal of abstracts and archived advisory group (AG) community documents on the Lunar and […]
Bright and dark streaks on Mars have sparked decades of debate. Some experts interpret them as streaks, also cataloged as recurring slope lineae (RSL), created by flows of salty water, or brine, that could remain liquid long enough to form them. If so, perhaps they offer rare habitable zones on the Red Planet, a […]
Next stop, the Moon! On June 5, 2025 Japan’s ispace Resilience lunar lander is set to plop down near the center of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold)! “Should conditions change, there are three alternative landing sites that are being considered with different landing dates and times for each,” an ispace posting explains. Meanwhile, […]
The White House released fiscal year 2026 budget proposal for NASA calls for nearly 25 percent less in funding than NASA received for fiscal year 2025. The release on May 2 of that budget proposes significant changes to NASA’s crewed lunar plans, presence on the International Space Station, and science missions, among other changes. Budget […]
Cashing in on a cis-lunar economy is ballyhooed by space exploration advocates. It’s a spillover term stirred up by today’s entourage of moon orbiters and investigative landers that are crossing the great divide of space between the Earth and moon. But what needs to happen to help spark a cis-lunar economy? More yet, given actions […]
The Japanese ispace private Moon lander, Resilience, is slated to attempt a landing no earlier than June 5, 2025 UTC. The landing area is in Mare Frigoris (60.5°N 355.4°E), a volcanic region interspersed with large-scale faults known as wrinkle ridges. The Resilience lunar lander entered lunar orbit on May 7. Meanwhile, NASA’s […]
How best to deal with the growing prowess of China’s space program could start with a simple phone call – on a new hotline. The United States needs to act now to address threats to space assets; champion space traffic management to support the growing space economy; and incorporate commercial perspectives into civilian and national […]
