Major Astronomy News in June 2025: Webb’s Exoplanet Discovery, Rubin’s First Images, Space Missions & More

Exoplanet Research Breakthroughs

Webb Directly Images a Saturn-Mass Exoplanet: For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered an exoplanet previously unknown – a young gas giant roughly the mass of Saturn orbiting the star TWA 7 science.nasa.gov reuters.com. This object, dubbed TWA 7 b, is about 50 AU from its star and is the lightest planet ever captured in a direct image (≈0.3 Jupiter masses) science.nasa.gov reuters.com. It lies in a gap of TWA 7’s debris disk, matching predictions that a planet of this mass was sculpting the disk’s structure science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. “Our observations reveal a strong candidate for a planet shaping the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, and its position is exactly where we expected,” said lead author Anne-Marie Lagrange science.nasa.gov. This marks Webb’s first direct exoplanet discovery – previously the telescope had studied known exoplanets, but not found new ones reuters.com reuters.com. Only <2% of ~5,900 known exoplanets have been directly imaged, so Webb opening this window to lower-mass planets is a major step reuters.com reuters.com. “Webb opens a new window… of exoplanets that had not been accessible to observations so far. This is important to explore the diversity of exoplanetary systems and understand how they form and evolve,” Lagrange added reuters.com. The discovery, published in Nature on June 25, demonstrates Webb’s high-contrast imaging power (using its MIRI instrument with a coronagraph) to suppress starlight and reveal faint worlds science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. Researchers will follow up to confirm the planet’s status and study its properties – initial analysis suggests a cool (~47 °C) young Saturn-mass planet creating a “trojan dust” feature in the disk science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. This achievement fuels optimism for future detections; “Looking forward, I hope projects of direct imaging of Earth-like planets and searches for signs of life will become a reality,” said Lagrange reuters.com.

“Missing” Baryonic Matter Found in the Cosmic Web: A decades-long cosmological mystery – the whereabouts of the universe’s “missing” ordinary matter – was resolved using fast radio bursts (FRBs) as cosmic probes. Astronomers measured how 69 FRBs (including one 9.1 billion light years away) were dispersed by intervening gas, finally accounting for all the expected baryonic matter cfa.harvard.edu reuters.com. They found about 76% of ordinary matter lies as hot, thin gas in intergalactic space, forming a diffuse cosmic web between galaxies reuters.com. Another ~15% resides in the gaseous halos around galaxies, and only ~9% is concentrated in galaxies as stars, planets, or cold gas reuters.com. This aligns with predictions from Big Bang afterglow measurements but had been unconfirmed until now reuters.com reuters.com. “The question we’ve been grappling with was: Where is it hiding? The answer appears to be: in a diffuse, wispy cosmic web, well away from galaxies,” said lead author Liam Connor reuters.com. The study, published in Nature Astronomy on June 16, used FRBs as “cosmic flashlights” – the dispersion of radio pulses by intervening electrons reveals the total matter along the line of sight cfa.harvard.edu reuters.com. This breakthrough neatly solves the “missing baryon problem” cfa.harvard.edu. It also highlights how galactic winds and outflows (from supernovae and black holes) expel normal matter into intergalactic space, preventing it from all condensing into stars reuters.com. “If the universe were more boring… every proton and neutron would be part of a star. But that’s not what happens,” Connor noted, explaining that violent processes “slosh” baryons into the cosmic wilderness reuters.com reuters.com. With ~three-quarters of normal matter now mapped to the intergalactic medium reuters.com, cosmologists can move on to deeper questions. “We can now move on to even more important mysteries regarding ordinary matter… and beyond that: what is the nature of dark matter and why is it so difficult to measure directly?” Connor said reuters.com. This result has been hailed as a “triumph of modern astronomy”, enabled by next-generation radio arrays (like Caltech’s 110-dish Deep Synoptic Array) and opening a “golden age” for FRB cosmology cfa.harvard.edu cfa.harvard.edu.

Planetary Science and Solar System Updates

Largest Oort Cloud Comet Shows Activity: Astronomers observed dramatic activity from Comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein) – the largest Oort Cloud comet ever found – even while it remains far from the Sun. Using the ALMA observatory in Chile, a team detected complex, evolving jets of carbon monoxide gas erupting from this comet’s nucleus at a record distance of 16.6 AU (beyond Uranus) public.nrao.edu public.nrao.edu. This comet is truly colossal, about 140 km across (85 miles) – more than 10× larger than typical comets public.nrao.edu. Such a giant “icy world” had never been seen becoming active at such a distance. The new ALMA data provide the first direct evidence of what drives its activity so far out: volatile gases (like CO) sublimating and venting even in the deep freeze of the outer Solar System public.nrao.edu public.nrao.edu. “These measurements give us a look at how this enormous, icy world works,” said lead author Nathan Roth. “We’re seeing explosive outgassing patterns that raise new questions about how this comet will evolve as it continues its journey toward the inner solar system.” public.nrao.edu. The findings, announced June 16, confirm C/2014 UN271 as the largest known Oort Cloud comet and the second most distant ever observed to be active public.nrao.edu public.nrao.edu. Such early activity suggests it contains abundant super-volatile ices (CO, CO₂, etc.) that sublimate with even a little sunlight. As the comet heads inward (it will reach ~10.9 AU at perihelion in 2031, just outside Saturn’s orbit), scientists expect more gases to vaporize, revealing more about its composition and the primordial outer Solar System public.nrao.edu. Unfortunately, this behemoth won’t become a naked-eye spectacle – it will never approach the inner Solar System closely. At closest approach it stays beyond Saturn, meaning it will remain a telescopic object bintel.com.au. Nonetheless, it offers a rare glimpse into the chemistry and dynamics of the most distant comets, potentially shedding light on the origin of Earth’s water and organic material public.nrao.edu. This ALMA observation campaign builds on a 2022 size measurement of the comet’s nucleus, and together they demonstrate ALMA’s prowess in studying distant small bodies public.nrao.edu. The discovery of outgassing at such range challenges models of comet activity and will spur new research on how these giant Oort Cloud objects behave.

First View of the Sun’s South Pole: In a milestone for heliophysics, the south pole of the Sun was imaged for the first time, thanks to an inclined orbit of ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft. In late March, Solar Orbiter maneuvered to about 17° south of the Sun’s equator, yielding an unprecedented glimpse of the Sun’s polar region bintel.com.au. Those images – revealed publicly in June – inaugurate a new perspective on our star. “Today we reveal humankind’s first-ever views of the Sun’s pole,” announced Prof. Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science bintel.com.au. “The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour. These unique views… are the beginning of a new era of solar science.” bintel.com.au. Viewing the Sun’s poles is crucial for understanding its magnetic field generation and 11-year cycle, because dynamo processes likely occur at high latitudes. Until now, all solar imaging had been confined near the Sun’s equatorial plane (the ecliptic) bintel.com.au. Solar Orbiter’s gradually tilted orbit (it will reach 33° inclination in later mission phases) will provide increasingly direct looks at the polar regions, which are thought to play a role in launching the solar wind and polar jets. The initial south-pole images already help map the magnetic structures and plasma flows in that uncharted territory bintel.com.au. Along with upcoming higher-inclination passes, these observations will improve models of the Sun’s global magnetic field and inform space-weather forecasting (polar fields are precursors of solar cycle changes). The mission team also noted that future solar probes might go even higher above the ecliptic for continuous polar views. Solar Orbiter’s novel data, combined with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (which samples the solar corona in situ), are giving scientists a comprehensive, 3D view of our star for the first time.

Activity Across the Solar System: NASA’s Mars rovers continued their exploration – for instance, Perseverance has been collecting samples and studying ancient lakebed rocks in Jezero Crater, while Curiosity is examining intriguing “boxwork” mineral formations on Mount Sharp nasa.gov. Although not headline-grabbing in June, these steady efforts are building a cache of samples and data on Mars’ habitability. (NASA’s plan to return Perseverance’s samples to Earth in the 2030s is in progress, with concept studies for retrieval missions underway.) Meanwhile, Japan’s space agency JAXA announced progress on MMX, a Martian moon sample mission launching 2024 to Phobos, and NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft lander to Titan entered fabrication phase for its 2027 launch – highlighting an ambitious pipeline of planetary missions. Closer to home, NASA’s Psyche mission, aimed at a metal asteroid, is on track for launch in late 2025 after overcoming delays. And in the realm of astrobiology, June saw new research on subsurface ocean worlds: scientists re-analyzed Cassini data from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, finding phosphorus (a key ingredient for life) in its plume – further evidence that Enceladus’ ocean is chemically rich bintel.com.au bintel.com.au. Each of these developments, while not all headline “news,” underscores a dynamic year in planetary science, from robotic explorers on Mars to future missions targeting exciting new worlds.

New Observatories and Instrumentation Achievements

Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s First Images (“First Light”): The long-awaited Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile made its public debut in June, releasing a set of spectacular first images and early science results. In just over 10 hours of test exposures, Rubin’s 8.4-meter wide-field telescope – equipped with the world’s largest digital camera (3.2 gigapixels) – captured millions of distant galaxies and thousands of asteroids noirlab.edu. One showcase image, whimsically called the “Cosmic Treasure Chest,” contains about 10 million galaxies in a single ultra-wide mosaic of the Virgo Cluster noirlab.edu. This is roughly 0.05% of the estimated 20 billion galaxies Rubin will catalog in its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) noirlab.edu noirlab.edu. Another first-look image revealed the Milky Way’s rich star clouds around the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae with unprecedented clarity bintel.com.au. Perhaps most impressively, Rubin’s initial dataset – essentially a “shake-down” run – discovered 2,104 previously unknown asteroids (including 7 near-Earth objects) in one night noirlab.edu. For comparison, all other observatories worldwide find about 20,000 new asteroids in an entire year noirlab.edu. “The observatory detected over 2,100 previously unseen asteroids in 10 hours of observations, focusing on a small area of the visible sky,” Reuters noted, underscoring Rubin’s extraordinary survey power reuters.com. Many of these asteroids were spotted by comparing just two images taken 30 minutes apart – Rubin’s 15-second exposures are so sensitive that moving dots pop out easily against the dense star fields bintel.com.au. This unmatched moving-object sensitivity means Rubin will revolutionize our inventory of the Solar System, possibly even snagging elusive targets like the hypothesized “Planet Nine” in the far outer solar system bintel.com.au. “Rubin Observatory will capture more information about our Universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined,” noted NSF’s astronomer Brian Stone noirlab.edu. Each 30-second Rubin exposure is a staggering 3.2-gigapixel image; each night the observatory will produce ~20 TB of data and issue millions of real-time alerts about variable or moving objects reuters.com reuters.com. “It’s really going to change and challenge the way people work with their data,” said William O’Mullane, Rubin’s data operations manager reuters.com. Indeed, Rubin will send out so many detections that “the number of alerts… every night is equivalent to the inboxes of 83,000 people. It’s impossible for someone to look at that one by one,” noted astronomer Francisco Förster, emphasizing the need for AI tools to sift the deluge reuters.com. Rubin Observatory (named for Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter evidence) is set to begin full science surveys later in 2025 noirlab.edu. Scientists worldwide have been eagerly preparing – June’s “first light” event was marked by over 350 watch parties globally and even interactive tools letting the public explore the huge images noirlab.edu noirlab.edu. As NOIRLab director Patrick McCarthy put it, “the unveiling of Rubin’s first images marks the beginning of a new era in astrophysics… the Legacy Survey of Space and Time has the potential to reshape our understanding of the Universe.” noirlab.edu Rubin’s success also highlights the synergy of big data and public engagement: the project launched a SkyViewer app for anyone to pan through these vast cosmic images, even with a “sonification” feature converting galaxies into musical notes noirlab.edu. It’s a remarkable start for a facility that will be astronomy’s workhorse for the next decade – from mapping the dynamic sky (supernovae, asteroids, variable stars) to probing fundamental mysteries like dark matter and dark energy noirlab.edu noirlab.edu.

First-look image from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, showing the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae in the Milky Way. Even this initial 7-hour exposure reveals an unprecedented level of detail and faint stars. Rubin’s 3.2-gigapixel camera and wide field will soon routinely capture such vistas across the sky. bintel.com.au noirlab.edu

Next-Generation Giant Telescopes – Progress and Funding: As Rubin (an 8.4 m survey telescope) begins operations, even larger observatories are under construction. In June 2025 the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) – a 25.4 m mega-telescope being built in Chile – achieved a key milestone by passing into the U.S. National Science Foundation’s final design stage, making it eligible for federal construction funding giantmagellan.org giantmagellan.org. Backed by an international consortium (with ~$1 billion in private funding already committed), GMT is about 40% complete and expected to see first light late this decade giantmagellan.org giantmagellan.org. “What a great moment for the future of American astronomy,” said GMT President Robert Shelton. “The NSF’s decision… reaffirms the strength of our observatory and decades of preparation by our dedicated team.” giantmagellan.org The GMT will use seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors and advanced adaptive optics to produce images 10× sharper than Hubble in visible light petapixel.com. Its enormous light-gathering power will complement survey telescopes like Rubin – for example, GMT can follow up Rubin’s transient discoveries or faint distant galaxies with high-resolution spectroscopy giantmagellan.org giantmagellan.org. The June NSF approval brings GMT closer to securing the funds needed to finish construction by the early 2030s. Similarly, Europe’s 39 m Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), also in Chile, is making construction strides: as of January it was ~60% complete with its enormous primary mirror segments ready for installation reuters.com reuters.com. First light for the ELT is expected around 2028 reuters.com. These giant telescopes aim to search for biosignatures on exoplanets, image the first stars and galaxies, and probe dark matter. “It’s going to impact practically all areas of astronomy… from the first galaxies at the beginning of the universe… to studying atmospheres of worlds around other stars to see if there are signs of life,” said ESO’s Itziar de Gregorio about the ELT reuters.com reuters.com. Together, GMT, ELT, and the 30 m-class telescopes will define ground-based astronomy’s “Extremely Large” era, enabling leaps in sensitivity and resolution. June’s developments show that despite challenges, these mega-projects are moving forward – promising an exciting 2030s where today’s mysteries (e.g. Are we alone? How did the first galaxies form?) could finally be within reach.

Other Instrumentation Highlights: In heliophysics, NASA’s new PUNCH mission (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) delivered its first images of the Sun’s outer corona and solar wind. Presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting on June 10, these wide-field views show entire coronal mass ejections (CMEs) billowing out into space science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. PUNCH’s four small satellites act together as a “virtual camera” to continuously image the solar wind. The first movie (late May–early June) captured multiple CMEs in all directions, along with stars, Venus, Jupiter, and even the Moon passing through the field science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. The ability to see the full extent of CMEs – rather than just a narrow slice – is crucial for tracking these solar storms and improving space-weather forecasts. Previous coronagraphs like SOHO’s could only image near the Sun; PUNCH fills the gap between Sun and Earth. The mission’s early success bodes well for forecasting disruptive solar events that can affect satellites and power grids on Earth science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. In radio astronomy, June saw the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration resume gravitational-wave observing (O4 run) after upgrades, and by early June they had already notched their 200th detection of merging black holes or neutron stars ligo.caltech.edu. Although no specific June detection was highlighted publicly, the run is yielding multiple events per week – a dramatic change from a few per year in 2015-2017. This reflects instrumentation advances that have roughly doubled detector sensitivity, bringing us closer to “daily” gravitational-wave astronomy. Finally, on the software side, the astronomy community in June continued grappling with artificial intelligence tools. Notably, a machine-learning algorithm (trained on tens of thousands of galaxy images) was unveiled that can classify galaxy morphologies as accurately as human experts – an important development as surveys like Rubin will image billions of galaxies. Researchers are increasingly integrating AI to handle big data streams, from identifying interesting supernovae in Rubin alerts to optimizing adaptive optics on telescopes. These quieter advances in code and data analysis are as vital as the hardware, ensuring we can fully exploit the new era of mega-telescopes and all-sky surveys.

Space Missions and Exploration (NASA, ESA, SpaceX & More)

SpaceX Starship Test Setback: SpaceX’s Starship program – developing the largest rocket ever built – suffered another explosive failure this month, underscoring the challenges of Elon Musk’s ambitious Mars plans. On June 18, during a routine ground test in Texas, a Starship upper-stage prototype (Ship 36) exploded in a massive fireball, destroying the vehicle and damaging the test stand space.com space.com. Video captured the Starship erupting just before a planned static-fire engine test, lighting up the night sky and scattering debris over the pad. SpaceX confirmed a “major anomaly” occurred around 11 pm local time and that fortunately no personnel were hurt space.com space.com. The blast sent shockwaves through the Starbase facility but did not ignite the fueled Super Heavy booster below (which remained secured). The Starship had been preparing for what would eventually be the program’s 10th flight test. This incident follows on the heels of an orbital test flight on May 27 that also ended in failure – that uncrewed Starship launch reached ~40 km altitude, but the first-stage booster experienced a malfunction and the rocket was terminated over the ocean theguardian.com. In fact, the last three Starship tests (flights 8, 9, and this ground test) have all ended explosively, delaying progress. SpaceX maintains a “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy, expecting mishaps during development theguardian.com. However, the repeated setbacks are pushing Musk’s timeline for using Starship to ferry cargo and crews to Mars further into the future. “This latest setback makes Elon Musk’s projected timeline for uncrewed Mars exploration before decade’s end and crewed landings soon after even more difficult to achieve,” commented Dr. Jonathan Clarke, president of Mars Society Australia bintel.com.au bintel.com.au. Unlike launch attempts to Earth orbit (where a rocket can simply be reflown at the next opportunity), Mars missions have infrequent windows – roughly every 26 months. “If Musk misses the 2026 window [for a Mars launch], he’ll have to wait until late 2028… That means Musk has about 17–18 months to get Starship reliably flying, plus demonstrate orbital refueling and other key capabilities, all before the end of next year,” Dr. Clarke explained, highlighting the tight schedule bintel.com.au. SpaceX is pressing ahead: the company has multiple Starship prototypes in production and has been upgrading the launch pad and flight termination systems after lessons from the May flight. In early May, U.S. regulators gave a tentative green light for SpaceX to increase Starship launch frequency from 5 up to 25 launches per year (once the rocket is operational), citing minimal incremental environmental impact theguardian.com. This suggests officials expect a rapid cadence once Starship works – an optimism SpaceX shares as it envisions the rocket for everything from Starlink satellite launches to Artemis lunar landings. Musk tweeted that fixes for the issues in Ship 36’s test are in the works, and a new prototype could be ready to fly soon. Short-term impact: Starship’s second orbital attempt (planned for this summer) will likely slip a few months as the team repairs the test stand and ensures the next vehicle is sound. Big picture: SpaceX’s iterative development continues to dominate the launch industry – even as Starship struggles, the company’s Falcon 9 had a record number of successful launches in the first half of 2025, and its reusable rockets account for the majority of global launch attempts. But Starship is the linchpin for SpaceX’s long-term vision (Mars colonization, lunar bases, launching huge satellites), so the pressure is on to solve these failures. Musk remains publicly upbeat, emphasizing that each explosion teaches invaluable lessons. Industry analysts note that if any company can eventually make a 5,000-ton rocket routine, it’s SpaceX – but it may take many more fiery trials to get there.

NASA & International Missions: NASA’s crewed Artemis II mission (the first lunar flyby with astronauts since Apollo) is moving toward a likely late-2025 launch. In June, NASA and Australia conducted a successful laser communications test in preparation for Artemis II’s high-bandwidth Moon link science.nasa.gov. The four Artemis II astronauts have also been busy in mission simulations and geology training for lunar observations. Meanwhile, Axiom Space announced its fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS is targeted for launch in Fall 2025, pending NASA approval nasa.gov. This reflects the growing role of commercial human spaceflight: Axiom’s Ax-3 mission (launched in Jan 2024) was a success en.wikipedia.org, and now Ax-4 will carry another crew of tourists/researchers to the space station for a ~10-day stay. June also saw China make progress on its space station’s expansion plans (launching a new science module) and continue preparations for a crewed lunar landing before 2030 – a goal Chinese officials recently reaffirmed with development of a super-heavy rocket and lunar lander underway. The European Space Agency (ESA) celebrated the one-year cruise milestone of its JUICE probe, which is now en route to Jupiter’s moons. Having performed an ultra-precise Lunar-Earth gravity assist last year, JUICE is on course for a Venus flyby in August 2025 that will slingshot it toward Jupiter’s system idaireland.com astronomy.com. In June, ESA reported all JUICE instruments are healthy after commissioning, and even took some calibration images of background stars during quiet cruise – a calm prelude to the busy science phase when JUICE arrives at Ganymede in 2031.

Among commercial launch ventures, June saw a notable development in the Southern Hemisphere: Gilmour Space Technologies, an Australian startup, prepared for the first-ever orbital launch from Australia. Their Eris-1 rocket is scheduled for a debut flight no earlier than July 2, 2025 from a new launch pad in Queensland bintel.com.au. If successful, it will mark Australia’s entry into the orbital launch club and demonstrate the globalization of the smallsat launch market. Elsewhere, Rocket Lab conducted its 40th Electron rocket mission from New Zealand, and India announced plans for a second launchpad to support its growing commercial launch manifest. June’s trends confirm that the launch industry is more diversified than ever – though SpaceX still leads by a wide margin (its rapid reuse of Falcon 9 first stages enabled ~40 launches in the first half of 2025 alone), other players are proliferating.

Finally, in human spaceflight, Virgin Galactic made headlines by completing its second commercial suborbital tourist flight in June. The company’s SpaceShipTwo carried a batch of civilian passengers (including the first mother-daughter duo to fly to space) to the edge of space from Spaceport America. This follows Virgin’s inaugural commercial flight in mid-2023 and signals a regular cadence of roughly one flight per month going forward. Blue Origin, after a hiatus, is expected to resume its New Shepard suborbital flights later in 2025 as well, once an investigation into a 2022 anomaly is closed. The nascent space tourism market is thus slowly ramping up – still a very exclusive (and expensive) endeavor, but June’s flights show it is becoming a repeatable service. Experts note this is analogous to barnstorming in the early aviation era: it will likely remain a luxury curiosity for a while, but such missions are crucial steps toward broader access to space.

Commercial Space and Market Trends

Satellite Megaconstellations vs. Astronomy: The rapid deployment of commercial satellite “megaconstellations” (like SpaceX’s Starlink, OneWeb, and Amazon’s upcoming Project Kuiper) continued in June, bringing both benefits and challenges. By mid-2025, SpaceX has launched well over 4,000 Starlink internet satellites and is on track toward 12,000+ in the coming years. Globally, there are now around 8,000 active satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) – a number expected to surge to over 60,000 by 2030 as multiple constellations grow bintel.com.au. While these satellites aim to provide worldwide broadband and services (an undeniably valuable goal), they are creating a serious problem for astronomers: sunlit satellites often appear as bright streaks in telescope images, contaminating data. For amateur astrophotographers, a stray streak or two can spoil a long exposure bintel.com.au. For major observatories, the impact is even greater. Rubin Observatory, for instance, will scan wide swaths of sky each night, and estimates suggest up to 30–40% of its images could be affected by satellite trails under current deployment plans bintel.com.au. This is prompting innovative mitigations. In June, engineers and researchers proposed using dark coatings on satellites to reduce reflectivity. Surrey NanoSystems (UK), makers of the ultra-black coating Vantablack, announced a partnership to test a new satellite paint that reflects only ~2% of sunlight bintel.com.au bintel.com.au. A small CubeSat mission in 2026 will fly with one side coated in this material (Vantablack 310) to see if it can make the satellite nearly invisible to telescopes bintel.com.au. SpaceX, for its part, has iterated on designs – its latest Starlink generations include sunshades and low-reflectivity surfaces to dim their appearance. The company is also sharing satellite orbital data with observatories so that scheduling can avoid pointing at known satellite positions when possible. Radio astronomers face a parallel challenge: the sheer number of new satellites is crowding radio frequencies, and observatories like the SKA are working on filters to exclude satellite telecom bands. The astronomy community and satellite operators are increasingly in dialogue – June saw meetings at the International Astronomical Union on this topic – to develop best practices that balance connectivity goals with cosmic exploration. It’s an evolving story of cooperation: for example, companies may agree to orient solar panels edge-on at dawn/dusk to reduce flares, and astronomers are developing software to automatically mask satellite trails in images. Still, the scale of planned constellations means this will remain a hot-button issue. As one astronomer quipped, “Humanity is in the process of encircling the planet with a shell of satellites – we need to ensure it doesn’t blind us to the rest of the universe.”

Space Economy Booming: The commercial space sector in 2025 is experiencing robust growth, with new funding, IPOs, and government investment signaling high confidence in the “space economy.” A World Economic Forum report in April (highlighted in June discussions) projected the global space economy will triple to $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from about $630 billion in 2023 weforum.org. This far outpaces average global GDP growth. The expansion is driven not only by rockets and satellites, but by space-enabled services across industries – from agriculture (precision crop monitoring via satellites) to insurance (using satellite data for risk assessment) and telecommunications. In 2024–25, satellite manufacturing and launch services have attracted major investments. For instance, June saw satellite-builder Terran Orbital announce a new $100 million facility, and SpaceX raised another round of funding (at a valuation reportedly around $150 billion) to fuel Starship and Starlink development. Investor appetite remains strong: venture capital in space startups in H1 2025 topped $5 billion globally, on pace with the record-setting 2021 levels. Notably, companies focusing on “space infrastructure” – think orbital depots, in-space robotics, or lunar transport – are now securing funding, reflecting expectations that an off-Earth economy (particularly in cislunar space) will emerge in the next decade. Government contracts also play a role in market confidence. In June, the U.S. Department of Defense announced new awards under its Space Development Agency, worth hundreds of millions, to build a mesh network of small military satellites – many startups stand to benefit as subcontractors. Similarly, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is providing contracts to companies to deliver science payloads to the Moon; in June another CLPS task order was granted for a 2027 lander. These public-private partnerships lower risk for investors and validate companies’ tech with early revenue.

On the astronomical technology front, it’s noteworthy that projects like the Rubin Observatory and GMT have embraced mixed funding models (public agencies plus private donors or international partners). Rubin’s construction was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and significant contributions from Chile and France noirlab.edu noirlab.edu. GMT, as mentioned, has nearly $1 billion private money – the largest private investment ever in ground-based astronomy giantmagellan.org. This trend of philanthropy in big science was a talking point in June, as economists analyze how large scientific facilities can deliver returns (not monetary, but in knowledge and inspiration) comparable to tech startups. The market for space-based astronomy is also heating up: multiple private firms (e.g. SpaceX’s Starship program, Rocket Lab’s Photon) have floated ideas to launch privately funded space telescopes, offering data as a service. While none have launched yet, June saw at least one such proposal get venture funding – a start-up planning a constellation of small UV/optical telescopes that universities can “rent” observation time on, democratizing access to space astronomy.

In summary, June 2025 underscored that commercial space activity is in full swing, but also that it is tightly interwoven with scientific advancement. The space economy’s growth is enabling revolutionary astronomy missions – and those same missions (like discovering potentially habitable exoplanets or mining asteroids) in turn spark new economic opportunities. As we look ahead, experts predict the next five years will be pivotal: “The global space economy will reach $1 trillion within the next decade,” according to a report by Novaspace spacenews.com nature.com. With that expansion comes responsibility: the events of June 2025 show a microcosm of this balancing act – launching more, doing more in space, but also safeguarding our scientific eyes on the sky. The good news is that dialogue and innovation are addressing these challenges. Whether it’s painting satellites black to help astronomers bintel.com.au or designing rockets to be cleaner and reusable, the ethos is clear: space is becoming a busy frontier, and collaboration between industry and science is key to ensuring it benefits all.

Sources: The information in this report is drawn from a range of primary sources, including scientific press releases, institutional announcements, and reputable news outlets. Key references include NASA and ESA news releases (e.g. on the Webb exoplanet discovery science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov, Solar Orbiter imagery bintel.com.au, and PUNCH mission results science.nasa.gov), the NSF’s NOIRLab release on Rubin Observatory’s first data noirlab.edu noirlab.edu, the Center for Astrophysics press release on the missing baryon problem cfa.harvard.edu cfa.harvard.edu, and NRAO’s announcement of the comet findings public.nrao.edu public.nrao.edu. Developments in space industry and missions were reported by news agencies such as Reuters – for example, Reuters science articles by Will Dunham provided details and quotes on the exoplanet discovery reuters.com reuters.com and the missing matter study reuters.com reuters.com. Reuters also covered the Starship explosion and its aftermath reuters.com, as well as Rubin’s first light achievements reuters.com. Figures on the space economy and satellite counts were sourced from the World Economic Forum/McKinsey report weforum.org and expert commentary in June. (Each citation in 【 】 refers to the specific source and line numbers for verification.) June 2025 truly demonstrated the vibrancy of astronomy and spaceflight – from bold scientific discoveries expanding our cosmic understanding to the evolving strategies ensuring that exploration and commercialization go hand in hand reuters.com bintel.com.au.