Category: Space Exploration

The newly confirmed comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) is the third identified interstellar object after 1I/ʻOumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). Discovered on 1 July 2025 by the NASA‑funded ATLAS telescope in Chile, it is racing through the solar system on an extremely hyperbolic path at ∼68 km s⁻¹, will reach perihelion just inside Mars’s orbit on 29 October 2025, and poses no threat to Earth. Early…
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Relentless Launch Cadence and Doubleheader Missions SpaceX’s launch tempo shows no sign of slowing. In one day, the company pulled off back-to-back Falcon 9 launches from opposite U.S. coasts space.com. In the early hours of June 28, a Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida with 27 Starlink internet satellites, followed by another Falcon…
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The U.S. Space Force has tapped SpaceX for a $81.6 million National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 task order to loft the Weather System Follow-on–Microwave 2 (WSF-M2) satellite and a rideshare stack of small DoD spacecraft (the BLAZE-2 mission) in the first half of fiscal 2027. The award—designated mission USSF-178—marks SpaceX’s third…
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June 2025 Space News: Breakthroughs, Missions, and the Expanding Frontier Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Space Exploration and Human Spaceflight Axiom-4: India’s Return to Human Spaceflight ISS Operations Amidst Air Leak Concerns Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-33 Launch 3. Satellite Technology and Earth Observation ESA’s Biomass and Forest Carbon Monitoring Japan’s GOSAT-GW and the…
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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…
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A Partnership to Eliminate Dead Zones In August 2022, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced an ambitious partnership called “Coverage Above and Beyond,” aiming to end mobile dead zones by connecting standard smartphones to SpaceX’s Starlink satellitest-mobile.comt-mobile.com. Under this vision, Starlink’s low-Earth-orbit satellites would broadcast using T-Mobile’s cellular spectrum, essentially acting as space-based cell towers. The goal:…
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Today in Space / June 28, 2025 0:00 Senior Aerospace Editor’s Exhaustive Roundup Table of Contents 1. Headline News SpaceX’s Starship: Explosions, Environmental Tensions, and Starlink Expansion NASA’s Artemis SLS: Booster Anomalies and Budget Uncertainty International Space Station: Axiom-4, India’s Return, and Multinational Crews 2. Science Highlights Meteor Fireballs and Asteroid Risks Mars: Hidden Volcanoes,…
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Summary of Recent Developments (Mid-2025) SpaceX’s Starship vehicle lifting off on its ninth test flight from Starbase, Texas in May 2025. Starship is the company’s next-generation, fully-reusable rocket system under development. In summary, by mid-2025 SpaceX is breaking launch records, advancing Starship’s development amid regulatory hurdles, expanding its Starlink network, and securing a growing share…
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The Artemis I mission lifts off in a spectacular night launch on November 16, 2022, marking the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket. Artemis I sent an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back, laying the groundwork for future crewed lunar missions nasa.gov. This milestone exemplifies the rapid resurgence of lunar…
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The push to bridge 5G and space is rapidly becoming a strategic priority for France and Europe. By integrating non-terrestrial networks (NTN) – essentially satellite communication links – into terrestrial 5G infrastructure, operators hope to achieve truly global connectivity. Under the France 2030 investment plan, an ambitious end-to-end NTN pilot has been launched, leveraging dual…
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