Space Exploration 28 December 2025 - 28 January 2026

NASA started moving its Artemis II Moon rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday. The slow, hours-long trek kicks off final tests ahead of the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/01/17/nasas-artemis-ii-moon-rocket-on-way-to-launch-pad/

SpaceX launched 29 Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Friday on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first-stage booster landed at sea on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas after stage separation, and SpaceX later confirmed the satellites were deployed. https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/01/08/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-its-falcon-9-rocket-on-midday-starlink-mission-from-cape-canaveral/

Astronomers scanning interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS for signs of alien technology came up empty, a result that adds weight to the case that the fast-moving visitor is natural, not a spacecraft.

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft caught interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in ultraviolet light while the object was hidden from Earth-based and near-Earth observatories, the SETI Institute said on Tuesday. It detected hydrogen and oxygen in the comet’s coma — the cloud of gas around its nucleus — pointing to water-ice sublimation, and saw no sign the comet broke apart. Europa Clipper used an ultraviolet spectrograph built for Jupiter’s moon Europa in what SETI described as a rapid repurpose. SETI Institute

A search for possible technosignatures — potential signs of advanced technology — in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS found no credible radio transmissions, Breakthrough Listen researchers reported. The team said its campaign detected no candidate signals down to the 100 milliwatt level. arXiv

Scientists tracking interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with a Sun-watching spacecraft have estimated how quickly it shed water after its late-October pass around the Sun, before activity eased as it moved outward. A separate radio scan also reported no sign of artificial transmissions from the object.

Scientists hunting for signs of alien technology from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS reported no radio signals that could be traced to the object, after aiming one of the world’s most sensitive dishes at it during its recent close pass by Earth. ScienceAlert

The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia scheduled a six-hour “chemical survey” of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS early on Saturday, according to the facility’s public observing schedule. The slot ran from 01:30 to 07:00 ET and used a high-frequency receiver band commonly used to hunt for molecular fingerprints.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch said the Artemis II team is “firing on all cylinders” as the agency pushes toward a crewed lunar flyby in 2026. Space

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb said newly analyzed Hubble Space Telescope images show three evenly spaced jets on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, adding fresh intrigue to a rare visitor now leaving the solar system.

The most sensitive radio search yet for signs of extraterrestrial technology from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has found none, researchers reported this week.

Iran said on Sunday three of its satellites were launched into low Earth orbit from Russia, extending space cooperation between Tehran and Moscow. Reuters+1

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS—also known by its comet designation C/2025 N1—is already on its way out of our solar system. But in the final weeks of 2025, it’s still delivering surprises: a rare “anti-tail” that appears to point toward the Sun, jets that wobble with a clock-like rhythm, and a fresh wave of results from some of humanity’s most sensitive searches for unusual signals.