Solar Sails and Early Space Weather Warnings: A New Era in Space Safety Space weather—driven by solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—poses a growing threat to our technology-dependent civilization. These solar events can disrupt satellite operations, power grids, and even endanger astronauts. In response, a new generation of solar sail-equipped satellites is poised to…
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A full Moon is always photogenic, but the one cresting the horizon on Thursday, 10 July 2025 is laced with rare orbital quirks: it peaks just days after Earth’s aphelion, during a major lunar‑standstill year, and only five days after the Moon’s apogee. The result is 2025’s most distant full Moon from the Sun, travelling an unusually low arc…
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 From lunar marvels to leadership shakeups, the global space sector faces pivotal moments in science, technology, and policy. The Buck Moon Rises: A Celestial Spectacle for July 2025 What Is the Buck Moon and Why Is It Special This Year? On July 10, 2025, skywatchers across the globe will witness…
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Key take‑aways In the early hours of 5 July 2025 (09:07 UT), amateur astronomer Mario Rana recorded a brief, white flare on Saturn’s western limb. Within hours, the Planetary Virtual Observatory & Laboratory (PVOL) issued an international “all‑points bulletin,” asking observers to scour their own images for corroboration. So far, no second detection has surfaced, but a growing body of data and expert…
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Key take‑aways (one‑paragraph executive summary) In early July 2025 astronomers using the NASA‑funded ATLAS telescope in Chile discovered a hyper‑fast object now designated 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1)—only the third confirmed interstellar body to enter our Solar System after ’Oumuamua (2017) and Borisov (2019). Follow‑up astrometry shows an inbound velocity of ≈58 km s⁻¹ and an orbital eccentricity of ≈6.1, values far in…
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 ISS Resupply, Policy Debates, and the Future of Human Spaceflight Progress 92: Keeping the ISS Supplied and Operational The International Space Station (ISS) remains a linchpin of global space research, and its continued operation relies on a steady stream of cargo missions. On July 5, 2025, the unpiloted Russian Progress…
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Space News Digest: July 2025 Senior Aerospace Editor’s Comprehensive Analysis Satellite Internet: Expansion, Innovation, and Regulation Starlink’s Market Dominance and Global Competition SpaceX’s Starlink continues to dominate the satellite internet market, with over 4.6 million users globally and a constellation of nearly 7,900 satellites in orbit as of mid-2025. The company’s rapid deployment and innovation…
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 From Starlink’s record launches and European weather satellite revolutions to the loss of MethaneSAT and the discovery of a third interstellar visitor, the space sector is abuzz with breakthroughs, challenges, and cosmic wonders. SpaceX’s Relentless Launch Cadence and Starlink’s Expansion SpaceX continues to dominate headlines with its rapid-fire launch schedule…
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 Senior Aerospace Editor’s Exhaustive Analysis Europe’s Meteorological Revolution: MTG-S1 and Sentinel-4 Transform Weather and Air Quality Forecasting The European Space Agency (ESA) and Eumetsat have ushered in a new era of meteorology and environmental monitoring with the successful launch of the MTG-S1 satellite and the Sentinel-4 instrument. This dual-payload mission,…
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 Senior Aerospace Editor’s Exhaustive Analysis Vera C. Rubin Observatory: A New Era in Astronomy The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, perched atop Cerro Pachón in Chile, has released its first images, marking a transformative moment for astronomy. Equipped with the world’s largest digital camera, the observatory is poised to become “the…
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