SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched NASA’s TRACERS mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 23 at 2:13 p.m. EDT. The Falcon 9 first stage was on its 16th flight and performed a pinpoint landing at Vandenberg, marking SpaceX’s 479th booster recovery. TRACERS, Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, consists of two 200-kg satellites to…
Read more
The SWIFT satellite constellation uses advanced solar sails to deliver earlier, more accurate space weather warnings. In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe yielded the closest-ever images of the Sun’s corona and CMEs, vastly improving space weather predictions. SpaceX’s Starlink now has nearly 6,000 satellites in orbit and has regulatory approval to operate in India.…
Read more
The Buck Moon peaks on 10 July 2025 at 4:37 p.m. EDT (20:37 UTC). Earth reached aphelion on 4 July 2025, making this the farthest full Moon from the Sun in 2025. During the 18.6-year major lunar standstill, the Moon hugs the southern horizon, producing the lowest July full Moon path since 2006. The Moon…
Read more
The Buck Moon on July 10, 2025 will reach peak illumination at 4:37 p.m. UTC and appear as a micromoon due to its distance, coinciding with Earth’s aphelion and a Major Lunar Standstill. President Trump appointed Sean Duffy as interim NASA Administrator in July 2025, replacing Jared Isaacman amid a backdrop of budget cuts that…
Read more
On 5 July 2025 at 09:07 UT, amateur Mario Rana from Hampton, Virginia recorded a two-frame white flare on Saturn’s western limb lasting under 1 second, with PVOL releasing a frame showing a stellate spot just inside the edge. PVOL issued an international all-points bulletin within hours, asking observers to upload raw video stacks for…
Read more
<li ATLAS imaged the interstellar candidate on 1 July 2025, with precovery back to 14 June 2025, and it was designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and later 3I/ATLAS as the third confirmed interstellar object after Oumuamua and Borisov. <li A JPL orbital solution yields eccentricity e = 6.1 ± 0.1 and hyperbolic excess velocity V∞ ≈…
Read more
On July 5, 2025, the unpiloted Progress 92 spacecraft docked with the ISS Poisk module, delivering about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to Expedition 73 and remaining docked for six months before disposal. NASA’s New Horizons, now 9.1 billion kilometers from Earth, demonstrated the first interstellar navigation test using stellar parallax, achieving about…
Read more
Starlink has over 4.6 million users and a constellation of nearly 7,900 satellites in orbit as of mid-2025. The EU Space Act would unify space regulation with debris mitigation, cybersecurity, and environmental standards, with existing Starlink satellites exempt through 2030 but future deployments subject to the Act. France’s SNCF plans to deploy satellite internet on…
Read more
SpaceX marked its 500th Falcon 9 launch with the deployment of 27 Starlink satellites and the 29th booster reuse. MTG-S1, Europe’s first geostationary hyperspectral infrared atmospheric sounder, launched July 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 alongside the Sentinel-4 instrument for hourly air-quality data over Europe and North Africa. MethaneSAT, an $88 million climate satellite…
Read more
MTG-S1, launched July 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Sentinel-4, will provide continuous 3D atmospheric profiles from geostationary orbit and hourly high‑resolution air‑quality data. MethaneSAT, funded by Jeff Bezos and the Environmental Defense Fund and launched in March 2024, stopped responding in June 2025 and is considered irrecoverable, despite revealing methane leaks up…
Read more
