US military test-launches nuclear-capable ICBM from California (photos)
The U.S. military test-launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base on May 20, 2026.
A New Study on Coronal Holes Improves Space Weather Forecasting
New Mexico State University (NMSU) astronomy graduate student Khagendra Katuwal studied 70 coronal holes on the sun to better understand the connection between solar activity and space weather. His paper…
Where did Neptune’s mysterious moon Nereid come from? It may be the only survivor of the planet’s violent history
Neptune’s moon Nereid might be the only satellite surviving from the planet’s original system, researchers report in a new study.
Psyche Spacecraft Completes Mars Flyby
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, coming within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. During the flyby, it took this image…
NASA-developed AI Could Help Track Harmful Algae
Green swirls of microscopic algae (phytoplankton) are visible off the U.S. Gulf Coast in this image captured Oct. 21, 2024, by the Ocean Color Instrument on NASA’s PACE satellite. The…
Orbital Data Centers: Power and Thermal Management for Scalable Architectures
As orbital data centers move from concept to reality, scalable power generation and efficient thermal management are emerging as critical enabling technologies. A new whitepaper from Redwire examines how power…
Starfighters turns Texas facility toward microgravity flight testing
Starfighters Space, which is developing F-104 supersonic jets for satellite air-launch, is turning its Texas facility into a staging ground for microgravity flight testing in response to NASA’s call for…
TESS Data Reveals 27 New Planet Candidates in Binary Systems
You’re doing some late afternoon work on the habitat as part of humanity’s first exoplanet settlement, but the sun is going down so you’re trying to speed things up. Just…
A Brief-ish History of SETI. Part VI: The Great Silence and the Great Filter
In the closing decades of the 20th century, several proposed explanations were put forward for why humanity has not yet found evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence in the cosmos.
Lasers in moon craters could create a lunar GPS system
Scientists are exploring how lasers stabilized in the moon’s coldest, darkest craters could enable a GPS-like network to help future Artemis astronauts and spacecraft navigate the lunar surface with far…