Sara Seager, an MIT planetary scientist, is building the first probe to enter Venus's atmosphere in 40 years to search for signs of life in its sulfuric acid clouds. The mission challenges decades of scientific consensus that dismissed Venus as uninhabitable, prompted by the 2020 detection of phosphine—a potential biosignature—in Venus's upper atmosphere where conditions are surprisingly Earth-like.
Voyager Technologies, a publicly traded commercial space company, is developing Starlab, a single-launch commercial space station designed to deploy complete via SpaceX Starship. The company combines NASA's Commercial LEO Destination program funding with growing defense contracting revenue, positioning itself as a diversified infrastructure provider unlike competitors focused solely on station operations.
WordPress powers 40.3% of all websites globally, including major publications like the New York Post, TIME, and TechCrunch, as well as institutions like NASA, Harvard, and The White House. Its dominance stems from its flexibility, allowing use cases ranging from personal blogs to enterprise publishing platforms for governments, universities, and media companies.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has enough fuel for approximately 22 years of operations, double the originally planned five-year minimum mission. The precise launch and flawless course correction have left the $4.3 billion observatory with a substantial fuel reserve, enabling extended scientific observations of the universe with resolution matching Hubble but 100 times the field of view.
Astronaut Charlie Precourt describes commanding the Space Shuttle Atlantis during its final approach and landing at Kennedy Space Center after a 10-day mission to the Russian Mir space station. The landing required precise coordination with mission pilot Eileen Collins as they descended from Mach 1 at 50,000 feet to touchdown at 195 knots, relying on extensive training in a modified Gulfstream aircraft that simulated shuttle performance characteristics.
Venus likely once had a moon that spiraled into and collided with the planet over millions to billions of years, according to a new preprint modeling different scenarios. Unlike Earth, Venus lacks the stable gravitational conditions needed to retain a moon long-term, though upcoming NASA missions may help confirm this theory.
NASA forced engineers to relocate from Goddard Space Flight Center multiple times since November, resulting in lost specialized equipment and workspaces. The moves, intended to reduce costs, have compromised testing capabilities for major missions like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the GRITSS satellite, raising concerns about mission risks and future spacecraft development.
NASA and IBM are open-sourcing the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, an AI system that consolidates decades of lunar mapping data to support the Artemis program's goal of establishing a Moon base. The model integrates multi-sensor observations across different scales and viewing angles, prioritizing crater mapping, volcanic history analysis, and polar ice detection to support future human exploration and eventual Mars missions.
NASA announced SR-1 Freedom in March 2026, a $2.1 billion nuclear electric rocket designed to reach Mars in late 2028 carrying three miniature helicopters. The spacecraft uses a small fission reactor to power ion engines for slow but fuel-efficient propulsion, with a complex design including radiation shielding, heat radiators, and solar panels.
NASA and IBM have open sourced lunar mapping tools, making them available to developers and researchers for lunar exploration and mapping applications.
The Pittsburgh Steelers' home opener drew large crowds and was notable for featuring NASA's first-ever flyover of an NFL game.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared a video from the International Space Station demonstrating hair care techniques for curly hair in microgravity, including use of no-rinse shampoo and leave-in conditioner. The article discusses how Meir's representation of curly-haired people in space matters for inclusivity and diversity.
LAGEOS-1, launched in 1976, is a 407 kg spherical satellite with no electronics or moving parts that serves as a passive reference point for measuring Earth's size, shape, and rotation using laser pulses. Its retroreflector-covered surface reflects light back to ground stations, enabling precise geodetic measurements and tests of general relativity, with an expected orbital lifespan of millions of years.
Fermi Explorer, a proposed spacecraft launching around 2029, would take 80,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri 4.37 light-years away using existing Hall-effect thruster technology and a $15 million budget. The mission serves primarily as a message to potential alien civilizations or faster future spacecraft, carrying scientific instruments and a copy of NASA's Golden Record with human greetings.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching in 2026 to orbit at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2, will use advanced optics and direct imaging to discover hidden exoplanets and study dark energy and dark matter. The mission employs Wind River technologies and collaborates with ESA and other partners to operate autonomous, precision-controlled systems in the harsh deep space environment.
China's Yaogan 50-02 reconnaissance satellite disintegrated in a highly retrograde orbit, creating 43 pieces of debris that will persist in Earth orbit for centuries due to their high altitude. The incident worsens an already critical space debris problem, with researchers warning that cascading collisions could trigger Kessler syndrome and pose threats to ground populations.
China is progressing on its Tianwen 3 Mars sample-return mission, planning to launch in 2028 and return approximately 500 grams of Martian samples to Earth by 2031. The mission aims to search for evidence of microbial life on Mars, with a landing site to be finalized by end of 2026. Former NASA official Scott Hubbard called the effort a potential "Sputnik moment" as China appears positioned to achieve this major space milestone ahead of NASA.
Global temperatures have breached the 1.5°C threshold for the first time over a three-year period ending in 2025, with climate scientists warning of devastating consequences as governments fail to adequately reduce emissions. Planetary tipping points may trigger sudden, irreversible climate shifts, and extreme weather impacts are already mounting worldwide with trillions in economic damage.
New simulations suggest the moon may have formed in as few as five hours after a Mars-sized protoplanet called Theia collided with early Earth. Researchers found that accounting for the geological properties and temperature of both bodies at collision—particularly their material strength—significantly affects how quickly the moon coalesced from the impact debris.
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