https://phys.org/space-news/space-exploration/ en-us Space exploration news and updates. Space missions and science news. Planet exploration and more. NASA has successfully demonstrated technology designed to help spacecraft autonomously navigate to safe landing sites on the moon and on other planets. An Alta-X drone equipped with the agency's Safe and Precise Landing—Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) guidance, navigation and control payload completed simulated lunar descent and landing maneuvers Aug. 27. The flight took place at Rogers Dry Lake near NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-nasa-planetary.html Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:20:07 EST news713018240 One of NASA's premier space telescopes plunged to Earth on Wednesday, ending its 22-year investigation of the universe's biggest explosions. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-nasa-space-telescope-plunges-earth.html Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:40:11 EST news713027373 Even the world's most powerful telescopes have their blind spots. Although NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can peer billions of years into the past, it still struggles to photograph planets orbiting nearby stars. Stars shine with such extraordinary brightness that their glare overwhelms nearby planets' faint glow. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-giant-planet-emerges-year-jwst.html Space Exploration Wed, 04 Nov 2026 11:00:01 EST news712917421 Despite the complexity of the operation, ERMIS-3, an 8U CubeSat developed by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, has established a link with an optical ground station, marking an important step in validating optical communications on small satellites. The demonstration, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and achieved using optical terminals developed by Lithuanian company Astrolight, happened only weeks after the satellite's commissioning. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-cubesat-laser-link-ground.html Space Exploration Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:40:09 EST news712830260 Tucked away among its sensors, cameras and navigation tools, NASA's Mars rover Perseverance is wearing small swatches of spacesuit material. A rover doesn't need a spacesuit, but the swatches—each less than a square inch (6.5 square centimeters) in size—serve an important purpose: They're helping scientists assess the potential damage caused by ubiquitous Martian dust. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mars-abrasive-lunar-spacesuit-samples.html Space Exploration Sun, 01 Nov 2026 15:00:01 EST news712512186 A kerosene-based gel developed by Concordia researchers could make rocket and satellite fuels easier to store and control. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gel-fuel-rocket-satellite-propulsion.html Space Exploration Sat, 31 Oct 2026 11:00:01 EDT news712510778 NASA's Voyager team is celebrating two recent developments with the Voyager 1 spacecraft: In September, they successfully completed a months-long effort to stretch the spacecraft's diminishing power supply. Then, on Oct. 20, an unexpected loss of communication with the spacecraft resolved itself after 48 hours, before the team sent commands to the spacecraft to troubleshoot the issue. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-voyager-power-communications.html Space Exploration Fri, 30 Oct 2026 10:20:10 EDT news712564880 As NASA and its partners prepare for longer human missions beyond Earth, University of Florida researchers are investigating a challenge that could affect astronauts' ability to grow fresh food in space: plant disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-space-station-probe-disease-future.html Space Exploration Thu, 29 Oct 2026 23:00:01 EDT news712497029 As NASA works toward a sustained human presence on the moon, researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, are helping solve one of the most pressing challenges facing future lunar missions: how to land spacecraft safely without damaging the landing vehicle or nearby infrastructure. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-built-blast-students-prototype-pad.html Space Exploration Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:40:05 EDT news712489763 Planning a successful trip can be challenging, especially when your destination is in outer space. Even before liftoff, space missions require extraordinary amounts of scientific preparation and data analysis to succeed, which can take years to complete. However, as space agencies race to establish a permanent presence on the moon, using artificial intelligence to combine such information into a single system could make mission planning much more efficient. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gen-artificial-intelligence-future-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 28 Oct 2026 17:30:01 EDT news712425961 There is a problem in low Earth orbit, and it's growing. According to the European Space Agency, there are about 19,440 satellites on orbit, 3,540 of which are nonfunctioning and/or not emitting a signal to warn other spacecraft of their location. The need to service these sleepwalking satellites in space will only increase as more are launched. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-autonomous-rendezvous-simulated-spacecraft-failures.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:00:03 EDT news712333651 The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft for planetary defense has resolved its two target asteroids separately for the first time, revealing the binary nature of the Didymos system, currently some 197 million km (122 million miles) away from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hera-asteroids.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:10:09 EDT news712327742 Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging to samples of spacesuit materials that are carried aboard the rover, including particles small enough to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and could inform spacesuit and habitat design, dust-removal procedures and crew health standards for future NASA missions to Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-perseverance-clues-crews-ultrafine-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:00:01 EDT news712314844 NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar surface in as little as two years. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-apollo-urgency-moon-base.html Space Exploration Sat, 24 Oct 2026 05:28:00 EDT news712038417 Establishing a long-term presence on the moon will require solving challenges that are easy to overlook on Earth. Lunar temperatures, for instance, can vary from hundreds of degrees below zero to boiling, making effective insulation essential for lunar habitats. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-everyday-mylar-insulator-lunar-habitats.html Space Exploration Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:20:01 EDT news711979621 Do cosmic radiation doses near the moon differ significantly from those received by astronauts in low Earth orbit? Experimental lithium fluoride detectors, installed aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission, have now made it possible to obtain preliminary estimates. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-artemis-crystals-experimental-detectors-doses.html Space Exploration Fri, 23 Oct 2026 11:40:01 EDT news711967966 Private companies are getting better at launching more mass into space with larger rockets. But there is still a major constraint on the size of objects we can get into orbit—fairing size. This places physical constraints on the overall shape of what we can launch and severely limits the sizes of, say, a communications array or a power satellite. But a new paper from researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Beijing Institute of Technology offers a solution—a self-shaping, deployable module that can fine-tune both its positioning and its own dimensions. The findings are published in the journal Space: Science & Technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-autonomous-triangular-modules-tomorrow-mega.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 20:40:01 EDT news711905701 Scientific estimates show that there should be between about 100 million and 1 billion stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way. But they aren't easy to locate. They're not like supermassive black holes (SMBH) at the centers of galaxies. Those are usually easy to spot for different reasons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-black-holes-neighborhood.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:40:07 EDT news711871458 SpaceX reported a bigger quarterly profit than expected Tuesday as its satellite communications operations and its business of leasing computing power to other companies boomed. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-spacex-profit-losses-satellite-leasing.html Space Exploration Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:48:15 EDT news711776874 Applying eyedrops is difficult in space, where there is almost no gravity. A KAIST research team has developed a wearable patch that delivers eyedrops to the eye without relying on gravity. The research team was led by Professor Ki-Hun Jeong from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, in collaboration with a research team led by Professor Se Joon Woo from Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The paper is published in the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-eyedrops-space-wearable-patch-approach.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 17:00:04 EDT news711719304 The Orionids—one of two major meteor showers caused by remnants from Halley's Comet—will peak this week, though a large moon will dim visibility until after it sets late at night. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-orionid-meteor-shower.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 14:30:01 EDT news711722869 NASA researchers are developing the future of flight on Mars, laying the groundwork for helicopters with the ability to fly higher and farther while conducting science on the Red Planet. Using high-fidelity computer simulations and wind tunnel tests, engineers are reimagining the rotorcraft blades that could carry the next generation of Mars flyers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-experimental-mars-helicopter-blade.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:50:01 EDT news711720660 On Oct. 16, 2021, NASA's Lucy spacecraft began its journey to the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids with an early morning launch. Now less than a year away from the first-ever close-up of a Trojan, the Southwest Research Institute–led mission has already made several findings during its first five years. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lucy-mission-years-discoveries.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 07:00:07 EDT news711691156 Indonesian authorities were investigating Tuesday after a car-sized piece of debris, possibly from a Chinese rocket according to a government agency, crashed into a palm oil plantation near homes and work sites. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-indonesia-probes-chinese-rocket-fragment.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:46:08 EDT news711693934 A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on a quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-spacecraft-mysterious-moons-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:40:13 EDT news711693525 Ken Schreiber was 9 when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon in 1969—a moment he would never forget. Like Armstrong, he too became a military fighter pilot. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-historical-society-buy-neil-armstrong.html Space Exploration Mon, 19 Oct 2026 03:54:26 EDT news711600835 Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars' moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-historic-mission-mars-moon.html Space Exploration Sun, 18 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news711555681 A Japanese space mission is about to launch towards Mars. But it will not land on the planet itself. Instead, the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission will focus on Phobos, the bigger of Mars's two small moons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-mmx-mission-aims-swipe.html Space Exploration Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711356214 Plants begin responding to spaceflight almost immediately after leaving Earth, according to a new University of Florida study that captured the earliest stages of biological adaptation during a commercial suborbital mission. Published in the journal npj Microgravity, the study reports the results of an experiment conducted by a UF astronaut during Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-26 flight on Aug. 29, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-shift-gene-minutes-spaceflight-reveals.html Space Exploration Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:00:01 EDT news711376001 On May 10, 2025, a spacecraft built in the Soviet Union to land on Venus came home. Launched in 1972, Cosmos-482 was stranded by a failed upper stage of its rocket and circled Earth for 53 years. In its last days, several space agencies and research groups forecasted when it would fall, and therefore where. Roscosmos later reported that it came down in the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-air-deep-uncontrolled-satellites-rocket.html Space Exploration Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:40:12 EDT news711280994