https://phys.org/space-news/space-exploration/ en-us Space exploration news and updates. Space missions and science news. Planet exploration and more. A new AI model can monitor satellites and spot anomalies in their behavior, reducing the risk of in-orbit collisions, according to new research published in the journal Expert Systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-tool-unusual-satellite-behavior.html Astronomy Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:00:06 EDT news707470322 Jupiter hosts more than 100 moons, with most attention focused on the four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This is primarily due to their active geology, including Io being the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system and Europa having a vast subsurface liquid-water ocean beneath its icy crust. However, Jupiter's smaller, lesser-known moons could provide astronomers with key insights into the history of the solar system because they have remained largely unchanged, unlike the Galilean moons. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-esa-juice-probe-dark-jovian.html Space Exploration Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:40:05 EDT news707400639 SpaceX has pulled off its biggest salvage operation yet, recovering its most recently launched Starship from the Indian Ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-spacex-recovers-starship-indian-ocean.html Space Exploration Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:34:56 EDT news707142863 During the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse over Europe, scientists aimed to study a long-standing mystery: why the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is far hotter than its visible surface. Capturing the data they needed meant being in exactly the right place at the right time. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nasa-johnson-moon-shadow-eclipse.html Space Exploration Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news707047621 As space missions become longer and ambitions for deep-space travel grow, scientists are working to understand how life beyond Earth may affect every system in the human body. Two years after her initial study took flight, Begum Mathyk, MD, and collaborators are continuing to push the frontier of women's health in space, this time by examining how altered gravity may affect female biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-clues-space-affect-women-health.html Space Exploration Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:40:05 EDT news707038065 Elon Musk's SpaceX announced plans Tuesday to build a $100 billion facility in the southern U.S. state of Louisiana to launch its anticipated Starship megarockets, currently being developed at the company's Texas Starbase. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-spacex-billion-spaceport-louisiana.html Space Exploration Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:15:04 EDT news706889686 The moon's getting its first airport, and it's about to get busy. Within the next two decades, NASA's planned Gateway—humanity's first lunar spaceport—may become a bustling hub for Orion crew capsules, lunar landers, cargo vehicles and astronauts traveling between Earth, the moon and, eventually, destinations in the deep unknown. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-boarding-miles-earth-moon-airport.html Space Exploration Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:20:03 EDT news706867861 A NASA-led team hopes to take a shortcut to direct imaging of extrasolar Earth-like planets. The idea is to use what they call a hybrid telescope composed of an orbital starshade coupled with the next-generation extremely large ground-based optical telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nasa-starshade-enable-astronomers-image.html Space Exploration Mon, 24 Aug 2026 19:20:01 EDT news706784267 Washington State University researchers used artificial intelligence to find a more efficient, less expensive way to 3D-print a high-performance metal alloy, saving researchers from needing to painstakingly test more than 100 million options. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-ways-rocket-grade-alloy.html Space Exploration Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:30:04 EDT news706805546 China's manned space agency said Sunday it is delaying a research moon mission that is part of Beijing's efforts to land a crew there by 2030, less than two weeks after a rare launch failure. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-china-unmanned-moon-mission-delayed.html Space Exploration Mon, 24 Aug 2026 03:10:01 EDT news706758892 China said on Sunday it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang'e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-china-abruptly-postpones-ambitious-lunar.html Space Exploration Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:38:51 EDT news706700304 Now it's the moon's turn to pull a disappearing act. After being shut out of this month's total solar eclipse, the Americas will have the best seats in the celestial house when Earth's shadow briefly envelops the moon. Almost the entire lunar surface will be masked Thursday night into Friday—a whopping 96%—making this an especially deep partial eclipse. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-total-lunar-eclipse-americas-prime.html Space Exploration Sat, 22 Aug 2026 10:38:34 EDT news706613876 During a coronal mass ejection (CME), the sun hurls billions of tons of magnetized plasma into space. These eruptions are among the most powerful events in the solar system, and when they are aimed toward Earth, they can seriously threaten the satellites and power grids we depend on. For now, it remains notoriously difficult to predict how these eruptions evolve over time—and, in turn, whether they might be heading toward us. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-interplanetary-spacecraft-capture-coronal-mass.html Space Exploration Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:50:42 EDT news706521006 We've known for nearly two decades that some form of water exists on the moon. What we still don't know is exactly how much accessible water ice lies inside permanently shadowed craters, how deeply it is buried or what form it takes. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-china-moon-mission-ice.html Space Exploration Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:00:03 EDT news706514402 Japan's ambitious mission to collect and bring back samples from one of Mars' moons will lift off Oct. 20, the space agency announced Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-japan-probe-mars-moons-october.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:00:05 EDT news706455400 The mission to save NASA's sinking Swift Observatory was called off Wednesday, dooming the telescope to a fiery reentry later this year. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mission-nasa-aging-swift-space.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:17:08 EDT news706418201 Eclipses may be wondrous, but nothing beats seeing the northern and southern lights from space. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-eclipses-space-northern-southern.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:15:47 EDT news706418110 Remember the "Wow!" signal? That high-energy radio signature occurred in 1977, when Earth was much "quieter" in the radio band. If it happened today, it probably wouldn't even move the needle on the background noise of human radio chatter. Signals from satellites, radar and other human technology have crowded out extraterrestrial radio signals, limiting our ability to monitor the heavens for signals like the still-unexplained one received in 1977. What's more, the ionosphere partially blocks lower-frequency radio signals, making them even harder to detect from the ground. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-radio-telescope-moon.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Aug 2026 22:00:01 EDT news706373101 Before people can mine resources on the moon, asteroids or Mars, they need to answer a few key questions: What is there? How much is there? And where can it be found? A team led by SETI Institute research scientist Pablo Sobron is looking into a new way to answer these questions without having to land, drill or bring samples back to Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-interworld-slingshot-exploring-resources-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Aug 2026 16:30:02 EDT news706374121 As humanity gets closer to the possibility of long-term interplanetary travel, psychologists have started raising concerns about astronauts' mental health. Researchers at Texas A&M University conducted research on sailors in an isolated environment to address these concerns using virtual reality technology and by introducing other senses to the experience, such as smell and touch. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-vr-spaceflight-mental-health.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:58:23 EDT news706355873 China has successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, state media reported Wednesday, as the country seeks to advance its space program. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-china-recovers-rocket-stage-earlier.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:30:01 EDT news706331905 NASA has released a report recommending an initial health standard for the Martian dust that astronauts could inhale during future missions. Although sending people to Mars is still years away, NASA needs to establish safety limits now. Spacecraft, spacesuits and crew habitats take years to design and test, and engineers need a measurable target for developing air filters, airlocks and suit-cleaning systems that will keep astronauts safe. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mars-red-planet-safe.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news706282501 Between Aug. 11–12, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured a series of images of a new crater on the moon. The crater formed Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage impacted the surface following its Jan. 2025 launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nasa-lro-images-falcon-crater.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:50:01 EDT news706289341 From 2021 to 2024, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter became the first vehicle of its kind to explore the Martian atmosphere and surface. With that proof of concept complete, NASA is preparing to send a trio of helicopters to search for the most precious resource for future astronaut missions: water. Known as the SkyFall trio, these helicopters will detect frozen water within the top few meters of Martian regolith. To find possible water sources, each helicopter will use ground-penetrating radar with a flexible, fabric-based antenna extended beneath the spacecraft. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nasa-skyfall-mars-helicopters-feature.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:20:04 EDT news706266542 Sophie Adenot became the first French woman astronaut to venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) for a spacewalk on Tuesday, accompanied by American astronaut Anil Menon. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-iss-hosts-spacewalk-frenchwoman.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:31:02 EDT news706271437 The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged NGC 2392 (also known as the Lion Nebula), named for its distinctive appearance, which resembles a lion's face seen head-on. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-webb-captures-clearest-image-lion.html Astronomy Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:40:01 EDT news706262701 A new paper has put hard numbers on a plan that's been rattling around the astronomy community for a while now—a California company called Reflect Orbital wants to put giant mirrors in orbit and beam sunlight down to Earth after dark. The work is published on the arXiv preprint server and has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-brightened-night-sky.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Aug 2026 07:20:09 EDT news706165501 NASA is planning to send three small rovers to the moon with a single instruction: Work out among yourselves how to explore a patch of ground. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-exploring-moon-require-rovers.html Space Exploration Sat, 15 Aug 2026 14:00:01 EDT news705830940 From launchpads to low Earth orbit and beyond, space companies and their affiliates are deploying a familiar marketing tactic—with a new twist. In a space economy projected to reach US$1.8 trillion by 2035, they sell space exploration narratives by appealing to a desire to expand humankind beyond Earth—while downplaying or omitting the negative repercussions for Earth and the space environment. Welcome to the age of starwashing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-starwashing-space-companies-greenwashing-playbook.html Space Exploration Fri, 14 Aug 2026 21:00:01 EDT news705765127 Using unique equipment installed on NASA's WB-57 aircraft flying above heavy clouds off the coast of Iceland, a Southwest Research Institute-led team successfully observed a total solar eclipse on Wednesday. The high-altitude jet followed the moon's shadow at 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) to take measurements of the solar corona in nine different wavelengths, ranging from visible to infrared light. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-airborne-observatory-views-solar-corona.html Space Exploration Fri, 14 Aug 2026 18:40:03 EDT news705938400