https://phys.org/space-news/space-exploration/ en-us Space exploration news and updates. Space missions and science news. Planet exploration and more. SpaceX's mammoth Starship rocket blasted off Friday on another test flight stretching halfway around the world, this time releasing 20 of the most advanced Starlinks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spacex-starship-flight-advanced-starlinks.html Space Exploration Sat, 25 Jul 2026 13:15:07 EDT news704204084 A two-armed space robot blasted off on a private salvage operation Tuesday to slap life-extending jetpacks on old satellites running low on fuel thousands of miles up. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-private-mission-life-gas-communication.html Space Exploration Wed, 22 Jul 2026 04:10:06 EDT news703911327 On Aug. 5, 2026, an abandoned piece of space junk is predicted to crash into the moon near a spot called Einstein Crater. Astronomers will be watching because the collision and aftermath may be visible from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spacex-rocket-moon-scientists.html Space Exploration Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:50:01 EDT news703856818 Space weather warnings could be received hours before Earth is hit rather than minutes with the help of a miniature UK-built instrument soon to be stationed in deep space. MAGIC (MAGnetometer from Imperial College) is part of the European Space Agency's Heliospheric Pioneer for Solar and Interplanetary Threats Defense (HENON) CubeSat mission, which is scheduled for launch in early 2027. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-deep-space-cubesat-solar-storm.html Space Exploration Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:24:32 EDT news703761842 On July 16, 2024, a daytime meteor shook New York City with a sonic boom as it passed just south of the Statue of Liberty. Now, an international team of researchers reports in the journal Science Advances that a short time later, a meteorite weighing more than 2 pounds crashed through the roof of a house in the town of Hillsborough, New Jersey. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-alien-world-chemistry-meteorite-struck.html Space Exploration Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:00:03 EDT news703263418 The expense of launching cargo into space will plummet over the next few years, with the cost of reaching orbit forecast to more than halve between now and the end of the decade, and fall by around 93% by 2040, according to new Cambridge-led research. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-space-cargo-fall.html Space Exploration Tue, 14 Jul 2026 07:35:02 EDT news703233247 A giant mirror to create "sunlight on demand" was just approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), despite opposition from astronomers and the public, and real safety concerns. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-giant-space-mirror-sunlight-demand.html Space Exploration Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:07:02 EDT news703159573 China successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket after a launch on Friday in a breakthrough for the country's space program, state media said. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-china-page-spacex-recaptures-stage.html Space Exploration Fri, 10 Jul 2026 13:30:01 EDT news702908159 In a new study, published in the Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Warwick researchers led an international effort to uncover some of the faintest debris in geosynchronous orbit ever observed, finding fragments as small as 5 centimeters (2 inches) and obtaining valuable data to characterize their behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-deep-tiny-dangerous-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:30:01 EDT news702737741 Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months mounted outside the International Space Station, where the harsh conditions of low Earth orbit tested their limits. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-lab-moon-lunar-cement-alternative.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:00:03 EDT news702724623 Day will briefly turn into night across a swath of northern Spain on Aug. 12, when the moon will completely cover the sun during a rare total solar eclipse. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-total-solar-eclipse-due-august.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jul 2026 04:30:01 EDT news702702142 Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nasa-horizons-spacecraft-hibernation-good.html Space Exploration Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:00:02 EDT news702655742 Rare images taken by a Japanese space probe during a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid have revealed that the space rock resembled a snowman, scientists said Monday. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-japan-snowman-asteroid-image-flyby.html Space Exploration Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:10:11 EDT news702554975 A Japanese space probe performed a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-japan-space-probe-skims-asteroid.html Space Exploration Sun, 05 Jul 2026 10:30:12 EDT news702466184 A three-armed spacecraft rocketed into orbit Friday to rescue a NASA telescope that's in danger of crashing back to Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mission-nasa-telescope-falling-earth.html Space Exploration Fri, 03 Jul 2026 07:43:29 EDT news702283381 A rush rescue mission to save a NASA space telescope remains grounded, this time because of a last-minute launch problem. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-minute-problem-delays-satellite-mission.html Space Exploration Thu, 02 Jul 2026 11:38:55 EDT news702211107 A new study by a doctoral researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), part of The University of Alabama System, suggests global dust storms on Mars may organize the Martian atmosphere into regions favorable for electrical activity, increasing the potential for electrostatic discharges that could affect missions to the red planet by interfering with electronics, causing arcing between conductive surfaces, and damaging exposed scientific instruments and spacecraft systems. The research, conducted by Chali Idosa Uga, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Space Science at UAH, is published in The Planetary Science Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-martian-storms-generate-atmospheric-electrical.html Space Exploration Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news702121773 A new European Southern Observatory (ESO) study has found that current proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including extremely bright ones, would have "devastating consequences for astronomy." According to the study, no more than 100,000 faint satellites, below naked-eye visibility, should orbit Earth to safeguard our ability to observe the night sky with modern telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-orbit-overload-devastate-astronomy-million.html Astronomy Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:20:01 EDT news702120001 When it comes to drought stress, timing can be the difference between saving a crop and losing it, whether in a greenhouse or in the high-stakes environment of future space missions. In a recent study published in Plant Phenomics, researchers with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NASA used hyperspectral imaging to detect stress in lettuce plants shortly after watering was reduced. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fields-space-farming-tool-crop.html Space Exploration Wed, 01 Jul 2026 10:40:03 EDT news702116809 NASA on Tuesday announced new uncrewed missions to aid in the future creation of a lunar surface base, a project beginning to take shape despite recent setbacks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nasa-robotic-moon-missions-lunar.html Space Exploration Wed, 01 Jul 2026 02:20:02 EDT news702090550 NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-swift-telescope-falling-earth.html Space Exploration Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:23:34 EDT news701864592 A mission to raise the orbit of NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is poised for launch no earlier than Tuesday, June 30, at 6:23 a.m. EDT (10:23 p.m. UTC+12), from Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pegasus-deploy-link-monthslong-orbit.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:00:03 EDT news701700302 A biocontainment facility designed to protect Earth from potentially hazardous biotic contaminants from space should be part of a planned NASA base on the moon, a policy paper maintains. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-biocontainment-facility-moon-earth.html Space Exploration Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:20:04 EDT news701086270 Whether it's to the moon or Mars, a NASA mission requires some essential preparations: designing and developing the spacecraft, astronaut training and safety checks, clear goals, and strategies and procedures for maintaining communication between crews on Earth and in space. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mars-mission-simulations-reveal-key.html Space Exploration Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:00:01 EDT news700917601 Moon missions come in all shapes and sizes, from car-sized rovers packed with scientific equipment to towering rocket payloads—and now, a small, shape-shifting machine that is about the size of the average palm. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-shifting-tiny-rover-japanese-toys.html Space Exploration Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:00:08 EDT news700393361 A new telescope technology—measuring just 6 millimeters (0.24 inches) in diameter—could improve how future space missions study and monitor the sun while simplifying onboard hardware and reducing costs. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-small-optical-component-telescopes-view.html Space Exploration Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:00:02 EDT news700234792 Astronauts on long space missions may one day use plants to produce fresh stocks of medicines on demand, thanks to new research by engineers at the University of California San Diego. The team developed a simple method to grow and repeatedly harvest pharmaceuticals from plants under space-like conditions, without destroying the plants or generating large amounts of waste. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-medicines-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news700143676 This April, humanity had front-row seats to space as the Artemis II Orion spacecraft transmitted crystal-clear footage of its historic journey around the moon from more than 250,000 miles (about 402,000 kilometers) back to Earth at speeds on par with home internet connections. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-artemis-ii-livestreamed-def-videos.html Space Exploration Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:40:03 EDT news700133941 Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used simulations to show that a newly developed, compact X-ray telescope could be used to map the chemical composition of the entire lunar surface, a vital breakthrough for understanding its geological evolution. Detailed modeling of the detector and a realistic satellite mission show that two years would be enough to map five key elements, while an array of 5-by-5 detectors could improve resolution and get results faster. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-lunar-orbiter-concept-reveal-key.html Space Exploration Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:48:23 EDT news700066069 University of Florida researchers are exploring how lasers could help astronauts build structures on the moon using materials already available there, including lunar soil transformed into glass. The work, led by Victoria M. Miller, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and researcher with the UF Astraeus Space Institute, recently completed a research phase focused on laser forming, a manufacturing process that bends materials without physical contact. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-laser-origami-astronauts-moon.html Space Exploration Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:40:07 EDT news699780961