Deep Space

A collection of 56 posts

Deep Space

Gravity Data Reveals Mars Is Hundreds of Degrees Hotter in the South

Researchers have found a major temperature imbalance deep inside Mars, with the planet's southern interior appearing significantly hotter than its northern half and possibly partially molten. The discovery, drawn from decades of gravity measurements, offers a new window into the Red Planet's geologic history, including periods

Launch

NASA's Roman Space Telescope Lifts Off on Falcon Heavy for Survey of Two Billion Galaxies

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched Sunday, August 30, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The $4.3 billion observatory is bound for a point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, where it will begin a five to ten year

Deep Space

NASA Glenn Advances SR-1 Freedom, Billed as First Nuclear Fission-Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft

NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is playing a key role in developing Space Reactor-1 Freedom, described as the first nuclear fission-powered interplanetary spacecraft. The vehicle is designed to travel to Mars and deliver a payload of three helicopters, then remain in space for testing of its nuclear

Launch

Roman Space Telescope Set for Sunday Falcon Heavy Launch from Kennedy

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to lift off at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The observatory pairs spy satellite optical technology with sophisticated infrared detectors, delivering a field of view

Deep Space

NASA Activates New 34-Meter Antenna at Goldstone, Expanding Deep Space Network

NASA has added a new 34-meter (114-foot) radio frequency antenna to its Deep Space Network at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. The new dish, Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23), began operations on August 3 and strengthens the communications and navigation system that supports

Deep Space

Tianwen-2 Delivers First Close View of Kamoʻoalewa After 400-Day Chase

China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft has returned the first close-up image of the near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, photographing the object from about 20 kilometres away on 2 July 2026 after a 400-day heliocentric transfer covering roughly one billion kilometres. The China National Space Administration released the image

Launch

Roman Space Telescope Cleared for Aug. 30 Falcon Heavy Launch from Kennedy

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed its Flight Readiness Review and is being prepared for liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30, from Launch Complex

Deep Space

Japan Sets October 20 Launch for Mission to Return Samples From a Martian Moon

Japan's space agency confirmed on August 20 that its mission to collect and return samples from one of Mars' moons will launch on October 20. If successful, it would mark the first sample return from the Martian system. The mission is designed to collect material from either

Launch

JAXA Sets October 20 Launch for MMX Mars Moon Sample Mission

JAXA announced on August 20 that it will launch its Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft aboard an H3 rocket on October 20. The mission aims to observe the two moons of Mars and return surface samples from Phobos to Earth. The agency confirmed the launch date on Thursday, setting in motion

Deep Space

Fastest Known Star in the Milky Way Could Unlock Black Hole's Spin

Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, a body designated S301 that races around the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center at roughly 25,000 kilometers per second. Its extreme proximity to Sagittarius A could open a new window onto the black hole&

Deep Space

MIT Astronomers Identify a "Black Hole Star," a Possible New Class of Cosmic Object

Astronomers at MIT and other institutions have identified an extremely bright red object in the early universe that appears to blur the line between a star and a black hole. Roughly the size of our solar system, the object emits about 100 billion times more energy than any known star

Deep Space

NASA Extends Voyager 2 Science by a Year With "Big Bang" Power Maneuver

NASA engineers have freed up additional power aboard Voyager 2, extending the science life of the nearly 50-year-old spacecraft by at least another year. The operation, nicknamed the "Big Bang" by the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, keeps the probe's remaining

Deep Space

NASA Administrator Tours Idaho Lab Building Reactor for 2028 Mars Mission

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman visited Idaho National Laboratory on Friday, August 8, to celebrate nuclear power's expanding role in space exploration. The centerpiece of the tour was Space Reactor 1 Freedom, described as America's first nuclear reactor intended to power an interplanetary spacecraft, slated to fly

Deep Space

NASA Tests Power Fix on Voyager 1 as Twin Probes Diverge After 49 Years

NASA is testing a power-conservation fix on Voyager 1 that could extend the spacecraft's science operations by about a year, replicating a procedure that succeeded on its twin, Voyager 2, in July. The complication is that the two probes, built to identical designs in 1977, no longer

Deep Space

Perseverance Set to Break Mars Driving Record as Self-Navigation Powers Ahead

NASA's Perseverance rover will pass 45.16 km of total distance driven sometime next week, breaking the off-world driving record held since 2018 by the Opportunity rover. The automobile-sized vehicle reached that mark in roughly a third of the time thanks to an onboard system that

Deep Space

NASA Extends Voyager 2's Science Life by a Year, Eyes Same Fix for Voyager 1

NASA has extended the operational life of Voyager 2 by at least a year using a power-saving maneuver nicknamed the "Big Bang," and the agency now plans to attempt the same procedure on Voyager 1 within a few months. The two probes are the only working spacecraft

Deep Space

IXPE Observations of a Magnetar May Capture a 90-Year-Old Quantum Prediction

Scientists using NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer may have observed empty space behaving in a way physicists predicted nearly 90 years ago but had never directly seen. The findings, drawn from more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E 1547-5408 and published in Nature,

Deep Space

Perseverance Captures Earth Vanishing Behind Phobos in a First for Human History

NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded Earth disappearing behind the Martian moon Phobos, capturing our planet as a single point of light that winks out behind the little moon's shadowed edge. It is the first time humanity has photographed Earth being occulted by another object from the

Deep Space

Inouye Solar Telescope Resolves Wave Structures Never Before Seen on the Sun's Surface

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has captured the sharpest images ever taken of the Sun's visible surface, revealing swirling wave-like vortices that have never been observed there before. Published August 5th in Nature, the observations resolve features as small as 19 kilometers across and could help

Deep Space

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Carries Water With Heavy-Hydrogen Ratio 40 Times Earth's

Scientists have measured water on 3I/ATLAS, only the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected, and found a deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio roughly 40 times higher than in Earth's ocean water. The finding, reported in the week of August 3 to 5, 2026, points to the comet having

Deep Space

PUNCH Mission Pins Solar Storm Arrival to Within 30 Minutes in First Test

NASA's PUNCH mission has predicted the near-Earth arrival of a solar eruption to within 30 minutes in an initial proof of concept test, using continuous imagery of the inner solar system. The results, presented Tuesday at the Committee on Space Research Scientific Meeting and under review at

Deep Space

NASA's PUNCH Nails Solar Storm Arrival to Within 30 Minutes in Proof-of-Concept Test

NASA's PUNCH mission predicted the near-Earth arrival of a solar eruption to within 30 minutes in an initial proof-of-concept test, using continuous imagery to track the storm across the inner solar system. The result, roughly 10 times more precise than current methods, could reshape how

Markets

Intuitive Machines Closes Goonhilly and COMSAT Deals, Adding Ground Stations Ahead of IM-3 and Altus-1

Intuitive Machines has completed its acquisition of Goonhilly Earth Station Limited and COMSAT LLC, two deep space communications providers with ground station assets in the United Kingdom and the United States. The move expands the Houston company's space infrastructure network as it prepares for its upcoming IM-3

Deep Space

Japanese Probe Sets Record With 400-Meter Asteroid Flyby

A Japanese space agency probe passed just 400 meters, roughly 1,312 feet, from a near-Earth asteroid this month, the closest approach ever recorded for an asteroid flyby mission. The Japanese space agency confirmed the milestone, which places Japan again at the front of close-proximity asteroid operations. The

Deep Space

NASA Backs Concept to Release 10,000 Tiny Probes Directly Into Saturn's Rings

NASA has selected an early-stage concept study proposing to release 10,000 femtosatellites directly into Saturn's rings to gather in-situ data. The concept, funded through NASA's NIAC program, would trade a single expensive instrument for a massive distributed sensor network, targeting one of the