NASA

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, originally built as a spy satellite, is launching from Florida aboard a SpaceX rocket to investigate dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. With a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble, it will map cosmic expansion, dark matter distribution, and directly image exoplanets. The mission, scheduled for no earlier than May 2027, represents a unique collaboration between intelligence and civilian space agencies, complementing Hubble and James Webb telescopes.

20 reports · 6 sources · Updated Aug 31, 03:15 PM UTC

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create the U.S. Space Academy, a new military service academy for training Space Force officers, NASA personnel, and civilian space industry workers. Announced at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the order establishes a commission to draft curriculum and structure within 120 days. The academy’s location remains undetermined, and no opening timeline was provided. The initiative aims to bolster U.S. space capabilities amid Space Force expansion.

5 reports · 4 sources · Updated Aug 28, 08:33 PM UTC

In March 2022, an abandoned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage, launched in 2015, unintentionally crashed into the Moon's far side near Hertzsprung crater. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later captured before-and-after images revealing a rare double crater, indicating mass at both ends of the booster. The impact, traveling over 5,000 mph, created a crater about 60 feet wide. The event underscores growing concerns over space debris and its implications for future lunar exploration and space policy.

7 reports · 2 sources · Updated Aug 21, 07:29 PM UTC

A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage, launched in 2015 for the DSCOVR mission, is predicted to impact the Moon on March 4, 2022, at 5,700 mph near the far side. The 4,000 kg object will create a 27-meter-wide crater and eject 1.2 million kg of lunar regolith, with energy equivalent to 3 tons of TNT. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Danuri orbiter will monitor the event, which raises concerns about space debris as lunar exploration intensifies.

29 reports · 12 sources · Updated Aug 9, 01:00 PM UTC

In the summer of 1984, an SR-71 Blackbird (aircraft 61-7974) flying a reconnaissance mission near the Soviet Kola Peninsula suffered a violent right-side intake unstart at 83,000 feet and Mach 3.2. Pilot Joseph E. Matthews deliberately induced a similar condition on the left inlet to halt asymmetric drag, effectively losing all thrust. Three automatic restart attempts failed. Matthews manually restored the inlets after the aircraft descended to about 18,000 feet in less than two minutes, averaging over 32,500 feet per minute. The high-G recovery kept the aircraft out of the Barents Sea but left it low, subsonic, and critically low on fuel. The crew reached a KC-135Q tanker with less than 10 minutes of fuel remaining, refueled repeatedly, and landed safely at RAF Mildenhall. The incident highlighted the complex engineering of the SR-71's propulsion system, where at Mach 3 less than 20% of thrust came from the engine core itself.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 29, 07:22 PM UTC

On August 12, 2026, Germany will experience a total solar eclipse for the first time since 1999. The partial eclipse begins at 5:34 PM CEST off Alaska and moves across the Arctic to the Atlantic, ending at 9:58 PM CEST. In Germany, visibility starts around 7:10 PM, with maximum coverage between 8:00 PM and 8:15 PM. The southern city of Freiburg will see 90% solar coverage, while Berlin sees 85%. The path of totality—where the sun is completely blocked—crosses Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal, with the longest totality (2 minutes 18 seconds) off Iceland's coast. Because the eclipse occurs shortly before sunset, a dramatic color spectacle is expected. The next total solar eclipse over Europe will not occur until 2081.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 29, 12:48 PM UTC

Asteroid Apophis, named after the Egyptian god of chaos, will pass within 20,000 miles of Earth on 13 April 2029. The asteroid has a mean diameter of 340 meters and is at least 450 meters long, comparable to the Empire State Building. Originally thought to potentially impact Earth in 2029, 2036, or 2068, scientists have confirmed it will safely pass and poses no threat for at least 100 years. Under clear conditions, it will be visible to the naked eye across the Eastern Hemisphere, including parts of Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. NASA describes the flyby as an unprecedented opportunity for scientific study, with observatories and spacecraft planned to monitor and sample the asteroid. Such a close pass by a large asteroid occurs only every few thousand years.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 29, 09:57 AM UTC

A rare and extreme firestorm phenomenon, known as a pyrocumulonimbus, has occurred for the first time in France during devastating wildfires in the southwest of the country. The firestorm generates its own weather system, including strong winds that further fuel the flames and lightning strikes from the cloud to the ground. Fire department spokesperson Eric Brocardi described the situation as a 'war-like scenario' and stated that the force of nature is beyond control. The phenomenon, previously observed mainly in Australia and Canada, creates multiple fire fronts and unpredictable wind shifts, making extinguishing efforts nearly impossible. Firefighters have been forced to retreat and focus on defending strategic points and rescuing animals. The only potential solutions are heavy rainfall for three days or steering the fire to a location where it can burn out naturally, such as the sea.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 28, 08:56 AM UTC

NASA's Perseverance rover has detected complex, ring-shaped carbon molecules inside rocks in Mars's Jezero Crater, an ancient lake and river delta. The molecules contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen—the same four elements that form the basis of all life on Earth. The compounds were found trapped in carbonate and sulfate minerals, indicating that ancient liquid water transported and preserved them. However, the rover's instruments cannot determine whether these molecules were produced by ancient Martian microbes or by non-biological chemical processes such as volcanic reactions or meteorite impacts. The discovery reinforces the importance of returning Martian rock samples to Earth, as only laboratory analysis can resolve the origin of these organic compounds. Perseverance has sealed rock cores in titanium tubes for a future sample-return mission.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 27, 07:55 PM UTC

NASA's Perseverance rover has detected complex, ring-shaped carbon molecules preserved inside rocks in Mars's Jezero Crater, an ancient lake and river delta. The molecules contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen—the same four elements that form the basis of all life on Earth. However, scientists cannot yet determine whether these organic compounds were produced by ancient microbial life or by non-biological chemical processes such as volcanic reactions or meteorite impacts. The carbon was trapped inside carbonate and sulfate minerals that form in water, suggesting ancient liquid water transported and concentrated these compounds. Perseverance is sealing rock cores in titanium tubes for a future mission to return them to Earth, where more sophisticated instruments can analyze them. The discovery shifts Mars research from asking whether Mars was habitable to investigating how far Martian chemistry progressed toward life.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 27, 07:55 PM UTC

Virtuix (NASDAQ:VTIX) announced the sale of its first Omni One Enterprise system to Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot division, marking a milestone in the company's expansion from consumer gaming into enterprise markets. The system enables natural movement within virtual environments for training, simulation, and real-time teleoperation of humanoid robots. While financial terms were not disclosed, securing Tesla as an enterprise customer provides commercial validation for Virtuix's platform. The company has previously collaborated with Meta, NASA, and all four branches of the U.S. military. Investors are watching for potential follow-on orders and growth in Virtuix's enterprise customer base across defense, healthcare, and industrial sectors.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 27, 02:39 PM UTC

American astronomers led by Joshua Roth at Princeton University have discovered over 10,000 new exoplanet candidates using advanced AI tools, marking the largest cache of planet candidates ever found. The team analyzed 80 million light curves from NASA's TESS satellite, employing AI software like the Cambridge Exoplanet Transit Recovery Algorithm and a Random Forest machine learning system. The findings, published in a paper titled 'The T16 Planet Hunt: 10,000 New Planet Candidates from TESS Cycle 1,' include over 9,000 gas giants (Hot Jupiters), more than 100 Neptune-size bodies, and 11 potential super-Earths. The collaboration spans Princeton, MIT, UCLA, and Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, and represents a global lead in AI-assisted exoplanet discovery.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 27, 05:53 AM UTC

This article from The Hindu archives, dated July 27, 1976, reports on the successful repair of a jam in the Viking lander's soil-sampling arm on Mars. Commands from Earth straightened out the hitch after scientists at JPL discovered that extending the arm would cause a problematic lockpin to fall away, which it did. The Viking project manager expressed satisfaction and readiness to proceed. Additionally, new close-up images of the Chryse plain revealed a rock that appeared to bear the Roman letters 'B' and 'C' and the Arabic numeral '2'. Scientists, including Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray, attributed these markings to optical illusions caused by shadowing, cautioning against imagining patterns.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 26, 06:46 PM UTC

On July 16, 2026, SpaceX aborted the 13th Starship test flight at its Starbase in South Texas after four of 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite, triggering an automatic abort at liftoff. This was the first payload mission, carrying 20 Starlink V3 satellites, and the first launch since SpaceX’s record $85.7 billion IPO in June. CEO Elon Musk stated the next attempt would come in a few days. The abort sent SpaceX stock below its $135 IPO price, adding pressure on the company’s ambitious lunar and orbital goals.

26 reports · 5 sources · Updated Jul 27, 02:43 PM UTC

A joint U.S.-Russian space crew, consisting of NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on July 26, 2026, after an eight-month (241-day) mission aboard the International Space Station. Their Soyuz MS-28 capsule touched down smoothly by parachute in a designated area southeast of Dzhezkazgan. The mission was the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev, and the second for Kud-Sverchkov. The landing marks the successful conclusion of their extended stay on the orbiting outpost.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 26, 11:33 AM UTC

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin completed its first-ever external fundraising round, raising $10 billion at a $130 billion valuation, led by Coatue Management and including $2 billion from Bezos. The move comes after a catastrophic New Glenn rocket explosion damaged its launch facility, and as the company burns nearly $5 billion annually. The capital will support rebuilding, New Glenn development, and its TeraWave satellite network. The fundraising follows SpaceX’s record IPO, intensifying competition in the commercial space industry.

16 reports · 6 sources · Updated Jul 26, 09:25 AM UTC

Devastating wildfires are sweeping across Southern and Western Europe, driven by extreme heat and dry conditions. In southwestern France, over 63,000 people have been evacuated near Bordeaux and the Arcachon Basin, with fires spreading to 10,000 hectares. Spain declared a state of emergency for Madrid and Ávila, evacuating 10,000 people. France activated EU civil protection, requesting aircraft from Croatia, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, and is converting an A400M military plane for firefighting. Fires also hit Sicily, where a firefighter died, and Germany’s Saarland region.

52 reports · 10 sources · Updated Aug 1, 12:49 PM UTC

NASA is preparing to launch the Dragonfly mission in July 2028, a car-sized, 1,000-pound nuclear-powered drone to Saturn's moon Titan. The $3.35 billion mission will take six years to reach Titan, arriving in 2034. Titan's atmosphere is four times denser than Earth's and gravity is one-seventh as strong, making flight easier than on Earth. Dragonfly uses eight rotors and a plutonium-powered MMRTG to charge batteries for autonomous flights of about 30 minutes, covering several kilometers per hop. Over three years, it will explore dozens of sites, searching for prebiotic carbon chemistry. Instruments include a mass spectrometer (DraMS), gamma-ray/neutron spectrometer (DraGNS), panoramic camera (DragonCam), and weather station (DraGMet). The mission represents a shift from wheeled rovers to rotorcraft for planetary exploration.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 24, 10:13 PM UTC

NASA is preparing to launch the Dragonfly mission in July 2028, a car-sized, plutonium-powered drone destined for Saturn's moon Titan. The $3.35 billion mission will take six years to reach Titan, arriving in 2034. Unlike previous rovers, Dragonfly is a rotorcraft designed to fly through Titan's dense atmosphere, which is four times thicker than Earth's, with gravity only one-seventh as strong. The 1,000-pound vehicle uses eight rotors and a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) for power, as sunlight is too weak nearly 900 million miles from the Sun. Over more than three years, Dragonfly will autonomously hop between dozens of sites, using instruments like a mass spectrometer and gamma-ray spectrometer to analyze organic molecules and search for prebiotic chemistry. The mission represents a major shift in planetary exploration, demonstrating aircraft as standard tools on worlds with atmospheres.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 24, 10:13 PM UTC

NASA's Dragonfly mission, confirmed for a July 2028 launch, will send a car-sized, 1,000-pound nuclear-powered drone to Saturn's moon Titan, arriving in 2034. The $3.35 billion mission marks a shift from wheeled rovers to rotorcraft for planetary exploration. Titan's dense atmosphere (four times Earth's) and low gravity (one-seventh) make flying easier than on Earth. Dragonfly uses eight rotors for redundancy and a plutonium-powered MMRTG for energy, as sunlight is too weak 900 million miles from the Sun. Over three years, the autonomous drone will hop between dozens of sites, traveling at 22 mph, to analyze organic chemistry and prebiotic conditions. Instruments include a mass spectrometer (DraMS), gamma-ray/neutron spectrometer (DraGNS), cameras (DragonCam), and a weather station (DraGMet). The mission could redefine exploration of worlds with atmospheres.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 24, 10:13 PM UTC

The Trump administration's FAA has proposed new sound-based rules to replace the 50-year ban on domestic supersonic flights, which was imposed in 1973 due to sonic boom concerns. The proposal sets a limit of 0.11 pounds per square foot of overpressure, significantly lower than the Concorde's 1.94 pounds. This is based on Boom Supersonic's research into 'boomless' flight using Mach cutoff technology, which prevents shock waves from reaching the ground. The company successfully demonstrated this in February 2025. The public has until August 17 to comment on the proposal. The article also notes historical context, including the failed 1964 Oklahoma City sonic boom tests and the economic challenges that led to the Concorde's retirement in 2003. Boom Supersonic aims to offer $100 tickets and has reported 130 orders from airlines.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 24, 04:24 PM UTC

Magellan Aerospace Middletown Inc., a 97-year-old aerospace manufacturer based in Middletown, Ohio, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 22, 2026, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The company, which produces jet engine nacelles, exhaust components, and heat-resistant space products, listed assets between $10 million and $50 million and debts between $50 million and $100 million, with over $82 million in unsecured obligations. The filing follows a winddown of key contracts, including those for Airbus A340, A318, A380, and Boeing 747 and 767 programs, as production of those aircraft ended. The company reported a net loss of $8.5 million on $26.3 million in revenue in 2025, and a net loss of $2.8 million on $16.8 million in revenue through June 2026. Founded in 1928 as Aeronautical Corporation of America, the company has a legacy including heat shields for NASA's Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. The debtor, which employs 109 workers, is seeking to preserve the business as a going concern and may consider a sale or other value-maximizing transactions.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 24, 04:03 PM UTC

A private mission has launched a robotic servicing satellite designed to extend the operational life of communication satellites that have run out of fuel. The mission, supported by NASA and executed by Northrop Grumman, involves the Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) and its Mission Extension Pod (MEP). Launched via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the spacecraft will operate in geosynchronous orbit, docking with aging satellites to provide propulsion and attitude control. This decade-long mission marks a new era of in-space servicing, potentially reducing space debris and saving costs for satellite operators by avoiding premature disposal of functional hardware.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 22, 08:10 AM UTC

Published on July 22, 2026, by The Hindu, this feature article by Indulekha S. examines the extensive training astronauts undergo for space missions. It covers Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) training in neutral buoyancy pools at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Geological field training prepares astronauts for planetary exploration using Earth analogs like Hawaii's volcanic landscapes, as done for Apollo missions. Survival training addresses emergency scenarios during spaceflight. The article emphasizes the years of rigorous preparation—physical, mental, and simulated—required to ensure astronauts are efficient and valiant in space. It includes images of European astronauts training for lunar missions and historical Apollo training photos.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 22, 04:49 AM UTC

Published on Space Exploration Day (July 22, 2026), this article by A.S. Ganesh in The Hindu provides a detailed timeline of the historic Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the Moon in July 1969. It traces the journey from President John F. Kennedy's 1961 goal to the successful launch on July 16, 1969, the lunar module Eagle's undocking and landing on July 20, and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface at 10:56 pm ET on July 20, 1969, uttering the famous phrase 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' The timeline covers key events including the descent, moonwalk, sample collection, and ascent from the lunar surface, highlighting the roles of Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 22, 04:44 AM UTC

SpaceX is aggressively expanding into AI infrastructure, building large-scale compute capacity for model training and inference to compete with established hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The company's AI segment posted a $6.4 billion operating loss on $3.2 billion revenue in 2025, highlighting the capital-intensive nature of the business. According to reports from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, SpaceX is in discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense for a potential multibillion-dollar capacity agreement, which would leverage its existing government relationships with NASA and the Space Force. Over the past month, SpaceX has signed capacity agreements worth up to $82 billion with Anthropic, Google Cloud, and Reflection AI. While any Pentagon deal remains speculative, it could significantly strengthen SpaceX's credentials as a sovereign AI platform provider. The article presents both the opportunities and uncertainties facing SpaceX's AI ambitions.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 21, 05:07 PM UTC

On September 6, 2003, the nearly complete $233 million NOAA-N Prime weather satellite fell from its handling cart onto a clean-room floor at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. The cause was 24 bolts that a crew from another program had quietly removed from the shared fixture without documentation. A technician noticed the empty holes before the tilt operation but was dismissed. The satellite suffered extensive damage but was rebuilt, launched in 2009 as NOAA-19, and operated successfully for over 16 years. The incident became a case study in procedural failures and communication breakdowns.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 21, 03:48 PM UTC

On September 6, 2003, the nearly complete NOAA-N Prime weather satellite, valued at $233 million, toppled from its handling cart onto a clean-room floor at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. The cause was 24 bolts that a crew from another program had quietly removed from the shared fixture without documentation. A technician supervisor noticed the empty bolt holes before the tilt operation but was dismissed. The satellite slid off the cart and crashed, causing extensive damage. NASA's investigation ran a year. The spacecraft was rebuilt, launched in 2009 as NOAA-19, and operated successfully for over sixteen years, becoming a workhorse of American polar-orbiting weather observation.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 21, 03:48 PM UTC

On September 6, 2003, the nearly complete NOAA-N Prime weather satellite, valued at $233 million, toppled from its handling cart onto a clean-room floor at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. The cause was 24 bolts that a crew from another program had quietly removed from the shared fixture without documentation. A technician noticed the empty holes but was dismissed. The satellite was rebuilt, launched in 2009 as NOAA-19, and operated for over 16 years. The incident became a case study in procedural failure and communication breakdown.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 21, 03:48 PM UTC

3M's stock surged over 8% on July 21, 2026, after the industrial conglomerate reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.40 per share, beating analyst expectations of $2.25. Adjusted operating margins improved to 24.9%, signaling that the company's multiyear turnaround, initiated in 2024, is gaining momentum. 3M raised its full-year 2026 adjusted earnings forecast to $8.80-$8.95 per share, above the consensus estimate of $8.74. The company highlighted its pivot toward materials technology for electronics, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and AI infrastructure, including a partnership with Microsoft for Expanded Beam Optics in AI data centers, a long-term agreement with Airbus for insulation on the A220, and the use of its headsets on NASA's Artemis II mission. The turnaround follows years of challenges including PFAS liabilities and the 2024 spin-off of its healthcare business Solventum. Year-to-date, 3M shares are flat.

1 reports · 1 sources · Updated Jul 21, 01:15 PM UTC