Image: XRISM sees comet 3I/ATLAS in X-ray light

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Dec 11, 2025
Sidus Space has completed bus-level commissioning of its LizzieSat-3 spacecraft, confirming that the satellite's core systems are operational in orbit and ready to support customer missions. LS-3 is part of the company's LizzieSat multi-mission constellation focused on providing space-based data services, integrated sensors, and autonomous on-orbit computing capabilities to government and commer

Laurel MD (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
NASA has selected Dartmouth College and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, to begin developing a mission that will shed more light on the growing impacts of space weather. The Cross-scale Investigation of Earths Magnetotail and Aurora (CINEMA) mission will unlock the secrets of the energy circulation through Earths magnetotail. The magnetotail is an ext

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 09, 2025
Cradled in the nose of a high-altitude research airplane, a new NASA sensor has taken to the skies to help geoscientists map rocks hosting lithium and other critical minerals on Earth's surface some 60,000 feet below. In collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the flights are part of the largest airborne campaign of its kind in the country's history. But that's just one of ma

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 17, 2025
Researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf have outlined an experiment in which light exchanges discrete packets of energy with gravitational waves, potentially revealing the long-sought quantum properties of gravity. In the proposed scheme, a laser beam interacts with a passing gravitational wave so that the light loses or gains an energy amount corresponding to one or more gravitons,

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 17, 2025
Sentinel-6B has begun returning its first ocean measurements, providing initial maps of sea level across a wide area of the U.S. East Coast and the Atlantic Ocean after its November launch. The U.S.-European mission is designed to survey about 90 percent of Earth's oceans using high-precision radar altimetry to track changes in sea surface height that affect coastal communities and marine operat

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 17, 2025
Computer-aided design (CAD) systems are tried-and-true tools used to design many of the physical objects we use each day. But CAD software requires extensive expertise to master, and many tools incorporate such a high level of detail they don't lend themselves to brainstorming or rapid prototyping. In an effort to make design faster and more accessible for non-experts, researchers from MIT

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has placed its third Gen-3 imaging satellite into commercial service just three weeks after launch, marking a major reduction in commissioning time compared with the company's first Gen-3 unit. The new spacecraft adds further capacity for 35-centimeter-class very high-resolution imagery and AI-enabled analytics for BlackSky customers worldwide. "Integr

Washington, United States (AFP) Dec 19, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that he wants to send astronauts back to the Moon as soon as possible, putting eventual Mars missions on the back burner. In an executive order on his space policy, Trump said he wanted to get Americans to the Moon by 2028, under NASA's Artemis program launched during his first White House term. Such a lunar landing would "assert American l