Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Hydrogen sulfide is what makes rotten eggs stink. But the discovery of this gas in the atmospheres of four distant, Jupiter-like planets is turning heads for a pleasant reason: It solves the mystery of how some gas giants form. The discovery, made by UCLA and University of California San Diego astronomers, marks the first time that hydrogen sulfide has been detected in a distant gas giant outsid

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Recent modeling work suggests that Saturns largest moon, Titan, may be the product of a violent collision between two earlier moons rather than a relic left over from the systems formation. In this scenario, a large Proto Titan and a smaller Proto Hyperion merged in a giant impact that reshaped Titan, erased many of its impact craters, and helped set up the conditions that later produced Saturns

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
On 10 February 2026 the European Space Agency signed a contract with OHB Italia to develop the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, known as Ramses, securing the next phase of Europes dedicated mission to asteroid Apophis ahead of its close Earth flyby in 2029. Launching in 2028, Ramses will rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid before its rare encounter with our planet, providing detailed

Boulder CO USA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
What appears to be a single volcanic eruption is often the result of complex processes operating deep beneath the surface, where magma moves, evolves, and changes over long periods of time. To fully understand how volcanoes work, scientists study the volcanic products that erupt at the surface, which can reveal the hidden magmatic systems feeding volcanic activity. New research published r

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the CAS Aerospace Information Research Institute, and collaborating institutions have used samples from China's Chang'e-6 mission to revise the long-standing lunar crater chronology model. The new analysis relies on material collected from the far side of the Moon and complementary remote sensing im

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Europe's Ariane 6 launcher has completed its first mission using a four booster configuration, delivering a full suite of payloads to orbit in a demonstration of its maximum performance variant. Designated flight VA267, the mission lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, during a launch window between 16:45 and 17:13 GMT, carrying 32 satellites for Amazon's Leo constel

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
Stoke Space Technologies has expanded its previously announced Series D financing round to a total of 860 million dollars as it advances work on its fully and rapidly reusable Nova launch vehicle and related infrastructure at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The company, based in Kent, Washington, is developing medium lift launch vehicles designed for high cadence operations to sup

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
China has carried out a pivotal flight test of a prototype rocket and crew spacecraft for its planned manned lunar landing program, validating key ascent, abort, and recovery technologies needed for future missions to the Moon. In the demonstration, a prototype of the new-generation Mengzhou crew spacecraft was mounted on a prototype first-stage booster of the Long March 10 heavy-lift rock

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 13, 2026
A major water system activation at the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-2) has moved NASA Stennis Space Center a step closer to Green Run testing of the exploration upper stage for the Artemis IV mission. The Jan. 30 activation exercised new cooling hardware and pushed the site's high pressure industrial water network to full capacity in preparation for operating the more powerful upper stage. T

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At 16:45 GMT/17:45 CET the first Ariane 6 rocket with four boosters lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 12 February, taking 32 Amazon Leo satellites to orbit. 

This is Ariane 6’s most powerful version yet. The new three-stage European rocket can be adapted according to each mission with either two or four boosters as well as the length of the fairing – the nosecone that splits vertically in two. This launch was the sixth Ariane 6 flight, the first to fly with four boosters and also the first with the long fairing. 

Ariane 6 in its four-booster configuration, known as Ariane 64, doubles the rocket’s performance