An international research team boarded ESA’s 86th parabolic flight campaign in May 2025 with ultralight graphene aerogels, then hit them with light during zero gravity phases to observe their reaction under space-like conditions.  

Inside a vacuum chamber, a continuous laser beamed on three small cubes made of graphene aerogel. A high-speed camera recorded the action through glass tubes. This video has been slowed down 10 times; each experiment run lasted 30 milliseconds. 

The effect of the laser during the microgravity phases was startling: the graphene samples shot forward instantly. Another finding was the ability to control the propulsion by tuning the light beam. The stronger the laser,

Victor Glover became the first Black astronaut to orbit the Moon this week, a milestone that draws a direct line through more than two centuries of American exploration, back to an enslaved man named York who never received credit for helping chart the western frontier. Glover, serving as pilot aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission, flew […]

The post From York to Glover: What Two Centuries of Erased Exploration Tell Us About Who We Send Into the Unknown appeared first on Space Daily.

Last year, history was made as a navigation receiver on the Moon determined its position in real time using signals from approximately 410 000 km away. The receiver, called the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), acquired signals from four navigation satellites orbiting Earth: two Galileo satellites and two GPS satellites.

The mission also tested Galileo’s Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS) on the Moon, demonstrating the robustness and reach of the planned service.

A Spanish satellite startup that once built spacecraft for under $30,000 is now chasing defense contracts in Tokyo, betting that a rapid transition from tiny experimental satellites to larger, more capable platforms can open doors to government customers hungry for sovereign space capabilities. FOSSA Systems has reportedly partnered with Japanese trading firm Kanematsu and opened […]

The post From Picosats to Defense Contracts: How a Spanish Startup Is Betting Its Future on Japan’s Security Market appeared first on Space Daily.

The compulsion to plan everything before enjoying it is often not a personality trait but a nervous system response — the body has learned that unpredictability is where danger lives, and it mobilises accordingly.

The post The people who always need a plan before they can enjoy anything aren’t controlling. They’re managing a nervous system that treats spontaneity as threat. appeared first on Space Daily.

The White House proposed a fiscal year 2027 NASA budget of $18.8 billion, representing a reduction from what Congress approved for the agency just months earlier. The Science Mission Directorate would absorb significant cuts under the proposal. If enacted, it would represent one of the largest single-year reductions to NASA science funding in recent agency […]

The post The Architecture of a Gutted Pipeline: What a 47% Science Cut Actually Dismantles at NASA appeared first on Space Daily.