Space Missions News

September 30, 2026

Top Headlines

This Suitcase-sized Spacecraft Could Hear the Universe Before Stars Existed

Sep. 28, 2026 CosmoCube will use the far side of the Moon as a shield from Earth’s radio noise to search for a faint signal from the universe before the first stars existed. The suitcase-sized satellite could reveal how the cosmic dark ages ended and how dark ...

The Secret to Growing Food on Mars Could Be Fungi

Sep. 25, 2026 Scientists think beneficial fungi could help transform nutrient-poor lunar and Martian regolith into a material capable of supporting crops. By helping plants access nutrients and withstand harsh conditions, these microbes could someday make ...

NASA’s Swift Telescope Is Back, but Time Is Running Out

Sep. 1, 2026 NASA has brought two of Swift’s telescopes back online after technical problems derailed a commercial mission intended to rescue the aging observatory by raising its orbit. With atmospheric drag pulling the spacecraft downward faster than ...

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Launches to Reveal the Universe’s Darkest Secrets

Aug. 31, 2026 NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has launched on a million mile journey to L2, where it will scan huge portions of the cosmos for clues about dark matter, dark energy, and distant worlds. With survey ...

NASA Just Used Satellites and Debris to Navigate Without GPS

Aug. 26, 2026 NASA has successfully tested a system that allows satellites to navigate without GPS by using other spacecraft and debris as landmarks in orbit. In just three days, FALCON also improved the known orbits of more than 200 space objects completely ...

A SpaceX Rocket Smashed Into the Moon — NASA Just Revealed the Crater

Aug. 20, 2026 A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 stage crashed into the Moon on Aug. 5, leaving behind a newly formed crater about 60 feet wide. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured detailed images showing bright and dark streaks of debris blasted across the ...

NASA’s Moon Base Is Taking Shape with 20+ Lunar Landings Planned

Aug. 11, 2026 NASA is assembling the foundations of a future Moon Base through a wave of robotic missions and powerful new commercial landers. More than 20 landings are planned through 2029, testing everything from precision landings and lunar communications to ...

Voyager 2 Was Running Out of Power. NASA Just Bought It More Time

Aug. 10, 2026 NASA engineers have found a clever way to squeeze more life out of Voyager 2, nearly half a century after it left Earth. In an operation nicknamed the “Big Bang,” the team simultaneously shut down certain power-hungry hardware and switched to ...

NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Aces Mars Flyby Capturing Stunning Timelapse Video

July 28, 2026 NASA’s Psyche spacecraft aced its Mars flyby, using the planet’s gravity to speed toward its 2029 encounter with a metal-rich asteroid. The spacecraft tested its cameras, magnetometer, and ...

NASA Will Test SpaceX and Blue Origin Moon Landers Before the Next Lunar Landing

July 23, 2026 NASA is preparing for future astronaut landings on the Moon with an unusually ambitious orbital rehearsal. During Artemis III in 2027, Orion astronauts will rendezvous and dock separately with ...

China’s Chang’e-6 Reveals Why Solar Wind Hits the Moon’s Two Sides Differently

July 21, 2026 China’s Chang’e-6 samples have uncovered a surprising difference between the Moon’s two hemispheres. Solar wind particles penetrated deeper into the far-side soil because Earth’s ...

A Shattered Asteroid May Have Bombarded Earth 800 Million Years Ago

July 18, 2026 A catastrophic asteroid breakup may have triggered a huge wave of impacts across the inner solar system about 800 million years ago. The debris was launched from near a gravitational gateway controlled by Jupiter, sending fragments toward Earth, the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:48am EDT

Watch Live: NASA’s Crew-13 Could Make the Fastest U.S. Trip to the ISS Ever

Sep. 30, 2026 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission is scheduled to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on October 1. The Dragon could reach the ...

The Ice Blasting from Saturn's Moon Enceladus Is Stranger Than Scientists Realized

Sep. 29, 2026 Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The ...

NASA’s Crew-13 Could Go from Florida to the ISS in Under 9 Hours

Sep. 29, 2026 NASA and SpaceX could launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on October 1, with the Dragon spacecraft reaching orbiting outpost less than nine hours after liftoff. Crew-13 will ...

Two Astronauts Who Flew Farther Than Anyone Before Are Taking New NASA Roles

Sep. 26, 2026 Artemis II astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman are transitioning to emeritus status at NASA after their historic journey around the Moon ...

“We Just Need to Go Back” – Uranus’ Moon Ariel May Have Hidden a 100-Mile-Deep Ocean

Sep. 24, 2026 Ariel, one of Uranus’ moons, may once have contained a subsurface ocean more than 100 miles deep beneath its fractured icy shell. The finding, ...

A Giant Crater May Reveal the Origin of Mars’ Doomed Moon

Sep. 19, 2026 A massive crater on Mars’ moon Phobos may hide a dense region of compressed material that could reveal whether the moon is a captured asteroid or debris from an ancient impact on Mars. Japan’s ...

NASA’s Moon Orbiter Finds a 728-Foot Crater That Wasn’t There Before

Sep. 18, 2026 NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed a 728-foot-wide crater that formed on the Moon in 2024, making it the largest newly formed crater ever identified in the solar system. The impact ...

NASA’s New Horizons Spots Signs of Liquid Nitrogen Flowing on Pluto

Sep. 17, 2026 Scientists have found the first evidence that liquid may have flowed across Pluto’s surface in the recent past. Dark features on the enormous Sputnik Planitia glacier appear consistent with liquid ...

Venus May Have Swallowed Its Own Moon

Sep. 16, 2026 Venus may have once had a moon, but new research suggests the planet’s incredibly slow rotation could have doomed it. Computer simulations showed that instead of gradually drifting away like ...

Venus’s Pale Yellow Clouds May Hide Something Surprisingly Dark

Sep. 12, 2026 A century-old mystery in Venus’s clouds just became more intriguing, as scientists calculated how strongly the unidentified material behind its dark ultraviolet patterns must absorb light. The ...

The Moon May Have Formed Intact Just Hours After a Giant Collision

Sep. 9, 2026 Scientists have discovered that the Moon-forming collision may have depended heavily on how hot and physically strong early Earth and Theia were. New simulations found that some impacts create the ...

September Brings a Dazzling Venus and a Glowing Harvest Moon

Sep. 3, 2026 September’s sky features brilliant Venus, the Milky Way’s hazy center, and the seasonal turning point of the equinox. The month ends with a glowing Harvest Moon rising near Saturn and faint ...

NASA Delays Crew-13 Launch After Leak Found on SpaceX Dragon

Sep. 1, 2026 NASA and SpaceX have delayed Crew-13 after finding an oxidizer leak in the Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system during prelaunch preparations. Engineers are investigating the problem before the ...

Mercury’s Surface Reveals a Surprisingly Fiery Past

Sep. 11, 2026 Scientists have discovered that Mercury’s surface contains far less silicon dioxide than previously thought, pointing to an unexpectedly hot volcanic past. The finding suggests ancient lava may ...

Scientists Discover a Massive Heat Anomaly Deep Inside Mars

Aug. 30, 2026 Mars has a hidden temperature divide, with its southern interior potentially hundreds of degrees hotter than the north and partially molten. The discovery could help explain several long-standing ...

NASA Finds Earth Microbes Could Survive on the Moon

Aug. 25, 2026 NASA scientists found that microbes brought by astronauts could survive in cold, shadowed niches around the Moon’s South Pole, potentially complicating future searches for pristine lunar chemistry. ...

One Asteroid Strike May Explain Two Mysteries of Mars’ Moon Deimos

Aug. 26, 2026 A single asteroid impact may explain two of Deimos’s most puzzling features: its huge southern depression and unusually smooth, dusty surface. Simulations suggest a roughly 320-meter asteroid ...

James Webb Captures a Cosmic Lion Sculpted by a Dying Star

Aug. 12, 2026 James Webb has captured a striking new infrared view of NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, revealing the dramatic aftermath of a dying Sun-like star. At its center, a scorching white dwarf is blasting ...

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Watches Earth Vanish from the Surface of Mars

Aug. 13, 2026 NASA’s Perseverance rover caught a striking first from Mars: Earth disappearing behind the tiny moon Phobos. Seen from nearly 195 million miles away, our planet was reduced to a single point of ...

The Sun Will Vanish Over Europe in a Rare Total Solar Eclipse: Watch Live

Aug. 10, 2026 A total solar eclipse will plunge parts of Europe into darkness on August 12, 2026, with Spain offering some of the best views. ESA will livestream the spectacle from the Javalambre Observatory, ...

A Massive New Cosmic Map Is Revealing Black Holes, Rare Stars, and Hidden Gas

Aug. 14, 2026 Astronomers have released more than three million new spectra in a sweeping expansion that, for the first time, brings SDSS-V optical observations to the Southern Hemisphere. The data reveal ...

A Solar Eclipse and the Perseid Meteor Shower Arrive on the Same Day

Aug. 5, 2026 August brings four major celestial events, including a solar eclipse and the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Dark New Moon skies could make the Perseids especially impressive, while Venus will ...

Moonquakes Could Reveal Hidden Water Beneath the Lunar Surface

Aug. 3, 2026 Hidden moon ice may reveal itself through the way it bends and reflects vibrations from moonquakes. The technique could help astronauts locate vital water supplies and uncover clues about the origins ...

Giant Waves Are Sweeping Mars’ Atmosphere Into Space

Aug. 3, 2026 The solar wind may be stripping away Mars’ atmosphere by creating giant rolling waves along its outer edge. Data from MAVEN and Tianwen-1 show that these waves form plasma clouds that carry ...

Neptune’s Tiny Moons May Be the Wreckage of Shattered Ancient Worlds

Aug. 14, 2026 JWST has uncovered surprising clues that Neptune’s strange inner moons may be the wreckage of an ancient cosmic catastrophe. Researchers detected clay-like minerals on Larissa, Galatea, and ...

After 241 Days in Orbit This NASA Astronaut Is Finally Home

July 27, 2026 NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Roscosmos cosmonauts are back on Earth after spending 241 days aboard the International Space Station. Their journey covered more than 102 million miles and ...

Venus May Be Tearing Itself Apart from Within

July 24, 2026 Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Venus may still be tearing itself apart from within. Advanced 3D simulations indicate that some of the planet's giant rift valleys formed relatively ...

The Search for Life on Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa Just Got More Complicated

July 29, 2026 Europa’s hidden ocean has made the icy moon one of the solar system’s most promising places to search for habitable conditions. Scientists have hoped that water from this deep ocean might rise ...

NASA Selects Four New Moon Missions to Build a Permanent Lunar Base

July 14, 2026 NASA is ramping up its lunar ambitions by awarding nearly $600 million for four commercial Moon landings planned for late 2028. Each mission will carry the same trio of science instruments to improve ...

NASA Selects 41 Space Technologies for Future Moon and Mars Exploration

July 15, 2026 NASA has chosen 41 commercial technology projects that could solve critical challenges for future missions to the Moon and Mars. From powering lunar outposts to protecting spacecraft from Moon dust, ...