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SpaceX keeps setting spaceflight records.Elon Musk's company launches far more frequently than any other outfit, and it operates the largest satellite constellation ever assembled — the Starlink broadband network, which consists of nearly 11,000 satellites (and counting).On Saturday evening (Aug. 15), SpaceX set another mark, for the shortest time between orbital flights: It launched two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart, besting its old mark — set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink mission

On Aug. 15, 1977, astronomers using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope detected the famous "Wow!" signal, which to this day is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that we are not alone in the universe. Astronomer Jerry Ehman was using the telescope to scan a region in the constellation Sagittarius when it detected a weird, 72-second-long radio burst. The signal was too strong to be explained by background noise, and researchers determined that it was very unlikely that this sign

The DC Universe expands further into the cosmos this month with the addition of "Lanterns". Created by Chris Mundy, Tom King and Damon Lindelof, the superhero show sees the veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (played by Kyle Chandler) take rookie John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) under his wing. Wider parts of the Green Lantern Corps lore are incorporated in the story too, as the series unpacks what the famous space cops are all about.At the same time, let's be real here for a second: for anybody who ha

On Episode 223 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and guest co-host Dale Skran are joined by Dr. Scott Pace to discuss the future of exploration on the Moon.We're headed for a space renaissance, and it will be focused on the Moon. The US, China, and international partners of both are vying to land people there and construct a permanent lunar base. Meanwhile, NASA is evolving to embrace commercial enterprise unlike any time in its past, and American lunar efforts are lagging. What are the stakes?

Of all the models in the renewed Nikon Action range released in 2026, the Action Zoom 10–22x50 is definitely one of the most attention-getting, with its zoom capability from 10x to 22x magnification. These are Nikon's third-generation 10-22x50 binoculars, building upon the past designs of 2007's Action VII Zoom XL 10-22x50 and 2013's Aculon 10-22x50 in 2013. The new design features a generous 16.3mm of eye relief, a tough aluminum chassis and updated optics. We found them to be a versatile pair

NASA will hold a two-day aerospace exposition this November, and it may draw a surprising number of "Simpsons" fans.The event, which NASA announced today (Aug. 14), will be held Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida's Space Coast. It's called "Max Power," which is also a famous Homer Simpson pseudonym.In the 13th episode of the show's 10th season, which first aired in February 1999, Homer legally changed his name to Max Power. He wanted to disassociate himself from a bumblin

Empty space is not as empty as it looks.That is the takeaway of a new study examining signals from a dead star, offering what researchers say is the strongest evidence yet that extreme magnetic fields can alter the properties of a vacuum, causing seemingly empty space to act like a prism and changing how light travels through itThe findings, led by Rachael Stewart, a graduate student in physics at the George Washington University, confirm a prediction of a strange effect first proposed 90 years

Cards Against Humanity isn't done with its scorched-Earth campaign against SpaceX and Elon Musk.The Chicago-based company behind the popular fill-in-the-blank adult card game is inviting the public to join its design committee to erect an "Elon Musk is a Sad Little B----- with No Friends" monument on a stretch of land it owns near SpaceX's Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas. Cards Against Humanity (CAH) brought a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024 for illegally dumpi

'For All Mankind' was pretty good, wasn't it? Sadly, the show's run has finished now, and while we've got spin-off 'Star City' picking up the mantle, it's still going to be a while before we get any more space politics drama on our screens. Luckily, we can find it on our tabletops instead, with these fantastic space board games.If you haven't seen it, For All Mankind is the story of an alternate history in which the space race between the U.S. and Russia never fizzled out. Instead, it becomes a

An 8,800-pound (4,000 kilograms) Falcon 9 rocket stage hit the moon last Wednesday (Aug. 5), stirring lunar regolith in a massive plume of dust observable all the way from Earth. The rocket joined some 3,000 manmade objects scattered on the surface of our planet's companion. Some experts think it's about time we start treating the pristine lunar environment with a bit more respect.Around 200 tons of Earth stuff have been either deliberately left on or crashed into the moon since the beginning of

Amid the major uptick in national defense space contracts since the Trump Administration announced plans to assemble a "Golden Dome" missile-defense system in orbit, Rocket Lab has landed another deal to contribute to the cause. The California-based company was awarded a $397 million Space Force contract to design, manufacture and launch a fleet of "Flatellites" to augment existing infrastructure's ability to track airborne threats in real time. The project is funded under the Space Force's Spac

Can Venus cast a shadow? With Aug. 12's total solar eclipse — where the moon's dark silhouette is everything — now behind us, it's a good time to test another kind of celestial shadow. Astronomical folklore has it that the second rock from the sun, Venus, is, after the sun and moon, the third object able to cast a shadow when it's near peak brightness, albeit extremely faint, according to EarthSky.Is it true? Not in a city, where skylights glow and porch lights blaze, where shadows are mostly th

The heart of the Milky Way may be more hospitable to water than astronomers thought.Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers detected water and cosmic dust around an aging star only 0.55 light-years from Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.The new study suggests that water and dust can form and survive surprisingly close to a supermassive black hole, where intense radiation and other harsh conditions might otherwise be expected to dest

On Aug. 14, 1992, a space rock entered the atmosphere over Mbale, Uganda and exploded into hundreds of pieces! Debris from this meteorite shower was strewn over an area of about 2 by 4 miles (3.2 to 6.4 kilometers), and the biggest piece weighed more than 60 pounds (27 kilograms)! Scientists estimated that the original space rocket weighed more than 2,000 pounds (900 kg). A young boy was hit in the head with a small meteorite fragment, but thankfully no one was seriously injured or killed by any

The silhouette of the ISS transiting across the sun's face during the Aug. 12, 2026 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)This week's total solar eclipse captured the world's attention, and millions of skywatchers looked up (with the correct protective eyewear, hopefully) to experience the moon blocking out our star's light. And, as you can see in this image, even the International Space Station (ISS) itself got in on the fun. What is it?On Aug. 12, 2026, the moon completely bloc

NASA has formally invited India to participate in its effort to build a permanent base near the moon's south pole, adding a new dimension to the deep-space cooperation between the two countries.The invitation was extended last week at the Indian space agency ISRO's headquarters in Bengaluru during the ninth meeting of the U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group. The CSJWG was established in 2005 as a mechanism for bilateral space cooperation and for addressing challenges and pursuing mutual s

The moon dust has settled after a 4.5-ton SpaceX rocket body slammed into terrain near Einstein Crater on Aug. 5.That impact site was imaged by South Korea's moon-orbiting Danuri spacecraft, as well as by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Reportedly, a Chinese commercial space debris monitoring satellite tracked and recorded the 5,400-mph (8,690-kph) moon punch, too.Wandering through space for over a year, the leftover Falcon 9 upper stage had sent Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost-1 lande

Small telescopes have really come on leaps and bounds in recent years. There was a time when refractors with apertures smaller than 4 inches were seldom to be recommended, but manufacturers have been pushing the capabilities of smaller apertures ever further, with optical coatings and high quality, mass-produced optics helping to eke out every little bit of capability from these pocket-sized instruments. While still aperture-limited — a smaller aperture makes less light received, which makes fai

Prolific NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has announced his retirement from the U.S. space agency after 30 years of public service. NASA announced Fincke's decision on Wednesday (Aug. 12), celebrating his contributions to spaceflight and long career of accomplishments. “Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that day in a statement. Fincke departs as NASA's fourth-most flown astronaut, racking up a cumulat

Supermassive black holes are best known for their immense gravity, pulling in everything that strays too close, even light. But new research suggests these cosmic giants can also hurl enormous amounts of energy outward, driving powerful disturbances that ripple hundreds of thousands of light-years through space.A study led by Satoshi Yamada of Tohoku University in Japan found that winds generated by an actively feeding supermassive black hole are about 100 times more powerful than astronomers pr