Four volunteers have lived as if on Mars for 365 days inside a Houston habitat. They leave on Oct. 31, and NASA's scientists then start sifting the health and performance…
SpaceAndSky news desk · 4 min read
Look upThe A-Carinid meteors are flaring again
Coming up in the sky
- OCT21-22Orionid meteor showerPeak night, 10-20 an hour under dark skies
- OCT26Full Moon: Hunter's MoonRises at sunset and stays up all night
- NOV13Planet paradeMercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter before dawn, until Dec 4
- NOV16Mars and Jupiter meetAbout 1 degree apart in the morning sky
- NOV16-17Leonid meteor showerPeak night
- NOV20Mercury’s best morning viewFarthest from the Sun in our sky (20°): look before sunrise
Trending
Marshall legend Stephen Cash returns as center director after a decade away
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has picked a veteran propulsion and safety engineer who left…
Starbase could host up to 456 Starship launches a year, FAA review says
The FAA has opened scoping for an environmental impact statement covering up to 456…
Planets4 bright planetsSaturn most of the nightMercury after sunsetMars before dawnJupiter before dawnWhere to look ›MoonWaxing Gibbous62% lit, waxingRise and set times ›Northern lightsQuietKp 2.7 now, up to 4.7 in the next 24 hours.Your chance tonight ›Space stationNext passChoose your city to see when the ISS passes over you.Live map ›
- NASA’s launch engineers swap rules of thumb for a reusable simulation template
- A decade at Mars: Europe’s gas-sniffing orbiter has found no methane, and plenty more
- Euclid, a galaxy-mapping telescope, finds its first new comet by accident
Next launches
- Bandwagon 5Falcon 9 Block 5 · SpaceX
- Starlink Group 15-15Falcon 9 Block 5 · SpaceX
- Ceres-1S launchCeres-1S · Galactic Energy
Latest News
Sentinel-3C sees Hurricane Rachel in its first temperature-radiometer image
ESA's newest Earth-observing satellite has imaged Hurricane Rachel off Mexico, showing that the visible channels of its temperature radiometer work. Thermal images are still…
ESA’s Moon line-up runs from landing cameras to a drill for water ice
ESA's new overview covers instruments and demonstrations on landers from several partners, aimed at safer landings, lunar water ice, and communications and…
Perseverance passes 28.10 miles on Mars, beating Opportunity’s record in a third of the time
NASA's Perseverance rover logged 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers) on sol 2,006, passing Opportunity's 28.06 miles after about 5½ years on Mars instead…
Station’s solar upgrade nears its finish: The last two roll-out arrays are due outside
NASA says the eight roll-out solar arrays will raise the station's power by more than 160 kW, and the final pair arrived…
Featured
Satellite night lights show Isaias darkening Pensacola, and the glow back within days
NASA's Black Marble HD imagery shows lights dropping sharply around Pensacola and U.S. Route 98 after…
Northern lights forecast: How to read NOAA’s aurora maps, Kp and when to look
NOAA's 30-minute aurora map, the Kp index and a clear, dark sky decide whether you can…
Tiny asteroid 2025 UK9 to pass closer than the Moon on Oct. 31
NASA/JPL lists the small asteroid 2025 UK9 passing 314,648 km from Earth on Oct. 31. Sentry…
Meteor shower tonight: Every major peak from October 2026 to August 2027
The Orionids peak October 21-22, 2026, and the Geminids follow December 13-14. Peak nights through August…
Leaving Earth soon
Full launch schedule ›- OCT20SpaceXBandwagon 5Falcon 9 · Dedicated Rideshare10:30 UTC
- OCT20SpaceXStarlink Group 15-15Falcon 9 · Communications22:14 UTC
- OCT21Galactic EnergyCeres-1S launchCeres-1Saround 03:00 UTC
- OCT21Rocket LabWe're Not Hawking AroundElectron · Earth Sciencearound 05:00 UTC
Times in your time zone. Launch times change often; the schedule refreshes every few minutes.
Rocket Launches
Nine launches this week, led by Japan’s H3 sending MMX toward Mars’ moon Phobos
- Gilmour Space finds oxidizer pump faults behind Eris rocket’s 14-second flight
- SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites: A new milestone in reusable rocket technology
Missions
Europe’s Moon drill, built to cut a metre down, passes a deployment test
- Dragon’s 6,300 pounds of cargo opens a science rush on the space station
- Artemis II’s heat shield lost far less material than on Artemis I: 9 spots versus 103
- Phobos sample return: NASA’s 15% share and the Mars moon mission launching Oct. 19
Universe
ELT mirror passes the halfway mark: 931 segments, nearly 500 already in Chile
- Treble Clef radio shape traced to a black hole outburst and a cluster collision
- ALMA finds rings and gaps in compact planet-forming disks
- Hubble images a dust-lined galaxy, one of 111 done in a 260-galaxy survey
Top categories
Guides
How to see it, when it happens, what it means
Mars facts: How far away it is, how cold it gets, its weather and the search for life
Mars is a cold, dry, dusty world half Earth's width, between 54.6 and 401.4 million km away, where…
Saturn’s moons: How many are there, and which are most interesting?
NASA lists 293 confirmed moons for Saturn. Titan and Enceladus stand out, thanks to Cassini and Huygens.
Mars rovers today: Where Perseverance and Curiosity are and their latest pictures
Two NASA rovers still work on Mars: Perseverance, which just broke Opportunity's driving record, and Curiosity, drilling on…
When is the next solar eclipse? Dates and viewing regions
The 2026 total eclipse has passed; the next is an annular eclipse on Feb. 6, 2027, and the…
The universe doesn’t stand still
Latest discoveries & stories
Japan sets Mars moons mission launch for Oct. 19 UTC, with a Phobos sample due home in 2031
JAXA has fixed the MMX liftoff at 04:41 JST on Oct. 20 (19:41 UTC on Oct. 19) from Tanegashima, with…
Eight AI computing satellites ride Zhuque-2E in a 10-satellite launch
LandSpace said its Zhuque-2E Y4 rocket completed a one-launch, ten-satellite mission from Jiuquan on Oct. 14, carrying eight ADAspace computing…
SpaceX stock: Yes, SPCX trades on Nasdaq, and here is what the filings say
SpaceX has been public since June 12, 2026, under the Nasdaq ticker SPCX; this guide separates what its filings confirm…