Technology

by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific September 2025 marks ten years since the first direct detection of gravitational waves as predicted by Albert Einstein’s 1916 theory of General Relativity. These invisible ripples in space were first directly detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Traveling at the speed of light […]

NASA and Blue Origin are reopening media accreditation for the launch of the agency’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission. The twin ESCAPADE spacecraft will study the solar wind’s interaction with Mars, providing insight into the planet’s real-time response to space weather and how solar activity drives atmospheric escape. This will be […]

NASA, along with leaders from global space agencies and government representatives worldwide, convened on Monday to further the implementation of the Artemis Accords — practical principles designed to guide the responsible exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The meeting was held during the 76th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) taking place in Sydney. In opening […]

A supermoon, and meteor showers from the Draconids and Orionids A supermoon takes over the sky, the Draconid meteor shower peeks through, and the Orionid meteor shower shines bright. Skywatching Highlights Transcript What’s Up for October? A Supermoon takes over, the Draconid meteor shower peeks through, and the Orionid meteors sparkle across the night sky. […]

Driving rapid innovation in the American space industry, NASA has awarded Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, a contract to raise a spacecraft’s orbit. Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft will rendezvous with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and raise it to a higher altitude, demonstrating a key capability for the future of space exploration and extending […]

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, to correct that the signed contract is an unfunded Space Act Agreement, rather than a reimbursable Space Act Agreement. NASA is continuing the Astrobee mission through a collaboration with Arkisys, Inc., of Los Alamitos, California, who was awarded an unfunded Space Act Agreement to sustain […]

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, is building a new subscale aircraft to support increasingly complex flight research, offering a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to crewed missions. The aircraft is being built by Justin Hall, chief pilot at NASA Armstrong’s Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory, and Justin Link, a small uncrewed […]

The project has exceeded all of its technical goals after two years, setting up the foundations of high-speed communications for NASA’s future human missions to Mars. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology successfully showed that data encoded in lasers could be reliably transmitted, received, and decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth at distances […]