Science & Space
Astronauts, asteroids, and one very big telescope.
Trending in Science
Artemis II Flew Humans Farther From Earth Than Ever Before Resolved
The first crewed Moon flight since 1972 set a distance record — and Artemis III now has a crew.
Atlas V Lofts 29 More Amazon Leo Internet Satellites Breaking
Amazon's Leo constellation is the most serious challenger yet to SpaceX's Starlink in the fast-growing satellite-internet market.
Humanity's First Close-Ups of Two Asteroids Arrive This Month Developing
Two spacecraft — one Chinese, one Japanese — will image never-before-visited near-Earth asteroids within weeks of each other, a milestone for planetary science.
Webb Finds Methane on an Interstellar Comet Developing
First-ever direct detection of methane on a visitor from another star system.
Roman Space Telescope Heads to Kennedy as MAVEN Era Ends at Mars Developing
NASA's next flagship observatory — built to crack dark energy and find thousands of new worlds — is entering final launch preparations.
More & earlier in Science
Possible supernova remnant found near Milky Way’s core
Chandra/XMM-Newton spot ~1,700-year-old ejecta near the central black hole.
Mars once had Earth-like magma systems
Oxford-led findings published in Nature Astronomy.
JWST maps dawn vs. dusk on exoplanet WASP-121b
Dramatic chemical differences across the scorching world.
Cold Atom Lab pushes quantum research on ISS
Ultra-cold matter experiments in microgravity.
Artemis II Flew Humans Farther From Earth Than Ever Before Resolved
Why it matters: The first crewed Moon flight since 1972 set a distance record — and Artemis III now has a crew.
Artemis II launched April 1 — the first crewed lunar flight since Apollo 17 in 1972 — and its four astronauts set a record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth: 252,756 miles, before returning safely April 10. NASA has since selected the Artemis III crew for the high-stakes 2027 mission intended to return astronauts to the lunar surface. After years of delays, the program’s cadence is finally real — and the Moon race with China’s crewed program is officially on.
Sources: Wikipedia — Portal: Current events April 2026 · NASA — 2026 news releases
Atlas V Lofts 29 More Amazon Leo Internet Satellites Breaking
Why it matters: Amazon's Leo constellation is the most serious challenger yet to SpaceX's Starlink in the fast-growing satellite-internet market.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched 29 Amazon Leo broadband satellites to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Thursday morning. The mission continues Amazon's accelerated deployment of its satellite-internet constellation (formerly Project Kuiper), which must place half of its planned ~3,200 satellites in orbit under FCC license milestones. Each launch narrows the service gap with SpaceX's Starlink, which dominates the market with millions of subscribers. For consumers and governments, a credible second mega-constellation means competition on price and coverage — and for Amazon, it ties satellite broadband into AWS's cloud and enterprise offerings.
- 29 more satellites bring Amazon Leo closer to initial commercial service coverage.
- ULA's Atlas V remains a workhorse for the constellation while Vulcan and other rockets scale.
- The satellite-broadband market is becoming a two-horse race with real price competition.
Details & sources
Bullish Steady deployment progress supports Amazon's multi-billion-dollar space broadband bet.
- Industries
- Space launch, satellite communications, broadband
- Companies
- Amazon, United Launch Alliance, SpaceX (competitor)
- Countries
- United States
- Key people
- Amazon Leo program leadership
- Sources
- Space.com — Atlas V launches 29 Amazon Leo satellites (2026-07-02)
- More coverage
- Wikipedia — 2026 in spaceflight
- Images
- None Available
Humanity's First Close-Ups of Two Asteroids Arrive This Month Developing
Why it matters: Two spacecraft — one Chinese, one Japanese — will image never-before-visited near-Earth asteroids within weeks of each other, a milestone for planetary science.
July 2026 is a landmark month for small-body exploration. China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft, which entered orbit around near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa in June, is preparing to collect samples this month from the small body believed to be a fragment of the Moon. Meanwhile, Japan's Hayabusa2 — already famous for returning samples from asteroid Ryugu — will fly by asteroid Torifune in July during its extended mission. Together the encounters will give humanity its first close-up views of two previously unvisited near-Earth objects, informing both planetary-defense planning and theories of how material moves between the Moon, asteroids, and Earth's neighborhood.
- Tianwen-2 aims to sample Kamoʻoalewa, possibly a chunk of the Moon itself.
- Hayabusa2's Torifune flyby extends Japan's record of asteroid firsts.
- Data feeds directly into planetary-defense and lunar-origin science.
Details & sources
Neutral Scientific milestone with no direct market exposure.
- Industries
- Space exploration, scientific instruments
- Companies
- CNSA, JAXA (agencies)
- Countries
- China, Japan
- Key people
- Tianwen-2 and Hayabusa2 mission teams
- Sources
- Scientific American — Most exciting space science events for 2026
- More coverage
- Wikipedia — 2026 in spaceflight
- Images
- None Available
Webb Finds Methane on an Interstellar Comet Developing
Why it matters: First-ever direct detection of methane on a visitor from another star system.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope uncovered unusual chemistry in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, including the first direct detection of methane on an object that formed around another star. Each interstellar visitor — this is only the third ever found — is a free sample of another solar system’s chemistry delivered to our doorstep. June also brought Oxford research showing Mars once hosted widespread Earth-like magmatic systems, and a possible 1,700-year-old supernova remnant found near the Milky Way’s central black hole.
Sources: ScienceDaily — Space & Time news · Universe Today
Roman Space Telescope Heads to Kennedy as MAVEN Era Ends at Mars Developing
Why it matters: NASA's next flagship observatory — built to crack dark energy and find thousands of new worlds — is entering final launch preparations.
NASA opened media registration for the arrival of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at Kennedy Space Center in the coming weeks, the final staging step before launch. Roman's wide-field infrared survey — with a field of view roughly 100 times Hubble's — is designed to probe dark energy, conduct a massive exoplanet census via microlensing, and demonstrate coronagraph technology for imaging worlds around other stars. The milestone comes as one era closes: NASA's MAVEN orbiter has ended operations after more than 11 years studying how Mars lost its atmosphere, a decade beyond its one-year primary mission. Separately, a private firm, Katalyst Space Technologies, is preparing a mid-2026 mission to boost NASA's aging Swift observatory to a higher orbit.
- Roman's arrival at Kennedy signals launch is approaching after years of development.
- MAVEN's shutdown ends an 11-year record of Mars upper-atmosphere science.
- Commercial servicing (Katalyst's Swift boost) is becoming part of NASA's toolkit for aging missions.
Details & sources
Neutral Scientific program news without direct market impact.
- Industries
- Space science, aerospace
- Companies
- NASA, Katalyst Space Technologies, Northrop Grumman
- Countries
- United States
- Key people
- NASA science mission leadership
- Sources
- NASA — 2026 News Releases
- More coverage
- Space.com · Universe Today
- Images
- None Available