technical updates

Amiable sci-fi author Andy Weir, the New York Times bestselling author of " The Martian ," " Artemis ," and " Project Hail Mary ", is embarking on an entirely new imaginative odyssey later this year. It's not exactly another sci-fi book, though; It's an audiobook, and Weir is foregoing sole authorship of the project and instead co-shepherding this captivating space opera drama for the folks at Audible. Arriving on Nov. 5, 2026, "Exoplanet" is an ambitious celestial thriller written by comic book veteran and acclaimed author Benjamin Percy ("Red Moon"), executive produced by Weir, and showcasing a stellar vocal cast that includes Anthony Mackie, the Oscar-winning Ariana DeBose, and John Leguizamo. "When the starship Wild Blue Yonder is torn apart by a quantum anomaly, each surviving crew member crash-lands in a different era on the sa...

The rumors are true. SpaceX plans to retire its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket once the company's giant next-generation Starship begins regular operational flights. SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 for the first time in 2010, and the rocket soon chiselled itself a place in spaceflight history. The Falcon 9 has lifted off nearly 700 times to date, and it's the first orbital rocket ever to land and refly its first-stage booster. Russia's Soyuz rocket , which has been in operation since 1957, is the only launch vehicle with more missions under its belt, but the Falcon 9 is on track to pass it next year. However, "winding down Falcon" — both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, a triple-booster variant that has flown 12 times to date — is inevitable, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in an Aug. 22 post on X . "Once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to ...

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA's next great observatory poised to lead humanity's next generation of astronomical discoveries. The Roman Space Telescope will research the mysteries of dark energy, search for exoplanets and investigate the physics of distant stars. SpaceX will launch Roman on a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT) on Sunday, Aug. 30. from Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A). Follow this blog for live updates as Roman is prepped for launch and delievered to space for a brand new mission of discovery. Nancy G. Roman Space Telescope | Falcon Heavy August 24, 2026 – 7:45 AM NASA's next great space telescope is almost ready to leave Earth. (Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde (Rocz)) Roman has spent the last several weeks undergoing its final launch preparations ...

Here's what to expect during each stage of the Aug. 27-28 partial lunar eclipse, as our planet's colossal shadow swallows 96% of the moon's surface for billions on the night side of Earth. August's lunar eclipse is the closing act of a dramatic two-part show, the opening act of which began on Aug. 12 as the moon covered the face of the sun to trigger a spectacular total solar eclipse over parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain. Eclipses always come in pairs , but the stages to be expected during a lunar eclipse are staggeringly different from its solar equivalent. One major bonus of a lunar eclipse is that each stage unfolds simultaneously for everyone on the night side of Earth , where the lunar disk is above the horizon. However, the local time for each stage will differ based on your location. Lunar eclipses are also completely safe to view with the naked eye, or even throu...

In August of 2006, astronomers at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) democratically voted to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet — but 20 years later, with our greater knowledge and understanding of planetary systems, is it time to revisit the controversial decision? Should Pluto be called a planet again? For several years before the IAU vote, there had been agitators among the astronomical community lobbying for our solar system's nine worlds to become eight, and for Pluto 's planetary status to be revoked. In 2000, Neil DeGrasse Tyson even went as far as to remove Pluto from the planets display at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. The questioning of Pluto's status began even earlier, in the 1990s, with the discovery of distant objects in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune and which had similar orbits to Pluto. It all came to a head in July of 2005 with the discovery of Eris ,...

NASA is giving a financial boost to nearly 20 technology investigations to help fuel the incubation of tomorrow's spaceflight research capabilities. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts ( NIAC ) program has selected 18 projects for this year's Phase I awards, which will each split a total of $3.2 million in development funding. NIAC is designed to bolster technology breakthroughs that NASA could use on future space missions. This year's awards include an array of mission concepts and research proposals NASA views as having "transformative potential," according to a July 29 announcement of winners . Among them are ideas for hardening spacecraft to explore and withstand the harsh conditions of Venus , radioisotope-heated lunar spacesuits and using space dust to partially block out the sun to reduce solar radiation. The selected projects aren't actual NASA missions, bu...