technical updates

NASA's Artemis II moon astronauts will join a very exclusive club next week. President Donald Trump will award those spaceflyers the Congressional Space Medal of Honor next Friday (Aug. 28) at Johnson Space Center in Houston to recognize their historic journey around the moon this past April. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) and will feature NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, President Trump and the Artemis II astronauts. You'll be able to watch it live when the time comes. Artemis II sent NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day trip around Earth's nearest neighbor. It was the first crewed voyage beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, when the Apollo 17 astronauts returned home from the moon. The mission's success was a huge step for NASA's Artemis program , which ai...

The world just got its first good looks at some hardware that will make spaceflight history. Last Thursday (Aug. 13), Japan unveiled the spacecraft that make up its Martian Moons eXploration ( MMX ) mission, which aims to snag samples of the Mars moon Phobos and haul them to Earth — something that has never been done. The big reveal came at Tanegashima Space Center, the site from which MMX will launch toward the Red Planet atop an H3 rocket . And we just got some clarity about when that liftoff will take place. Another look at MMX's Propulsion Module (back) and Exploration and Return Modules (front) at Tanegashima on Aug. 13, 2026. (Image credit: Yuichi YamazakiI/AFP via Getty Images) If all goes according to plan, MMX will launch on Oct. 19 at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT; 4:41 a.m. on Oct. 20 Japan time), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) announced on Thursday (Aug. 20). That...

Microbes from Earth might survive the harsh surface of the moon, albeit in a state of suspended animation, a new study finds. Previous research suggested the surface of the moon was too harsh for microbes to survive. Specifically, a 2019 study found ultraviolet rays and heat from the sun are the greatest barriers for microbial life on the lunar surface. However, this prior work did not account for the shelter that hills and valleys might supply on the moon. These could prove especially significant at the lunar poles, where the sun never climbs high in the sky, leading to permanently shadowed regions that can host ice — and perhaps more. In the new study, researchers analyzed three kinds of bacteria and two kinds of fungus. These are all commonly found on crewed space missions, and include microorganisms that prior work discovered were especially durable in the harsh conditions of space. Previo...

LOS ANGELES – On a Saturday evening in Los Angeles, I found myself watching acclaimed actor Elizabeth Banks sing Tom Petty songs along with her fellow actors while writer/director David Wain played the drums. This incredible, bizarre performance celebrated the 25th anniversary of the raunchy, summer camp cult classic "Wet Hot American Summer." But do you remember that it's actually a space movie? This movie — the debut feature film from co-creators David Wain and Michael Showalter — follows the events of "Camp Firewood," a sleepaway summer camp set in the summer of 1981. It has a cast chock-full of now-A-list actors, including Banks, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler and so many more. Looking back, it's almost baffling how star-studded the cast really is. Campy in every sense of the word, the movie manages to balance vulgar jokes with some serious heart. And while...

When the 11,000-ton cruise ship Le Boréal set sail from Nice, France, on Thursday, Aug. 6, its 205 passengers and 136 crew members began a voyage whose success would depend not only on careful planning, but also on the ship's ability to outmaneuver clouds at the last critical hour. The ship is owned and operated by the French cruise line Compagnie du Ponant. This eclipse cruise was the result of more than a year's planning by Ponant, and most of those who signed on were there specifically to witness the celestial spectacle; that shared purpose heightened the drama of the eclipse itself. This was going to be a sunset eclipse, with the sun no more than three degrees above the horizon. To picture that height, make a fist and hold it out at arm's length. Place the bottom of your fist on the horizon; the top of your fist measures about ten degrees. During totality, the sun would appear on...

If you have ever shared a room with multiple people for days on end, you may know how clothes and living conditions can rapidly turn rather smelly. Imagine that happening in a confined spacecraft. Even worse, since water on a space mission is in short supply, space travelers can't easily do their laundry. This is more than a body odor problem — unclean clothes and linens are ripe feeding grounds for infectious bacteria. Astronauts might wear the same clothes for days or even weeks, seal away used clothes in airtight bags , then return them to Earth for cleaning or cast them away to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. This is fine for short trips near Earth, but what about a months-long odyssey to Mars ? Engineers have devised a new way for astronauts to dry-clean their dirty laundry. They've crafted a prototype "laundry gun" that sterilizes fabric by shooting violet-colored pla...