technical updates

NEW YORK — I'm the kind of person who, every so often, falls into accidental daydreams about the concept of space. Usually because I'm listening to some sort of sad girl Spotify playlist, I start feeling infuriated that we may never learn the true meaning of the cosmos and become embarrassingly poetic about our isolation on Earth. I tend to ponder how strange microgravity is and begin Googling things like "what lies beyond the edge of the universe best evidence we have" and "when commercial rocket launch become same price JetBlue flight." I'm pretty sure I've lived in these clouds ever since I got past the Freddi Fish and Microsoft Paint phase of my internet literacy — but then, a month before my 30th birthday, something huge happened. On a random Tuesday, I woke up, brushed my teeth, made myself an espresso, sauntered over to the Franklin Avenue C, and went to...

A U.S.-Russian crew will return to Earth from the International Space Station early Sunday morning (July 26), and you can watch their homecoming live. A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos is scheduled to undock from the orbiting lab on Sunday at 3:02 a.m. EDT (0702 GMT). The Soyuz, known as MS-28, will land on the steppe of Kazakhstan about 3.5 hours later, at 6:26 a.m. EDT (1026 GMT). You can watch these milestones here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA. Russia's Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft is seen docked to the International Space Station shortly after its arrival on Nov. 27, 2026. (Image credit: NASA) The coverage starts today (July 25) at 9:40 a.m. EDT (1340 GMT) ahead of a change-of-command ceremony aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Kud‑Sverchkov will hand over the reins of the or...

SpaceX launched the world's most powerful rocket on a critical 13th test flight late Friday, but there was no triskaidekaphobia on this mission. The July 24 test launch, Space's Starship Flight 13 mission , sent a towering rocket the size of a 40-story skyscraper into space from South Texas, returned its massive Booster to Earth, and then — in a feat perhaps none saw coming — gently landed its Starship upper stage in the Indian Ocean, where it tipped over to float belly up on the sea. "Starship is intact, floating in the ocean and transmitting telemetry!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X . SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 test flight lifts off from Starbase, Texas on July 24, 2026. SpaceX SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 test flight lifts off from Starbase, Texas on July 24, 2026. SpaceX SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 test flight lifts off from Starbase, Texas on July 24, 2026. ...

Smart telescopes like the Seestar S30 Pro have changed astrophotography and, arguably, urban astronomy. The Seestar S30 Pro takes that concept further than most. Small enough to fit inside a camera backpack , it combines a refractor telescope, motorized mount, dual cameras and image-processing software into a compact unit controlled entirely from a smartphone. Within minutes of powering on, it can align itself to the night sky, slew to a specified target and begin stacking exposures to reveal galaxies , nebulas and star clusters — even from light-polluted locations. The Pro version of the S30 adds a higher resolution sensor, advanced optics and upgraded software functionality. (Image credit: Jamie Carter) It makes astrophotography — once a complex and expensive hobby — possible with a single, automated device, though what makes the Seestar S30 Pro particularly interesting is not just its simpl...

Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman are the primary ringleaders behind " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ", and they're about to unleash the next cluster of 10 Season 4 episodes for their spirited space show. With an abundance of genre-crossing indulgences that are scary, surreal, and sometimes silly, the Paramount+ hit is operating at full warp speed in this penultimate outing, the debut episode of which just premiered on July 23, 2026. We hitched a ride with the acclaimed executive producers to learn all about their vision for "Strange New Worlds'" fourth season and why they believe it will prove to be the finest one yet, taking cues from ‘90s-style time-travel odysseys, haunted starships, noir crime thrillers, puppet mishaps, and utopian fantasies. (Image credit: Paramount) "It’s hard to come up through the ‘90s and not feel affected by a lot of the films tha...

2026 is the 60th anniversary of "Star Trek". To help celebrate the show that creator Gene Roddenberry described as "Wagon Train to the Stars,""Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" returns to Paramount+ for its penultimate season. From teasers and trailers that first dropped last summer and fall, we’re anticipating a rollicking batch of dynamic episodes that draw on diverse subgenres, with everything from classic film noir crime stories and time travel to spooky ghost stories and sword-clashing swashbucklers. But the end is nigh for this colorful modern interpretation of "Trek". Next year's truncated fifth season will be the crew's final mission, so let's revel in the time we have left and beam onto the Enterprise bridge for a promising round of missions. Here's our guide to everything you need to know about "Strange New Worlds" Season 4...