technical updates

The 13th test flight of SpaceX's Starship megarocket went pretty well — and provided some amazing visuals, too. Flight 13 launched on Friday (July 24), sending the 408-foot-tall (124 meters) Starship Version 3 (V3) vehicle aloft from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. Starship's Super Heavy booster had some engine issues on its way back to Earth. But the Ship upper stage hit all of its marks, successfully deploying 20 next-gen Starlink satellites, re-igniting one of its Raptor engines in space as planned and splashing down softly off the coast of Western Australia. So softly, in fact, that Ship didn't explode after hitting the water — a first for a Starship flight. The two stages of SpaceX's Starship megarocket separate during the vehicle's 13th test flight, on July 24, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX) SpaceX shared these milestones with us in real time, via the compa...

Rocket Lab is expanding its launch operations to the snowy north. The California-based company, which already flies from New Zealand and Virginia, just inked a $266 million deal with the U.S. Space Force to fly up to 18 missile-defense missions , most of them from Alaska. "The size and scale of this contract reflects the Space Force's confidence in our ability to meet their urgent national security demands with speed, responsiveness and scale, and we're proud to provide the high-frequency launch capacity required to keep the U.S. ahead of global threats," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement today (July 27). The contract covers 12 suborbital launches, with the possibility of up to six more. These missions "will primarily take place" from the Pacific Spaceport Complex , a picturesque site on Alaska's Kodiak Island, which is most famous for it...

We didn't exactly go bananas for Tim Burton's odd take on "Planet of the Apes" back in 2001, but now, on the occasion of the sci-fi film’s 25th anniversary, we've had time to reflect on not only the summertime spectacle's notable missteps, but also its unsung merits. Invading the hallowed grounds of director Franklin Schaffner’s 1968 original " Planet of the Apes " was risky business at best, but 20th Century Fox rolled the dice with their long-gestating $100 million remake and a competent cast that included Mark “Markie Mark” Wahlberg , Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, David Warner, and the lovely Lisa Marie. The studio no doubt hoped a modern makeover of one of the most respected science fiction films ever would reignite interest in the franchise and spawn a bunch of sequels similar to what Schaffner’s Charlton Heston-sta...

Using the Chandra X-ray spacecraft, astronomers have seen a supermassive black hole jet churning and "cooking" gas surrounding a galaxy nicknamed the "red potato." And this potato is seen as it was when the universe was around 2 billion years old. The galaxy in question is officially designated MQN01 J004131.9-493704 and is located about 11.7 billion light-years from Earth at the intersection of a vast cosmic web along which galaxies formed in the early universe. Originally discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the odd, blob-like appearance of the galaxy is why it has such a peculiar nickname. The red potato sits in a cosmic "pot" of cold and dense gas. This is a little puzzling, as this should mean that stars are actively forming around it, but that isn't happening. New research offers an explanation: a supermassive black hole in the vicinity of...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can single-handedly green-light massive spaceflight projects that could completely change the view of the night sky for the entire world. Despite the outcry these projects have caused, space law experts say there is very little other nations and the international community can do to thwart them if the FCC were to grant them licenses. On July 10, the FCC approved an application by California-based Reflect Orbital to launch a 59-by-59-foot (18-by-18 meters) space mirror to test how to reflect sunlight onto solar farms on Earth after dusk. The decision has sparked outcry among astronomers and environmentalists who are concerned about the impact on global light pollution levels that Reflect Orbital's plans might have. Opponents see the FCC's approval, despite hundreds of objections filed in response to the application, as an indication that th...

One month from today, skywatchers across the Americas, Europe and Africa will have the chance to witness the best lunar eclipse until New Year's Eve 2028. On Aug. 28, Earth's shadow will cover up to 96% of the moon's disk in an exceptionally deep partial lunar eclipse . At maximum eclipse, only a thin sliver of the moon will remain outside Earth's darkest shadow, creating an "almost blood moon" with nearly the entire lunar surface glowing a deep reddish-orange. Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is completely safe to observe with the naked eye and requires no special equipment. All you need is clear skies and a view of the moon. Where can I see the lunar eclipse? A map of the lunar eclipse on Aug. 27-28, 2026. Click the arrows in the bottom left corner to expand to full screen. (Image credit: F. Espenak, NASA's GSFC) The eclipse will be visible across Europe, A...