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Researchers at Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University used a ground-based GPS receiver network to analyze the April Artemis II launch, finding it carved two roughly 5,000 km-wide holes in Earth's ionosphere. The disturbance, measured via delays in GPS satellite signals, was reportedly about ten times stronger than disruptions recorded during SpaceX Starship test flights.
The launch of NASA's Artemis 2 crewed Moon mission generated ripples in Earth's upper atmosphere that spread across roughly 3,100 miles. GPS receivers on the ground picked up three distinct wave-like disturbances tied to the rocket's ascent through the ionosphere.
Blue Origin unveiled a new kick stage and rocket engine design for New Glenn while confirming that the rocket's return-to-flight mission has slipped from December to January, a delay described as minor and widely expected. The company is still rebuilding its Cape Canaveral launch pad, which was destroyed in an explosion roughly six months ago.
NASA says Voyager 1, launched in 1977, will reach a distance of one light-day from Earth—about 16 billion miles—at 5:16:07 a.m. EST on Nov. 18, 2026. Its twin, Voyager 2, which took a different trajectory past Uranus and Neptune, is expected to reach the same milestone in November 2035.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency is speeding up its Artemis program, reaffirming plans to launch Artemis 3 next summer as a docking-practice mission in Earth orbit, with Artemis 4 slated for 2028 to put astronauts back on the lunar surface for a week. NASA has not yet chosen between SpaceX's and Blue Origin's lunar landers for the eventual landing mission. Isaacman said the agency is cutting meetings and bureaucratic delay, citing the Apollo program's rapid pace as a model.
NASA has outlined the sequence for Artemis 3, which will launch three heavy-lift rockets from Florida within about two weeks: Blue Origin's New Glenn carrying a test Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, SLS with the crewed Orion capsule, and SpaceX's Starship version 3. Astronauts aboard Orion will dock with Blue Moon Mark 2 to test its systems before undocking, then briefly dock with Starship to check compatibility, without entering it.
NASA detailed updated plans for returning astronauts to the Moon, confirming changes to how Orion will interact with SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon landers. Orion will now dock with Starship in high-Earth orbit rather than near the Moon, while Blue Origin's plan uses four New Glenn launches without orbital refueling and allows Blue Moon to meet Orion in low-lunar orbit. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency still targets a demonstration mission by summer 2027 and a crewed lunar landing by 2028.
At a quarterly meeting of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, member Charlie Precourt cited a new estimate that roughly 22 Starship launches would be required to fuel SpaceX's lunar lander for a single Artemis Moon mission. NASA has historically avoided confirming an exact figure, with earlier officials giving ranges from 'high single digits to low double digits' up to 'high teens.'
A NASA scientist involved with the Artemis program described how astronauts on Artemis III and later missions will be trained to make scientific observations on the Moon, not just take photographs. The approach includes giving crew members science prompts during training exercises, asking them to interpret scenes, infer causes, and decide what actions to take next, mirroring how they'll operate on the lunar surface.
NASA has published details of its SPEARS project, which is developing batteries using solid ceramic or polymer materials instead of liquid electrolytes found in standard lithium-ion cells. The goal is to create batteries that can endure the Moon's extreme temperature swings, from 212°F daytime highs to minus 328°F lows at the lunar south pole, for use in future Artemis missions and Mars exploration.
NASA has published more than 800GB of science data from the Artemis II mission on its 'Artemis II: Sights & Sounds of Science' website. The release includes over 11,000 photos and videos, more than 8.5 hours of audio recordings, and crew-annotated images, including one marking observed impact flashes on the Moon's dark side.
NASA has released a new dataset from the Artemis II mission, including photographs, drawings, annotations and verbal observations recorded by the four astronauts as they orbited the Moon. Notably, the crew reported seeing five extremely faint flashes of light while on the Moon's far side, later confirmed by scientists as impacts from small rocky fragments striking the lunar surface. The crew also documented varied surface colors, from grays and browns to green and blue hues.