Space News Weekly

 For centuries, people believed Jupiter was composed entirely of gas. Observations through telescopes and later with cameras revealed a turbulent atmospheric storm. This led to the belief it was a single, immense sphere of condensed gas. However, we now know that is not the case. There are two theories on how Jupiter was created. The first, commonly taught in schools and called the “conventional” way, states that Jupiter formed as a large, solid core of rock and metal from collisions in the early solar system. As it became denser, it developed its own gravitational field and began attracting more material. Once massive enough, its gravity captured huge amounts of gas from the protoplanetary disc, eventually growing into what we see today. The key point is that this theory predicts a big, dense solid core at Jupiter’s center. There is another theory, which stands in contrast to the core-formation idea. According to this alternative, Jupiter formed more like a star: as a giant cloud ...

  We know a lot of elements and metals to make spacecraft out of. We also tried many options regarding so to make spaceflight as safe and inexpensive as possible. It is not often we find a material that completely revolutionises the way we see space exploration - one that could change everything. This material is not one but many, and they are called nanomaterials. Nanomaterials are materials with at least one dimension in the 1 to 100 nanometer range, which is extremely, extremely small. This size gives these materials unique properties different from their normal-sized counterparts. Launching anything into space is really expensive. That’s why shaving off even a single gram can save you thousands of dollars. Even the most efficient, reusable, and most used rocket, SpaceX’s Falcon 9, costs 2,720 USD to launch a single kilogram into orbit. If you make the object you are launching lighter, you save thousands, or you can fit more payload for the same price. That’s where nanomate...

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket took to the skies again. On November 13th, 2025, it completed its second flight (NG-2), lofting NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft toward Mars-transfer trajectories while recovering the booster upright on the company's sea platform, Jacklyn. This spacecraft carried both the scientific payload and a new Viasat communications demo; the flight achieved mission objectives and marked New Glenn's first successful booster recovery. WHAT HAPPENED AND WHEN: The launch was initially scheduled for November 9th  ;  however, it was moved due to unfavorable weather conditions by 4 days. At 20:55:01, the rocket took off. Its seven BE-4 engines ignited  ,  and it lifted off. The ascent was nominal, and stage separation occurred as planned; the upper stage performed burns to place ESCAPADE into the planned loiter orbit for later interplanetary injection. Both the Blue and Gold ESCAPADE spacecraft  ,  made by Rocket Lab, were deployed into their d...

  The Space Year in Review: Bold Moves, New Frontiers, and Growing Tensions As the calendar turned once more, the space sector ventured onward with ambitions that often outpaced expectations. From dramatic mission recoveries to fresh geopolitical rivalries, from soaring commercial activity to sobering hardware failures — the last twelve months have stitched together a tapestry of hope, risk, and recalibration. Here is a look across the landscape. Satellite Servicing & Life-Extension: A Maturing Frontier One of the standout themes is the increasing feasibility of in-orbit servicing and extension of aging spacecraft. In September 2025, NASA awarded $30 million to startup Katalyst Space Technologies to adapt its Link spacecraft to dock with and reboost the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which is running out of orbit due to drag. Katalyst must retrofit a robotic mechanism to grasp Swift via its original interface, a challenge in itself — and if successful, it would mark a wate...

Ever since the 1960’s people launched things into space. Maybe it was satellites, people, space stations, whatever. Stuff was launched into space. But did you ever stop to think how much of this stuff was actually launched? How many rocket launches have taken place to date, and how did the cadence of launches increase to what it is today? It all began with the launch of Sputnik 1. This was the first object launched into orbit by humans. The launch famously took place in the year 1957, kicking the space race into action. Ever since then, the cadence of rocket launches has been steadily increasing.  The first launches were usually satellites. They were simple and single-purpose and their operations were straightforward as no space debris was yet present. In the 1970s, more and more launches took place. This included weather satellites, navigation and science research. The population of staff in space grew and engineers started to notice that some parts of debris accumulated in common...