A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 6-82 mission on Dec. 15, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein / Spaceflight Now Update Dec. 14, 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the Starlink satellites. SpaceX launched its 580th Falcon 9 rocket to date with an overnight flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that flew in the midnight hour. The Continue ReadingSpaceX launches 120th Starlink mission of 2025 with midnight hour Falcon 9 flight→

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. Continue ReadingSpaceX Falcon 9 launches 29 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Florida→

Researchers have discovered that a close encounter with a rogue planet or brown dwarf during the Sun’s early years could have triggered the reshuffling of our Solar System’s giant planets. Running 3000 simulations of stellar flybys, the team found that substellar objects passing within 20 astronomical units of the young Sun could destabilise the planets’ orbits just enough to match their current configuration without destroying the delicate Kuiper belt. This flyby scenario represents a new possible explanation for one of the Solar System’s defining events, with roughly a 1-5 percent probability depending on how common free floating planets actually are in young star clusters.

Astronomers at the University of Tokyo have used gravitational lensing to measure how fast the universe is expanding, adding weight to one of cosmology’s most intriguing mysteries. Their technique exploits the way massive galaxies bend light from distant quasars, creating multiple distorted images that arrive at different times. The measurement supports recent observations showing the universe expands faster than predictions based on the early universe suggest, strengthening evidence that the “Hubble tension” represents genuine new physics rather than experimental error.

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system. Observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b suggest that the exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the first stage booster, 1067, stands at Launch Complex 39A on Aug. 27, 2025, ahead of the 30th flight of this booster. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Monday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Starlink 6-99 mission will add another 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to its broadband internet constellation in low Earth orbit. The company has launched more than 3,000 Continue ReadingLive coverage: SpaceX to launch 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center→

Liftoff is scheduled for 3:49 a.m. ET on Monday (Dec. 15). Continue ReadingWatch Atlas V rocket launch 27 of Amazon’s internet satellites to orbit early Dec. 15→

It’s one of the 21st century’s best sci-fi shows. If only “The Expanse” had found the audience it deserved. Continue Reading‘The Expanse’ at 10: the outer space drama that should have been as big as ‘Game of Thrones’→

December’s faint Ursid meteor shower returns under dark skies, offering a small chance of unexpected activity. Continue ReadingDecember’s overlooked meteor shower peaks next week — will the Ursids surprise us?→

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket successfully launched a technology demonstration satellite for JAXA Dec. 13 as the company reshuffles its launch manifest. The post Rocket Lab launches JAXA tech demo satellite appeared first on SpaceNews.

The early universe was a very different place than today. And by “early” I don’t mean a billion or even ten billion years ago. The universe is about 13.77 billion years old, and when it was only a handful of seconds old, it was completely unrecognizable.

Carl Sagan famously said that “We’re all made of star-stuff”. But he didn’t elaborate on how that actually happened. Yes, many of the molecules in our bodies could only have been created in massive supernovae explosions – hence the saying. Scientists have long thought they had the mechanism for how settled – the isotopes created in the supernovae flew here on tiny dust grains (stardust) that eventually accreted into Earth, and later into biological systems. However, a new paper from Martin Bizzarro and his co-authors at the University of Copenhagen upends that theory by showing that much of the material created in supernovae is captured in ice as it travels the interstellar medium. It also suggests that the Earth itself formed through the Pebble Accretion model rather than massive protoplanets slamming together.

Assuming Google does manage to launch a prototype in 2027, will it simply be a high-stakes technical experiment – or the dawning of a new era? Continue ReadingData centers in space: Will 2027 really be the year AI goes to orbit?→

‘No matter what your traditions are, someone is going to break them.’ Continue Reading‘Fiddler on the Moon’ documentary explores how Judaism might adapt as humanity reaches out into space→

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 27 Starlink satellites lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. The first stage then made the company’s 550th landing. Continue ReadingFalcon 9 rocket launches Starlink satellites before making 550th SpaceX landing→

In the early 20th century, after years of effort, Albert Einstein developed his general theory of relativity. This was a massive improvement in our understanding of gravity, giving us a sophisticated view into the inner workings of that fundamental force.

A new study, analyzing over 1,600 galaxies observed with Chandra over two decades, suggests that smaller galaxies do not contain supermassive black holes nearly as often as larger galaxies do.

Test your space smarts with our weekly crossword challenge, crafted from Space.com’s biggest headlines. Continue ReadingSpace.com headlines crossword quiz for week of Dec. 8, 2025: NASA lost contact with which Mars spacecraft this week?→