We’re one comet down, and one to go for spring season 2026. We recently wrote about prospects for sungrazer C/2026 A1 MAPS and comet C/2025 R3 Pan-STARRS in April 2026. While the bad news is, Comet A1 MAPS disintegrated like so many sungrazers before it during its blistering close perihelion passage on April 4th, comet R3 Pan-STARRS put on an amazing dawn showing for early rising astrophotographers.

Welcome to Edition 8.37 of the Rocket Report! NASA is still climbing down from the high of the Artemis II mission, the first flight by humans to the Moon since 1972. What a mission it was! Now, attention turns to completing development of a lander to get astronauts down to the Moon’s surface. Among other things, we chronicle the latest progress of NASA’s two lunar lander contractors, SpaceX and Blue Origin, in this week’s Rocket Continue ReadingRocket Report: Starship V3 test-fired; ESA’s tentative step toward crew launch→

Hubble images never fail to amaze. Continue ReadingHubble Space Telescope spots a mesmerizing spiral galaxy | Space photo of the day for April 17, 2026→

Fast solar wind could spark geomagnetic storms tonight, pushing auroras into mid-latitudes. Continue ReadingNorthern lights could be visible as far south as Illinois and Oregon tonight→

The heat shield on Artemis 2’s Orion capsule appears to have held up incredibly well during its scorching downward trip through Earth’s atmosphere, mission commander Reid Wiseman said. Continue ReadingArtemis 2’s heat shield seems to have aced its trial by fire→

Living long-term on the Moon means surviving the devastating toll that deep space takes on a human body. Astronauts in low gravity environments suffer muscle and bone loss, vision-altering fluid shifts, and heavy radiation exposure – all of which are incredibly hazardous to our biology. So, to help future lunar explorers survive, a new crew just arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). That might not sound surprising, except this crew is composed of worms.

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS changed significantly as it flew by the sun last fall, astronomers have discovered. Continue ReadingInterstellar invader comet 3I/ATLAS made a startling transformation as it passed the sun→

Mars is well known as a static, frozen desert. We tend to think of the only thing changing on the surface of the Red Planet is due to the occasional dust storm. But if you look closely – and are willing to wait decades – you’ll see the planet is very much alive – at least in the environmental sense. The European Space Agency just released some spectacular new images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on its Mars Express Orbiter, one of which shows a surprisingly “fast” geological change happening in Utopia Planitia. A dark, ominous-looking blanket of volcanic ash is actively creeping across the bright red sands – and it’s moving (relatively) fast.

Things are gearing up in the development of the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile, as its developers enter the final design phase before the project goes before Congress for funding. Continue ReadingThis giant telescope could discover habitable exoplanets and secrets of our universe — if it gets its funding→

All Points Logistics has signed an agreement with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to construct satellite processing facilities on center property. The post All Points signs agreement to build payload processing facilities at KSC appeared first on SpaceNews.

The new satellite platform is being positioned to compete in the emerging “micro GEO” market for space-based communications and sensing The post Boeing and its subsidiary Millennium Space team on new mid-size satellite appeared first on SpaceNews.

Companies proposing to develop commercial space stations are pushing back against claims by NASA that a market for such stations has yet to develop. The post Companies make the case for commercial space station markets appeared first on SpaceNews.

Taiwan’s space agency chief has called on other countries to band together on a shared communications constellation to match the scale and growing strategic importance of networks like Starlink. The post Taiwan floats shared satcom constellation amid calls for more space collaboration appeared first on SpaceNews.

COLORADO SPRINGS – U.S. government agencies are working with industry to develop tools to disrupt missiles before they take flight, a timespan called ‘left of launch.’ “We’re looking at different aspects of the threat as it evolves,” Erich Hernandez-Baquero, Raytheon Intelligence and Space vice president of space intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, said at the Space Symposium. […] The post Countering missile threats ‘left of launch’ appeared first on SpaceNews.

COLORADO SPRINGS – After announcing a $5 million seed round in January, Indian startup TakeMe2Space seeks to raise $55 million to establish a 50-kilowatt orbital data center. “What is key for us is to demonstrate that we can play the orbital data center game globally,” TakeMe2Space founder Ronak Kumar Samantray told SpaceNews. “There’s a lot […] The post India’s TakeMe2Space sets sights on 50-kilowatt data center appeared first on SpaceNews.