Stockholm (AFP) Oct 2, 2025
Donald Trump's assault on science could threaten the United States' position as the world's leading research nation and have knock-on effects worldwide, Nobel Prize officials in Sweden told AFP. Since taking office in January, the US president has cut billions of dollars in funding, attacked universities' academic freedoms and overseen mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 09, 2025
Rocket Lab has signed a new multi-launch agreement with Japan's Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS), adding three dedicated Electron missions from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand beginning no earlier than 2026 and making Rocket Lab the primary launch provider for the QPS-SAR constellation. The additional flights lift iQPS's upcoming Electron manifest to seven, on top of four alrea

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 09, 2025
Raytheon, an RTX business, and Anduril Industries have completed a successful static fire test of an advanced solid rocket motor under contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate. The achievement marks a major step toward expanding U.S. rocket motor production and strengthening the defense industrial base. With global demand for munitions rising, the test u

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Oct 09, 2025
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has successfully launched its ATHEAt flight experiment from Andoya, Norway, marking a major advance in reusable space transportation technology. The sounding rocket lifted off on 6 October 2025 at 10:45 local time, flying for approximately four minutes and surpassing Mach 9 for two of those minutes - conditions comparable to atmospheric re-entry. During th

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 09, 2025
Despite Mars's tenuous air, winds there play a dominant role in climate and dust transport. An international team led by the University of Bern reports that dust devils and the winds enveloping them routinely surge to 44 m/s, roughly 160 km/h, far exceeding earlier assumptions based on surface measurements. The study mined European orbiter data from CaSSIS on ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbite

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 8, 2025
Space tourism company Blue Origin launched six people in Texas on its 15th mission in the growing orbital tourism industry. Blue Origin's mission NS-36, space flight saw liftoff at 8:40 a.m. CDT via its launch site in west Texas after a 9:30 a.m. launch window opened for its suborbital journey in the 36th flight for its reusable rocket-capsule New Shepard. "Hugs all around," an a

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 8, 2025
International space agencies say an asteroid zipped by Earth closer than a large number of satellites currently in orbit, but was not detected until hours later. The European Space Agency said Monday that a 3- to 10-foot-wide asteroid was picked up by radar last Wednesday some 265 miles above Earth over Antarctica, near Earth's most southern point, at an altitude similar to that of the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 09, 2025
Space Ocean Corp, a leader in orbital logistics and in-space resource delivery, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Space Nuclear Power Corporation (Space Nukes) to explore the integration of advanced nuclear reactor technology into future deep-space missions. The collaboration centers on testing Space Nukes' 10-kilowatt nuclear reactor aboard Space Ocean's ALV-N satellite. Upon meeti

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 09, 2025
AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network directly accessible by standard smartphones, has signed a definitive commercial agreement with Verizon (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) to deliver direct-to-cellular service for Verizon customers beginning in 2026. The partnership aims to extend Verizon's award-winning network with space-based

By fitting its sunshield and solar panels, engineers have completed the construction of Plato, the European Space Agency’s mission to discover Earth-like exoplanets. Plato is on track for the final key tests to confirm that it is fit for launch.