A “space mirror” test satellite meant to beam sunlight and turn night into day on targeted swaths of Earth just received approval to proceed—and astronomers are aghast. The satellite, called Eärendil-1 and built by the California-based startup Reflect Orbital, would be the first of some 50,000 similar spacecraft the company hopes to launch by 2035.…

Amazon says it now has enough satellites operating in low-Earth orbit to light up its Starlink internet competitor. With last night’s launch, Amazon Leo has 396 satellites deployed, which is “enough to support continuous service across initial latitudes,” according to Chris Weber, VP heading up business and product for Amazon Leo. That puts the company…

Nearly half of all known objects currently orbiting Earth technically classify as space junk, but the true amount may be even higher. Not only that, the debris continues amassing faster than it’s being removed. The latest red alert report comes from the engineering components company, Accu, and is based on information compiled from the U.S.…

Solar emissions exert ‘drag’ on space junk orbiting Earth. From historical measurements across a period of 36 years, researchers have now shown that space junk begins to fall down much faster once the sun’s activity across the solar cycle reaches approximately 67% of its peak. This result, which is expected to hold for station-keeping satellites…

Source: Virgin Galactic expects commercial suborbital flights to resume late this year – SpaceNews

After suggesting stricter rules for rocket disposals, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has backed off its attempt to mitigate the growing risks of space debris. The FAA first proposed the measure in September 2023, which would have required private space companies to dispose of rocket upper stages after they’ve fulfilled their task of deploying payloads…

A team from the University of Birmingham and Yale University has revealed that the Sun’s internal structure doesn’t simply reset between cycles. It shifts and those shifts leave detectable fingerprints that could one day help us predict the space weather events that threaten our satellites, power grids, and GPS systems. Artist’s impression of a GPS…

China applied for 200,000 satellites in January. Rwanda for 327,000 in 2021. Staking this claim with the ITU means that other satellite operators filing to launch into the same orbits must demonstrate to the ITU that they will not interfere with their operations. Under ITU rules, at least one satellite must be launched seven years…

SpaceX said it experienced an anomaly with one if its Starlink satellites that was likely caused by a small explosion. “The anomaly led to venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4 km [2.5 miles] and the release of a small number of trackable low relatively velocity objects,” Starlink…

[…] if it were in our solar system, it could travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes. This supermassive black hole, weighing as much as 20 million Suns, has left behind a never-before-seen 200,000-light-year-long “contrail” of newborn stars, twice the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. It’s likely the result of a rare,…

Astronomers have observed a supernova just a day after it was first detected. In the early stages of the blast, the explosion has not yet interacted with the material around the star, retaining its true shape. This initial shape has now been revealed for the first time. This video summarises the discovery. Credit: ESO

An international group of scientists has confirmed the discovery of three Earth-sized planets within the binary stellar system known as TOI-2267, located roughly 190 light-years from Earth. The finding, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, offers new insight into how planets can form and remain stable in double-star systems, which were once thought too chaotic for…

Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, 23 October 2025 – Airbus (stock exchange symbol: AIR), Leonardo (Borsa Italiana: LDO) and Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) aimed at combining their respective space activities into a new company. By joining forces, Airbus, Leonardo and Thales aim to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in space, a…

SpaceX may be guilty of violating regulatory standards by using a classified network of satellites to transmit data to Earth on radio frequencies reserved for uplinking signals, according to a citizen scientist who tracks satellites in Earth orbit. Scott Tilley, an amateur satellite tracker in Canada, accidentally detected space-to-Earth emissions on a radio frequency band…

Keith’s note: I just got an update from KeepTheShuttle. OMB wants NASA and the Smithsonian to figure out how to cut Space Shuttle Discovery apart into pieces to move it. As you will recall that option was ruled out when Space Shuttle Endeavour was moved to Los Angeles on the now-defunct 747 carrier and then…

NASA is inviting the public to join the agency’s Artemis II test flight as four astronauts venture around the Moon and back to test systems and hardware needed for deep space exploration. As part of the agency’s “Send Your Name with Artemis II” effort, anyone can claim their spot by signing up before Jan. 21.…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is narrowing the capabilities and reducing the number of next-generation weather and climate satellites it plans to build and launch in the coming decades, two people familiar with the plans told CNN. This move — which comes as hurricane season ramps up with Erin lashing the East Coast —…