As the year reaches its halfway mark, the cosmic winds of 2025 have already carried with them some of the most thrilling discoveries and milestones in modern space exploration. From the hints of alien life on distant worlds to the awakening of powerful observatories, our universe continues to whisper secrets — and we, the Earthbound…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe 24th flyby recently marked another milestone. On Thursday, June 19, the spacecraft reached 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface, matching its record for closest approach. This flyby concluded the original mission timeline. However, Parker will continue orbiting the Sun and collecting valuable data until NASA reviews the…
At 2:31 a.m. EDT, the crew of Axiom Mission 4 launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, en route to the International Space Station (ISS). Leading the commercial mission is Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and now Axiom Space’s director of…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 24th close dive toward the Sun on Thursday, June 19. It flew just 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) above the solar surface, once again matching its record for closest approach. This milestone marked the final close flyby in the mission’s baseline plan. From this point forward, Parker will…
Over the weekend, Curiosity successfully wrapped up its science activities at the “Altadena” drill site and resumed driving. After completing a 48-meter (157-foot) drive, the rover entered a new exploration zone—informally called a mapping “quad.” To give some context: Curiosity’s team divides the exploration area into square regions, each 1.5 kilometers wide. The team names…
Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth Planning Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 As Curiosity nears the end of the Altadena drill campaign, the rover continues its exploration of Martian bedrock within the intriguing boxwork structures on Mount Sharp. Following the successful delivery of powdered rock…
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are evaluating potential launch windows for Axiom Mission 4, the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), with no earlier target than Thursday, June 19. The mission was delayed on June 12 as NASA continued to coordinate with Roscosmos to assess recent repair efforts addressing minor leaks…
NASA’s PUNCH mission (short for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) has just shared its first-ever images of massive solar eruptions known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. These stunning visuals were unveiled on Tuesday at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The newly released images, compiled into a video, capture…
The seventh flight test of Starship and Super Heavy flew with ambitious goals, aiming to successfully repeat the corecapability of returning and catching a booster while launching an upgraded design of the upper stage. While not everytest objective was completed, the lessons learned will roll directly into future vehicles to make them more capable asStarship…
In addition to continued infrastructure development at Starbase, Texas, where SpaceX is headquartered,SpaceX is expanding its Starship operations in Florida, bringing Starship production and launch capabilitiesto the Space Coast. As flight testing and development of Starship continues at Starbase in Texas, SpaceX isbuilding a new integration facility, called Gigabay, next to its HangarX location at…
