Cosmic Log
NASA is serving up a double scoop of delicious Saturn imagery in two flavors — near-infrared and visible light. The subtle differences between the James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared view and the Hubble Space Telescope’s visible-light view can help scientists dig deeper into the workings of the ringed planet’s atmosphere.
NASA’s leaders today laid out an ambitious multibillion-dollar space exploration plan that calls for building a moon base over the next decade and launching a nuclear-powered probe to Mars by 2028.
The space agency is also pressing the pause button on its multibillion-dollar plan to create a moon-orbiting outpost known as the lunar Gateway, and on its plan for transitioning from the International Space Station to commercial outposts in low Earth orbit.
Instead, NASA says it aims to work with commercial partners to procure a government-owned Core Module for the ISS. That module would serve as the attachment point for commercial space modules that could eventually detach to become free-flying space stations.
Meanwhile, the Power and Propulsion Element that was designed for the Gateway would be repurposed for the Mars probe known as Space Reactor-1 Freedom. SR-1 Freedom would be powered by a nuclear electric propulsion system and drop off a payload capable of deploying three helicopters in the Martian atmosphere. Such a mission, known as Skyfall, builds on the success of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars and parallels a concept proposed last year by AeroVironment.
NASA is aiming to launch SR-1 Freedom, land astronauts on the lunar surface with its Artemis 4 mission and start laying the groundwork for a moon base with Artemis 5 by the end of 2028, when President Donald Trump’s term in office comes to a close.
The Large Hadron Collider’s subatomic discoveries didn’t stop with the Higgs boson: This week, scientists at Europe’s CERN research center announced that the collider’s LHCb experiment has detected a doubly charmed particle that’s like a proton, but four times as weighty.
The particle is known as the Ξcc⁺, or “Xi-cc-plus.” It flashes in and out of existence in less than the blink of an eye, but just knowing that it exists — and knowing how massive it is — could give physicists a more solid sense of how matter is put together.
Astronomers say unusual readings from a star system 11,000 light-years away suggest that two of the planets circling the star crashed into each other, creating a huge, light-obscuring cloud of rocks and dust.
The analysis, laid out this week in a paper published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could provide new insights into the occasionally cataclysmic process that governs the evolution of planetary objects — including our own planet Earth and its moon.
“There are only a few other planetary collisions of any kind on record, and none that bear so many similarities to the impact that created the Earth and moon,” University of Washington graduate student Anastasios Tzanidakis, the study’s lead author, said in a news release. “If we can observe more moments like this elsewhere in the galaxy, it will teach us lots about the formation of our world.”
Here’s one less thing to worry about — or to look forward to: NASA has ruled out any chance that an asteroid called 2024 YR4 will hit the moon in 2032. Last year, the uncertainty surrounding the space rock’s orbital path held out a slight chance of impact, but fresh observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope confirm that it’ll be a miss.
Based on JWST’s readings, which were collected on Feb. 18 and 26, experts from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory say they expect 2024 YR4 to zoom past the lunar surface at a distance of 13,200 miles on Dec. 22, 2032.
Previous analyses of 2024 YR4’s orbital path were less precise, and had suggested that the asteroid had a 4.3% chance of lunar impact in 2032.
Nearly two years after Boeing’s botched Starliner mission to the International Space Station, NASA put the mishap in the same category as the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters — and said the spacecraft wouldn’t carry another crew until dozens of corrective actions are taken.
Based on the findings from an independent panel’s 311-page report, NASA classified the crewed test mission in 2024 as a Type A mishap, primarily because five of the thrusters in the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion system failed during the capsule’s approach to the ISS. The crew was able to regain control of four of those thrusters, but NASA decided not to send astronauts back to Earth on the Starliner due to safety concerns.
Instead, the craft was flown back for a landing without crew, three months after the docking. The two astronauts who rode Starliner to orbit were stuck aboard the station for more than nine months while they waited for a ride back home inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Today’s report faults NASA’s leadership as well as Boeing’s team for the mission’s failings.
“Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who took over as the space agency’s chief in December, wrote in a letter to NASA employees that was also posted to X. “It is decision-making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight.”
NASA is facing increasingly sharp challenges as it pursues its goal of landing astronauts on the moon again before this decade is out — and as the space agency braces for another leadership change, it’s clear that the year ahead will also bring further challenges. How will NASA fare?
“There’s a lot left up in the air, though the signs are more positive than I would have said a couple of months ago,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the nonprofit Planetary Society, said this week at the ScienceWriters2025 conference in Chicago.
One of the big issues left up in the air has to do with who’ll be at the helm at the world’s leading space agency. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump chose tech billionaire Jared Isaacman to become NASA’s administrator. In May, Trump withdrew the nomination in the midst of a spat with SpaceX founder Elon Musk — but just this month, Isaacman’s nomination was revived.
In partnership with NASA, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has executed the first test flight of the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft. This week’s first flight was subsonic, but eventually the plane will demonstrate technologies aimed at reducing sonic booms to gentle thumps.
“We are thrilled to achieve the first flight of the X-59,” OJ Sanchez, Skunk Works’ vice president and general manager, said in a news release. “This aircraft is a testament to the innovation and expertise of our joint team, and we are proud to be at the forefront of quiet supersonic technology development.”
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy called the X-59 “a symbol of American ingenuity.”
“The American spirit knows no bounds. It’s part of our DNA – the desire to go farther, faster and even quieter than anyone has ever gone before,” he said. “This work sustains America’s place as the leader in aviation and has the potential to change the way the public flies.”
Impulse Space, the California-based venture founded by veteran SpaceX engineer Tom Mueller, today unveiled its proposed architecture for delivering medium-sized payloads to the moon by as early as 2028.
In a blog posting, Mueller said the plan would fill a “critical gap in lunar cargo delivery capabilities.”
Mueller was Employee No. 1 at Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and is widely credited as the rocket scientist behind SpaceX’s success. He left the company in 2020 to found Impulse Space, which is focusing on ways to improve mobility in space.
Impulse’s Mira space tug already has demonstrated its capabilities in two LEO Express missions that took place in low Earth orbit in 2023 and 2025. The company is also developing a kick stage known as Helios, which would be capable of sending payloads to higher orbits.
“So far, Impulse’s mission has unfolded in the orbits closest to Earth, but our work to improve in-space mobility doesn’t end at geostationary orbit,” Mueller wrote. “That’s why we’re unveiling some of our initial plans for the next stages of our roadmap, starting with the moon.”
SpaceX closed out a dramatic chapter in the development of its super-heavy-lift Starship launch system today with a successful flight test that mostly followed the script for the previous flight test.
The 11th test flight began with the ascent of Starship’s Super Heavy booster from SpaceX’s Starbase launch pad in South Texas at 6:23 p.m. CT (4:23 p.m. PT). It was that particular pad’s last liftoff. An upgraded Pad 2 is being prepared to accommodate a more powerful Starship Version 3, with the first launch expected next year.
Starship V3 will feature an upgraded version of SpaceX’s methane-fueled Raptor engines and larger propellant tanks that are capable of in-orbit refueling.
The Super Heavy booster and its second stage, known as Ship, are being designed for missions in Earth orbit and beyond — and V3 is the version that’s meant to get SpaceX to that level.