Earth Was Just Hit by the Strongest Solar Radiation Storm in over 20 Years — Here's What It Means
Earth was struck by an S4‑level solar radiation storm on Jan. 19, the most severe event since the October 2003 Halloween storms. The storm, driven by a fast coronal mass ejection, sent high‑energy protons toward the planet, but the particles lacked the extreme energies needed to reach the surface. While ground‑level impact was negligible, the influx disrupted satellite telemetry and raised radiation exposure for astronauts and polar‑route airline crews. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center flagged the event as historic in intensity.
SpaceX Didn’t Properly Inspect Crane Before Collapse at Starbase, OSHA Says
OSHA says SpaceX failed to properly inspect a recently repaired hydraulic crane before it collapsed at the Starbase facility in June 2025. The agency issued seven serious violations and levied the maximum fines on six of them, totaling $115,850. The...
New Spaceport Proposed in India Independent of Its Space Agency ISRO
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu announced preliminary talks with Greenko Group to develop a commercial spaceport on Hope Island near Kakinada. The site offers a more efficient launch trajectory for polar orbits, reducing fuel compared with ISRO's Sriharikota facility....
Commercial Space Federation (CSF) Welcomes 3 New Associate Members
The Commercial Space Federation announced three new associate members—Max Space, Slingshot Aerospace, and Muon Space—broadening its portfolio across space habitats, traffic management, and satellite constellations. Max Space introduces expandable habitats that grow twenty‑fold after launch, fitting on a single Falcon 9....
Sinking Salty Ice Suggests Pathway for Life-Sustaining Conditions in Europa's Ocean
Geophysicists at Washington State University have modeled a process by which dense, salt‑rich ice on Europa can detach and sink through the moon’s icy shell, delivering surface‑derived nutrients to the subsurface ocean. The study adapts Earth’s crustal delamination mechanism, showing...
2025 NESC Technical Update
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center released its 2025 Technical Update, an annual report detailing FY25 engineering activities. The document highlights independent testing, analysis, and assessments of NASA’s high‑risk projects, emphasizing safety and mission success. Collaboration across NASA centers enabled...
Mars Orbiter Sees Odd Etchings in the Sand | Space Photo of the Day for Jan. 20, 2025
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter captured a high‑resolution view of extensive yardangs near the Eumenides Dorsum mountains, an area roughly the size of Belgium. These wind‑blasted ridges, recorded by the High Resolution Stereo Camera, reveal that Mars is...
Jan. 20, 1930: The Birth of Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin was born on Jan. 20, 1930, in New Jersey and later earned a Ph.D. from MIT, becoming NASA’s first astronaut with a doctorate. After serving as a Korean War fighter pilot, he joined NASA’s third astronaut group in 1963. Aldrin...
Washington Harbour Expands Space Investments with Ground Services Acquisition
Washington Harbour Partners has purchased New Hampshire‑based Radome Services and rebranded it as Outpost Mission Services, a ground‑segment engineering platform for space infrastructure. The acquisition adds a 45‑person field‑services team that inspects, repairs, and maintains radomes protecting satellite, radar and...
Free Warnings, Better Catalogs: The Real Fix for Space Safety
A recent Executive Order removed the requirement that U.S. space situational awareness (SSA) and traffic coordination services be provided free of charge, sparking debate over user fees. Andrew D’Uva argues that the real issue is catalog completeness, not pricing, and...
Gaia Data Release Reveals Four Substructures in Open Cluster NGC 752
Chinese astronomers using ESA's Gaia DR3 identified four distinct substructures within the nearby open cluster NGC 752, revealing a dense central core and three progressively looser outer groups. The total stellar mass of the cluster was revised upward to about 332.5 solar...
James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Young Galaxies Age Rapidly: 'It's Like Seeing 2-Year-Old Children Act Like Teenagers'
Using JWST, Hubble and ALMA, astronomers studied 18 galaxies about 12.5 billion light‑years away, dating to less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The galaxies exhibit surprisingly high metal content, rotating disks, and rapidly feeding supermassive black holes, indicating...
Mars Once Had a Vast Sea the Size of the Arctic Ocean
Researchers analyzing data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, ESA's Mars Express, and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter have identified a distinct ancient coastline on Mars, indicating a once‑vast ocean roughly the size of Earth's Arctic Ocean. The discovery stems from...
Comet Wierzchos Buzzes the Sun Later Today: But Can You See It?
Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) reaches perihelion today, Jan 20, passing 52.6 million miles (84.6 million km) from the Sun. The increased solar heating should boost its brightness to about +8.1 magnitude, making it observable only with a modest telescope in the southern sky’s Microscopium...
Aurora Australis Set to Light up Australian Sky as Agencies Monitor ‘Severe’ Solar Storm
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe geomagnetic storm alert for 20 January, following a major solar flare on 18 January. The storm could make the aurora australis visible as far north as Victoria and New South Wales, offering rare southern‑light...
NASA Delivered
The episode reviews NASA’s landmark achievements in 2025, spanning breakthroughs in aeronautics, deep‑space exploration, and planetary science. Highlights include the successful test of the X‑57 electric aircraft, the Artemis II crewed lunar flyby, and the Perseverance rover’s new sample‑return mission milestones....
Another Zimmerman Op-Ed Today at PJ Media
Robert Zimmerman’s latest PJ Media op‑ed condemns mainstream coverage of NASA’s Artemis II rollout as propaganda, arguing that nearly twenty outlets praised the mission without addressing critical safety concerns. He points out that only a single article mentioned Orion’s heat‑shield issues,...
Astronomers Find that Black Holes "Seesaw" Between Ejecting Material as Winds or Jets
Astronomers using NASA’s NICER X‑ray telescope and South Africa’s MeerKAT radio array have shown that the black‑hole binary 4U 1630‑472 alternates between relativistic jets and X‑ray winds, but never produces both at the same time. The three‑year monitoring revealed a stable...
Damaged DSN Antenna Out of Service Until May
NASA’s 70‑meter DSS‑14 Deep Space Network antenna suffered an over‑rotation incident on Sept. 16, leaving it offline until at least May 1. The dish, critical for deep‑space communications and planetary radar, will later enter a multi‑year upgrade starting Aug 2026, extending its 60‑year...
Repaired Shenzhou-20 Returns to Earth Empty
China’s Shenzhou‑20 spacecraft returned to Earth empty after a debris‑induced crack compromised its viewport. The crew was transferred to the Shenzhou‑21 capsule for a safe landing in November, leaving the damaged module docked to Tiangong. A rapid‑response window‑treatment, delivered by...
Macron Accelerates Military Space Amid Budget Strains
French president @EmmanuelMacron urges faster military space buildup, promises funds; @CNES confronts budget challenges; 2d flight of #BalMan high-altitude platform ends in explosion; @EuropeSpacePort prepares for arrival of mini-launchers. @defis_eu.https://t.co/wWsAqjHcpP https://t.co/xMgYrZ4ZfK
Could Bees Be a Model for SETI Searches?
Researchers at Monash and RMIT demonstrated that bees can recognize Arabic and Roman numerals, solve basic addition and subtraction, and communicate complex information via their waggle dance. The findings suggest that mathematics may be a shared cognitive ability across vastly...
Mercury's BepiColombo Mio and Earth's GEOTAIL Show Shared Wave Frequency Properties Across Planetary Magnetospheres
An international team has confirmed that chorus emissions—electromagnetic waves previously studied in Earth’s magnetosphere—also occur in Mercury’s weak magnetic field. Using BepiColombo’s Mio plasma‑wave instrument, six flybys between 2021 and 2025 captured audible‑frequency waves that match the instantaneous frequency chirps...
Deep Magma Oceans Could Help Make Super-Earths Habitable
Researchers led by Miki Nakajima have shown that deep basal magma oceans (BMOs) in super‑Earths can become highly electrically conductive, enabling them to generate magnetic dynamos. Laboratory laser‑driven shock experiments on iron‑rich ferropericlase and numerical simulations demonstrate that planets with...
EP34: Col (Ret) Keith Balts, PhD, Speaks About Leadership
In this episode, retired Air Force Colonel and Clemson professor Keith Balts discusses his journey from ROTC commissioning to leading space operations, highlighting the evolution of space missions from a support role to a strategic warfighter capability. He shares vivid...
Proba-3 Mission Captures Rare Solar Prominence Eruptions in Sun's Inner Corona
The European Space Agency’s Proba‑3 mission captured a rare sequence of three solar prominence eruptions within a five‑hour window on 21 September 2025. Using its ASPIICS coronagraph, the twin‑satellite formation created an artificial eclipse that revealed the sun’s inner corona in unprecedented...
Space Forum January 22: Cape Canaveral, World’s Premier Gateway to Space
The National Space Society’s Space Forum on Jan. 22 will feature James Draper, director of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, who will trace the site’s evolution from post‑World War II missile tests to the launchpad of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions....
Filming the Universe’s Biggest Dramas: Best Ideas of the Century
Astronomers have moved from relying on chance to systematically hunting fleeting cosmic explosions by deploying dedicated time‑domain surveys. The Palomar Transient Factory (2009‑2012) pioneered a coordinated “conveyor‑belt” approach, triggering follow‑up observations across multiple telescopes. Its successors, the Zwicky Transient Facility...
China Previews How Powerful Its New Xuntian Space Telescope Will Be Ahead of 2027 Launch (Video)
China’s 2‑meter Chinese Space Station Telescope, dubbed Xuntian, is slated for launch as early as 2027 and will operate in low‑Earth orbit alongside the Tiangong station. The observatory carries a 2.5‑billion‑pixel camera with a field of view roughly 300 times...
China Launches More Satellites in Its Guowang Satellite Constellation
China successfully placed the 19th group of Guowang (SatNet) satellites into orbit using a Long March 12 launch from the Wencheng coastal spaceport. The launch brings the constellation to roughly 150 satellites, positioning it as a direct competitor to SpaceX’s...
What the First Medical Evacuation From the International Space Station Tells Us About Health Care in Space
In early January 2026 NASA performed the first medical evacuation from the International Space Station in 25 years, returning the Crew‑11 astronauts aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The incident, though details remain confidential, underscores the rarity of serious health events in...
Japan’s Government Gives Ispace a $125 Million Contract to Build a High-Precision Lunar Lander
Japan’s government awarded lunar‑exploration startup Ispace a $125 million contract under the second phase of the Space Strategy Fund to develop a high‑precision lander aimed at a 2029 launch to the Moon’s polar regions. The agreement also funds a lunar orbiter...
China’s Damaged Shenzhou-20 Manned Capsule Successfully Returned Unmanned Today
China successfully recovered the Shenzhou-20 crew capsule unmanned after a reported window breach, touching down in Inner Mongolia. State media released only distant photos, showing a damaged window but no clear view of the alleged debris impact. The limited visual...
UK Advances Navigation Security with New PNT Hub, Presents SPARK Report
The UK Space Agency has launched a new Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) landing page that centralises information on the nation’s navigation initiatives. The site aligns with the UK’s broader PNT framework and the recently published Framework for Greater PNT...
Dangerous Solar Storm Expected January 19/20
On Jan 18 2026, the Sun emitted an X1.9‑class flare from active region AR4341, accompanied by a full‑halo coronal mass ejection directed toward Earth. The CME, traveling over 1,000 km s⁻¹, is forecast to strike late Jan 19 or early Jan 20, with geomagnetic activity potentially...
The Death of the Earth Return Orbiter
The episode examines the abrupt termination of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, focusing on ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) and the implications of Daniel Neuenschwander’s declaration that the mission will not continue. It delves into the historical context of...
X-Ray Observations Reveal Hidden Disturbances in Galaxy Cluster Abell 3571
X‑ray observations by the Einstein Probe’s Follow‑up X‑ray Telescope have uncovered hidden disturbances in the massive galaxy cluster Abell 3571, part of the Shapley Supercluster. Although the cluster previously appeared morphologically relaxed, residual and thermodynamic maps reveal surface‑brightness excesses and a...
Jan. 19, 1965: Gemini 2 Launches
The Gemini program served as NASA’s bridge between Mercury and Apollo, focusing on long‑duration spaceflight and rendezvous capabilities. After the uncrewed Gemini 1 proved the Titan II could reach orbit, Gemini 2 launched on Jan 19 1965 to test heat shields, retrorockets, and parachutes. The...
Rocket Roll
NASA rolled the Artemis II Orion spacecraft to its launch pad, marking a critical milestone for the agency’s first crewed deep‑space mission since Apollo. The rollout follows extensive integration of the Space Launch System core stage and the European Service Module....
Searching for 'Green Oceans' And 'Purple Earths'
The Living Worlds Working Group’s white paper outlines the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) as a next‑generation exoplanet telescope that will directly image planets using a coronagraph. To meet Decadal Survey goals, HWO must achieve extremely high signal‑to‑noise and cover a...
Space Force Ends ‘Resilient GPS’ Satellite Program
The U.S. Space Force has terminated the Resilient GPS (R‑GPS) program, an exploratory effort launched in 2024 to develop smaller, lower‑cost navigation satellites. The initiative funded Astranis, L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space to produce design concepts, but Phase 1 funding was...
Micro Nano Robots Aim to Cut Carbon Buildup in Closed Life Support Systems
Researchers at Guangxi University unveiled micro‑nano reconfigurable robots (MNRM) that capture and release carbon dioxide using sunlight as an energy source. In laboratory tests the robots sequestered 6.19 mmol CO₂ per gram of sorbent and regenerated at just 55 °C, maintaining over...
Liftoff for European Launch Startups
European launch startups are receiving a surge of public funding after the ESA’s European Launcher Challenge allocated over €900 million to five companies, aiming to restore sovereign access to orbit. Isar Aerospace is preparing its second Spectrum flight, carrying five cubesats...
Why Is SpaceX Lowering Its Starlink Satellites?
SpaceX will lower roughly 4,400 Starlink satellites from about 550 km to 480 km by 2026. The move leverages the upcoming solar minimum, which will contract the upper atmosphere and increase drag at higher altitudes, helping clear debris faster. A tighter orbital...
The PSLV-C62 Failure Marks a Setback for India's Space Ambitions
On Jan 12, ISRO's PSLV‑C62/EOS‑N1 mission failed to reach orbit after an anomaly in the third stage, losing the primary EOS‑N1 hyperspectral satellite and 14 other payloads. The launch also carried the Kestrel Initial Demonstrator, which managed to transmit limited...
The Successful Development of Russia's Counterspace Activities in LEO and GEO
Russia has accelerated its counter‑space programme, fielding both co‑orbital and direct‑ascent anti‑satellite systems across low‑Earth and geostationary orbits. The Nivelir series of co‑orbital satellites have demonstrated repeated proximity operations, coming within tens of kilometres of U.S. reconnaissance and communications satellites,...
Apollos Anew
The blog reviews the newly released photo‑books — Apollo 1, 7 and 8 in Photographs — which compile hundreds of previously unseen images from NASA’s early lunar missions. The author argues that the visual material reshapes readers’ perception of the Apollo program, revealing details of hardware assembly,...
The Universe's Most Common Water Is a Hot Mess
Scientists at SLAC and the Sorbonne have experimentally produced superionic water—an exotic, electrically conductive ice—by compressing water to 1.8 million atmospheres and heating it to 2500 K with diamond‑anvil cells and laser pulses. High‑speed X‑ray diffraction showed the material’s crystal lattice is...
China And Algeria Strengthen Space Alliance With AlSat-3A Satellite Launch
China launched AlSat-3A, an optical Earth‑observation satellite for Algeria, on 15 January using a Long March‑2C rocket. Built by the China Academy of Space Technology, the spacecraft will deliver civilian imagery for land‑use planning and disaster mitigation. The launch fulfills the...
ExoAnalytic Tools to Power FireSat Wildfire Monitoring Constellation
ExoAnalytic Solutions has been chosen to develop containerized web applications that visualize the orbits and 1,500 km swath coverage of the Earth Fire Alliance’s FireSat wildfire‑monitoring constellation. The tools will provide both public‑facing and secure interfaces, enabling real‑time and predictive track...