space-and-spaceflight15.61 min read
Starship V3 Engine Fire Sparks at Texas Test Site Ahead of May Launch
2 days ago•Source: Gizmodo
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15.81 min•11 days ago
Mars Gems: Tiny Ruby-Like Crystals Spotted by Perseverance
NASA’s Perseverance rover found minuscule, 0.2 mm grains of chromium-bearing corundum inside pebbles near the rim of Jezero Crater on Mars. Using the SuperCam laser, scientists observed luminescent signatures indicating ruby- or sapphire-like material, though exact composition remains uncertain. The crystals are thought to have been delivered by meteorite impacts rather than formed in situ, and their discovery suggests Mars could host other precious minerals. Findings were presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.
16.945 min•12 days ago
Unexplained Illness Triggers NASA’s First ISS Medical Evacuation
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Starship V3 Clears Its First Static Fire, Aims for April Launch
SpaceX’s Starship Version 3 reached a key milestone with Booster 19’s first static fire, firing 10 Raptor 3 engines for about a second before a ground-systems issue ended the test. Engineers will push toward a full 33-engine static fire and final checks on Ship 39 as stacking for Flight 12 progresses, eyeing an inaugural Moon/Mars mission in April and a potential use of Starship’s upper stage for NASA Artemis plans amid a challenging development path.
Blue Origin Unveils NEO Hunter Plan to Deflect Asteroids
Blue Origin, in collaboration with NASA's JPL and Caltech, introduced the NEO Hunter mission concept to defend Earth from hazardous near-Earth objects, leveraging the Blue Ring platform. The plan envisions a two-phase approach: first deploying cubesats to study and characterize the target asteroid to guide deflection, including an ion-beam method; if needed, a second phase would perform a robust direct kinetic disruption (inspired by NASA’s DART) with a Slamcam to document the impact. The mission is planned to launch its first phase in spring 2026.
Ryugu Samples Show All Five Nucleobases, Hinting Life’s Ingredients Arrived from Space
A Nature Astronomy study analyzing Hayabusa2’s Ryugu samples found all five nucleobases—the DNA/RNA building blocks—supporting the idea that asteroids delivered the ingredients for life to early Earth. The researchers note Ryugu has roughly equal amounts of purine and pyrimidine bases, unlike some meteorites, and that ammonia concentration may influence nucleobase formation, suggesting such molecules could have been more widespread in the early solar system.
Artemis Moon Landing Faces Safety Gaps, Warns NASA Watchdog
NASA’s Office of the Inspector General warns the Artemis Human Landing System program has serious gaps in testing and crew-survival analyses for SpaceX’s Starship HLS and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers, meaning a failure could leave astronauts stranded without a feasible rescue. The report calls for clearer funding rules, contract updates, and enhanced risk analyses as NASA pushes toward 2028 crewed Moon landings (Artemis 4/5), though the technical feasibility and cost impacts remain uncertain.
DART Impact Nudges Dimorphos Orbit, Extending Its Reach to the Sun
New analysis of NASA’s DART results shows the kinetic impact not only altered Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos but also shifted the binary system’s path around the Sun, slowing Dimorphos by about 11.7 micrometers per second and shortening the solar orbit by roughly 360 meters (about 0.15 seconds per year). The tiny change, inferred from radar and stellar occultations, provides the strongest evidence yet that kinetic impact can alter an asteroid’s solar trajectory, with ESA’s Hera mission expected to map the bodies to tighten measurements and improve planning for planetary defense.
Astronomers Spot the Tiniest Packed Quadruple Star System
Using NASA’s TESS data from 2019–2024, astronomers identified TIC 120362137 as the most compact 3+1 quadruple star system: an eclipsing binary eclipsed by a third star, plus a distant fourth star with a 1,045.5‑day orbit—the shortest outer period observed in such a configuration. The inner three stars are packed within Mercury’s orbital distance while the outer companion sits near Jupiter’s orbit. The team’s models suggest the inner trio will merge into a white dwarf in ~300 million years, leaving a double white-dwarf system with a ~44‑day orbit.
Tiny Life Survives Asteroid-Scale Shock in Lithopanspermia Test
Johns Hopkins researchers simulated the harsh journey life might take on a rock traveling between planets, blasting Deinococcus radiodurans between metal plates at speeds up to 300 mph to mimic asteroid ejection from Mars. The microbes withstood 1–3 gigapascals of pressure, with only some internal damage, while the steel plates failed. The study lends support to the lithopanspermia idea that life could hitch rides on asteroids, but it remains unproven and limited in scope, and it underscores the need for planetary protection and further testing on other extremophiles.
180-Degree Sun-Pointing Glitch Ends $72M Lunar Mission on Day One
NASA’s $72 million Lunar Trailblazer, designed to map water on the Moon, went dark on day one after flight software pointed its solar panels away from the Sun, plunging the craft into a cold state and severing communications. A NASA review attributed the failure to insufficient end-to-end testing and flawed fault-management actions, noting that the mission’s low-cost design amplified risk. Lockheed Martin and NASA say lessons learned will inform future efforts, and some technology will continue on in UCIS-Moon for Artemis-era research.
JUICE Captures 120 Images of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas as It Recedes
ESA’s JUICE mission photographed interstellar comet 3I/Atlas in more than 120 JANUS images on November 6, 2025, a week after its closest approach to the Sun. The shots show a bright coma and a long tail, and scientists are analyzing the data (with results expected in late March). 3I/Atlas, discovered June 2025 by ATLAS, is only the third known interstellar visitor, and as it drifts away from the Sun, JUICE continues its deep-space observations on its way to Jupiter (arrival in 2031).
Rubin Observatory Unleashes Real-Time Sky Alerts, 800,000 Notifications Overnight
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory kicked off its real‑time alert system, dispatching 800,000 sky-change notifications to researchers worldwide in its first run. The alerts flagged events like supernovae, asteroids, variable stars, and active galactic nuclei, and are powered by the Alert Production Pipeline designed to scale up to about 7 million alerts per night, enabling rapid follow‑up observations as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time proceeds.