A tiny robot figurine takes a look at a miniature ExoMars capsule.
Artist's illustration of a satellite operating in very low Earth orbit. Kreios Space is partnering with Kongsberg NanoAvionics to develop such a satellite mission. (Image credit: Kreios Space/Kongsberg NanoAvionics)
A new way to move around Earth's outer atmosphere could soon get a field test.The Spanish company Kreios Space plans to launch into orbit the world's first satellite that uses scooped-up air to push it forward, the company announced on Tuesday (Aug. 4).The technology Kreios Space has been developing is called air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP). It relies on air sourced from Earth's atmosphere, which is then heated up, ionized and expelled to generate thrust.
Diagram showing the different types of orbit around Earth. (Image credit: ESA)This method will allow satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) — the region from roughly 60 miles to 250 miles (100 to 400 kilometers) above our planet — to counteract atmospheric drag without the aid of liquid fuel."Kreios is building the satellites that make sustained operations in very low Earth orbit possible," Kreios Space CEO Adrián Senar said in the Aug. 4 announcement."By enabling satellites to fly lower, longer and more efficiently, we are enabling higher-resolution Earth observation, much better satellite communications, more responsive and accurate missions and a more sustainable orbital infrastructure," he continued.Kreios Space chose Lithuanian-based Kongsberg NanoAvionics to provide the satellite bus that will carry the ABEP system into orbit for the test run."Kreios is tackling one of the most demanding operating environments in space, and this mission joins a very short list of European VLEO initiatives," Kongsberg NanoAvionics CEO Atle Wøllo said in the same statement."Our engineering team has worked closely with Kreios to configure the MP42 satellite bus to the mission's specific requirements and support the integration of Kreios' technology," he added.Kreios Space did not give a target launch date for the mission in Tuesday's statement, saying that the company will launch it "at a time when interest in and development of VLEO technologies has accelerated." But the company's website identifies 2027 as a notional target for its first space mission.A new, very low frontierSatellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) — altitudes of roughly 100 miles to 1,200 miles (160 to 2,000 km) — generally don't need constant propulsion. Usually, a small boost from traditional thrusters here and there is enough to keep a LEO satellite on the right track. To power the thrusters, these satellites usually have some form of fuel built in.VLEO works differently. It's low enough that there's still some atmosphere present, which generates drag on spacecraft. If you want a satellite to move around VLEO, it'll need to employ propulsion most or all of the time to counteract that drag. Any fuel that the satellite brings with it therefore won't last long.So, if satellites are going to operate in VLEO, it would be very helpful to have a method of propulsion that doesn't require traditional fuel — a method like ABEP.Satellites in VLEO have a few advantages over those operating in LEO, like sharper imagery thanks to the closer vantage point. One of the biggest advantages is that VLEO is much less crowded. There are thousands of satellites in LEO — most of them SpaceX's Starlink broadband spacecraft — and the number is growing all the time. But VLEO has plenty of room.If ABEP technology works and companies start outfitting satellites with this new propulsion method, then we might start seeing satellites operate quite close to Earth, zooming through the atmosphere and using the air around it to stay on course.
Julian Dossett is a freelance writer living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He primarily covers the rocket industry and space exploration and, in addition to science writing, contributes travel stories to New Mexico Magazine. In 2022 and 2024, his travel writing earned IRMA Awards. Previously, he w
An artist's depiction of NASA's Voyager 2 probe. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA just made an interstellar tweak to the Voyager 2 spacecraft, known as the "Big Bang", to keep its remaining 50-year-old science instruments running a little longer.Voyager 2 and its twin launched in 1977, called Voyager 1, rely on a form of nuclear battery known as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that uses the heat produced by the decay of plutonium. But the supply of plutonium on each probe drops at about four watts a year on each spacecraft.To keep the probe running on this dwindling power supply, engineers recently reduced Voyager 2's power requirements by turning off a few non-science devices and using "lower-power alternatives" that are still effective enough to keep the spacecraft warm while it's so far from the sun, NASA officials said in a statement. "The spacecraft power margins have grown razor thin, requiring the team to conserve energy by shutting off non-essential devices and systems," NASA officials wrote of the mission, which is managed by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The drop in power is having a measurable science impact on both spacecraft — each has turned off two of their science instruments since 2024 alone. While some of these instruments were shut off after the spacecraft finished their historic planetary flybys decades ago, others were turned off due to power requirements.Each spacecraft initially launched with 10 instruments, and Voyager 2 is now down to only three instruments. At first it looked as though Voyager 2 would have to shut down another of these instruments later this year, but luckily, the new power shifts will allow all three to operate "for at least another year," NASA said.Voyager 1 will be tasked to do the same "Big Bang" power change "in the coming months." A signal to each spacecraft takes nearly 24 hours (or one light-day) to make a one-way journey, and officials noted Voyager 1 is further from Earth than its twin. (Voyager 2 is at about 142 astronomical units or sun-Earth distances, while Voyager 1 is nearing 171 AU.)The two spacecraft initially launched to take advantage of a rare alignment between the outer solar system gas giant planets, which in order of distance from the sun are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Each Voyager spacecraft first flew past Jupiter and Saturn, taking unprecedented imagery of the planets and their moons.
NASA's Voyager 2 probe captured this image of Europa, the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, on July 9, 1979. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)Next, Voyager 1 was directed to fly above the plane of the solar system (also known as the ecliptic) while Voyager 2 continued flying past Uranus and Neptune, becoming the first spacecraft to see these worlds and their moons. Voyager 2's last planetary flyby was in 1989.The two spacecraft continue to send scientific data from interstellar space; Voyager 1 passed into that region in 2012, while Voyager 2 did so in 2018. Voyager 1 is Earth's most distant spacecraft, currently around 15.9 billion miles (25.5 billion kilometers) away from us, according to NASA.
Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., was a staff writer in the spaceflight channel between 2022 and 2024 specializing in Canadian space news. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years from 2012 to 2024. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House, leading world coverage about a lost-and-found space tomato on the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.
On Aug. 5, 2011, NASA launched the Juno spacecraft on a mission to study Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.The robotic spacecraft lifted off on an Atlas V rocket from what is now Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and spent the next five years making the 1.74-billion-mile trek to Jupiter.Next Stop, Jupiter! Launch Photos of NASA's Juno MissionSince it arrived in Jupiter's orbit in 2016, the Juno spacecraft has taken the most amazing photos of Jupiter anyone has ever seen! But it has also taken plenty of scientific measurements to study Jupiter's composition, magnetic fields, weather patterns and more.
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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasts off carrying NASA's Juno mission. The launch marks the second of five launches for NASA in 2011.
(Image credit: Patrick H. Corkery/United Launch Alliance)
Why it matteredJuno is an interesting mission. It was the first dedicated orbiter at Jupiter since NASA's prolific Galileo mission, which ended in 2003, and is the first solar-powered spacecraft to the gas giant. Indeed, each of its three 30-foot-long solar wings is as long as a semi truck to collect enough sunlight to power its systems.But it's the science that makes Juno stand out. When Galileo orbited Jupiter, its high-gain antenna did not fully deploy, meaning the probe was never able to record detailed video of Jupiter's atmosphere as hoped. While Juno was initially built to study the inner workings of Jupiter, its camera recorded the first detailed video of the planet's clouds and atmosphere.The Juno spacecraft's primary mission ended just 20 months after entering orbit, but NASA extended the orbiter's mission several times, most recently in 2021. That most recent extension sent Juno on multiple flybys of three of Jupiter's largest moons, Ganymede, Europa and the volcanic moon Io.Juno's observations are already helping the science planning of future missions to Jupiter, including science targets for the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, or JUICE, and NASA's Europa Clipper probes, which are currently en route to the giant planet.Want more space history? Check out our full On This Day In Space video archive on YouTube.
Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is on a collision course with the moon, and skywatchers may be wondering whether they'll be able to witness the rare event firsthand when it slams into the lunar surface early Wednesday morning (Aug. 5).The 45-foot-long (13.8-meter), 8,000-pound (4,000-kilogram) rocket stage, left over from the January 2025 launch of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Hakuto-R lunar missions, is expected to strike the moon at about 2:35 a.m. EDT (0635 UTC) on Aug. 5. Traveling at roughly 5,400 mph (8,700 km/h), the impact will occur near the moon's western limb, close to Einstein Crater on the moon's Earth-facing side.While the collision itself is unlikely to be visible from Earth, observers may have a chance to spot what's known as an ejecta plume rising above the lunar surface. Depending on the force of the impact, debris could be blasted high enough above the moon to stand out against the blackness of space, making it briefly visible to observers on Earth, according to Project Pluto. "Maybe we'll see the flash. Maybe we'll see rocks ejected from the crater. Maybe we'll even see both," astronomer Bill Gray, who first identified the rocket stage's eventual lunar collision, wrote on his Project Pluto website.
A notional illustration of what a rocket stage impact on the moon might look like. Created by Tony Dunn (Orbitsimulator.com) using Seedance AI. (Image credit: Created by Tony Dunn (Orbitsimulator.com) using Seedance AI)The rocket is expected to strike a sunlit portion of the moon near its edge as seen from Earth. Any flash from the impact itself is expected to be washed out by the bright lunar surface.An animation predicting the evolution of the target ejecta column density, rendered on the lunar surface at the predicted impact site near Einstein crater by William Jo et al. (Image credit: William Jo/UT Austin)However, material blasted high above the lunar horizon could briefly become visible against the darkness of space, creating a faint plume that advanced amateur astronomers may be able to capture with sufficiently large telescopes and cameras. Recent simulations suggest the central ejecta plume could climb as high as 60 miles (100 kilometers), though whether it will be detectable from Earth remains uncertain.Even if conditions cooperate, viewing won't be ideal for much of North America. At the time of impact, the moon will sit only about 40 degrees above the southeastern horizon for observers along the U.S. East Coast, giving skywatchers a relatively low viewing angle before dawn. Observers in parts of South America may have more favorable viewing conditions, with the moon higher in the sky during the event, according to Project Pluto.
A SpaceX photo of one of the company's Falcon 9 second stages, taken in 2022. A similar second stage is expected to impact the moon on Aug. 5, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)Regardless of whether the impact can be seen from Earth, several spacecraft will be watching from much closer vantage points.South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter is expected to observe the impact in real time, offering a unique view from lunar orbit. Meanwhile, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will photograph the impact site before and after the collision, allowing researchers to measure the newly formed crater and compare it with other human-made impacts on the moon.Whether or not the ejecta plume is spotted from Earth, researchers say the accidental crash represents a valuable scientific opportunity. Unlike natural meteoroids, the hollow aluminum rocket stage will strike the moon with well-known size, mass and velocity, giving scientists a rare chance to test models of how impacts excavate lunar material and create craters.The observations could also help researchers better understand the hazards posed by space debris as both crewed and robotic missions to the moon become increasingly common, if all goes according to plan.
Samantha Mathewson joined Space.com as an intern in t
There are now about 16,000 active satellites in Earth orbit, but as many as 70,000 more could launch in the next five years alone. (Image credit: F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser)
Martin Halliwell is a Partner at NewSpace Capital, one of the world's first private equity firms devoted exclusively to growth-stage companies working in the space technology sector. He formerly served as Chief Technology Officer of SES, where he led global technology and R&D from 2011 to 2019. Halliwell contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices section.There are now some 16,000 active satellites in orbit. Market intelligence firms like Novaspace say that up to 43,000 satellites will be built and launched over the coming decade. Others, such as Goldman Sachs, think as many as 70,000 new low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites could be launched in the next five years alone. The exact number is less important than what these predictions reveal: that satellite constellations are getting bigger.This is a good thing. Space is a crucial enabling force in the modern world, touching just about every part of ordinary life. But as these constellations grow, it will become increasingly difficult for human operators to run them. A network of a few satellites can be managed from the ground; a network of hundreds, or even thousands, cannot be managed in the same way. These satellites must share data, avoid interfering with one another, meet changes in customer demand, and deal with technical problems. Some decisions must be made in seconds, without waiting for instructions from Earth. This is why onboard processing, automation and artificial intelligence are becoming all-important. Satellites will need to sift through and analyze more information in orbit, then act within clear limits set by human operators.In-orbit processingOne major use for AI will be processing data in orbit. At present, most satellite data is sent back to Earth before it is cleaned, sorted and analyzed. Earth-observation companies, for example, may collect huge amounts of imagery to track weather, crops, disasters, land use or emissions. They must then process all of it on the ground before they can give customers useful information. If satellites can do more of this work in orbit, they can send back only the data that matters. This would cut costs and save time. In defense, where speed can decide the outcome, it could help people act much faster. Onboard processing could also reduce reliance on ground systems, which may themselves be attacked or disrupted. Satellites remain vulnerable, but moving some analysis into orbit could make the wider system more resilient.
A rendering of one of SpaceX's planned "Starmind" AI satellites in orbit. (Image credit: SpaceX)Moving capacitySatellites must be able to spot patterns, respond to changes and adjust their plans in near real time. This makes them well suited to AI. One important use is managing network capacity. Demand for satellite bandwidth is always changing. It may rise over cities at busy times, around major events, in disaster zones, on aircraft and ships or during military operations. AI could track these changes and decide where a satellite’s beams should point, how much power each beam should use and when capacity should be moved elsewhere. This would help satellite networks send more capacity to places where it is needed most, instead of sending the same amount to the same places all the time. The result would be a more efficient use of the satellite’s limited power and available spectrum.What if AI gets it wrong?The barriers are not only technical. They are also legal and organizational. Most laws, contracts, insurance policies and operating rules were written for systems controlled by people. They assume that a named person makes each important decision. AI makes responsibility less clear. If an AI system points a beam at the wrong place, disrupts another service or causes damage, it may be difficult to decide who is at fault: the
Major Matt Mason celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. (Image credit: Mattel)
As evidenced by Paramount's live-action "Transformers" movies and the recent "Masters of the Universe" film released by Amazon MGM Studios, nostalgic toy lines can serve as fertile grounds for a variety of engaging Hollywood projects leaning into vintage intellectual properties.With Mattel ramping up their own film production efforts and toy-to-screen endeavors after enormous success with "The Barbie Movie" and hi-octane plans for Hot Wheels movies rolling into theaters, the toys-to-silver screen craze shows no sign of slowing down. What could be next? We think there's a perfect choice hiding in the Mattel goldmine that might just become the next big thing.We're of course talking about Major Matt Mason, that Plastisol astronaut action figure and kids' playset product line from the 1960s, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.Born in the 1960s, during the heat of America's space race with NASA's Apollo program aiming for the lunar landing by the end of the decade, Mattel's design mastermind's found inspiration in visionary space concept artists' wild dreams of futuristic moon bases, lunar buggies, and space vehicles.Major Matt Mason was one of the first serious space toys to exist in the marketplace, first hitting the shelves of toy shops and department stores across the country in 1966.Capitalizing on the daily news stories of Gemini missions and Apollo moon-walking dreams, this spacefaring fellow and his astronaut pals let kids everywhere imagine colorful cosmic adventures.
The expanded line of Major Matt Mason's vehicles and playsets shown in a 1967 catalog. (Image credit: Mattel)Back in 2019, Variety reported that Tom Hanks was attached to star in a Major Matt Mason live-action film being set up at Paramount Pictures with Akiva Goldsman ("A Beautiful Mind," "The Da Vinci Code") hired to write the screenplay.Hanks is an enthusiastic advocate of NASA history after starring in Apollo 13 and co-executive producing the Emmy Award-winning HBO docuseries "From The Earth To The Moon" alongside "Band of Brothers" super producer Graham Yost. Despite the heavy hitters attached, momentum has since stalled on the sci-fi project and it's sadly been shelved for the immediate future.
Matt Mason and his astronaut buddies score their own space station. (Image credit: Mattel)Matt Mason's line-up of bendy 6-inch astronaut action figures was developed as a competitor to Hasbro's 12-inch G.I. Joe toys that ruled the marketplace in the mid-60s.Along with Matt's fellow rubberized space buddies — available in a variety of color-accented spacesuits — Mattel also offered a complete universe to create your own space outpost and ramped lunar headquarters, alongside accessory vehicles, moon gear, expansive playsets, and Matt's "allies from the stars": A purple-and-pink creature called Scorpio, and a green-skinned friendly Jovian alien called Callisto.
Some of Major Matt Mason's retro-cool lunar accessories included a jet propulsion pak and space sled. (Image credit: Mattel)With the Vietnam War raging in Southeast Asia and televised on the nightly news, Major Matt Mason blasted into Sears and JCPenney catalogs when soldier action figures were losing their appeal.He wasn't a gun-toting commando but a heroic explorer "ready and able to cope with any space task or fierce danger." In addition to the action figures and peripheral playsets, Matt Mason became a pop culture phenomenon with his own board game, coloring books, lunch boxes, and puzzles.Named after Mattel's co-founder Harold "Matt" Matson, the Matt Mason line carried a certain air of authenticity as many of its designers happened to be former aerospace engineers. Some of the toys' far-out designs were taken straight out of NASA conceptual art and prototypes seen in the pages of Popular Mechanics, Life, and National Geographic magazines.
Matt Mason's space station could be built in many different way
Screenshot from the 1986 sci-fi movie "Flight of the Navigator". (Image credit: Disney)
Despite Han Solo's protestations to the contrary, travelling faster than light on screen is usually just as straightforward as dusting crops. So whether you're in "Star Wars", "Star Trek" or "Battlestar Galactica", jumping to hyperspace, going to warp or spooling up the FTL really is as simple as popping out to the store.In fact, Albert Einstein's time-dilating general theory of relativity tends to be little more than an afterthought, with films highlighting the inconveniences of interstellar travel definitely in the minority. For this reason, the very existence of "Flight of the Navigator" is even more improbable than its premise.The Disney family movie — which celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend — sends an ordinary kid on an unlikely journey that's part "Interstellar", part "Back to the Future".On July 4, 1978, 12-year-old David Scott Freeman is briefly knocked unconscious after he falls into a ditch near his Florida home. When he wakes up — seemingly moments later — he finds strangers living in his house, and gradually comes to realize that eight years have passed for everybody else. In the meantime, David has been declared dead, his little brother is now his big brother, and — perhaps weirdest of all — music videos are now a very big thing on MTV.He doesn't know it yet, but much like Matthew McConaughey's Cooper in "Interstellar", David has been caught in the crosshairs of relativity. It turns out that he's unwittingly taken a ride in a Trimaxion drone ship, making the round trip to the planet Phaelon (some 560 light years away) in a mere 4.4 solar hours.
(Image credit: Disney)NASA scientists explain away the eight-year time slip as a consequence of "light speed theory", the idea that "time slows down as you approach the speed of light". And if that sounds like a big concept for "Flight of the Navigator"'s target audience to grasp, the filmmakers weren't particularly worried."I think kids can understand it," director Randal Kleiser said back in 2020. "'Back to the Future' was sort of like that, and kids are smarter than most people think. You just tell them that you’re going at the speed of light and time slows down, and they get it."Kleiser was best known for the musical smash hit "Grease", the highest-grossing movie of 1978, when he got the "Flight of the Navigator" gig. When he came on board, the film's paymasters were already disagreeing about the direction they wanted to take Mark H Baker's story.
(Image credit: Disney)Disney, unsurprisingly, were shooting for a family movie "with dancing little animals", while their production partners at Producers Sales Organization (PSO) were looking for something a little edgier. "They wanted to have the army come in and shoot down the spaceship," Kleiser recalled.Eventually, a gun-free compromise was found, though the opening act of the movie would remain surprisingly bleak and emotionally complex. Now living in 1986, David has to come to terms with his new reality as a human guinea pig in a world where his family looks familiar, but he no longer really knows them. Also, how did his brain come to be filled with weird alien languages and complex star maps?The role was always going to ask a lot of its actor, and Kleiser ultimately selected a young Vancouver native named Joey Cramer. Cramer beat hundreds of other kids to the role, including future Hollywood stars Chris O'Donnell and Joaquin Phoenix, who appeared in "Space Camp" the same year.
(Image credit: Disney)"Joey was so easy to get to cry," Kleiser said of his casting decision. "For him to be able to do it in the audition — and be also so personable and likeable — was the thing that put him over the top."Cramer's main co-star would prove even more difficult to find, however, seeing as faster-than-light spacecraft from distant worlds called Phaelon don't — as far as we know — exist.In the second half of "Flight of the Navigator
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the NROL-105 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Jan. 16, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX plans to launch a secret reconnaissance mission for the U.S. government early on Thursday morning (July 30), and you can watch the action live.A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, kicking off a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called NROL-95.The 44-minute launch window opens at 2:37 a.m. EDT (0637 GMT). SpaceX has said it's targeting a time in the latter half of that span — 3:09 a.m. EDT (0709 GMT). You can watch live via SpaceX beginning about 10 minutes before liftoff.
The patch for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-95 mission. (Image credit: NRO)We know very little about NROL-95; the NRO, which operates the country's fleet of spy satellites, has provided no details about the payload or its activities.The agency has revealed the NROL-95 mission patch. It depicts a snarling ferret with a nighttime sky in the background and the words "We are the Champions" on the emblem's lower border."The ferret, a clever creature, embodies agility and resilience — key traits for exploration. Its confident grin and bright eyes reflect a spirit of victory in a realm where determination meets adventure," NRO officials said in an NROL-95 mission description."The bold phrase 'We are the Champions' encapsulates the camaraderie and pride shared among those on this purposeful mission," they added.NROL-95 will be the fourth NRO launch of 2026. The other three — NROL-105 in January, NROL-172 in May and NROL-179 in June — also flew aboard Falcon 9s, but from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.Those three other missions were devoted to building out the NRO's "proliferated architecture" constellation, which will consist of hundreds of relatively small, cost-efficient reconnaissance satellites in Earth orbit.If all goes to plan on Thursday, the Falcon 9 will come back to Earth for a landing at Cape Canaveral about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It will be the seventh mission for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.If past SpaceX NRO launches are any guide, the company will cut off the livestream shortly thereafter, at the request of the agency.
Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic
spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
Scientists work on the Roman Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts)
NASA announced on Tuesday (July 28) that it has officially fueled-up the Roman Space Telescope — a magnificent new observatory expected to generate over 500 terabytes of cosmic data per year. By comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope, in its 35 years of service, has created over 400 terabytes in total.At present, the Roman Space Telescope's launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to occur on Aug. 30 at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT). And considering the project is sort of the gold-standard for telescope-building, as the team says it's nine months ahead of schedule and under budget, hopes are high that this launch date will stick.Fueling of the observatory took place on Saturday (July 25) and involved pumping it up with what's known as hydrazine fuel. Hydrazine fuel is a classic sort of fuel used in NASA spacecraft as it's highly efficient; however, because its extremely toxic and unstable, there have been attempts to move away from this sort of fuel and replace it with something less hazardous.The Roman Space Telescope's inauguration into NASA's fleet of observatories will mark a pretty big moment for the advancement of astronomy.Roman's specs are quite impressive; thanks to that showy data-generation figure discussed above, the telescope is expected to further our knowledge of intriguing phenomena like dark matter, dark energy, supernova explosions and even the hunt for habitable exoplanets.It will work as a complement to other major telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). For example, while Roman can't see as far as the JWST, it does have the same sort of infrared vision that enables such deep space probing. What it can do that the JWST cannot, though, is see a much wider swath of space at once.
Members of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope propellant, safety, and quality assurance team pose for a photo on July 20 prior to technicians loading propellant into the observatory. (Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde (Rocz))One of Roman's instruments, named Wide Field Instrument (WFI), will be able to create images of the infrared universe 50 times wider than the JWST's images. This means that while the JWST is zooming in on a particular object of interest, Roman could meanwhile be compiling future targets for the JWST or catching anything fleeting that the JWST would've missed due to its highly narrow view.As another example, to help with dark universe studies, this ultra-wide view should allow Roman to study lots of galaxy movements at once. That's great because the only way we even know dark matter and dark energy exist (aka one of the best ways we have of studying the two) is by the way they affect galaxy movements."So we're going to see thousands of supernovae, and some of these are going to be further away than any supernovae we've ever seen before," Dominic Benford, program scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope previously told Space.com.To accomplish all of these goals though, Roman will have to use its new fuel supply to get to its designated station in space: Lagrange point 2. This is a sought-after spot for spacecraft as it's a gravitationally stable point about a million miles from Earth. That stability means spacecraft have to use less fuel to stay put."Roman will use its propellant to power two types of thrusters that help it stay in its planned orbit around L2 and ensure the solar array panels face the sun, which is the observatory's main source of power throughout the mission," NASA explained in a statement.It's where the JWST is right now — if all goes to plan, we'll really have a nice tag-team operation happening over there.
Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported f
On July 28, 1851, the first-ever photo of a total solar eclipse was recorded by a Prussian daguerreotypist named Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski.Daguerreotypy is an old photographic process that uses silver-plated copper treated with chemical fumes that make it light-sensitive. Previous attempts to take photos of solar eclipses failed to show the contrast between the sun's corona and the dark disk of the moon.Using a small, 6-centimeter telescope, Berkowski captured an 84-second exposure starting right after the moon moved completely in front of the sun.The Evolution of Solar Eclipse Photography in Photos
The first photo of a total solar eclipse as recorded by Prussian daguerreotypist named Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski on July 28, 1851. (Image credit: PD-US)Why it matteredUntil Berkowski, total solar eclipses were something people saw once and never again. The ability to document a solar eclipse visually opened the door for scientists to study the solar event - and the sun - like never before. (Not to mention, make a rare astronomical phenomenon more accessible to people unable to see it.)To be clear, many photographers did try to capture solar eclipses before Berkowski, but those attempts were often overexposed or underexposed. But Berkowski's daguerreotype was detailed enough that in 2005, 154 years, it was hailed as the first correctly exposed image of the sun's corona, the super-hot outer atmosphere of the sun that is visible around the moon during totality.Today, more than 170 years later, the advent of digital cameras — and even smartphones — has put the ability to photograph a solar eclipse literally in the palm of our hands. Our Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik has seen two total solar eclipses (in 2017 and 2024), and managed to snap the 2024 eclipse with a smartphone with no training at all (and a bit of luck).By the way, the next total solar eclipse is coming on Aug. 12 and will be visible across parts of Greenand, Iceland and Spain. To find out how you can capture a totality photo of your own during a total solar eclipse, check out our solar eclipse photography guide and gear up with our best solar eclipse photography equipmetnt for 2026.And DON'T FORGET! If you're observing a solar eclipse on your own, you'll need eclipse glasses for safety.Want more space history? Check out our full On This Day In Space video archive on YouTube.
Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.
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