What happened. Why it matters. Plainly.
Japan’s space agency JAXA targets a 3:41 p.m. EDT launch on Oct. 19 for MMX, a probe to land on Mars’ moon Phobos and bring a sample back to Earth in 2031.
A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 13 carrying the last pair of roll-out solar arrays for the International Space Station and NASA research on brain tissue, crop disease and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It is due to arrive on Oct. 15.
MIT News reported that Margaret Hamilton, who led Apollo flight software at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab, died Sept. 30 at age 90; the cause was not disclosed.
As of NASA’s 10:01 p.m. EDT post, Crew-13’s four members are now aboard the space station after Dragon’s hatch opened at 9:19 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 1.
Djibouti signed NASA’s Artemis Accords on Sept. 14, 2026, becoming the 72nd country and 8th African nation — though two non-African countries, Serbia and Türkiye, signed in the two months before it.
NASA and SpaceX delayed the Crew-13 launch after an oxidizer leak was found in Dragon’s propulsion system; the mission launched Oct. 1 and docked at the space station that evening.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off Sunday, August 30, 2026, at 7:26 a.m. EDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy
NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced on Aug. 19, 2026, that they will not attempt to capture and boost the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory into a higher