NASA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NASA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Science & Discovery
Webb Counts the Wreckage: 21 'Extreme Debris Disks' Show Two Kinds of Planet-Smashing Collisions
Webb and Spitzer spectra of 21 extreme debris disks split into two camps: silica-rich Mars-scale impacts around stars under 300 million years old, and silica-poor Moon-scale grazing collisions at any age.
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Missions
Crew-13 Heads to the Space Station: A Second Flight for Watkins and Three Rookies
SpaceX Crew-13 launches at 11:10 a.m. EDT Oct. 1 from SLC-40 with Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk and Sergey Teteryatnikov for about six months on Expedition 75, after an oxidizer-leak delay from Sept. 12.
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Commercial
NASA Opens Its Launch Catalog to Blue Origin's Super-Heavy New Glenn 9x4
NASA added Blue Origin's New Glenn 9x4 to its NLS II launch contract on Sept. 29, 2026. It makes the rocket eligible to compete for missions, but no mission, first-flight date or orbital demo has been announced.
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Stargazing
Saturn at Opposition, Then the Moon Swallows Jupiter: A Double Header for Early October
Saturn reaches opposition on Oct. 4 at magnitude 0.3, and two mornings later a waning crescent Moon passes in front of Jupiter across eastern North America, the best-placed Jupiter occultation of 2026.
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Commercial
Starship Reaches Orbit at Last, Drops 26 Starlink V3 Satellites, and Comes Home Early
On its 14th flight, Starship finally reached orbit despite early engine shutdowns on both stages, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and splashed down north of Hawaii about three hours after liftoff.
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NASA & Agencies
Artemis Accords Reach 76 Signatories as Four Nations Join in Five Days
NASA says Albania, Croatia, Cote d'Ivoire and San Marino lifted Artemis Accords participation to 76 countries, with the last two signing on consecutive days, just before the Principals' Meeting in Antalya opens Oct. 5.
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Commercial
Starliner Gets a Reset: An Uncrewed Flight This Winter, Astronauts by 2028, and Vulcan Certification Work
NASA and Boeing outlined a new Starliner plan: an uncrewed engineering flight as soon as December, Woody Hoburg commanding a crewed flight by 2028, Vulcan certification for later flights as Atlas V retires, and about $359 million more for upgrades and certification.
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Stargazing
October's Spooky Sky: Catch the Demon Star Algol Blink and Hunt the Witch Head Nebula
Algol, Perseus's eclipsing Demon Star, dims by more than a magnitude every few days, and the faint Witch Head Nebula near Rigel rewards patient observers with big scopes and dark skies. Here is how to see both this October.
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Science & Discovery
NISAR's Radar Eyes Track a Kamchatka Volcano Erupting After 475 Years
A NASA-ISRO radar satellite stitched passes from December 2025 through August 2026 into a 17-frame time-lapse of lava spilling from Kamchatka's Krasheninnikov volcano, which erupted for the first time since roughly 1550, days after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake.
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NASA & Agencies
Roman Space Telescope's Three Ground Stations Pass Peak-Rate Data Test Ahead of 2027 Science Start
NASA confirms all three ground stations tracking the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope can receive its data at the full 500 Mbps rate, clearing a key hurdle before science operations begin in early 2027.
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Science & Discovery
NASA Picks PRIMA, a $1.2 Billion Far-Infrared Observatory, to Lead a New Mission Class
NASA confirmed PRIMA, a cryogenically cooled 1.8-meter far-infrared telescope capped at $1.2 billion, as the first mission in its new Probe Explorers class, targeting a 2033 launch.
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Astronomy
A 200-Hour Mosaic Over Morocco Reveals Five Ghost Supernovas in Auriga
A 200-hour, 10-panel mosaic shot from Morocco's Oukaimeden Observatory resolves five ancient supernova remnants tangled together in the constellation Auriga, including the famous Spaghetti Nebula.
