From high-speed battering rams to gravity tractors, the technology exists to protect the planet. The question is whether humanity will act in time — and in concert.
NASA's Artemis II crew are the fastest people alive, and now they have the patch to prove it.
Mission Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen (the latter with the Canadian Space Agency) spent 10 days in early April flying by the Moon. Their journey took them farther away from Earth than any humans have gone (52,756 miles [406,771 km]) and then, on the way back on board their Orion spacecraft Integrity, they sped up to about 24,664 miles per hour (39,693 k/ph) reentering the atmosphere.
Only three other people in history have traveled faster. NASA's Apollo 10 astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan set the record for the highest speed attained by a crewed vehicle relative to the Earth's surface: 24,791 mph (39,897 kph) on May 26, 1969.
© Reid Wiseman/A-B Emblem/collectSPACE
A little more than five years ago, a shiny white Falcon 9 rocket made its debut flight, boosting a Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Over the next year, it would launch a pair of astronaut missions and a handful of commercial spacecraft.
But since then, this first stage booster, designated B 1067, has mostly flown Starlink missions. It has launched them one after another, always returning safely to a drone ship before undergoing refurbishment and flying again. Sometimes it has flown twice in a single month.
On Monday morning, B 1067 once again took to the skies, launching 29 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit from Florida. Upon landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the vehicle completed its 35th mission overall, retaining its title as fleet leader for SpaceX.
© SpaceX
Quantum Space, a company led by a former NASA administrator developing highly maneuverable spacecraft for national security missions, will go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company.
The post Quantum Space to go public in SPAC deal appeared first on SpaceNews.
O Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG) serve como uma camada adicional de proteção para os astronautas da Artemis IV e foi desenhado para regular a temperatura corporal e assegurar a ventilação durante as caminhadas na Lua.
The post Fatos espaciais da missão Artemis IV vão ter uma nova camada de proteção para os astronautas na Lua appeared first on Tek Notícias.
The foundation of global space law that has governed human activity outside Earth for nearly six decades may be approaching a breaking point, according to a new analysis by two astronomers who argue that the legal framework created during the Cold War is inadequate for an era of commercial spaceflight, global political instability, and growing militarization of orbit.
The study, published in Frontiers in Space Technologies, argues that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST), long regarded as the foundation of peaceful space exploration, confronts mounting challenges from transforming global power shifts, increasing orbital competition, and the emergence of private companies as dominant players in space activities.
Dr. John Barentine of the Center for Space Environmentalism and Dark Sky Consulting, along with Dr. Aparna Venkatesan, a physicist and astronomer at the University of San Francisco, contend that while the treaty remains valuable, it may not be able to address the realities of the modern space age.
Rather than emphasizing legal reforms alone, the paper raises a wider question about humanity’s relationship with space itself. Researchers suggest that future governance of outer space may require a fundamental shift away from viewing space as a resource to be exploited and toward treating it as an environment that deserves stewardship and protection in its own right.
Although neither author specializes in international relations or military affairs, they argue that astronomers are uniquely positioned to witness how changes in space policy increasingly affect scientific research and humanity’s future in orbit.
“We are living through a time in which Earth and near-Earth space are facing unprecedented levels of potentially irreversible change,” researchers write. “The modern history of our discipline is inseparable from the technological developments brought on by those who sought to make a warfighting domain of outer space.”
The Outer Space Treaty emerged during one of the most tense periods of the Cold War. Negotiated primarily by the United States and the Soviet Union, the agreement established several basic principles that still govern space activities today.
Among them are prohibitions on national sovereignty claims over celestial bodies, restrictions on the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space, and commitments to use outer space for peaceful purposes.
For decades, the treaty has been credited with helping prevent an outright orbital arms race. Yet, Dr. Barentine and Dr. Venkatesan argue that the document was written for a vastly different world. One in which only a handful of nations possessed launch capabilities and private space companies were virtually nonexistent.
Today, dozens of countries operate satellites, commercial firms launch rockets at unprecedented rates, and ambitious plans for lunar bases, asteroid mining, and cislunar infrastructure are rapidly moving from science fiction to reality.
Researchers argue that the treaty’s framers could not have anticipated many of these developments, leaving major legal and moral questions unresolved. They note that the treaty lacks robust enforcement mechanisms and provides no definitive mechanism for resolving disputes between member states.
A central theme of the paper is that warfare and space exploration have been intertwined from the beginning.
The authors trace the history of military activity in space back to the V-2 rockets of World War II and the launch of Sputnik in 1957, which demonstrated Soviet intercontinental missile capabilities as much as scientific achievement.
They also recount historical examples such as Soviet space weapons experiments, anti-satellite weapon testing by multiple nations, and the Strategic Defense Initiative of the 1980s, often remembered by its popular nickname, “Star Wars.”
In recent years, nations including the United States, China, India, and Russia have invested heavily in military space capabilities. Meanwhile, proposals such as advanced missile-defense architectures and growing concerns about anti-satellite weapons have renewed fears that space could become an increasingly contested military environment.
The researchers warn that global disputes on Earth are increasingly likely to spill into orbit, where the consequences could be especially severe. In contrast to terrestrial battlefields, debris generated by destructive actions in space can persist for years or even decades, threatening spacecraft belonging to many nations.
The study additionally highlights the rapid rise of private space companies as a challenge that the Space Treaty never fully anticipated.
Under Article VI of the Space Treaty, governments are responsible for overseeing activities conducted by non-governmental entities within their jurisdictions. However, the researchers argue that the explosive growth of commercial spaceflight is creating uncertainty concerning regulatory oversight and responsibility.
This issue is especially important for the United States, which currently accounts for more than half of all low-Earth-orbit launches and operates the majority of active satellites.
As commercial firms assume larger roles in launch services, communications infrastructure, and moon missions, questions about who bears responsibility for environmental impacts and operational decisions become increasingly important.
The researchers suggest that future governance systems must address not only nation-state behavior but also the increasing influence of private actors whose interests may not always coincide with long-term environmental management.
One of the study’s most important observations concerns the Moon.
Dr. Barentine and Dr. Venkatesan describe moon missions as an early glimpse of future space geopolitics. Five nations have already successfully landed spacecraft on the Moon, and plans for permanent infrastructure continue to accelerate.
Because the Space Treaty prevents claims of sovereignty but does not completely resolve questions about resource use and operational exclusion zones, the researchers warn that countries arriving first could effectively secure the most valuable locations for science, resource extraction, or future settlements.
That dynamic, they argue, risks creating new forms of competition despite the treaty’s intent to promote cooperation.
The same concerns extend to orbital congestion and space debris. Researchers note that nations with little or no involvement in space activities may nevertheless bear the consequences of falling rocket stages and orbital debris generated by major space powers.
Rather than advocating abandoning the Outer Space Treaty, the researchers ultimately argue that it remains the best framework currently available. However, they contend that future agreements must move past traditional geopolitical thinking.
The paper proposes drawing inspiration from the growing global “Rights of Nature” movement, which argues that ecosystems possess intrinsic value and deserve legal protections independent of human economic interests. Applied to space, such an approach would emphasize environmental health, reciprocity, and long-term stewardship over competition and exploitation.
Dr. Barentine and Dr. Venkatesan point to examples such as the peaceful management of Antarctica, international cooperation aboard the International Space Station, and partnerships among scientific institutions and Indigenous communities as models that could help shape future space governance.
Ultimately, they argue that the greatest threat to the space environment may not be legal loopholes nor technological restrictions, but humanity’s own willingness to abandon cooperation when competition becomes tempting.
“As our title reveals, the fundamental challenge lies in defending the space environment from failure of human goodwill and trust, rather than defending the space environment from the blind spots of current treaties,” researchers write. “The story of humanity in space is still being written, requiring innovation and determination from institutions and communities alike.”
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com
NASA just demonstrated a technology that lets spacecraft communicate across multiple networks, paving the way for a more flexible and reliable space internet. NASA’s experimental Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT) has successfully completed its primary technology demonstration, marking an important step toward more flexible communications in space. Because the project met its original goals and continues [...]Axiom Space unveiled the design of another element of the lunar spacesuit it is developing for NASA in partnership with luxury designer Prada.
The post Axiom and Prada advance design of spacesuit appeared first on SpaceNews.
Magnetic fields may be the hidden force bringing both newborn stars and giant black holes together. New computer simulations suggest that magnetic fields play a crucial role in helping pairs of young stars form. The findings could explain why binary star systems are so common throughout the Milky Way and may even offer clues about [...]The winds on seven hellish alien worlds are moving in the wrong direction. That strange anomaly just cracked open one of exoplanet science's biggest mysteries.NASA has released a new update on a long-running air leak aboard the International Space Station, detailing recent developments involving a troubled section of the orbiting laboratory and precautionary measures taken to protect the crew. The issue involves the PrK transfer tunnel inside Russia’s Zvezda service module, where cracks have been causing small atmosphere leaks [...]For the first time, humankind has changed a space rock’s orbit around the sun.
Four years ago, NASA rammed its DART spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos. The goal was to see if a space probe could change an asteroid’s motion. Why? It could be useful if a big rock were ever headed for Earth.
Soon after the crash, it was clear that DART had knocked its asteroid closer to Didymos, an even bigger rock that it orbits. Now, NASA reports that the smashup had an even bigger impact. It changed the asteroid duo’s speed as they orbit the sun together.
DART’s crash landing slowed the asteroid pair by 10 micrometers per second. That might not sound like much. But tweaking the motions of space rocks millions of kilometers (miles) from Earth is a huge deal. It could inform plans for shielding our planet from future asteroid strikes.
Researchers shared the findings March 6 in Science Advances.
DART is short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. The initial goal had been to simply nudge Dimorphos into a tighter orbit around Didymos. Mission leaders aimed to cut 73 seconds off Dimorphos’ nearly 12-hour path around its partner. In reality, the crash shortened Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes.
Most of that change came from the impact itself. Like giving the asteroid a big shove, the spacecraft pushed Dimorphos closer to Didymos. The crash also blasted rocks off Dimorphos’ surface. The motion of that flying debris gave the asteroid an extra kick.
But some of the debris knocked off Dimorphos didn’t just leave that space rock. It escaped the gravity of the two-asteroid system altogether. That escaping debris took some momentum away from the duo. As a result, their joint motion around the sun changed, reports Rahil Makadia. He studies planetary defense at the University of Illinois in Urbana–Champaign.
To figure out how much the asteroids’ motion changed, astronomers watched the rocks pass in front of distant stars. As the asteroids passed by, they dimmed some of the stars’ light — like tiny eclipses. These blinks can be seen only from specific locations, which can fall anywhere on Earth.
Astronomers could predict when Dimorphos and Didymos should pass in front of stars, based on their old path around the sun. By comparing those predictions to observations, they could see how much the asteroids’ path changed after DART’s hit.
Between October 2022 and March 2025, Makadia and the team gathered 22 such measurements. Amateur astronomers provided a lot of these data, Makadia says. “There was an observer who drove two days each way into the Australian outback to get these measurements.”
The asteroids’ orbit around the sun was about 150 milliseconds longer than before the DART impact, the new data show.
The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft will reach Didymos and Dimorphos later this year. When it does, the spacecraft could confirm the asteroids’ new orbit.
Didymos and Dimorphos were not a threat to Earth before DART. They aren’t now, either. But knowing how an impact changes one asteroid’s orbit can help figure out how to defend Earth from a dangerously big incoming space rock. That’s crucial, Makadia says, “in case we need to [deflect an asteroid] for real.”
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SAN FRANCISCO – NewOrbit Space, a UK startup developing satellites for very low Earth orbit (VLEO), has raised $18.5 million in a Series A investment round. With the funding, announced […]
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