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• Jeff Foust
The two smallsats completed powered Earth flybys on Nov. 7 and 9, nearly a year after launch, using the maneuvers to set course for the Red Planet. Mars orbit insertion is planned for September 2027; Rocket Lab built the spacecraft.
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NASA’s Curiosity rover is examining the surface composition of a site called Nazca to characterize it as thoroughly as possible before drilling. The work marks the next step in the rover’s investigation of the Martian surface, though the article provides no details on the planned sample or drilling schedule.
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The two smallsats completed powered Earth flybys on Nov. 7 and 9, nearly a year after launch, using the maneuvers to set course for the Red Planet. Mars orbit insertion is planned for September 2027; Rocket Lab built the spacecraft.
Four volunteers completed NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission on Oct. 31, concluding a 378-day simulated Mars mission. The effort was led by US Air Force test pilot Ross Elder and focused on crew health and performance in an exploration-mission analog.
On Nov. 9, 1967, NASA launched a Saturn V rocket for the first time, sending the uncrewed Apollo 4 mission into space. The flight marked the debut of the launch vehicle that would carry astronauts on later Apollo missions.
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Studies using James Webb Space Telescope observations offer two possible clues to how black holes became massive in the early universe. Five ancient star clusters could have formed black holes up to 2,700 times the Sun’s mass, while another proposal suggests mysterious Little Red Dots may host primordial black holes dating to the Big Bang.
Researchers at Washington University studied how Martian dust interacts with spacesuit-material swatches carried by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The work highlights a planning challenge for future crewed missions: accounting for dust exposure and its effects on both astronauts and the materials they rely on.
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Blue Origin has shifted New Glenn’s planned return to flight from December 2026 to January 2027 while rebuilding Launch Complex 36 after a ground-testing accident. Separately, Boeing has moved NASA’s Artemis III core stage into Kennedy Space Center’s High Bay 3 for final stacking, integration and testing ahead of the mission’s planned 2027 launch.
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