Science & Space

Space missions, discoveries and the science behind the headlines.

Four-dimensional weather visualisation combining MTG imager and sounder data over Europe

News · Oct 13, 2026

Europe’s first geostationary sounder, Meteosat-13, enters service

EUMETSAT’s MTG Infrared Sounder is now operational. Every 30 minutes it profiles temperature, humidity and gases to support earlier severe-weather warnings.

News · Oct 13, 2026
Griffin-1 Moon lander passes its JPL tests ahead of a Falcon Heavy launch
Voyager Technologies' lander was shaken, spun, baked and frozen at JPL. It will carry more than 455 kg of cargo, including Astrolab's FLIP rover, to Nobile Crater near the lunar south pole.
News · Oct 13, 2026
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot is back in Europe after a record 237-day ISS mission
Adenot landed in Cologne on 10 October after Crew-12 splashdown; her εpsilon flight set a European single-mission duration record and included three spacewalks.
News · Oct 13, 2026
Landsat 9 photographs Australia's Spider Crater, an ancient impact with 'legs'
NASA's Earth Observatory shows Western Australia's Spider Crater, a 13 km impact structure whose spidery sandstone ridges are 600–900 million years old.
News · Oct 13, 2026
SpaceX CRS-35 carries the ISS's final new solar arrays and new microgravity science
The 35th Dragon resupply mission for NASA is set to deliver about 2,860 kg of cargo, including the last pair of roll-out solar arrays that complete the station's power upgrade.
Buying Guides · Oct 13, 2026
Your first telescope: what to buy and what to see
A beginner's guide to telescopes: why aperture matters most, refractor vs reflector vs Dobsonian, the mounts to avoid, and the first targets to observe.
News · Oct 12, 2026
ExoMars rover twin rehearses its first drive onto Mars 20+ times
Amalia, a full-size twin of ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover, practised driving off its landing platform in simulated Mars gravity, on a 20° tilt and over obstacles, ahead of the 2030 mission.
News · Oct 12, 2026
ESA's Sawa nanosatellite will measure how space weather swells the atmosphere
ESA unveiled the patch for Sawa, a Polish-built space weather nanosatellite due to launch in 2029. It will measure the thermosphere directly, because that layer expands during solar storms and drags satellites off course.