NASA & NOAA 2026 Ozone Hole Update | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA & NOAA 2026 Ozone Hole Update | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Earth’s protective ozone layer remains on track for long-term recovery, despite atmospheric conditions that contributed to a larger Antarctic ozone hole in 2026, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported. The ozone hole ranked seventh largest by area in 48 years of monitoring. However, it was not as deep as other large holes on record.

The ozone-rich layer high in the atmosphere acts as a planetary sunscreen that helps shield us from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun. Areas with depleted ozone allow more UV radiation to reach Earth's surface, resulting in increased cases of skin cancer and cataracts. Excessive exposure to UV light can also reduce agricultural yields as well as damage aquatic plants and animals in vital ecosystems.

Scientists were alarmed in the 1970s at the prospect that CFCs could eat away at atmospheric ozone. By the mid-1980s, the ozone layer had been depleted so much that a broad swath of the Antarctic stratosphere was essentially devoid of ozone by early October each year. Sources of damaging CFCs included coolants in refrigerators and air conditioners, as well as aerosols in hairspray, antiperspirant, and spray paint. Harmful chemicals were also released in the manufacture of insulating foams and as components of industrial fire suppression systems.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on September 16, 1987, and entered into force on January 1, 1989. Since then, it has undergone nine revisions, in 1990 (London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992 (Copenhagen), 1993 (Bangkok), 1995 (Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), 1999 (Beijing) and 2016 (Kigali).

Countries worldwide agreed to replace the chemicals with more environmentally friendly alternatives by 2010. The release of CFC compounds has dramatically decreased following the Montreal Protocol. However, CFCs already in the air will take many decades to break down. As existing CFC levels gradually decline, ozone in the upper atmosphere will rebound globally, and ozone holes will shrink. 

As a result of the international agreement, the ozone hole in Antarctica is slowly recovering. Due to its widespread adoption and implementation, it has been hailed as an example of successful international co-operation. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that "perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol".

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio

Producer: Katie Jepson (eMITS)
Writer: Sally Younger (NASA/JPL)
Social media support: Sofie Bates (eMITS)
Scientist: Paul Newman (NASA/GSFC)
Technical support: Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Duration: 46 seconds
Release Date: Nov. 4, 2026

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Spiral Galaxy IC 342: The Not-So-Hidden in Camelopardalis

Spiral Galaxy IC 342: The Not-So-Hidden in Camelopardalis

“I see” IC 342, the Hidden Galaxy! This image peers through the plane of the Milky Way, through all its gas, dust and stars, to unveil this spiral galaxy. IC 342 (or Caldwell 5) is one of the brightest members of the IC 342/Maffei group of galaxies. Located about 10 million light years away, this group is quite close to the Local Group that includes our Milky Way. Inaccurate accounting of the crowded and dusty Milky Way foreground has led to misunderstandings in IC 342’s history, including the theory that the galaxy was ejected from the Local Group. IC 342 has its own dust intermittently blocking the glow of hydrogen gas, indicating the presence of bright, young stars. Magnetic field maps of IC 342 reveal that magnetic fields may contribute substantially to one of the biggest galactic puzzles. How do spiral arms form?

Although IC 342's light is dimmed and reddened by intervening cosmic clouds, this sharp telescopic image traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust, young star clusters, and glowing star forming regions along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core. IC 342 has undergone a recent burst of star formation activity and is close enough to have influenced the evolution of the local group of galaxies and the Milky Way.

Credit & Copyright: Artem Mironov

Artem's website: https://www.instagram.com/artofomin/
Authors & editors: Keighley Rockcliffe, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti
A service of the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Technological University (MTU)
Date:  Nov. 4, 2026

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The Great Lacerta Nebula: Sh2-126

The Great Lacerta Nebula: Sh2-126

Sh 2-126, also known as Great Lacerta Nebula or Star Funnel Nebula, is a large emission nebula and molecular cloud complex located approximately 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Lacerta. It is a prominent member of the Lacerta OB1 association. OB associations are defined as unbound groups of young stars characterized by their bright massive OB members. They are thought to be the expanded remnants of dense star clusters. 

The primary source of ionization is the bright O-type star 10 Lacertae (O9V), a member of the Lacerta OB1 association. Additional ultraviolet radiation comes from other massive stars in the association, as well as from the embedded Herbig Ae/Be star V375 Lacertae (A7Ve).

This dark nebula is being illuminated by several bright stars nearby. The funnel is embedded in a larger nebula of warm hydrogen gas that is glowing red.

Image Credit: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

Date: Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Sh2126 #GreatLacertaNebula #StarFunnelNebula
#Stars #LacertaConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #AlessandroCipolatBares #Astrophotographers #STEM #Education

North American City Lights: Midwest to the East Coast | International Space Station

North American City Lights: Midwest to the East Coast | International Space Station

City lights from the Midwestern United States to the East Coast sparkle across the landscape a couple of hours before sunrise. Major urban areas visible in the photograph include Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and the New York metropolitan region. The International Space Station was orbiting 259 miles above Earth at approximately 4:54 a.m. local time when this photograph was taken.

Follow Expedition 75:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Pyotr Dubrov 
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Anna Kikina, Sergey Teteryatnikov

Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Flight Engineer: Joshua Kutryk

NASA Flight Engineers: Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney 

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: CSA/Joshua Kutryk
Release Date: Nov. 3, 2026

Image Date: Oct. 18, 2026

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"No Place Like Home": Over 230,000 miles away | NASA Artemis II Moon Mission

"No Place Like Home": Over 230,000 miles away | NASA Artemis II Moon Mission

This photograph, taken by the Artemis II crew from the Orion spacecraft during flight day seven of the Artemis II mission, captured the beauty of our galaxy, the Milky Way. A sweet reminder that there is no place like home. The crew was over 236,000 miles from Earth as it exited the lunar sphere of influence on its return journey that day.

In early April 2026, the Artemis II crew became the first to travel beyond the Moon in more than 50 years and traveled farther in space than humans have ever before.

Planned to launch in 2027, the Artemis III Mission will practice docking the Orion spacecraft with two lunar landers in low Earth orbit. 

On future missions, including Artemis IV in 2028, landers will bring astronauts to the lunar surface. While Artemis III will not land on the Moon, it will test the complex capabilities NASA needs to return—this time to stay.

Learn more about NASA’s Artemis program:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

Image Credit: NASA's Artemis II crew

Image Date: April 7, 2026
Release Date: Nov. 3, 2026

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Wide-field view: Interacting Galaxy NGC 5291 in Centaurus | Digitized Sky Survey 2

Wide-field view: Interacting Galaxy NGC 5291 in Centaurus | Digitized Sky Survey 2

This wide-field view shows the sky around the galaxy NGC 5291. This system has interacted with other galaxies and is surrounded with debris from earlier encounters. Part of this material is now forming dwarf galaxies rich in young stars. This picture was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Many other galaxies are also visible.

Among the debris surrounding the elliptical galaxy NGC 5291 at the center is a rare and mysterious young dwarf galaxy. This object is providing astronomers with an excellent opportunity to learn more about similar galaxies that are expected to be common in the early Universe, but are normally too faint and distant to be observed by current telescopes.

The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) through its Guide Star Survey group.

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
Release Date: Dec. 9, 2015

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #NGC5291 #InteractingGalaxies #NGC5291N #MCG0533005 #CentaurusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #VLTFORS2 #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #DSS2 #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Journey to Interacting Galaxy NGC 5291 in Centaurus | ESO

Journey to Interacting Galaxy NGC 5291 in Centaurus | ESO

This video takes us from a broad view of the southern Milky Way deep into the large constellation of Centaurus. The sequence ends with a close-up view from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope of an interacting galaxy called NGC 5291, about 200 million light-years from Earth.

The spectacular aftermath of a 360 million year old cosmic collision is revealed in great detail in the final image presented here from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory. Among the debris surrounding the elliptical galaxy NGC 5291 at the center is a rare and mysterious young dwarf galaxy. It appears as a bright clump towards the right of the image. This object is providing astronomers with an excellent opportunity to learn more about similar galaxies that are expected to be common in the early Universe, but are normally too faint and distant to be observed by current telescopes.

Learn more about ESO's Very Large Telescope https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger

Duration: 50 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 9, 2015

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #NGC5291 #InteractingGalaxies #NGC5291N #MCG0533005 #CentaurusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #VLTFORS2 #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #DSS2 #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Interacting Galaxy NGC 5291 in Centaurus | ESO’s Very Large Telescope

Close-up: Interacting Galaxy NGC 5291 in Centaurus | ESO’s Very Large Telescope

The spectacular aftermath of a 360 million year old cosmic collision is revealed in great detail in this image from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory. Among the debris surrounding the elliptical galaxy NGC 5291 at the center is a rare and mysterious young dwarf galaxy. It appears as a bright clump towards the right of the image. This object is providing astronomers with an excellent opportunity to learn more about similar galaxies that are expected to be common in the early Universe, but are normally too faint and distant to be observed by current telescopes.

Learn more about ESO's Very Large Telescope https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Duration: 50 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 9, 2015

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #NGC5291 #InteractingGalaxies #NGC5291N #MCG0533005 #CentaurusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #VLTFORS2 #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

China's Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) Commercial Rocket Steps Toward Commercial Launches

China's Lijian-2 (Kinetica-2) Commercial Rocket Steps Toward Commercial Launches

China's Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) carrier rocket demonstrated its readiness for commercial deployments, after taking on its first large-scale satellite Internet constellation mission on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

The Lijian-2 Y2 carrier rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China at 8:15am Beijing time on Tuesday.

The rocket sent its payloads, a group of 18 satellites into the planned orbit.

This was the second flight of the Lijian-2 rocket. On its maiden flight on March 30, 2026, the rocket tested several key technologies and sent the Qingzhou prototype cargo spacecraft into orbit.

This time, the mission is aimed at the large-scale build-out of low-Earth-orbit satellite Internet constellations. Besides placing 18 satellites precisely into orbit, the rocket also has to prove it can carry out commercial launches reliably and deliver on schedule.

"We often say the maiden flight verified whether it could fly, while Lijian-2 Y2 verified whether it can fly in batches and deliver reliably. Once this step is taken, we can say Lijian-2 has become a true commercial launch vehicle that can operate at commercial scale. It is a qualitative change," said Yang Haoliang, chief commander and chief designer of the Lijian-2 carrier rocket at CAS Space Technology Co., Ltd.

The Lijian-2 is China's first launch vehicle to feature the common booster core configuration. Three identical common cores can be combined like building blocks. This increases payload capacity while facilitating mass production and reducing costs.

In addition to deploying satellite Internet constellations, the rocket is also intended for future missions such as low-cost cargo transportation to the space station.

"Our rockets must be developed toward three goals: high payload capacity, low cost, and high launch frequency. The Lijian-2 rocket is being developed precisely with these three targets in mind. It has a payload capacity of 12 tonnes to low Earth orbit and 8 tonnes to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit," said Lian Jie, deputy chief designer of the Lijian-2 carrier rocket at CAS Space Technology Co., Ltd.

CAS Space is a commercial spaceflight company established by the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Nov. 3, 2026

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Earth #China #中国 #CASSpace #中科宇航 #CAS #中国科学院 #Kinetica2Rocket #Kinetica2Y2Rocket #LaunchVehicles #SpaceSailConstellation #QianfanConstellation #千帆 #ShanghaiSpacesailTechnologies #CommercialSpace #JSLC #JiuquanSatelliteLaunchCenter #酒泉卫星发射中心 #InnerMongolia #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Distant Interacting Galaxies Arp 323 in Pisces | Subaru Telescope

Distant Interacting Galaxies Arp 323 in Pisces | Subaru Telescope

Arp 323 (NGC 7783) is a pair of interacting galaxies in Pisces. It consists of Arp 323A on the right and Arp 323B on the lower left. Arp 323A is an active galaxy believed to host an actively accreting supermassive black hole at its center. A long, striking tidal stream, resembling a tadpole’s tail, extends toward the lower left of the image.

Distance from Earth: 370 million light-years

Recent studies suggest this structure may have formed through the interaction of three galaxies, including a dwarf galaxy.

Together with several neighboring galaxies, Arp 323 forms the small galaxy group known as Hickson Compact Group 98 (HCG 98).

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope in Hawaii: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Image Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)/Image provided by Masayuki Tanaka

Release Date: Oct. 21, 2026

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Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449: Missing Oxygen Mystery | Hubble Space Telescope

Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449: Missing Oxygen Mystery | Hubble Space Telescope

This is an image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4449, one of the dwarf galaxies in the Galaxies Losing Oxygen via Winds (GLOW) study. Researchers found that dwarf galaxies can hold onto only a small fraction of the oxygen made by their stars. 

Distance from Earth: ~12 million light-years

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope just revealed a mystery in our cosmic neighborhood. In a paper published Monday, November 2, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers using Hubble studied 37 nearby dwarf galaxies—small galaxies containing a few thousand to hundreds of millions of stars—and found that much of the oxygen they expected to see is missing. 

Simulations predict that significantly more oxygen, a tracer of a wider set of heavy elements, should reside in these galaxies. So where did it go? 

“Oxygen is produced by stars, which are inside of galaxies. We know that the oxygen had to be inside of the galaxies at some point in the past, so the oxygen must have been ejected,” said co-investigator Grace Telford, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah. “And to do that, you need energy from massive stars and supernova explosions to drive material out of the host galaxies and into the space between galaxies.”

Galactic winds unleashed by supernovae are apparently more effective at removing oxygen from low-mass galaxies than current models predict, according to the new study. The findings show that dwarf galaxies can hold onto only a small fraction of the oxygen made by stars. 

In the Galaxies Losing Oxygen via Winds (GLOW) project, funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation, scientists traced the oxygen to understand how it is distributed inside stars, in the gas between stars, and in the space between galaxies. Of all the elements in the galaxies, why study oxygen?

Oxygen, the most abundant element after hydrogen and helium, is relatively easy to detect and measure, and its production is well understood—making it a reliable indicator of how chemical elements are distributed in a galaxy. 

“So, it's really for practical reasons that we've chosen oxygen,” said Kristen Wingfield McQuinn, GLOW principal investigator and mission head of the Science Operations Center for NASA’s newly launched, panoramic Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. She also is an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. 

“Oxygen is one of the primary elements formed by stars. Being able to trace how much oxygen gets made, and then how much is distributed inside and outside of galaxies, helps us understand galaxy evolution,” said McQuinn. “It also helps us learn where and how much galaxies are enriching the space between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium.” 

The study used archival optical imaging data from Hubble to resolve stellar populations and determine star-formation histories and compositions. Along with data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope as well as the ground-based Very Large Array and Australian Telescope Compact Array, the researchers analyzed 37 nearby dwarf galaxies to trace oxygen atoms produced by stars. 

The team wanted to understand how oxygen is distributed across the stars, gas, and dust in the galaxies. These dwarf galaxies were selected because their masses fall in the range where simulations and theory predict that an increasing amount of their oxygen will be expelled from the galaxies via supernovae explosions. These 37 galaxies also are all close enough for Hubble to resolve their individual stars. This is not true for the vast majority of known dwarf galaxies that are too far away for this kind of study.

Although astronomers already suspected that galaxies expel a large fraction of oxygen and other heavy elements, an open question has been where these metals end up. A previous study from 2014 addressed this question for Milky Way-like, star-forming galaxies, finding that these galaxies lost a large fraction of their oxygen found in the diffuse haloes of gas surrounding them outside their disks, called the circumgalactic medium.

In the GLOW study, McQuinn and her team extended this research to low-mass galaxies across a wide range of masses and environments. While previous teams have measured oxygen in the circumgalactic medium of dwarf galaxies, it is still unclear if most of the missing oxygen is in this region, or if it has been completely ejected from the galaxy’s surroundings. 

In the future, McQuinn hopes to study even lower-mass galaxies in the nearby universe. She has an approved program to use the Roman Space Telescope to find these faint and tiny systems across a wide swath of sky. Once she has identified these galaxies, McQuinn hopes to use Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to get deeper observations of their stars. This would allow her to reconstruct the galaxies’ histories to understand how they formed stars across cosmic time. 

Telford’s future work involves using Hubble to zoom in on the individual, massive stars that produce oxygen and eject it from their host galaxies. She is using some of the nearby GLOW targets to get very detailed observations to characterize how the massive stars are different in these small galaxies.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

Image Credits: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage–ESA/Hubble Collaboration, Alessandra Aloisi (STScI, ESA)
Release Date: Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxies #IntergalacticMedium #Oxygen #Stars #Supernovae #GLOWProject #NGC4449 #Caldwell21 #DwarfGalaxies #StarburstGalaxies #CanesVenaticiConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescopes #GSFC #STScI #NSF #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Expedition 75 Crew Photos | International Space Station

Expedition 75 Crew Photos | International Space Station

From left, Expedition 75 flight engineers Anna Kikina and Sergey Teteryatnikov and station commander Pyotr Dubrov, all Roscosmos cosmonauts from Russia, pose for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory module.

From left, Expedition 75 flight engineers Anna Kikina and Sergey Teteryatnikov and station commander Pyotr Dubrov, all Roscosmos cosmonauts of Russia, pose for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory module. The trio show off a portrait of the ground personnel who supported the Plasma Crystal‑4 investigation. The microgravity physics study explored complex plasmas—mixtures of ionized gas, neutral gas, and microscopic particles that become highly charged, interact strongly with one another, and may form plasma crystals. Results may influence the design of future spacecraft and lead to new research methods.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon holds a patch and a tray of sweet snacks commemorating his 100th day living in microgravity. Menon launched aboard the Soyuz MS‑29 spacecraft with Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina of Russia, both two-time space visitors, on July 14, 2026, and docked to the International Space Station’s Prichal module the same day, beginning a long-duration space research mission.

Expedition 75 flight engineers Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Jessica Watkins of NASA pose together inside the International Space Station's Quest airlock. Watkins assisted Kutryk as he tried on a spacesuit ensuring a good fit, comfort, and systems functionality. Spacesuit fit checks also account for body changes such as spinal elongation that take place in microgravity.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Jessica Watkins celebrates 200 cumulative days in space across two expeditions aboard the International Space Station with a tray of sweet snacks. In the background, Roscosmos cosmonauts Anna Kikina and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Russia join the celebration inside the vestibule between the Unity module and the Zarya module.

Expedition 75 flight engineers Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins, both NASA astronauts, review and practice Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvers at the robotics workstation inside the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory module. Delaney and Watkins trained to support the second and final spacewalk in a series of two with Expedition 75 flight engineers Anil Menon of NASA and Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to install the eighth and final roll-out solar array on the orbital outpost's truss structure.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon installs experimental fluid systems inside the Advanced Space Experiment Processor-2 (ADSEP-2) sample processing hardware. ADSEP‑2 can be configured for cell and tissue culturing, protein crystal growth, microorganism studies, and materials science research with colloids.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Joshua Kutryk packs a failed Canadarm2 robotic arm wrist joint in protective covers before loading it aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft for return to Earth. The wrist joint was replaced on Canadarm2 with a spare during a spacewalk on June 30, 2026. 

Expedition 75 is continuing preparations for the second and final spacewalk in a series of two to upgrade the International Space Station’s power generation system. The orbital residents are also conducting microgravity research and transferring cargo in and out of a U.S. cargo spacecraft.

Flight engineers Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Anil Menon of NASA spent Tuesday organizing the tools and studying the procedures they will use during a spacewalk scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. EST on Thursday, November 5, 2026. Kutryk and Menon started their shift inside the Quest airlock staging their spacewalking tools and inspecting the tethers that will secure the astronauts to the orbital outpost. Afterward, the pair reviewed the activities planned for the seven-hour excursion to install the eighth and final roll-out solar array on the orbital outpost’s starboard truss structure.

The installation job will complete the years-long process that began in June 2021 to augment the space station’s power generating capacity from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.

Follow Expedition 75:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Pyotr Dubrov 
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Anna Kikina, Sergey Teteryatnikov

Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Flight Engineer: Joshua Kutryk

NASA Flight Engineers: Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney 

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credits: NASA/JSC/A. Menon/Jessica Watkins, CSA/J. Kutryk

Dates: Oct. 22-Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Planets #Earth #Astronauts #CSA #Canada #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition75 #InternationalCooperation #CSA #Canada #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Recap: China CAS Space Kinetica-2 Y2 Launch of 18 Qianfan Internet Satellites

Recap: China CAS Space Kinetica-2 Y2 Launch of 18 Qianfan Internet Satellites

CAS Space’s Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) launch vehicle lifted off at 8:15am China Standard Time (00:15 am Universal Coordinated Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, heading for a polar orbit to deliver a group of eighteen connectivity satellites for only its third commercial outing.

In this mission, Kinetica-2 Y2 delivered >5t payloads to 800km polar orbit.

The eighteen Qianfan connectivity satellites, make up its seventeenth launched group. They were manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences, allowing the constellation’s cumulative launched count to reach 274.

The Qianfan mega-constellation, also referred to as SpaceSail, is operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co. Ltd. (aiming to provide space-based Internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, beginning before the end of this year.

Costing under 10 million Yuan (1.47 million United States Dollars) a piece, each Qianfan satellite weighs 300 kilograms with a ‘flat pack’ design, using a single solar array, to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing in two parallel stacks. For maneuvering in orbit, each satellite has an electric hall-effect thruster burning krypton.

By launching today’s group of Qianfan satellites, CAS Space has become the third firm in China’s commercial space sector to perform a deployment for the constellation, also being its largest by a non-state-owned launch vehicle. They follow missions performed by LandSpace and Orienspace in mid-September, deploying ten and eight satellites respectively.

To date, CAS Space states that they have served almost forty domestic and global clients since mid-2022 by launching 140 spacecraft into orbit. Their cumulative launched mass is around 27,000 kilograms with about 9,000 kilograms delivered by Kinetica-2.

Today’s launch was the second mission for Kinetica-2, and the 18th for CAS Space through its Kinetica family of launch vehicles. This was also the 77th launch from China in 2026.

CAS Space is a commercial spaceflight company established by the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Video Credit: CAS Space
Article Credit: Jack C.
Duration: 2 minutes
Date: Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Earth #China #中国 #CASSpace #中科宇航 #CAS #中国科学院 #Kinetica2Rocket #Kinetica2Y2Rocket #LaunchVehicles #SpaceSailConstellation #QianfanConstellation #千帆 #ShanghaiSpacesailTechnologies #CommercialSpace #JSLC #JiuquanSatelliteLaunchCenter #酒泉卫星发射中心 #InnerMongolia #STEM #Education #HD #Video

China CAS Space Kinetica-2 Y2 Launch of 18 Qianfan Internet Satellites

China CAS Space Kinetica-2 Y2 Launch of 18 Qianfan Internet Satellites

CAS Space’s Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) launch vehicle lifted off at 8:15am China Standard Time (00:15 am Universal Coordinated Time) on Nov. 3, 2026, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, heading for a polar orbit to deliver a group of eighteen connectivity satellites for only its third commercial outing.

In this mission, Kinetica-2 Y2 delivered >5t payloads to 800km polar orbit.

The eighteen Qianfan connectivity satellites, make up its seventeenth launched group. They were manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences, allowing the constellation’s cumulative launched count to reach 274.

The Qianfan mega-constellation, also referred to as SpaceSail, is operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co. Ltd. (aiming to provide space-based Internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, beginning before the end of this year.

Costing under 10 million Yuan (1.47 million United States Dollars) a piece, each Qianfan satellite weighs 300 kilograms with a ‘flat pack’ design, using a single solar array, to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing in two parallel stacks. For maneuvering in orbit, each satellite has an electric hall-effect thruster burning krypton.

By launching today’s group of Qianfan satellites, CAS Space has become the third firm in China’s commercial space sector to perform a deployment for the constellation, also being its largest by a non-state-owned launch vehicle. They follow missions performed by LandSpace and Orienspace in mid-September, deploying ten and eight satellites respectively.

To date, CAS Space states that they have served almost forty domestic and global clients since mid-2022 by launching 140 spacecraft into orbit. Their cumulative launched mass is around 27,000 kilograms with about 9,000 kilograms delivered by Kinetica-2.

Today’s launch was the second mission for Kinetica-2, and the 18th for CAS Space through its Kinetica family of launch vehicles. This was also the 77th launch from China in 2026.

CAS Space is a commercial spaceflight company established by the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Image Credit: CAS Space, CGTN, CCTV
Article Credit: Jack C.
Date: Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Earth #China #中国 #CASSpace #中科宇航 #CAS #中国科学院 #Kinetica2Rocket #Kinetica2Y2Rocket #LaunchVehicles #SpaceSailConstellation #QianfanConstellation #千帆 #ShanghaiSpacesailTechnologies #CommercialSpace #JiuquanSatelliteLaunchCenter #JSLC #酒泉卫星发射中心 #InnerMongolia #STEM #Education

China CAS Space Kinetica-2 Y2 Launch of 18 Qianfan Internet Satellites

China CAS Space Kinetica-2 Y2 Launch of 18 Qianfan Internet Satellites

CAS Space’s Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) launch vehicle lifted off at 8:15am China Standard Time (00:15 am Universal Coordinated Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, heading for a polar orbit to deliver a group of eighteen connectivity satellites for only its third commercial outing.

In this mission, Kinetica-2 Y2 delivered >5t payloads to 800km polar orbit.

The eighteen Qianfan connectivity satellites, make up its seventeenth launched group. They were manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences, allowing the constellation’s cumulative launched count to reach 274.

The Qianfan mega-constellation, also referred to as SpaceSail, is operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co. Ltd. (aiming to provide space-based Internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, beginning before the end of this year.

Costing under 10 million Yuan (1.47 million United States Dollars) a piece, each Qianfan satellite weighs 300 kilograms with a ‘flat pack’ design, using a single solar array, to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing in two parallel stacks. For maneuvering in orbit, each satellite has an electric hall-effect thruster burning krypton.

By launching today’s group of Qianfan satellites, CAS Space has become the third firm in China’s commercial space sector to perform a deployment for the constellation, also being its largest by a non-state-owned launch vehicle. They follow missions performed by LandSpace and Orienspace in mid-September, deploying ten and eight satellites respectively.

To date, CAS Space states that they have served almost forty domestic and global clients since mid-2022 by launching 140 spacecraft into orbit. Their cumulative launched mass is around 27,000 kilograms with about 9,000 kilograms delivered by Kinetica-2.

Today’s launch was the second mission for Kinetica-2, and the 18th for CAS Space through its Kinetica family of launch vehicles. This was also the 77th launch from China in 2026.

CAS Space is a commercial spaceflight company established by the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Video Credit: CAS Space
Article Credit: Jack C.
Duration: 16 seconds
Date: Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Earth #China #中国 #CASSpace #中科宇航 #CAS #中国科学院 #Kinetica2Rocket #Kinetica2Y2Rocket #LaunchVehicles #SpaceSailConstellation #QianfanConstellation #千帆 #ShanghaiSpacesailTechnologies #CommercialSpace #JSLC #JiuquanSatelliteLaunchCenter #酒泉卫星发射中心 #InnerMongolia #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA’s T-38 Artemis Paint Timelapse | Johnson Space Center

NASA’s T-38 Artemis Paint Timelapse | Johnson Space Center

NASA’s T-38 aircraft are used to train astronauts to make real-time decisions in high-stakes, operational environments. This aircraft recently received an updated style honoring NASA’s Artemis Program. The agency will be sending astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars. The timelapse was captured at one frame every ten seconds. This is equal to 300x real-time speed. 

The Northrop Grumman T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Northrop Corporation, now known as Northrop Grumman. The T-38 was the world's first supersonic trainer as well as the most produced.

For more, visit: 
nasa.gov/artemis
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Duration: 42 minutes
Release Date: Nov. 2, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #Moon #T38JetAircraft #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #OrionSpacecraft #SLS #SLSRocket #CrewedMissions #Astronauts #DeepSpace #MoonToMars #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #EllingtonField #Houston #Texas #JSC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video