After years of design, development, and testing, NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Oct. 28, marking a historic moment for aeronautics research and the agency's Quesst mission. The X-59, designed to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce the sound of loud sonic booms to quieter sonic thumps, took off at 11:14 a.m. EDT and flew for 67 minutes. The flight represents a major step toward quiet supersonic flight over land.

Researchers led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory postdoctoral scientist Harrison Horn have demonstrated a pathway for producing water on sub-Neptune exoplanets. The team recreated the boundary conditions between hydrogen atmospheres and magma cores using a laser-heated diamond-anvil cell.

China has advanced its lunar exploration program with the return of experimental lunar regolith bricks, which spent a year exposed to the space environment aboard China's space station. These bricks, developed by Ding Lieyun and a team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, were retrieved last week on the Shenzhou XXI spacecraft and found in good condition during initial inspections.

Sending spacecraft into low Earth orbit could transform next-generation telecommunications, space exploration and national security. But that altitude - which begins roughly 60 miles above the planet's surface - is a fickle place due to atmospheric drag, and spacecraft would require a new kind of propulsion system to remain in orbit there.

Janus Henderson Group and Voyager Technologies have announced a strategic investment in Starlab Space to develop next-generation commercial space stations. Starlab was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Houston, operating as a global joint venture led by Voyager Technologies. Partner organizations include Airbus, Mitsubishi Corporation, MDA Space, Palantir Technologies, and Space Applications Services. Strategic partners involved are Northrop Grumman, Hilton, Journey, and The Ohio State University.

Redwire Corporation has secured a 44 million dollar phase 2 contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to advance the Otter Very Low Earth Orbit mission. The contract supports the completion, manufacturing, and delivery of a spacecraft that will demonstrate the first air-breathing platform in VLEO, using Redwire's SabreSat design.

Astronomers recently discovered the 40 000th near-Earth asteroid! These space rocks range from a few metres to a few kilometres in size and are on orbits that bring them relatively close to Earth. Each new discovery is both a reminder of our planet's vulnerability and a testament to how far the field of planetary defence has advanced in just a few decades. An asteroid is a rocky leftover from the formation of the Solar System more than four billion years ago. Most of them orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. A near-Earth asteroid (NEA) is one whose orbit brings it within roughly 45 million kilometres of Earth's orbit - close enough for planetary defence teams to keep a watchful eye on it.

ST Engineering iDirect and Black Cat Systems are working together to establish an Advanced Satcom Technology Demonstration Lab to support the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Central to this lab is the ST Engineering iDirect 450 Software Defined Modem (SDM), which provides multi-waveform and multi-orbit capabilities, as well as interference mitigation technology tailored for defense needs. Black Cat Systems has purchased additional Evolution Defense hubs and 9-Series modems and will demonstrate the new 450SDM model. This modem is designed for mission-critical communications and operates across HEO, GEO, MEO, and LEO orbits, supporting several waveforms on a single platform. It offers a 30 percent reduction in size, weight, and power compared to earlier models and integrates security features such as TRANSEC and FIPS 140-3 Level 3 compliance.

York Space Systems has taken a significant step toward becoming a publicly traded company, formally filing a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This move follows years of expansion driven by successful satellite launches, delivery of key government projects, and marked financial gains. Headquartered in Denver, York Space Systems has established itself as a manufacturer specializing in modular, flight-ready spacecraft platforms used in defense, commercial, and scientific constellations. In 2025, the company completed assembly, launch, and commissioning of 21 satellites for the Space Development Agency's first-generation Transport Layer. This backbone constellation delivers high-speed, secure communications and Link 16 connectivity for military operations, providing the infrastructure for resilient data exchange in contested environments. Another group of 21 satellites is expected to join the constellation before year's end, further strengthening the network's capabilities.

The earliest evidence of an internal 'GPS' system in an animal has been identified by researchers, which could help explain how modern birds and fish evolved the ability to use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate long distances. The tiny magnetic fossils - dating from 97 million years ago - were buried in ancient seafloor sediments, left behind by a mysterious, unidentified organism.

Researchers developed LifeTracer, a machine learning framework, to analyze mass spectrometry data from space and terrestrial samples. They used advanced two-dimensional gas chromatography and high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry to study eight carbonaceous meteorites and ten terrestrial rock samples. LifeTracer applies logistic regression to compound-level features and achieved 87 percent classification accuracy, distinguishing samples derived from meteorites and Earth rocks. In their results, scientists detected thousands of molecular peaks in each sample category - 9,475 in meteorites and 9,070 in terrestrial rocks. Key molecular differences included weight distributions and chromatographic retention times, with meteorite compounds showing greater volatility and lower retention values. These findings help define the molecular boundaries between abiotically and biotically formed materials.

Technology, and the Global Big Data Technologies Centre at University of Technology Sydney have analyzed the requirements for synchronizing satellite beam hopping with ground signal stations to enhance high-throughput satellite (HTS) communication capacity. HTS systems use multibeam technology to overlap service area coverage and multiple frequency multiplexing to increase satellite link capacity. Gateway stations are closely integrated with user beam clusters for efficient, two-hop communication via shared satellite resources, allowing spatial isolation and frequency re-use.

Loft Orbital and Star Catcher Industries have signed what is described as one of the first commercial energy purchase agreements for space operations. The deal allows Loft to buy power from Star Catcher's planned orbital energy grid to support its mission-agnostic satellite platforms in low Earth orbit, enabling dynamic growth in their satellite constellations.

Kepler Communications has scheduled the launch of ten 300-kilogram-class satellites in January 2026, marking the operational rollout of its optical data relay constellation. The launch will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Each satellite will carry a minimum of four optical terminals that enable high-throughput laser links for space, air, and ground data transmission. The constellation is built for compatibility with the U.S. Space Development Agency's (SDA) optical communications standard, providing seamless integration across government and commercial space infrastructure. The satellites form an IP-based mesh network for dynamic, real-time data routing between orbit and Earth, targeting applications that require low latency and high bandwidth.

The United States faces a narrowing window to claim its position as the first nation to return humans to the Moon in the 21st century. While NASA's official timeline targets Artemis 3 for no earlier than mid-2027 - roughly three years before China's 2030 lunar landing goal - the path forward is fraught with technical complexity, schedule pressure, and the kind of engineering challenges that have historically humbled even the most ambitious space programs. The stakes extend far beyond accomplishment. Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy has been explicit about his determination that the United States should not allow China to land first. Yet in Beijing, the China Manned Space Agency maintains a studied composure, presenting its program not as a race but as a methodical national priority. Which narrative proves correct - the sprint or the marathon - will largely depend on whether several interlocking technical and operational milestones actually hold to their compressed timelines.

The LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA collaborations have finished their fourth observation campaign, known as O4, marking the longest and most comprehensive period of coordinated gravitational wave monitoring to date. Initiated in May 2023 and spanning more than two years, the campaign involved simultaneous data analysis and resulted in the detection of 250 new gravitational signals, which account for more than two-thirds of all signals recorded by these observatories to date. Improvements in detector technology and sensitivity enabled this increase in the number of observed events. Data from the latest run contributed to major advances in the understanding of compact binary systems and fundamental processes in the universe. Key discoveries were announced and published as the campaign progressed.

Researchers from Purple Mountain Observatory have conducted an observational test of the black hole area law. Using the gravitational-wave event GW230814, which features a high signal-to-noise ratio, the team closely examined the event horizons of merging black holes. The black hole area law, first proposed by Stephen Hawking in 1971, predicts that the total event horizon area after a merger will not decrease compared to its original sum.