NASA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NASA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Stargazing
Full Moon to Wash Out Peak of Delta Aquariid–Alpha Capricornid Double Meteor Shower
A nearly full moon will drown out most of the Southern Delta Aquariids' July 28-29 peak, but the slower, brighter Alpha Capricornid fireballs that follow on July 30-31 should still cut through the glare.
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Science & Discovery
A Black Hole Wandered 30,000 Light-Years From Home — Then It Ate a Star
NASA's Swift Observatory and a UNC-Chapel Hill team caught a roughly million-solar-mass black hole shredding a star far outside its galaxy's core — the farthest such offset ever seen, and evidence that black holes can go wandering after galactic mergers.
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Missions
Fourteen Years, Twenty Miles: Curiosity's Wheels Show Their Age in New Close-Up
A new MAHLI close-up from Sol 4963 shows Curiosity's aluminum wheels riddled with cracks and holes after nearly 14 years and 20+ miles of driving across Gale Crater — and NASA says that's still within spec.
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Astronomy
A House-Sized Asteroid Just Passed Closer to Earth Than the Moon
Newly discovered asteroid 2026 OD3 buzzed past Earth at 0.6 lunar distances on July 25, one of three close flybys this week that underscore how many small asteroids go undetected until days before arrival.
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Commercial
Intel Unveils 'Starfire,' Its First Space-Grade System-on-Chip for Government Satellites
Intel Government Technologies is entering the orbital computing market with Starfire, an 18A-process SoC aimed at giving satellites the onboard horsepower for AI-driven image analysis and anomaly detection.
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Science & Discovery
Europa's Ocean May Be Sealed Off: New Model Shows Cracks Freeze Shut Before Water Reaches the Surface
A Nature Astronomy study led by Rutgers' Lujendra Ojha finds that water rising through Europa's ice-shell fractures supercools and clogs with frazil ice, freezing narrow cracks shut within hours - reshaping where Europa Clipper and JUICE should hunt for habitable niches.
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Missions
Expedition 74 Trio Rides Soyuz MS-28 Home After 241 Days in Orbit
NASA's Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev landed on the Kazakh steppe aboard Soyuz MS-28 on July 26, 2026, ending an eight-month mission as Jessica Meir took command of Expedition 75.
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NASA & Agencies
Wildfires Force NASA to Evacuate Its Madrid Deep Space Station, Shifting Voyager Tracking to California
Wildfires near Madrid forced NASA to evacuate one of only three Deep Space Network complexes on Friday; all 90 workers got out safely and mission support, including the Voyager 1 downlink, shifted seamlessly to Goldstone in California.
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Commercial
Starship Flight 13 Nails Its First Intact Splashdown — and Drops 20 Real Starlink Satellites
On Flight 13, SpaceX put an intact Starship in the water for the first time and deployed 20 working Starlink V3 satellites — its first real payloads — even as the Super Heavy booster came down hard after an incomplete landing burn.
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Astronomy
Hubble Watches a Nova Fire 'Bullets' Through the Milky Way at 20 Million MPH
Hubble imagery reported July 24, 2026 shows a nova launching dense clumps of ejected material across the galaxy at roughly 20 million mph — and astronomers still can't explain where the projectiles come from.
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Missions
CAPSTONE 02: NASA's Twin Smallsats Will Rehearse the Hardest Trick in Cislunar Space
NASA has announced CAPSTONE 02, a pair of identical ~400 kg spacecraft launching in 2027 into a near-rectilinear halo orbit to practice rendezvous, autonomous navigation and cislunar comms — groundwork for Artemis and a future lunar base.
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Commercial
NASA Reopens Stennis' B-2 Stand to Hot-Fire New Glenn's Hydrogen Upper Stage
NASA and Blue Origin have agreed to prep the historic B-2 test stand at Stennis to hot-fire New Glenn's two-engine, LOX/LH2 second stage this fall — a move that ties the rocket's readiness directly to Artemis.
