NASA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NASA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Science & Discovery
The asteroid that wasn't: 1998 SH2 outed as an active comet
A NASA/JPL-led study in Nature Astronomy has reclassified near-Earth object 1998 SH2 as an active comet — now P/1998 SH2 — after tiny outgassing-driven accelerations and a faint tail gave it away during a 2025 close pass.
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Missions
NASA Bolts Starlink Lasers to Orion as Artemis III Becomes a Docking Rehearsal
NASA has tapped SpaceX to mount two Starlink mini laser terminals on Orion for Artemis III, beaming 4K docking-test footage to Houston over infrared light as the mission is reframed into a 2027 low-Earth-orbit rehearsal of crewed lander rendezvous ahead of a 2028 Moon landing.
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NASA & Agencies
Serbia Signs the Artemis Accords, Becoming the 69th Nation — and the Latest to Straddle Two Rival Lunar Camps
Serbia became the 69th Artemis Accords signatory on July 16, 2026, and the 10th nation to join this year — while also holding membership in China's rival lunar station program, a growing pattern of dual participation.
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Missions
Two Landers, Two Philosophies: Inside the Artemis III Rehearsal's Engineering Split
NASA's July 15 breakdown of the 2027 Artemis III demo reveals how far apart SpaceX and Blue Origin's test articles are: astronauts will open the hatch on Blue Moon Mark 2, but never set foot inside a 171-foot Starship that docks nose-first with a bolted-on docking system and no crew cabin.
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Science & Discovery
The Meteorite That Crashed Through a New Jersey Roof Was Carrying Alien Amino Acids
Two years to the day after a fireball rattled New York City and a two-pound rock punched through a Hillsborough, NJ roof, scientists report the meteorite preserves sodium-carbonate salts and extraterrestrial amino acids brewed in briny fluids on a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid.
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Science & Discovery
The Ceiling Was an Illusion: NASA-Led Study Says Solar Storms Could Hit Earth Harder Than We Thought
A NASA-led analysis of over a million solar wind measurements finds the long-assumed "saturation" limit on geomagnetic storm intensity is a statistical artifact, not a real ceiling — meaning the worst space weather could still be ahead of us.
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Missions
A One-Two Cosmic Punch: Perseverance Finds a 3.9-Billion-Year Impact Record Written Into the Rim of Jezero Crater
Perseverance has found a 245-foot rock stack on Jezero Crater's rim built by repeated ancient impacts more than 3.9 billion years ago — among the oldest terrain any Mars rover has examined.
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Missions
Perseverance Crosses the Marathon Mark on Mars — and Leaves Opportunity's Pace in the Dust
NASA's Perseverance rover has driven a full marathon's worth of distance on Mars, hitting 26.2 miles in five years and four months — a pace nearly three times faster than Opportunity managed.
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Stargazing
The Southern Delta Aquariids Are Warming Up for a Moonlit Late-July Peak
The Southern Delta Aquariids peak the night of July 30-31, 2026, but a full moon just one day earlier means the best views come from patient pre-dawn watching in the week before.
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Stargazing
A Delicate Trio at Dusk: Moon, Venus, and Regulus Share the Sky July 15-17
A waxing crescent Moon glides past Venus and Regulus on three straight evenings this week, brushing 0.5° from the heart of Leo on July 16 before closing to within 2° of Venus the next day.
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Astronomy
Hubble and Webb Team Up to Find Omega Centauri's First Confirmed Black Hole
Twenty years of Hubble astrometry plus fresh James Webb data caught a 4.46-solar-mass black hole tugging a companion star in a record 94-year orbit inside Omega Centauri.
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NASA & Agencies
Fifty Days Up: Shenzhou-23 Crew Deepens Microgravity Research Aboard Tiangong
Nearly 50 days into a planned one-year stay, Shenzhou-23's three-person crew — including Hong Kong's first astronaut — is running biomechanics and brain-function studies aboard China's Tiangong space station.
