TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
September 16, 2025
New Comet SWAN25B over Mexico
A newly discovered comet is already visible with binoculars. The comet, C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and nicknamed SWAN25B, is brightening significantly as it emerges from the Sun's direction and might soon become visible on your smartphone – if not your eyes. Although the brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, many comets appear brighter as they approach the Earth, with SWAN25B reaching only a quarter of the Earth-Sun distance near October 19. Nighttime skygazers will also be watching for a SWAN25B-spawned meteor shower around October 5 when our Earth passes through the plane of the comet's orbit. The unexpectedly bright comet was discovered by an amateur astronomer in images of the SWAN instrument on NASA's SOHO satellite. The comet is currently best observed in southern skies but is slowly moving north. The featured image was captured at sunset three days ago just above the western horizon in Zacatecas, Mexico.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
The New Comet SWAN (C/2025 R2) Originated from a Different Direction Than 3I/ATLAS
September 15, 2025
The SWAN instrument onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft revealed on September 11, 2025 the presence of a new comet, officially named C/2025 R2 (SWAN).
This new bright comet has a long tail that stretches across 2 degrees in the sky and amateur astronomers observed it near the Sun. It originated from the direction of the Sun relative to Earth, explaining why it was not spotted earlier.
Between August 8 and September 13, 2025, it was within 30 degrees from the Sun, too close to the Sun for most telescopes to observe it.
The comet’s perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) occurred on September 12, 2025 at a distance of 75 million kilometers (half of the Earth-Sun separation, 0.5 AU) from the Sun.
Earth will cross the comet’s orbit on October 5, 2025, potentially encountering a related meteor shower. The closest approach of SWAN to Earth would be at a distance of 39 million kilometers on October 20, 2025.
The orbital period of SWAN around the Sun is 286 years, and its aphelion (farthest distance from the Sun) is 86 AU — within the outer Kuiper belt.
As soon as I learned about SWAN, I was curious whether it might have originated from 3I/ATLAS, either as a fragment that broke off from a natural icy rock or as a scout released by a technological mothership at a large distance.
However, my brilliant collaborator Peter Veres confirmed that the arrival directions of the two objects are very different: SWAN originated on this encounter from the direction of the Aquarius constellation on the sky whereas 3I/ATLAS arrived from the Sagittarius constellation in the direction of the center of the Milky-Way galaxy.
Although both constellations overlap with the ecliptic plane of the planets around the Sun, they are separated by tens of degrees in the sky (see the map of constellations here).
Also today, I received a surprising email about a singer with a last name identical to the new comet, Swan, which read as follows:
“Hi Avi,
Congrats on everything and for the fascinating scientific work you do…
Oli Swan co-writes with Robbie Williams including his recent No1 hit ‘Lost’. Oli has a new solo song for future release ‘Aliens are Real’ which I thought could interest you for usage especially with the 3I/ATLAS mystery.
It would be amazing to connect with you and to hear your thoughts on the song and to see if there is potential with you for a quote
Really looking forward to hearing from you
Best,”
My response was:
“Thank you for reaching out. I just listened to the song and loved it. Here is my quote:
Yes, aliens are likely real. There are billions of Earth-Sun analogs in the Milky-Way galaxy alone and most of them formed billions of years before the Sun.
It would be arrogant of us to imagine that similar houses on the cosmic street hosted only microbes and had no intelligent residents. For 65 years, we have been waiting for a phone call in the form of a radio signal.
Instead, we should search for a tennis ball in our back yard or a knock on our front door in the form of an interstellar object like 3I/ATLAS, or some other unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Fermi’s question: “Where is everybody?” is a question that every lonely person asks. “Are we not alone?” is the most romantic question in science.”
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-new-comet-swan-c-2025-r2-originated-from-a-different-direction-than-3i-atlas-1d3183ba41d0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2025_R2_(SWAN)
NASA Responds to Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Might Be an Alien Spacecraft
Last updated: September 16, 2025
NASA has addressed recent claims that the interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS may be a spacecraft sent by an advanced alien civilization.
This speculation was notably amplified by Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who suggested that the object could pose a threat to Earth.
3I/ATLAS was first detected on July 1, 2025, traveling through the Solar System at nearly double the speed of previous interstellar visitors, such as ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov.
Observations confirmed it as an interstellar comet, complete with its own dusty coma. It is significantly larger than its predecessors, with an estimated nucleus measuring around 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles).
This comet has sparked significant scientific interest, not only because it is the third confirmed interstellar visitor but also due to the possibility that it originated from a different region of the galaxy and may be older than known bodies in our Solar System.
However, the excitement surrounding its discovery has been somewhat overshadowed by concerns about extraterrestrial intentions.
Loeb has suggested that 3I/ATLAS could be an interstellar probe sent by intelligent beings, potentially with hostile intentions.
He referenced the “Dark Forest” hypothesis in his discussions, which proposes that civilizations might choose to preemptively attack others to safeguard their own existence.
His theory posits that the comet could purposely achieve perihelion—its closest approach to the Sun—on the opposite side of the Earth to evade observation by ground-based telescopes.
In one of his blog posts, Loeb speculated that if the comet were indeed a spacecraft, it could employ a specific maneuver to reach Earth by November or December 2025.
He cautioned that if his hypothesis holds true, it could necessitate humanity to undertake defensive measures, although he acknowledged the futility of such actions against a potential threat.
In response to these claims, NASA has emphasized the scientific consensus regarding the nature of 3I/ATLAS.
According to Tom Statler, NASA’s lead scientist for Solar System small bodies, the object “looks like a comet” and exhibits behaviors typical of comets observed within our Solar System.
He stated that while 3I/ATLAS has some properties that differ from known comets, the preponderance of evidence suggests it is a natural body, reinforcing the idea that it poses no threat to Earth.
Scientific analyses have consistently identified 3I/ATLAS as a comet, making it the fastest one ever recorded. As it nears the Sun, observers remain eager to study the object, though its closest approach will be out of direct viewing range.
NASA has reassured the public, suggesting there is no basis for alarm about the prospect of an alien spacecraft aiming to wreak havoc on Earth.
https://news.ssbcrack.com/nasa-responds-to-claims-that-interstellar-object-3i-atlas-might-be-an-alien-spacecraft/
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/comet-3i-atlas-multimedia/
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
Jonny Kim
@JonnyKimUSA
M+139: Time lapse of SpaceX CRS-33 Dragon docking to the Node2 Forward Port last week, taken from the window of Crew-11’s Dragon. Nikon Z9 | 15mm | ISO 1000, f/1.8, 1/500s.
6:56 PM · Sep 15, 2025
https://x.com/JonnyKimUSA/status/1967769417334632709
USU Researchers Developing Hybrid Rocket Motors for NASA
September 15, 2025
Experts at NASA are conducting critical tests on a hybrid rocket system developed at Utah State University’s Propulsion Research Laboratory.
Stephen Whitmore, a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, worked alongside graduate students Ryan Thibaudeau, Josh Sorenson and Jared Coen, as well as undergraduate students, including Jaron Dowdy, to develop a 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor that offers smoother, safer descent performance and provides a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional propulsion systems.
The rocket system was developed to support NASA’s Human Landing System, a transportation platform designed to carry astronauts to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis campaign.
It also contributes to the Plume Surface Interaction project, which focuses on advancing modeling and testing to better understand how rocket exhaust plumes affect planetary landing sites.
The hybrid system being used in the PSI test-campaign leverages the High-Performance “Green” Hybrid Propulsion system, which has been in development for the past decade at USU.
Originally, this system was developed as an environmentally sustainable replacement for highly toxic propellants. This system is as safe and environmentally friendly as cold-gas systems but also offers a much higher performance level.
To achieve a soft touchdown, powerful engines are essential for a lander module to brake from lunar orbit.
"Although the PSI hybrid gas-generator system was not specifically designed as an in-space propulsion system, by the successful completion of this program under both ambient and vacuum-conditions and across three different test facilities, this 75-mm thrust chamber will be the most highly tested and well-characterized hybrid motor in history,” Whitmore said.
https://www.usu.edu/today/story/usu-researchers-developing-hybrid-rocket-motors-for-nasa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3UtDh19ACs
Smoky Skies in the Pacific Northwest
September 16, 2025
Throughout the summer, satellites have tracked smoke in Washington state as hot weather, bouts of strong wind, and a prolonged drought have fueled several outbreaks of wildland fires.
On September 13, 2025, the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of smoke spreading from the Lynx Mountain fire across the northeastern part of the state and into British Columbia.
NASA satellites first imaged the Lynx Mountain fire in early September, along with several other nearby fires that emerged in Stevens County. By September 15, the fire had charred 7,839 acres (3,172 hectares) and was 22 percent contained.
As fires become an increasingly common part of North American summers, there is a growing recognition among water managers and hydrologists that smoke and ash may be affecting rivers and lakes in various ways—and that these impacts warrant further study.
Researchers have already found that after fires, streamflow often increases and that waterways typically carry increased loads of certain nutrients, ions, organic chemicals, and metals.
While smoke and wind can deposit ash directly into waterways, runoff is thought to be a particularly important pathway for ash to reach water.
Once in the water column, ash particles can scatter light, altering conditions in ways that could significantly impact aquatic life, researchers noted.
Another team of researchers found that between 2019 and 2021, smoke touched 99.3 percent of North America, potentially affecting more than 1.3 million lakes.
They calculated that 98.9 percent of these lakes experienced at least 10 “smoke days” during that period, while 89.6 percent saw more than 30 smoke days. In some regions, lakes experienced up to four months of cumulative smoke days.
In mid-September, the National Interagency Fire Center reported that 4.3 million acres had burned throughout the United States in 2025, about 2 million acres below the 10-year average for that point in the year.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/154797/smoky-skies-in-the-pacific-northwest
Hidden at Fort Knox for years, 'space-flown' Sacagawea gold coins sell for millions
September 15, 2025 3:56 p.m. ET
A group of gold commemorative coins that traveled into orbit aboard an infamous NASA space shuttle recently fetched a series of historically high bids at auction.
Ever since a collection of Sacagawea dollars made the cosmic journey in 1999 aboard shuttle Columbia, the gold coins have been "hidden, shrouded in secrecy, and locked away in America’s most secure location:
Fort Knox in Kentucky," California-based auction house Stack’s Bowers Galleries said in a press release.
That was until recently, when the U.S. government auctioned seven of the shuttle-flown coins through Stack’s Bowers Galleries.
The Sacagawea coins, which included an eighth that did not fly in space, sold Friday, Sept. 12, for a combined $3.28 million, the auction house announced.
Most rare coins experts expect these to become the most valuable modern coins ever sold, Stack's Bowers Galleries claimed.
The event was also the latest to auction off a cosmic-themed lot after a chunk of Mars sold for $5.3 million in July at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
Here's everything to know about the Sacagawea dollar coins and their journey in orbit aboard a NASA spacecraft.
Seven of the eight Sacagawea dollars up for auction, each produced in 22 karat gold, were billed as "space flown," having traveled nearly 2 million miles in orbit in 1999 aboard the space shuttle Columbia.
That particular shuttle mission made history as the first to be commanded by a woman, Air Force Col. (ret.) Eileen Collins.
The mission, STS-93, most prominently helped deploy the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, according to NASA. Collins and her crew also took a total of 20 gold Sacagawea dollar coins with them on the mission, according to Stack's Bowers Galleries.
Two of the coins each sold for $550,000 – tying them as the most valuable U.S. gold dollars struck since the Civil War and the most valuable space-flown federal coins ever sold at auction, Stack's Bowers said in its press release.
They are also the most valuable Sacagawea dollars ever sold.
The only Sacagawea dollar coin sold at the auction without the distinction of having been flown to space was sold for $120,000.
What happened to the space shuttle Columbia?
The space shuttle Columbia has an infamous place in history after it met its fiery demise in 2003 at the end of a 17-day science mission, STS-107.
During re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the vehicle disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board.
It was the second fatal space shuttle mission following the Challenger disaster in 1986.
Who was Sacagawea?
Sacagawea was an interpreter and guide for explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they ventured in 1805 westward from the Mississippi River to the banks of the Pacific Coast.
“These gold coins commemorate the extraordinary leadership achievements of American women from Lewis and Clark to the Space Shuttle,"
Christine Karstedt, director of marketing at Stack’s Bowers Galleries, said in a statement, "endeavors that would have never succeeded without a woman willing to blaze a new trail."
What was the NASA space shuttle program?
The space shuttle program, NASA's fourth human spaceflight campaign, centered around using the iconic spacecraft to transport crew and cargo from Earth to orbit.
Receiving presidential approval in 1972, the program carried out missions from 1981 to 2011, when Atlantis was the last shuttle to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
For three decades, the shuttles flew 135 missions critical to helping astronauts reach space, constructing the International Space Station and launching, recovering and repairing satellites.
Four retired space shuttles are on display across the U.S.:
Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York
Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Endeavor at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles
Discovery at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia
Discovery, however, may soon be relocated to Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center, under a bill signed in July by President Donald Trump.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/15/sacagawea-gold-coins-flown-nasa-space-shuttle-auction/86160866007/
https://stacksbowers.com/sbpressreleases/from-orbit-to-auction-space-flown-gold-pattern-dollars-realize-3-28-million-in-stacks-bowers-galleries-auction/
NASA Analysis Shows Sun’s Activity Ramping Up
Sep 15, 2025
It looked like the Sun was heading toward a historic lull in activity. That trend flipped in 2008, according to new research.
The Sun has become increasingly active since 2008, a new NASA study shows. Solar activity is known to fluctuate in cycles of 11 years, but there are longer-term variations that can last decades.
Case in point: Since the 1980s, the amount of solar activity had been steadily decreasing all the way up to 2008, when solar activity was the weakest on record.
At that point, scientists expected the Sun to be entering a period of historically low activity.
But then the Sun reversed course and started to become increasingly active, as documented in the study, which appears in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
It’s a trend that researchers said could lead to an uptick in space weather events, such as solar storms, flares, and coronal mass ejections.
“All signs were pointing to the Sun going into a prolonged phase of low activity,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, lead author of the new study.
“So it was a surprise to see that trend reversed. The Sun is slowly waking up.”
The earliest recorded tracking of solar activity began in the early 1600s, when astronomers, including Galileo, counted sunspots and documented their changes. Sunspots are cooler, darker regions on the Sun’s surface that are produced by a concentration of magnetic field lines.
Areas with sunspots are often associated with higher solar activity, such as solar flares, which are intense bursts of radiation, and coronal mass ejections, which are huge bubbles of plasma that erupt from the Sun’s surface and streak across the solar system.
NASA scientists track these space weather events because they can affect spacecraft, astronauts’ safety, radio communications, GPS, and even power grids on Earth.
Space weather predictions are critical for supporting the spacecraft and astronauts of NASA’s Artemis campaign, as understanding the space environment is a vital part of mitigating astronaut exposure to space radiation.
Launching no earlier than Sept. 23, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory missions, as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1) mission, will provide new space weather research and observations that will help to drive future efforts at the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Solar activity affects the magnetic fields of planets throughout the solar system. As the solar wind — a stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun — and other solar activity increase, the Sun’s influence expands and compresses magnetospheres, which serve as protective bubbles of planets with magnetic cores and magnetic fields, including Earth. These protective bubbles are important for shielding planets from the jets of plasma that stream out from the Sun in the solar wind.
Over the centuries that people have been studying solar activity, the quietest times were a three-decade stretch from 1645 to 1715 and a four-decade stretch from 1790 to 1830.
“We don’t really know why the Sun went through a 40-year minimum starting in 1790,” Jasinski said. “The longer-term trends are a lot less predictable and are something we don’t completely understand yet.”
In the two-and-a-half decades leading up to 2008, sunspots and the solar wind decreased so much that researchers expected the “deep solar minimum” of 2008 to mark the start of a new historic low-activity time in the Sun’s recent history.
“But then the trend of declining solar wind ended, and since then plasma and magnetic field parameters have steadily been increasing,” said Jasinski, who led the analysis of heliospheric data publicly available in a platform called OMNIWeb Plus, run by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The data Jasinski and colleagues mined for the study came from a broad collection of NASA missions.
Two primary sources — ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) and the Wind mission — launched in the 1990s and have been providing data on solar activity like plasma and energetic particles flowing from the Sun toward Earth.
The spacecraft belong to a fleet of NASA Heliophysics Division missions designed to study the Sun’s influence on space, Earth, and other planets.
https://www.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-analysis-shows-suns-activity-ramping-up/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIyow-2nwHs (Sunspot Watch, Huge Sun News, Tropics, W.I. Volcano | S0 News Sep.16.2025)
https://spaceweathernews.com/
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4655-4660: Boxworks With a View
Sep 15, 2025
Earth planning date: Friday Sept. 12, 2025
Curiosity continues to image, analyze, and traverse through a landscape characterized by higher standing ridges separating low-lying depressions (hollows) — a surface known as the boxwork terrain on Mount Sharp.
The science team is actively characterizing the texture, chemistry, and mineralogy of the ridges and hollows to understand how this surface formed and changed over time.
I served as the Geology theme group “Keeper of the Plan” for Sols 4656-4657 where I compiled the details for each scientific activity that will be carried out by the rover.
I selected the particular Navcam image accompanying this blog post because it not only shows the intriguing boxwork terrain beneath our wheels but also highlights the striking wind-sculpted yardangs on our exciting route ahead.
Our successful drive over the weekend set us up nicely to investigate the bedrock ridge in the workspace directly in front of the rover on Sol 4655.
The target “Chango” was selected for closer inspection with the dust removal tool (DRT) and APXS and MAHLI instruments.
ChemCam used its LIBS instrument to analyze the chemistry of a bedrock ridge at the “Quechua” target, and Mastcam and ChemCam included several mosaics to document walls of nearby hollow interiors, fractures, and the hollow-to-ridge transitions.
The plan for Sols 4656-4657 focused on a variety of remote sensing activities including a 360-degree mosaic by Mastcam — one of the most spectacular data products!
ChemCam investigated the local bedrock and a raised resistant bedrock feature at “Chita” and “Chaco,” respectively, and then turned its sights to the distant floor of Gale crater to image features that may have formed when water eroded material from the interior walls of the crater rim.
Planning on Friday for Sols 4658-4660 included three targeted science blocks to dig deeper into the boxwork unit. ChemCam LIBS will analyze the bedrock at targets “Tarata” and “El Sombrio” and a rock that does not look like typical bedrock at “Cobres.”
The Mastcam team assembled multiple images and mosaics that will help decipher the distribution of veins, fractures, and nodules (somewhat rounded features) in the bedrock, as well as small sand dunes in and around the workspace.
The environmental theme group worked throughout the week to monitor clouds and dust-devil activity, and planned Mastcam tau observations to assess the optical depth of the atmosphere and constrain aerosol scattering properties.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4655-4660-boxworks-with-a-view/
Crew Awaits Second Cargo Mission in Less Than a Week; Keeps Up Biotech Research
September 15, 2025
One cargo spacecraft has docked to the International Space Station and another one is on its way to continue resupplying the Expedition 73 crew.
While the orbital residents await their next delivery, they continued researching on Monday advanced ways to keep humans healthy and nourished on long duration space missions.
Roscosmos’ Progress 93 cargo craft completed its trip to the orbital outpost at 1:23 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 13, when it docked to the Zvezda service module’s rear port delivering over 2.8 tons of food, fuel, and supplies.
Station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov opened the Progress’ hatch the next day and entered the spacecraft with Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin to begin unpacking the new gear.
Progress 93 began its mission after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Sept. 11.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL resupply ship, carrying over 11,000 pounds of new science experiments and station hardware, is orbiting Earth today after blasting off at 6:11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Cygnus XL will catch up to the orbital outpost on Wednesday as NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman monitor the spacecraft’s automated approach and rendezvous.
Kim will command the Canadarm2 robotic arm from the cupola’s robotics workstation to reach out and capture the spacecraft at 6:35 a.m. on Wednesday when it reaches a point about 10 meters from the station.
Ground controllers will then take over and remotely command Canadarm2 to install Cygnus to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port where it will stay for six months.
Listen to mission managers talk about the Cygnus XL mission during Friday’s prelaunch media teleconference on YouTube.
Meanwhile, biotechnology research filled Monday’s crew schedule keeping scientists on the ground informed about microgravity’s effect on the human body.
The astronauts not only study advanced space biology but also regularly send down physical and mental data informing doctors of crew health in real time.
Kim and Cardman joined each other at the beginning of their shift Monday collecting blood pressure measurements and ultrasound artery scans.
Kim, a Harvard-educated physician, led the study operating the biomedical gear and examining Cardman with assistance from doctors on the ground.
Cardman also wore electrodes measuring her cardiac activity for the portion of the CIPHER human research investigation studying heart, brain, and eye function in space.
Later during the second half of his shift, Kim took turns with Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) studying how liver tissues with blood vessels bioprinted on Earth react to weightlessness.
They each split their shift and used a portable glovebag inside the Destiny laboratory module processing experiment modules containing the tissue samples then inserting the modules inside an artificial gravity-generating research platform.
Results may advance the manufacture of high-quality vascularized tissues and organs improving long term health for astronauts and quality of life for patients on Earth.
Cardman wrapped up her shift on Monday treating bone stem cell samples in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox for preservation in a science freezer and later analysis.
Researchers are exploring how microgravity affects bone tissue to safeguard a crew member’s skeletal system and possibly treat aging conditions and bone diseases on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fincke worked inside the Harmony module exploring ways to produce vitamins and nutrients on spacecraft helping supply adequate nutrition for long-term space missions.
He treated yeast, yogurt, and fermented milk samples then stowed them in a research incubator for the BioNutrients-3 investigation seeking to create a biomanufacturing facility to help sustain future space crews.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, station Commander and Flight Engineer respectively, spent Monday configuring the new Progress 93 for docked operations.
The duo began Monday checking out a docking mechanism inside of the Zvezda service module’s aft port where Progress arrived on Saturday. Ryzhikov and Zubritsky then spent the rest of their shift transferring water and unpacking cargo from inside the Progress.
Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov focused on science photographing landmarks in South America for analysis and maintaining physics research hardware that observes complex plasmas potentially advancing spacecraft designs and industrial processes on Earth.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/09/15/crew-awaits-second-cargo-mission-in-less-than-a-week-keeps-up-biotech-research/
New Mexico Scientific Balloon Campaign Update – Sept. 14
September 15, 2025
NASA launched two scientific balloon missions from the agency’s Fort Sumner, New Mexico, launch facility Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. This marks the first time two scientific balloons were launched on the same day since 2011.
The JPL-Remote mission launched at 10:12 a.m. EDT (8:12 a.m. MDT) Sept. 14, 2025. The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of 127,000 feet and flew for 12 hours, 58 minutes.
The mission’s main goal is to measure how different gases are layered in Earth’s atmosphere to check satellite data and track long-term changes since 1989.
The Cosmic Dust Collection Project (CDCP) mission launched at 12:10 p.m. EDT (10:10 a.m. MDT). The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of 125,000 feet and flew for 8 hours, 36 minutes.
The mission’s aimed to capture cosmic dust at different altitudes in Earth’s atmosphere to study how much of this dust has contaminated the stratosphere.
To follow the missions in the 2025 Fort Sumner campaign, visit NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility website for real-time updates of balloons’ altitudes and locations during flight.
New Mexico Scientific Balloon Campaign Update- Sept. 4
The High-Altitude Student Platform 2 (HASP2) successfully launched at 8:28 a.m. MDT (10:28 a.m. EDT) Thursday, Sept. 4 and reached a float altitude of nearly 122,000 feet.
HASP remained in flight for a total of 11 hours,40 minutes. Science reports a successful flight. The balloon and payload have safely landed, and recovery efforts are underway.
The HASP2 program is a collaborative effort between Louisiana Space Grant Consortium at Louisiana State University (LaSPACE - LSU), NASA SMD: Astrophysics Division, NASA Balloon Program Office (BPO) and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) to develop and operate an inexpensive platform that can be used to flight test compact satellites, prototypes and other small payloads designed and built by students.
The High Altitude Student Platform 2 (HASP2) is designed to carry up to twenty-four (24) student payloads at a time to an altitude of about 110,000 feet with flight durations of 15 to 20 hours.
Student Payloads and Organizations for 2025 include:
Big Red Sat 1.5 – The University of Nebraska Lincoln
STRAINS 4.0 – Sint-Pieters College Jett
Bat Sat – University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
FLC Ionizing Radiation vs Solar Insolation (IRSI) Experiment – Fort Lewis College
Strato Sentinal – University of Boston Massachusetts
Ozone Sensors Payload – University of North Florida
Astrolab – Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería
Spectra Solis – College of the Canyons
Astro Tracker II - Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería
MSTRI – McMaster University
OLIMPO - Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/wallops/2025/09/15/new-mexico-scientific-balloon-campaign-update-sept-14/
https://towerfts.csbf.nasa.gov/
Thats a loaded comms filled ad…
Jupiter pictures directed from Reading for NASA mission
15 September 2025
Space scientists in Reading are playing a vital role this week in an important NASA mission to photograph Jupiter.
Dr James O’Donoghue and a team of scientists have been using the Keck telescope remotely to photograph the gas giant.
The W.M. Keck Observatory is based in Hawaii and has the largest infrared telescope in the world.
The images were taken in support of the NASA Juno spacecraft mission, launched in 2011 to study Jupiter. Juno is currently the only spacecraft visiting any of the gas giant planets.
Dr O’Donoghue said: “It’s really exciting that we can do this cutting-edge space research right from Reading. In the past, scientists had to travel to special facilities or even to Hawaii to make these kinds of observations.
Now we can control this massive telescope remotely and get images of Jupiter that arrive within seconds of being taken.
“Our telescope observations enable us to take Jupiter's temperature and watch how its brightness changes, especially around the poles where spectacular light shows called auroras happen.
These auroras are incredibly powerful, driven by hundreds of trillions of watts of energy. Monitoring these auroras helps us understand how energy flows through Jupiter's atmosphere and how the planet interacts with its surrounding space environment.”
Images recovered from the observations show Jupiter in infrared and bright auroras at the planet’s poles.
The photographs also show a black circle in front of Jupiter, which is a moon called Callisto. The moon is so bright that the pixels appear black.
https://www.reading.ac.uk/news/2025/Research-News/Jupiter-pictures-directed-from-Reading-for-NASA-mission
Space City Gourmet Popcorn offers unique flavors in Montgomery
9:15 AM Sep 16, 2025 CDT
Julie Long said her mission through Space City Gourmet Popcorn is to introduce gourmet popcorn as more than a holiday snack.
The Houston Space City-themed popcorn shop opened in November 2024 in time for Thanksgiving, Long said.
While popular during the holidays, the popcorn shop, based in Montgomery, offers over 30 flavors of popcorn at a time, with seasonally themed options throughout the year.
What's special about it?
The veteran-operated business is owned by Julie Long and her husband, Jason Long, who are also owners of Longview Greens Miniature Golfing in Montgomery.
With eight years of experience in the business industry, as well as long-term Montgomery residents, Julie Long said the idea for Space City Gourmet Popcorn came to them while discussing the endless possibilities for popcorn.
“People don't realize how many different things you can do with popcorn, the sky's the limit,” Julie Long said.
As an initiative to support its community, Julie Long said Space City Gourmet Popcorn offers fundraising opportunities.
Through their website, any organization can purchase popcorn at a lower cost and sell it for fundraising purposes.
What they offer
Space City Gourmet Popcorn offers a variety of popcorn flavors made daily.
Flavors offered range from classic butter popcorn and cheddar popcorn to bacon jalapeno and fireball popcorn.
Other unique flavors include birthday cake, dreamsicle and fruit flavors.
“The bacon jalapeno has the taste of jalapeno with that smoky bacon flavor, but it's not spicy, altogether, it's so good,” Julie Long said.
For Halloween, Julie Long said she is working on a few new seasonal additions, including the monster mash and pumpkin spice.
For Christmas, customers can expect Christmas crack made with toffee and drizzled with chocolate and sprinkles.
With various unique flavors to choose from, Space City Gourmet Popcorn offers free samples to allow customers to try its diverse flavors.
https://communityimpact.com/houston/conroe-montgomery/business/2025/09/16/space-city-gourmet-popcorn-offers-unique-flavors-in-montgomery/
https://spacecitypopcorn.com/
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Fly_through_Gaia_s_3D_map_of_stellar_nurseries
https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/540/1/L21/8085153
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/541/3/2324/8172009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cejvjP-a77k
Fly through Gaia’s 3D map of stellar nurseries
16/09/2025
Scientists created the most accurate three-dimensional map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope.
This map will teach us more about these obscure cloudy areas, and the hot young stars that shape them.
It is notoriously difficult to map and study regions in space where stars form because they are usually hidden from view by thick clouds of gas and dust, whose distances cannot be directly measured.
Gaia can’t see these clouds directly, but it can measure stellar positions and the so-called ‘extinction’ of stars. This means it can see how much light from stars is blocked by dust.
From this, scientists can create 3D maps showing where the dust is, and use those maps to figure out how much ionised hydrogen gas is present – a telltale sign of star formation.
Extremely bright, young stars
The new 3D map of star-forming regions in the Milky Way is based on Gaia observations of 44 million ‘ordinary’ stars and 87 O-type stars. The map extends to a distance of 4000 light-years from us, with the Sun at the centre.
O stars are rare stars: they are young, massive, and extremely bright and hot. They shine bright in ultraviolet light. These light rays are so energetic that they can strip electrons away from hydrogen atoms when hitting them.
In this way, they ‘ionise’ the hydrogen gas around the hot stars, meaning it becomes a mixture of charged particles [1]. This is one way that astronomers can identify regions in space where stars are being born.
Many telescopes have observed these regions, so we have a good idea of what they look like from our point of view. But no one really knew what they look like in three dimensions, or from an outside perspective.
Imagine that you are looking at the Milky Way from another galaxy. No spacecraft can travel beyond our galaxy, so we can’t take an actual photo.
Fortunately, the Gaia mission is creating the most accurate multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way, giving astronomers the data to infer what it would look like.
Gaia’s sky maps – in all three spatial coordinates (3D) plus three velocities (moving towards and away from us, and across the sky) – have revealed the precise motions and positions of millions of nearby stars.
With this, the telescope has already revolutionised our view of the solar neighbourhood, allowing scientists to comprehensively map the stars and interstellar material near the Sun in a way they were unable to do before.
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“Gaia provides the first accurate view of what our section of the Milky Way would look like from above,” explains Lewis McCallum, astronomer at the University of St Andrews, UK, and first author of two scientific papers explaining the new 3D model.
“There has never been a model of the distribution of the ionised gas in the local Milky Way that matches other telescope’s observations of the sky so well.
That’s why we are confident that our top-down view and fly-through movies are a good approximation of what these clouds would look like in 3D.”
Lewis’s new map includes 3D views of the Gum Nebula, the North American Nebula, the California Nebula, and the Orion-Eridanus superbubble.
It allows us to fly around, through, and above these areas containing stellar nurseries.
Giant cavity of interstellar matter
With the map, scientists can learn more about how the giant O stars energise gas in our galaxy, and how far out their influence reaches.
Lewis and his colleagues already noticed that some of the clouds in the star-forming regions seem to have broken open, and streams of gas and dust are likely venting into a giant cavity (which can be spotted at second 4 of this video).
“This map nicely shows how radiation of massive stars ionises the surrounding interstellar medium and how dust and gas interact with this radiation.
The 3D model provides a detailed look at the processes that shape our local galactic environment and helps astronomers understand interactions between the warm and cold components of the local Universe," explained Sasha Zeegers, ESA Research Fellow and an expert on interstellar dust.
In the future, this map will span an even larger area of the Milky Way. “It required huge computational power to generate the map out to ‘just’ 4000 light-years from the Sun in high resolution [2].
We hope that the map can be expanded further out once Gaia has released its new set of data,” says Lewis.
“Gaia’s distance measurements of the nearby hot stars, and the 3D maps of dust – obtained from measuring the extinction and positions of millions of ordinary stars using Gaia data – are both crucial ingredients of this new map.
Gaia’s fourth data release will contain data of even better quality and quantity, making it possible to further advance our knowledge of star-forming regions,” confirms Johannes Sahlmann, ESA’s Gaia Project Scientist.
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https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/are-little-red-dots-seen-by-the-james-webb-space-telescope-actually-elusive-black-hole-stars
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/09/aa54681-25/aa54681-25.html
Are 'little red dots' seen by the James Webb Space Telescope actually elusive 'black hole stars'?
September 15, 2025
New research suggests that "little red dots" seen in the early universe may actually be a new class of cosmic object: black hole stars.
If this theory is correct, it could explain how black holes managed to grow to supermassive sizes before the universe was even 1 billion years old.
Little red dots are one of the most curious celestial objects viewed thus far by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Astronomers theorize that they are early galaxies that existed earlier than 700 million years after the Big Bang, that are unlike anything seen in the local and "modern" 13.8 billion-year-old universe.
If they are galaxies, these little red dots are surprisingly mature and well-developed for galaxies that exist so soon after the Big Bang, packed with aging and cold red stars.
In fact, the concept is so troubling to scientists that some have dubbed little red dots "universe breakers" as they challenge what we thought we knew about galaxy formation and cosmic evolution.
This new research, however, could apply some superglue to our broken theories by suggesting a new identity for little red dots and an entirely new class of cosmic object.
Performing an analysis of the little red dots, the researchers suggested that, rather than being ancient, well-developed galaxies, little red dots may be vast spheres of dense and hot gas that look like the atmospheres of stars.
However, rather than being powered by nuclear fusion, like stars are, the engines of these objects are supermassive black holes greedily feeding on surrounding matter and blasting out energy.
"Basically, we looked at enough red dots until we saw one that had so much atmosphere that it couldn't be explained as typical stars we'd expect from a galaxy," team member and Penn State University researcher Joel Leja said in a statement. "It's an elegant answer, really, because we thought it was a tiny galaxy full of many separate cold stars, but it's actually, effectively, one gigantic, very cold star."
The theory could explain why little red dots appear more massive and much brighter than galaxy formation models suggest. To be so bright, a galaxy would have to be loaded with stars at an impossible density.
"The night sky of such a galaxy would be dazzlingly bright," Princeton University researcher Bingjie Wang said. "If this interpretation holds, it implies that stars formed through extraordinary processes that have never been observed before."
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Little red dot theories fall off 'the Cliff'
Initially believing little red dots are ancient galaxies, Leja and colleagues examined light from these objects at different wavelengths, or spectra, throughout 2024.
In July of that year, this investigation led to the discovery of an early and large object, which they nicknamed "the Cliff."
The team realized that the Cliff, located around 12 billion light-years from Earth, is exactly the sort of object they needed to investigate the nature of the JWST's little red dots.
"The extreme properties of The Cliff forced us to go back to the drawing board and come up with entirely new models," team member and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy researcher Ann de Graaff said in a separate statement.
The spectra of the Cliff indicated that it is coming from a single object, not a wealth of densely packed stars.
In fact, it appears to be the result of a supermassive black hole that is feeding so voraciously that it is cocooned by a fiery sphere of gas.
Though supermassive black holes sit at the heart of all large galaxies, and some are indeed feeding, scientists aren't exactly sure how they reached masses equivalent to millions or even billions of suns.
This is especially perplexing when supermassive black holes are seen in a time when the universe was less than 1 billion years old.
That's because the merger chains of subsequently larger and larger black holes that are thought to create supermassive black holes should take longer than 1 billion years, even if this growth is supported by the accretion of matter by the black holes involved.
The mass increase of feeding black holes like the one seen as the Cliff is "turbo-charged," meaning these new black hole stars could help to explain the growth of supermassive black holes.
"No one's ever really known why or where these gigantic black holes at the center of galaxies come from," said Leja.
"These black hole stars might be the first phase of formation for the black holes that we see in galaxies today — supermassive black holes in their little infancy stage."
The JWST is sure to continue to investigate little red dots in the early universe to get to the bottom of their true nature, but the team thinks their theory is the one that best fits the current picture of these perplexing objects.
"This is the best idea we have and really the first one that fits nearly all of the data, so now we need to flesh it out more," Leja said. "It's okay to be wrong.
The universe is much weirder than we can imagine, and all we can do is follow its clues. There are still big surprises out there for us."
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We can finally predict when Mars' skies will glow green with auroras, scientists say
September 15, 2025
Mars may be known as the Red Planet, but under the right cosmic conditions, its skies shimmer emerald with auroras — and for the first time, scientists think they can predict the spectacle.
Being able to predict Martian auroras, which result from solar storms that also unleash harmful radiation, could provide future astronauts with crucial warning and time to take cover, scientists say.
Auroras occur when charged particles from the sun slam into a planet's atmosphere and collide with atoms and molecules there, leading to a glow.
On Earth, our magnetic field funnels those particles toward the poles, giving rise to the famous northern and southern lights. But Mars lost its global magnetic field long ago, a change that also helped transform it from a wet world into the dry planet we see today.
With no shield to steer solar particles, the entire nightside sky can glow with diffuse green light, caused by oxygen atoms less than 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) above the surface.
In March 2024, NASA's Perseverance rover made skywatching history by capturing the first visible-light aurora on Mars, marking the first time such a phenomenon had been observed from the ground of another world.
Last week at the Europlanet Science Congress–Division for Planetary Sciences (EPSC–DPS) meeting in Helsinki, Finland, Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, reported a second detection and described new tools her team developed to forecast when auroras will appear.
"The fact that we captured the aurora again demonstrates that our method for predicting aurorae on Mars and capturing them works," Knutsen said in a statement.
Unlike on Earth, where aurora forecasting benefits from decades of data, predicting Martian auroras is still a trial-and-error science.
As part of the new study, Knutsen and her team programmed Perseverance's cameras to watch the sky after solar eruptions known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) blasted in the direction of Mars.
These massive outbursts hurl billions of tons of charged particles into space — and the faster the CME, the more likely it is to spark an aurora.
But rover observations must be scheduled about three days in advance, as mission teams on Earth need time to plan, validate and transmit commands to Mars.
This forces researchers to make educated bets on which storms are promising enough to target, according to the statement.
Between 2023 and 2024, the team tried eight times. The first attempts came up empty because the CMEs weren't strong enough.
Later, however, by focusing on faster, more intense storms, the researchers succeeded in capturing two instances of glowing green auroras, according to the statement.
Still, not every powerful CME produced a lightshow. "Statistically there is also a degree of randomness to these things, so sometimes we're just unlucky," Knutsen said in the statement.
"Predicting the aurora on Earth down to minute precision isn't an exact science either."
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/we-can-finally-predict-when-mars-skies-will-glow-green-with-auroras-scientists-say
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/EPSC-DPS2025-1314.html
https://www.europlanet.org/epsc-dps2025-predicting-the-green-glow-of-aurorae-on-the-red-planet/
China snaps US ‘surveillance’ satellite in rare eye-for-eye move over space assets
Updated: Sep 16, 2025 03:45 AM EST
hina claims to have turned the tables in orbit.
One of its satellites recently photographed a US “surveillance” satellite allegedly observing Chinese space assets.
Analysts describe it as a striking example of tit-for-tat monitoring in the fast-evolving space domain.
On September 8, a Jilin-1 satellite from Chang Guang Satellite Technology captured four images of the American WorldView Legion satellite from about 40 to 50 kilometers (31 miles) away.
The South China Morning Post reported that the images were released on the company’s official social media account last weekend. It marked the first time Chang Guang publicly shared dynamic pictures of another satellite in orbit.
Following a US observation
This move came just two months after US-based Maxar Intelligence released images of China’s Shijian-26 satellite.
On June 3, Maxar’s WorldView Legion satellite took high-resolution photographs of Shijian-26 from 29 and 74 kilometers (18 and 46 miles) away. The shots revealed sharp structural details with clarity as fine as 1.9 centimeters (0.75 inches).
Maxar also posted images of China’s Tiangong space station and even the International Space Station, both captured at 10-centimeter (3.9 inches) resolution.
According to Susanne Hake, general manager of Maxar’s US government business, Shijian-26 is part of China’s newest generation of optical reconnaissance satellites.
The quality of the photos highlighted just how advanced orbital observation has become.
Growing satellite capabilities
Chang Guang, China’s first commercial remote sensing company, is expanding fast. It now operates over 100 Jilin-1 satellites, capable of 0.5-meter resolution and revisits of any global location within 10 minutes.
The company produces up to 200 remote sensing satellites and 200 communication satellites each year, signaling its push toward large-scale constellations.
The company has already demonstrated its ability to track rocket launches and even military aircraft during parades.
In 2024, it carried out ultra-high-speed laser communication tests, reaching 100 gigabits per second between satellites and ground stations.
Photographing another satellite in motion, however, is much harder. It requires pinpoint tracking and precise control to overcome the challenge of extremely high relative velocities in orbit.
Military analysts say such reverse observation techniques are more than symbolic. They allow real-time tracking, identification, and early warning of orbital activities.
These skills are critical for monitoring space objects and can play a role in validating anti-satellite operations.
Rising tensions in orbit
The exchange of satellite imagery highlights a larger reality that space is turning into a contested arena. The United States established the Space Force in 2019 as its sixth military branch.
China followed in 2024 by creating the People’s Liberation Army Aerospace Force, which joined a major parade in Beijing earlier this month.
While China insists its space force focuses on peaceful exploration, incidents have already sparked friction.
In 2021, Chinese officials reported that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites came dangerously close to the Tiangong space station twice, forcing evasive maneuvers.
Beijing urged Washington at the time to ensure safer operations and follow international law.
Analysts warn that as both nations strengthen their orbital surveillance and tracking, the risk of misunderstandings will rise. Imaging satellites may be a sign of technological prowess, but they also carry deterrence value.
Combined with emerging tools like laser weapons, they could even open the door to offensive and defensive engagements in space.
Experts argue that clear rules of behavior are urgently needed. Without them, the growing militarization of orbit could quickly escalate into open conflict.
https://interestingengineering.com/military/china-captures-images-of-us-spacecraft
https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1966803140713263287
Work Has Begun to Adapt Qatari 747 to Fly as Air Force One
Sept. 15, 2025
The Air Force has started modifying a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar for “executive airlift,” a spokesperson said Sept. 15.
President Donald Trump has said he wants to fly the jet as “Air Force One” since new presidential transports, held up by delays, won’t be ready until after his term is over.
“As directed by the Secretary of War, the Air Force is modifying a Boeing 747 aircraft for Executive Airlift support,” the Air Force spokesperson said in a brief statement to media outlets. “Details related to the contract are classified.”
he spokesperson declined to answer further questions from Air & Space Forces Magazine, offering no details on either the contract, the contractor, or the scope of work.
The Pentagon officially accepted the 747-8 jet from the Qatari government in May, and Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Air Force at that time to start planning the necessary modifications to enable it to be a suitable presidential transport, Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink told lawmakers in June.
Meink said the cost of the “retrofit of that aircraft is actually probably less than $400 million,” but critics in Congress countered the cost will approach $1 billion. With the contract classified, actual costs remain a public mystery.
While the Air Force has not identified the contractor for the retrofit, multiple media outlets have reported that L3Harris got the job.
Trump has suggested he could fly on the temporary Air Force One as soon as February 2026. The goal at a minimum is for him to do so before his term ends in January 2029.
Boeing won a $3.5 billion contract in 2018 to deliver two 747s adapted for presidential requirements in the VC-25B program. But upgrading the two pre-owned, but never-operated 747-8s has dragged on.
Boeing has incurred $2 billion in losses on the fixed-price deal, and cites the struggle to find skilled labor with the clearances needed to work on such a highly classified project. Supply chain issues have also contrbuted to delays.
How the Pentagon can get the 13-year-old ex-Qatari jet adapted and flying faster than the VC-25B program, is not clear, but the use of the “executive airlift” label, as opposed to “presidential transport,” could suggest a different set of requirements.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/work-has-begun-to-adapt-qatari-747-to-fly-as-air-force-one/
China expands space internet satellite network
Updated: 2025-09-16 21:15
China launched several experimental satellites into space on Tuesday morning, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's leading space contractor.
The satellites, part of the Space-based Internet Technology Demonstrator series, were carried into their preset orbit by a Long March 2C carrier rocket that blasted off at 9:06 am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.
The mission marked the seventh orbital deployment of satellites in the Space-based Internet Technology Demonstrator series. The first launch of such satellites took place in July 2023.
A notable feature of the mission is that one of the satellites is equipped with a set of full-flexible solar panels that can be rolled up.
Developed by GalaxySpace, a Beijing-headquartered private satellite company, the satellite is the world's first to have such an apparatus.
Designers said that when fully folded, the solar panels have a combined area as large as a standard meeting room, and when rolled up, their diameter is as small as a coffee cup.
The new design not only greatly reduces the weight and space needed for solar panels but also facilitates multi-satellite launches, according to the developers.
A product of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, the Long March 2C rocket is 43 meters long and 3.35 meters wide and has a liftoff weight of 242.5 metric tons.
The rocket is mainly used to deploy satellites to low-Earth and sun-synchronous orbits.
The launch marked the 595th mission of the Long March family and China's 56th rocket launch in 2025.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202509/16/WS68c962faa3108622abca1188.html