TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
January 26, 2026
NGC 55: A Galaxy of Nebulas
Can you see nebulas in other galaxies? Yes, some nebulas shine brightly enough – if you know how to look. Clouds of hydrogen and oxygen emit light at very specific colors, and by isolating them, astronomers and astrophotographers can reveal structures that would otherwise be too faint to notice. This deep, 50-hour exposure highlights glowing hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue) across galaxy NGC 55, viewed nearly edge-on. Also known as the String of Pearls Galaxy, NGC 55 is often compared to our Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), although NGC 55 lies much farther away at about 6.5 million light-years. The resulting image uncovers a sprinkling of emission nebulas within and sometimes above the galaxy's dusty disk, offering a detailed look at distant star-forming regions.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxpfBS7HS8
Earth Discharge Warning, Magnetic Field/Earth Tilt/Pole Shift | S0 News and frens
Jan.26.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nzZl_TxNT0
https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/red-and-green-sky-over-europe-nasa-photo/
https://x.com/FinanceLancelot/status/2015477956215238779
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2015546967057973659
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2015495551891185960
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2015462381766271262
https://x.com/SchumannBotDE
https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-northern-lights-possible-tonight-jan-26
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-geomagnetic-forecast
https://spaceweather.com/
https://www.weather.gov/
Michael Bradbury
@MrMBB333
UNUSUAL RADAR SIGNATURE DURING HISTORIC STORM
A strange radar anomaly appeared as a powerful winter storm moved through on Jan 25, 2026.
The structure stood out from surrounding precipitation and ice bands, not matching typical radar patterns seen during the event.
No conclusions — just documenting what was observed.
📡 Observed by Tim Laster — Indiana
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2015551336490934281
Post-Perihelion Spectrum of 3I/ATLAS
January 26, 2026
After its closest-approach to the Sun (perihelion) on October 29, 2025, the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was observed on November 16, 2025 by the Keck Cosmic Web Imager of the Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
At that time, 3I/ATLAS was at a distance of 1.509 AU from the Sun and 2.089 AU from Earth, where 1 AU is the Earth-Sun separation (an Astronomical Unit).
Earlier, pre-perihelion observations indicated that the plume of gas around 3I/ATLAS had an anomalously high nickel (Ni) to iron (Fe) ratio at large distances from the Sun.
Based on the new data, 3I/ATLAS shows a strong evolution in the Ni/Fe ratio, in proportion to distance from the Sun to the power of 1.15 ± 0.05.
At heliocentric distances beyond 2.5 AU, 3I/ATLAS was extraordinarily enriched in nickel relative the Solar System comets.
The cyanide (CN) emission has a steeper dependence on heliocentric distance than tri-carbon (C3) and di-carbon molecules.
Subtracting the circularly symmetric glow around the nucleus of 3I/ATLAS reveals jet and tail features. Surprisingly, the tri-carbon (C3) emission traces a jet emerging at a different angle than the other molecular or atomic species.
While the nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), cyanide (CN), and di-carbon (C2) features are roughly aligned with the Sun, tri-carbon (C3) is misaligned with the anti-solar direction and the other emission features.
The NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory is expected to discover many more interstellar objects before their perihelion passage, enabling an improved understanding of how unusual the nickel-to-iron ratio and jet structure of 3I/ATLAS are.
Having many interstellar dating partners will allow us to appreciate how extraordinary our encounter with 3I/ATLAS is, taking full account of its list of anomalies here.
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/post-perihelion-spectrum-of-3i-atlas-1e4a7e81d303
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/what-if-3i-atlas-is-ai-atlas-e51cfbc94181
https://astrobiology.com/2026/01/spherex-re-observation-of-interstellar-object-3i-atlas-in-december-2025-detection-of-increased-post-perihelion-activity-refractory-coma-dust-and-new-coma-gas-species.html
https://www.uniladtech.com/science/space/scientists-discover-mystery-object-metallic-cloud-604661-20260123
https://x.com/nnnovaaaaaaa/status/2015666065511211344
https://x.com/SCloud52801/status/2015773353026691472
https://x.com/thesentinelnet/status/2015643055286878525
https://x.com/Defence12543/status/2015782502598873385
https://thesentinelnetwork.substack.com/p/we-analyzed-the-new-3iatlas-spectrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K2ocBmOA4I (Ray's Astrophotography: Comet 3I ATLAS - It Has a DEFINITE JET STRUCTURE - I Took a PICTURE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz2jYmvP5ls (John Lenard Walson: SONGBRIDGE: Quantum Communication & 3I/ATLAS Space-to-Brain Mission)
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/landsat/landsat-science-at-agu25/
Landsat Science at AGU25
Jan 26, 2026
At the 2025 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (AGU25), scientists and researchers from around the world met to discuss the present and future of remote sensing.
The conference is the largest annual gathering of Earth and space scientists, and was held December 15-19 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Thousands of scientists, educators, and policymakers gathered at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center under the theme “Where Science Connects Us.”
NASA Landsat 8/9 Program Scientist Nima Pahlevan contributed to a session titled “Public Data, National Priorities: Unlocking Value with Landsat,” which focused on how Landsat’s free and open data can power innovation across private and public sectors.
The session highlighted Landsat’s role in energy development, artificial intelligence, national security, and other key national needs.
The panelists highlighted Landsat’s role as a foundational dataset, emphasizing the importance of its long historical record and reliable data for both scientific and operational applications.
They noted specific applications of Landsat data, including wildfire preparedness, forest management, urban heat island analysis, and near real-time change detection, which contribute to the large economic value of the Landsat data record.
“Landsat is our historical record of the Earth's surface,” said David Roy, lead member of the 2026-2030 Landsat Science Team.
Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS)—one of NASA’s most downloaded datasets—was highlighted in multiple posters at AGU25.
Junchang Ju, technical science lead on the HLS project, presented recent milestones and a vision for the future of HLS, highlighting the improved 1.6 day temporal repeat of HLS Version 2.0 and the forthcoming low-latency product.
Ju also presented research from Qiang Zhou, member of the GSFC HLS Team, that compared the HLS surface reflectance product to that of MODIS and found a high degree of consistency between the two.
Margaret Wooten, member of the same Team, presented research that used HLS to evaluate crop type dynamics on small farms in sub-Saharan Africa dryland ecosystems.
Leveraging the high temporal revisit of HLS, she analyzed how crop types change throughout dry and rainy seasons in a pilot site in southwest Niger.
News from the National Land Imaging Program
Dan W. Opstal, deputy program coordinator of the National Land Imaging (NLI) Program in the U.S. Geological Survey presented on the transformative impact of the NLI Program, which leverages Landsat satellite data.
Opstal highlighted how Landsat's superior radiometric precision and multi-decadal data archive serve critical federal needs including earthquake deformation analysis, drought monitoring, and Western U.S. snow monitoring.
He also highlighted Landsat’s support for the LANDFIRE program, which provides federal agencies with vegetation analysis and estimates of wildfire fuel.
He emphasized Landsat's unique capabilities for applications including critical mineral mapping and decisionmaking, while showcasing how the program is complemented by commercial satellite imagery.
Opstal outlined Landsat’s planned future enhancements to address 21st-century challenges while maintaining consistent global acquisition, continuing and expanding on Landsat’s long legacy.
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Landsat’s Global Land Monitoring Legacy
Matthew Hansen, head of the Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab at the University of Maryland, presented an analysis of Landsat's transformative journey and future challenges in Earth observation.
Hansen’s lab develops influential global land surface change products, including the disturbance monitoring system DIST-ALERT using Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 data.
At AGU25, he discussed how the program’s value has increased over time through improved sensors, reduced revisit times, and the landmark 2008 decision to make all data freely available.
He highlighted how NASA’s open data policy has enabled routine global-scale monitoring and facilitated breakthrough applications using deep learning algorithms that can process contextual information at unprecedented scales.
Hansen also addressed critical concerns emerging from the expansion of data sources and algorithms, emphasizing the need for robust validation standards, model transparency, strategic integration of public and commercial Earth observation data, and sustained support for future Landsat missions to meet evolving societal needs.
Over Four Decades of Glacier Tracking
Joseph H. Kennedy, staff scientist at the Alaska Satellite Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, presented NASA's groundbreaking Inter-mission Time Series of Land Ice Velocity and Elevation (ITS_LIVE) Version 2.0 dataset, a global glacier velocity archive spanning over four decades.
ITS_LIVE, a project from the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) initiative, developed in collaboration with NASA scientists, has processed more than 36 million image pairs from Landsats 4-9 and Sentinel-1 and -2 satellites to track glacier movements since 1982.
The cloud-native dataset processes over 20,000 image pairs daily within minutes of satellite image availability. ITS_LIVE plans to incorporate NISAR data as well, continuing to open new frontiers for glaciological research.
An Algorithm for Enhanced Flood Mapping
Son K. Do, a graduate research assistant at the University of Virginia, presented an innovative method for improving satellite-based flood mapping at AGU25.
The study applies a water expansion algorithm called FLEXTH to NASA's Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx) product, which leverages Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 data to provide sub-weekly global surface water maps.
NASA's OPERA Project developed DSWx in direct response to federal agency needs identified by the Satellite Needs Working Group.
By estimating inundated areas based on elevation gradients, the research addresses the significant challenge of cloud and tree canopy obstructions that often result in incomplete flood assessments.
Applying this algorithm to major flood events like the Midwest U.S. flooding of April 2025 showed promising results in expanding flood detection in cloudy or forested areas.
Building Better Disaster Response with Prithvi
Disha Shidham, research assistant at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at Moffett Field, presented research on automated building damage assessment using Prithvi-EO-2.0, a large-scale, multi-temporal Vision Transformer foundation model jointly developed by IBM, NASA, and Jülich Supercomputing Centre.
The study demonstrates how the Prithvi model, originally trained on over 4.2 million Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 scenes, can be fine-tuned to classify building damage levels using the xBD dataset, which contains 850,736 building annotations across diverse disaster events. Despite being trained on 30-meter resolution imagery, the model successfully adapts to sub-meter resolution optical data.
This research highlights the transformative potential of large-scale geospatial AI models for near-real-time disaster response, offering automated damage estimation capabilities that could significantly enhance humanitarian assistance and recovery efforts following natural disasters.
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Finding Freshwater in Great Salt Lake
Jan 26, 2026
Declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake have revealed something odd in satellite images: dozens of small, circular features along the eastern edge of the drying lakebed in parts of Farmington Bay, Ogden Bay, and Bear River Bay.
University of Utah researchers gained an early clue about these features while traveling by airboat through the lake’s shallow bays years ago. They noticed circular patterns roiling the water surface in certain areas but were not sure why.
When water levels dropped and exposed portions of the lakebed, researchers began to find circular features in imagery from Landsat and other satellites and now think they must be related.
The image above (right) shows a cluster of at least seven of the features in Ogden Bay. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 acquired the image on September 13, 2025.
The image on the left, from the TM (Thematic Mapper) on Landsat 5, shows the same area on September 15, 2011, when water levels were significantly higher.
Higher-resolution sensors have imaged dozens of smaller, similar examples to the southwest and south of this cluster.
Their curiosity piqued, the researchers organized field expeditions to explore several of the features from the ground over the past year.
"It took some work to reach certain sites since we wanted to avoid using vehicles or other modern equipment that might damage the playa," said William Johnson, a geologist at the University of Utah.
Instead, they used snow bikes and garden tools to fight through thick patches of reeds to reach the center of the "islands" of vegetation.
Once there, they set up piezometers and other monitoring equipment at various depths and distances from the centers of the features to measure the pressure and salinity of the underlying water.
Groundwater proved salty toward the edges but fresher near the centers, encouraging the growth of circular mounds of phragmites.
It's these reeds that cause the features to stand out from the surrounding bright playa in satellite images.
The photograph above shows an example of one of the mounds in Ogden Bay just southeast of the Landsat image that the researchers call "Round Spot 8.”
After conducting a round of aerial electromagnetic surveys, the researchers think there are probably hundreds of these groundwater-fed oases spread across newly exposed parts of Great Salt Lake’s playa.
Johnson described the features as "windows" into an extensive underlying freshwater reservoir that scientists had not realized existed before.
Their analysis suggests that discharge from the freshwater springs may account for as much as 12 percent of the lake’s total water budget, much more than the roughly 3 percent that hydrologists assumed prior to the discovery.
The direct inflow of so much freshwater into one of the world’s largest salt lakes came as somewhat of a surprise. But Johnson thinks the freshwater could prove helpful.
"This isn't some huge new freshwater resource that we should tap on a large scale, but it might be useful for mitigating dust generation," he said.
Dried lakebeds are often major sources of dust because they’re usually rich with fine-grained sediments and have little vegetation to hold it in place. Water on the surface makes it harder for winds to lift dust and fuel dust storms.
Great Salt Lake water levels hit a record low in 2022. The declining water levels have raised concerns about increased exposure to toxic dust particles.
However, the trends in dust exposure and health impacts of Great Salt Lake’s dust remain unclear and under study, according to Johnson.
Researchers with the Great Salt Lake Strike Team attribute the decline to rising temperatures and consecutive dry years.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/finding-freshwater-in-great-salt-lake/
https://www.fastcompany.com/91480178/combining-the-artemis-mission-and-ai-will-fuel-a-new-surge-of-moon-landing-deniers
Combining the Artemis mission and AI will fuel a new surge of moon landing deniers
01-26-2026
On my phone, there are already videos of the next moon landing. In one, an astronaut springs off the rung of a ladder, strung out from the lander, before slowly plopping to the surface. He is, alas, still getting accustomed to the weaker gravity.
In another, the crew collects a sample—a classic lunar expedition activity—while another person lazily minds the rover. A third video shows an astronaut affixing the American flag to the ground, because this act of patriotism is even better the second time around.
The blue oceans of Earth are visible, in the background, and a radio calls out: “Artemis crew is on the surface.”
America is going back to the moon, and NASA is in the final weeks of preparing for the Artemis II mission, which will have astronauts conduct a lunar flyby for the first time in decades.
If all goes well, during the next endeavor, Artemis III, they’ll finally land on the lunar surface, marking an extraordinary and historical and in some sense, nostalgic, accomplishment.
The aforementioned videos are not advance copies, or some vision of the future, though. They were generated with OpenAI’s video generation model and are extremely fake.
Still, this kind of content is a reminder that the upcoming Artemis missions promise a major epistemic test for the deniers of the original moon landing.
This a small but passionate and enduring community who doubt the Apollo moon landing for a host of reasons, including that (they allege) the government lied or (they believe) it is simply physically impossible for humans to go the moon.
Now, when NASA returns to the lunar surface, these people will be confronted with far more evidence than from the last time around.
The space agency operation will be broadcast, live, and including camera technology and social media platforms that just weren’t around in the 1960s.
But there’s also a bigger challenge before us. NASA will be launching its moon return effort in a period of major distrust in American scientific and government institutions, and, amid the proliferation of generative AI, declining confidence in the veracity of digital content.
Most observers will be able to sort through the real NASA imagery, and anything fake that might show up. Still, there tends to be a small number of people who doubt these kinds of milestones, especially when a U.S. federal agency is involved.
Adding AI to the conspiracy theory cocktail
“When the moon landing first came in, AI wasn’t a thing. The sophistication of [the landing] didn’t necessarily make us question it,” says David Jolley, a professor at the University of Nottingham who studies conspiracy theories.
“But now, with the power of AI and the power of images that you can create, it certainly offers that different reality if you want to interpret it in that way.”
“It’s the trust in those sources that we need to kind of really create. Of course, if you haven’t got trust in our gatekeepers and you don’t trust scientists, well, suddenly you are going to lean into: well, this, is this real? Is this just AI?” he continues.
The upcoming Artemis missions aren’t yet a major topic among lunar landing deniers. But there are hints it will attract more attention from conspiracy theorists.
During the last Artemis mission, which was unmanned, Reuters had to push back on online posts suggesting the expedition “proved” that Apollo 11 didn’t actually happen.
(Skeptics suggested longer Artemis I mission timelines, a product of a change in route, actually cast doubt on the original Apollo timeline).
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Other online skeptics have already suggested that, with Artemis, NASA is yet again faking a space endeavor. Some people in internet conspiracy communities suggest the upcoming moon missions will be entirely CGI (computer-generated imagery).
Generative AI stands to introduce even more confusion, says Ben Colman, the CEO of Reality Defenders, a deep fake detection platform. Generating a believable image of a (fake) moon landing is now something any consumer can do.
“Any astute physicist will be able to tell you if these videos get star placement or physics wrong, as they are likely to do,” he says, “but even that is getting better with each model iteration.”
Conspiracy theories are sticky
There are, of course, many reasons why people say they deny reality of the first lunar expeditions.
They are canonical, misinterpreted references, like Van Allen belts, a zone of energetic charged particles that surrounds the planet (critics say the belts are too radioactive for manned vehicles to traverse) and the suspicious flag-in-the-wind (there’s no wind on the moon!).
All of these points—and the many other points deniers bring up—have been thoroughly debunked.
Still, this small community of self-appointed detectives are insistent. Even decades after the missions ended, people are still combing through NASA’s videos and images, mining for signs of alternations or other surreptitious editing.
To them, an expected shimmer reveals a film operation just beyond the view of the camera. A movement that might not look right is a hint that the world has been duped. Open source intelligence (OSINT) becomes the rabbit hole.
“Some allege we didn’t go to the moon, perhaps because we were trying to trick the Soviets into thinking that we had superior technology than they did,” explains Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami who also studies conspiratorial beliefs.
“Some people think we did go but it wasn’t televised. And that footage that we saw was made later in a sound studio. Some people think Stanley Kubrick was in charge of filming the ‘faked’ Moon Landing footage.”
For its part, NASA is preparing to point to evidence, should any deepfake allegations come their way.
Agency spokesperson Lauren Low tells Fast Company: “We expect AI experts will be looking closely at all our images and will be able to verify they are real images taken by real astronauts as part of the Artemis II test flight around the Moon.”
Moreover, Low added, there will be many ways for people to watch the lunar flyby themselves, including live broadcasts, two 24/7 YouTube streams, a new conference, and “views from Orion cameras.” In other words, the reality of Artemis will be very hard to deny.
Research suggests that conspiracy theories are entertaining, and even serve peoples’ core psychological needs, like a desire to understand the world or a way of dealing with uncertainty.
Finding other people, including on social media, pushing these theories can help normalize them, and make someone feel like they’re part of a broader community.
Some people simply don’t trust institutions, and evidence that something did, indeed, happen only raises further questions, and suspicions that it didn’t. To an extent, politics matters, too; people outside the United States are more likely to deny the moon landing, polls show.
In the end, says Uscinski, we should prepare for people who are prone to conspiratorial thinking, or prone to mistrusting institutions, to take a skeptical view of any big news event. This may happen again when the Artemis missions finally launch.
“The good news is that belief in conspiracy theories isn’t likely to get worse,” he explains. “The bad news is that this conspiratorial thinking has always been this pervasive.”
“People are very good at waving away evidence that tells them things they don’t want to hear, and they’re very good at believing things, either without evidence or with really shitty evidence when it tells them what they do want to believe about the world,” Uscinski adds. “You don’t need AI or sophisticated technology to provide a justification.”
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Oman joins Artemis Accords to enhance international cooperation in space exploration
Monday 26/January/2026 19:42 PM
Oman-US relations continue to witness development across various levels, particularly in the field of space exploration.
The Sultanate of Oman has officially approved its joining the Artemis Accords, alongside signing an agreement aimed at enhancing joint cooperation in the peaceful exploration of space.
In this context, Casey Swails, Deputy Associate Administrator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), stated that Oman’s inclusion in this group of 61 nations within the Artemis Accords reflects its commitment to shared values for space exploration conducted for peaceful purposes.
In a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA), Swails emphasised that building government-level partnerships is a fundamental pillar for agreeing on common goals and achievement mechanisms, which is what the Artemis Accords aim to achieve.
She explained that this step demonstrates the Omani government's keen interest in investing in the space sector, which is considered as one of the fastest-growing sectors globally and an essential component of technological progress.
She noted that during her participation in the Third Omani-US Strategic Dialogue, she observed a genuine desire from the Omani government to direct investments toward space, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and advanced technologies.
Swails detailed that the Accords establish unified standards to ensure interoperability, emphasizing the need for regulatory frameworks in space similar to those on Earth.
Just as there are strict rules for traffic and aviation safety, the space sector requires a common framework to address challenges and coordinate missions between nations.
She added that the principles of the Accords also include emergency cooperation by providing support to astronauts in distress, regardless of nationality.
The accords also include commitment to sharing scientific data, mission information, and launch schedules to foster trust among signatory nations.
Swails stressed that deep space missions will grow increasingly complex in the future, making international cooperation a necessity.
She noted that reaching ambitious goals would be impossible without the concerted efforts of international, commercial, and academic partnerships.
Regarding bilateral ties, Swails reaffirmed that the Sultanate of Oman and the United States share deep-rooted historical relations built on trust, diplomacy, and cooperation.
She concluded that the space sector represents the next frontier in expanding the horizons of this partnership.
https://timesofoman.com/article/167550-oman-joins-artemis-accords-to-enhance-international-cooperation-in-space-exploration
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords/
Atlas Cup launches world's first professional orbital sport, inaugural championship races to be held in Low Earth Orbit in 2028
26 Jan, 2026, 22:03 CST
Atlas Cup, the first professional sport to operate in space, today announces its inaugural championship to be held in 2028.
Founded in late 2025, Atlas Cup is a premier professional sports media property featuring uncrewed spacecraft competing in the fastest sport in history.
Showcasing cutting edge space technologies and awe-inspiring race formats, Atlas Cup introduces orbital sport by leveraging the heritage of classic racing competitions like America's Cup and Formula One to delight sports fans and bring competitive sport firmly into the 21st century.
"Atlas Cup will do for the space industry what professional racing did for the automotive industry," said Philip Hover-Smoot, CEO of Atlas Cup.
"It's time for space to be a source of inspiration again, and Atlas Cup is engineered to capture the extraordinary potential of space and deliver it to audiences across the world."
Orbital sport emerges at a moment of structural change. Like the early days of the automotive industry, the rapid expansion of the new space economy is bringing tremendous opportunity.
But, as the commercial space sector expands, operators face a fragmented and unproven supplier ecosystem with limited objective performance data.
Atlas Cup introduces direct competition as both spectacle and instrument - creating compelling entertainment while generating an unparalleled dataset on spacecraft and component performance.
Global sports media is also undergoing its own rapid transformation. Next-generation engagement and cord-cutting are pressuring traditional models and premium content remains in high demand.
Atlas Cup is uniquely positioned to lead in this new environment because orbital racing addresses both trends simultaneously, celebrating the leaders of the new space economy while producing awe inspiring never before seen sports content designed natively for social, mobile, and streaming channels.
Built on proven technologies and powered by a partnership model that externalizes traditional technical and regulatory risks, Atlas Cup establishes a new frontier for global sport.
"How do you know your system is the best?" added Hover-Smoot. "You win, in orbit. Head-to-head racing in space has never been done before. But when we combine the epic visuals of space with the magic of racing, we're going to get something truly special."
About Atlas Cup
Atlas Cup was founded in late 2025 by longtime industry executive and space industry investor Philip Hover-Smoot, who served most recently as CEO of Scout Space, a leading provider of secure in-space optics solutions to the U.S. Government.
Prior to that Philip served in senior executive roles at Spaceflight (acquired by Firefly Aerospace) and Momentus (a publicly listed space infrastructure firm).
With the support of a team of advisors spread across sports, entertainment, and space, Atlas Cup has partners across sports media, space, and technology.
More info at atlascup.com.
https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/atlas-cup-launches-worlds-first-professional-orbital-sport-inaugural-championship-races-to-be-held-in-low-earth-orbit-in-2028-302669708.html
China Freezes Space Launches After Failures: What Does It Mean for Future Missions
January 26, 2026 at 08:45
China’s ambitious space calendar has taken a sudden hit as multiple launches scheduled for February at the Wenchang Space Launch Center were abruptly cancelled.
While the reason remains unconfirmed, speculation is swirling about the country’s next-generation rocket, the Long March-10A, which may still lift off on February 11.
Surge Of Cancellations Disrupts China’s February Launch Schedule
According to reports from the South China Morning Post, nearly all rocket launches planned for next month at the Wenchang Space Center, located in Hainan Province, have been called off.
This unexpected move has triggered confusion and frustration among aerospace enthusiasts and tourists who had planned to witness the events.
The Changsha-based outlet cited an anonymous staff member at the spaceport who confirmed, “Only the test flight for a new type of rocket on February 11 [remains].”
The remark strongly hints at the possibility that China is prioritizing a critical test of the Long March-10A, a next-gen launch vehicle expected to support future lunar missions.
No official explanation has been released, but online chatter and industry observers point to recent technical failures as a potential cause.
These cancellations arrive at a time when China’s space ambitions are under increased scrutiny, and reliability in the face of growing global competition is a top concern.
A Heavy Blow To China’s Space Tourism And Public Enthusiasm
The Wenchang launch site has evolved into a popular destination for space tourism. Travel agencies like Muxi Holiday were quick to respond, announcing the cancellations of launches originally scheduled for February 9, 19, and 24.
These events were central to promotional travel packages, leaving travelers stranded and businesses in the region scrambling to adjust.
Posts from local accommodations, such as a hostel in Longlou township, further fueled speculation about the February 11 launch, suggesting that the mission could indeed be tied to the Long March-10A.
As anticipation builds, so does the pressure on China’s space authorities to deliver a successful launch amid a backdrop of disappointment.
The sudden cancellations without clarification have also raised concerns about transparency and communication from China’s space agencies.
What’s At Stake With The Long March-10A Test Flight
The Long March-10A is not just another rocket; it represents a cornerstone in China’s roadmap toward a crewed lunar landing.
Its design aims to carry heavier payloads and serve as the launch vehicle for more complex missions to the Moon and beyond.
A successful test flight on February 11 could help China’s space program regain momentum after these recent setbacks.
The rocket’s performance will be closely monitored both domestically and internationally. A flawless launch would signal resilience and technical mastery.
Any hiccup, however, could raise deeper questions about the program’s readiness for high-stakes missions.
As SCMP noted, the tension around this test is amplified by the silence from official sources, leaving room for speculation, pressure, and heightened expectations.
Shifting Momentum In The Global Space Race
The timing of these cancellations may prove critical as rival nations intensify their efforts in space exploration.
With NASA targeting its Artemis lunar missions and SpaceX pushing forward with Starship, China cannot afford delays or failed tests.
The Long March-10A is a direct answer to the West’s heavy-lift rockets, and its success could mark a turning point in the power dynamics of the 21st-century space race.
In recent years, China has made notable strides in launching crewed missions, lunar rovers, and Mars exploration. But reliability and consistency remain its Achilles’ heel.
The coming days will be a crucial chapter for China’s space ambitions, and all eyes are now on Wenchang, and on February 11.
https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/china-freezes-space-launches-after-failure/
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3341113/china-cancels-rocket-launches-after-failures-will-long-march-10a-still-lift
We're going to Thunderhead!
Mind-altering simulation shows the speed of the International Space Station at ground level
Last updated on Jan 26, 2026 at 5:34 PM (UTC+4)
A mind-altering simulation has shown just how fast the International Space Station (ISS) is from ground level.
The International Space Station is an engineering marvel, with its first launch nearly 30 years ago, and it is set to be de-orbited by the end of 2030.
From video footage recorded in space, it’s not possible to really tell just how fast the ISS is going as it hurtles around the planet.
But thanks to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, YouTuber Airplane Mode has given us an idea as to how fast it really is from ground level.
How fast is the International Space Station?
The orbital speed of the space station is one of the most impressive technological aspects of the ISS.
It can travel at 17,100mph, and its orbital period is 92.9 minutes – meaning it goes all the way around the globe every hour and a half or so.
To put that into context, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird can travel at 2,190mph, or Mach 3.3.
The North American X-15 rocket plane travels at 4,520mph or Mach 6.7.
That highlights just how fast the ISS really is.
Using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, YouTuber Airplane Mode was able to show just how fast it really is.
The ground-level footage shows us whizzing across the world at an incredible speed.
The ISS passes over towns and cities in seconds, sometimes even milliseconds.
Watching it from space, that speed is hard to compute.
The ISS is an incredible feat of engineering
Footage also compared the speed of the ISS to Mach 1, and it’s incredible how different it is.
The Space Station was built as part of a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Announced in 1993, assembly of the space station began in November 1998.
https://supercarblondie.com/simulation-shows-speed-of-international-space-station-ground-level/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thCdFxyLzSI
Johnny Huang to be the first Chinese celebrity to travel to space
Mon, 26 January 2026 at 1:38 am GMT-8
Johnny Huang has recently been named the first celebrity space tourist in China, after being selected as among the first Chinese tourists to travel to space.
The news was announced by the Beijing InterstellOr Manned Space Technology Co., Ltd., stating that the actor will be joining the first batch of China's first commercial manned spacecraft, "Traveler 1" in 2028, and receive the exclusive identity as Traveller 009.
As to why Johnny was selected, the representative of InterstellOr stated that the actor is known for his tough guy image and has also starred in the sci-fi drama, "Sea of Dreams" related to aerospace, which are in line with their requirements.
In a statement released on Weibo, Johnny expressed, "I am honoured to become a space tourist, to personally travel to that cosmos aboard China's own spacecraft, and I look forward to traversing the heavens and reaching the stars with fellow space travellers. Next stop, space."
The actor and more than 20 others are scheduled to fly on CYZ-1 in 2028 on a suborbital mission, during which he will cross the Kármán line - the internationally recognised boundary of space- and view Earth from orbit.
https://sg.style.yahoo.com/johnny-huang-first-chinese-celebrity-093800834.html
https://www.space.com/astronomy/dark-universe/scientists-just-got-the-clearest-picture-of-the-dark-universe-yet-now-the-dream-has-come-true
https://www.space.com/supernova-survey-suggests-dark-energy-may-change-over-time
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14559
Scientists just got the clearest picture of the dark universe yet: 'Now the dream has come true'
January 26, 2025
Scientists have been gifted with a clearer picture of the expansion of the universe and dark energy, the mysterious force driving the acceleration of this expansion, than ever before.
This comes courtesy of the analysis of six years' worth of data collected by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope.
The data analysed consists of 758 nights of observations of one-eighth of the sky conducted by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Collaboration between 2013 and 2019, during the deep, wide-area survey of the sky conducted using the 570-megapixel DECam, which recorded information from 669 million galaxies located billions of light-years from Earth.
This analysis represents the first time the four separate methods of studying dark energy have been united as one.
The results doubled the strength of the constraints on the effect of dark energy, an essential step toward discovering the true nature of this mysterious force that dominates the universe.
"These results from DES shine new light on our understanding of the universe and its expansion," Regina Rameika, Associate Director for the Office of High Energy Physics in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, said in a statement.
"They demonstrate how long-term investment in research and combining multiple types of analysis can provide insight into some of the universe’s biggest mysteries."
An expanding problem
The first hints of dark energy were uncovered in 1998 when two separate teams of astronomers observed distant supernovas, finding that the further away they were, the faster they were receding away from Earth.
That not only confirmed that the universe is expanding as Edwin Hubble suggested a century ago, but shockingly revealed that this expansion is accelerating. Dark energy is the placeholder name given to whatever is driving this acceleration.
In the 28 years since that discovery, scientists have determined that dark energy accounts for around 68% of the total energy and matter budget of the cosmos.
It has also been discovered that dark energy hasn't always dominated the 13.8 billion-year-old universe in this way; its effect only "kicked in" and overwhelmed the attractive force of gravity at large scales between 3 and 7 billion years ago.
These findings have only emphasised the need to understand what dark energy is.
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This new analysis considered Type-Ia supernovas, the same type used to first discover dark energy, in addition to three other probes of cosmic structure and expansion.
Those other phenomena are so-called weak gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that occurs when light from a background source passes an object of great mass and is curved; the clustering of galaxies; and so-called baryon acoustic oscillations, fluctuations of density in the early universe caused by pressure waves frozen into space around 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
"It is an incredible feeling to see these results based on all the data, and with all four probes that DES had planned," DES Collaboration member Yuanyuan Zhang, of NOIRLab, said.
"This was something I would have only dared to dream about when DES started collecting data, and now the dream has come true."
Using the data provided by DECam and the techniques described above, the DES team reconstructed matter distribution over the past 6 billion years of cosmic history.
They then compared these results against two of the prevailing models of the universe. These are the standard model of cosmology, also known as the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model, in which dark energy is stable over time; and the extended model (wCDM), in which dark energy is allowed to evolve over time.
The DES results conformed well to the LCDM, but also fit nicely with the wCDM.
But there is one parameter that these new results found to be off in comparison to both of these cosmic models: how matter in the modern universe is predicted to cluster based upon measurements of the early universe.
These findings not only confirmed that modern galaxies don't cluster as either the LCDM or the wCDM predicts, but the difference between observations and theory became even more pronounced.
The next step for DES will be to combine DECam data with observations of around 20 billion galaxies from the recently completed Vera C. Rubin Observatory when it begins its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
This should present an even clearer picture of the history of the universe and the nature of dark energy. "DES has been transformative, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will take us even further," Chris Davis, National Science Foundation Program Director, said.
"Rubin's unprecedented survey of the southern sky will enable new tests of gravity and shed light on dark energy."
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https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/01/26/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-gps-3-satellite-following-switch-from-ula-vulcan-rocket/
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-gps-iii-sv09-launch-space-force
https://www.spacex.com/launches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLtxlG9cwpQ
Live coverage: SpaceX to launch GPS 3 satellite following switch from ULA Vulcan rocket
January 26, 2026
The U.S. Space Force is set to send its ninth third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite into medium Earth orbit on Monday night.
The satellite will ride to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after the government moved the spacecraft from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket.
The mission, named GPS 3-9, will see the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 09 (SV09) payload deploy from the rocket’s upper stage nearly 1.5 hours after liftoff.
This latest positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellite is equipped with what the Space Force calls M-Code technology, which it calls critical to “provide the warfighter with a significantly more accurate and jam-resistant capability.”
Two field commands are overseeing the mission: the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) and Combat Forces Command (CFC).
SSC’s System Delta 80 (SYD 80) helps manage the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, the procurement process for launch vehicles; and CFC’s Mission Delta 31 is responsible for pre-launch satellite processing alongside Lockheed Martin, the satellite’s manufacturer.
Departure from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 11:42:23 p.m. EST on Monday, Jan. 26 (0442:23 UTC on Jan. 27).
The launch was delayed a day from Jan. 25, with SpaceX stating in a tweet that it was “keeping an eye on recovery weather.”
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 40 percent chance for favorable weather during the 15-minute launch window.
Meteorologists cited concerns with both the winds at liftoff as well as the booster recovery weather due in part to the major winter storm moving across parts of the country, which will bring a “strong cold front” to Florida.
“Behind the front, much colder and drier air will filter in as northerly winds significantly increase with the tightening pressure gradient,” launch weather officers wrote.
“These winds will be the main concern for the primary attempt on Monday night, as they are expected to approach and periodically exceed liftoff constraints.
Additionally, elevated winds and waves in the recovery area behind the departing storm will be a watch item.”
SpaceX will launch this mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster B1096. This will be its fifth flight after previously launching NASA’s IMAP ride share, NROL-77, Kuiper Falcon 01 (KF-01) and the Starlink 6-87 missions.
A little more than 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1096 is set to land on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. If successful, this will be the 141st landing on that vessel and the 564th booster landing for SpaceX to date.
It will be SpaceX’s second national security flight of the year, after launching the NROL-105 mission on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office on Jan. 16.
Spacecraft shuffle
The GPS 3-9 mission marks the third time that the Space Force opted to move one of these satellites from a Vulcan rocket to a Falcon 9.
Both ULA and SpaceX were awarded a series of GPS missions as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract, which was awarded to the two companies for $4.5 billion and $4 billion respectively.
By the time all missions were assigned, ULA was tasked with the launches of the GPS 3-7, GPS 3-8 and GPS 3-9 missions. SpaceX meanwhile was awarded the GPS 3-10 and GPS 3F-1, the latter of which is the first launch of a GPS 3 Follow-on satellite.
Things shifted for the first time when the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) made the decision to pull forward the launch of the GPS 3 SV07 satellite and launched it on a Falcon 9 rocket under the mission name Rapid Response Trailerblazer (aka GPS 3-10) in December 2024.
In exchange, ULA was tasked with the launch of the GPS 3 SV10 spacecraft on Vulcan.
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Another swap happened last year when SpaceX was called to launch the GPS 3-7 mission, which flew the GPS 3 SV08 spacecraft in May 2025. In exchange, ULA was given the GPS 3F-1 mission, which will carry the GPS 3F SV11 spacecraft.
According to SSC’s System Delta 80, based at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, here’s the breakdown of the currently assigned GPS satellites:
GPS 3- 9 (SV09) – SpaceX Falcon 9
GPS 3-8 (SV10) – ULA Vulcan
GPS 3F-1 (SV11) – ULA Vulcan
GPS 3F-2 (SV12) – ULA Vulcan
GPS 3F-3 (SV13) – ULA Vulcan
“For this launch, we traded a GPS 3 mission from a Vulcan to a Falcon 9, then exchanged a later GPS 3F mission from a Falcon Heavy to a Vulcan,” said USSF Col. Ryan Hiserote, SYD 80 Commander and NSSL program manager. “Our commitment to keeping things flexible – programmatically and contractually – means that we can pivot when necessary to changing circumstances.
“We have a proven ability to adapt the launch manifest to complex and dynamic factors and are continuing to shorten our timelines for delivering critical capabilities to warfighters.”
When the SV07 satellite was launched in December 2024, Vulcan was a couple of months past its second flight on its path towards becoming certified to launch national security payloads.
That government certification didn’t come until March 2025, just a couple months before the SV08 launch in May.
Spaceflight Now asked SSC whether the decision to launch SV09 on a Falcon 9 rocket was done to “minimize the impact of Vulcan delays,” as was stated following the launch of SV07.
A spokesperson for SLD 80 said the decision was made in order to get the GPS capability on orbit faster.
“Our capability to adapt the manifest is a critical component that keeps us flexible to the complex and dynamic factors of launch operations and warfighter priorities,” an SYD 80 spokesperson said.
“In this case, the Vulcan manifest was heavily congested, and the collaboration and partnership with our launch service providers allowed us to find a path forward that balanced contracted mission assignments against the priority to bolster critical capabilities for the Joint Force.”
During a media roundtable with members of SSC on Jan. 22, Col. Eric Zarybnisky, the program executive officer of SSC’s Assured Access to Space (AATS), said — without going into detail — that there are some consequences for needing to switch launch vehicles multiple times.
“There are delay penalties that are associated with the contract,” Zarybnisky said.
ULA’s next announced launch is the flight of the USSF-87 mission — unrelated to the GPS constellation — which is scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 2.
On Jan. 6, 2026, the Space Force published photos of the SV10 spacecraft being loaded onto a transport plane at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado to be flown to Florida for prelaunch processing, though a launch date hasn’t been announced.
As is the case with all GPS satellites, SV09 is named for an explorer who contributed to the fabric of the country.
This spacecraft is named for Col. Ellison Onizuka, a U.S. Air Force test pilot and NASA astronaut, who successfully flew onboard space shuttle Discovery on STS 51-C and perished as a member of the STS-51-L mission in the shuttle Challenger disaster, 40 years ago this week.
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Musk at WEF: Solar space-based AI data centers possible in two to three years
January 26, 2026
Greenland was not the only frontier market in the spotlight at last week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Larry Fink, interim WEF co-chair and CEO of BlackRock, that solar could power space-based AI, with full-scale deployment possible within two to three years.
“When you have solar in space you get five times more effectiveness, maybe even more than that, than solar on the ground,” said Musk.
“It’s always sunny, so you don’t have a day-night cycle or seasonality or weather and you get about 30% more power in space because you don’t have atmospheric attenuation of the power.
The net effect is any given solar panel will do five times more energy in space than on the ground.”
Space also offers excellent thermal conditions, according to Musk.
“It’s a no brainer for building solar-powered AI data centers in space, because as I mentioned it’s also very cold in space. When you’re in the shadow, it’s very cold in space, 3 degrees Kelvin,” he explained.
“So you have solar panels facing the sun and then a radiator that’s pointed away from the sun, so it has no sun incidence, so it’s just cooling, it’s a very efficient cooling system.
The net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that will be true within two to three years, three at the latest.”
But how do we get all this gear into space? This is where Musk’s other major venture, SpaceX, comes into play. SpaceX is planning a record-setting public offering in 2026 and is on track to further cut what Musk calls the “cost of access to space.”
“Hopefully this year we should prove full reusability for Starship, which would be a profound invention, because the cost of access to space would drop by a factor of 100 when you achieve full reusability,” said Musk.
“That gets the cost of access to space below, we think, the cost of freight on aircraft, so under $100 a pound easily.”
Starship, the largest rocket ever built, would be used to deploy solar-powered AI infrastructure in space.
Eventually, similar infrastructure could be established on the Moon and planets such as Mars, particularly as smart AI-powered robots become commonplace for building and maintaining these space-based assets.
The first step on this roadmap appears to be solar-powered AI satellites.
“One of the things we’ll be doing with SpaceX within a few years is launching solar-powered AI satellites,” said Musk.
“Space is really the source of immense power and then you don’t need to take up any room on earth, there’s so much room in space, and you could scale to ultimately, I think, hundreds of terawatts a year.”
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/26/musk-at-wef-solar-space-based-ai-data-centers-possible-in-two-to-three-years/
India showcases hypersonic missiles at Republic Day parade
26 Jan, 2026 12:35
India has commemorated its 77th Republic Day with a grand parade in the capital, New Delhi, showcasing the South Asian nation’s military prowess.
India’s Russian-made S-400 air defense system made its first public appearance in the country, along with T-90 tanks and Brahmos missiles.
India also unveiled its hypersonic long-range anti-ship missile (LRAShM), which it boasts of having a range exceeding 1,500 km and a speed of Mach 10.
President Droupadi Murmu and two distinguished guests – European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – arrived in a traditional buggy, escorted by the President’s Bodyguard, the highest-ranking regiment of the Indian Army.
To commemorate the Republic Day, the stretch of the parade route between Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, and the National War Memorial was elaborately decorated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his respects at the parade’s destination.
Modi said in a post on X that the collective resolve to build a developed nation grows even stronger on the occasion, which commemorates the day the country’s constitution came into effect in 1950.
“Republic Day, a symbol of India’s honor, pride and dignity, should infuse new energy and renewed enthusiasm in the lives of all citizens,” he said in an X post.
Modi has praised the prowess of the country’s S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems. “Platforms like the S-400 have given unprecedented strength to the country,” Modi said in an address to the troops after Operation Sindoor in May, 2025.
Last year’s military conflict with Pakistan saw the effective use of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system acquired in 2016 from Russia, in defiance of a US threat to impose sanctions on the S400.
Helicopters showered flower petals as a hundred artists performed a grand musical presentation centred on the theme of ‘unity in diversity.’
A camel contingent, an Operation Sindoor formation comprising two Sukhois and two MiG 29s, two Rafales, one IAF Jaguar Fighter aircraft, UAVs, and an animal squad were the other attractions of the parade.
https://www.rt.com/india/631514-india-showcases-hypersonic-missiles-at/