Video · Space Desk
Rocket Lab's 98th Electron lofts HawkEye 360 Cluster 16
Rocket Lab's Electron put three HawkEye 360 radio-hunting satellites into a 520km orbit on 23 October. It was the 98th Electron launch.
Space correspondent
Liora Hale
Space desk
Liora Hale covers the Space desk, with 21 stories on NASA, ESA and the science that comes back from orbit and beyond. Recent stories include Crew-13 docking at the ISS in under eight hours, Webb sorting 21 extreme debris disks, and the Artemis Accords reaching 76 signatories. Hale also followed NASA's Roman Space Telescope from its Falcon Heavy launch to switching on its coronagraph.
AI Desk
SpaceXSI signs up 130 firms to sell and build on Grok
SpaceXSI launched its Super Intelligence Partner Network on 22 October. More than 130 companies, including Nvidia, Bain and Snowflake, joined early.
Video · Space Desk
Japan's MMX set to launch for Mars moon Phobos on Tuesday
JAXA's MMX is due to lift off on an H3 rocket at 6:11am Tuesday, Adelaide time. It aims to bring Phobos samples to Australia in 2031.
AI Desk
Memphis votes on a data centre pause as Colossus grows
Memphis City Council is due to vote on 20 October on a data centre pause and two rival rulebooks. SpaceXSI's Colossus sites sit in the city.
Space Desk
Russia's Cosmos 2612 closes in on radar satellite ICEYE-X36
Russia's Cosmos 2612 was about 5 km from ICEYE-X36 on 16 October, LeoLabs says. One tracker projects a pass within metres on 18 October.
ArchiveSpace Desk
Blue Origin's $330M Florida push aims for 50 launches a year
Blue Origin is spending $330 million at Rocket Park and wants FAA approval for up to 50 New Glenn launches a year from LC-36, up from 12.
ArchiveSpace Desk
Webb and NOEMA find a stellar bar in early galaxy GN20
GN20 is seen 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and is mostly gas, so it shouldn't have a bar of stars yet. Webb found one 23,000 light years long.
ArchiveVideo · Space Desk
Chandra ties the Treble Clef to a galaxy cluster collision
Chandra and LOFAR show VLSS J0318.9+5755 is a radio phoenix revived when two galaxy clusters collided behind the Milky Way.
ArchiveSpace Desk
NASA stacks Artemis III boosters and fits four RS-25 engines
NASA completed SLS booster stacking for Artemis III and installed all four RS-25 engines, with a short-stack pad test still ahead.
ArchiveSpace Desk
ESA's Aschbacher prices European crew launches at €10 billion
ESA chief Josef Aschbacher says Europe could launch its own astronauts in about ten years for €10 billion. Ministers decide in Rome on 15 December.
ArchiveAustralia
Bathurst 1000: Kostecki wins as De Pasquale runs out of fuel
Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood won Sunday's Bathurst 1000 after leader Anton De Pasquale ran out of fuel on the final lap at Mount Panorama.