September 11, 2025

NASA Discovers ‘Clearest Sign of Life That We’ve Ever Found on Mars’ (Source: CNN)
Rolling across the rugged, rusty red terrain on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover came upon some rocks with peculiar green, blue, black and white dots. After detailed image analysis, scientists have come to a potentially encouraging conclusion: If those speckled rocks were formed like they are on Earth, they might be evidence of past life on the dusty planet.

“After a year of review, they have come back and they said, listen, we can’t find another explanation,” said Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “So this very well could be the clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars, which is incredibly exciting.” The sample, called Sapphire Canyon, was collected by the Perseverance rover from rocky outcrops on the edges of the Neretva Vallis river valley, a region sculpted by water that once flowed into Jezero Crater more than 3 billion years ago. (9/10)

Rendezvous Robotics Exits Stealth with $3M to Build Reconfigurable Space Infrastructure (Source: Tech Crunch)
Rendezvous Robotics is betting on autonomous swarm assembly and electromagnetism. The company is commercializing a technology called “tesserae,” flat-packed modular tiles that can launch in dense stacks and magnetically latch to form structures on obit. With a software command, the tiles are designed to unlatch and rearrange themselves when the mission changes. The company is headquartered just outside of Denver. (9/10)

Scientist Watching to See If Mysterious Object Visiting Our Solar System Releases Any Probes (Source: Futurism)
Researchers have broadly come to the consensus that 3I/ATLAS is a comet. Most recently, observations by the Gemini South telescope in Chile confirmed that its tail is growing longer, as it releases more dust and gas the closer it approaches the Sun. But Avi Loeb's not quite convinced yet.

The object will make its closest pass of the Sun next month before zipping through and out the other side of our star system, which Loeb says is a perfect opportunity to have a closer look; he called on NASA to turn its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Juno probe to monitor the object as it whips by. "If we are visited by a technological object like 3I/ATLAS — it could either visit us or release some mini-probes that arrive to Earth and appear as [unidentified aerial phenomena]," he said. (9/10)

Orbex Simulates Prime Launch (Source: Orbex)
Orbex has for the first time successfully simulated the launch of its Prime vehicle, marking a major technical milestone ahead of bringing orbital launch services to the UK next year. The end-to-end simulation, saw all mission-critical systems - including flight software, engine control and tracking - successfully tested to replicate performance on launch day.

Orbex’s avionics, software and GNC (guidance, navigation and control) teams worked together to test the key components responsible for executing every phase of the launch sequence, from countdown to payload deployment. Unlike many other launch vehicles, Prime’s avionics and software systems are developed entirely in-house, giving Orbex full control over systems integration, preventing any delays as a result of reliance on third party suppliers and allowing for seamless iterations. (9/10)

Black Hole Explosion May Soon Reveal Origins of Matter in the Universe (Source: Space Daily)
Physicists report a more than 90% probability that astronomers could witness an exploding black hole within the next decade. If observed, the event would provide unprecedented insight into the foundations of physics and the origins of the universe. Such an explosion would strongly suggest the existence of primordial black holes (PBHs), theoretical objects formed in the first second after the Big Bang. Unlike stellar black holes, PBHs could be light enough to emit Hawking radiation and eventually explode, releasing a catalog of all known and unknown particles. (9/11)

NASA Bocks Chinese Citizens From Working on Space Programs (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has begun barring Chinese nationals with valid visas from joining its programs, underscoring the intensifying space race between the rival powers. "NASA has taken internal action pertaining to Chinese nationals, including restricting physical and cybersecurity access to our facilities, materials, and network to ensure the security of our work," NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said.

Chinese nationals had previously been allowed to work as contractors or students contributing to research, although not as staff. But on September 5 several individuals told the outlet they were suddenly locked out of IT systems and barred from in-person meetings. The move comes amid escalating anti-China rhetoric under President Donald Trump's administration. The United States and China are competing to send crews to the Moon. (9/10)

Clearest Signal Yet Rattles Gravitational Wave Detector at Risk From Trump Budget Cut (Source: Globe and Mail)
On Wednesday, scientists revealed that LIGO has bagged its most unambiguous signal yet. Detecting gravitational waves that have travelled across the vast reaches of intergalactic space – in this case 1.3 billion light-years – is no mean feat. Such signals are easily buried in the random noise that can affect the detector.

To have such a clear indication rise above the noise, without additional complications that can make it hard to interpret, means it is ideal for probing the nature of black holes and for testing the theory that underpins our understanding of gravity. The bottom line from this particular result: The theory of general relativity, which has been the ruling mathematical description of gravity ever since Albert Einstein developed it more than a century ago, remains spot-on.

The signal shows that two black holes, each 30 to 40 times more massive than our sun, collided and merged to form a larger black hole. The event is remarkably similar to LIGO’s first positive detection, which occurred 10 years ago this week on Sept. 14, 2015. The biggest difference is how much the instrument has improved to make the detection so straightforward. (9/10)

Surviving Hostile Venus Conditions with new Alloy and Sensor Technologies (Source: Space Daily)
Paul Ohodnicki is advancing materials science for critical frontiers. His team has earned two 2025 R&D 100 Awards for VulcanAlloy and eMission Critical Sensor technologies. VulcanAlloy was designed with NASA Glenn Research Center, CorePower Magnetics, and Raytheon to withstand Venusian conditions. The nanocomposite alloy endures continuous temperatures near 500C, far beyond prior soft magnetic materials limited to about 250C. The alloy could enable inductors that function for up to 60 days in highly corrosive, high-pressure environments. (9/11)

Exolaunch to Deliver 59 Satellites on Record Transporter-15 Mission (Source: Space Daily)
Exolaunch will deploy 59 satellites on the upcoming Transporter-15 rideshare flight with SpaceX, scheduled no earlier than November 2025. The mission, Exolaunch's largest to date, spans more than 30 customers across 16 countries, underscoring the company's role as a premier launch services provider with a proven record of reliability. Transporter-15 highlights Exolaunch's expanding market reach, with payloads from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Finland, Lithuania, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Bulgaria, and the United Arab Emirates. (9/11)

Chinese Astronauts Expand Science Research on Orbiting Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
Shenzhou 20 astronauts - Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie - are pushing forward with wide-ranging scientific experiments and technology tests aboard China's space station, advancing knowledge across multiple research domains.

In space medicine, the crew used electroencephalogram equipment for experiments including visual field studies, executive-function training and exploratory utilization projects. They also employed eye-tracking devices and specialized software to investigate microgravity's impact on relational cognition and on how astronauts develop trust in AI assistants during extended missions. Click here for more. (9/11)

NASA Sucks Up to Trump in Mars Announcement (Source: Futurism)
Instead of putting the hard work of its scientists up front and center, the space agency took special effort to praise a particular individual: Donald Trump. "This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars," NASA's interim administrator Sean Duffy said in the lead quote of a statement about the finding.

What Duffy — who has no scientific background or experience leading a government agency whatsoever — failed to point out is that original plans for the rover were first announced in late 2012, and that Perseverance was designed to build on NASA's Curiosity rover, which was developed and launched years before Trump took office. (9/10)

Japan's Astroscale to Launch Debris Inspection Mission on NewSpace India PSLV (Source: Astroscale)
Astroscale Japan has signed an agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to launch its ISSA-J1 debris inspection mission. The spacecraft is set to launch on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in 2027. The ISSA-J1 mission, built on Astroscale’s heritage in rendezvous and proximity operations, inspection and characterization capabilities, will diagnose and inspect two large satellite debris in orbit. ISSA-J1 is now in the final stages of design, with manufacturing of flight components and operational planning underway. (9/11)

KBR Leverages SBIR Phase III to Land $98M US Space Force Integration Accelerator Development Contract (Source: Orange Slices)
Linquest (acquired by KBR Wyle) has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III Task Order, with a not-to-exceed price of $98,715,100, for the development of a collaborative digital engineering ecosystem. This contract provides for the collaborative digital engineering ecosystem known as the Integration Accelerator, as well as analytical and technical decision support for future Space Force integrated testing and training. Work will be performed in Colorado Springs. (9/8)

Astronomers Discover Repeating Gamma-Ray Burst 'Unlike Anything We Have Ever Witnessed Before' (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers have spotted a cosmic explosion of high-energy gamma-rays unlike any ever seen before. The gamma-ray burst (GRB) designated GRB 250702B set itself apart from other explosive bursts of gamma-rays by exploding several times in one day. That's something difficult to explain, given GRBs are thought to arise from the catastrophic deaths of massive stars, with no known scenario currently accounting for repeated blasts over a full day. (9/9)

Boeing Defense, Union Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike in St. Louis (Source: Reuters)
Boeing Defense and the machinists union have reached a tentative deal to end a five-week-long strike in the St. Louis area, union officials announced on Wednesday. A vote on Boeing's five-year contract offer is set for Friday. The new deal offers a 24% wage increase and a $4,000 ratification bonus. (9/10)

SDA Launches First Transport Layer Birds on Falcon 9 at Vandenberg (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency launched the first satellites for a communications constellation Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:12 a.m. Eastern, carrying 21 satellites for Tranche 1 of the SDA’s Transport Layer. The launch marks the beginning of the agency’s ambitious effort to field a global network of data transport and sensor satellites known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).

The Transport Layer is designed to provide beyond line-of-sight connectivity essential for linking frontline forces globally. The satellites on this launch were built by York Space Systems, with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman also under contract to build Tranche 1 satellites. The Tranche 1 constellation consists of 126 Transport Layer data relay satellites and 28 missile warning and tracking satellites scheduled to deploy over the coming year. (9/11)

House Appropriators Add Funding for Chandra, Juno, New Horizons (Source: Space News)
House appropriators added support for jeopardized NASA science missions in a funding bill. The House Appropriations Committee passed a commerce, justice and science (CJS) spending bill late Wednesday, sending it to the full House. Appropriators made few major changes to the version of the bill the CJS subcommittee passed in July, but did add language in a manager’s amendment supporting the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Juno and New Horizons missions. All three operating missions are facing cancellation in the administration’s budget request. Appropriators rejected an amendment that would have restored full funding to NASA’s Office of Inspector General and revoked $85 million from the budget reconciliation bill to fund a transfer of the shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston. (9/11)

Japan's IHI Partners with UK's SatVu on Thermal Imaging (Source: Space News)
Japanese company IHI is partnering with British startup SatVu on thermal imaging satellites. The companies announced a memorandum of understanding Wednesday where SatVu would provide an unspecified number of thermal imaging satellites to a sovereign constellation of 100 satellites IHI is developing. That constellation will include optical, radar, hyperspectral and other spacecraft. Under their agreement, IHI and SatVu will evaluate how this data can be applied in Japan, define requirements for a sovereign high-resolution thermal constellation and explore business structures for building and operating the satellites domestically. (9/11)

Boeing Using Additive Manufacturing to Speed Satellite Component Production (Source: Space News)
Boeing is using additive manufacturing to accelerate production of satellite components. The company said Wednesday it has begun 3D-printing the structural panels that form the backbone of satellite solar arrays, a step the aerospace giant says will cut production times in half. The first 3D-printed arrays will carry Spectrolab solar cells aboard small satellites built by Millennium Space Systems, both subsidiaries of Boeing’s Space Mission Systems division. The approach is designed to scale from small satellites to Boeing’s larger spacecraft platforms, including its 702-class line, with market availability targeted for 2026. (9/11)

Eutelsat Offers Ground Station Capacity for Earth Observation Satellites (Source: Space News)
Eutelsat is offering spare capacity on its ground station network to operators of Earth observation satellites. French satellite connectivity startup Skynopy announced Thursday it is working with Eutelsat to use excess capacity on OneWeb ground stations for companies operating Earth observation satellites. The partnership covers 600 Ka-band antennas across 42 sites worldwide, marking a major expansion from Skynopy’s current network of 30 S- and X-band antennas across 15 sites. LEO Earth observation satellites will almost always be in view of at least one Skynopy ground station, enabling near real-time connectivity. Skynopy plans to add its own antennas at OneWeb sites in the S-, X- and Ka-bands. (9/11)

Canada's Space Agency Chief Gets Extended Term (Source: SpaceQ)
The Canadian government is extending the term of the head of the country’s space agency. An order issued last week reappointed Lisa Campbell as president of the Canadian Space Agency for one year. Campbell’s original five-year term was set to expire this month. She is only the third head of the agency to complete a standard five-year term. (9/11)

Asteroid Ryugu May Have Held Liquid Water (Source: Space.com)
A near Earth asteroid may have once had liquid water flowing through it. Analysis of samples of the asteroid Ryugu, returned by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission, showed evidence that water once flowed through the rocks. That liquid water may have come from ice inside an asteroid that was heated by an impact. Ryugu is believed to be part of a larger asteroid that broke off earlier in the history of the solar system. The findings suggest that asteroids retained water ice far longer after the formation of the solar system than previously believed. (9/11)