April 12, 2026

Scotland 'On Track' to Become Key Center in European Spaceflight (Source: The Scotsman)
Scotland’s space industry is preparing for a “landmark” year with the country “on track” to become a key center for European spaceflight. Parallels have been drawn between the growth of the sector in Scotland - driven by collaboration between universities, companies and governments - and the successful Artemis II moon mission, which was underpinned by an international network of exceptional expertise.

Dr Natasha Nicholson, chief executive of Space Scotland, said: “Scotland may be small geographically, but its ambitions and partnerships are global. As Artemis brings the world together to return to the Moon, Scotland is showing how collaboration on Earth can drive growth, innovation and opportunity while helping shape the future of space.” (4/12)

Chandrayaan-4: Why India's Next Moon Mission is Changing Rockets (Source: India Today)
India's most complex upcoming Moon mission was already a challenge. Then the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) decided to change its rocket. Chandrayaan-4, India's first lunar sample return mission, is targeted for launch in October 2027. It will attempt to land on the Moon's south polar region, drill and collect up to three kilograms of lunar soil, seal it in a vacuum-tight container, launch back off the Moon's surface, dock with a waiting spacecraft in lunar orbit, and return the samples to Earth.

This is already an extraordinary undertaking. And yet, in the middle of development, ISRO made a significant decision: it decided to change the rocket. To understand the switch, you first need to understand why Chandrayaan-4 requires two rockets at all. The mission comprises five spacecraft modules: an Ascender Module, a Descender Module, a Re-entry Module, a Transfer Module and a Propulsion Module. Together, these weigh approximately 9,200 kg. India's most powerful operational rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), can carry around 8,000 kg to low Earth orbit.

So ISRO's solution was to split the spacecraft across two separate LVM3 launches. The mission begins with the first LVM3 rocket carrying the landing stack, which includes the Descender and Ascender modules, into Earth orbit. Shortly after, the second LVM3 rocket launches with the remaining modules, the Propulsion, Transfer, and Re-entry units, to meet the first group in space. Once both are in Earth orbit, the two stacks perform a docking maneuver to lock together into a single integrated unit. (4/11)

Boeing’s Moon Rocket Faces Uncertain Future Under Trump’s NASA (Source: Bloomberg)
NASA’s Boeing Co. rocket just propelled astronauts farther into space than ever before. The Trump administration is already looking to competitors for a replacement. About a week before the $24 billion Space Launch System pushed the four crew members of the Artemis II mission around the moon, NASA asked rivals what options they could offer for its ambitious plan of future lunar trips. That call, echoed almost immediately in the White House’s budget request, put a big question mark on the future of Boeing’s beleaguered rocket after roughly a decade of development. (4/11)

Hermeus Secures Regulatory Approval for Supersonic Flights with Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 (Source: Flight Global)
Hypersonic aviation start-up Hermeus has received regulatory approval to carry out supersonic flights with the company’s experimental Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 vehicle. Regulators at the FAA on 9 April authorized Hermeus to conduct Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 flights at speeds exceeding Mach 1. The test sorties will take place at or higher than 30,000ft over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Notice of the approval is set to be officially published in the US federal register on 13 April, though the decision was released on 10 April. (4/10)

Pentagon Upgrades its Hypersonic Weapon Test Range (Source: Defence Blog)
Huntsville-based Radiance Technologies has been awarded a minimum $149 million contract to upgrade infrastructure and instrumentation at the Reagan Test Range. The sole-source contract runs for five years. The Reagan Test Range is located at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The range provides a vast ocean expanse over which long-range ballistic missiles, reentry vehicles, and increasingly hypersonic systems can be tracked from launch to impact. (4/11)

SpaceX Posted Nearly $5 Billion Loss in 2025 (Source: Reuters)
Elon Musk's IPO-bound SpaceX reportedly posted a loss ​of nearly $5 billion in 2025 ‌on revenue of more than $18.5 billion. SpaceX did not immediately respond ⁠to a Reuters' request for comment. The loss includes ​Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI, which SpaceX acquired in February, according to the report. (4/9)

Is China About to Launch a Rocket From South China Sea International Waters? (Source: SCMP)
China appears to be planning to launch its first rocket from open waters very soon. Allegedly, the launch will feature a 31-meter tall, solid-fueled Jielong-3 and will occur on Saturday, 18 April. The rocket will launch from a 532-foot long, 131-foot wide barge, the Dong Fang Hang Tian Gang, which has been specially converted for the purpose. This barge has also been modified to operate safely in international waters. (4/10)

FCC Set to Supercharge Starlink Performance, Potentially Lower Costs (Source: PC Mag)
The Federal Communications Commission is moving to overhaul decades-old rules to “supercharge” satellite internet speeds for SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Leo, which could potentially lower their costs and spur new competition. On April 30, the agency will vote on an order intended to modernize how older geostationary satellite systems share radio spectrum with newer, low-Earth orbit constellations like Starlink. FCC Chair Brendan Carr is already hailing the order as a way to lift “outdated power limits on satellite internet” for faster speeds. (4/9)

Student Team Finds One of the Oldest Stars in the Universe that Migrated to the Milky Way (Source: Universe Today)
Ten undergraduate students from the University of Chicago made an astounding discovery using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). As part of their "Field Course in Astrophysics," they located one of the oldest stars in the Universe living in the Milky Way. The star, SDSS J0715-7334, is a red giant with 29 times as much mass as our Sun, located 79,256 light-years away. But here's where things truly get interesting: according to their findings, this star wasn't born in the Milky Way, but migrated here from another galaxy. (4/10)

Ripples in Spacetime May Have Revealed 1st Evidence of Tiny Black Holes Born in the Big Bang (Source: Space.com)
Ripples in the very fabric of space and time called "gravitational waves" may have provided the first tantalizing evidence of tiny black holes born during the Big Bang. These primordial black holes could, in turn, account for most if not all of the universe's most mysterious stuff, known as dark matter.

Unlike stellar mass black holes, primordial black holes weren't born when massive stars died, but instead from fluctuations in density that occurred immediately after the birth of the cosmos. That means they can be much smaller than stellar mass black holes, which have at least the same mass as several suns. These Big-Bang-born "non-astrophysical" black holes can have masses as small as that of an average asteroid or as large as a massive planet. (4/10)

If Venus Has Life It May Have Come From Earth, Scientists Say (Source: Science Alert)
The theory of panspermia holds that life is spread through the cosmos via asteroids, comets, and other objects. When the building blocks of life emerge on one planet, impacts can eject surface material into space, which then carries these seeds to other worlds. For decades, scientists have debated whether this could have occurred between Earth and Mars (in both directions). However, the recent controversy over the possible existence of microbial life in Venus' dense clouds has sparked discussions of interplanetary transfers between Venus, Earth, and Mars. (4/12)

Blue Origin Space Coast Test Site Suffers Damage; Unclear if New Glenn Launch Could be Delayed (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
As Blue Origin prepares for the next launch of its New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral, the company experienced unexpected damage at its Merritt Island rocket manufacturing facility. “During a routine test at our 2CAT facility in Florida, we experienced an anomaly during test execution,” according to a Blue Origin spokesperson. “There were no injuries, and safety protocols were in place at the time of the test. There is no impact to ongoing production operations.”

Photos posted to social media show a damaged roof to the 2CAT facility, a vertical building used for tank cleaning and testing on the rocket’s second stages. It’s a smaller building more toward the rear of the campus than the towering, 224-foot-tall building used to test the first stages, that can be seen for miles around the site. (4/10)

How Working Out Like an Astronaut Can Reduce Back Pain and Slow Ageing (Source: New Scientist)
The way astronauts fight to maintain fitness during their missions, and then work to fully regain it when they return from space, holds crucial clues to healthier lives – and less back pain – for the rest of us. It also highlights the importance of the anti-gravity activities we should do each day if we want to stand up to the force that constantly tugs us down – and it’s not all about conventional gym workouts.

To counteract these effects, astronauts on the ISS now spend around 2 hours a day on exercise regimes, using a special treadmill, cycling or using a resistance machine designed for workouts in low gravity. But, for many, this still isn’t enough to compensate, and studies conducted on astronauts over the years have revealed more details about the impacts of microgravity.

One of the key lessons from space medicine is the importance of our “forgotten” core: the stabilizer muscles, situated deep behind our “six pack” abs, which keep the lumbar spine steady and braced within the abdomen. These include the multifidus, which lines each side of the spinal column and supports the movement of the vertebrae, and the transversus abdominis, a layer of muscle that wraps horizontally around our trunk like a corset. (3/25)

More Than 10,000 Federal Scientists Left the U.S. Government in 2025, During Trump’s Second Term (Source: The Intellectualist)
In the first eleven months of 2025, 10,109 doctoral-trained scientists left the federal government. The losses were concentrated in agencies that fund medical research, regulate environmental standards and model climate risk. At 14 research agencies, hiring lagged departures nearly eleven to one, producing a net loss of more than 4,000 doctoral-level experts. Nearly 14 percent of the government’s STEM and health Ph.D. workforce exited in less than a year. The contraction has unfolded during President Donald Trump’s second term, reducing the federal government’s in-house capacity to review grants, evaluate scientific evidence and set national scientific standards. (2/28)

JAXA Study Shows Effects of Variable Gravity (Source: Douglas Messier)
JAXA has published results of an interesting study of mice aboard the ISS. The mice were subjected microgravity, 0.33 gravity, 0.67 gravity, and 1 gravity to determine how their bodies adjusted to those different conditions. Scientists specifically looked at the soleus muscle, which is a deep calf muscle located in the hindlimbs of mice. They found that the thickness of the muscle fibers did not decrease significantly when the mice were exposed to 0.33 gravity.

However, 0.33 gravity did not stop a shift from slow-twitch to fast-twitch fibers in the soleus muscle. This change causes muscles to atrophy, reduces endurance, and mimics accelerated aging. To counteract these effects, astronauts spent about two hours per day exercising. The study found that 0.67 gravity almost completely prevented the shift from slow-twitch to fast-twitch muscle fibers. (4/11)