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A full moon is seen shining over NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher in the early hours of February 1, 2026.

NASA/Sam Lott

A full moon is seen shining over NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early hours of February 1, 2026.

The agency concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout Orion, and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test.

Read more about the wet dress rehearsal.

Image credit: NASA/Sam Lott

NASA/Sam Lott

A full moon is seen shining over NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early hours of February 1, 2026.

The agency concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout Orion, and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test.

Read more about the wet dress rehearsal.

Image credit: NASA/Sam Lott

John Martinis has already revolutionised quantum computing twice. Now, he is working on another radical rethink of the technology that could deliver machines with unrivalled capabilities

John Martinis has already revolutionised quantum computing twice. Now, he is working on another radical rethink of the technology that could deliver machines with unrivalled capabilities

Acquiring xAI could boost SpaceX’s plans to launch a one-million-strong satellite constellation to act as an orbital data center network

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Rapid advances in commercial space, artificial intelligence, and edge computing are transforming what is possible for Earth observation. By pushing more intelligence onboard, missions can move from passively collecting data to actively interpreting and responding to changing surface conditions in near-real time, enabling more targeted observations and dramatically improving the value of data returned to the ground. Within this context, land-focused applications such as regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, and broader land resilience efforts stand to benefit enormously from satellites that can adapt what, when, and how they sense based on dynamic environmental signals and algorithmic insight rather than fixed schedules or static acquisition plans.

NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) invites participants to design small satellite (SmallSat) mission concepts that leverage adaptive sensing and onboard processing to enhance regenerative agriculture, forestry, or a similar land resilience objective.​ Participants must work within onboard power, compute, and bandwidth constraints characteristic of SmallSat missions, focusing on how to orchestrate existing land observation algorithms into an efficient, responsive onboard intelligence layer.​ Both hardware-oriented and software-oriented solutions—or combinations of the two—are encouraged.

NASA’s primary objective for this challenge is to advance computational and systems approaches for adaptive sensing or onboard processing on SmallSat missions. The goal is not to develop new agricultural or forestry science but rather to improve how SmallSats sense, process, and deliver information to enable these applications.

Award: $400,000 in total prizes

Challenge Open Date: January 30, 2026

Submission Close Date: May 4, 2026

For more information, visit: https://nasa-space-to-soil.org/

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Rapid advances in commercial space, artificial intelligence, and edge computing are transforming what is possible for Earth observation. By pushing more intelligence onboard, missions can move from passively collecting data to actively interpreting and responding to changing surface conditions in near-real time, enabling more targeted observations and dramatically improving the value of data returned to the ground. Within this context, land-focused applications such as regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, and broader land resilience efforts stand to benefit enormously from satellites that can adapt what, when, and how they sense based on dynamic environmental signals and algorithmic insight rather than fixed schedules or static acquisition plans.

NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) invites participants to design small satellite (SmallSat) mission concepts that leverage adaptive sensing and onboard processing to enhance regenerative agriculture, forestry, or a similar land resilience objective.​ Participants must work within onboard power, compute, and bandwidth constraints characteristic of SmallSat missions, focusing on how to orchestrate existing land observation algorithms into an efficient, responsive onboard intelligence layer.​ Both hardware-oriented and software-oriented solutions—or combinations of the two—are encouraged.

NASA’s primary objective for this challenge is to advance computational and systems approaches for adaptive sensing or onboard processing on SmallSat missions. The goal is not to develop new agricultural or forestry science but rather to improve how SmallSats sense, process, and deliver information to enable these applications.

Award: $400,000 in total prizes

Challenge Open Date: January 30, 2026

Submission Close Date: May 4, 2026

For more information, visit: https://nasa-space-to-soil.org/

Video: 00:04:21

Space activities are unlike any others. They interact not just with Earth, but with three interconnected environments: Earth, Earth’s orbit, and the Moon and deep space. On Earth, we aim to reduce the space sector’s environmental impacts while maximising the societal and environmental benefits of our missions. In orbit, we manage space debris and collision risks to maintain safe and secure operations. For the Moon and deep space, we are laying the foundations to minimise the impact of our missions on and around other celestial bodies.

Guided by our core values, ESA is committed to making its activities more sustainable, redefining how space activities are conceived, executed and shared with the world. Our objective is clear: to address the most pressing challenges and implement ambitious changes, both in our own practices and in close collaboration with our partners.

Looking ahead, in support of Strategy 2040, ESA is determined to lead through ambition, action and collaboration, building a future where space is not only a domain of opportunity but also a model of sustainability, responsibility and global unity.

SpaceX says it wants to deploy an astronomical number of data centres in orbit to supply power for artificial intelligence, but the proposal might not be entirely serious

SpaceX says it wants to deploy an astronomical number of data centres in orbit to supply power for artificial intelligence, but the proposal might not be entirely serious

Magnetism on the Moon has always been a bit confusing. Remote sensing probes have noted there is some magnetic signature, but far from the strong cocoon that surrounds Earth itself. Previous attempts to detect it in returned regolith samples blended together all of the rocks in those samples, leading to confusion about the source - whether they were caused by a strong inner dynamo in ages past, or by powerful asteroid impacts that magnetized the rocks they hit. A new study from Yibo Yang of Zhejiang University and Lin Xing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published recently in the journal Fundamental Research, shows that the right answer seems to be - a little of both.

The meaning of life has puzzled philosophers for millennia, but new research suggests it could be as simple as lending a helping hand

The meaning of life has puzzled philosophers for millennia, but new research suggests it could be as simple as lending a helping hand

NASA will review data gathered during a simulated launch of the Artemis II rocket before revealing a new date for its upcoming moon mission

Researchers mimicked the air-trapping tricks of diving bell spiders to create aluminum that stays afloat—even when punctured

Dozens of routinely updated CDC databases have gone quiet. Here’s what states and medical societies are doing to preserve U.S. public health

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he’s making space-based artificial intelligence the “immediate focus” of a newly expanded company that not only builds rockets and satellites, but also controls xAI’s generative-AI software and the X social-media platform. That’s the upshot of Musk's announcement that SpaceX has acquired xAI.

Earth Observatory

1. Science
2. Earth Observatory
3. Cracking Antarctic Sea Ice

• Earth
• Earth Observatory
• Image of the Day
• EO Explorer
• Topics
• More Content
• About

Earth Observatory

1. Science
2. Earth Observatory
3. Cracking Antarctic Sea Ice

• Earth
• Earth Observatory
• Image of the Day
• EO Explorer
• Topics
• More Content
• About