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SpaceX keeps setting spaceflight records.

Elon Musk's company launches far more frequently than any other outfit, and it operates the largest satellite constellation ever assembled — the Starlink broadband network, which consists of nearly 11,000 satellites (and counting).

On Saturday evening (Aug. 15), SpaceX set another mark, for the shortest time between orbital flights: It launched two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart, besting its old mark — set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink missions — by 27 minutes.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches eight satellites for the telecom company Globalstar from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Aug. 15, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The first liftoff, from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, occurred Saturday at 9:12 p.m. EDT (0112 GMT on Aug. 16) and carried eight satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) for Louisiana-based telecom company Globalstar.

All eight spacecraft were deployed successfully, separating over a six-minute span beginning 56.5 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX announced via social media.

While that Falcon 9 was powering its way to LEO, another one launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California's central coast. That liftoff, at 9:50 p.m. EDT (6:50 p.m. local time; 0150 GMT on Aug. 16), kicked off a mission for the U.S. Space Force called USSF-366.

A Globalstar satellite deploys from the upper stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on Aug. 15, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

We know very little about USSF-366, which isn't surprising given its classified status. However, rocket watchers have made a few inferences from the limited available information.

"It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites for a U.S. government entity based on SpaceX's Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of rocket stage drop zones being exact fits with previous Starlink Group 15 launches," NextSpaceflight.com wrote in its mission description. (Starshield is a SpaceX project that uses modified versions of Starlink craft to fly national security missions for the U.S. government.)

It's unclear when and where the rocket's upper stage will deploy the USSF-366 payload(s); SpaceX's mission description doesn't reveal that information. And the company ended its livestream shortly after the first-stage landing, as is typical for national security flights.

Both of Saturday's missions featured successful rocket landings. The Falcon 9 first stage that launched the Globalstar mission came back for a touchdown at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after launch. It was the 14th flight for that particular booster.

The USSF-366 Falcon 9 first stage, meanwhile, came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after its launch, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You." That booster now has 18 missions under its belt.

Saturday's doubleheader brought the tally of Falcon 9 launches in 2026 to 96. The vast majority of those — about 75% — have been Starlink missions.

On Aug. 15, 1977, astronomers using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope detected the famous "Wow!" signal, which to this day is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that we are not alone in the universe.

Astronomer Jerry Ehman was using the telescope to scan a region in the constellation Sagittarius when it detected a weird, 72-second-long radio burst. The signal was too strong to be explained by background noise, and researchers determined that it was very unlikely that this signal came from anything on Earth.

Despite their best efforts, astronomers have not been able to detect any other signals like it.

The now-famous "Wow!" signal. (Image credit: Public domain)Why it mattered

For as long as humans have existed, we have looked up and wondered, "Are we alone?" This question remains one of the biggest mysteries across not just science but for humanity as a whole. The "Wow" signal remains an iconic and important finding in the search for life out in the cosmos.

Nearly 50 years since the "Wow!" signal, scientists have made incredible progress in the search for alien life. We have landed rovers on Mars that have found possible signs of life on the Red Planet, for example, and discovered thousands of exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system.

The "Wow!" signal was detected nearly two decades before scientists first confirmed the existence of exoplanets. Today, we have found more than 6,000 of them and are using cutting-edge technologies to explore further and see if any of these far-off planets might contain signs of life.

The DC Universe expands further into the cosmos this month with the addition of "Lanterns".

Created by Chris Mundy, Tom King and Damon Lindelof, the superhero show sees the veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (played by Kyle Chandler) take rookie John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) under his wing. Wider parts of the Green Lantern Corps lore are incorporated in the story too, as the series unpacks what the famous space cops are all about.

At the same time, let's be real here for a second: for anybody who hasn't kept track of all the DC reboots, Infinite Crises on Corporate Earths and Ryan Reynolds in a green CGI costume, it can become overwhelming to even think about the Green Lantern mythology.

There are many heroes and villains scattered across an overly complex timeline, so let's attempt to break down who's who in terms of the confirmed characters for the show and what their backstory is from the comics.

Here's everything you need to know about the characters in HBO's "Lanterns"

Hal Jordan

(Image credit: HBO Max / DC Studios)

First appearance: "Showcase" #22 (1956)

Played by: Kyle Chandler

While not the first Green Lantern introduced by DC (that honour belongs to Alan Scott), Hal Jordan is arguably the most famous of them all. Debuting in the pages of "Showcase" #22, Hal found himself drawn to the spaceship belonging to Abin Sur, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. The dying alien instructed his power ring to find a worthy successor, and it did in the form of the test pilot known as Hal Jordan.

While known primarily as a hero, Hal had a memorable stint as the villainous Parallax in the '90s. Hey, it was an edgy era, but at least he didn't have infinite pockets for his costume and badly drawn feet to go along with it!

Ryan Reynolds played a live-action version of Hal Jordan in the heavily derided 2011 "Green Lantern" movie, but Kyle Chandler's interpretation in "Lanterns" is a more seasoned and less CGIed version of the character. Interestingly enough, before Chandler was cast in the role, Josh Brolin was linked with the part.

John Stewart

(Image credit: HBO Max / DC Studios)

First appearance: "Green Lantern" #87 (1972)

Played by: Aaron Pierre

So here's the part where DC's comic book logic tangles itself into knots. When Hal Jordan was selected as the Green Lantern, he received backup in Guy Gardner. After Guy was injured, Hal received a backup for his backup: John Stewart. Introduced as a civil rights activist and architect, John clashed with Hal at first; however, he went on to become the main Green Lantern in the '80s. After the New 52 reboot, John received another alteration to his backstory; this time, he was a former Marine.

For a generation of fans, John is their Green Lantern, thanks to him being the chosen Emerald Knight for the animated shows "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited". He almost appeared in "Zack Snyder's Justice League", where he would have been portrayed by Wayne T. Carr, but the whole debacle around that movie and the Snyder Cut is worthy of its own miniseries.

Aaron Pierre won the role of John Stewart in "Lanterns", triumphing over names like Damson Idris and Stephan James for the gig. One only needed to watch Netflix's "Rebel Ridge" to see his take on a former Marine and realise he was born to play John.

Guy Gardner

(Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Studios)

First appearance: "Green Lantern" #59 (1968)

Played by: Nathan Fillion

Ah, the Green Lantern with the worst haircut in the universe. The origin story of Guy Gardner is actually interesting, despite his questionable barber choices.

In "Green Lantern" #59, it's revealed that Guy was also a potential contender to be Abin Sur's heir. The only reason the ring went to Hal Jordan was that he was closer in terms of location. Guy became Hal's backup and eventually assumed the mantle of Green Lantern.

As a character, Guy is something of a prickly pear. He is prone to outbursts and not exactly a people person. However, his heart is in the right place, and he'll show up when necessary for others.

Nathan Fillion returns to play Guy Gardner in "Lanterns", having previously played the character in "Superman" and "Peacemaker" season 2. Oh, and he was all in for Guy's haircut. "I was team bowl cut the whole way," he said on the "DC Studios Showcase Official Podcast." "It's canon. It's set."

Sinestro

(Image credit: DC Comics / HBO)

First appearance: "Green Lantern" #7 (1961)

Played by: Ulrich Thomsen

Much like other characters in the DC Universe, Thaal Sinestro has experienced changes to his backstory with the various reboots and continuity switch-ups altering his motivations and personality. What does remain consistent is that he's an alien from the planet Korugar who became a member of the Green Lantern Corps once upon a time. He was highly revered among his peers, but he abused his powers, became a dictator, and received the boot as a consequence of his actions.

Not one to be deterred, Sinestro founded the Sinestro Corps, which uses the yellow light of fear to power it. Naturally, this puts him at odds with the Green Lantern Corps – but Sinestro really really despises the Guardians of the Universe the most here.

In "Lanterns", Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen plays Sinestro. The first footage of him didn't exactly inspire fans since he failed to have the reddish-purple skin tone associated with the character from the comics. However, the true outrage should have been about the lack of a wispy moustache. This Sinestro's muzzle fuzz shares more in common with Mario than anything else.

Manhunters

(Image credit: DC Comics)

First appearance: "1st Issue Special" #5 (1975)

Before the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians of the Universe created the robots known as the Manhunters. Their sole purpose was to fight evil and restore law and order. If this sounds like a potential nightmare out of Sam Altman's OpenAI playbook, it's because it is.

While the Manhunters worked well at first, their obsession with catching criminals and inability to define what justice is saw them go rogue. And as you know, once the genie is out of the bottle, it's tough to put it back in!

At the time of writing, it's unclear exactly how the Manhunters fit into "Lanterns", except for the fact that they shapeshift and are dangerous. Their inclusion in the show makes sense, though, since they're the predecessors to the Green Lantern Corps.

Guardians of the Universe

(Image credit: DC Comics)

First appearance: "Green Lantern" #1 (1960)

Want to know who to blame for DC's multiverse? Well, it's a rogue Maltusian Krona, who couldn't help but peek back in time to see how the universe was created. As a result, Krona's peers decided to band together and form the Guardians of the Universe, an organisation that wants to keep the universe safe from all kinds of threats.

These immortal beings assembled various groups (including the Green Lantern Corps) in an effort to bring about order and peace. Oh, and Sinestro hates them – in case you hadn't figured that out yet.

As the creators of the Green Lantern Corps, it's expected they'll play a role in "Lanterns". To date, only Laura Linney has been confirmed as one of the Guardians.

On August 16, "Lanterns" wills itself into existence on HBO.

On Episode 223 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and guest co-host Dale Skran are joined by Dr. Scott Pace to discuss the future of exploration on the Moon.

We're headed for a space renaissance, and it will be focused on the Moon. The US, China, and international partners of both are vying to land people there and construct a permanent lunar base. Meanwhile, NASA is evolving to embrace commercial enterprise unlike any time in its past, and American lunar efforts are lagging.

What are the stakes? Does it matter who returns humans there first? What does the future of lunar commerce look like? Dr. Scott Pace, the Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, joins us.

Download or subscribe to this show at: https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Space news of the week

• Dr. Scott Pace

Model Falcon 9!TOP TELESCOPE PICK:

(Image credit: Celestron)

Looking for a telescope to see planets and comets? We recommend the Celestron Astro Fi 102 as the top pick in our best beginner's telescope guide.

Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners collectSPACE.com.

About This Week In Space

This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars?

Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Space.com as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.

Of all the models in the renewed Nikon Action range released in 2026, the Action Zoom 10–22x50 is definitely one of the most attention-getting, with its zoom capability from 10x to 22x magnification.

These are Nikon's third-generation 10-22x50 binoculars, building upon the past designs of 2007's Action VII Zoom XL 10-22x50 and 2013's Aculon 10-22x50 in 2013. The new design features a generous 16.3mm of eye relief, a tough aluminum chassis and updated optics.

We found them to be a versatile pair of binoculars, and used them at 10x magnification to locate objects before zooming in to 22x for a closer look. Changing magnifications is easily done with a lever on the right eyecup, but the optics do suffer from the sacrifices required when producing a binocular with zoom functionality.

Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars reviewNikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars: Design

• Strong aluminum chassis
• Easy magnification change
• Big focus dial

The Nikon Action 16x50 have a solid but lightweight aluminum chassis. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

Along with the fixed magnification models in the Action series, the Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars have the same strong, lightweight aluminum chassis. This helps to protect the careful arrangement of lenses required for zooming, as well as making the binoculars more durable without adding extra weight.

L-R: The Nikon Action 7x50, Nikon Action 10x50, Nikon Action 16x50 and Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

In fact, the 2026 Action Zoom 10-22x50 is 0.4 oz (10 grams) lighter than the previous Aculon model. This is important for the stargazer or hiker who may already have lots of heavy gear to carry, where small amounts can make all the difference.

We found that the higher the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50's magnification was, the darker the image. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

The exterior of the binoculars is covered in a textured rubber armor, which provides good grip while scanning the skies. A chunky focus dial between the barrels is easy to find with your fingers and use, enabling you to adjust focus quickly while observing. Focus touch-ups are usually required when changing magnification.

Specifications

Design: Porro prism

Magnification: 10-22x (zoom)

Objective lens diameter: 50mm

Exit pupil: 5.0mm (10x) - 2.27mm (22x)

Angular field of view: 3.9 degrees (10x)

Eye relief: 16.3 mm

Weight: 2.09 lbs (950 g)

Dimensions: 8.0 x 7.9 x 2.6 in (202 x 200 x 66 mm)

Magnification is easily changed with the right eyecup zoom lever, which is pushed down with the right index finger to move from 10x through to 22x. On the bottom of the right eyecup, there are printed white numbers on the body so that you can also set the magnification precisely at 12x, 15x and 18x. This helps with observing targets that don't require the full 22x zoom, and allows an astronomer to be more precise in their observations.

Not sure what zoom you'll need when you're out and about? The Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars have you covered. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

When moving the zoom lever, the lenses in the eyepieces slide forward and backward, changing the distance to the objective lenses at the front of the binoculars. This changes the effective focal length and magnification of the binoculars.

The objective lens caps are easy to remove and replace but they're a little loose so you'll need to keep an eye on them. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

50mm objective lenses let plenty of light through the binoculars when stargazing, delivering a bright image at 10x magnification and helping you to spot faint objects.

Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars: Performance

For overhead views, we'd recommend you pair the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars with a tripod. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

• Good for star-hopping then zooming in
• Noticeably dimmer at 22x
• Needs a tripod for overhead views at 22x

The 22x magnification on the Nikon Action Zoom is the strongest out of the entire range, with the next one down being the 16x50. During handheld observation, the zoom functionality was good for night sky objects that weren't too high overhead or terrestrial observation at horizontal and downward angles.

We were able to see the top portion of the Orion constellation with the magnification at 10x, with a bright Orion's belt and smudgy Orion nebula (M42). Switching to 22x magnification, we got a close-up view of the three stars making up Orion's belt and the dog-star Sirius to its left. At 22x these points of light were much more impressive but the binoculars handled stars much better than diffuse objects such as the Orion Nebula, which looked fairly unimpressive at 22x. We actually got a better view of the Orion Nebula with the NIkon Action 16x50.

The maximum exit pupil on the Action Zoom is 5 mm at 10x magnification, but when fully zoomed in at 22x, the exit pupil drops to 2.3 mm, effectively halving the amount of light your eye is receiving. This makes the view seem dimmer and was especially noticeable when observing Orion's nebula and during terrestrial viewing in daylight.

The Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50's rubber eyecups are impressively comfortable, more so than twist-up cups. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

We found the Beehive Cluster by star-hopping from Castor to Pollux and then to the star cluster. We used the 10x magnification for star-hopping before zooming in to get a better view of the Beehive cluster, but it was still disappointing. The wide-field view of the Beehive Cluster within the triangle of Cancer at 10x was much better than the zoomed-in dim view at 22x. Paired with the increased handshake from overhead observation without a tripod, it was less rewarding than observing at lower magnifications.

For beginners we would usually recommend using a tripod or getting an image-stabilized model when using binoculars with 12x magnification or over. It is possible to get sturdy views during handheld viewing by tucking your elbows into your chest or sides, but this only works when observing on the horizontal or downwards. When looking directly overhead, it was very hard to keep the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 still enough to make out any details when fully zoomed in.

These binoculars offer excellent wide-field views of the night sky, letting you focus on objects such as the Beehive Cluster. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

This was also an issue when observing another overhead observation target, Jupiter. When trying to spot the faint line of its Galilean moons, the resulting observation was just a mess of bright squiggles. This would definitely be remedied with the use of a tripod adapter and tripod, but be aware that these accessories become a necessity when stargazing overhead.

Looking at the half moon was good and offered a range of lunar views thanks to the magnification change, but again, the higher magnifications required steady hands. The moon at 22x magnification also looked significantly dimmer than the moon when observed with the Nikon Action 16x50s. While it suffered from similar levels of handshake, 16x50s have better light transmission because of their fixed magnification and wider exit pupil. At 10x magnification, the binoculars suffered from distortion around the edges of the view, but this disappeared when zooming into higher magnification.

Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars: Functionality

The zoom lever is easy to use while observing, with no fumbling about. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

• Rubber eyecups block light
• Versatile zoom range
• Tripod adapter socket

The Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 is a versatile optical tool and is useful when you are unsure what level of magnification you will need before you go out. We tested them out with the other binoculars in the Nikon Action range, the 7x50, 10x50 and 16x50. If we were going out for the evening, we would usually reach for these as it saved us having to take two different binoculars for wide-field and close-up viewing.

The zoom lever was incredibly easy to use during observation and touching up the focus with the focus wheel was easy with my middle finger. That said, viewing overhead objects at 22x magnification is heavily marred by hand shake and would be improved with the use of a tripod.

Just like the rest of the new Nikon Action range, the Zoom model has a tripod adapter socket in-between the two barrels, hidden behind a screw-in Nikon logo. If you are planning on using these for a lot of high-magnification observation, we would recommend buying the Nikon 7650 binocular tripod adapter and a budget tripod, like the Manfrotto Element II tripod, to ensure you can get blur-free views of the stars.

The fold-down eyecups are a boon for glasses wearers. Harry Bennett / FutureHarry Bennett / FutureHarry Bennett / Future

We found the rubber eyecups were really comfortable, and actually preferred them to the hard, twist-up cups that the rest of the Nikon Action range has. They blocked out any light in the environment far better than the twist-up cups and were much more comfortable on the eye sockets. While the binoculars feature 16.3mm of eye relief, stargazers who wear eyeglasses may be disappointed by only having two heights for eye relief, with the rubber eyecups flipped up or flipped down.

These Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars come with a soft carry case. Harry Bennett / FutureHowever, these binoculars' neck strap is a little thin. Harry Bennett / Future

The objective lens caps are easy to remove and replace but they can be quite loose and could get lost easily if not attached to a neck strap. The rubber eyecup covers remain fixed in place during transport and keep the eyepieces clean for observation. Nikon provides a neck strap and soft carry case with these binoculars but the neck strap is pretty thin, so if you are planning on carrying them around for a long time, consider getting a padded neoprene strap for binoculars for only $25.

These Nikon binoculars are great if you want variable magnification. Harry Bennett / FutureRemoving the Nikon logo reveals the tripod adapter socket. Harry Bennett / FutureHow we tested the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars

We took the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars to a city and local park test them, using them for stargazing and birdwatching respectively. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)

We tested the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars in a city park during the day and at night in mid-March in the U.K. For stargazing, we tested them in a city park with a Bortle scale between 5 and 7. Our primary observation targets were Orion's belt, Sirius, Jupiter, the waxing half moon and the Beehive Cluster in the constellation of Cancer. For terrestrial viewing, we used them for finding birds in a local park and zooming in for up-close observation.

During testing in the U.K., nighttime temperatures were on average between 46 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit (8-12 degrees Celsius). Seeing conditions were clear and during non-lunar viewing, the skies had minimal or no moonlight.

User reviews

At time of writing, reviews for the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 were relatively positive, with users praising the smooth zoom mechanism and agreeing with the quoted 22x magnification on the zoom.

Users also liked the Zoom’s flexible magnification options and the 50mm objective lenses for height views, but the general consensus was that a tripod would vastly improve observation at the maximum magnification.

Should you buy the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars?Buy it if:

✅ You need one binocular with varied magnification: These binoculars have a variable zoom, from 10x through to 22x

✅ You are a high-magnification beginner: Varying magnification means you can practice higher-magnification viewing without investing in a dedicated pair

Don't buy it if:

❌ You want to look at deep-sky objects with binoculars: The view is much dimmer at 22x than at 10x, which drastically reduces the brightness of nebulas and diffuse deep sky objects.

❌ You need super-still images: Unless you buy a tripod, you are unlikely to get fully stationary images with these binoculars.

If you are a binocular beginner or casual stargazer who wants variable magnification, these are a great purchase. The build quality is solid and the zoom mechanism is very smooth, enabling you to observe from 10x through to 22x.

The zoom function does mean that sacrifices have to be made in terms of light transmission, and at full magnification, the view is noticeably dimmer than at lower magnifications. This reduces the brightness when observing deep space objects like nebulas, but for brighter objects and stars, they performed well.

If you want to observe frequently at 22x magnification, though, we would recommend buying a tripod and binocular tripod adapter, so that you can enjoy these night sky wonders shake-free.

If the Nikon Action Zoom 10-22x50 binoculars aren't for you

If you need binoculars purely for wide-field observations, we would recommend the Nikon Action 7x50 binoculars or Action 10x50 binoculars. They have fixed lower magnifications and light transmission isn't sacrificed for the zoom functionality. The build is almost identical to the Action zoom model.

If you need optics for looking at deep sky objects, we would recommend one of the best telescopes, or a pair of binoculars with strong magnification and large objective lenses. Try the Celestron SkyMaster Pro 20x80 or Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 binoculars, both of which have larger objective lenses than the Nikon Action zoom. You will have to use a tripod with these, but the larger objective lenses will give you a brighter view of dim objects.

If you want high-magnification views without needing a tripod, the Fujifilm Fujinon Techno-Stabi TS-L 1640 binoculars are a great choice. The objective lens diameter is only 40mm, but the image stabilization gives you a higher level of detail that makes up for the lower light transmission. For handheld use, the difference is night and day.

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NASA will hold a two-day aerospace exposition this November, and it may draw a surprising number of "Simpsons" fans.

The event, which NASA announced today (Aug. 14), will be held Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida's Space Coast. It's called "Max Power," which is also a famous Homer Simpson pseudonym.

In the 13th episode of the show's 10th season, which first aired in February 1999, Homer legally changed his name to Max Power. He wanted to disassociate himself from a bumbling character on the (fictional) TV show "Police Cops" who shared his given moniker.

Homer made the switch to Max Power — which he said he got off a hair dryer — without consulting his family, a move that did not go over well.

"Wait a minute!" his dad protested. "The family name is my legacy to you. I got it from my father, and he got it from his father, and he traded a mule for it. And that mule went on to save spring break."

Homer's wife Marge was also displeased.

"But I fell in love with Homer Simpson," she said. "I don't want to snuggle with Max Power."

"Nobody snuggles with Max Power," Homer — or rather Max — responded. "You strap yourself in and feel the Gs!"

NASA's Max Power expo is about feeling the Gs as well, at least in part.

"The two-day event will feature immersive experiences for all ages to enjoy, including air shows, skydiving stunts, technology demonstrations, spaceflight hardware, military aircraft and behind‑the‑scenes access to America's spaceport," agency officials wrote in a description of the expo. "Attend talks led by NASA experts and meet astronauts from some of agency’s most famous missions!"

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, an accomplished pilot as well as a private astronaut, said that he plans to participate in the expo's air show. And, if you're unable to attend this November, you'll likely have other chances down the road.

"Certainly, the idea is that this event, Max Power, becomes the first of many," Isaacman said during a press conference today.

Empty space is not as empty as it looks.

That is the takeaway of a new study examining signals from a dead star, offering what researchers say is the strongest evidence yet that extreme magnetic fields can alter the properties of a vacuum, causing seemingly empty space to act like a prism and changing how light travels through it

The findings, led by Rachael Stewart, a graduate student in physics at the George Washington University, confirm a prediction of a strange effect first proposed 90 years ago.

"The information we obtained from looking at this distant star core also gives us clues about the nature of the fabric of reality as we know it, and I find that to be incredible," Stewart said in a statement.

The idea dates to 1936, when the German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his student Hans Euler proposed that space is never truly void. Instead, they argued, it is a simmering sea of "virtual particles" — electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons — that flicker in and out of existence, briefly interacting with their surroundings before vanishing.

This subatomic froth is a consequence of quantum mechanics, and it remains invisible under ordinary conditions. But the theory predicts that an extremely strong magnetic field, such as one around a magnetar, can change how light moves, causing the light's waves to become more strongly aligned in a particular direction in an effect known as "vacuum birefringence."

"Detecting vacuum birefringence requires a magnetic field that is over 100 million times stronger than any we've ever made on Earth," study co-author Marcus Lower, an astrophysicist at the Swinburne University in Australia, said in another statement. "Thankfully, nature has provided us with magnetars, which are the perfect cosmic laboratories to go looking for this effect."

Magnetars are dense, city-size remnants left behind after massive stars explode, hosting the most powerful magnetic fields known in the universe. They are among the rare celestial objects capable of generating fields strong enough to reveal vacuum birefringence, offering scientists an extreme environment to test physics under conditions impossible to replicate on Earth.

"We're not just studying astronomical objects anymore; we're using them to test the laws of nature," study co-author Michela Negro, an astrophysicist at the Louisiana State University, said in a statement.

Astronomers have caught glimpses of this elusive phenomenon before, but not conclusively. In 2017, researchers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile observed polarization hints around a faint neutron star called RX J1856.5-3754, located about 400 light-years from Earth. However, those optical measurements remained open to interpretation, partly due to the challenges of isolating the optical signal.

An illustration of a magnetar. (Image credit: ESA)

At the time, scientists noted that definitive proof would require space-based X-ray observatories, specifically NASA's then-forthcoming Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Launched in 2021, IXPE carries three identical telescopes designed to measure the polarization of high-energy X-rays.

"It's only in the last six or so years that we've actually had a telescope capable of detecting this effect around magnetars," Lower told Michael West Media, an independent news website in Australia.

In March and April 2025, the researchers pointed IXPE at 1E 1547-5408, a magnetar that spins once every two seconds and is unusual among its kind for steadily emitting radio waves. The team supplemented that data with observations from an X-ray telescope aboard the International Space Station, as well as Australia's Murriyang radio telescope and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.

According to the study, two findings pointed to vacuum birefringence at work.

First, the X-rays picked up by IXPE were nearly three times more polarized than in similar sources, far higher than standard models of a neutron star's surface emission could explain on their own. Second, the polarization pointed the same way as the star's magnetic field, matching the pattern already observed in its radio waves. The researchers concluded that this combination leaves vacuum birefringence as the only explanation that fits the data.

"It's a bit of a relief because it means that our theories still work and there's nothing broken with physics," Lower told the Michael West Media news site.

An artist's depiction of the IXPE observatory in space. (Image credit: NASA)

For Fernando Camilo, chief scientist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory and a co-author of the new paper, the discovery brings a long journey full circle. Camilo has been studying 1E 1547-5408 since 2007, when he first detected its radio waves using the Murriyang dish, revealing its two-second rotation rate.

"At the time 1E 1547 was only the second magnetar in the Milky Way known to emit radio waves, and we were confident that regular monitoring would unveil interesting behaviour," Camilo said in the statement. "However we could never have imagined that 20 years later it would contribute to investigating a fundamental, and particularly quirky, prediction of quantum mechanics."

The team hopes to confirm the finding with data from future missions, including a proposed orbital mission called GoSOX (short for Globe Orbiting Soft X-ray Polarimeter), alongside improved computer simulations to distinguish the vacuum birefringence signal from other processes around magnetars.

"With these future data on hand and our updated simulations, we may finally be able to complete the quest started by Heisenberg nearly 90 years ago," Lower said in the Swinburne University statement.

This research is described in a paper published Aug. 5 in the journal Nature.

'For All Mankind' was pretty good, wasn't it? Sadly, the show's run has finished now, and while we've got spin-off 'Star City' picking up the mantle, it's still going to be a while before we get any more space politics drama on our screens. Luckily, we can find it on our tabletops instead, with these fantastic space board games.

If you haven't seen it, For All Mankind is the story of an alternate history in which the space race between the U.S. and Russia never fizzled out. Instead, it becomes a multigenerational competition that drives everything from electric vehicle adoption to gender equality.

If, like millions of other Apple TV subscribers, you've been rapt watching 'For All Mankind' and want to bring some of that hot diplomacy and betrayal to your own kitchen table, you're in luck. Several space-based board games let you get a taste of the space race intrigue without having to connive your way to the top of an actual space agency.

Social deduction games have exploded in recent years with good reason. Some of the best tabletop games include some level of politicking, as well as the deal-making, deception, and favor trading that entails. Making social and technological advances often comes at the cost of high levels of international brinkmanship and some very gray ethics.

So, are you ready to kick off the space race once again? Here are 7 space board games that capture the high drama of the era, but without all the devastating foreign policy implications of the real thing.

1. Twilight Struggle

(Image credit: GMT Games)

Developer: Ananda Gupta, Trevor Devries | Release Date: 2005 | Players: 2 | Recommended Age: 13+

Twilight Struggle is a perfect distillation of the tension and national anxiety embodied by the Cold War. It follows the conflict between the U.S. and Russia across five decades, and its space race track mirrors For All Mankind's geopolitical stakes.

Every satellite you managed to hurl into the atmosphere or astronaut you successfully guide into space represents both a technical and a propaganda victory. It’s like watching Margo Madison and Sergei Nikulov battle with dice in place of launch vehicles.

Buy "Twilight Struggle" at GMT Games

2. Twilight Imperium

(Image credit: Future (Ian Stokes))

Developer: Corey Konieczka (Fantasy Flight Games) | Release Date: 2017 | Players: 3-6 (up to 8 with expansions) | Recommended Age: 14+

Considered by many to be the gold standard in space politicking, Twilight Imperium drops you into a vast galaxy after the fall of the ancient Lazax empire.

Players take on the role of interstellar empires competing to conquer the capital planet at the center of a huge galaxy. They achieve this by building space docks and warships, trading goods, and clashing in cosmic combat.

The true brilliance of TI lies in its asymmetry, with each of the 17 factions having a variety of advantages and quirks that differentiate it from the others, and the way it drives players to negotiate with — and backstab — each other on the galactic stage.

Laws and elections can quickly shift the balance of power in the game, and the rules can be subverted or twisted to your advantage through the deft deployment of crushing bureaucracy. It's a long game and not one for beginners, but there really is nothing quite like a session of Twilight Imperium.

Buy "Twilight Imperium" at Asmodee

3. High Frontier (4th Edition)

(Image credit: Ion Game Design)

Developer: Phil Eklund (Sierra Madre Games) | Release Date: 2019 | Players: 1-5 | Recommended Age: 14+

Designed by real-world aerospace engineer and rocket scientist Phil Eklund, High Frontier puts you at the helm of a space agency or private aerospace company and tasks you with building a self-sustaining space economy.

It channels For All Mankind’s scientific obsession and is a great showcase for the intersection of personal and national ambition and feasibility. Every decision feels freighted with international importance, and players are forced to grapple with mechanics like realistically modeled orbital mechanics and unforgiving resource scarcity.

Beware, though; High Frontier is one of the most complex board games ever developed, but can also be one of the most rewarding for committed players.

Buy "High Frontier" at Ion Game Design.

4. SpaceCorp: 2025–2300 AD

(Image credit: GMT Games)

Developer: Phil Eklund (Sierra Madre Games) | Release Date: 2018 | Players: 1-5 | Recommended Age: 14+

SpaceCorp takes us far beyond the imagined future of For All Mankind's world of governmental space agency programs, and into a timeline where vast, powerful corporations have transformed cosmic exploration and exploitation into big business.

Players begin in low Earth orbit and steadily expand their way into the depths of space, trying to find the balance between risk and profit. Like any good far future dystopia, SpaceCorp positions massive corporations as the true governing entities of the future, swapping in private investors for diplomats and corporate boards for politicians.

It's the natural evolution of the creeping commercialization that For All Mankind's later seasons begin to gesture towards. Real life is making similar gestures, if we're honest, and I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.

Buy "SpaceCorp: 2025–2300 AD" at Amazon.

5. Terraforming Mars

(Image credit: Future)

Developer: Jacob Fryxelius (FryxGames) | Release Date: 2016 | Players: 1-5 | Recommended Age: 12+

Terraforming Mars takes the terrestrial-based space race so vividly portrayed in For All Mankind and ships it to the Martian surface.

Players compete to build massive engines of profit and production to transform Mars into a livable habitat, all in the glorious name of cutthroat capitalism.

It perfectly embodies the dream-versus-profit conflict so adeptly portrayed in For All Mankind, while also reflecting the later seasons' focus on the red planet as a new stage for human rivalry and ethical reckoning, clothed in the reassuring euphemism of progress.

6. Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy

(Image credit: Kolossal Games)

Developer: Touko Tahkokallio (Lautapelit.fi) | Release Date: 2020 | Players: 2-6 | Recommended Age: 14+

A personal favorite, Eclipse is a 4X* game that blends elements of exploration with research and direct (fairly deterministic) combat.

Players ruthlessly compete for victory points derived from controlling systems, building specific structures, discovering artifacts, and researching scientific innovations. It's a beautiful interpretation of one of our world's oldest refrains, the often impossible balance of diplomacy and domination.

A full game of Eclipse ends up reflecting on human nature in some of the same ways the show does, illustrating how often our best intentions are undermined by our desire for personal advancement (or total victory).

*4X stands for Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate.

Buy "Eclipse: 2nd Dawn for the Galaxy" at Zatu Games.

Cards Against Humanity isn't done with its scorched-Earth campaign against SpaceX and Elon Musk.

The Chicago-based company behind the popular fill-in-the-blank adult card game is inviting the public to join its design committee to erect an "Elon Musk is a Sad Little B----- with No Friends" monument on a stretch of land it owns near SpaceX's Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas.

Cards Against Humanity (CAH) brought a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024 for illegally dumping construction materials and other equipment on land owned by CAH. SpaceX decided to settle with the company in 2025 and removed its "gravel, tractors, and space garbage" from the property prior to the area's annexation for the city of Starbase's incorporation, according to CAH. But the company, and its apparent distaste for "racist billionaires," as it has labeled Musk, as well as President Trump, is still pushing back.

Trump's role in the ordeal informs why CAH owns the Texas property in the first place. The company launched the "Cards Against Humanity Saves America" campaign during Trump's first term in 2017, which included an effort to throw a roadblock in the U.S. government's ability to complete construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The campaign attracted 150,000 contributors who paid $15 each, enabling CAH to purchase the land and retain the services of an eminent domain law firm "to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall."

SpaceX had already purchased much of the surrounding land by then and officially broke ground at what would become Starbase in 2014. Starbase is the center of development and operations for SpaceX's Starship rocket — a fully reusable launch vehicle that will clock in as the world's largest, most powerful rocket in history once it's operational.

Major construction at Starbase began in earnest in 2018, with the first Starship prototype vehicle tests beginning in 2019. When CAH filed its lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024, SpaceX had already managed to launch four full-stack Starship test flights and begun construction of a second Starbase launch pad. That's around when the facility's general expansion began to encroach on CAH's property, according to a complaint the company filed in Texas' Cameron County 404th District Court.

Cards Against Humanity's property before SpaceX's trespassing violation.Cards Against HumanityCards Against Humanity's property after SpaceX's trespassing violation.Cards Against Humanity

Starbase's location at the very southern tip of Texas provides a safe and remote area for testing giant rockets. But SpaceX's increased activity there has triggered a large influx of employees in search of housing in and around the unincorporated Boca Chica area, which had been sparsely populated. SpaceX eventually began constructing clusters of homes for its employees around its facilities, and, in an effort to obtain some control over local governance for things like zoning and permitting, workers and residents voted to incorporate Starbase as its own city in May 2025.

That CAH's plot of land was annexed as part of Starbase's official incorporation has apparently not sat well with the people behind the popular card game, and they are once again engaging the public to try to get Musk's attention. In a Threads post on Aug. 13, the company asked, "Who wants to f---- with Elon Musk?"

"Now, our parcel has been annexed into a 'town' called 'Starbase' — a corporate hellscape littered with broken rockets and ugly mansions for Musk's executives," the post says. In typically colorful CAH fashion, it adds, "But hope is not lost! We still have our rights as proud Texas landowners: We can build something on our land. Something that will annoy Elon Musk. A grand monument to make him wonder, for a brief moment, 'Wait, am I a sad little b---- with no friends?'"

A map from CAH showing its land in Starbase, Texas. (Image credit: Cards Against Humanity)

The announcement calls for the formation of a design committee for the aforementioned monument, which CAH describes as "a movement of like-minded people working together … to force a moment of introspection" for Musk, available for anyone to join for $10 at "ElonHasNoFriends.com". The post also advertises that 10% of profits from sales of its new game expansion decks will go toward funding the monument as well.

CAH isn't alone in criticizing Musk and SpaceX's Starbase activities. Musk's public persona has grown exponentially with SpaceX's successes over the past decade or so and his 2022 purchase of the social media platform Twitter, which he renamed X. Musk has also drawn criticism for his comments and actions during the 2024 election, which he may have helped swing via the donation of nearly $300 million to Trump and other Republican candidates. As early as 2022, a group of anonymous SpaceX employees posted an open letter to executives on an internal company forum saying, "Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment."

Others, however, praise Musk for the inarguable contribution of reusable rockets that SpaceX introduced with the Falcon 9, and his aspiration to make humanity a multi-planetary species. He was also named Time Magazine's person of the year in 2021, and SpaceX has become an indispensable asset to NASA and U.S. spaceflight. The company's Crew Dragon capsule is currently the only American-launched spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station, and NASA has contracted SpaceX to design a lunar lander version of Starship to deliver astronauts to the surface of the moon on Artemis IV in 2028.

SpaceX's activities at Starbase have received scrutiny as well. When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted its environmental assessment of Starbase to approve Starship launches from the site in 2021, more than 18,000 comments were submitted by members of the public, delaying the report's publication for nearly half a year as each one was reviewed. When the FAA did publish its assessment, SpaceX was cleared for Starship launches out of Starbase, pending nearly 80 actions needed to ensure its reduced environmental impact on the area, which SpaceX soon addressed.

To date, SpaceX has launched 13 Starship test flights with varying degrees of success. Some have resulted in the awesome return and catch of the rocket's Super Heavy booster using the "Mechazilla" chopstick arms on the Starbase launch tower, others featured Starship debris raining down within view of populated areas like The Bahamas, and at least a couple launches ended with a combination of both those outcomes.

The very public display of exploding rockets from SpaceX over the last several years has raised more than a few eyebrows of people wondering about the repercussions of where that potential aerospace carnage might come crashing down. But those results are also indicative of SpaceX's iterative "test like you fly" philosophy for vehicle development.

Musk sees Starship as humanity's ticket to extending our species' footprint to the moon, Mars and beyond, and is often quoted saying, about Starship and other subject matter, that "we live on the most interesting timeline." If Starship lives up to Musk and SpaceX's promises, it stands to create another monumental, industry-changing impact on spaceflight history, with the potential to launch our civilization into the cosmos. And, if it has to lift off within sight of a monument calling SpaceX's CEO "a sad little b---- with no friends," that would be pretty interesting indeed.

An 8,800-pound (4,000 kilograms) Falcon 9 rocket stage hit the moon last Wednesday (Aug. 5), stirring lunar regolith in a massive plume of dust observable all the way from Earth.

The rocket joined some 3,000 manmade objects scattered on the surface of our planet's companion. Some experts think it's about time we start treating the pristine lunar environment with a bit more respect.

Around 200 tons of Earth stuff have been either deliberately left on or crashed into the moon since the beginning of the space age. Some of this material has a prominent place in history books: The descent modules from all six Apollo landing missions, Soviet Lunakhod rovers from the 1970s and China's 2010s Yutu 1 and 2 robots still sit where they had been left or ran out of power.

But there is also a lot of stuff on the moon that wasn't really meant to end up there. Astronomer and space historian Jonathan McDowell says that many rocket stages and other objects left in orbit between Earth and the moon since the first lunar missions in the 1960s may have ended up on the gray dirt. Four years before the Falcon 9 upper stage crashed near Einstein Crater, for example, part of a Chinese Long March 3C rocket slammed into the moon's far side. And experts think such incidents could become increasingly common in the coming years, as exploration of the moon intensifies.

"We're in a transitional moment," McDowell told Space.com. "From the era when there was rare lunar exploration mostly by the U.S. and the Soviet Union, we've seen over the past decade other nations landing on the moon and the beginning of commercial missions. But governance has not kept up with this. We don't have an international set of agreements on how to operate near the moon, how to coordinate activities near the moon, and we're really going to need it because, not only is the amount of activity at the moon increasing, but the number of different players is greatly increasing, too."

Human activities on the moon are governed by the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, Marieta Valdivia Lefort, a policy officer at the Royal Astronomical Society in the U.K., told Space.com. Article IX of that treaty binds countries to "conduct the exploration of outer space in a way that avoids harmful contamination," she said. But what exactly constitutes such contamination is unclear, she added.

"There are international legal frameworks that apply to activities on the moon and include obligations concerning harmful contamination, but there is no dedicated international 'waste law' or comprehensive 'rubbish-management' system for it," Lefort wrote in an email. "The Outer Space Treaty does not define when contamination becomes 'harmful.' It does not set numerical waste limits, create approved disposal sites or require every object on the moon to be removed."

South Korea's Danuri moon probe captured this photo of the spot where a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage hit the moon on Aug. 5, 2026. (Image credit: KARI)

The moon is big. Its surface area, around 14.7 million square miles (38 million square kilometers) rivals that of Asia, Earth's largest continent, which covers 17 million square miles (44 million square km). But the moon's low gravity — around 17% that of Earth — means the dust that an impact stirs up travels a long way and takes a long time to settle, McDowell said.

"It's not just a local event," he said. "It's an equivalent to a continental-level event. In the future, when you have permanent human bases and scientific experiments on the moon, you don't want rocket stages smashing into the moon on a regular basis, creating big plumes of dust that could contaminate instruments or disturb gravitational wave detectors."

Moreover, the artificial material introduced and the craters that arise when heavy rocket stages smash into the lunar surface are altering the lunar environment, potentially erasing yet unexplored scientific material.

"The moon is naturally struck by meteoroids, and those impacts form part of the geological record that scientists are trying to understand," Lefort wrote. "The main concern is the alteration of the moon's physical and chemical environment, particularly where repeated disturbances could damage or obscure valuable scientific evidence."

A Chinese rocket body impacted the moon on March 4, 2022, creating a double crater roughly 95 feet (29 meters), as seen in this photo taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

Gregory Radisic, a space law expert at Australia's Bond University, told Space.com that the Falcon 9 crash was timely, as it can stir debate about responsible behavior in space before the moon gets too busy.

"It's not by good planning that this didn't hit something important," he said. "It's by pure luck that we're only having a conversation about theoretical problems down the line and that this did not destroy a million-dollar experiment or an important site of scientific study."

He added that spaceflight companies may start paying attention to the risks only after human lives are lost or expensive infrastructure suffers, resulting in tangible fines and consequences.

"When there is a loss of life or a loss of investment, the industry will start to care," Radisic said. "As long as things are losing aesthetic or scientific value, the industry is not likely going to care."

The Falcon 9 rocket stage that hit the moon was left in a high-altitude orbit around Earth in January 2025, after it propelled Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience landers to the moon.

McDowell explained that, as the rocket stage was left relatively close to the moon, it got repeatedly influenced by lunar gravity, eventually spiralling into its surface.

"If you leave [an object] in an orbit that's in this middle region that is far enough that the moon's gravity is affecting it but not far enough out to go into orbit around the sun, then that orbit is very hard to predict," McDowell said. "The orbital uncertainties multiply over many passes and, eventually, if you get unlucky, the moon tugs it into an orbit where it's going to hit either the moon or Earth in a completely unpredictable way."

McDowell said that, since the January 2025 launch, SpaceX has been pushing its moon-mission rockets farther out into orbit around the sun.

"I hope that we're going to see a new norm evolve, and that what we have seen now is not how you dispose of your rocket stages in the future," he said. 


Amid the major uptick in national defense space contracts since the Trump Administration announced plans to assemble a "Golden Dome" missile-defense system in orbit, Rocket Lab has landed another deal to contribute to the cause.

The California-based company was awarded a $397 million Space Force contract to design, manufacture and launch a fleet of "Flatellites" to augment existing infrastructure's ability to track airborne threats in real time. The project is funded under the Space Force's Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) program, and is one of several national security contracts that Rocket Lab has scored over the last two years.

"We are proud to contribute to the deployment of a resilient space-based sensing layer that will enhance the Joint Force’s ability to operate in contested airspace," said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck in an Aug. 4 statement.

The Flatellites deal is the company's single largest national defense contract so far this year. Since the beginning of 2026, Rocket Lab has now announced four major U.S. government-funded defense contracts worth a combined $943 million: $190 million from the Department of Defense for 20 HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) test launches, a $90 million Space Force contract for two satellites in geostationary orbit and another Space Force deal for $266 million to launch up to 18 missile-defense missions from Alaska.

Rocket Lab also recently unveiled GHOST design, a new deployable shipping container-based system capable of supporting Electron and HASTE launches for responsive national-security missions from mobile or temporary locations. And, during a recent earnings call, Beck voiced the company's intent to carry out the aforementioned Alaskan launches using GHOST (short for "Global Hypersonic & Orbital Spaceport Technology"), saying, "We've mastered the art of building launch sites. Now we're making them deployable worldwide."

Artist impression of Rocket Lab Flatellite spacecraft inside a Neutron launch vehicle fairing. (Image credit: Rocket Lab)

The flat design of Rocket Lab's Flatellites will increase the number of spacecraft that can be delivered per launch and has been optimized for orbital constellations, according to Rocket Lab's statement. The satellites will be equipped with low latency, high bandwidth communication systems and sensors for tracking adversarial air-based threats.

They will launch in stacks aboard Rocket Lab's upcoming Neutron rocket, similar to the payload bay configuration used for Starlink satellites on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. Neutron is Rocket Lab's next-generation launch vehicle designed to compete with Falcon 9 lift capabilities and partial reusability, and is currently expected to debut sometime near the end of this year or in early 2027.

Can Venus cast a shadow? With Aug. 12's total solar eclipse — where the moon's dark silhouette is everything — now behind us, it's a good time to test another kind of celestial shadow.

Astronomical folklore has it that the second rock from the sun, Venus, is, after the sun and moon, the third object able to cast a shadow when it's near peak brightness, albeit extremely faint, according to EarthSky.

Is it true? Not in a city, where skylights glow and porch lights blaze, where shadows are mostly thrown by passing cars that appear to become the brightest object in the solar system briefly. Venus does cast a shadow, but the sky must be very dark, transparent and free of any light — apparently.

Timing is everything. Having reached dichotomy — its half-lit phase — on Aug. 12, Venus is currently 49%-lit and waning as it moves closer to Earth, increasing in angular size as it becomes a slim crescent. Cue a surge in brightness, thanks to its reflective clouds and its closeness. Shouldn't it be brightest when it's "full?" No, because it's an inferior planet — i.e., it orbits closer to the sun — so it's fully lit only when it's on the other side of the sun from Earth, when its disk appears at its smallest.

What’s happening and when to look

Venus is beautifully placed this week because it reaches greatest eastern elongation, its widest apparent separation from the sun in the evening sky. Look low in the west after sunset — Venus will be the bright white "star" that appears before the fainter stars even have a chance.

On Aug. 14-15, it sits about 46 degrees from the sun and shines at a magnitude of -4.3 to -4.4, bright enough to dominate twilight but not quite at its most impressive stage of the apparition. The real test comes around Sept. 18, when Venus reaches its greatest brilliancy at magnitude -4.6. Sadly, by then it's going to be rather low in the sky from mid-northern latitudes, making observation from the U.K. difficult, but possible from most of the U.S.

Venus shines over the Mitsuke Iwa Rock in Ishikawa, Japan. (Image credit: Yuga Kurita via Getty Images)How and when I’m watching it

According to Sky & Telescope, to catch a faint but well-defined shadow of Venus — a point source of light — you'll need to be somewhere free from artificial lighting and wait until twilight is over. Face Venus and place a white surface (a white card or sheet works well) also facing Venus. You'll also need to position something in front of the card to cast a shadow. Although it is possible to see the faint shadow of Venus, photographing the card is the best way to capture it, using a technique similar to that for any night sky photograph — a high ISO, a wide aperture and a long exposure of up to 30 seconds. It may be wise to test the location, find the best line of sight, and work out where the card needs to go while Venus is still high enough above the western horizon.

If you're not in a good location to catch the shadow of Venus, instead try to see and photograph the light from Venus reflecting on water. Any pond, lake or ocean you can get between you and Venus ought to catch its shine in a long exposure image. That identical technique — high ISO, a wide aperture and a long exposure — will also apply, but this time you can actually aim your camera at Venus!

Stargazer’s Corner: August 14-20, 2026

This is an excellent week for darkness and faint objects. With new moon on Aug. 12, this week is all about a crescent moon. On Aug. 15 you may catch a 12%-lit waxing crescent close to Venus, but more likely you'll see it on Aug, 16, when it will be 19%-lit. The latter occasion is one to aim for — a beautiful sight. On both occasions, look for "earthshine" on the darkened limb of the moon — sunlight reflected by Earth, and something else you can try to capture with a long exposure. The waxing crescent moon will be low in the western evening sky, but early in the week it sets early enough to leave most of the night usable for stargazing and deep-sky astronomy.

 A crescent moon will meet Venus early this week. (Image credit: Jordan Lye via Getty Images)

The buzz around the Perseid meteor shower, like the solar eclipse, will by now have completely dissipated, but they're still active after their Aug. 12-13 peak, though rates will be lower. With the moon mostly out of the way, it is still worth spending time outside after midnight in the hope of finding "shooting stars." However, the main attraction during dark nights in August is the Milky Way, which streams through the Summer Triangle to Scorpius and Sagittarius. Every time I see the Summer Triangle stars high in the night sky, I tell myself that the Milky Way is right there — and hidden from us by light pollution. It's a reminder to get to a dark-sky site as much as possible when the moon is down (the period between last-quarter moon and new moon is the best week of any month).

Constellation of the week: Scorpius

Scorpius is one of the most distinctive constellations visible from mid-northern latitudes, though it never climbs very high. Its bright red star Antares marks the heart of the scorpion, with a curving tail extending downward toward the horizon. You can see Antares above Venus as it gets dark — a bright, dominating star that's a waymarker of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

The constellation Scorpius. (Image credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani)

Even in brighter skies, its shape is recognizable, forming a hooked pattern that stands out from the surrounding stars. Because it sits low in the south, it's best observed earlier in the evening before it begins to set. It's one of the few constellations that genuinely resembles its name — and it's where to see the Milky Way meet the horizon.

The heart of the Milky Way may be more hospitable to water than astronomers thought.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers detected water and cosmic dust around an aging star only 0.55 light-years from Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

The new study suggests that water and dust can form and survive surprisingly close to a supermassive black hole, where intense radiation and other harsh conditions might otherwise be expected to destroy them. The team used Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to study IRS 3, an aging star located in the crowded environment surrounding Sgr A*, which has a mass of about 4 million suns, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA).

(Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan)

"Galactic centres are among the most extreme environments, so understanding whether stars can continue enriching their surroundings there is an important question," Florian Peißker, lead author of the study from the University of Cologne in Germany, said in the statement. "With Webb, we can directly observe how stars behave under these conditions and see that dust production remains remarkably resilient."

IRS 3 — one of the brightest mid-infrared sources in the galactic center — is an asymptotic giant branch star, meaning it has reached a late stage of stellar evolution in which it sheds large amounts of gas and dust through powerful stellar winds. Such dying stars act as cosmic recycling centers, returning material to space that can eventually become incorporated into future generations of stars and planets.

But IRS 3 lives in a particularly unforgiving neighborhood. The center of the Milky Way is densely packed with stars and exposed to intense radiation, raising questions about whether molecules and newly produced dust can persist there.

However, Webb's observations suggest they can. By combining observations of IRS 3's spectrum with simulations of how its light travels through different models of the surrounding material, researchers reconstructed the structure of the star's envelope. They found a layered, shell-like distribution of silicate dust extending roughly 10,000 astronomical units from the star (one astronomical unit, or AU, is the average distance between Earth and the sun). Temperatures within the envelope fall from about 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (927 degrees Celsius) near the star to around minus 280 F (minus 173 C) in its outer regions. Webb's observations also revealed clear evidence of water within the envelope — the first such detection for IRS 3.

"The detection of water is especially exciting because it shows that molecular material can survive in an environment dominated by intense radiation," Macarena Garcia Marin, co-author of the study and an ESA astronomer, said in the statement.

While the observations don't reveal how much water is present, the detection shows that water can survive in the harsh environment near the galactic center. Water and dust are important ingredients in the chemistry that accompanies star and planet formation, meaning material shed by aging stars such as IRS 3 could eventually contribute to future generations of stars and planets.

Finding water and dust near Sgr A* therefore suggests that aging stars can continue enriching their surroundings even in the harsh conditions near a supermassive black hole. The findings could help astronomers better understand how material is recycled in the centers of galaxies and the role evolved stars play in supplying those regions with fresh dust and molecules.

Their findings were published Aug. 11 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

On Aug. 14, 1992, a space rock entered the atmosphere over Mbale, Uganda and exploded into hundreds of pieces!

Debris from this meteorite shower was strewn over an area of about 2 by 4 miles (3.2 to 6.4 kilometers), and the biggest piece weighed more than 60 pounds (27 kilograms)! Scientists estimated that the original space rocket weighed more than 2,000 pounds (900 kg). A young boy was hit in the head with a small meteorite fragment, but thankfully no one was seriously injured or killed by any of the falling space rocks.

In October 2012, a fragment of the Mbale meteorite was put up for sale by Heritage Auctions in New York City.

This image shows a fireball over California on Oct. 17, 2012. (Image credit: Paola-Castillo)Why it mattered

The Mbale meteorite provided scientists with a glimpse of how space rocks of this size can impact communities where they happen to land, and allowed researchers a look at large fragments found by recovery expeditions for radionuclide studies within just 12 days of falling to Earth.

NASA classified Mbale as a type L5/6 ordinary chondrite, and calculated that its breakup in Earth's atmosphere occurred between about 15.5 miles (25 km) and 6 miles (10 km) in altitude. By October 1993, 863 fragments of the meteorite had been recovered, with an overall estimate of 330 pounds (150 kg) of material surviving the atmospheric plunge to reach Earth's surface.

The silhouette of the ISS transiting across the sun's face during the Aug. 12, 2026 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

This week's total solar eclipse captured the world's attention, and millions of skywatchers looked up (with the correct protective eyewear, hopefully) to experience the moon blocking out our star's light. And, as you can see in this image, even the International Space Station (ISS) itself got in on the fun.

What is it?

On Aug. 12, 2026, the moon completely blocked out the sun's light for millions of lucky skywatchers witnessing a total solar eclipse.

But the moon isn't the only thing orbiting Earth. Tons of satellites and probes do too, and that includes the ISS. This created a truly remarkable moment for some skywatchers. With the right equipment, it was possible to see the silhouette of the ISS in front of the sun.

This composite image shows eight different frames of the ISS silhouetted on the sun's face as the moon takes a "bite" out of our star to create a partial eclipse.

This gif shows the ISS' silhouette moving across the sun's face during a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)Why is it incredible?

Solar eclipses like this week's total solar eclipse really bring people together. It creates opportunities for humans to come together and gather for a common goal.

And while the ISS is featured in this image, we may also want to consider the astronauts aboard. In other words, people on Earth weren't the only ones who got to participate in the marvel.

The Expedition 75 astronauts on the ISS (NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Anil Menon, and Jack Hathaway; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Andrey Fedyaev and Anna Kikina) caught the show too as they orbited our planet. There they were, in between Earth and the moon, as our planet's neighbor blocked out our star.

NASA has formally invited India to participate in its effort to build a permanent base near the moon's south pole, adding a new dimension to the deep-space cooperation between the two countries.

The invitation was extended last week at the Indian space agency ISRO's headquarters in Bengaluru during the ninth meeting of the U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group. The CSJWG was established in 2005 as a mechanism for bilateral space cooperation and for addressing challenges and pursuing mutual spaceflight goals.

"Building on our successful collaboration in science, NASA reaffirmed its interest in @ISRO joining Moon Base. We're going back to the moon to stay — and we're bringing our partners with us," NASA officials said via X on Tuesday (Aug. 11).

Building on our successful collaboration in science, NASA reaffirmed its interest in @ISRO joining Moon Base. We're going back to the Moon to stay — and we're bringing our partners with us. https://t.co/hU9ssn24FPAugust 11, 2026

Beyond the lunar base invitation, "the two sides also agreed to advance discussions for cooperation on open scientific data sharing under the Accords," reads a Tuesday statement by the U.S. Embassy in India.

"The Accords" are the Artemis Accords, the U.S.-led diplomatic framework outlining principles for safe and responsible exploration of the moon and beyond. India signed on as the 27th signatory in 2023, joining a coalition that has now grown to 70 nations.

Official statements have provided few details on what India's participation in the Moon Base program would entail in practice. The meeting, however, brought together senior space officials from both countries, including V. Narayanan, the chairman of ISRO and secretary of India's Department of Space, and Sergio Gor, the U.S. Ambassador to India, who addressed the opening session, according to the statement.

The meeting was co-chaired by M. Sankaran, director of ISRO's U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, on the Indian side, and two people on the U.S. side — Wesley Brooks, assistant secretary of state for the U.S. Department of State's Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and Kathleen Karika, NASA associate administrator for International and Interagency Relations, the statement reads.

Over the coming decade, via its Artemis program, NASA plans to build out a sprawling, city-like base near the moon's south pole, a region of particular interest thanks to permanently shadowed craters there that are thought to contain substantial deposits of water ice.

Details of the planned architecture shared by NASA in May envision hilltop habitats to take advantage of sunlight and nuclear power systems located farther away to mitigate radiation risks. The space agency also plans to use small, hopping robots starting in 2028 to scout the south polar region ahead of moon base construction.

This effort to gather information and secure access to the surface is the first of three planned phases. Phase 2, from 2029-2032, is intended to establish the base's initial operating capability. Phase 3, from 2032 onward, aims to achieve a semi-permanent crew presence on the lunar surface, NASA said during the May update.

Senior space officials from India and the U.S. at the ninth meeting of the India-U.S. Civil Space Joint Working Group at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru on Aug. 5-6, 2026, where NASA invited ISRO to join its Moon Base program. (Image credit: ISRO)

To prioritize infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the moon's surface, increase launch cadence and keep pace with China's lunar ambitions, NASA earlier this year paused development of its long-planned Gateway space station.

For India, the invitation to join NASA's Moon Base program comes as the country pursues its own ambitious lunar exploration and human spaceflight roadmap. Its plans for the 2040s include developing a moon base, establishing a space station in lunar orbit and sending Indian astronauts to the moon, with the broader goal of building long-term human presence beyond Earth.

The moon dust has settled after a 4.5-ton SpaceX rocket body slammed into terrain near Einstein Crater on Aug. 5.

That impact site was imaged by South Korea's moon-orbiting Danuri spacecraft, as well as by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Reportedly, a Chinese commercial space debris monitoring satellite tracked and recorded the 5,400-mph (8,690-kph) moon punch, too.

Wandering through space for over a year, the leftover Falcon 9 upper stage had sent Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost-1 lander on its way to the moon back on Jan. 15, 2025. Also sent moonward on that flight was the Hakuto-R Mission 2's Resilience, a robotic lunar lander developed by the Japanese company ispace. While the moon has reclaimed its serenity, the implications of the uncontrolled collision continue to reverberate.

Close encounter

Interestingly, there was also the prospect of a too-close-for-comfort conjunction of the Falcon 9 upper stage and Danuri.

"We noticed roughly late June that there is an incoming Falcon 9 upper stage toward the moon, and also knew that it would be close to Danuri," Eunhyeuk Kim, a senior researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), told Space.com.

There was a huge uncertainty in the predicted trajectory of the upper stage, Kim said, while the orbit information of South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter was quite accurate. "Therefore, we could not neglect the probability of an incoming and close encounter."

Before-and-after imagery of the impact site. (Image credit: KARI)Spacecraft maneuver

However, around mid July, the KARI/Danuri team performed a maneuver of the spacecraft in preparation of a near-total lunar eclipse on Aug. 28, said Kim. That eclipse will see 96% of the moon's visible surface passing through Earth's dark umbral shadow.

Kim said that the orbiter's maneuver brought a slight change in the phase of the spacecraft's orbit, which canceled the probable conjunction between the upper stage and Danuri.

At the time of the Aug. 5 impact, Danuri was flying over the moon's south pole area, far away from the hit zone, said Kim.

Illustration of the moon, with an arrow pointing to the Falcon 9's upper stage impact site on Aug. 5, 2026. (Image credit: Bill Gray/Project Pluto)High-speed ejecta

Dean Sladen is a quality manager and aerospace engineer in the United Kingdom for Accu Components, a high-precision manufacturing firm.

"As space agencies and private companies build out permanent lunar infrastructure, uncontrolled rocket stages evolve from a minor nuisance into a tangible operational risk," Sladen told Space.com. "A direct hit is the obvious worst-case scenario, but distant impacts also generate ground shocks and high-speed ejecta that can degrade sensitive equipment over time."

Sladen noted that lunar impacts have been a constant throughout history, with meteorites and comets bombarding the surface unhindered by an atmosphere. "Over the past 65 years, artificial objects have added a new dynamic to these events," he added.

An artist’s concept of astronauts working on the lunar surface. (Image credit: NASA)Genuine hazard

Even modest hardware impacts permanently alter the lunar landscape, said Sladen. Given the moon's lack of a substantial atmosphere, there is no air resistance to slow debris down. An impact therefore hurls high-speed ejecta (fine regolith and rock fragments) across vast distances at bullet-like speeds.

"While this isn't a major threat to isolated missions today, as we establish permanent lunar infrastructure, high-velocity ejecta poses a genuine hazard to surface habitats, solar arrays and working astronauts," Sladen said.

To mitigate this issue, Sladen suggested that the industry will likely need designated impact zones or strictly controlled, targeted de-orbit protocols to ensure that spent hardware lands far from active installations.

"That said, human-made debris is only half the equation," Sladen continued. "Natural meteorites remain an ongoing background threat, and, while massive natural strikes are rare, they hit at significantly higher speeds and carry far more energy," Sladen said. "Controlling our own hardware is simply the part of the risk profile we actually have the power to manage."

Plume detections

In the meantime, while the Falcon 9 impact was tough to see from Earth, several observations from our planet reported the detection of sodium and lithium gas above the crash site.

The European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, for example, saw the aftermath of the impact. The ESO reported that a chemical fingerprint of the impact was visible for five to 10 minutes, with an enormous plume of lunar material stirred up due to the hard-hitting hardware.

"I'm happy that ESO recorded some evidence of it through VLT, and Danuri has found the exact impact location," said William Jo, a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas, Austin who performed some pre-strike computer simulations.

"What we've learned so far is that the plume was too faint to see against the bright lunar surface, and only a large observatory telescope could pick some parts of it out against the dark sky, which is exactly what happened," Jo told Space.com. "The plume must have shot out high," he said, "and I'd like to know how high, or even whether we can replicate the signals."

Targets of opportunity

"Telescopes make the best spaceships," pointed out Elaina Hyde, director of the Allan I Carswell Observatory at York University in Canada. "We are always on the lookout for 'targets of opportunity' like this event."

Hyde organized a livestream event, training the observatory on the collision locale. They were unable to spot the impact, however.

"The lunar collision was not on our regular research program, but when it happened, we put it as a high-priority item to observe if the weather was clear," Hyde said. "Anything that happens quickly like this is often a target of opportunity, because you do not get a long time to plan the observation."

"However, since it was not visible from our location in Toronto, our 'null' or non detection can actually help to limit the estimates on how big the dust plume was and perhaps some of its properties," said Hyde.

(Image credit: Lowell Observatory)Impact response

Also on the moon impact watch were observers using Lowell Observatory equipment in Arizona.

These researchers managed to measure a response from the rocket stage impact, spotting a sizable sodium and lithium gas plume that lasted between five and 10 minutes after impact, reported Carl Schmidt, an assistant research professor at Boston University's Center for Space Physics.

Observers at the 4.3-meter Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) in Happy Jack, Arizona used a long slit spectrograph to detect the plume. Graduate students from Boston University continue to analyze data gleaned from the moon wallop.

Bright lithium plume

"At LDT, we saw a bright lithium plume from the rocket body and fainter sodium [signature], likely from the surface itself," Patrick Lierle of Boston University told Space.com. "The bright lithium plume extends more than halfway up our field of view." The LDT results are also credited to Emma Lovett, a Boston University graduate student.

William Jo said he's looking forward to the release of observational data about the impact before he and colleagues can refine their lunar ejecta simulation model.

"That data, combined with our simulations, could tell us things like the composition of the lunar material, what orientation the impact hit at, and so on," Jo said.

Small telescopes have really come on leaps and bounds in recent years. There was a time when refractors with apertures smaller than 4 inches were seldom to be recommended, but manufacturers have been pushing the capabilities of smaller apertures ever further, with optical coatings and high quality, mass-produced optics helping to eke out every little bit of capability from these pocket-sized instruments.

While still aperture-limited — a smaller aperture makes less light received, which makes faint objects harder to see and details harder to resolve — a good small telescope can excel at the things it can do. This include showing fabulous views of the whole moon, revealing the phases of Mercury and Venus, showing surface features on Mars when the Red Planet is at a close opposition, tracking the Galilean moons of Jupiter, splitting double stars, showcasing open star clusters and revealing the very brightest deep-sky objects, including the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy.

The Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 portable telescope is a re-skin of the plain Celestron Travel-scope 70, and is labelled as a lunar telescope. The moon is what it excels at, which is particularly handy in the year that humans went back to the moon for the first time since 1972, drumming up all kinds of excitement about our nearest neighbor.

Its affordable price and simplicity of use further increase its attraction for children. How many young astronomers will find a passion for space after being excited by the Artemis II mission and then seeing the moon for themselves through the eyepiece of this easy-to-use telescope?

Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 reviewCelestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70: Design

The Celestron Moon Mission Travel Scope 70 comes with everything you need to get started. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)

• Quick and simple set-up
• Comes with all the accessories to get started
• Lightweight and portable

Inside the box we found the telescope tube, which is just 17 inches (44 centimeters) long, kept within a protective travel bag. Also present were the two eyepieces (10mm and 20mm), a 3x Barlow lens, a moon filter, a star diagonal, a finderscope with crosshairs and a useful moon map poster. There are even free download options for the well-known Starry Night planetarium software and Celestron’s Sky Portal mobile app. All in all, it’s a complete package for anyone wanting to get started in astronomy. The only thing it doesn’t come with is guaranteed clear nights!

Everything is lightweight, so there is no risk of children hurting themselves if they drop anything (though one would advise not dropping the telescope tube!). No tools are required for assembly, which is an additional advantage when aiming a telescope at children. The finderscope is attached by chunky thumb screws, the telescope tube screws onto the pan of the mount, and the tripod legs extend via a series of latches.

It may be aimed at beginners and younger stargazers, but this is no toy. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)Specifications

Optical design: Refractor

Aperture: 2.8-inch (70 mm)

Focal length: 15.7-inches (400mm)

Focal ratio: f/5.7

Eyepiece focal lengths and magnification: 20mm (20x) and 10mm (40x)

Accessories: 3x Barlow lens, moon filter, moon map, 5x24 finderscope

Tripod: Manual alt-azimuth with pan-handle head

Weight: 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg)

The mount is a simple, manual alt-azimuth with a pan handle for easy control. The tripod can extend from 22 to 52 inches (56 to 132cm), and it’s a good height for sitting down while observing or standing up — whichever you prefer. The whole set-up process takes a couple of minutes — perfect for impatient children (and the occasional impatient adult!).

Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70: Performance

You'll get superb views of the moon through this scope but you don't need to stop there. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)

• The moon looks superb through both eyepieces
• Ideal for following Jupiter’s moons
• Open star cluster Messier 35 was easily shown

The view of the crescent moon while it was in the constellation of Gemini, the Twins, and near Jupiter, was impressive. First using the 20mm eyepiece at 20x, the whole moon easily fit into the field of view. Though the moon’s phase was two days away from first quarter, through the eyepiece we could easily see the silhouette of the whole moon’s disk thanks to earthshine.

During the time we observed the moon, the day/night terminator cut close to the crater trio of Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina around the edge of Mare Nectaris. Other lunar seas including Mare Crisium, Mare Tranquilitatis (landing site of Apollo 11) and Mare Serenitatis were nicely displayed.

Through the 8mm eyepiece at 40x, the moon filled the field of view. The low-angled sun cast dark shadows below the crater walls, which contrasted nicely with the bright surface. Just beyond the terminator, the peaks of crater walls and highlands caught the sun, islands of daylight on the edge of night. All in all, it was a very pleasing view.

The Celestron Moon Mission Travel Scope 70 has enough power to pick out solar bodies and star clusters. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)

A short hop brought us to Jupiter, the moon’s close neighbor for the night. As expected, we found the sub-3-inch aperture unsuitable for revealing any details in Jupiter’s atmosphere — the gas giant just appeared as a bright disk. Its four Galilean moons could be seen to either side, however. We tried with both the 20mm and the 8mm eyepiece: Jupiter’s moons were evident in both and filled the view in the 8mm, appearing as points of light accompanying Jupiter.

Close by in Gemini was Messier 35, an open star cluster that is technically visible with the naked eye, but only from the darkest sites in a moonless sky. Through a 70mm telescope it should be much easier to see, and it was, appearing as a faint smattering of stars against the night sky.

We could not, however, see NGC 2158 — a neighboring open star cluster that is much fainter at magnitude +8.6. This revealed the limitations of a 70mm telescope as opposed to a 100mm (4-inch) or 127mm (5-inch) aperture.

Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70: Functionality

We'd have preferred if the tripod was a little more stable. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)

• Wobbly tripod
• Accessories are a mixed bag

The actual telescope is as smooth as they come. We found the focuser is good enough for the price point, the two supplied eyepieces aren’t at all bad, and the optics were pretty crystal-clear. For more experienced users with larger telescopes, this 70mm telescope would make a fine finderscope. But what massively lets down the Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 portable telescope is the tripod that comes with it.

We found the tripod to be incredibly flimsy, and this resulted in vibrations that would shake and blur the view through the eyepiece. Every time we used the pan-handle to turn the telescope and mount head, the tripod would wobble, setting up a feedback of vibrations which we would then have to wait to settle down. The same happened whenever we adjusted focus. While budget telescopes typically do come with poor tripods, we definitely recommend investing in a better tripod as soon as you can.

The 3x Barlow lens also felt like overkill to us. For a 70mm aperture we would not recommend pushing the magnification too high: the telescope simply does not have sufficient aperture to capture enough light for such high magnifications, and the view just becomes a blur. Anything above 100x for a 70mm aperture is too much in our view, yet when used with the 10mm eyepiece (which has a power of 40x) the Barlow lens pushed the magnification up to 120x. We think a 2x Barlow lens would have sufficed.

The Celestron Moon Mission Travel Scope 70 is a very capable scope, considering the price. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)

We were indifferent to the moon filter. When screwed into the eyepiece it just dulled the moon and made it look red and drab, similar to how it might appear during a lunar eclipse. Admittedly it might be more useful when looking at a full moon rather than a crescent, when there are no shadows or contrast on the surface, but we found we preferred not to bother with the filter.

Overall, the telescope’s engineering is decent for the price, but replacing most or all of the accessories would not be unwarranted. But given how much it would cost to do so, if you are intending to spend that money then it would be better just to buy a more expensive, larger-aperture and better quality telescope.

Should you buy the Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 portable telescope?Buy it if:

✅ You want an affordable telescope for a youngster or beginner that is easy to use and set-up

✅ You are interested in viewing the moon and following its changing phases, and how the illumination alters the view of the lunar surface

Don't buy it if:

❌ You are a deep-sky observer hoping to track down faint fuzzies

❌ You hope to do astrophotography (beyond simple afocal photography at the eyepiece).

If the Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 portable telescope isn't for you

If you are looking for a telescope for astrophotography that is also relatively simple to use and won’t break the bank, consider ZWO’s SeeStar S30 smart telescope.

If you are looking for something that’s still affordable, but with a little more aperture, try Sky-Watcher’s Explorer 130 EQ2 telescope.

If you want a telescope that has the same 70mm aperture but is a little more high-tech, go for Celestron’s StarSense Explorer LT70AZ refractor, which uses Celestron’s StarSense mobile app technology.

If you want a lot more aperture to track down faint deep-sky objects or to clearly see the belts and rings of Jupiter and Saturn, go for Celestron’s StarSense Explorer 8-inch Dobsonian.

User reviews

There were not many customer reviews of the Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 portable telescope available at the time of writing, but as it is identical in all but aesthetics and a few accessories to the standard Celestron Travel-scope 70, we can use reviews of the latter as a guide.

The consensus on Amazon was that users were mostly delighted by the telescope, valuing how easy it is to set up and use, as well as its portability and appropriateness for children. However, they shared our concerns about the flimsiness of the tripod.

How we tested the Celestron Moon Mission Travel-scope 70 portable telescope

We took advantage of the clear, mild spring weather that the southwest of England enjoyed in the week beginning April 20, observing around 9.30pm. In particular, we took time to study the moon on the evening of April 22, from a south- and southwest-facing garden.

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Prolific NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has announced his retirement from the U.S. space agency after 30 years of public service.

NASA announced Fincke's decision on Wednesday (Aug. 12), celebrating his contributions to spaceflight and long career of accomplishments.

“Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that day in a statement. Fincke departs as NASA's fourth-most flown astronaut, racking up a cumulative 549 days in space over four separate spaceflights. During those, he performed nine spacewalks and served twice as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Most recently, he launched as pilot on SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the ISS, stepping into the role of commander for ISS Expedition 74 from August 2025 to January 2026.

Before his acceptance into NASA's 16th astronaut class in 1996, Fincke earned two bachelor's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in aeronautics and astronautics as well as Earth science, atmospheric and planetary sciences. Following his time at MIT, he did a summer stint at the Moscow Aviation Institute and later earned master's degrees in aeronautics and astronautics, and in planetary geology from Stanford and the University of Houston-Clear Lake, respectively.

Fincke also served in the U.S. Air Force prior to his career at NASA. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1994, then was assigned as a space systems engineer and flight test engineer at Edwards and Eglin Air Force bases in California and Florida, respectively. Those stints were followed by his role as U.S. flight-test liaison for the Japanese-U.S. XF-2 fighter program in Japan.

Following his two years of astronaut-candidate training, Fincke was assigned to NASA's Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch's Crew Test Support Team in Russia. There, he served as ISS CAPCOM (Spacecraft Communicator) and ISS crew procedures team lead until he began official spaceflight training in 1999.

His first rocket launch was aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 mission to the ISS in 2004, where he served as science officer and flight engineer for Expedition 9 and completed four EVAs (extravehicular activities, or spacewalks).

Fincke's second launch brought him back to the ISS in 2008, as a member of Soyuz TMA-13. It was then that Fincke took command of the space station for the first time. As Expedition 18 commander, Fincke added two more EVAs to his career total and oversaw the preparation of ISS facilities to begin supporting an increase from three-person to six-person crews.

Fincke was also aboard for the final launch of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-134 mission in 2011, which returned him to the ISS for a third time. As mission specialist and robotic-arm operator, he supported the installation of the space station's dark-matter-hunting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) instrument, and performed three additional EVAs that marked the official completion of ISS orbital assembly and were the last-ever spacewalks by a space shuttle crew.

By 2014, Fincke was serving as chief of the Astronaut Office’s Commercial Crew Branch, where he played a key role in the development and testing of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner spacecraft. In January 2019, he was assigned to Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission as joint operations commander, and he remained on the prime crew until June 2022, when he transitioned to the CFT backup crew.

Mike Fincke is helped off SpaceX's Crew Dragon after Crew-11 splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)

Fincke's most recent mission, Crew-11, launched to the ISS in August 2025. It was the second time he was appointed commander of the space station, this time for Expedition 74, but his stint, and that of the other Crew-11 astronauts, was cut short due to an unexpected medical issue.

Leading up to what would have been his 10th career EVA, NASA abruptly canceled spacewalk prep by Fincke and fellow NASA astronaut Zena Cardman after a "medical concern" arose that took priority over the planned station maintenance. Though not considered an emergency, the episode was deemed serious enough for NASA to return the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth earlier than expected, and Fincke and his fellow crewmates safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon a week later.

During the mission, NASA did not reveal the afflicted astronaut's name and condition, citing privacy concerns. A little more than a month after Crew-11's return, however, NASA and Fincke revealed that he was the crew member who experienced the medical issue, which he later described as a temporary inability to speak, according to an Associated Press report. Fincke fully recovered from the episode and is now in good health.

“Mike approached every assignment with experience, humility, and an unwavering focus on the mission,” said Scott Tingle, chief of NASA's Astronaut Office, in the agency's announcement. “Whether flying aboard the station, supporting crews from the ground, or helping shape the spacecraft that future crews will rely on, he consistently strengthened our team. His legacy is woven into the way we fly today.”

NASA did not indicate if Fincke plans to continue his involvement with the space industry through the private sector, but did highlight his dedication to support humanity's drive to explore the cosmos.

"I remain deeply committed to the work of exploration," Fincke said in the statement. “NASA gave me the extraordinary privilege of serving alongside remarkable people, flying and helping develop spacecraft, and contributing to the International Space Station from its earliest days through command in orbit … I am excited to carry those lessons forward and help prepare the next generation of engineers, explorers, and leaders."

Supermassive black holes are best known for their immense gravity, pulling in everything that strays too close, even light. But new research suggests these cosmic giants can also hurl enormous amounts of energy outward, driving powerful disturbances that ripple hundreds of thousands of light-years through space.

A study led by Satoshi Yamada of Tohoku University in Japan found that winds generated by an actively feeding supermassive black hole are about 100 times more powerful than astronomers previously estimated.

These outflows, scientists say, inject an amount of energy comparable to several billion supernova explosions, driving turbulence through hot gas across distances of roughly 300,000 light-years —far beyond the boundaries of the host galaxy itself.

"Black holes are largely known for sucking matter in, but they also eject gas in the form of powerful winds," Yamada said in a statement. "These winds were thought to be contained within the galaxy, but our study revealed that the force is immensely more powerful than previously understood."

To measure the extent of those outflows, Yamada and his colleagues observed H1821+643, a bright quasar in the constellation Draco about 3.4 billion light-years from Earth. The galaxy hosting H1821+643 sits at the center of a dense galaxy cluster and harbors an active supermassive black hole estimated to be three to four billion times the mass of the sun.

During a weeklong observation in September 2024, Yamada and his team used XRISM, the X-ray satellite launched by Japan's space agency in 2023, to track the chemical signature of ionized iron atoms in the surrounding hot gas. By examining how the light from these iron ions stretched and broadened, the researchers were able to determine how fast the gas was moving and how turbulent it had become, according to the statement.

The observations revealed that the turbulence is driven by energy released from the quasar, with its effects reaching distances of about 300,000 light-years from the black hole, the study notes.

The result builds on years of observations of H1821+643, which is, in fact, the closest known quasar to Earth located within a galaxy cluster, according to NASA.

One of the more intriguing discoveries came in 2022, when observations of the black hole's spin using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory showed it rotates half as quickly as its smaller peers, which spin close to the speed of light.

"The million-dollar question is, why?" Christopher Reynolds, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the 2022 study, said in a statement at the time.

According to that study, one leading hypothesis is that giants like H1821+643 grew primarily through repeated mergers with other black holes arriving from different directions. Those chaotic collisions may have repeatedly disrupted the black hole's rotation instead of steadily spinning it up through a long-lived accretion disk.

While the exact origin of its sluggish spin remains an open question, the black hole's influence clearly extends far beyond its host galaxy.

"For the first time, we have shown that black holes influence the broader cosmic environment through a shock wave of astonishing power," Yamada said in the statement.

"Black holes are key drivers of gas flows and motion in space, transporting vast amounts of energy to different regions of the cosmos."

This research is also described in a paper published July 28 in the journal Nature Astronomy.