Space, NASA News

[phkrause]

Hot new space experiments

Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios Several futuristic space experiments launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this afternoon, Alex Fitzpatrick reports. 🚀 Among the 130 payloads aboard the Transporter-18 "rideshare" mission: Google's MVP satellite, designed to test the concept of solar-powered data centers in space. (N.Y. Times gift link) Protostar, a satellite from startup Star Catcher meant to transmit energy to another satellite — to bear out the idea of an orbital power grid. (Go deeper.) Reason-1, a satellite from startup Cowboy Space designed to collect solar energy in space and beam it to Earth. 🔌 Cowboy Space founder and CEO Baiju Bhatt tells Axios that the idea is to provide power in places without an existing power grid — a kind of Starlink for energy — while also working toward orbital data centers. There are also potential military applications, Bhatt adds — powering high-endurance surveillance drones, for example. 🤔 Reality check: It's early days for all of these concepts, which have long existed on drawing boards and in sci-fi novels but have yet to be borne out. The big picture: It's a boom time for intriguing commercial efforts in Earth orbit, though SpaceX's plan to wind down its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket has left the space industry scrambling for launch alternatives. Go deeper.

[phkrause]

Extraterrestrial signal

Astronomers say they have directly detected the first-ever radio emission from a planet outside our solar system. It gives scientists a “completely new view” on exoplanets and their atmospheres.

[phkrause]

Fly Me to the Moons

Japan will launch a landmark trip today to collect samples from Mars’ moon Phobos. Launch time for the Martian Moons eXploration mission is scheduled for 3:41 pm ET. Watch the livestream here. The five-year MMX mission aims to reach Mars in August 2027. It will orbit the planet for three years to observe and photograph Phobos and its sister moon Deimos before collecting samples and returning to Earth. Scientists' aim is to learn how the two small, potato-shaped moons formed; one theory holds they are asteroids, while another suggests they are debris from an ancient collision with Mars. Research could settle what the moons are made of and may even clarify how Mars lost its thick atmosphere and lakes of water. There have been multiple Soviet and Russian attempts to reach Phobos from the late 1980s to 2011. Japan’s mission involves collaboration with NASA and the European Space Agency, among others.

[phkrause]

🚀 Cape Canaveral's new "boom cycle"

A Falcon 9 rocket mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral earlier this month. Photo: Gwendolyn Kurzen/Defense Department Thomas Novelly, author of Axios Future of Defense's space edition, writes: Rocket launches from Florida's Cape Canaveral are now outpacing those of the Cold War-era space race that first made the launch site famous. Why it matters: U.S. leaders are rushing to grow the number of rocket providers at America's busiest spaceport amid a space and arms race with China. 🛰️ Behind the scenes: Cape Canaveral is busy expanding to meet President Trump's mandate for the U.S. to support 1,000 annual launches by 2030. SpaceX is expanding its footprint on the Cape for its Starship super heavy-lift launchpads. NASA is preparing for next year's Artemis III test missions and the Artemis IV voyage that aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2028. Blue Origin is rapidly rebuilding its launch complex after its New Glenn rocket exploded in May. Keep reading.