Space Stories: A Promising Lunar Rover, Pakistani Astronaut on a Chinese Space Station, and Hubble Spots the “Cat’s Tail”

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s PROMISE lunar rover. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Scientific America: “NASA Reveals New Lunar Rover, PROMISE, to Launch to Moon in 2028“

NASA officials on Saturday stressed that the agency is working to speed up testing and development of the hardware that will ensure human missions to the moon. The agency plans to have rovers and other infrastructure already waiting on the moon to greet any human crews when they do eventually arrive there. This is critical, according to NASA chief Jared Isaacman: “the missions themselves will help us characterize an environment that we’ve really not visited in a very long time,” he said at Saturday’s press event…One of the biggest updates to that ambition is the decision to fly a rover, PROMISE (Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration), which is modeled after the Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity. Previously only proposed as a possibility by Isaacman, PROMISE will fly to the moon and land using a Blue Origin lander in late 2028 for an 18-month primary mission.

—Business Times: “Pakistani Astronaut to Join China’s Shenzhou-24 Space Mission“

A Pakistani astronaut will join China’s space station as a payload specialist on the upcoming Shenzhou-24 mission as the Chinese state media reported on Saturday. The milestone marks the first foreign visitor to China’s space station and the first joint spaceflight featuring both Chinese and foreign astronauts in the history of China’s manned space program…In February 2025, China and Pakistan signed an agreement covering astronaut selection, training and participation in Chinese space station flights. Following a rigorous three-stage assessment, two Pakistani pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud were selected as candidates and have been training at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center in Beijing. While one will carry out the primary flight mission and the second will serve as a backup.

—Vice: “There’s a 93-Billion-Mile Structure in Space, and Astronomers Can’t Fully Explain It“

In a study published last month in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers at the University of Arizona made a major discovery using the Hubble Space Telescope. They caught a visible-light glimpse of a gargantuan, 93-billion-mile-long cosmic dust feature dubbed the “Cat’s Tail,” sitting just 63 light-years away in the Beta Pictoris system. If you’re trying to wrap your brain around that scale, this thing is roughly 1,000 astronomical units long, long enough to wrap between the Earth and the Sun about 500 times. If I put it in the only measurable terms Americans are familiar with, it would be about 1.3 billion American football fields, endzones included.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Space Stories: Martian Meteorite from Africa, More Milky Way Satellites, and China’s Lunar Landing Plans

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A slice of the Martian meteorite Teghaza 001. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Reuters: “Martian Meteorite Found in the Sahara is 4.1 Billion Years Old“

A meteorite found in 2022 in the Sahara in Mali formed in the Martian crust at least 4.1 billion years ago, according to scientists, making the ​reddish igneous rock perhaps the oldest of the 435 meteorites from Mars known on Earth. The researchers said the composition of the meteorite, called Teghaza 001, is providing insight ‌into the environment early in the history of Earth’s planetary neighbor, with fresh evidence of liquid water on the surface that bolsters the notion that primordial Mars may have been conducive to microbial life.

—Universe Today: “The Vera Rubin Has Found Two More of the Milky Way’s Dim Satellites“

Massive galaxies like the Milky Way have a retinue of smaller, dim satellites on their outskirts. They’re hard to detect, and while astronomers have found about 65 of the Milky Way’s dwarf satellite galaxies, and about 40 globular clusters in its halo, they suspect there are many dwarf satellites and globular clusters yet to be found. Now the Vera Rubin Observatory has found two more. The Milky Way’s satellites are either small dim galaxies or globular clusters, and both are part of the assembly history of the Milky Way through mergers. These two detections by the Rubin, found in its Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2) released in July 2026, are almost certainly the beginning of many more discoveries of Milky Way satellites by the powerful observatory. One is a most likely a dim dwarf galaxy named Aquarius IV, and one is a globular cluster named Rubin-GC1.

—South China Morning Post: “China Aims for Manned Moon Landing Before 2030, With Two Taikonauts Set to Touch Down on Lunar Surface“

China plans to land Chinese astronauts on the Moon before 2030, with a crew of three, two of whom are expected to set foot on the lunar surface, the Global Times learned from the 7th Human Space Symposium, held in Beijing on Saturday. The country’s first manned lunar mission will employ a lunar-orbit rendezvous and docking profile, Wang Xiang, deputy chief designer of China’s manned space program and chief designer of the lunar exploration program, said at the symposium. The crew for China’s first crewed lunar exploration mission is planned to consist of three taikonauts, two of whom will land on the lunar surface, Wang added.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Strange Sightings in the Cornfield

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Suspected space junk discovered in Minnesota on October 14, 2026. (Stevens County Minnesota Sheriff’s Office)

US farmers have it tough enough these days without the added fear of space junk falling on their heads, yet that is what appears to be the case in a Minnesota cornfield. The farmer bumped into the debris, about 11 feet in diameter, while harvesting his crop.

So where did it come from? One astrophysicist believes it is the upper stage of a Zhuque-2E rocket launched from China in last month. These rockets belong to a Chinese commercial space company called LandSpace, which successfully launched 10 satellites into orbit on September 15th.

What is surprising is that this doesn’t happen more often given the increased number of launches around the world as well as the debris tossed over the side of the International Space Station (ISS). The New York Times reported this summer that in 2025 the US Space Force issued alerts related to about 820 pieces of debris falling to Earth. Fortunately, most of it burns up during reentry or hits the ocean.

Should you be a worried farmer, or just someone interested in what is coming down in the near future, you can visit the Satellite Re-entry Tracker. The image below shows the rocket bodies currently in orbit being tracked by the site.

Image (Credit): Rocket bodies being tracked by the Satellite Re-entry Tracker as of October 21, 2026. (Satellite Re-entry Tracker)

Chinese Spying: The Moon Race Just Got Ugly

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Vicki Hamilton from Pixabay.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that the Chinese have been hacking into US government agencies since as early as 2018. One of the targets of the Chinese hacker group, known as QTFY, was NASA.

A DOJ press release from earlier today, titled Justice Department and FBI Seize Platforms Operated and Used by China State-Sponsored Hackers to Target U.S. Critical Infrastructure, stated:

Among the victims of QTFY computer intrusion activity are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Federal Reserve, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Senate.

At this time, the nature of what was taken from NASA and other government agencies was not provided. However, given the importance of the Artemis mission for both national and commercial purposes, it is not hard to believe that Artemis information was part of the hack.

It may be to NASA’s advantage that it has been operating by the seat of its pants for more than a year now. There was no Artemis strategy to steal. In addition, much of NASA’s work is in the hands of the private sector, so that extra layer of protection may have helped.

It is worth noting that many federal agencies were spending last year fighting off internal hackers from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which did great damage across the federal government.

The Chinese efforts have been detected and ended. I am not sure you can say the same thing about DOGE.

Update: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has reported that the Chinese hackers were unable to access NASA data.

Space Stories: A Far Side Satellite, Congressional Space Medals, and the Scrubbing of a Chinese Moon Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Cosmocube satellite on the far side of the Moon. (Cosmocube)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Universe Today: “The CosmoCube Satellite Will Listen to the Early Universe From the Far Side of the Moon”

Multiple space agencies are gearing up to send missions to the Moon in the near future…For one thing, the far side of the Moon is “radio-quiet,” meaning that it is not subject to radio interference from terrestrial sources. This makes the environment the perfect place to conduct radio astronomy research, including the new CosmoCube satellite currently under development at the University of Cambridge. Using the Moon as a natural shield, this satellite will listen for faint whispers (the 21-centimeter line) emitted by hydrogen atoms that existed between the Big Bang and the period known as “Cosmic Dawn.”

—Science Daily: “Trump to Award Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Artemis II Astronauts“

President Donald J. Trump will present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to each member of NASA’s Artemis II crew during a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 28. The medal is one of the highest honors associated with human spaceflight in the United States. It recognizes astronauts whose achievements have made an exceptional contribution to the nation’s space program.

—Scientific American: “China Delays Ambitious Chang’e 7 Moon Mission until 2027“

China’s lunar ambitions took a hit after the country called off the launch of a spacecraft that it has aimed to make the first to ever land on the moon’s south pole. Chang’e 7 was supposed to launch onboard a Long March 5 rocket on August 24, but the launch was scrubbed on Sunday evening, China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement. Poor weather conditions linked to Typhoon Narra were likely a factor. As a result, the mission will be put on ice until at least 2027.

Note: No podcast will be available this week. The program was finicky and difficult to edit.