NASA evacuated its Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex on Friday after wildfires approached the site; all personnel were accounted for and no injuries were reported. The complex, one of three 24/7 Deep Space Network stations, uses 230‑foot antennas to communicate with spacecraft such as Voyager 1; a six‑antenna array was scheduled to receive data from the spacecraft’s Plasma Wave System on April 20, 2024. Approximately 90 staff members were evacuated, and Spanish authorities reported broader evacuations and lockdowns in the region; emergency crews are battling the fire to protect the facility. NASA confirmed that damage will be assessed once conditions are safe and that mission operations have been transferred to the Goldstone Deep Space Communication Complex in California to maintain continuity. The agency also noted that a separate antenna at its California site sustained damage in September 2025, classified as a Type A mishap with estimated repair costs between $4.1 million and $4.6 million. NASA will monitor wildfire activity in coordination with local authorities and the U.S. Embassy, and will evaluate the condition of the Madrid station before resuming full operations.

NASA and Blue Origin have agreed to conduct second‑stage hot fire testing of the New Glenn rocket on the B‑2 test stand at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, to support Artemis missions.

The testing, scheduled to begin this fall, will use the same stand that previously tested Saturn V stages for the Apollo program and the SLS core stage for Artemis I. The second stage of New Glenn is powered by two BE‑3 engines that each produce about 200,000 pounds of thrust in vacuum.

The agreement, an annex to a reimbursable Space Act Agreement signed earlier this month, commits NASA to provide engineers, equipment, and facilities to prepare the stand for the tests. Blue Origin will work toward completing the tests, which are intended to validate the rocket’s propulsion system for future lunar missions.

Sen. Roger Wicker said Stennis continues to be a hub for the commercial space industry.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said she will help ensure the partnership becomes a long‑term arrangement.

Rep. Mike Ezell said the B‑2 test stand will support the next generation of rocket propulsion and create high‑skilled jobs.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the partnership leverages American infrastructure to advance capabilities needed for returning astronauts to the Moon and establishing a sustained lunar presence.

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said the partnership reflects a shared commitment to return humans to the Moon and expand access to space.

The testing will help verify the propulsion system for missions that will launch from the Moon and support the goal of a crewed lunar landing and eventual missions to Mars.

NASA and ESA ground stations in Spain escaped major damage from wildfires that ignited on July 24 near Madrid. The evacuation of the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex prevented harm to personnel and infrastructure.

The Madrid site is one of three Deep Space Network stations that support spacecraft communications across the solar system. The other stations are located in Goldstone, California, and near Canberra, Australia. A 70‑meter antenna at Goldstone is offline until 2028 for repairs, creating a capacity strain.

NASA evacuated all personnel from the MDSCC on July 24. An initial inspection on July 25 found damage limited to pavement and vegetation; no structural damage to antennas or buildings was observed. NASA will conduct further inspections as access permits. ESA's station near Cerberos also remained intact, with personnel safe and no evident damage, though on‑site assessment is pending.

Canberra and Goldstone have assumed DSN management to maintain continuous spacecraft communication. The interruption at Madrid does not yet have a set duration, and the impact on individual spacecraft operations is being monitored.

Ongoing assessments will determine the extent of any repairs needed. The wildfires, part of a larger series affecting Spain and France, have forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents. The situation remains dynamic as authorities evaluate access and restoration timelines.

SpaceX conducted the 13th integrated flight test of its Starship system, IFT-13, on July 24, 2026, from a launch site in Texas. The Super Heavy booster and Starship second stage lifted off at 6:51 pm ET, powered by all 33 Raptor 3 engines. The vehicle followed a suborbital trajectory and splashed down in the Indian Ocean about one hour after liftoff. The first stage made a hard water landing after eight of the 13 engines reignited for the landing burn, resulting in a harder impact than planned. The Starship vehicle remained intact on the ocean surface, and SpaceX reported that the intact heat shield could be observed for the first time. The flight carried 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites, which burned up during reentry 20 minutes after deployment while communicating with existing Starlink satellites. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman shared a post supporting Starship’s role in the Artemis program, which uses Starship as a lunar landing system alongside Blue Origin’s Blue Moon. SpaceX has indicated it may attempt to catch the booster on the next flight pending data review. The company is scheduled to report second‑quarter 2026 earnings on August 4.

Researchers from Claremont Graduate University and Wuhan University analyzed real‑time thoughts of 258 volunteers using a smartphone app that beeped eight times daily for two weeks. The app prompted participants to record what they were thinking, what they were doing, and rate their happiness at each beep. Over 23,000 responses were collected and examined for thematic content. The study found that thoughts about work, food, and relaxation were among the most frequent topics, while intrusive or accidental thoughts accounted for about half of the responses. Sensory information, including feelings of tiredness, represented nearly a fifth of all thoughts. The researchers noted that the sample consisted of individuals identified as Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Four clusters of thinking patterns emerged. Worriers devoted more thought to world events, politics and health concerns, mentioning words such as “Covid,” “awake,” “lonely,” “pain,” “hunger,” and “fatigue,” and thought about music twice as often as the average sample. Domestics focused on household and practical matters, spending roughly 50 percent more time than average on chores, finances, and media consumption such as movies, books, and television, with frequent words like “solve,” “process,” “debate,” and “document.” Bodily thinkers were the youngest group, with an average age of 32, and nearly two‑thirds were women; they reported the highest proportion of unwanted, intrusive thoughts (28 percent) and used terms related to therapy, physical discomfort, and feeling overwhelmed. Work‑hard‑play‑hards split their attention between job‑related matters and leisure activities, thinking about work 50 percent more than average and about hobbies, games, and art 25 percent more; this group reported the highest income and happiness scores and contained slightly more men than women, with key words including “relaxation,” “presentation,” “flight,” “nail,” “project,” and “gym.” The researchers cautioned that the sample was limited to a WEIRD population and that larger samples are needed to confirm the clusters. They also noted that the categories are tentative and that individuals may shift between groups over time. The preprint of the study is available but has not yet undergone peer review.

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission captured visible and thermal infrared images of Earth and the Moon on July 3, 2026. At the time, the spacecraft was 363,250 miles (584,600 km) from Earth and 115,600 miles (186,100 km) from the Moon, making the Moon appear relatively large.

The images were taken with the Visible and Infrared Observation System cameras provided by Northern Arizona University. Rob Lillis, principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, said the imaging serves as a calibration check for the spacecraft’s cameras.

ESCAPADE, built by Rocket Lab, is in a loiter orbit around the Earth‑Sun L2 Lagrange point, about one million miles from Earth. In November 2026, the spacecraft will use Earth’s gravity to slingshot toward Mars, with arrival expected in September 2027.

The mission, funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division under the Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program, is led by UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory with partners including Rocket Lab, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space, and Blue Origin.

By observing Earth and the Moon, the mission will verify that its instruments can distinguish reflected sunlight from thermal emission, supporting upcoming observations of solar wind interactions with the Martian atmosphere.

Long March 3B rocket carrying the Tianlian II-06 satellite was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 8:00 pm on July 23, 2026, but the vehicle continued its ascent.

The Long March 3B is a heavy-lift launcher that has completed nearly 120 flights since 1996. Lightning strikes on launch vehicles are rare but have occurred previously, including the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, an Atlas-Centaur loss in 1987, and a Russian Soyuz launch in 2019.

India's Skyroot Aerospace launched its Vikram-1 rocket on July 23, 2026, from the Sriharikota launch complex. The 22‑meter solid‑fuel vehicle placed a payload into a 280‑mile high orbit at a 60‑degree inclination. The flight, delayed by more than 30 minutes due to a technical issue, proceeded without further anomalies.

The U.S. Interior Department opened a public comment period on a proposal to convert inactive offshore oil platforms into potential launch sites, aiming to alleviate congestion at existing spaceports and enhance resilience against attacks. Consultant George Nield, a former FAA official, said the concept is not unprecedented, citing Sea Launch's use of a modified oil rig from 1999 to 2014.

Venus Aerospace and Lockheed Martin have entered an agreement to evaluate Venus's rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) for military missile applications. The RDRE generates thrust via a supersonic shockwave sustained by fuel injection and could improve efficiency and range. The companies plan to scale the technology from a low‑altitude test prototype to a combat‑ready system.

Roscosmos announced that the Amur-LNG reusable rocket, originally slated for a 2026 debut, will not begin flight testing until 2031, extending its development timeline by five years. The rocket was intended to carry 10.5 metric tons to low‑Earth orbit with a reusable first stage powered by methane.

The U.S. Space Force announced a tripling of the maximum value of its National Security Space Launch Lane 1 contract to $17 billion, raising the combined Lane 1 and Lane 2 ceiling to more than $30 billion. The expansion reflects increased demand for military satellite launches through 2029.

Northrop Grumman launched the Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday. The spacecraft, developed with DARPA, carries two robotic arms and three propulsion pods to perform satellite servicing in geosynchronous orbit for up to ten years.

Relativity Space plans to expand its Florida operations, adding a new factory for the Terran R rocket and thousands of jobs by the end of 2034, according to Space Florida. The expansion will increase test and launch support infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

NASA is stacking the Space Launch System core stage and solid‑fuel boosters for the Artemis III mission at Kennedy Space Center. Workers aim to complete initial stacking without the Orion spacecraft by the end of the year to begin fueling tests at the launch pad.

SpaceX postponed a Starship test flight on July 16 after several Raptor engines failed to ignite, moving the booster back to its assembly facility to replace two engines. The next launch window opens Friday at 5:45 pm CDT, with a 90‑minute window. The flight will attempt to deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites on a suborbital trajectory, after which the spacecraft will reenter and burn up.

The European Union ordered a 24‑hour delay in the release of certain Sentinel‑1 and Sentinel‑2 imagery covering a specific area of the Gulf of Oman, after a request from the United States. Council President Kaja Kallas signed the decision on July 13, which defines the area with five sets of latitude and longitude coordinates that include shipping routes to and from the Strait of Hormuz. The measure is an exception to Copernicus’s normally free and open data policy, which makes satellite observations available to users worldwide. U.S. authorities submitted the request through a diplomatic channel on May 26, citing security concerns that the imagery could be used by third states or non‑state actors to threaten EU interests or regional allies. The European Political and Security Committee approved the restriction on June 10. The delay does not specify when it began, how long it will last, or when it will be reviewed. In recent months, Planet, Maxar and other commercial providers have also limited imagery of the region after U.S. requests, while European Earth observation firms have reported increased demand from energy traders, insurers, shipping companies and news organizations. A European Commission spokesperson described the action as a routine security measure that is common among satellite operators. The decision reflects broader efforts by Europe to balance unrestricted data access with security considerations in the context of regional tensions.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured an image of Australia’s Goldfields–Esperance region in Western Australia in June 2026. Goldfields–Esperance is the largest region in Western Australia and has saline soils with a hot, dry climate and low annual rainfall, except near the town of Esperance. The image uses Sentinel-2’s near‑infrared channel, which renders vegetation in red and aids in distinguishing crop types and health. The lower‑left portion of the image displays a patchwork of geometric agricultural fields ranging from red to brown. Offshore, the Recherche Archipelago appears as small red dots in the Southern Ocean; the archipelago is a protected nature reserve spanning about 230 km. Several salt lakes are visible, including Lake Dundas north of the fields, which has an irregular outline with islands; Lake Warden, a Ramsar‑listed wetland, supports thousands of waterbird species despite high salinity; and Pink Lake, formerly noted for its pink hue caused by high salinity and algae, has changed color due to salinity shifts. The town of Esperance lies 3 km east of Pink Lake on the bay, surrounded by five national parks and serving as the only port in southeastern Western Australia.

Alan Turing’s short story, titled "Pryce’s Buoy," was transcribed by Sarah Dillon, a professor of English literature at the University of Cambridge, and reported in the Review of English Studies. The manuscript, held in the King’s College, Cambridge archives, was written in late 1952 or early 1953, shortly after Turing’s arrest for gross indecency. The six‑page story depicts a working‑class character named Ron Miller and a scientist, Alec Pryce, who is believed to reflect Turing’s own experiences. The narrative explores a brief, uncertain encounter between the two men and includes dialogue about sexual services and personal desire. The story’s setting moves from a park bench to a restaurant, and its language conveys hesitancy and internal conflict about a possible sexual encounter. Dillon said the text demonstrates Turing’s ability to portray nuanced emotional tension without relying on explicit description. Dillon noted that the story’s tone contrasts with the portrayal of Turing in the 2014 film The Imitation Game, which depicts him as humorless and solitary. She said the film contains several historical inaccuracies and presents a one‑dimensional version of the mathematician. According to Dillon, the story shows that Turing was engaged with literature and enjoyed life, countering the common view of him as isolated and solely logical. She also identified clear influences from Angus Wilson’s gay novel Hemlock and After, indicating that Turing used existing literary models while developing his own narrative technique. The manuscript had previously been known to Turing scholars but remained largely unexamined because of its difficult handwriting and its status as a sidelined literary piece. Dillon’s analysis highlights the story as evidence that Turing’s personal life included playful and cheeky elements, as well as an openness about his sexuality. The publication of the story offers scholars a new perspective on Turing’s multifaceted identity and invites further research into the relationship between his scientific work and his literary interests.