NASA and SpaceX have set a tentative no-earlier-than 8:05 a.m. EDT undocking for the Crew-12 mission from the International Space Station, with the maneuver now slated for Wednesday, Oct. 7, contingent on weather and operational readiness. The crew — NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — are scheduled to return to Earth on Thursday, Oct. 8, with a planned splashdown off California’s coast at approximately 11:34 a.m. EDT.

Live coverage of the return will be streamed across multiple platforms, including NASA’s official website. The agency will begin its broadcast schedule on Oct. 7 with hatch closure coverage at 6 a.m. EDT, followed by undocking at 8:05 a.m. After undocking, NASA will provide audio-only communications between the crew, the station, and mission control during the spacecraft’s departure.

On Oct. 8, coverage will resume at 10:20 a.m. for deorbit burn preparation, culminating in splashdown at 11:34 a.m. A post-splashdown briefing is set for 1:15 p.m. EDT, featuring NASA’s Bill Spetch, Dr. Liz Warren, SpaceX’s Lee Echerd, and ESA’s Andreas Mogensen. Media interested in joining the briefing virtually must contact NASA’s Johnson newsroom by 12 p.m. EDT on Oct. 8 via jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111, with call-in lines opening 10 minutes prior to the event.

Recovery operations remain dependent on Pacific Ocean conditions, spacecraft readiness, and coordination with SpaceX’s recovery team. NASA has emphasized that all milestones are subject to real-time assessment and will not proceed without meeting safety and performance criteria.

ESA opened its Industry Space Days on 16 September 2026 with a focus on how small and medium enterprises are shaping the commercial space sector. Director General Josef Aschbacher opened the event, followed by a session on European SME contributions to innovation, competitiveness and growth. Panelists included representatives from AAC Clyde Space, T4i, HPS GmbH and other firms discussing pathways for growth capital and joint commercialisation initiatives.

The agenda featured a supplier awards ceremony recognizing industrial partners, alongside networking sessions for stakeholders. Subsequent days expanded on themes such as sustainable space practices, artificial intelligence applications and next-generation propulsion systems. Sessions covered topics ranging from Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) capabilities to optical communications for 5G/6G networks, with presentations from companies including Safran, Airbus and Tyvak International.

Day two highlighted sustainability efforts, including clean manufacturing processes and circular economy approaches. Discussions addressed life cycle assessments for space projects and emerging standards for satellite operations. The event concluded with presentations on technology transfer initiatives, including collaborations between ESA and textile industries, and sessions on industrialising space components through additive manufacturing and modular design.

Throughout the conference, ESA emphasized partnerships with commercial entities and outlined frameworks for supporting startups through funding mechanisms and technical resources. The gathering served as a platform for sharing advancements in space technology while underscoring the agency's role in fostering industrial growth within the sector.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch took part in a pre-game ceremony during the Philadelphia Eagles' October 4 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field. During the event, she led fans in singing the Eagles' fight song on the field.

Koch, who serves as a mission specialist on the agency's Artemis II program, participated in the appearance as part of NASA's broader outreach efforts. Her involvement aligns with the agency's Inspiration Tour, which seeks to engage the public and highlight advancements in aerospace technology ahead of an upcoming airshow at Kennedy Space Center.

The tour precedes the MAX POWER aerospace technology expo and airshow, scheduled to take place at Kennedy Space Center in early November. NASA described the series of events as an opportunity to showcase innovation and foster partnerships across government, industry, and academic sectors.

Koch's appearance was documented in an image released by NASA, credited to photographer Thalia Patrinos.

The Curiosity rover concluded a multi-day drilling operation at a site informally named Basque Lakes, focusing on subsurface rock analysis. The mission team prioritized collecting and processing samples from the drill hole to assess mineral composition and volatile compounds.

CheMin instrument results were critical in determining whether the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite would proceed with further examination. SAM deferred additional mass spectrometry analysis pending data from its tunable laser spectrometer (TLS), which measures atmospheric and subsurface volatile compounds.

Drilling operations temporarily reduced power availability for other instruments, limiting non-essential activities. Despite this, the rover conducted environmental monitoring using REMS, RAD, and DAN sensors, and captured contextual imagery. Mastcam documented the surrounding geology through a 360-degree panorama and targeted imaging of nearby features, including the Cordillera butte.

ChemCam performed chemical analyses of materials at the drill site, including interior rock fragments, sand ripples named French Creek, and scattered gray clasts labeled Wooley and Fireside. The mission continues systematic monitoring of atmospheric dust, cloud patterns, and dust devil activity using Navcam and Mastcam.

The campaign reflects ongoing efforts to understand past habitable conditions on Mars through in-situ geochemical characterization.

Astronomers have detected a chemical signature that suggests a second-generation planet may be forming around the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832, according to a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy.

White dwarfs are the dense, Earth-sized remnants of low-mass stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel and shed their outer layers. Unlike planets that form alongside a star’s birth, second-generation planets are theorized to emerge from material expelled during the star’s death.

“Rather than the white dwarf stage being a kind of epilogue to the story of a star and its planets, this research points to the systems we are familiar with only being the first chapter of a potentially much longer tale, with some new characters showing up,” said Jamie Williams, a doctoral candidate at the University of Warwick and lead author of the study.

The discovery began with Hubble Space Telescope observations from 1999, which recorded about 100 unidentified spectral features. Williams re-examined the data using a more recent chemical database and identified the features as evidence of niobium, an element heavier than iron.

“Niobium and other elements heavier than iron are astronomically special because, unlike many common elements, they are not formed in the cores of stars by thermonuclear fusion,” said Nicholas Stone, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and study co-author. “Instead, these heavy elements can only be synthesized in the exotic conditions that briefly emerge inside dying stars.”

The presence of niobium, along with nickel and calcium, was confirmed through follow-up observations by Hubble and NASA’s retired Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission. TESS also monitored the system for four months, revealing periodic brightness variations consistent with an orbiting body at a distance of roughly 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers).

Researchers estimate the candidate planet is a gas giant comparable in size to Jupiter, currently losing atmospheric material due to intense radiation from the hot white dwarf. This process may produce a comet-like tail of debris that contributes to the observed elemental abundances. Despite this mass loss, scientists suggest the planet could remain stable for millions of years as the white dwarf cools.

“If the second-generation planet is there, I think it is likely to survive,” Williams said. “Eventually the white dwarf will cool and then maintain a consistent temperature, with the planet in its stable habitable zone for millions of years.”

The study highlights ongoing questions about the formation, prevalence, and evolution of second-generation planetary systems. Hubble will continue to observe HS 0209+0832 to gather further data on this potential planetary system.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, operational for over three decades, remains a collaborative project between NASA and the European Space Agency, with mission operations managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and science conducted by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Saturn will appear as a moderately bright, creamy-white object in the night sky and is visible without optical aid. The planet reached opposition on 4 October, a point in its orbit when Earth passes directly between the planet and the sun. At opposition, Saturn rises as the sun sets, remains visible throughout the night, and sets around sunrise. It also comes closer to Earth than at any other time of the year.

This configuration offers one of the best viewing opportunities of the year, as the planet is both brighter and larger in the sky. Observers can locate it by looking toward the southern sky after dark, where it will appear as a steady, non-twinkling point of light. No telescope is required to see it, though higher magnification will reveal its distinctive rings.

The alignment is temporary, as Saturn’s orbit brings it back to greater distances from Earth over the coming months. Astronomers note that such oppositions occur roughly every 12 to 13 months, with each event offering slightly different viewing conditions based on orbital geometry and atmospheric clarity.

A bright, anorthosite-rich outcrop in southern Madagascar has drawn attention for its resemblance to the Moon’s surface. The feature, known as the Saririaky massif, was photographed from the International Space Station on August 28, 2026, and later highlighted by NASA’s Earth Observatory.

Anorthosite is a coarse-grained igneous rock composed primarily of plagioclase feldspar. It forms in large bodies when magma cools slowly beneath the surface. The Saririaky massif spans roughly 100 square kilometers and is embedded within a ductile shear zone where surrounding rocks have been deformed by tectonic forces. Linear patterns in the surrounding terrain indicate a history of high-pressure metamorphism linked to the assembly of the supercontinent Gondwana.

Scientists believe the massif originated during the late Precambrian, more than 600 million years ago, when fragments of what are now Africa, India, Madagascar, Australia, and Antarctica collided. In this tectonic context, a second anorthosite body approximately 60 kilometers to the north may have been stretched and pulled apart, forming a boudinage structure.

Anorthosite is also found on the Moon, where it makes up the bright lunar highlands. These lunar rocks are over 4 billion years old and were sampled during the Apollo missions. Because lunar samples are limited, researchers study Earth-based anorthosites as analogs. Notably, anorthosites in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana closely match the composition of their lunar counterparts.

The photographed massif was captured by an astronaut using a Nikon Z9 camera with a 400-millimeter lens. The image was taken during Expedition 75 and later enhanced to improve contrast and remove optical distortions. It was released by NASA’s ISS National Lab as part of its effort to make astronaut-captured Earth imagery publicly available.

Anorthosite formations in Madagascar have been documented in scientific literature since at least the late 20th century. A 1998 study by Ashwal et al. in *Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology* detailed the petrology and geochemistry of Madagascar’s massif-type anorthosites. Additional research published in *Precambrian Research* in 2000 examined deformation patterns in the region, linking them to ancient tectonic activity.

NASA’s Earth & Solar System website noted in 2017 that impact processes have shaped the lunar highlands, reinforcing the relevance of studying terrestrial anorthosite analogs. Earlier, in 2020, the NASA Earth Observatory published a feature on Montana’s anorthosite deposits, underscoring their value in planetary science research.

While Madagascar’s anorthosite is not unique globally—similar formations exist in Canada, Scandinavia, and India—it remains a key site for understanding both Earth’s deep geological history and the evolution of planetary crusts. Its study continues to inform broader questions about the formation of rocky bodies in the solar system.