NASA and SpaceX have set no earlier than Tuesday, Oct. 13, for the launch of a commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station. The mission will carry more than 6,300 pounds of cargo, including scientific investigations, crew supplies and hardware, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifted by a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

After reaching orbit, the Dragon vehicle will autonomously dock with the space‑facing port of the Harmony module, where it will remain attached for roughly a month before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean with research samples and hardware for analysis.

NASA plans to broadcast the launch and docking events on its website and social media channels; details on live coverage are available at https://www.nasa.gov/live.

The International Space Station, operational for over 25 years, has hosted research from more than 110 countries, resulting in roughly 4,000 microgravity experiments. Findings from the platform support the Artemis lunar program and future Mars missions, while also delivering benefits to Earth.

Science payloads aboard the upcoming flight include:

- LambdaVision‑1, which seeks to produce artificial retinal tissue layer by layer in microgravity, aiming to improve the uniformity and stability of implants that could treat currently incurable retinal diseases.

- Stellar Spheroids, an investigation of how microgravity influences the growth of three‑dimensional human heart tissue, with the goal of enhancing vascular network formation and informing drug‑testing platforms.

- ELF‑Unconventional Glass 2, studying glass formation in microgravity to evaluate whether unconventional glasses exhibit greater strength, optical performance and durability for future spacecraft and habitat materials.

- MINDS, examining brain organoids to explore inflammation mechanisms linked to neurodegenerative disorders, using multi‑donor “organoid villages” to reflect patient diversity.

Astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Watkins will oversee the Dragon’s arrival and subsequent operations. The spacecraft will return to Earth in mid‑November, bringing back the failed Canadarm2 joint for refurbishment, a refurbishable spacesuit component, a urine processor pump assembly and a water‑processor filtration unit.

Additional hardware on board includes the final pair of International Space Station Roll‑Out Solar Arrays to complete the station’s power upgrade, a collapsible contingency urinal for Artemis III testing, and supporting equipment such as a toilet dose pump, pretreat quality sensor, and a robot micro‑conical tool for maintenance tasks.

The mission underscores the ongoing partnership between NASA and commercial providers in delivering critical research and infrastructure to the orbital laboratory.

NASA and SpaceX have set October 13 as the launch date for the 35th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station, targeting a 6:33 a.m. EDT liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission will carry more than 6,300 pounds of cargo, including the final set of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, artificial retina manufacturing hardware, 3D heart tissue models, and research materials for studying glass formation and neurodegenerative disease treatments. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Dragon spacecraft that will autonomously dock with the station’s Harmony module around 11 a.m. on October 15. NASA will stream launch and docking coverage across its platforms, with media teleconferences scheduled for October 8 to discuss the mission and post-mission Crew-12 return. Public virtual attendance registration is available through NASA’s virtual guest program, and live updates will be posted on the agency’s International Space Station blog.

NASA's Curiosity rover recorded a panoramic view of Gale Crater's floor on September 5, 2026, the 5,006th sol of its mission, showing the crater's distant rim and a sand ridge extending across the foreground. The image was taken after the rover achieved a milestone nine days earlier, on August 26, 2026 (Sol 4,996), when it climbed to an elevation of 1 kilometer above the crater floor. Since 2014, Curiosity has been ascending the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, a 5-kilometer-tall mountain within the crater. The ridge's layered structure and sand grain composition offer insights into its formation. The panorama consists of 95 Mastcam images with color adjusted to simulate natural lighting conditions on Earth. Curiosity was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech, and operates under the Mars Exploration Program. Malin Space Science Systems built and manages the Mastcam instrument. Additional mission details are available through NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

SpaceNews has revealed the shortlist for its 2026 Icon Awards, recognizing standout contributions to the space sector across 13 categories. The finalists were announced ahead of the awards ceremony scheduled for December 1 in Washington, D.C.

The list spans individual leaders, emerging companies, international partnerships and technological breakthroughs. Honorees include figures such as Mark Dankberg, who helped pioneer satellite broadband through Viasat, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, a longtime executive at CNES and Arianespace who strengthened Europe’s launch capabilities. NASA veteran Chris Scolese, former Goddard Space Flight Center director, and Karen St. Germain, who led NASA’s Earth science initiatives, also appear on the roster.

Military space leaders are represented by Coyote Smith, whose career has influenced space strategy and workforce development. International collaboration is highlighted by projects like Loft Orbital–Marlan Space’s Altair-Next Gen constellation and the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), a joint effort between ESA and China’s space academy.

Other categories spotlight new entrants like Lux Aeterna, which is developing reusable satellites capable of returning payloads to Earth, and Katalyst Space Technologies, which recently tested a robotic mission to service NASA’s Swift observatory. Skyroot Aerospace advanced India’s private launch sector with the Vikram-1 rocket.

Technological innovations include Cailabs’ work on shared optical ground infrastructure and D-Orbit’s expansion of its ION vehicle into hosted payloads and in-space logistics. Xona Space Systems is developing Pulsar, a commercial alternative to GPS that aims to improve navigation resilience.

The Roman Space Telescope, launched August 30, is recognized for bringing together NASA, ESA, JAXA and multiple national institutions to study dark energy and exoplanets. Similarly, the Artemis 2 mission crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — is acknowledged for completing the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years.

Awards will also honor corporate transactions, such as AE Industrial Partners’ acquisition of L3Harris’ propulsion business and SpaceX’s anticipated initial public offering. Additional categories recognize sustainability efforts, like Hydrosat’s thermal imaging constellation, and military advancements, including Impulse Space’s recent Space Force contract.

The ceremony will take place on December 1 in Washington, D.C. Registration for tickets remains open, with early bird pricing available through October 31.

Questions can be directed to events@spacenews.com.

ArianeGroup and SSC Space completed a second wet dress rehearsal of the Themis reusable rocket demonstrator at the Esrange test site in Sweden, the European Space Agency confirmed on 7 October. The test took place on 29 September and followed a similar procedure to the first rehearsal conducted in July.

During the trial, the demonstrator was loaded with liquid nitrogen cooled to approximately -200°C. This allowed engineers to evaluate the vehicle and associated ground systems under cryogenic conditions without introducing the hazards associated with handling propellants. The exercise also incorporated trials of automated ground support equipment designed to operate after landing, including procedures for locating the vehicle, establishing connections and safely draining residual fuel and oxidiser while personnel remain at a safe distance.

The second rehearsal forms part of the SALTO initiative, an EU‑funded project that is financing the first two low‑altitude hop tests of Themis. The €42.8‑million programme aims to demonstrate that the vehicle can be launched, recovered and relaunched. A subsequent hot‑fire test of the Prometheus engine, using liquid oxygen and liquid methane, is planned after a full wet dress rehearsal, although the schedule for that step has not been finalised. According to the SALTO consortium, teams are currently defining a window for the next test.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for research demonstrating how certain chemical reactions can produce an excess of one molecular mirror-image form over another.

Scientists refer to this property as chirality, describing molecules that exist in left- and right-handed versions despite having identical atomic composition. Life exhibits a strong preference for one handedness, particularly in amino acids and sugars, where only one form is used universally.

Most chemical reactions generate equal amounts of both mirror-image forms, creating a 50-50 mixture. This presents a challenge for theories about life's origins, as early Earth conditions would have produced such balanced mixtures, yet all known biology relies on a single handed form.

The awarded research focused on two types of reactions that can bias outcomes toward one chiral form. One involves chiral catalysts that selectively accelerate reactions producing a specific mirror-image product. Another involves reactions where the product itself acts as a catalyst, amplifying its own form through successive cycles.

In one set of experiments, a catalyst with slight handedness preferences was used to produce reactions favoring one chiral variant. When this catalyst was employed repeatedly, the excess of one form increased significantly. In other cases, the product of a reaction catalyzed further formation of the same chiral variant while suppressing the opposite form.

These findings have practical applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where the biological activity of drugs often depends on their handedness. Only one mirror-image form may be effective, while the other could be inactive or harmful.

The research provides insight into how biological homochirality—life's exclusive use of one molecular handedness—might have emerged. While not directly recreating early Earth conditions, the work shows that small initial imbalances in chiral forms could be amplified through catalytic processes, potentially contributing to the development of life's uniform biochemical framework.

Every spring and summer in Mars's southern hemisphere, a 1,800-kilometer-long ice cloud unfurls from the slopes of Arsia Mons volcano before dissolving within hours. This daily cycle, observed since 2018 by ESA's Mars Express orbiter, has now revealed an unexpected mechanism behind its creation.

Scientists modeling the cloud's formation discovered that water vapor crystallizes directly into ice particles without requiring typical condensation nuclei like dust or salt. This process, known as homogeneous nucleation, typically demands humidity levels far exceeding normal planetary conditions. The research, published in Nature Geoscience, indicates that localized humidity spikes near Arsia Mons reach thresholds 100,000 times higher than Earth's everyday environments.

The mechanism involves wind dynamics around the 20-kilometer-tall volcano. As air flows past the volcanic structure, it generates upward-propagating waves that lift moist atmospheric parcels rapidly. This sudden uplift cools the air by approximately 30 degrees Celsius within 10 minutes, triggering the rapid humidity increase necessary for ice formation. The resulting cloud, termed an orographic cloud, forms exclusively during specific seasonal windows when atmospheric conditions align.

Mars Express's unique observational capabilities enabled detailed tracking of the cloud's lifecycle. The spacecraft's instruments captured the cloud's formation during morning hours when humidity peaks, providing unprecedented data on short-lived Martian atmospheric phenomena. Researchers emphasize that while Earth and Mars share atmospheric principles, this discovery underscores the potential for fundamentally different physical processes to shape planetary weather systems.

The findings contribute to broader understanding of extraterrestrial climate dynamics and highlight the importance of continued orbital monitoring. Mars Express project scientist Colin Wilson noted that such discoveries demonstrate how existing missions can yield new insights through refined analysis of long-term observational data.

This study marks the first direct evidence of homogeneous nucleation occurring in a planetary atmosphere, offering fresh perspective on how extreme environmental conditions can drive unusual weather patterns on celestial bodies beyond Earth.