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© 2026 Developments Today. All rights reserved.

This artist's illustration shows what the water vapour plumes tentatively detected on Jupiter's icy moon Europa would look like. A 2014 paper based on Hubble observations showed that these intermittent plumes reach 200 km above Europa's surface. In the following couple of years, subsequent research also found them. But new research from the original discoverers is reconsidering the original findings. Image Credit: University of Cologne.

Europa’s Famous Water Plumes May Not Exist After All

A new reassessment is casting doubt on Hubble-based evidence for Europa water vapor plumes.
The original plume claim had suggested ocean material might be accessible without drilling through ice.
NASA’s Europa Clipper can still study the moon deeply, but the case for direct plume sampling is weaker.

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DT Editorial Team·May 20, 2026·via universetoday.com

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Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan on the lunar surface, his spacesuit caked in moondust that proved to be one of the most persistent engineering problems of the mission. (Public domain, NASA)

Why dust may be more important to the universe than it first appears

Universe Today argues that dust is both a serious engineering nuisance and a fundamental component of many cosmic processes.
The piece highlights health risks, explosive hazards, and the abrasive behavior of lunar dust encountered during Apollo missions.
The same material that disrupts missions and observations also helps explain why dust remains central to astronomy and planetary science.

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DT Editorial Team·May 20, 2026·via universetoday.com

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Isaacman expects Chinese crewed mission around the moon in 2027

NASA’s chief says China could send a crew around the moon in 2027

NASA’s administrator said he expects a Chinese crewed lunar flyby in 2027.
China has not publicly announced such a mission.
The prediction adds urgency to recent Artemis schedule and architecture changes.
A Chinese circumlunar mission would end the U.S. monopoly on human lunar flights.

DE

DT Editorial Team·May 20, 2026·via spacenews.com

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Vast announces line of high-power satellite buses

Vast Moves Into Satellite Manufacturing With a High-Power Bus Line

Vast has announced a new satellite bus line based on technology developed for its commercial space station program.
The first platform offers 15 kilowatts of power and is aimed at markets including communications and orbital data centers.
The company says it already has one confidential customer for four spacecraft with an option for 200 more.

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DT Editorial Team·May 20, 2026·via spacenews.com

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Portal Space taps Quindar for ground mission support of its maneuvering spacecraft

Portal Space Picks Quindar to Run Ground Operations for Maneuvering Spacecraft

Quindar will provide mission management services for Portal Space’s upcoming Starburst and Supernova missions.
Portal plans to launch its first Starburst spacecraft later this year on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission.
The deal reflects growing defense interest in maneuverable spacecraft and scalable commercial ground systems.

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DT Editorial Team·May 20, 2026·via spacenews.com

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SDA director Sandhoo takes on broader Space Force missile warning portfolio

Space Force Formalizes a New Missile Warning Leadership Structure

GP Sandhoo was formally appointed to oversee both SDA and the new missile warning and tracking acquisition portfolio.
The new office covers low Earth orbit tracking, Next-Gen OPIR, and a medium Earth orbit hypersonic-tracking effort.
The restructuring shows the Space Force moving toward mission-based acquisition management.

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DT Editorial Team·May 20, 2026·via spacenews.com

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This artist's illustration shows a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the early Universe. The JWST found galaxies in the very early Universe that were extremely massive compared to their host galaxies. New research has an explanation for those puzzling findings. Image Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva (Spaceengine)

A new theory aims to explain why JWST keeps finding oversized black holes in the early universe

JWST found early galaxies with black holes far larger than expected relative to host mass.
A new paper proposes an explanation for these overmassive black hole galaxies.
The findings challenge standard ideas of synchronized galaxy and black hole growth.

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DT Editorial Team·May 19, 2026·via universetoday.com

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Roger Penrose, who pointed out that Hawking's prediction of a smooth, low-entropy early universe was less a prediction than an assumption baked in from the start. (CC BY-SA 2.0, Solarflare100 / Wikimedia Commons)

Why the 'no-boundary' universe remains unresolved even decades after Hawking

The no-boundary proposal still lacks support from a finished theory of quantum gravity.
The model’s most probable universe appears somewhat smaller and less inflationary than the observed cosmos.
Critics argue the proposal may assume, rather than explain, the low-entropy early universe.

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DT Editorial Team·May 19, 2026·via universetoday.com

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Artist's concept of a circumbinary planet, which is an exoplanet that orbits two stars. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA))

TESS Survey Uncovers 27 New Circumbinary Planet Candidates

Researchers examined 1,590 eclipsing binary stars in TESS data.
The team used apsidal precession to identify 27 new circumbinary planet candidates.
Further confirmation will likely require follow-up methods such as radial velocity measurements.

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DT Editorial Team·May 19, 2026·via universetoday.com

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An artist's concept of a circumbinary world orbiting two suns. Courtesy UNSW.

Researchers Identify 27 New Candidate Worlds Orbiting Two Stars

A UNSW team says it found 27 candidate circumbinary planets using NASA TESS data.
The search relies on apsidal precession, tracking changes in eclipsing binary stars rather than only direct transits.
The result suggests planets orbiting two stars may be more common than current catalogs indicate.

DE

DT Editorial Team·May 19, 2026·via universetoday.com

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This illustration shows the Solar System's passage through the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC). The LIC could've been created by supernovae shockwaves, which also produced the isotope 60Fe. By examining that isotope in Antarctic ice, scientists are learning more about the LIC and Earth's passage through it. Image Credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.

Iron-60 in Antarctic Ice May Trace Earth’s Passage Through an Interstellar Cloud

Researchers are studying iron-60 in Antarctic ice as a tracer of nearby supernova activity.
A new paper argues the isotope may record the structure of the Local Interstellar Cloud.
Iron-60 has no Earthly source and a half-life of about 2.6 million years, making it a useful cosmic marker.
The work builds on a 2019 first detection of iron-60 in Antarctica.

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DT Editorial Team·May 19, 2026·via universetoday.com

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This illustration shows the early Universe's progression into the Epoch of Reionization. This is when the first stars and galaxies ionized hydrogen and changed the Universe from opaque to translucent. The new TIME instrument is poised to study this time with a new technique. Image Credit: ESA / C. Carreau. LICENCE: ESA Standard Licence

TIME begins probing the early universe with line-intensity mapping

TIME is mounted on a 12-meter radio telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory.
The instrument uses line-intensity mapping to gather light from many faint galaxies at once.
Researchers have released the first results from the instrument’s commissioning observations.

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DT Editorial Team·May 18, 2026·via universetoday.com

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The left-hand side of this artist's illustration shows the distant quasar TXS 2005+403 as it really appears, with its bright accretion disk and its powerful astrophysical jets blasting radiation into the cosmos. The right-hand side shows how intervening turbulent gas blurs and distorts the light. New research has figured out exactly how that turbulence affects images of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. Image Credit: Melissa Weiss/CfA

Milky Way Turbulence Is Blurring Distant Quasars and Complicating Black Hole Imaging

Astronomers studied the distant blazar TXS 2005+403 over about a decade.
They found additional blurring caused by turbulence in the Milky Way’s interstellar medium.
The result could help improve future images of the galaxy’s central black hole.

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DT Editorial Team·May 18, 2026·via universetoday.com

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Joint ESA-China SMILE mission set for launch to study Earth's magnetic shield

ESA-China SMILE Mission Nears Launch to Watch the Solar Wind Hit Earth’s Magnetic Shield

The ESA-China SMILE mission is scheduled to launch on May 19, 2026.
It will study how solar wind and solar storms interact with Earth’s magnetosphere.
The mission could improve understanding of space weather risks to satellites and power systems.

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DT Editorial Team·May 18, 2026·via spacenews.com

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Starlink Mobile challengers back proposed telco-led D2D joint venture

U.S. Carriers Plan a Direct-to-Device Satellite Venture, Deepening the Fight Over Space-Based Mobile Coverage

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon agreed in principle to pool spectrum resources for D2D services.
AST SpaceMobile and OQ Technology welcomed the move, while SpaceX publicly questioned it.
The proposal shifts the D2D debate from technical feasibility toward competition, structure, and regulation.

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DT Editorial Team·May 18, 2026·via spacenews.com

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Zenk Space raises $26 million, targets June debut launch

Zenk Space Raises $26 Million Ahead of Planned June Orbital Debut

Zenk Space raised 180 million yuan, or about $26 million.
The funding is intended to support the June debut launch of the Zhihang-1 rocket.
Zhihang-1 is designed to carry up to 4,000 kilograms to sun-synchronous orbit.
The company is pursuing partial recovery of the engine bay rather than full first-stage reuse.

DE

DT Editorial Team·May 18, 2026·via spacenews.com

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SpaceX launches CRS-34 cargo mission to ISS

SpaceX Sends Nearly 3,000 Kilograms of Cargo to the ISS as Dragon Reaches a New Reuse Milestone

CRS-34 launched May 15 carrying 2,948 kilograms of cargo to the ISS.
Dragon C209 became the first cargo Dragon spacecraft to fly a sixth mission.
Payloads include STP-Houston 11 and the Earth science instrument CLARREO Pathfinder.

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DT Editorial Team·May 18, 2026·via spacenews.com

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Space Force awards Northrop Grumman $398 million satellite contract

Space Force Backs Northrop Prototype for Hardened Military Communications

Northrop Grumman won a $398 million Space Force contract for a protected communications prototype.
The satellite will test anti-jam and cyber-resilient technologies built around the Protected Tactical Waveform.
The mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than 2030.

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DT Editorial Team·May 17, 2026·via spacenews.com

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York Space defends growth strategy as SDA programs are reshaped

York Space argues Pentagon shake-up will not erase demand for military satellite networks

York’s recent expansion has been driven largely by Space Development Agency transport-layer contracts.
The Pentagon is moving SDA programs into a broader Space Force acquisition structure and transitioning the transport layer into the Space Data Network.
York argues that the military need for resilient, proliferated communications satellites remains intact despite the reorganization.

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DT Editorial Team·May 17, 2026·via spacenews.com

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NASA releases final RFP for Mars communications orbiter

NASA narrows Mars telecom orbiter competition as final solicitation lands

NASA issued the final Mars Telecommunications Network RFP on May 14.
Proposals are due June 15, with contract award targeted for October 1.
Eligibility remains tied to earlier Mars sample return commercial studies that proposed a separate telecom orbiter.

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DT Editorial Team·May 17, 2026·via spacenews.com

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