Astronomy news

• SpaceX sends 24 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit on Falcon 9 launch from California (video)

  28-06-2026 18:21 via space.com
  
  SpaceX launched 24 more of its Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Sunday (June 28), continuing to expand its broadband internet relay network.A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the new batch (Group 17-40) launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff took place at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT or 9:09 a.m. PDT local time).The Starlink satellites reached orbit about 9 minutes after leaving the ground and were on track to be deployed by the Falcon 9 up
  
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• SpaceX sends 24 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit on Falcon 9 launch from California

  28-06-2026 18:21 via space.com
  
  SpaceX launched 24 more of its Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Sunday (June 28), continuing to expand its broadband internet relay network.A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the new batch (Group 17-40) launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff took place at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT or 9:09 a.m. PDT local time).The Starlink satellites reached orbit about 9 minutes after leaving the ground and were on track to be deployed by the Falcon 9 up
  
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• 'Superman Returns' at 20: Is it a sequel? Is it a reboot? Two decades on, we're still not sure

  28-06-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  It's a contested field, but John Williams' majestic "Superman" theme is up there with the best the composer's ever written. Almost five decades on, that stirring orchestral march remains synonymous with Krypton's most famous son, still more than capable of making grown men want to run out of telephone boxes (remember those?) while ripping their shirts open.It's perhaps not surprising, then, that Bryan Singer couldn't imagine using any other music when signed up to direct "Superman Returns", whic
  
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• Japanese probe set for super-close flyby on July 5: 'We're going to discover another beast to put in the zoo of asteroids'

  28-06-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  Japan's Hayabusa2 sample-return spacecraft is on target to make one of the closest ever flybys of a near-Earth asteroid in early July, as part of its extended mission campaign.Hayabusa2 launched in December 2014 and rendezvoused with the asteroid Ryugu four years later. The spacecraft collected samples and delivered them to Earth in 2020, completing its primary objectives. But the hardy spacecraft still has bold plans to deliver new and exciting science data.The spacecraft has been operating wel
  
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• Watch China's Tiangong space station cross the moon in stunning amateur footage

  28-06-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  Efrain Morales captured a breathtaking view of the Tiangong space station crossing the moon from Puerto Rico. (Image credit: Efrain Morales)Astrophotographer Efrain Morales captured spectacular footage of China's Tiangong space station as its silhouette buzzed Tycho Crater during a lunar transit on May 29, one night before May's Blue Moon.Moralesrecorded the outlines of Tiangong's vast solar panels and habitable modules using a 12-inch telescope and astronomy camera as it passed silently across
  
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• Watch SpaceX launch 15,000-pound SiriusXM satellite to orbit tonight

  28-06-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  SpaceX will launch a big SiriusXM radio satellite to orbit from Florida's Space Coast tonight (June 28), and you can watch the action live.A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the 15,400-pound (7,000 kilograms) SXM-11 spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight during a four-hour window that opens at 10:25 p.m. EDT (0225 GMT on June 29).You can watch it live via SpaceX. Coverage will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff.SiriusXM's SXM-10 satellite deploys from t
  
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• SpaceX launches 15,000-pound SiriusXM satellite to orbit from Florida

  28-06-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  SpaceX launched a big SiriusXM radio satellite to orbit from Florida's Space Coast on Sunday night (June 28).A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the 15,400-pound (7,000 kilograms) SXM-11 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Sundayat 10:25 p.m. EDT (0225 GMT on June 29).The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for a landing about 8.5 minutes after launch as planned, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas."SiriusXM's SXM-11 sat
  
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• Could future astronauts use oysters as water filters? Here's why one company thinks so

  28-06-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Engineers looking for safe water and recycled air for astronauts should look no further than nature, according to one team of researchers.Oysters and other forms of "biogenerative" life support systems, which use living beings for food, water recycling and air regeneration, are under study at Pennsylvania's Harrisburg University with Monolith Space, a small company featured on the This Week in Space weekly podcast with Space.com's Tariq Malik and author Rod Pyle in March. The shelled creatures a
  
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