The Latest Breaking News from Jonathan McDowell

65 years ago, astronomy's most colorful character made a bold interplanetary claim

Dark matter discoverer Fritz Zwicky claimed to fire small pellets beyond Earth. But the truth is much murkier.

Inverse · Oct 16, 2022

SpaceX spacecraft fragments to be collected from NSW Snowy Mountains farms to be stored, sent overseas

The Australian Space Agency has begun to collect pieces of spacecraft fragments from the NSW Snowy Mountains, some of which will be sent to the US.

ABC News · Oct 12, 2022

65 years ago, “simple satellite” Sputnik redefined space science — and sent a sinister message

Earth’s first-ever artificial satellite Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957. In that moment, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union transformed into a race to dominate not only Earth but also space.

Inverse · Oct 4, 2022

10 years ago, China docked to its space station — and changed the space race forever

The Tiangong-1 docking announced to the world that the country was ready for a new space race.

Inverse · Jun 16, 2022

Kimberley 'meteor shower' is debris from a Chinese rocket falling out of orbit

A "meteor shower" that lit up the skies over northern Western Australia earlier this week was the wreckage of a rocket falling back to Earth.

ABC News · Jun 1, 2022

Why Apple’s Steve Wozniak’s paradoxical plan to solve space junk just might work

Privateer, co-founded by Steve Wozniak, aims to make space environmentalism its business. Can it’s controversial methods really clean up space junk?

Inverse · Apr 25, 2022

Space junk on 5,800-mph collision course with moon

The moon is about to get walloped by a big piece of space junk

The Independent UK · Mar 2, 2022

Whose rocket is going to hit the Moon? The space debris culprit, revealed

Initially, reports pointed to the SpaceX DSCOVR Falcon 9 launch vehicle impacting the Moon, but revised numbers point toward the China National Space Agency.

Inverse · Feb 15, 2022

Solar Storm Destroys 40 Satellites

A geomagnetic storm triggered by a large burst of radiation from the sun has disabled at least 40 of the 49 satellites newly launched by SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet communications network, the company said. The incident was believed to mark the largest collective loss of satellites stemming…

Asharq Al-Awsat · Feb 12, 2022

How Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage ended up on a collision course with the Moon

The Moon's pockmarked surface will gain a fresh crater in about five weeks. So how did a spent rocket stage accidentally end up on track to crash into the lunar surface?

ABC News · Jan 28, 2022