Space

Space Follow Follow Verge Science is here to bring you the most up-to-date space news and analysis, whether it’s about the latest findings from NASA or comprehensive coverage of the next SpaceX rocket launch to the International Space Station. We’ll take you inside the discoveries of new exoplanets, space weather, space policy, and the booming commercial space industry. J External Link Jay Peters Feb 11 Link Southwest is getting Starlink. The first Southwest Airlines plane with Starlink will enter this service this summer, and Starlink is set to be available on “more than 300 aircraft” by the end of the year, Southwest says . Southwest joins airlines like United , WestJet , and British Airways in bringing SpaceX’s Starlink to customers. Southwest Airlines Brings Starlink Ultra-Fast WiFi Onboard [ Southwest Newsroom ] T External Link Thomas Ricker Feb 11 Link More Starlink competition. Amazon’s Leo now has FCC approval for about 7,700 low Earth orbit satellites. So far it’s only launched about 150, well short of its FCC requirement to deploy 1,600 by July 2026 (it’s seeking an extension). SpaceX has launched over 11,000 Starlink satellites into LEO with about 9,600 still active. Amazon gets FCC approval to launch 4,500 Leo internet satellites [ CNBC ] FCC accused of withholding DOGE information ‘in bad faith’ Lauren Feiner Feb 9 S External Link Stevie Bonifield Feb 9 Link Has Elon Musk changed his mind on Mars and the Moon? “SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon,” Musk said on Sunday, just a week after merging SpaceX and xAI . It’s a notable change in plans from a little over a year ago when Musk insisted that, “we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.” reuters.com [ SpaceX prioritizes lunar 'self-growing city' over Mars project, Musk says ] R Twitter Richard Lawler Feb 8 Link SpaceX brings Starlink to the Super Bowl broadcast. The first Super Bowl ad from SpaceX apparently didn’t have enough time left in production to mention its newly-joined X / xAI elements , but it is promoting the idea of global satellite internet. R Richard Lawler Feb 5 Link Is the SpaceX / xAI / X public offering just going to be a bailout funded by index funds? Maybe combining Musk’s companies is really about space AI data centers . But reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal indicate that SpaceX’s IPO pursuit includes a push to have major index providers find a way around the usual waiting periods before they’ll add newly listed companies. E External Link Emma Roth Feb 4 Link AT&T is working with Amazon’s Starlink competitor to expand its network. The partnership will allow AT&T to use Amazon Leo — the ecommerce giant’s low Earth orbit satellite network — to deliver fixed broadband services to businesses. Amazon launched its gigabit-speed Leo Ultra antenna last November, but it’s only available for commercial use for now. AT&T, AWS, and Amazon Leo Collaborate to Accelerate Modernization of Nation's Connectivity Infrastructure [ Business Wire ] Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says SpaceX is profitable, while xAI is burning about $1 billion a month. Is this another case of Musk bailing out himself? Andrew J. Hawkins Feb 3 D Quote Dominic Preston Feb 3 Link That old trick. I used to compare Elon Musk to an old boss of mine who would spin up a company division every time he found a new hobby, but this might be just as apt: ElectricOrchestra613 : Elon Musk’s constant new ventures and subsequent mergers just feels like the corporate equivalent of creating a new email every time you want to sign up for a free trial. Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily . T External Link Thomas Ricker Feb 3 Link Artemis II delayed. NASA’s overnight wet dress rehearsal of the SLS rocket surfaced a liquid hydrogen leak. A second wet dress rehearsal is now needed, pushing the earliest possible launch of the crewed mission around the moon to March. NASA Conducts Artemis II Fuel Test, Eyes March for Launch Opportunity   - NASA [ NASA ] Elon Musk merges SpaceX with xAI (and X) Jay Peters Feb 2 Will Elon Musk’s emails with Jeffrey Epstein derail his very important year? Andrew J. Hawkins Feb 2 SpaceX wants to put 1 million solar-powered data centers into orbit Terrence O'Brien Jan 31 Cold weather in Florida is pushing back the Artemis II launch Andrew Liszewski Jan 30 Elon Musk might merge SpaceX with Tesla or xAI Jay Peters Jan 29 T External Link Thomas Ricker Jan 28 Link Will the stars align for a SpaceX IPO? Mr. 420 hopes to raise $50 billion by taking SpaceX public with the largest initial public offering in history. The target date is mid-June, near Elon Musk’s 55th birthday on June 28th, and June 8th and 9th “when Jupiter and Venus will appear very close together, known as a conjunction, for the first time in more than three years.” SpaceX wants the extra funds to help develop its beefier Starship rocket system, expand its Starlink constellation, and to put data centers into space . SpaceX weighs June IPO timed to planetary alignment and Elon Musk’s birthday [ Financial Times ] Blue Origin’s Starlink rival TeraWave promises 6-terabit satellite internet Richard Lawler Jan 21 J Jess Weatherbed Jan 12 Link Here’s a shocking star discovery. Astronomers captured this image of a stunning shock wave around a dead star — a shock wave that, according to all known mechanisms, “shouldn’t be there.” “We found something never seen before and, more importantly, entirely unexpected,” said co-lead author of the study , Simone Scaringi. “The surprise that a supposedly quiet, discless system could drive such a spectacular nebula was one of those rare ‘wow’ moments.” This image taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope shows the shock waves around the dead star (RXJ0528+2838) manipulated in red, green, and blue, to represent hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, respectively. Image by ESO | K. Iłkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al T External Link Thomas Ricker Jan 12 Link The real boss at SpaceX. The Wall Street Journal has a profile of Gwynne Shotwell , the longtime president of SpaceX, ahead of its potential IPO. It covers her “unusual relationship” with Elon Musk where she often plays the role of “Musk translator” and defender. But make no mistake, she’s in charge: “The great thing about Gwynne is she’s always stepped in where she feels the company most needs help,” said Kathy Lueders, a former SpaceX executive who spent years as a high-ranking NASA official. “People would say, ‘We need to turn to Gwynne on this one.’ ” Elon Musk Relies on Gwynne Shotwell to Make SpaceX Soar [ WSJ ] The FCC is letting SpaceX launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites Terrence O'Brien Jan 10 S External Link Stevie Bonifield Jan 9 Link NASA is sending Crew-11 home early after a “medical situation.” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in a press conference that “a single crew member on board the [ISS] experienced a medical situation and is now stable,” but NASA is playing it safe and bringing Crew-11 home early . A spacewalk was postponed on Wednesday due to the same unspecified medical concerns. NASA Shares Latest Update on International Space Station Operations - NASA [ NASA ] The first privately funded space-based telescope is in the works Stevie Bonifield Jan 8 SpaceX will lower Starlink satellites to reduce collision risk Thomas Ricker Jan 2 A Starlink satellite seems to have exploded Thomas Ricker Dec 19, 2025 E External Link Elissa Welle Dec 18, 2025 Link Satellites might have days, not months, before nearly crashing into another spacecraft. A group of scientists says their “ Collision Realization and Significant Harm (CRASH) Clock ” estimates satellites in low Earth orbit have only 5.5 days before colliding or nearly missing another object, as of June 2025, compared to 164 days in January 2018. Space traffic is likely to continue to increase, thanks in part to the latest pet project of tech billionaires: space data centers . Satellites Used to Have Months to Avoid Collisions—Now They Have Days [ Scientific American ] Billionaire Jared Isaacman confirmed as new head of NASA Emma Roth Dec 17, 2025 Billionaires want data centers everywhere, including space Astronomers and environmental scientists are skeptical. Elissa Welle Dec 17, 2025 Disclosure Day’s first trailer teases close encounters of a different kind Charles Pulliam-Moore Dec 16, 2025 Starlink and Chinese satellites nearly collided last week Thomas Ricker Dec 15, 2025 The scramble to launch data centers into space is heating up Justine Calma Dec 10, 2025 E External Link Elizabeth Lopatto Dec 9, 2025 Link Will the SpaceX S-1 finally drive me around the bend? SpaceX is planning to go public at a valuation that would make it the biggest listing of all time, Bloomberg reports. “The Elon Musk-led company is targeting a valuation of about $1.5 trillion for the entire company” and while they’re saying they plan for next year, it’s a Musk company so you know what that means: “the timing could slip until 2027.” SpaceX expects $15 billion in 2025 revenue, and $22 billion to $24 billion in 2026, mostly due to Starlink. SpaceX to Pursue 2026 IPO Raising Far Above $30 Billion [ Bloomberg ] Starlink made ‘work from home’ possible from anywhere — now, I’m ready for a change Competition is coming, but it might never catch up. Thomas Ricker Dec 7, 2025 Satellites keep photobombing the Hubble telescope, and it’s getting worse Justine Calma Dec 3, 2025 J External Link Jess Weatherbed Dec 3, 2025 Link Normalizing extraterrestrial data centers. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that launching solar-powered satellites like Project Suncatcher into space in a bid to alleviate power consumption concerns will be viewed as “a more normal way” to build AI data centers within the next decade or so. Google CEO takes action to crack down on misuse of AI | Fox News Video [ Fox News ] Why Honda is suddenly launching reusable rockets Brett Berk Nov 29, 2025 T Quote Terrence O'Brien Nov 22, 2025 Link Researchers stuck moss to the outside of the ISS for nine months and it survived. The moss isn’t quite as hardy as the reigning king of extremophiles, the tardigrade , but it put up an impressive showing in an experiment where scientists exposed sporophytes (the reproductive structures that produce spores) to the harsh vacuum of space for 283 days. After crunching the numbers, they believe the moss could survive for around 5,600 days, or a little over 15 years in space and still survive and reproduce. According to the press release : ... Over 80% of the spores survived 9 months outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and made it back to Earth still capable of reproducing, demonstrating for the first time that an early land plant can survive long-term exposure to the elements of space. D Dominic Preston Nov 21, 2025 Link A newer, bigger Glenn. Hot on the heels of a second successful launch — and first successful landing — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has announced the next version of its rocket. The New Glenn 9x4 — named for its number of engines — should operate alongside the existing 7x2, and could compete more closely with SpaceX’s Starship. The new New Glenn is taller than Saturn V and similar to Starship. Image: Blue Origin C Youtube Charles Pulliam-Moore Nov 18, 2025 Link Dudes rock. The new trailer for Amazon MGM’s adaptation of Alex Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary teases a bit more of the catastrophe that’s imperiling Earth, but it’s mostly about the friendship that’s going to develop between astronaut Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) and an alien that looks like a pile of rocks. J Justine Calma Nov 17, 2025 Link NASA and the European Space Agency launched a satellite to monitor sea levels. “Sentinel-6B will ensure that we continue to collect the high-precision data needed to understand our changing climate,” ESA’s director of earth observation programmes, Simonetta Cheli said in a press release . The partnership managed to survive the Trump administration’s attempts to stop collecting other environmental data and stymie reports on climate change . T Twitter Thomas Ricker Nov 17, 2025 Link 500 reusable rocket missions. SpaceX has been on a tear with launches, having boosted over 10,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Now it’s celebrating a new milestone that’s become so automatic we just expect it. Most Popular Most Popular Apple’s doing something on March 4th Why are Epstein’s emails full of equals signs? OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI Anker’s USB-C cable that lets you charge two gadgets at once is 20 percent off The Pocket Taco is the best way to turn your phone into a Game Boy Advertiser Content From This is the title for the native ad