August 2025

Super Heavy Booster 16 and Starship 37 at liftoff (Image: SpaceX)

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It was the afternoon in the USA when SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the 10th test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company, which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 16 and the Starship Block 2 identified as Starship 37 or Ship37 or simply S37.

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket in its CRS-33 rocket (Image NASA+)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-33 (Cargo Resupply Service 33) mission, also referred to as SPX-33. After almost 12 minutes, it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 33rd mission for the Dragon/Dragon 2 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

An artist's impression of the UPM J1040−3551 AabBab system

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” (MNRAS) reports the discovery of a rare hierarchical quadruple system, which was cataloged as UPM J1040−3551 AabBab. A team of researchers used observations conducted with ESA’s Gaia space probe and NASA’s WISE space telescope, followed by spectroscopic detection and analysis, to identify this quartet consisting of a pair of red dwarfs and a pair of brown dwarfs. This relatively young system may offer new information, especially about brown dwarfs, objects halfway between planets and stars.

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft after splashing down at the end of its Crew-10 mission (Image NASA+)

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A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft completed its Crew-10, or SpaceX Crew-10, mission for NASA with a successful splashdown. Aboard were astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, and Takuya Onishi, and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, who had arrived at the International Space Station on March 16, 2025, as part of Expedition 72/73. The Crew-10 members completed SpaceX’s 10th regular crewed mission in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The Crew Dragon had left the Station approximately 17.5 hours earlier.