In January 2026, Elon Musk announced that the Starship V3’s first flight would be in 6 weeks (mid-March), but that didn’t happen, and it is now announced that the first flight of Starship Version 3 will be in about 4 weeks (early April).

Starship V3 first flight in about 4 weeks
pic.twitter.com/wvCkw5mjH0

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2026

The flight will be the 12^th overall for Starship but the first of the bigger and more powerful “Version 3” (V3) iteration of the vehicle.

The Starship spacecraft of SpaceX, as already known, is the largest and most powerful rocket made by humanity, and its primary goal is to help in colonising Mars. It stands 122 meters tall, and is made out of stainless steel with two major parts: the upper stage spacecraft – ‘Spaceship’ or simply referred to as the ‘Ship’, and the booster that is called ‘Super Heavy’.

It is said that Starship will be able to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights. It will also help enable satellite delivery, the development of a Moon base, and point-to-point transport here on Earth.

Reportedly, Starship has 11 suborbital test flights under its belt, five of which occurred last year. Last year, Musk also announced that Starship will depart for Mars carrying Optimus at the end of 2026, and if those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.

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A few days back, four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled a Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts.

On February 14, NASA updated that the astronauts had arrived at the International Space Station as the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked with the orbiting complex. Later, it was revealed that NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev had entered the International Space Station after opening the hatches between the space station and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

These members have now joined the Expedition 74 crew, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev already aboard the orbiting laboratory.

It was revealed that during its mission, Crew-12 will conduct scientific research to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth. Participating crew members will study pneumonia-causing bacteria to improve cardiovascular treatments, on-demand intravenous fluid generation for future space missions, and research on how physical characteristics may affect blood flow during spaceflight.

Other experiments include automated plant health monitoring and investigations of plant and nitrogen-fixing microbe interactions to enhance food production in space.

This Crew-12 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which provides reliable access to space, maximising the use of the station for research and development, and supporting future missions beyond low Earth Orbit by partnering with private companies to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

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Today, SpaceX officially revealed that it has developed a novel Space Situational Awareness System called Stargaze. This system is designed to enhance the safety and sustainability of satellite operations in low Earth Orbit.

SpaceX has developed a novel Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system, called Stargaze → https://t.co/vE0qSpfDt2

To maximize safety for all satellites in space, @SpaceX will be making Stargaze conjunction data available to all operators, free of charge. By providing this… pic.twitter.com/N7St7dvpz2

— Starlink (@Starlink) January 30, 2026

Space Situational Awareness System- Stargaze

According to the company, practices such as leaving rocket bodies in low Earth orbit, operators maneuvering their satellites without sharing trajectory predictions or coordinating with other active satellites, and countries conducting anti-satellite tests have heightened the risk of collisions, increasing the need for improvements in space-traffic coordination.

To work on this issue, Stargaze delivers a several-order-of-magnitude increase in detection capability compared to conventional ground-based systems. This system is said to use data collected from nearly 30,000 star trackers, each of which makes continuous observations of nearby objects, resulting in approximately 30 million transits detected daily across the fleet.

SpaceX has developed this system to provide conjunction screening results within minutes, compared to the current industry standard of several hours.

It is revealed that in late 2025, a Starlink satellite encountered a conjunction with a third-party satellite that was performing maneuvers, but whose operator was not sharing ephemeris. Until five hours before the conjunction, the close approach was anticipated to be ~9,000 meters—considered a safe miss-distance with zero probability of collision. With just five hours to go, the third-party satellite performed a manoeuvre that changed its trajectory and collapsed the anticipated miss distance to just ~60 meters. Stargaze quickly detected this maneuver and published an updated trajectory to the screening platform, generating new CDMs which were immediately distributed to relevant satellites. Ultimately, the Starlink satellite was able to react within an hour of the maneuver being detected, planning an avoidance maneuver to reduce collision risk back down to zero.

The company has mentioned that the Starlink ephemeris is updated and shared publicly every hour, and all other operators should do the same.

Availability

SpaceX will be making Stargaze conjunction data available to all operators, free of charge, via its space-traffic management system. This platform has been in a closed beta with over a dozen participating satellite operators, allowing low-latency ephemeris sharing and conjunction screening.

Starting this Spring, operators that submit ephemeris (trajectory predictions) to the platform will also receive Conjunction Data Messages (CDMs) against Stargaze data, in addition to ephemeris from other participating operators.

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its PSLV-C62 rocket today at 10:18 AM from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (Sriharikota), carrying the EOS-N1 satellite, along with 15 co-passenger satellites from domestic and international customers.

Liftoff!

PSLV-C62 launches the EOS-N1 Mission from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.

Livestream link: https://t.co/fMiIFTUGpf

For more information Visit:https://t.co/3ijojDaYB2
 #PSLVC62 #EOSN1 #ISRO #NSIL

— ISRO (@isro) January 12, 2026

After the injection of EOS-N1 and 14 satellites, the PS4 stage was supposed to be restarted to de-boost and enter a re-entry trajectory, followed by KID capsule separation. This was a commercial mission undertaken by NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

Well, ISRO’s first mission of 2026 has now faced a hurdle as it is revealed that the PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during the end of the PS3 stage, causing it to deviate from its flight path. ISRO has initiated a detailed analysis to find the root cause of this setback.

The PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during end of the PS3 stage. A detailed analysis has been initiated.

— ISRO (@isro) January 12, 2026

The PSLV is a four-stage vehicle with two solid stages and two liquid stages. It is revealed that the first two stages were completed successfully, but close to the end of the third stage (PS3), there was a disturbance seen in the vehicle roll rates, and then there was a deviation observed in the flight path.

The primary objective of this mission was to deploy satellites into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of approximately 511km. Scientists are now going through telemetry data to understand why the roll rates fluctuated, preventing the PSLV-C62 from achieving its objective.

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NASA made an announcement on January 7th that it has postponed a scheduled spacewalk that was planned to take place on Thursday, January 8, outside the International Space Station. The decision followed a medical concern involving a crew member aboard the orbital laboratory.

In an official update, NASA confirmed that the medical situation arose on Wednesday afternoon. While the agency did not disclose further details, citing medical privacy, it stated that the affected crew member is stable. NASA added that it continues to monitor the situation closely.

“The situation is stable,” the agency said, noting that additional details — including a revised date for the postponed spacewalk — will be shared at a later time.

Further clarification was provided in a subsequent International Space Station status update. NASA confirmed that the medical matter involved a single crew member and reiterated that crew safety remains its highest priority. The agency also stated that it is actively evaluating all available options, including the possibility of an earlier-than-planned conclusion to the Crew-11 mission if required.

“These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely,” the agency said, adding that further updates will be issued within the next 24 hours.

The Crew-11 team currently aboard the ISS consists of American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

The four-member crew launched to the International Space Station on August 1, 2025. Their mission was originally scheduled to conclude in late February 2026, following the arrival of a replacement crew.

NASA has not indicated whether the medical situation will impact the overall mission timeline, beyond confirming that all operational decisions will be guided by crew health and safety considerations.

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Thanks to the ongoing Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) experimental project, which is also being called as China’s Artificial Sun experiment, researchers have been able to identify a way to surpass the plasma density limit. Notably, the results of this experiment have provided a crucial physical basis for the high density operation in magnetic confinement fusion devices.

Read more about it below.

Chinese Researchers Find a Way to Surpass the Plasma Density Limit

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) or the Artificial Sun experiment is being conducted under the collaborative efforts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Aix-Marseille University (amU) in France, and more at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Sciences, and researchers associated with this experimental project has found a way to surpass the plasma density limit.

Speaking more, the tokamak that resembles a helical-shaped magnetic racetrack, is a toroidal device which makes use of magnetic confinement in order to achieve controlled nuclear fusion, and plasma density is considered to be a crucial factor that affects the performance of the tokamak. Researchers have already identified that there is an upper limit for the plasma density, and once it hits this limit, the plasma escapes the magnetic confinement by becoming unstable. Additionally, it has also been understood with long-term research that the physical reasons triggering the plasma density limit occur at the plasma-wall boundary region, however the reasons to why this happens have remained unclear until recently.

A self-organized plasma-wall interaction theoretical model has been developed by the Chinese researchers, and they have identified the critical role of radiation instability. With the help of this insight, researchers were able to surpass the plasma density limit, bringing it to a density-free zone, thus providing a confirmation of this zone in tokamaks.

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Yesterday, NASA revealed a fresh Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4388, which reveals a curious feature.

Notice anything different about me? 👀

This @NASAHubble picture of the galaxy NGC 4388 reveals something not previously visible in previous images of it—a plume of gas reaching out towards the bottom-right corner of the image. Learn more: https://t.co/y0jXxkON5u pic.twitter.com/G09qktHE4a

— NASA (@NASA) December 20, 2025

The galaxy NGC 4388 is located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden). The new image reveals a new feature about the NGC 4388, which was not revealed in the previous Hubble image of this galaxy.

A plume of gas from the galaxy’s nucleus is seen billowing out from the galaxy’s disk toward the lower-right corner of the image. Mentioning this outflow and why it glows, NASA has revealed that the answer likely lies in the vast stretches of space that separate the galaxies of the Virgo Cluster. Though the space between galaxies appears empty, this space is occupied by hot wisps of gas called the intracluster medium. As NGC 4388 moves within the Virgo cluster, it plunges through the intracluster medium. The pressure from hot intracluster gas whisks away gas from within NGC 4388’s disk, causing it to trail behind as NGC 4388 moves.

The reason behind the glow of this gas cloud is still not known, but researchers suspect that some of the energy comes from the center of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole spins gas around it into a superheated disk. Meanwhile, the blazing radiation from this disk might ionize the gas closest to the galaxy, while shock waves might be responsible for ionizing filaments of gas farther out.

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Comet 3I/ATLAS was spotted in July, and it was revealed that this comet will be at its closest approach to Earth today. However, you need not worry about any collision from this comet, as it poses no threat and will be about 170 million miles away, which is nearly twice the average distance between Earth and the Sun.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is making its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19, but don’t worry: it poses no threat and will be about 170 million miles away. To celebrate we're going live on @Reddit!

Join our experts for an Ask Me Anything tomorrow at 1:30pm EST in r/space:… pic.twitter.com/lDhvDNJZQH

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) December 18, 2025

The comet will reach its minimum distance from Earth at 1 AM EST (0600 GMT) on December 19. The Virtual Telescope Project will host a free livestream on YouTube (at 09:30 AM on 20 December).  Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed interstellar object, following 1I/’Oumuamua in 2017 and comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.

The flyby holds significance for researchers as astronomers will have the opportunity to study the dust and gases released from its icy nucleus as the comet is warmed by the sun, offering insight into how comets and planetary material form around other stars.

To celebrate this moment, NASA is going live on Reddit, where interested users can join NASA’s experts for an Ask Me Anything today at 1:30 PM EST in r/space.

Stay tuned with The Tech Outlook for more latest updates.

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In order to test a new spacecraft design and technology, NASA had announced that it will be launching its new DiskSat spacecraft yesterday, and the launch was successfully completed. The set of four spacecrafts has reached the Low Earth Orbit, and the mission is now live.

Read more about the update below.

NASA’s DiskSat Launch Successful!

On the 18th of December 2025, at 12:03 AM EST, the new DiskSat spacecraft (set of four) from NASA was launched, and a Rocket Lab Electron rocket was relied on for this mission. The take-off took place at the Launch Complex 2 located on Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch was successful, and the four plate-shaped circular small spacecraft set has reached the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This ongoing mission aims to test the performance of the new small spacecraft design over the conventional CubeSat design, thereby further contributing towards conducting lower-cost space missions in the future, broaden the scope for scientific opportunities, and also increase the overall space access. In addition to the DiskSat performance, the specialized dispenser mechanism will also be tested and evaluated.

Speaking more, each of the DiskSat as mentioned is circular and plate-like in appearance, and has a diameter of 40″ (1m), along with 1″ thickness (2.5cm). Notably, each of them also has an electric propulsion system too, and it will allow them to change orbits and maintain it. Sharper Earth imaging, sensing capabilities, and lower latency communications are also among its other features. Regarding the dispenser mechanism, it has been engineered in such a way to both securely contain the DiskSat spacecraft during launch and later deploy it sequentially once it reaches the Low Earth Orbit.

NASA states that the DiskSat spacecraft will be boosting the commercial space opportunities of the US, and also offer flexibility to pursue and achieve space goals easier, faster, and in a more affordable manner. It will also be supporting the long term goals of NASA too, particularly with respect to the sustained exploration of the Moon and Mars, and also with gaining more understanding about the Earth itself.

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The asteroid Bennu samples that were collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) of NASA still continues to provide more clues to scientists regarding the formation of the solar system as well as the origin of life. Now, the presence of sugars that are essential for life have been found, revealing more details.

Read more about this latest update below.

Asteroid Bennu Samples Show Presence of Sugars

This new discovery of sugars essential for life in the asteroid Bennu samples was found as part of the study led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Japan’s Tohoku University, and the findings have been published in the Nature Geoscience journal. Presence of ribose used in RNA (five carbon sugar ribose) and glucose (six carbon glucose) were discovered in the Bennu samples, and glucose is being spotted for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample. Also, while the discovery of these sugars does not confirm the evidence of life, it is noted that when adding the previous detections of amino acids, carboxylic acids, and nucleobases in the Bennu samples alongside the new discovery, it reveals that building blocks for the existence of life were present widespread in the solar system, including the ancient asteroid.

Speaking more, while the presence of ribose was found, the presence of the DNA sugar – deoxyribose hasn’t been found yet, and this is what carries the genetic information of an organism. Thus, it is now being believed that in the early solar system, RNA could have been more prevalent than DNA. Additionally, the ‘RNA world’ hypothesis which states that DNA is not necessary for the origin of life has also been supported by these findings. To note, this ongoing research is being carried forward by scientists at NASA Goddard, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and multiple Japanese Universities.

Stay tuned for more updates.

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