A drive to remember

NEO Surveyor’s sunshade is nearly flight-ready. Teams recently finished integrating solar arrays onto NASA’s asteroid-hunting space telescope’s sunshade (pictured). The 6-meter (20-foot) structure carries 864 solar cells producing up to 2 kilowatts of power, while blocking sunlight to allow the spacecraft to search for near-Earth objects hiding in the Sun’s glare. NEO Surveyor is scheduled to launch in 2027. Image credit: NASA/BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems.

Europe’s first reusable spacecraft failed a landing test. Space Rider is designed to be a reusable orbital spacecraft that will carry scientific experiments to orbit for up to two months, then return them to Earth for analysis. During an Oct. 6 test, a prototype was released from a helicopter to test its reentry system, which ultimately failed. ESA has stated that the project is still on track.

Hera is close enough to Didymos and Dimorphos to see them both. ESA’s planetary defense mission captured an image of the pair of asteroids on Oct. 18 from 1,280 kilometers (795 miles) away, close enough to resolve them as separate objects. Detailed images of Dimorphos, the asteroid NASA’s DART mission knocked off course, are expected on Nov. 25.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has found its first dwarf planet candidate. 2026 ED138 is a large, bright object beyond Pluto’s orbit. Observations suggest it is 600 to 1,500 kilometers (370-930 miles) across, making it the largest object found in this region of the Solar System and likely big enough to be round.

Perseverance drove itself into the record books — here’s how it did it. On Oct. 11, NASA’s Perseverance rover broke the record for the longest distance driven on another world. To celebrate, this week’s Planetary Radio revisits a 2021 conversation with Vandi Verma, chief engineer of robotic operations for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She explains AutoNav, the self-driving system that has carried the rover more than 90% of the way, and the careful work of collecting rock samples on Mars. Pictured: Perseverance’s drive path on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Celebrate Voyager 1’s one light-day milestone with us! Next month, NASA’s Voyager 1 will become the first human-made object to travel one light-day from Earth. Join us on Nov. 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET for a special livestream in our online member community and on YouTube. Voyager Project Manager Suzanne Dodd, Mission Manager Kareem Badaruddin, and Project Scientist Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will share stories from their decades on the mission. Renowned space artist Don Davis will also join us to reveal a new work commemorating this tremendous achievement. Stay tuned for more details.

Could private companies generate and sell space data to scientists? This concept, sometimes called “science as a service,” is the topic of this month’s Space Advocate newsletter. Planetary Society Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier explains why NASA can’t just acquire commercial data and expect it to contribute to scientific knowledge.

What the 2026 election results mean for NASA. On Nov. 4 at 12:00 p.m. ET, join Jack Kiraly, chief of advocacy at The Planetary Society, in a webinar discussion of how the Nov. 3 midterm election results will affect U.S. space policy.Topics include changes to the committees that oversee and fund NASA, prospects for NASA's budget, and what to expect from the 120th Congress on NASA science. Results in some electoral contests may still be pending. Register now.