An ocean of stars

BepiColombo is in its final cruise to Mercury. The European Space Agency mission, which launched in 2018, has followed a highly complex trajectory to reach the innermost planet using solar electric propulsion. It has now turned off its thrusters and will free-fall toward the planet, arriving in orbit in November. Pictured: An artist’s impression of BepiColombo arriving at Mercury. Image credit: ESA.

China plans to add modules and a co-orbiting observatory to its Tiangong space station. The agency has announced that it will add three new modules to the space station, doubling its size. Next year, China will also launch Xuntian, a space observatory with a 2-meter (6.6-foot) primary mirror, slightly smaller than the Hubble Space Telescope's. Xuntian will share a similar orbit with Tiangong, allowing it to dock with the station for maintenance, refueling, and upgrades.

The Rosalind Franklin rover is getting closer to its mission to Mars. ExoMars Project Scientist Jorge Vago joins this week’s Planetary Radio to discuss the European Space Agency mission, how it will drill into the Martian surface, and what it aims to discover about Mars’ past.

With NASA missions, you get what you pay for. A new study by The Planetary Society’s space policy experts Ari Koeppel and Casey Dreier analyzed more than 100 NASA science missions across astrophysics, heliophysics, Earth science, and planetary science and compared their costs with their scientific output. The results suggest that mid-tier missions costing between $250 million and $1 billion are the best at balancing cost, reliability, scientific productivity, and speed. Pictured: An image of a lunar crater captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of the mid-tier missions highlighted in the study. Image credit: NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines.

What will it take to get humans to Mars? The 2026 Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit will bring together thought leaders from the Mars and Moon exploration communities to explore critical issues shaping the future of the field. Participants will have the opportunity to join experts from around the world at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in interactive workshops on a wide range of topics. Planetary Society members can use the code TPS for a discount on registration.

You can speak up for science in the United States. The White House's Office of Management and Budget recently proposed a rule change that would fundamentally alter how the U.S. federal government manages grants, replacing merit-based peer review with partisan political review. If you live in the United States, we urge you to share your personal perspective on why this change will harm science. The public has until July 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET to submit their comments.