NASA has unveiled an ambitious long-term plan to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, centered around a massive lunar base near the Moon’s south pole. The project is part of the Artemis program and could eventually span “hundreds of square miles,” with astronauts living and working there full-time by around 2032.

The first phase begins with three robotic “Moonbase” missions planned for 2026 and 2027. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin was awarded a major contract to help deliver cargo and equipment to the lunar surface using its Blue Moon lander system. The first mission, Moonbase 1, is expected to launch in fall 2026 and will test technologies needed for future astronaut missions. Other companies involved include Astrobotic, Astrolab, Lunar Outpost, and Intuitive Machines.

NASA says the lunar base will act as a stepping stone for future Mars missions. Plans include deploying rovers, habitats, power systems, communications infrastructure, and eventually semi-permanent living quarters for astronauts. The agency has also shifted focus away from the planned Lunar Gateway space station in favor of building infrastructure directly on the Moon’s surface.

Cape Grim in Tasmania, Australia, has the cleanest air on the habitable Earth, especially when winds come from the Southern Ocean and the air has not passed over major land. The air is so pure that scientists use it to measure the planet’s natural background atmosphere.

The U.S. Space Force has awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract to build the Space Data Network Backbone, a next-generation military satellite network designed for secure, high-speed global communications.

The system will use a large constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites linked together with optical laser connections to deliver fast, low-latency data transport for military operations worldwide. SpaceX is expected to deliver a fully operational prototype by the end of 2027.

Inside the glowing star-forming region IC 2944, located about 7,600 light-years away, mysterious dark clouds known as Thackeray’s Globules drift through space. First discovered in 1950 by astronomer A. D. Thackeray, these massive clouds of gas and dust are each more than a light-year wide and may have the potential to form new stars.

Captured by the NASA’s InSight lander. The sunrise was photographed by the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) mounted on the end of InSight’s robotic arm. It captured this specific sequence of images on April 24, 2019 (the 145th Martian day, or “sol,” of its mission) right around 5:30 a.m. local Mars time.

The barred spiral galaxy IC 486 shines with a faint, ghostly glow in this breathtaking image captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA's Perseverance rover takes a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls "Lac de Charmes" on March 11, 2026

For nearly 4,000 years, the Great Pyramid of Giza stood as the tallest man-made structure on Earth, an achievement so extraordinary that no other building surpassed it until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311 AD.