Japan's MMX spacecraft is set to launch tonight to bring the first soil home from Phobos, a moon of Mars

The rest of the day

6 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   SpaceX flies a second Starfall capsule

   SpaceX is due to launch Bandwagon-5, a shared ride on its Falcon 9 rocket, from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 10:30 UTC. [8][9] Its 32 payloads include SpaceX's second Starfall, a flat disc 3.1 metres wide and 0.75 metres tall that can bring up to 1,000 kg home under a parachute. [9] SpaceX has not said what this one carries. [8] Varda's W-7, a much smaller capsule, carries a new cancer drug called PROTAC to see whether it forms better crystals in weightlessness. [8] It can reach up to 25 times the speed of sound coming home. [9]

   Why it matters — A capsule that waits in orbit and lands when told turns a trip to space into a delivery service for drugs and experiments. [9] Forecasters gave the weather only a 55% chance of being good enough to launch. [8]

2. 03

   Starship's next two flights get dates

   SpaceX aims to fly Starship Flight 15 no earlier than 8 November, and Elon Musk says it will try to catch both the booster and the upper stage. [10] SpaceX has caught boosters at Starbase, its Texas site, but never tried with the upper stage. [7] Engines were taken off that flight's upper stage for an extra test with super-cold liquid, possibly linked to an engine software fault on Flight 14, reports NASASpaceflight, a space news site. [10] Flight 16 is aimed at December and could be the first Starship launch from Florida. [10]

   Starship launches planned in 20265

   Launches a year Starbase may host now25

   Why it matters — That would make only five Starship launches in 2026, against 25 a year Starbase is already allowed. [10] Catching the upper stage would open the way to flying a used one again, NASASpaceflight says. [10]

3. 04

   Younger astronauts' genes changed more

   A study of blood from ten astronauts on the International Space Station found that spaceflight changed the activity of more genes in the younger crew members. [12] The astronauts were 34 to 61 years old at launch, and their blood was taken between 75 and 210 days into their missions. [12] Longer missions changed more genes too. [12] Younger astronauts also showed more strain in mitochondria, the parts of a cell that make its energy. [12] The NASA-led team published it on 12 October in npj Microgravity, a journal about life in weightlessness. [12]

   12

   30 years47.5 years65 years

   1. 1Youngest astronaut at launch34 years
   2. 2Oldest astronaut at launch61 years

   Why it matters — The authors say nobody yet knows whether the stronger response helps the body or harms it. [12] The last blood samples were taken at 210 days, so the study cannot show what happens on longer trips. [12]

4. 05

   Space plants bred to cope better

   Small plants grown on the space station showed fewer signs of stress when they were bred to build up putrescine, a natural chemical that plants make, a University of Wisconsin-Madison team reports. [13] The plants were thale cress, a small weed scientists use as a standard lab plant. [13] Ordinary seedlings in orbit grew longer leaf stalks, a sign usually seen in plants short of oxygen, and switched on many stress genes. [13] The bred plants switched on fewer stress genes, and their stalks stretched less. [13] The paper came out on 15 October. [13]

   Why it matters — Long trips will need plants that grow food and refresh the air for crews far from Earth, and the authors say changing this chemical's pathway could help. [13]

5. 06

   Artemis II crew wins the Hawking Medal

   The four astronauts who flew around the Moon on Artemis II this year received the Stephen Hawking Medal for science communication on Saturday 17 October. [11] NASA's Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover and Canada's Jeremy Hansen collected it at the opening of Starmus, a science festival in Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands. [11] NASA's Christina Koch, the fourth crew member, was not there. [11] Stephen Hawking and Starmus set up the medal in 2016, and earlier winners include Buzz Aldrin, David Attenborough and Jane Goodall. [11]

   Why it matters — The prize is for sharing the flight with people on the ground, through live calls, interviews and photos from the trip. [11] Film director Ridley Scott was also honoured in this, the medal's tenth year. [11]

6. 07

   Pakistan names a date for its first astronaut

   Pakistan's first astronaut will fly from a Chinese launch site on 25 November, Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan's planning minister, said on Sunday. [14] The astronaut will be one of two Pakistani pilots, Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, whom China picked in April and has been training in Beijing. [14] China itself has not said which of them will fly, or when. [14] In orbit the chosen pilot will run Pakistan's science experiments rather than fly the spacecraft, an official at Suparco, Pakistan's space agency, told Reuters. [14]

   Why it matters — The spacecraft, the launch site, the trainers and the language spoken in orbit are all Chinese, so the date depends on China's own plans. [14] Iqbal also said Pakistan aims to land on the Moon by 2035. [14]