Marina Koren

40 years after Challenger disaster, NASA faces safety fears on Artemis II Many of the team behind NASA’s Artemis II mission were children 40 years ago, when the space shuttle Challenger disaster reshaped spaceflight

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. What does that mean, a week before NASA is aiming to launch Artemis II to send humans around the moon--with a heat shield that some worry isn't up to the task? 🧪 🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/40-y...

NASA Moves Steps Closer to Artemis II Fueling Test Ahead of Launch - NASA Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue to prepare the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground infrastructure in

Kind of wild that one of NASA's biggest human spaceflight mission in years COULD be happening next week, but we're still waiting to know what's up. www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...

Leonardo da Vinci’s Legacy Won’t Be Found In His DNA | Defector This week researchers from the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project announced they have made the kind of breakthrough you might expect from a project with that name: They have potentially identified Leonardo...

wrote about what's pissing me off about the search for Leonardo da Vinci's DNA
defector.com/leonardo-da-...

Lazuli, a Billionaire-Funded Private Space Telescope, Signals a New Strategy for Astronomy Bigger than Hubble and launching as soon as 2029, the Lazuli Space Observatory would be the first-ever full-scale private space telescope

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt and launching as soon as 2029, the Lazuli Space Observatory would be bigger than Hubble and the first-ever full-scale private space telescope. By @nadiadrake.bsky.social.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/schm...

Here are the launches and landings we’re most excited about in 2026 A lot could happen in space this year, but let's get real about what actually will.

Last year delivered doses of drama and excitement in the space business, and 2026 is shaping up to be another thrilling year in the cosmos.

NASA’s Isaacman to Treat ‘Exceptional’ Staff to Private Jet Ride NASA employees now have another incentive to outperform for new agency head Jared Isaacman: rides in his private F-5 jets.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has donated his own private jets to the agency and is offering incentive rides on them to NASA employees who do exceptional work. What are your thoughts on this move? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Southeast Asia seeks its place in space At the Thai Space Expo, attendees explored possible futures for the region.

My first piece of in-person reporting from Thailand!

At the Thai Space Expo in October, space companies flocked to Bangkok to discuss opportunities in the region. What does the future hold?

ter.li/JO

A face-on view of a spiral galaxy, showing a well-defined bar-like structure spanning its center. (NASA, ESA, STScI)

Day 12 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Barred Spiral. This galaxy, NGC 5335, is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy, displaying a striking bar-like structure across its center, backdropped by dozens of other more-distant galaxies. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Postscripts from the frontlines of Trump's attacks on science: no simple happy endings Stories from the frontlines of Trump's attack on science: Follow-ups from a year of struggles in Part 7 of our series "American Science, Shattered."

This year, we @statnews.com have brought you the stories of who-knows-how-many scientists, federal workers, policy experts, and patients

For the next part of American Science, Shattered we revisit the stories of some of those people and how the year panned out

www.statnews.com/2025/12/11/a...

Trump Revives Billionaire Isaacman’s Nomination to Top NASA Job President Donald Trump renominated Elon Musk ally Jared Isaacman to lead NASA on Tuesday, a major about-face just five months after the White House ended his candidacy as relations between Trump and M...

At last, some resolution www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

What is the most spook-tacular nebula in the galaxy? One contender is LDN 43, which bears an astonishing resemblance to a vast cosmic bat flying amongst the stars on a dark Halloween night. Located about 1400 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, this molecular cloud is dense enough to block light not only from background stars, but from wisps of gas lit up by the nearby reflection nebula LBN 7. Far from being a harbinger of death, this 12-light year-long filament of gas and dust is actually a stellar nursery. Glowing with eerie light, the bat is lit up from inside by dense gaseous knots that have just formed young stars.

Astronomers sure do conjure up a lot of spooky images when they look out into deep space. A short Halloween thread:

Let's start with the Cosmic Bat Nebula (LDN 43). 🧪🔭

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap24102...

NASA is sinking its flagship science center during the government shutdown — and may be breaking the law in the process, critics say "There is just a general acknowledgement that a lot of what is happening is illegal…"

An important and deeply reported story from @joshdinner.bsky.social about the hollowing out of NASA, particularly its science centers, where some current employees now refer to "climate" only as "the c-word." www.space.com/space-explor...

The Race to Study an Interstellar Comet from Deep Space Astronomers are hustling to use interplanetary spacecraft to study the interstellar comet dubbed 3I/ATLAS while the sun is hiding it from Earth

You can't talk me out of thinking there's something just very cool about an image of an interstellar comet taken by a spacecraft orbiting Mars: 🧪 🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

I am further taken out.. "and... the other one"

This took me out

A ghostly skull shape, defined by two darker areas where the eyes would be, and the lower portion of which fades into the grey speckled pattern of the background.

This day ten years ago.

On 30 October 2015 the now-destroyed Arecibo radio telescope images this giant skull looming out of the dark of space.

Thrilled to share that I'm in the October issue of National Geographic, with a story about two photography buddies—one standing on Earth, the other floating 250 miles above it—and the breathtaking views they captured:
www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/...

Thrilled to share that I'm in the October issue of National Geographic, with a story about two photography buddies—one standing on Earth, the other floating 250 miles above it—and the breathtaking views they captured:
www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/...

This is one of those weeks where I'm reminded that space reporting is 95% talking about going to space and 5% actually going to space

Vera C. Rubin Observatory: The Best Inventions of 2025 Find out why Vera C. Rubin Observatory is on TIME's list of 2025's best inventions.

For TIME's Best Inventions of 2025 list, I wrote about the Rubin Observatory and other fascinating projects in space, climate, and green energy: time.com/collections/...

Billionaire Isaacman Met With Trump Over Top NASA Job Jared Isaacman and President Donald Trump have met in recent weeks and discussed reviving the fintech billionaire’s nomination to lead NASA, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Jared Isaacman may not totally be out of the NASA game just yet www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Two Comets Are Moving Into Your Night Skies in October: How to Watch

This month, skywatchers will have the opportunity to observe not one but two once-in-a-lifetime comets.

Astronomy's Quanzhi Ye shared some tips on how to locate and view comets A6 (Lemmon) and R2 (SWAN) with @marinakoren.bsky.social for @nytimes.com ☄️ 🔭

Comet Lemmon

SWAN

We’ve got 2 good binocular comets this month. R2 SWAN is poised to pass 0.26 AU from the Earth on Oct 19th, while A6 Lemmon will put on its late October dusk encore performance, low to the west. Both could be Halloween sky treats if they hold up to expectations. www.universetoday.com/articles/new...

Two Comets Are Moving Into Your Night Skies in October: How to Watch

We were interviewed recently by science writer @marinakoren.bsky.social for the New York Times on the up and coming October comet parade: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

Two Comets Are Moving Into Your Night Skies in October: How to Watch

Have a little cosmic wonder with your spooky season: My first story for @nytimes.com, about a pair of once-in-a-lifetime cosmic visitors gracing the northern skies this month www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

🤯

We're Not Broken “This book is a message from autistic people to their parents, friends, teachers, coworkers and doctors showing what life is like on the spectrum. It’s also...

If you liked my media hits in The New York Times, MSNBC and CNN and want to learn more about autism, I wrote a book about #Autism, #Neurodiversity and arguing we should stop trying to cure #ActuallyAutistic people and accept them. It's on sale for $15.19.
www.harpercollins.com/products/wer...

NASA's Artemis II ushers in a new era of human exploration NASA's Artemis II mission could happen as early as February. Here's why this flight will be one to watch.

Meet Artemis II: the first mission to send humans around the moon since 1972. I’ll be covering this mission for National Geographic, so you’ll be seeing a lot from me about it, but here’s the first:

www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.

NEW

WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.

This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it

www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

A wide view of a region of space filled with stars and clumps of orange clouds.

Sagittarius B2 is the Milky Way galaxy’s most massive and active star forming cloud, producing half of the stars created in the galactic center region despite having only 10 percent of the area’s star-making material. (1/4) 🧵 🔭 🧪