Week in images: 24-28 August 2026
Week in images: 24-28 August 2026.
Space news
Rocket Report: Europe splashes some cash on launch startups; Pallas-1 nears debut
"From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship.".
Observing Samba and Tango’s reentries
The final two of ESA's pioneering Cluster spacecraft, Samba and Tango, will end their journeys as they burn up in our atmosphere on 31 August and 1 September respectively. Their targeted reentries mark the end of a mission that has transformed our understanding of Earth's magnetic environment. The final moments also offer a rare scientific opportunity for reentry observations from a plane..
A navigation odyssey
Homer’s The Odyssey chronicles Odysseus’s journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. A distance of approximately 530 km as the crow flies, yet it takes Odysseus ten years and countless adventures to arrive—without his crew or his boat. What could Odysseus’s journey have looked like if he had modern-day satellite navigation systems, such as Galileo, at his disposal?.
APOD: 2026 August 28 – The Sky Turns Above Paranal
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 28 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The Sky […].
The Forested Floodplains of Congaree National Park
The meandering Congaree River sustains towering forest ecosystems and fashions oxbow lakes as it shifts across its floodplain..
MTG-I2 completes Europe’s latest weather trio
The second Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2) has been launched on board Ariane 6, flight VA270, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It will complete the first family of MTG satellites, delivering data for weather forecasting over Europe and northern Africa with unprecedented quality, quantity and frequency..
NASA Invites Media to Turkey Artemis Accords Signing Ceremony
Turkey will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 31, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, becoming the 71st country signatory. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will host Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır for the ceremony, together with U.S. Department of State officials. This event is in person only. […].
Civil Servants Sworn in at NASA Ames
New civil servants and guests pose for a group photo with NASA and center leadership in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 80-by-120-foot test section, N221 on Aug. 24, 2026. The civil servants were sworn-in the same day in the largest swearing-in ceremony ever hosted at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley since […].
9 Things to Know About NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30. While you wait to watch the launch, brush up on some key facts about this wide-view mission. To learn more about the Roman mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/roman Media contact: Claire AndreoliNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.claire.andreoli@nasa.gov301-286-1940.