

Space
NASA’s newest Mars rover gets christened with a ‘strong’ official name
NASA’s next Mars rover will depart Earth in July, bound for the red planet. After landing in Feb. of next year, the six-wheeled rover will explore its surroundings. Initially dubbed as Mars 2020 as a nod to its launch date, the rover has just received an official name: Perseverance.
As part of a nationwide contest, NASA challenged children in grades K-12 to come up with a name for the robotic explorer. This follows tradition as rovers of the past, and even planets (hello Pluto), have been named by children. Viking, Pathfinder, Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, InSight, and now Perseverance.
The newest rover will build on the success of those robotic explorers who came before it by collecting the first samples of Mars for a future return to Earth. It will also lay the groundwork for future human exploration by testing new technologies.
“Yes, it’s curiosity that pulls us out there, but it’s perseverance that does not let us give up,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the science mission directorate said during a news conference on Thursday.
Although Curiosity and Perseverance look like twins, the two rovers are quite different. But, it takes the pair to help us better understand Mars and its habitability.
“Perseverance is a strong word,” he said. “It’s about making progress despite obstacles.”
“There has never been exploration without perseverance,” Zurbuchen added.
A total of 28,000 entries were received, and over the course of several months, NASA narrowed the field down to just 9 finalists. The public was asked to vote for its favorite, but ultimately the final decision was up to Zurbuchen. Each student was tasked with writing a brief essay supporting their choice in name. The finalists are listed below, and you can read more about the contest here.
- Endurance, K-4, Oliver Jacobs of Virgina.
- Tenacity, K-4, Eamon Reilly of Pennsylvania.
- Promise, K-4, Amira Shanshiry of Massachusetts.
- Perseverance, 5-8, Alexander Mather of Virginia.
- Vision, 5-8, Hadley Green of Mississippi.
- Clarity, 5-8, Nora Benitez of California.
- Ingenuity, 9-12, Vaneeza Rupani of Alabama.
- Fortitude, 9-12, Anthony Yoon of Oklahoma.
- Courage, 9-12, Tori Gray of Louisiana.

The Perseverance Mars rover, which looks nearly identical to the Curiosity rover that landed in 2012, will begin its mission exploring Jezero Crater. Equipped with a suite of specially-designed instruments it will look for signs of life called biosignatures.
NASA’s research indicates that Mars was habitable sometime in its past. But so far, we haven’t been able to detect any real signs of ancient life yet. The rover’s team thinks that its specialized suite of instruments will change that.
To that end, Perseverance will drill into the Martian surface, extracting samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further study. Returning the samples is a challenge that NASA is already starting to tackle, along with the European Space Agency. The agency estimates that the earliest it can send a mission to fetch the rover’s samples would be some time around 2026 or 2027.

In the meantime, Perseverance will be busy scouring the surface for evidence of microbial life as well as testing out technologies that future human missions could rely on. It will also carry the first helicopter to explore another planet.
The small, autonomous rotorcraft, will launch attached to the rover’s belly. Shortly after arriving on Mars, the softball-sized craft will use its dual blades to slice through the Martian atmosphere. According to engineers, its blades will generate nearly 3,000 rpm — 10 times the rate of helicopters here on Earth.
The Mars helicopter will conduct as many as five flights, each time flying a bit further away than the last. For its first flight, the helicopter will climb to 10 feet (3 meters), hovering for about 30 seconds. If this technology proves to be successful, this type of craft could be used to explore Mars ahead of human exploration.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk reveals when SpaceX will perform first-ever Starship catch
“Starship catch is probably flight 13 to 15, depending on how well V3 flights go,” Musk said.

Elon Musk revealed when SpaceX would perform the first-ever catch attempt of Starship, its massive rocket that will one day take life to other planets.
On Tuesday, Starship aced its tenth test flight as SpaceX was able to complete each of its mission objectives, including a splashdown of the Super Heavy Booster in the Gulf, the deployment of eight Starlink simulators, and another splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean.
It was the first launch that featured a payload deployment:
SpaceX Starship Flight 10 was so successful, it’s breaking the anti-Musk narrative
SpaceX was transparent that it would not attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster, something it has done on three previous occasions: Flight 5 on October 13, 2024, Flight 7 on January 16, and Flight 8 on March 6.
This time, it was not attempting to do so. However, there are bigger plans for the future, and Musk detailed them in a recent post on X, where he discussed SpaceX’s plans to catch Starship, which would be a monumental accomplishment.
Musk said the most likely opportunities for SpaceX to catch Starship itself would be Flight 13, Flight 14, and Flight 15, but it depends on “how well the V3 flights go.”
The Starship launched with Flight 10 was a V2, which is the same size as the subsequent V3 rocket but has a smaller payload-to-orbit rating and is less powerful in terms of initial thrust and booster thrust. Musk said there is only one more V2 rocket left to launch.
Starship catch is probably flight 13 to 15, depending on how well V3 flights go
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2025
V3 will be the version flown through 2026, as V4, which will be the most capable Starship build SpaceX manufactures, is likely to be the first company ship to carry humans to space.
Musk said that SpaceX planned to “hopefully” attempt a catch of Starship in 2025. However, it appears that this will likely be pushed back to 2026 due to timing.
SpaceX will take Starship catch one step further very soon, Elon Musk confirms
SpaceX would need to launch the 11th and 12th test flights by the end of the year in order to get to Musk’s expected first catch attempt of Flight 13. It’s not unheard of, but the company will need to accelerate its launch rate as it has only had three test flights this year.
News
SpaceX aces Starship test flight 10 with successful payload deployment
The mission began at 6:30 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, when the launch of Starship initiated. After about eight minutes, stage separation was completed, and the Super Heavy Booster headed back down to Earth for a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean:

SpaceX aced its tenth Starship test flight on Tuesday night after multiple delays pushed the mission back to this evening. Originally scheduled for Sunday night, SpaceX had two delays push the flight back to Tuesday, which ultimately provided ideal conditions for a launch attempt.
The tenth test flight of Starship had several objectives, including a successful splashdown of the booster in the Gulf of America, the deployment of eight Starlink simulation modules from the PEZ dispenser, and a splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX successfully achieved all three of these objectives, making it one of the most successful test flights in the Starship program. There was no attempt to catch the booster this evening, as the company had been transparent about it ahead of the launch.
The mission began at 6:30 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, when the launch of Starship initiated. After about eight minutes, stage separation was completed, and the Super Heavy Booster headed back down to Earth for a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean:
Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf pic.twitter.com/LGozUAmLt8
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025
Starship was then the main focus of the rest of the broadcast as it completed its ascent burn and coasted through space, providing viewers with spectacular views as the mission headed toward new territory, including the deployment of Starlink simulators. This would be the first time SpaceX would attempt a payload deployment.
The deployment works like a PEZ dispenser, as the simulators were stacked on top of one another and would exit through a small slit one at a time.
This occurred roughly 20 minutes into the mission:
Open the pod bay door, HAL
Starship deploying @Starlink simulator sats pic.twitter.com/3CSOyulzcJ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025
An hour and six minutes into the flight, Starship reached its final destination, which was the Indian Ocean. A successful splashdown would bring closure to Starship’s tenth test flight, marking the fifth time a test flight in the program’s history did not end with vehicle loss.
It was also the first of four test flights this year that will end with Starship being recovered.
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting tenth flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/5sbSPBRJBP
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 27, 2025
SpaceX is expected to launch Starship again in approximately eight weeks, pending the collection of data and other key metrics from this flight.
News
WATCH: SpaceX attempts Starship’s tenth test flight after two delays
This evening, SpaceX has already stated that conditions appear to be approximately 45 percent favorable for launch. This is ten percent less than last night, when the mission was eventually scrapped around 7 p.m. local time.

SpaceX is set to launch Starship tonight, provided the weather cooperates and everything with the ship goes smoothly.
This is SpaceX’s third attempt to launch Starship for its tenth test flight, with Sunday’s and Monday’s attempts both being scrapped due to a leak and unfavorable weather conditions on the respective days.
This evening, SpaceX has already stated that conditions appear to be approximately 45 percent favorable for launch. This is ten percent less than last night, when the mission was eventually scrapped around 7 p.m. local time.
Propellant load of the upper stage and Super Heavy booster is already underway, and the launch is expected to occur at 6:30 p.m. in Starbase, Texas.
You can watch the tenth test flight of Starship below via SpaceX:
Watch Starship’s tenth flight test → https://t.co/UIwbeGoo2B https://t.co/BFrpQPQFUw
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025
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