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Monday, October 26, 2026 · Space · AI · Ancient
AM EDITION
Sky watch
October's full Moon, the Hunter's Moon, is exactly full at 12:12 a.m. Eastern on Monday, Oct. 26. Sunday night and Monday night it looks round. Look east about an hour after sunset and watch it climb.
Why "Hunter's"? It's the full Moon after the Harvest Moon. Old farm calendars named it for the time of year when fields were bare and game was easiest to spot.
Did you know? In ancient Sumer, the Moon was a god: Nanna, worshipped at the great temple of Ur. His light set the calendar, because each month began with the new Moon.
Next full Moon: the Beaver Moon, Tuesday, Nov. 24. Moon times for your city · 2026 full Moon calendar
Rockets Day
Ten launch stories: eight from the past two weeks and two coming up next. Tap a picture for the full story.
1Oct 13 · Falcon 9
A Falcon 9 launched SpaceX’s 35th cargo mission for NASA from Cape Canaveral at 6:33 a.m. EDT on Oct. 13, carrying more than 6,300 pounds of science and supplies to the International Space Station.
Photo: NASA/Bill White (public domain)
2Oct 15 · Falcon 9
The USSF-481 mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:01 p.m. PT on Oct. 15. The booster, on its 28th flight, landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You.
Photo: U.S. Space Force/Staff Sgt. Joshua LeRoi (public domain)
Oct 19 & 21 · Sounding rockets
Poker Flat Research Range launched INFUSE II on Monday night and DUST III on Wednesday night, both studying dying stars. DUST III rode a two-stage Black Brant IX.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Art: abstract launch tile
4Oct 19 · H3
JAXA launched the Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft on H3 flight No. 10 from Tanegashima at 04:41 JST on Oct. 20 (3:41 p.m. ET Oct. 19). MMX separated about 71 minutes after liftoff.
Art: ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (cropped)
5Oct 20 · Falcon 9
Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:04 a.m. ET on Oct. 20 with 32 payloads, SpaceX’s Starfall reentry vehicle among them. The booster flew for the 19th time and landed on A Shortfall of Gravitas.
Photo: Rhunt503 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Oct 23 · Electron
Rocket Lab’s “We’re Not Hawking Around” mission lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 8:11 p.m. NZDT on Oct. 23 and deployed three HAWK satellites to a 520 km orbit.
Art: abstract launch tile
7Oct 23 · Falcon 9
Falcon 9 launched 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg at 3:48 p.m. PT on Oct. 23. Its first stage was flying for the 36th time and landed on Of Course I Still Love You.
Photo: U.S. Space Force/Staff Sgt. Joshua LeRoi (public domain)
Oct 24 ET · Long March 8A
The rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site at 10:03 a.m. Beijing time on Oct. 25 (10:03 p.m. ET Oct. 24), and the satellites entered their planned orbit.
Art: abstract launch tile
Coming Oct 30 · GSLV
ISRO’s launch from Sriharikota is scheduled for Oct. 30. NVS-03 is the third satellite in the second-generation NavIC programme, India’s own satellite navigation system.
Art: abstract launch tile
Coming Nov 4 · Electron
Rocket Lab lists the mission for no earlier than Nov. 4 from Launch Complex 1, carrying one QPS-SAR radar imaging satellite. It is Rocket Lab’s 10th Electron launch for iQPS.
Art: abstract launch tile
Archived AM edition · Monday, October 26, 2026 · posted 1:22 PM ET
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See the photos at Space.com
See the photos at Space.com
See the photos at Wired AI
See the photos at Live Science Archaeology
See the photos at Live Science Archaeology
See the photos at Smithsonian Magazine
See the photos at Space.com
Space
SpaceX is shooting for new heights with its upcoming Starship test flight, and the booster tapped for the mission is in its final stretch of preparations before the mission. The Super Heavy booster for Flight Test 15, Booster 22, underwent a static test fire on Sunday (Oct. 25), igniting all of its Raptor 3 engines for about 15 seconds.
Space.com · Josh Dinner · Oct 26
Read the source →AI
Would-be football journalist Jayden isn’t having much luck placing stories these days. “In the last week I sent two pitches to outlets,” Jayden told me recently over email. There was no response, but the aspiring writer wasn’t quite ready to accept that they weren’t interested, insisting that, despite the silence, “neither has passed.” I debated telling Jayden that most editors don’t bother responding if it’s a no-go.
Wired AI · Kate Knibbs · Oct 26
Read the source →Ancient
This 2,000-year-old cold case offered a wealth of information, Leiden archaeologists Carol van Driel-Murray and Mark Driessen explain. Few skeletons from the late Iron Age and early Roman era have been preserved, making this largely intact skeleton a valuable research resource. In their new book Victims of Violence from the Early Roman Fort Velsen, Van Driel-Murray and Driessen reconstruct the cause of this man's death.
Phys.org Archaeology · Oct 26
Read the source →Space
The full "Hunter's Moon" wowed stargazers with a breathtaking display of natural light when it rose to dominate the autumn sky overnight on Oct. Here are our favorite photos captured from around the world. October's full moon is often known as the Hunter's Moon because it traditionally rose around the time that hunters would take to the newly harvested fields to catch animals to prepare as food for the coming winter.
Space.com · Anthony Wood · Oct 26
Read the source →Two reports, side by side
A · Phys.org Space
Astronomers have found a vast reservoir of hydrogen with something conspicuously missing: detectable starlight. The object, called AGC 322753, contains roughly 2 billion times the sun's mass in neutral hydrogen, a potential supply of material for making stars. Its radio signal suggests the gas may be rotating in a disk, yet deep astronomical images reveal no matching glow.
Phys.org Space · Oct 26
Read the source →B · Space.com
Earth almost always has more than one moon. The others are just very small, and they never stay long — but they could provide accessible and unique insights into the solar system. Temporary satellites, or mini-moons, are small asteroids that wander into Earth’s neighborhood and get captured briefly by our planet’s gravity.
Space.com · Andrew Jones · Oct 26
Read the source →Phys.org Space reports: Astronomers have found a vast reservoir of hydrogen with something conspicuously missing: detectable starlight. Space.com reports: Earth almost always has more than one moon. The two reports share a subject but not a single event, so read them as two angles rather than one story. This review only restates what each source published. It does not add facts or opinions. Read both and decide for yourself.
Rests on Phys.org Space and Space.com.
