The European Space Agency confirmed on 3 September that BepiColombo's Mercury Transfer Module has successfully separated from the spacecraft stack, as tracked by two Estrack deep-space antennas. The two science orbiters are now committed to Mercury orbit insertion scheduled for 21 November 2026.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched August 30 at 7:26 a.m. EDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center, beginning a three-month journey to L2 a million miles away. The mission will survey dark matter, dark energy and exoplanets, with first images expected in early 2027 after a commissioning period.
The four astronauts on Artemis II set a distance record but spent the mission observing and verifying spacecraft systems—tasks of a crewed test, not a voyage of discovery. This mission reveals how the astronaut's role is shifting from explorer to mission specialist.
