Top Stories
Perseverance Rover About to Break All-Time Mars Driving Record
NASA’s Perseverance rover will surpass 45.16 km driven on Mars sometime next week, breaking the distance record held by the Opportunity rover since 2018. Perseverance reached the mark in roughly five years, about a third of the time Opportunity needed. The difference is autonomous navigation: 90% of Perseverance’s driving is self-directed, compared to just 10% for the older Curiosity rover, whose onboard computer uses chipsets from the 1990s.
The autonav system uses onboard cameras and terrain-processing algorithms similar to terrestrial self-driving vehicles. Curiosity, which is largely a hardware twin of Perseverance but a generation behind in computing, has managed 38.6 km in over a decade. Processing speed, not sensor capability, was the bottleneck.
Read the full story: Ars Technica
Senate Passes Stopgap Funding Bill, Pentagon Held to FY2026 Levels
The Senate voted 90-6-1 to pass a continuing resolution that would fund federal agencies through Dec. 11 at current fiscal year levels. The bill forbids the start of new programs and excludes most Pentagon-specific exemptions the White House requested, including $1 billion for the Trump-class battleship and authority for five multiyear munitions contracts.
The House passed a shorter CR (through Dec. 4) before recess, without the Senate bill’s funding anomalies and with little Democratic support. Congress will need to reconcile the two versions or have one chamber adopt the other’s bill when it returns in September. If no CR passes by Sept. 30, a government shutdown would extend into midterm election season.
Read the full story: Breaking Defense
SpaceX Hits 50th West Coast Launch of 2026 with Starlink 17-38
SpaceX launched 24 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday, the company’s 50th launch from the West Coast this year. Booster B1093, on its 16th flight, landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about eight minutes after liftoff.
The West Coast flight rate is climbing as SpaceX shifts East Coast pad time toward Starship preparations. This was the 71st operational Starlink delivery mission of 2026.
Read the full story: Spaceflight Now
Northrop Grumman and Canada Pivot Gateway Hardware to Lunar Surface Demos
Northrop Grumman will repurpose technology from its HALO module, originally built for NASA’s lunar Gateway, into three Lunar Infrastructure Demo (LID) lander missions. The company says the missions will test power, data, and mechanical interfaces on the lunar surface, with a focus on surviving lunar night. The Canadian Space Agency is making a similar pivot with its Gateway contributions.
No timeline, launch vehicle, or specific payload details were provided. Concept art shows three identical landers carrying different solar array and payload configurations.
Read the full story: SpaceNews
Moon-Mars Conjunction Visible Before Dawn on August 9
A waning crescent Moon will appear close to Mars in the predawn sky on Saturday morning, offering a straightforward naked-eye observation for early risers.
Read the full story: Space.com
Satellite of the Day
COSMOS 1875 – COSMOS 1875, a Soviet Strela-3 military relay satellite launched in 1987, still orbits at 1,390 km after nearly 39 years as tracked debris (NORAD 18334).
Read the full feature: Satellite of the Day: COSMOS 1875 or track COSMOS 1875 live.
By the Numbers
Active satellites tracked: 15,663
Cataloged debris objects: 14,921
New objects cataloged yesterday: 3
Orbital launches this year: 188 (182 successful)
Next launch: Long March 7A | Unknown Payload in about 27 hours (Aug 10, 12:00 UTC)
Catalog Watch
Space-Track cataloged 3 new objects in its latest daily accounting (2026-08-08), alongside 28,073 updated element sets.
New catalog entries: 100243, 100244, 100245.
Reentry Watch
STARLINK-2342 (47883) – predicted decay Aug 9, 09:39 UTC, window ±3 h
STARLINK-2019 (47641) – predicted decay Aug 9, 21:26 UTC, window ±6 h
CZ-4B DEB (46480) – predicted decay Aug 10, 12:27 UTC, window ±9 h
STARLINK-2163 (47749) – predicted decay Aug 10, 14:05 UTC, window ±10 h
USA 67 R/B(2) (20965) – predicted decay Aug 10, 23:22 UTC, window ±14 h
Upcoming Space Launches
Next 48 Hours
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Long March 7A – Unknown Payload from Wenchang Space Launch Site, People’s Republic of China (Aug 10, 12:00 UTC)
Details TBD.
SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 – Starlink Group 10-19 from Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA (Aug 10, 14:49 UTC)
Watch Live
LandSpace Zhuque-3 – Flight 2 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People’s Republic of China (Aug 10, 23:45 UTC)
Second test launch of LandSpace’s ZQ-3 rocket. Payload identities are TBD.
See every upcoming mission on the live schedule: Upcoming Launches
Note: Launch dates and times are subject to change due to technical or weather considerations.