MARS

SpaceX appears to have identified an issue with its Starship program, with Ship 42 undergoing fixes, according to reports circulating among space enthusiasts. The claim comes from commentary channels tracking the program, and SpaceX has not officially confirmed any specific defect or the scope of the repairs. Starship is central to NASA's lunar plans and SpaceX's Mars ambitions, so any setback to a test vehicle draws wide attention.

The chief executive of generics maker Sandoz has questioned why consumers pay more for a Mars bar than for life-saving medicine, calling for a level playing field against cheap Chinese antibiotic production. He argues that rock-bottom prices from Chinese manufacturers undermine investment in antibiotics and threaten the security of essential medicine supply chains.

Nasa's Artemis III mission aims to return astronauts to the Moon, including landing humans near the lunar south pole for the first time. The mission is a key step toward a sustained lunar presence and eventual crewed missions to Mars. Outlets are explaining the mission's goals, timeline and what follows in the wider Artemis programme.

Residents of Ramble have again blocked the main road to Savanna-la-Mar in Jamaica, disrupting travel to the Westmoreland town. According to Nationwide News, this is a repeated action, suggesting an ongoing grievance with authorities has not been resolved. The protest has left commuters stranded and traffic diverted as people wait for a response to residents' demands.

NASA's longest-serving Mars spacecraft are still operating decades after arrival, and a new Wired report explains how engineers keep them alive. The piece details the workarounds, aging hardware fixes and fuel management that allow the veteran orbiters and rovers to keep returning science data well past their planned lifetimes.

A new essay argues that space exploration should be framed as an 'inclusive destiny' rather than a 'manifest destiny', urging policymakers and space agencies to confront the colonial assumptions embedded in frontier thinking about Mars, the Moon and beyond. The author contends that without such reflection, humanity risks exporting the inequalities and extractive logic of past colonial expansion into outer space governance and settlement debates.

Space.com has profiled analog astronaut programs that use underwater habitats to rehearse the conditions of long-duration space missions before anyone leaves Earth. Participants experience isolation, confinement and simulated communication delays similar to those faced on missions to the Moon or Mars. The feature highlights how these environments serve as accessible, demanding training grounds for future spaceflight crews.