Crew-12 Heads Home From ISS & South Korea's Nuri Launches NEONSAT - Space News (Oct 7, 2026)

Welcome to The Automated Daily, space news edition. The podcast created by generative AI. Imagine spending ten months in orbit, then learning that your hips may now resemble those of someone fifteen years older. That is one of the sobering findings in today's space news. We also have a crew coming home from the International Space Station, South Korea's rocket placing fifteen satellites into orbit, a supernova that medieval astronomers watched in 1181, and a solar storm that could paint the northern sky. Let's get into it.

Crew-12 Heads Home From ISS

We start in low Earth orbit, where NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 is wrapping up nearly ten months aboard the International Space Station. NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA's Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev launched on 13 February 2026 and served on Expedition 75. Hatch closure was planned for around 6:20 a.m. Eastern on 7 October, with undocking around 8:05 a.m. Splashdown off California is targeted for 8 October at about 11:34 a.m. Eastern, depending on the weather. One crew member said what they look forward to most is simply seeing nature again. Seven residents will remain aboard the station to continue health research and other science. NASA will hold a post-flight press conference at 1:15 p.m. Eastern on 8 October.

South Korea's Nuri Launches NEONSAT

Meanwhile, South Korea's Nuri rocket completed its fifth flight. It lifted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung at 12:25 p.m. local time carrying fifteen satellites. Five NEONSAT microsatellites were released one at a time, about 35 to 40 seconds apart, at roughly 570 kilometers altitude. Ten CubeSats followed in pairs. Each NEONSAT weighs under 100 kilograms and can resolve objects about one meter across in black and white. This is the first time Nuri has deployed several primary satellites built for the same mission. Five more NEONSATs are planned for next year, completing a ten-satellite constellation that will pass over the Korean Peninsula more than three times a day to monitor disasters and security incidents.

Long Spaceflights Raise Hip Fractures

Now for the sobering health story. A team at NASA's Johnson Space Center reviewed fracture records from American astronauts' annual medical exams between 2018 and 2022. After missions longer than 90 days, hip fracture rates rose significantly. They were higher than the same astronauts' rates in periods without long missions. They were also higher than rates among non-astronauts aged 70 to 79, even though the astronauts averaged about 62.5 years old. The statistical evidence was very strong, with Bayes factors of 140 and 832. Fractures in other bones did not show a clear increase. The study shows a correlation, not proof that spaceflight causes the fractures. Still, it suggests that bone lost in microgravity may raise fracture risk for years after landing. That matters for ten-month missions like Crew-12, and even more for future trips to the Moon and Mars.

Webb Reveals NGC 7129 Nursery

The James Webb Space Telescope has delivered a striking new view of NGC 7129, a stellar nursery about 3,300 light-years away. In the infrared image, hot atomic hydrogen glows gold, while cooler molecular hydrogen shocked by jets from young stars appears red. A young star of five to eight solar masses dominates the scene. Beside it is a cavity about 3.5 light-years wide, carved by the star's past outflows and edged by a photodissociation region, a boundary where intense radiation breaks molecules apart. Clumpy material nearby hides even younger protostars. Compared with earlier Spitzer images, Webb reveals much finer filaments and many background galaxies.

Pa 30: Medieval Supernova Remnant

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Pa 30, captured by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii. This nebula looks like cosmic fireworks, with radial filaments dotted by knots about four light-days across. It is thought to be the remnant of a guest star that Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic astronomers recorded in 1181, which stayed visible for 185 days. The explosion was a rare Type Iax supernova, in which a white dwarf was only partly destroyed. A very hot surviving star sits at the center, and its strong winds may be shaping the filaments. Because astronomers know roughly when the explosion happened, Pa 30 lets them test models across about 845 years. It also bears on the reliability of the supernovae used to measure cosmic expansion.

Geomagnetic Storm Watch, Aurora Chances

Skywatchers, take note. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G2, or moderate, geomagnetic storm watch for 9 October. The cause is a coronal mass ejection linked to an M1.4 solar flare from Active Region 4549 on 6 October. Conditions could range from G1 to G2, and auroras may be visible as far south as states like Idaho and New York. Storms of this strength can also cause minor power grid fluctuations, small effects on satellites, and degraded radio signals.

Curiosity Captures Martian Dawn Yardangs

On Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover has sent back a beautiful dawn panorama from the northwestern slopes of Mount Sharp. It was stitched together from six images taken on sol 4,982, at 8:30 in the morning local time. Most Curiosity images are color-adjusted to mimic Earth lighting, but this one keeps Mars's natural morning tones. Bluish foreground light contrasts with the dark outlines of yardangs, which are ridges carved by the wind. This band of yardangs stretches about sixteen kilometers. The low morning light shows textures that help scientists read the planet's history of climate and erosion.

Juice Slingshots Past Earth

Out in deep space, ESA's Juice spacecraft has used Earth as a slingshot. On 28 September it passed just 8,640 kilometers above the Indian Ocean. The flyby bent its path by about twenty degrees and added roughly 3.5 kilometers per second to its speed. It also gave the team a chance to test Juice's instruments on Earth and the Moon. Another Earth flyby in January 2029 will set up its arrival at Jupiter in 2031. There, Juice will make thirty-five flybys of Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa before entering orbit around Ganymede.

Building Infrastructure for Lunar Bases

NASA is also laying the groundwork for life on the Moon. Modulate Space Corporation has won a contract to develop a lunar 5G network with Wi-Fi 6, working with NASA Glenn. Glenn is also seeking proposals for an Aerospace Power Systems Laboratory to test advanced power technologies. NASA's Lunar Grounding Challenge asks for ways to stop static charge from building up on spacesuits at the lunar South Pole, where friction with dust and exposure to plasma can lead to dangerous discharges. And NASA selected the GIMLI project to study the Marius Hills Pit using radar, seismic sensors, gravity measurements, and cameras. The pit may open into a lava tube that could shelter a future lunar habitat. In heliophysics, the SunRISE space weather mission now targets launch no earlier than mid-2027, sharing a ride on a Falcon Heavy.

Probing the Early Universe

Research into the early universe is also moving forward. The MEGATRON simulations model how the first stars formed and spread elements like carbon, oxygen, and iron. JWST observations show galaxies were already scattering heavy elements by about 500 million years after the Big Bang. At CERN, physicists found the clearest evidence yet that quark-gluon plasma, the matter that filled the newborn universe, behaves like a true liquid. A record minutes-long X-ray flash has been linked to the birth of a magnetar after two neutron stars merged. NASA's Roman Space Telescope has shown exceptional pointing stability, taken its first look at the sky with its planet-imaging coronagraph, and powered up its 300-megapixel infrared camera. Finally, the suitcase-sized CosmoCube will use the Moon's far side as a shield from Earth's radio noise to listen for the faint hydrogen signal from the cosmic dark ages, before the first stars formed.

ISS Cargo and Post-ISS Future

Back at the station, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL is scheduled to depart on 9 October after delivering more than 11,000 pounds of supplies and experiments. SpaceX's CRS-35 cargo mission is targeting launch on 13 October. Looking further ahead, ESA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the commercial company Vast. The agreement aims to keep European astronauts and experiments in low Earth orbit after the ISS retires.

Finally, a look back at our own planet. NASA reports that Arctic sea ice has shrunk to its 2026 minimum extent, continuing a decades-long decline seen in satellite records. Less ice means the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight, which speeds up warming and can affect weather far from the Arctic. NASA also highlighted satellite images of Rupert Bay in Canada, where organic matter and sediment from rivers turn the water a striking brown. Together, these stories show how space-based observation helps us track environmental change here on Earth.

That's a wrap for today's space news edition of The Automated Daily. If the sky clears on 9 October, look north for the aurora. And spare a thought for Crew-12 as they return to Earth, wind, and grass. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.

Crew-12 Heads Home From ISS & South Korea's Nuri Launches NEONSAT - Space News (Oct 7, 2026)

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