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🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-09-11 22:02 UTC

SPACE PULSE

Friday, September 12, 2026 — Daily Space & Astronomy Briefing

⚡ TL;DR

ESA's FLEX photosynthesis mapper and Sentinel-3C Earth observer lift off together on Vega-C in just three days, making it the most watched launch of the week. The overall cadence is busy: elevated solar electrons persist, Crew-12 preps to leave the ISS, and JWST keeps delivering firsts from the HR 8799 system to the galactic center.

🚀 LAUNCHES

UPCOMING THIS WEEK

  • Vega-C VV30 carrying ESA FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C is scheduled for 15 September at 01:21 UTC from Kourou, French Guiana; ESA mission control at ESOC has already completed joint launch rehearsals for the dual-spacecraft release. [1] [2] [3]
  • Zhuque-2E Block 2 from LandSpace, possibly carrying SpaceSail LEO comms satellites, is set for 15 September at 06:25 UTC. [4]
  • Soyuz 2.1b carrying Progress MS-35 (96P) resupply cargo to the ISS is targeted for 16 September at 13:33 UTC by Roscosmos. [5]
  • Kuaizhou-11 from ExPace with an undisclosed payload is scheduled for 17 September at 02:35 UTC. [6]
  • Long March 2D with an undisclosed CASC payload follows on 19 September at 10:50 UTC. [7]

RECENT LAUNCH

  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 flew the classified USSF-153 mission for the United States Space Force on 10 September at 15:42 UTC; the payload is possibly Starshield-bus LEO satellites based on matching Starlink Group 15 drop-zone profiles. [8]

ON THE HORIZON

  • SpaceX Crew-13 to the ISS aboard Falcon 9 Block 5 is currently listed as To Be Determined around 30 September, as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. [9]

🔭 DISCOVERIES

  • NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory released new imagery of the II Zw 096 merging galaxy system, with Chandra's magenta X-ray data pinpointing powerful black hole activity amid the collision, released 25 August 2026. [10]
  • JWST's NIRSpec IFU captured the first moderate-resolution spectra (R approx. 1000) of directly imaged substellar companion HD 13724 B as part of the Dyn-Atmo Survey (Cycle 3 GO Program 6362), benchmarking atmospheric models against a dynamical mass.
  • The Dyn-Atmo Survey also delivered new JWST NIRSpec IFU spectra of brown dwarf companion GJ 758 B, whose mass is tightly constrained by radial-velocity monitoring of its host star.
  • JWST NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry reveals a candidate fifth planet in the HR 8799 system at a projected separation of roughly 150 mas in the F380M filter, just above the 3-sigma contrast curve at a contrast of about 2 times ten to the minus four.
  • Webb's mid-infrared data of IRS 3, a dying star near Sagittarius A*, detected a clear signature of oxygen-rich silicate dust and water features in an image taken 11 August 2026.
  • Euclid low-surface-brightness imaging shows that most nearby galaxies are diffuse spheroids whose stellar radius scales monotonically over three decades in luminosity, a new "Diffuse Galaxy sequence" analyzed on arXiv this week.
  • DESI Data Release 1 metal-enriched white dwarfs in wide binary systems show statistically lower rates of planetary accretion compared to single stars, suggesting binarity suppresses long-lived planetary systems.

🛰️ MISSIONS

  • NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 29th perihelion on 4 September, again matching its record closest approach distance and speed; the spacecraft transmitted a nominal health beacon and imaged structures near the Sun's north pole.
  • Expedition 75's seven-person crew aboard the ISS had a light-duty Friday focused on microgravity exercise research, cargo transfers, Earth observations, and life-support maintenance.
  • NASA SpaceX Crew-12 astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA's Sophie Adenot, and a Roscosmos cosmonaut will hold a media news conference from the ISS on 16 September at 14:45 EDT ahead of their upcoming return.
  • Djibouti is set to sign the Artemis Accords on 14 September at NASA Headquarters, becoming the 72nd signatory nation; NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson will host.
  • NASA reaffirmed that all Moon rocks, lunar datasets, and discoveries from the Artemis program will be openly shared with the global scientific community under Artemis Accords principles upheld by all 71 current signatories.
  • NASA and IBM Research launched the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, an open-source AI tool designed to help researchers analyze the Moon's surface using large-scale data.
  • JAXA confirmed that Japan Meteorological Agency has begun operational use of data from AMSR3, the latest sensor aboard the IBUKI GW (GOSAT-GW) satellite, as of early September.
  • ESA's Hera asteroid mission is running a public contest to name its cartoon dinosaur mascot, with the winner receiving a place at the November mission event.
  • The EHT conducted a two-month observing campaign beginning March 2026 to obtain time-resolved images of M87* at the center of Virgo A, aiming to constrain black hole and jet physics.

☀️ SPACE WEATHER

  • NOAA SWPC is tracking a continued high-energy electron alert: 2 MeV integral flux has exceeded 1,000 pfu since 10 September at 13:04 UTC, peaking at 3,080 pfu on 10 September and 1,391 pfu on 11 September at 04:55 UTC; two consecutive ALTEF3 continued alerts have been issued.
  • A Type II radio emission alert was issued 2 September at 19:45 UTC with an estimated CME shock velocity of 1,181 km/s, accompanied immediately by a Type IV radio emission alert beginning 2 September at 19:20 UTC, indicating a significant eruptive event.
  • An earlier Type II alert on 26 August cited a CME shock velocity of 930 km/s, alongside a 10 cm radio burst peaking at 140 sfu at 06:32 UTC that same day.
  • Elevated 2 MeV electrons at 1,039-1,201 pfu were also recorded continuously from 21 August through 26 August and into early September, reflecting a prolonged period of energetic particle activity.
  • A G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch was posted on 25 August for 28 August, while G1 (Minor) alerts and K-index-5 alerts were confirmed multiple times around 18 August.
  • Note: the most recent space weather data in this briefing runs through 11 September; no new geomagnetic storm watches or warnings have been issued for the current 24-hour window beyond the ongoing electron flux alert.

📄 RESEARCH

  • EUCLID DIFFUSE GALAXIES AND WAVE DARK MATTER: New arXiv analysis of Euclid low-surface-brightness imaging argues that the smooth, extended shapes of nearby galaxies across three decades of luminosity are naturally produced if dark matter behaves as a quantum wave (ultralight or "fuzzy" dark matter), causing stars to diffuse outward.
  • EHT IMAGES M87 BLACK HOLE IN TIME: A paper tied to the EHT 2026 campaign describes using multifrequency observations to probe the energy distribution of relativistic electrons around M87*, aiming to constrain the jet-launching mechanism from the first time-resolved image sequence.
  • JWST FINDS CANDIDATE FIFTH PLANET AT HR 8799: Using NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry, researchers detect a candidate innermost companion in the benchmark HR 8799 multi-planet system at roughly 150 mas projected separation in the F380M band, which would be the tightest orbit in this system if confirmed.
  • CME-CME INTERACTION DECODED: Using simultaneous in-situ data from Solar Orbiter, STEREO-A, and Wind, researchers identify signatures of two coronal mass ejections merging in interplanetary space, modifying the magnetic cloud structure and energetics measured at Earth orbit.
  • SOLAR PLASMOID FORMATION CAUGHT IN THE ACT: Coordinated observations from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, IRIS, SDO, and Hinode/XRT capture a hot UV burst in an active region where plasmoid formation is directly linked to magnetic reconnection, providing rare observational evidence for the plasmoid instability in the solar atmosphere.
  • WASP-12b INSPIRAL MYSTERY NARROWS: A new theoretical study rules out planetary obliquity tides as the driver of WASP-12b's anomalously rapid orbital decay, because such tides would also damp the planet's obliquity on a timescale too short to sustain the observed inspiral rate, leaving the mechanism unexplained.
  • DUST TRANSITION AT COSMIC DAWN: Modeling of JWST-era galaxy dust-mass observations identifies a sharp transition near redshift z approximately 8.9, where interstellar grain growth takes over from stellar dust production as the dominant dust source in the first billion years of cosmic history.

SPACE PULSE is produced daily. All items sourced from NASA, ESA, JAXA, NOAA SWPC, Launch Library 2, and arXiv astro-ph. Forward freely.

📎 Sources

  1. Vega-C | Sentinel-3C & FLEX — Launch Library 2
  2. Watch: FLEX and Sentinel-3C launch on Vega-C — ESA Top News
  3. A team of teams like never before: rehearsing a unique launch … — ESA Top News
  4. Zhuque-2E Block 2 | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  5. Soyuz 2.1b | Progress MS-35 (96P) — Launch Library 2
  6. Kuaizhou 11 | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  7. Long March 2D | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  8. Falcon 9 Block 5 | USSF-153 — Launch Library 2
  9. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-13 — Launch Library 2
  10. NASA’s Chandra Spots Galactic Gem — NASA News Releases

Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260911-22-v78 · 2026-09-11 22:02 UTC · pulse.uzylab.com

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