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Space

🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-09-26 22:01 UTC

SPACE PULSE

Saturday, 26 September 2026 | 22:00 UTC Edition

⚡ TL;DR

Starship Flight 14 is confirmed for 28 September and will mark the first time the giant rocket deploys real Starlink satellites into LEO, a watershed moment for both SpaceX and commercial launch history. [1]

A busy 24 hours otherwise: Crew-13 has arrived at Kennedy, Swift is back online, Roman is ground-ready, and a fresh high-energy electron alert is active from NOAA. [2] [3] [4] [5]

🚀 LAUNCHES

STARSHIP FLIGHT 14 | STARLINK GROUP 31-1

  • SpaceX targets 28 September 2026 at 12:15 UTC for the 14th Starship integrated flight test, the 3rd flight of Starship V3. [1]
  • This will be the first Starship mission to deploy operational payloads, placing a batch of Starlink Group 31-1 satellites into stable Low Earth Orbit. [1]

FALCON 9 | SDA TRANCHE 1 TRANSPORT LAYER A

  • SpaceX has a To Be Determined date of 31 October 2026 for this U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency mission, part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation providing resilient, low-latency military communications. [6]

🔭 DISCOVERIES

NASA EXOPLANET CATALOG EXPANDS

  • NASA added multiple new microlensing exoplanet host stars to its official star catalog today, including KMT-2023-BLG-0084L, KMT-2023-BLG-1118L, and KMT-2023-BLG-1810L, all detected via the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network survey. [7] [8] [9]
  • TOI-426, identified via NASA's TESS mission, was also added to the exoplanet star catalog on 26 September 2026. [10]

HUBBLE PROBES SPIRAL GALAXY NGC 4698

  • NASA's Hubble Space Telescope imaged spiral galaxy NGC 4698, revealing hidden structural complexity within its otherwise serene-looking disk of stars, gas, and dust.

NASA BALLOON CAMPAIGN CONTINUES AT FORT SUMNER

  • NASA's Balloon Program has successfully flown four missions from Fort Sumner, New Mexico this fall, with two more planned; upper-level winds from Hurricane Polo are being monitored for scheduling impacts.

🛰️ MISSIONS

NASA SPACEX CREW-13 ARRIVES AT KENNEDY

  • NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov arrived at Kennedy Space Center on 26 September 2026 to begin final launch preparations for their ISS mission. [2]

NASA AND BOEING STARLINER BRIEFING SCHEDULED

  • NASA and Boeing leadership will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. EDT on 28 September 2026 to discuss Starliner's development status and plans for regular crew rotation flights to and from the ISS.

SWIFT OBSERVATORY FULLY RESTORED

  • NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has powered on its third science instrument and resumed automated slewing, meaning it can once again autonomously repoint to catch new high-energy transients in the sky. [4]

ROMAN TELESCOPE GROUND NETWORK CONFIRMED READY

  • NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has confirmed all ground stations in the relay network are ready to receive the mission's high data volume once science operations begin, expected by early 2027. [5]

CYGNUS XL COMPLETES ISS REBOOST

  • Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft fired its thrusters on 25 September 2026 to successfully boost the International Space Station's orbit.

ARTEMIS ACCORDS REACH 76 NATIONS

  • The Republic of San Marino signed the Artemis Accords at a ceremony in Rimini on 25 September 2026, becoming the 76th signatory nation to commit to peaceful and transparent space exploration principles.

DUAL-MODE CUBESAT PROPULSION TESTED AT MARSHALL

  • NASA engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center completed environmental testing on a dual-mode propulsion CubeSat that combines previously separate maneuvering systems into one compact, non-volatile-fuel unit, ahead of an upcoming launch.

☀️ SPACE WEATHER

HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON ALERT ACTIVE TODAY

  • NOAA SWPC issued an ALTEF3 alert at 15:51 UTC on 26 September 2026 after GOES-19 recorded 2 MeV integral electron flux exceeding the 1,000 pfu threshold, reached at 15:35 UTC; satellite operators should monitor for deep-dielectric charging. [3]

MINOR GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE OVERNIGHT

  • NOAA issued a K-index of 4 warning (onset) valid from 25 September 21:54 UTC through 26 September 12:00 UTC, confirmed by an ALTK04 alert at 21:58 UTC on 25 September.
  • Conditions remain below G1 storm level but aurora may be visible at high latitudes; no major infrastructure impacts are expected.

NOTE ON RECENT ACTIVITY

  • The current active period follows a G1 Minor geomagnetic storm on 8 September and a G2 Moderate storm watch for 9 September, suggesting an extended stretch of elevated solar wind activity this month.

📄 RESEARCH

No arXiv astro-ph papers were included in today's official source data feed. The items below highlight agency-published science context from today's window.

BLACK HOLE PHOTON SPHERE VISUALIZATION SERIES

  • NASA published a multi-part educational visualization series depicting descent toward a black hole's photon sphere, the shell where gravity is so strong that light orbits in circles, showing gravitational lensing that splits the image of Orion's Belt into two distinct copies.

GAMMA-RAY BURST HISTORY ARCHIVED BY NASA

  • NASA reposted its archival primer on the discovery of cosmic gamma-ray bursts, tracing the story from the 1963 Vela nuclear-test-monitoring satellites through the BATSE instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, relevant context given Swift's restored GRB-catching capability. [4]

GALAXIES SIG SEMINAR UPCOMING: RESOLVED STAR FORMATION HISTORIES

  • NASA's Cosmic Origins program has scheduled a Galaxies Special Interest Group seminar for 6 October 2026, featuring Charlotte Olsen of CUNY City Tech presenting on why photometric resolved star formation histories from galaxy observations should be trusted as reliable diagnostics.

That is your Space Pulse for 26 September 2026. Next major watch point: Starship Flight 14 on 28 September and the NASA-Boeing Starliner briefing the same afternoon.

📎 Sources

  1. Starship | Starlink Group 31-1 (Starship Flight 14) — Launch Library 2
  2. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 On Way to Kennedy — NASA Science
  3. Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3 — NOAA SWPC Alerts
  4. NASA’s Swift Powers On Third Instrument, Restarts Automated Sl… — NASA Science
  5. NASA’s Roman Team Confirms Ground Stations Receiving Data — NASA Science
  6. Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A — Launch Library 2
  7. KMT-2023-BLG-0084L — NASA Science
  8. KMT-2023-BLG-1810L — NASA Science
  9. KMT-2023-BLG-1118L — NASA Science
  10. TOI-426 — NASA Science

Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260926-22-v92 · 2026-09-26 22:01 UTC · pulse.uzylab.com

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