The U.S. election flipped control of Congress from Republicans to Democrats. Jack Kiraly, chief of advocacy at The Planetary Society, led a webinar discussion on Nov. 4 to unpack how the midterm election results might affect U.S. space policy, including who’ll be on the committees that oversee and fund NASA. Image credit: Andy Withers.

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. On Wednesday, Nov. 4, after over 20 years of science operations, atmospheric drag finally brought the space telescope down, burning up as it entered the atmosphere. Earlier this year, a mission to reboost the gamma-ray burst observatory to a safer orbit was unsuccessful.

China announced how it plans to land taikonauts on the Moon. Last weekend, the chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration program outlined a strategy in which a lunar lander and crew spacecraft will launch separately and dock in lunar orbit, after which two taikonauts will take the lander down to the Moon and back.

102 years ago, Edwin Hubble discovered that galaxies exist beyond the Milky Way. On this week’s Planetary Radio, learn about the significance of this discovery and the push for the designation of Oct. 5 as National Beyond the Milky Way Day. Pictured: Edwin Hubble’s original glass photographic plate of the Andromeda Nebula, imaged with the 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory. Image credit: Sarah Al-Ahmed / The Planetary Society. Plate courtesy of Carnegie Science.

The Planetary Society is hiring a Community Organizer. As part of our Space Policy and Advocacy team, this new role will help build a powerful network of advocates to scale up the Society's grassroots movement for the scientific exploration of space. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.

Two of our leaders have won a major award. At its conference last week, the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences presented Casey Dreier, our chief of space policy, and Jack Kiraly, our chief of advocacy, with the 2026 Harold Masursky Award for exceptional service to planetary science and space exploration. In their acceptance speech, Kiraly announced the date of our next Day of Action in Washington, D.C.: Jan. 31 to Feb. 1.

Celebrate Voyager 1’s one light-day milestone with us! This month, NASA’s Voyager 1 will become the first human-made object to travel one light-day from Earth. Join us on Nov. 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET for a special livestream in our online member community and on YouTube. Voyager Project Manager Suzanne Dodd, Mission Manager Kareem Badaruddin, and Project Scientist Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will share stories from their decades on the mission. Renowned space artist Don Davis will also join us to reveal a new work commemorating this tremendous achievement. Stay tuned for more details.