In this moment, the International Space Station to which he was tethered was orbiting 267 miles (430 kilometers) above the South Atlantic Ocean down below on Earth.
During this spacewalk — the first for a Canadian since 2019 — Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anil Menon worked together to install a new roll-out solar array on the station while also performing some "get ahead" tasks to prep for the next spacewalk, which is happening today (Nov. 5).
During today's excursion, the same two astronauts will venture out into space, tethered to the space station, to install the eighth and final roll-out solar array. These eight new arrays will boost the station's available power by a total of 30%, according to NASA officials.
Why is it incredible?
When we think of astronauts working in space, we might think of the important science and research they're doing aboard the station. Astronauts work on everything from biomedical research to plant science and physics experiments. But the job also includes work on the space station itself.
Sometimes they have to venture out into the vacuum of space to fix urgent problems. These situations can be tense, and there's a lot of pressure to get things absolutely right.
But even spacewalks that do relatively mundane maintenance work, like the one on Oct. 29, come with pressure. Every minute that astronauts spend outside of the space station, there are countless risk factors floating around. Earth orbit is a very harsh environment, after all, even if it does allow for some pretty amazing selfies.
When Jessica Watkins became commander of her mission to the International Space Station, she didn't just fulfill her duty as an astronaut — she made history.
Watkins is commanding SpaceX's Crew-13 mission, which launched her and three other astronauts to the International Space Station on Oct. 1. As their Crew Dragon capsule lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket that day, Watkins became the first Black woman to command a crewed mission to space. Spaceflight and space science are historically white and male-dominated fields, so this milestone carries incredible significance.
"This is certainly an important milestone, I think both for our agency and for the country," Watkins said in a press briefing ahead of Crew-13's launch.
This is Watkins' second spaceflight. She previously flew on SpaceX's Crew-4 mission in 2022 and has spent more than 200 days in space to date, though that number will keep climbing for a while, as Crew-13 is set to be an approximately six-month mission. A geologist, astronaut, aquanaut and former professional rugby player, Watkins brings an incredible variety of skills to her new role as mission commander. And, in addition to what she's bringing to her colleagues on mission, she's also providing some serious inspiration for those back on Earth.
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins floats in the International Space Station’s cupola during the Crew-4 mission in this photo, which NASA shared on May 9, 2022. (Image credit: NASA)
"Jessica is an inspirational symbol to a lot of people," commercial astronaut and fellow geologist Sian Proctor, who became the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft on SpaceX's private Inspiration4 mission to orbit in September 2021, told Space.com. Sian shared that the two even crossed paths years ago, when their astronaut training aligned.
"It just means so much to so many people when you see a diverse crew, and particularly women, and women of color, in leadership positions," Proctor said. "And it means something for America."
The visibility of Watkins' accomplishments and missions carries significant cultural weight. However, in addition to recognizing her many achievements, "you also should celebrate the fact that she's African American and a role model for her community," Proctor said.
Sian Proctor from aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule during the Inspiration4 mission. (Image credit: Tripadvisor)
Proctor, who similarly made spaceflight history with her mission, sees Watkins' role in Crew-13 as potentially more than just an exciting moment. Hopefully, she said, it will help lay the foundation for a more diverse future in human spaceflight.
"When they announced Jessica, I was super excited because it shows progress," Proctor said, sharing that she finds incredible importance in the "idea of looking at your crew and recognizing the fact that diversity makes the crew stronger."
While Watkins' historic milestone has been celebrated on social media and across the broader media landscape, NASA did not make a public statement commemorating the historic achievement. However, the agency confirmed its pioneering nature in an email to Space.com.
"NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins launched on her second spaceflight on Oct. 1, 2026, as commander of the agency's SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station, becoming the first Black woman to command a crewed space mission," a NASA spokesperson wrote in the email.
"Watkins was selected as commander of Crew-13 based on her spaceflight experience, leadership, and ability to help the mission accomplish its objectives," the spokesperson added. "As a member of NASA's astronaut corps, she represents the best of America's talent, dedication, and spirit of exploration."
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins is buckled in ahead of launching aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. (Image credit: NASA)
The future of spaceflight
To date, the U.S. and the Soviet Union are the only nations to have launched Black astronauts into space. (The Soviets beat the U.S. to this milestone, launching Cuba's Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez in 1980. NASA's Guion Bluford became the first Black American in space three years later.) But, as Proctor shared, perhaps moments like this could serve to inspire other nations to follow suit.
"We can be a leader in saying, Look, if your country is diverse and has people from all different backgrounds, you should be encouraging them to apply and have a chance to be selected," Proctor said.
And, as a commercial astronaut herself, Proctor added that commercial space can continue to play a vital role in diversifying spaceflight.
"Jared did not even hesitate when he offered me the mission pilot seat for Inspiration4," Proctor said of her own selection as mission pilot by Jared Isaacman, the tech billionaire who funded and commanded the SpaceX mission. He now serves as NASA administrator.
"Commercial space has opened up so much opportunity and access. We are celebrating that because that's another way in which the space industry has diversified so much," Proctor added. "You can look at the history of space exploration and who's had access, and then you look at what commercial's done in the last five years, and it's incredible."
On the topic of the future of space exploration, Proctor expressed confidence that future crewed moon landings with NASA's Artemis program will be diverse.
"NASA is going to send diverse crews to the moon because they've done a good job of selecting diverse individuals with different heritages in their background," she said. NASA's current astronaut corps is roughly 45% women and 25% people of color. However, to-date only 6 Black women (including Watkins) have ever flown to space.
"Do I want to see more? Do I want women of color? Absolutely. They only have two Black women," Proctor said. But with the current diversity in NASA's astronaut corps as well as the continued development of commercial spaceflight, she is optimistic about a diverse future on the moon.
So far, NASA's Artemis program has been making some inroads when it comes to diversity. With Artemis II, we saw four people launch to the moon which included Victor Glover, the first person of color to ever travel beyond low-Earth orbit, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen who became the first woman and first non-American to make the same leap.
Additional pressures
In reaching her own historic milestone as the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft, Proctor understands that a historic moment like this carries not just incredible significance but a fair amount of personal pressure as well.
"If something goes wrong, because of who you are, maybe your gender or your ethnicity or race, you're looked at differently," she said. "When it goes right, you're not necessarily celebrated. But if it goes wrong, then that [adds to] that whole idea of 'not being qualified,'" that can come from prejudice.
"Because of who you are and the community you represent, you become the scapegoat," she added. "So, there's pressure to not have things go wrong and do everything you can to be better than the best."
But whether or not these pressures weigh on Watkins' mind, "we're all celebrating" back on Earth, Proctor said. "We're proud of her."
Over 1,400 students gathered in Hawaii to learn about astronomy as part of the annual Journey Through the Universe program. (Image credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Pollard)
Students gathered under the stars in Hawaii recently to explore the awesome nature of the night sky together.
What is it?
From Oct. 19 to Oct. 22, more than 1,400 students on the Big Island of Hawaii gathered for the Journey Through the Universe event to explore astronomy together.
The Journey Through the Universe program is currently in its 23rd year. It was originally developed by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) and later introduced in Hawaii by the international Gemini Observatory, a program within the U.S. National Science Foundation's NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory) that works with the Department of Education Hilo-Waiākea.
The program aims to introduce students in the Hilo-Waiākea public school system to astronomy as well as the incredible science that happens across Hawaii. The students who participate range from preschoolers to seniors in high school, so the program introduces some students to astronomy and helps others explore possible careers in STEM fields.
This year, the program brought in 19 volunteer educators from scientific institutions like Maunakea Observatories and supported hands-on activities and lessons that went from the classroom to under the Milky Way.
Why is it incredible?
This image shows a growing love for astronomy in progress. From the red glow of a skywatching night (red light doesn't interfere with our ability to see at night like white light does) to the scattered telescopes and students standing under the stars, this scene paints a larger picture.
This is just one program, but in bringing together volunteers, educators, scientists and students, the program has created an incredible and enduring learning experience.
Whether or not students walk away wanting to pursue a career in STEM, this incredible immersion in astronomy can help to foster a lifelong appreciation for science and nature. It's always a great idea to gather under the stars and explore together.
An Astrobee, a tiny robot cube, is zipping around the International Space Station helping out the astronauts on board. (Image credit: NASA/Jessica Watkins)
A tiny robot cube is zipping around the International Space Station, trying to help astronauts with the endless challenging tasks onboard.
What is it?
Reminiscent of Rocky rolling around the lab helping out Dr. Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary, the Astrobee robot is a helpful assistant for astronauts aboard the space station.
A metal cube about the size of a toaster, the Astrobees are free-flying robotic assistants that NASA developed to help out astronauts. The first two Astrobee robots (named Bumble and Honey) were sent to the station in 2019. The third Astrobee robot, named Queen, joined later that year, and 7 years later, the program is still going strong.
So what can a free-floating cube help with? The robots are designed to assist the astronauts onboard with testing new technologies in microgravity and helping mission team members back on Earth to better observe inside the station. The little robot cubes can even help astronauts with everyday chores in space.
In this image, snapped by NASA astronaut and Crew-13 commander Jessica Watkins, we can see one of the Astrobee robots helping out in the station's Kibo laboratory.
Why is it incredible?
The idea of a robot assistant helping out with chores and technology development aboard an orbiting space laboratory sounds positively science fiction.
While Astrobee is certainly not the first robot in space or aboard the space station, its compact shape and ability to fly autonomously gives it a unique quality. It really looks like a companion aboard the space station.
While the robotic space helpers of today might be cute little cubes, the success of the Astrobee program begs the question of how robots in space might continue to evolve. Will astronauts on the moon have robotic companions autonomously exploring and helping out? What will they look like?
In this image, we can see a colorful view of an ancient, rocky Martian hill. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona)
This rainbow-hued rocky plain looks like the landscape of an alien world. And, it turns out, it is.
What is it?
In this image, we can see an ancient, rocky hill on Mars. In the Red Planet's Southern Highlands, this alien terrain is chock-full of minerals, which we can see clearly defined in this color-enhanced view of the region.
This image was snapped by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been studying the planet's surface, atmosphere and climate since arriving in Martian orbit in March 2006.
But this isn't exactly what the surface of the planet would look like through our eyes; the image is color-enhanced. Why would scientists take a natural-color image and turn it rainbow? Doing so enhances the slight color differences in these rocks, allowing researchers to pick out the different minerals.
Why is it incredible?
As pointed to above, enhancing colors in scientific images can be an incredibly useful tool for exploration.
For instance, in this image, the blue- and green-toned rocks could be full of minerals like pyroxenes and olivine, according to scientists analyzing the image. And they think that the yellow, orange and red patches may contain minerals formed by past interactions with liquid water.
By exploring the mineral content of rocks like this, researchers can peel back the layers of history within the Martian bedrock. The discovery of certain minerals, for example, can show that water flowed on Mars long ago, pointing to potentially habitable conditions.
So, as we can see, this striking rainbow image isn't just a beautiful landscape; it's also hiding serious clues to Mars' history.
Three views of the Cat's Head Nebula. A visible light image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (left); a mid-infrared image taken by James Webb Space Telescope (center); and the James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared view (right). (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))
This "cat's head" would work perfectly in a witch's cauldron, glowing red "eyes" and all.
Just in time for Halloween, we have new, ghostly views of the Cat's Eye Nebula haunting the outer reaches of the cosmos.
What is it?
This nebula earned its name from its distinctive "cat's head" shape, which you can see on the left-hand side of these two images snapped by both the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. In these new images, you can even see the cat's glowing red "eye," which experts suggest could be a young star trapped in the nebula's dusty clutches.
A visible light image of the Cat's Head Nebula captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula's distinctive "cat's head" shape was formed over eons by intense ultraviolet radiation and winds of gases streaming from massive stars in the Carina Nebula. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))
Found about 7,500 light-years away from Earth, this star-forming region can be found within the larger Carina Nebula.
As the stars in the Carina Nebula continue to form, grow and evolve over time, the Nebula itself will change and eventually, this "cat's head" won't look much like a cat anymore. But for now, we can enjoy this vision of a domestic cat somehow depicted in this colossal tour of gas and dust.
Why is it incredible?
As a special Halloween treat, we have not one, but three new images of the cosmic cat's head.
In the snapshot captured by Hubble, we can see the nebula in visible light. This view shows the nebula as a brown pillar of dust embedded in a hazy, almost rainbow field of dust and gas. These colors are captured through Hubble's filters that can see the light coming from oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur and the light scattered by nebula dust.
JWST also took a look at this cat's head, observing the nebula in near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.
By looking at the same objects in space through different wavelengths and with different instruments and telescopes, we can uncover completely new and different details about these far-off celestial objects.
Iceberg A-81 escaping the Weddell Sea and drifting near the edge of South Georgia's underwater shelf. The image was captured on Oct. 20, 2026. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison)
An iceberg has quickly escaped from the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, on its way to an icy new destination.
What is it?
As captured by a satellite in orbit, the Antarctic iceberg A-81 has quite quickly (for an iceberg) parted ways from its icy home, breaking off to drift toward a shallow underwater shelf in Georgia.
The 600-square-mile (1,550-square-kilometer) iceberg first broke off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in January of 2023. Now, generally speaking, giant icebergs don't travel that fast. But In just three years, this massive iceberg has traveled 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) north of the Brunt Ice Shelf. For an iceberg, that's really fast.
Over this time period, the iceberg drifted through the Weddell Sea in Antarctica's Southern Ocean before reaching the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, floating further into the Scotia Sea and then finally now reaching the edge of a remote island in South Georgia.
In this satellite snapshot captured on Oct. 20, 2026, we can see the iceberg in its current location near an underwater shelf off the coast of South Georgia. While it isn't abnormal for icebergs like A-81 to break off from larger ice shelves, Brunt has recently had multiple large icebergs break off one quickly after the other, according to a statement from NASA.
Why is it incredible?
This image was captured by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), an instrument on board NASA's Terra satellite.
Earth-observing satellites like Terra keep a close eye on changes on our home planet. In addition to this image, observations from Terra have showed how the iceberg has traveled over the last few years.
With satellites like Terra, scientists can keep a close eye on these changes in Antarctic ice, which is becoming increasingly important as climate change continues to progress across the globe, affecting everything from Arctic ice to sea levels rising, worsening natural disasters and more.
Rover tracks can be seen on the Martian surface, left behind by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover left a mark on the Martian landscape when it passed a historic milestone driving across the Red Planet.
What is it?
On Oct. 11, Perseverance passed 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers) driven on Mars. This is farther than anything has ever traveled on the surface of another world, earning the rover the interplanetary driving record.
Previously, this record was set by NASA's Opportunity rover, and it took Opportunity roughly 14 years to drive this far. Perseverance traversed this distance in just over 5 years.
In this snapshot captured by Perseverance, the rover looked back at its progress, capturing its own tracks pressed into the planet's dusty surface. This moment of reflection captures years of achievement on the Red Planet.
Perseverance's driving record comes after many years of different rovers pushing autonomous driving on other worlds to new levels. As Vandi Verma, Chief Engineer for Robotic Operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shared in a recent mission update, the rover team continues to push the envelope, exploring new and better ways to drive the rovers remotely from another planet.
Why is it incredible?
While Perseverance has traveled nearly 30 miles across the surface of another planet, the rover has accomplished so much more than just this distance record on its enduring mission.
Since landing on Mars back in 2021, Perseverance has observed, sampled and studied a wide variety of rocks, boulder fields, Martian slopes and more. Recently, observations made using Perseverance provided the strongest evidence yet of possible biosignatures on the planet.
While we have not yet found conclusive evidence that life once existed on Mars, as the rover has made its way across the planet's surface, it has gotten us closer to that answer than we have ever been before.
The Griffin-1 lunar lander undergoes testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The robotic Griffin lunar lander has passed a host of critical tests ahead of its first-ever moon mission, which is scheduled to launch later this year.
What is it?
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, Voyager Technologies' Griffin Mission One (or Griffin-1) lunar lander has gone through an absolute gauntlet of tests. The spacecraft was put through environmental testing that explored how the vehicle will fare in the extreme conditions it will experience on its ride to the surface of the moon.
This testing simulated the extreme temperatures, shaking and even the sounds that the spacecraft will experience from launch to landing. And, as JPL announced recently, the lander passed this series of tests with flying colors, as we can see in this image snapped Aug. 31 of the lander inside the 25-foot-wide (7.6 meters) space simulator at JPL.
"NASA JPL’s Environmental Test Laboratory has been putting robotic explorers to the test since the Ranger program gave us NASA’s first up-close views of the moon's surface in the mid-1960s. We’re proud to provide our expertise and facilities to support this new phase of commercial lunar exploration," Charles Whetsel, manager for the Exploration Systems Development Office at JPL, said in a statement.
Why is it incredible?
Griffin-1 is expected to launch to the moon later this year as part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The spacecraft will carry over 1,100 pounds (455 kilograms) of cargo to its landing site near the lunar south pole.
In this cargo will be science experiments and new technologies that will be tested on the moon's surface, including Astrolab's FLIP rover, which will explore the lunar surface with a history-making supercomputer onboard.
This suite of experimental hardware won't just expand our understanding of the moon up close. Griffin-1's exploration will also help set the stage for a future, crewed moon base, which NASA aims to build near the south pole over the next half-decade or so.
Researchers think they might have pinpointed the exact night sky that we see depicted in Vincent van Gogh's iconic painting "The Starry Night."
Perhaps one of the most famous paintings in modern history, Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" carries a legacy that continues to inspire and mystify generation after generation. But while you might see in its swirls of color and bright spots of starlight a night sky derived purely from imagination, some scientists think it represents an actual view — one that includes a waning crescent moon, Venus and the Hyades cluster. And they may know exactly when this sky appeared..
In a new study, researchers suggest that "The Starry Night" depicts the pre-dawn sky seen around July 22, 1889 from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Van Gogh painted it. But while this sky happens to perfectly match the one depicted in the artwork, art historians have long thought that Van Gogh painted this piece in June. Could these findings shift the date of this legendary artwork?
Finding a painted sky
This investigation started decades ago with art historian Albert Boime and astronomer George Abell at UCLA in 1984 and continued in the following years with astronomer Charles Whitney at Harvard University. However, these earlier analyses did not agree with one another, and there was no true consensus about exactly when the sky matched with the painting.
So the question remained, lingering in the minds of those with a shared love for both art and space. And a team led by Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, the CEO of South Korean robotic telescope company SLLAB and a Ph.D. candidate at Kyung Hee University's School of Space Research, picked up the search once more.
"When they see a fragment of a starry sky, observational astronomers like me and amateur astronomers alike will want to solve the puzzle. I am simply someone who pursued that process a little more actively," Kim told Space.com.
A figure from Kim et al.'s paper in Scientific Reports. According to the figure: "The central cluster of stars in The Starry Night (1889), left, and the Hyades cluster in Taurus, center. At right, the five stars in the painting (orange) are overlaid on the real stars (blue) after matching for size, orientation and position; red dashed lines show the residual differences." (Image credit: Kim et al., Scientific Reports (2026))
But how did Kim's team come to their conclusion, after others had failed to nail down a date over the decades? In short, "we analyzed the painting astronomically, analyzed documents about his situation in July 1889, and then carried out ecological and meteorological investigations," Kim said.
To start with, the team analyzed the sky from the exact location in Saint-Rémy where Van Gogh is said to have painted "The Starry Night." They then used observational geometry to map the historical night sky.
"Modern telescopes are equipped with a function called astrometry, which compares an image of the night sky with celestial coordinates stored in a computer and automatically extracts the coordinates of the image," Kim said. "We used Procrustes analysis, a method that compares only the 'shape' of two sets of points. After matching their position, size and rotation, it measures how similar the two shapes are from the differences that remain (the residuals)."
"Because a star cluster on the canvas may be larger or smaller than in reality and slightly tilted, this method was the right fit. It allowed us to explain, in quantitative terms, what earlier studies had described only qualitatively as 'resembling a certain constellation,'" Kim added.
But this quantitative analysis wasn't enough to say for sure that this was the right-fitting sky, as different constellations could fit to a similar degree, Kim explained. To get closer to their answer, the team combined their analysis with a deep dive through history.
"We also checked whether the stars were actually in that part of the pre-dawn sky on that date, whether they fall within the painter’s field of view, and whether the appearance of the moon and Venus matches the painting. It was the Hyades that satisfied all of these conditions," Kim said.
Exploring astro-art history
As mentioned, the date of this matching sky comes in late July, a month after art historians think Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night." But the researchers suggest that their findings could provide evidence to support the idea that the work was actually painted in July.
Letters written by Van Gogh as early as 1888 describe his desire to paint a star-filled sky. A letter dated April 12, 1888 reads: "A starry sky, for example, well — it’s a thing that I’d like to try to do, just as in the daytime I’ll try to paint a green meadow studded with dandelions."
Kim followed these letters through the months to try and find more information that could potentially alleviate the discrepancy between the matching skies and the actual month the painting was created. Kim pointed to a letter from between late May and early June 1889 that reads: "This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big."
Kim drew on "personal imagination" to find ties between Van Gogh's sky observations in these months and what they might mean for the painting's timeline, Kim shared, so this doesn't definitively change the view of this painting's history. However, Kim suggested that these records could indicate that Van Gogh was repeatedly looking up and watching the pre-dawn sky, which could have led to him seeing this exact sky on July 22.
The painting itself even ignites uncertainty among art historians. As the researchers cite in their new paper, leading art historians see "The Starry Night" as stylistically different from Van Gogh's other works during the month of June, drawing further questions over the date painted.
"What our study shows is that the sky in the painting matches, in both observation and shape, the real pre-dawn sky around July 22. So, what we propose is the possibility that Vincent conceived the idea in June and completed the painting after July 22," Kim said.
However, "I think further research in art history and conservation science could shed more light on this question," Kim added.
This work was described in a study published Oct. 22 in the journal Scientific Reports.
