Japan launched an uncrewed spacecraft toward the Martian moon Phobos on a mission intended to become the first to collect samples ‌from the small rocky body and return them to Earth for analysis reut.rs/3VSFdUN

California's strong El Niño is boosting fishing, pushing rarely sighted and exotic species like longfin bigeye fish, whale sharks and hammerheads closer to shore, as sea turtles nested on its beaches for the first time reut.rs/4ipvNbX

Nobel winner Francis Halzen said the prize 'was not a motivation,' speaking of his IceCube observatory, which uses Antarctic ice to track 'ghost particles' called neutrinos reut.rs/4yBLcfd

A four-person crew aboard SpaceX's Crew-13 mission, consisting of two US astronauts, a Canadian astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, arrived at the International Space Station in just eight hours, setting a US speed record reut.rs/4z7WE1V

SpaceX's next-generation Starship rocket reached orbit for the first time despite having one of its engines down reut.rs/4ADSgcA

Pakistani pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud are training in China, hoping one will become the country's first astronaut aboard China's Tiangong space station. Ariba Shahid explains reut.rs/4rxRkCi

US military officials made their strongest admission yet that the United States has weapons in orbit, prompting sharp responses from Russia and China amid an escalating space race. Joey Roulette explains reut.rs/4y2nyrW

As the aging International Space Station approaches retirement, biotech firms and drugmakers are signing deals with commercial space stations to continue drug research in zero gravity. Nancy Lapid reports reut.rs/4cNFWMB

A Vega-C rocket lifted off from Europe's space base near Kourou, French Guiana, carrying ESA's FLEX and Sentinel-3C satellites, which will track ecosystem health and monitor Earth's oceans, land and atmosphere

Agricultural engineer Lorenzo Suarez crossbreeds Cuban orchids with imported species, aiming to make hybrids hardy and attractive enough that people stop harvesting rare wild orchids reut.rs/4xJrJbZ

German startup Isar Aerospace launched a space rocket from a site in Arctic Norway, bringing Europe closer to offering satellite flights from its own soil. READ: reut.rs/4zXph39