In 1990, after years of lobbying by Carl Sagan, Voyager 1 turned its camera back toward home from about 6 billion kilometres away and photographed Earth as a pale blue speck smaller than a single pixel — an image NASA had repeatedly resisted because it offered little scientific value, but that became one of the most famous photographs ever taken.

On 14 February 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft turned its cameras back toward the inner solar system and photographed the planets it had left behind.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · May 24, 2026

Latest

All articles →

Constellations

Voyager 1 is now so far from Earth that a signal traveling at the speed of light takes more than 22 hours to reach it — so when engineers send a command, they can wait nearly two days to know whether the spacecraft responded

Sending a command to Voyager 1 is closer to mailing a letter than placing a phone call.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · May 24, 2026

Psychology

Almost half of women in their 60s and 70s in Japan now prefer getting personal advice from AI rather than another human — the only age group in the survey to make that choice — and the country's elderly isolation crisis is the unstated context

The Japan Institute for Promotion of Digital Economy and Community published, in late May 2026, the results of a survey conducted online in mid-January.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · May 24, 2026

Space Travel

China is sending an astronaut to its space station for a full year — a national record — as Beijing races toward a 2030 crewed moon landing, two years behind NASA's target

At 11:08 p.m. local time on Sunday, May 24, 2026, the Long March-2F Y23 carrier rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Jiuquan Satellite…

By Space Daily Editorial Team · May 24, 2026

Military Technology

The price tag on Trump's "Golden Dome" missile shield just jumped to $1.2 trillion in a new congressional analysis — seven times the administration's number — with a quiet caveat that the system may not actually do what it was pitched to do

The Congressional Budget Office released, on May 12, 2026, a new analysis of the projected cost of the Trump administration's signature missile defense project, the so-called Golden Dome for America.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · May 24, 2026

Aerospace

The first all-female spacewalk in history did not happen until October 2019, fifty-eight years after Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth — and an earlier all-female attempt seven months before was reassigned because only one medium spacesuit torso was ready on the station

A “medium-size hard upper torso” is a rigid fiberglass shell that forms the chest and shoulders of the spacesuit worn outside the International Space Station.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · May 24, 2026

What’s up in

Mind & Meaning

The psychology of ambition, isolation, and meaning under extremes — and what frontier life teaches us about being human.

Constellations

In 1990, after years of lobbying by Carl Sagan, Voyager 1 turned its camera back toward home from about 6 billion kilometres away and photographed Earth as a pale blue speck smaller than a single pixel — an image NASA had repeatedly resisted because it offered little scientific value, but that became one of the most famous photographs ever taken.

By Space Daily Editorial Team

Constellations

Before he climbed the ladder for the last time, the final astronaut to walk on the Moon knelt and traced his daughter's initials into the lunar dust with one finger — three letters that, with no wind or rain to disturb them, may sit there undisturbed for fifty thousand years.

By Space Daily Editorial Team

Constellations

A NASA satellite launched in 1976 carries a Carl Sagan–designed plaque sealed inside its core, mapping Earth's continents 268 million years ago, at launch, and 8.4 million years from now — and that last date is no accident, because it's roughly when the satellite is expected to fall back to Earth and finally be opened.

By Space Daily Editorial Team

Science

The asteroid that ended the dinosaurs struck what is now Mexico with such force that it blasted molten ejecta high above the atmosphere before it rained back down across the planet, and many of the survivors were small, sheltered creatures — including early mammals on the line that would eventually lead to us.

By Space Daily Editorial Team

What’s up in

Science

Physics, climate, planetary science, and the research that shapes how we understand the universe.

Science

The asteroid that ended the dinosaurs struck what is now Mexico with such force that it blasted molten ejecta high above the atmosphere before it rained back down across the planet, and many of the survivors were small, sheltered creatures — including early mammals on the line that would eventually lead to us.

By Space Daily Editorial Team

Science

A tiny jellyfish can reverse its own life cycle when injured or starving, turning back into its younger self instead of dying of old age like everything else

By Space Daily Editorial Team

Science

In 1908, something exploded in the sky over Siberia with hundreds of times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb, flattening more than 2,000 square kilometres of forest. When scientists finally reached the site years later, they found no crater at all

By Space Daily Editorial Team

Science

The human genome contains traces of ancient viruses that infected our ancestors millions of years ago — and some of those viral leftovers were later repurposed into genes that help make human pregnancy possible

By Space Daily Editorial Team

About Space Daily

Space, science, and the human side of the frontier. Since 1995.

Space Daily is an independent publication covering three connected beats: the space industry, the science behind it, and the psychology of ambition, isolation, and meaning under extremes. Founded in Tokyo in 1995, we’ve built a thirty-year archive of rigorous reporting on the people, missions, and ideas pushing humanity outward — and on the human dynamics shaped by frontier life. The same ambitions, pressures, and patterns of mind that drive humanity to the stars also shape how we live on Earth. We employ modern AI technologies to support our editorial workflows; every published piece is editorially directed and reviewed.

More about us →

Voyager 1 is now so far from Earth that a signal traveling at the speed of light takes more than 22 hours to reach it — so when engineers send a command, they can wait nearly two days to know whether the spacecraft responded

Almost half of women in their 60s and 70s in Japan now prefer getting personal advice from AI rather than another human — the only age group in the survey to make that choice — and the country's elderly isolation crisis is the unstated context

China is sending an astronaut to its space station for a full year — a national record — as Beijing races toward a 2030 crewed moon landing, two years behind NASA's target

The price tag on Trump's "Golden Dome" missile shield just jumped to $1.2 trillion in a new congressional analysis — seven times the administration's number — with a quiet caveat that the system may not actually do what it was pitched to do

The first all-female spacewalk in history did not happen until October 2019, fifty-eight years after Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth — and an earlier all-female attempt seven months before was reassigned because only one medium spacesuit torso was ready on the station

Before he climbed the ladder for the last time, the final astronaut to walk on the Moon knelt and traced his daughter's initials into the lunar dust with one finger — three letters that, with no wind or rain to disturb them, may sit there undisturbed for fifty thousand years.

A tiny jellyfish can reverse its own life cycle when injured or starving, turning back into its younger self instead of dying of old age like everything else

In 1908, something exploded in the sky over Siberia with hundreds of times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb, flattening more than 2,000 square kilometres of forest. When scientists finally reached the site years later, they found no crater at all

The human genome contains traces of ancient viruses that infected our ancestors millions of years ago — and some of those viral leftovers were later repurposed into genes that help make human pregnancy possible

About Space Daily

The Space Daily Newsletter