October 2025

Vast Space’s Haven-1, a single-module orbital lab, will launch in 2026 via SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Designed for four astronauts on short missions, it features life-support systems tested with NASA and a domed observation window, marking a milestone in private space habitats.

The WMO reports Earth’s atmospheric CO₂ reached 422.8 ppm in 2024 — the biggest annual rise ever recorded. Driven by fossil-fuel emissions, wildfires, and weakening carbon sinks, the surge intensifies global warming. Scientists warn that delayed emission cuts could entrench irreversible changes in weather, ecosystems, and sea levels.

Two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, carried out a six-hour spacewalk outside the ISS on Oct. 16, 2025. They installed the Ekran-M semiconductor experiment for growing ultra-thin materials in microgravity and safely jettisoned an outdated high-definition camera that will burn up upon re-entry.

Scientists discovered that a tiny nematode leaps toward flying insects using static electricity. The findings reveal how electrostatic forces drive predator-prey interactions and could reshape how we understand small-scale ecosystems.

ESA satellites have recorded the world’s largest ocean swells — nearly 20 meters high — generated by Storm Eddie in the North Pacific. These giant waves carried storm energy over 24,000 kilometers, reaching distant coasts and proving that ocean swells can transport immense power across the globe even when storms stay offshore.

Dark matter, though invisible, might subtly alter the colour of light passing through it, according to a new University of York study. Researchers propose that weak particle interactions could create faint red or blue tints, offering a new path for future telescopes to detect dark matter indirectly.