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Earth Observation

A single lightning flash recorded over the southern US in April 2020 stretched 768 kilometres across three states in a matter of seconds, a horizontal bolt long enough to reach from Boston to Washington DC, and satellite instruments only exist to measure it because ground observers cannot see that far

Nature's longest lightning bolt was invisible to the people beneath it, revealing how much of Earth's electrical drama unfolds beyond human perception.

By Space Mart Editorial Team · Aug 4, 2026

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Tech Space

How did a London physician stop a cholera outbreak that killed more than 500 people in ten days by mapping deaths on a Soho street grid and removing the handle from a single water pump in 1854?

In September 1854, London physician John Snow ended a cholera outbreak that killed 616 people in ten days by mapping every death on a Soho street grid, tracing the cluster to a single contaminated water pump on Broad Street, and having its handle removed — founding modern epidemiology in the process.

By Space Mart Editorial Team · Aug 10, 2026
Tech Space

In 1869, a Swiss physician named Friedrich Miescher isolated a strange phosphorus-rich substance from the pus-soaked bandages of wounded soldiers at a Tübingen clinic, called it 'nuclein', and unknowingly became the first person to hold purified DNA in his hands, 84 years before Watson and Crick built their model

In 1868, a young Swiss physician named Friedrich Miescher scraped pus from surgical bandages inside a converted castle kitchen in Tübingen and isolated a strange phosphorus-rich substance he called 'nuclein' — the first purified DNA, 84 years before Watson and Crick.

By Space Mart Editorial Team · Aug 9, 2026
Tech Space

Astronauts returning from six-month ISS missions come home measurably taller, gaining up to 5 centimetres as spinal discs decompress in microgravity, and the extra height disappears within days once gravity crushes the vertebrae back into place

Astronauts returning from six-month ISS missions can be up to 5 centimetres taller than when they launched, the result of spinal discs swelling in microgravity. The bonus height disappears within days of splashdown, often accompanied by back pain and a sharply raised risk of herniated discs.

By Space Mart Editorial Team · Aug 9, 2026
Terradaily

How did a Chinese plateau the size of France cut the yellow silt flowing into its downstream river from 1.6 billion tonnes a year to 300 million?

The Loess Plateau in north-central China, larger than metropolitan France, once sent 1.6 billion tonnes of silt into the Yellow River each year. A 1999 policy called Grain to Green — combined with tens of thousands of check dams and a nationwide grazing ban — cut that flow by close to 90 percent within two decades.

By Space Mart Editorial Team · Aug 7, 2026
Tech Space

In 1962, NASA’s Mariner 1 Venus probe was destroyed just 294 seconds after launch when an Atlas guidance antenna fault exposed a missing overbar in the rocket’s ground-guidance program

On July 22, 1962, NASA's first interplanetary probe was destroyed 293 seconds after launch when a missing overbar in hand-transcribed guidance code caused the ground computer to fly the rocket off course. Arthur C. Clarke called it the most expensive hyphen in history.

By Space Mart Editorial Team · Aug 6, 2026

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The business and technology of space.

SpaceMart is an independent publication covering commercial space, space technology, satellite internet, aerospace engineering, and the companies building the global space economy. The site pairs a deep archive with current reporting on the research, companies, policy shifts, and technical breakthroughs shaping commercial space infrastructure and services. We employ modern AI technologies to support our editorial workflows; every published piece is editorially directed and reviewed.

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