NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 returned to Earth on Oct. 8, 2026, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off California aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft after nearly eight months on the International Space Station.
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope has spotted thousands of brown dwarfs while mapping the sky, and a new study of 37 of them finds chemically rich atmospheres containing water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane.
The UK Ministry of Defence announced on 8 October 2026 that the Kyiv Business Centre, offering UK firms a permanent base in Ukraine's capital, had opened, with an inaugural industry meeting held.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have pinpointed the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst yet seen, a small dwarf galaxy whose youthful stars hint that magnetars, not neutron-star mergers, may produce these flashes.
During an 8 October 2026 visit to Ukraine, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced £54m in winter energy and humanitarian funding and sanctions covering over 90% of Russia's total oil producing capacity, the FCDO said.
At two Home Office summits on 8 October 2026, Policing and Crime Minister Sarah Jones urged online marketplaces and high-street retailers to tighten how knives are marketed, displayed and sold.
On 8 October 2026, PATRIZIA said it would add £1bn to its UK Essential Living Platform to deliver up to 4,000 affordable, professionally managed homes across the UK's regions and nations.
NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy signed a memorandum of understanding on space nuclear power and propulsion, effective Nov. 1, covering research, fuel production, testing and launch operations.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 returned to Earth on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, splashing down off Los Angeles after 237 days aboard the International Space Station.
NASA has moved forward on an all-glass telescope for the LISA gravitational-wave mission, with L3Harris Technologies set to design, assemble and integrate an Engineering Test Unit as a final step before flight hardware production.
The Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts completed its deorbit burn as expected, NASA said. Parachute deployment and splashdown were set to follow.
At the 63rd Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UK said on 8 October 2026 that it would abstain on draft resolution L22 on the rights of peasants, citing concerns over the declaration underpinning it.
