On this day in space! Oct. 31, 2015: Creepy skull-shaped Halloween asteroid flies by Earth, NASA names it the 'Great Pumpkin'

space.com Oct 31, 2026

On this day in space! Oct. 31, 2015: Creepy skull-shaped Halloween asteroid flies by Earth, NASA names it the ‘Great Pumpkin’

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Oct 31, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

On 31 October 2015 a near‑Earth asteroid designated 2015 TB145 passed within 300,000 miles of Earth, about 1.3 lunar distances, and was nicknamed the “Great Pumpkin.” The object, discovered by the Pan‑STARRS survey in Hawaii only three weeks before its flyby, was imaged by the Arecibo radar facility the day before Halloween, revealing a skull‑like shape that captured public imagination. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted the encounter was the closest approach of an object of this size since the 1999 AN10 event, and the asteroid returned in 2018 at a far greater distance of 24 million miles. The event highlighted the capabilities of radar astronomy and the ongoing work of NASA’s Near‑Earth Object Observations program to track potentially hazardous asteroids for future planetary defense efforts.

💡 Why It Matters

· The asteroid’s skull‑like reveal just weeks after discovery underscores how quickly sizable near‑Earth objects can slip past detection, demanding faster observation and mitigation pipelines.

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Apple Maps begins blurring NASA, Space Force, and Air Force bases

Apple Maps has begun obscuring imagery of several U.S. military and NASA facilities, removing visual detail from locations such as Wallops Flight Facility, Stennis Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Vandenberg Space Force Base, Whiteman Air Force Base and Ellsworth Air Force Base. The change appears to be a security‑driven decision, though Apple offered no public explanation and Google Maps continues to display the sites. Not all installations are affected; major Navy bases like Pearl Harbor and Norfolk remain visible, as do some Air National Guard sites. The blurred areas include launch pads, aircraft tarmacs and other sensitive infrastructure, while nearby civilian sites such as Kennedy Space Center stay unaltered. Analysts suspect Apple may expand the policy to additional government sites soon.

💡 Apple’s concealment of critical defense and space assets forces mapping platforms to weigh national security against public transparency, potentially reshaping industry standards.

space.com · Oct 31

Happy Halloween! SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from California

SpaceX launched 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Oct. 31 at 12:04 a.m. EDT aboard a Falcon 9. The booster, designated B1093, completed its 18th flight and successfully returned to the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” after an 8.5‑minute boost‑back, marking its latest recovery. The upper stage deployed the payload into low‑Earth orbit 62 minutes after liftoff, adding to the Starlink megaconstellation, which now exceeds 11,000 satellites. This mission was SpaceX’s 118th Falcon 9 launch of 2026, with more than 70 % of the year’s flights dedicated to expanding Starlink. The company also logged three Falcon Heavy and three Starship test flights this year and is preparing another Starship launch in November.

💡 The rapid reuse of booster B1093 underscores SpaceX’s ability to lower launch costs while scaling the world’s largest satellite network.

space.com · Oct 31

Betelgeuse is haunted by a cosmic poltergeist tormenting the doomed star’s atmosphere

Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and ALMA have confirmed that Betelgeuse’s faint companion, named Siwarha, repeatedly plunges through the red supergiant’s extended atmosphere. Data collected between 2021 and 2026 show the star’s outer envelope deforming into an egg shape when Siwarha is distant and becoming more spherical as the companion passes in front of or behind the star. The observations also indicate that Betelgeuse has largely recovered from the “Great Dimming” of 2020, a dramatic dimming event caused by a massive ejection of gas and dust. The study, published in The Astronomical Journal, marks the first direct evidence that a low‑mass companion can physically reshape a supergiant’s atmosphere and may influence its mass‑loss behavior as it approaches the end of its life.

💡 The finding provides a rare glimpse of how binary interactions can sculpt the late‑stage evolution of massive stars, offering a concrete mechanism for the irregular mass‑loss that precedes supernova explosions.

space.com · Oct 31

On this day in space! Oct. 30, 1964: NASA’s weird Lunar Landing…

On October 30, 1964, NASA’s Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), nicknamed the “Flying Bedstead,” completed its inaugural test flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The four‑legged aircraft, piloted by X‑15 ace Joe Walker, hovered at roughly 10 feet for about a minute and was flown again that day. The LLRV’s trials, totaling over 30 flights, were designed to simulate lunar landings and liftoffs, providing critical data for the upcoming Apollo 11 mission. The facility later became the Armstrong Flight Research Center, honoring Neil Armstrong, who also piloted the vehicle.

💡 The LLRV’s experiments validated the landing approach that would enable the first crewed moon landing, proving that Earth‑based simulations could reliably predict lunar operations. Its success laid the groundwork for modern lunar lander testing, ensuring safer missions today.

space.com · Oct 31

The rocket scientist who summoned demons: The true horror story of Jack…

In the winter of 1946, rocket pioneer Jack Parsons and aspiring sci‑fi writer L. Ron Hubbard met in California’s Mojave Desert to conduct the “Babalon Working,” a series of Thelemic rituals intended to summon the feminine deity Babalon and manifest an otherworldly entity. Parsons, a self‑taught chemist who helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and laid groundwork for the later Space Race, had been leading the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis since 1943. Hubbard, then unknown as the future founder of Scientology, lived in Parsons’s Pasadena home and was recruited for the occult experiments despite lacking formal magical training. The bizarre collaboration blended cutting‑edge rocketry with ceremonial magic, drawing scholarly interest for its rare intersection of early American space research and esoteric practice.

💡 The episode reveals how the personal mysticism of a key rocketry figure briefly intertwined with the nascent ideas of a future religious movement, offering a unique lens on the cultural currents that shaped mid‑century scientific ambition.

space.com · Oct 31

India launches next-gen navigation satellite to orbit (video)

India’s Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) received its third next‑generation satellite, NVS‑03, when a GSLV‑Mark II lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Oct. 30 at 14:21 EDT. The launch placed the payload into a geostationary transfer orbit on schedule, marking the 14th flight of the 52‑metre vehicle, which has a 12‑mission success record. NVS‑03 joins three operational NavIC satellites; a fourth is required to deliver full Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) coverage across India and a 1,500 km surrounding region. The satellite’s commissioning will complete the constellation’s core architecture, enhancing regional navigation accuracy and resilience. The mission also follows Skyroot Aerospace’s historic private orbital launch earlier in 2026, underscoring India’s expanding launch capabilities. It also demonstrates ISRO’s ability to sustain launch cadence.

💡 Completing NavIC gives India an independent regional positioning network, reducing reliance on external GPS services.