Technology News: 19 December 2025 - 22 December 2025

January 10, 2026, 7:36 PM EST. SpaceX will launch its first Twilight rideshare mission from Vandenberg, aiming a dawn-dusk Sun-synchronous orbit. The Falcon 9 booster B1097 will attempt a Landing Zone 4 touchdown roughly 7.5 minutes after liftoff, the fifth flight for the booster. The mission carries three NASA spacecraft, including Pandora, a telescope to study exoplanet atmospheres; BlackCat and SPARCS. Pandora uses a 17-inch telescope to observe starlight filtering through atmospheres in visible and infrared light, making 10 observations of each target over 24 hours. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center leads the project under the Pioneers program with a roughly $20 million budget cap. Liftoff is set for 5:20 a.m. PT from SLC-4E, with up to about 40 deployment events over 2.5 hours. Spaceflight Now will cover the launch starting ~30 minutes before liftoff.