Wednesday, July 15, 2026

The needs of the many - Strange New Words - July 2026

The needs of the many | And the winner is... | "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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July 15, 2026
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The needs of the many

Hello there! Welcome back to Strange New Words, Space's monthly sci-fi short story book club. I know I promised a regular schedule last month and this one's a week late, but it was my birthday last week, so I took some time off to stare into the existential void. Oh, and eat cake.


Anyway, enough about me. We've totalled up the votes, and the July story is… "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin.


Le Guin was an American author who specialised in speculative and science fiction, most notably the Hainish Cycle series. Whilst most famous as a novelist, she penned over a hundred short stories in her lifetime, including "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", which won the Hugo Award in 1974.


The story describes a beautiful day in the city of Omelas and… well, I can't really go into any more detail than that without giving the game away. Suffice it to say, we'll talk about it at the end of the month when we record our discussion video.


We'd love to hear your thoughts and questions, too — drop us an email at community@space.com or leave a comment on this month's Strange New Words article. We'll aim to answer them in our video discussion at the end of the month.


We'll see you out there.


Ian Stokes,

Entertainment Editor,

Space

 
 
 
 
This Month's Short Story
 
And the winner is...
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin - 42%
 
"I have no mouth and I must scream" by Harlan Ellison - 41%
 
"Poetry Cloud" by Cixin Liu - 17%
 
 
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin
(Ursula K. Le Guin)

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" offers a vivid description of the first day of Summer in a seemingly perfect city called Omelas. The sun is shining, and the people are happy and carefree as a festival to celebrate the solstice rolls across the city. It seems like a perfect world, but there's a dark secret behind this utopia.


The story explores the idea of utilitarianism, a concept that should be very familiar to the Star Trek fans amongst you. Spock's infamous line, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," is about as apt a summation of the philosophy as you'll find.


You can find a PDF copy of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" here.

 
 
 
 
Discussion Questions
 
Discussion questions to ponder on your walk...

Below are a few questions to think about once you've read the story.  Feel free to share these with friends, discuss them amongst yourselves, and post your thoughts on socials. We'll be talking through these, along with other discussion questions from the panel and our readers, during the wrap-up discussion at the end of the month (July 29th).

  1. Would you walk away from Omelas? Would you stay? Or is there a third option?
  2. Does modern society need the suffering of others to survive in its current form?
  3. Is it possible to have a good society at the expense of someone else? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?
  4. What did you think of the author's distinct separation of technology and happiness (especially in the current global AI race)?
 
 
 
 
Vote For Next Month's Story
 
Vote for the August short story
Vote "I have no mouth, and I must scream" by Harlan Ellison
Vote "Poetry Cloud" by Cixin Liu
Vote "The Ones Who Stay and Fight" by N.K. Jemisin (A response to Omelas)
 
 
 
 
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Starship undergoing preparations to launch tomorrow

Starship undergoing preparations to launch tomorrow | What time is SpaceX's launch? (Full mission timeline) | The biggest skywatching day of 2026 is coming
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July 15, 2026
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The Launchpad
 
Starship undergoing preparations to launch tomorrow
Space.com
Happy Wednesday, space fans!

We are halfway through another week, and we hope you're hanging in there. Today, you'll want to make sure you set all of your calendar reminders for tomorrow's SpaceX Starship launch. The company's V3 Starship, the biggest and baddest version yet, will lift off for the second time. But not only will this be a big, powerful launch that will be fun to watch, there's a lot riding on its success. The first launch of the Starship V3 didn't go perfectly, and NASA has tentative plans to work with SpaceX to send its Artemis astronauts to the moon on a Starship. With people inside, it will have to go perfectly. So we will be watching closely and keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow's uncrewed test launch. 

In other SpaceX news, new information has shed light on just how much of an issue SpaceX's massive (and perpetually growing) fleet of Starlink satellites might be in terms of collision risk. Aside from SpaceX, we have the first X-rays captured in space, which could come in handy as astronauts spend more time in space (and possibly on the moon), astronomers have spotted the faintest exoplanet they can see from Earth, and Star Wars: Ahsoka's second season is coming up and it looks pretty interesting. 

Check out what's big in space below:
 
T-Minus!
 
 
 
 
 
Spaceflight
 
What time is SpaceX's launch? (Full mission timeline)
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SpaceX will launch its next Starship, carrying the first V3 Starlink satellites, on the Flight 13 test mission on Thursday, July 16. Here's what time it flies.
 
Mark your calendars
 
 
 
 
Skywatching
 
The biggest skywatching day of 2026 is coming
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Whether you're in Spain, Iceland, the U.K. or North America, here's exactly what you'll see in the sky on Aug. 12 — and when to look.
 
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Technology
 
1st-ever X-rays in space offer hope for the future
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A portable X-ray device has been used successfully in orbit for the first time, promising X-ray diagnosis of everything from broken bones to ripped spacesuits and damaged satellites.
 
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Science & Astronomy
 
Astronomers spot faintest exoplanet seen from Earth
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It has taken over ten years, but astronomers have finally won a prolonged game of cosmic hide-and-seek with a planet hiding around the star Beta Pictoris.
 
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Every SpaceX Starlink satellite has to dodge collisions 
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It's happening! After a long wait, Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 is on the way.
 
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Editor's Note
 
Editor's Note
That's it for our space update today!

The next day will be all things Starship as we count down to tomorrow's Starship V3 launch, the second for this version. We are hoping that SpaceX has figured out what didn't go quite right with the first V3 launch and that this will go off without a hitch, but we will just have to wait and see. We'll be updating you regularly as we lead up to the launch, so stay tuned (especially if there is a delay, though we really hope it launches when we expect this time around). Will you be watching? Let us know! The only thing more fun than watching a rocket launch is a rocket launch watch party, so hopefully we will all be watching together. 

Coming up, next Monday we will be marking the 50th anniversary of successful landings on Mars, as 50 years ago on July 20, NASA landed Viking 1 on the Martian surface. And while a successful landing was exciting, Viking 1 did much more than just survive the trip and its success has helped to lead us to where we are today on the Red Planet.

We are also counting down to a total solar eclipse, the Perseids meteor shower, and possibly one of the most anticipated launches of the year this August: NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! And to stay as in the loop as possible, you can now get Space.com right in the palm of your hand with our new app available now on iOS and Android.

Ad astra, per aspera
Chelsea Gohd
Content Manager, Space.com
 
 
 
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