Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2025
Aerospacelab has secured a key contract to provide the satellite platform for a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) demonstration mission, in collaboration with Japanese partner Mitsui Bussan Aerospace (MBA). The platform will host JAXA's SAMRAI payload, marking Aerospacelab's first direct engagement with both MBA and JAXA. This agreement reflects Aerospacelab's growing influence in

New York (AFP) May 1, 2025
Microsoft announced Thursday that it will increase Xbox console prices worldwide, citing "market conditions" just days after Sony made a similar move with its PlayStation 5. The tech giant also plans to raise prices for some new games developed by its video game subsidiaries. "We understand that these changes are challenging, and they were made with careful consideration given market con

Washington DC (UPI) May 1, 2025
Two NASA astronauts have completed a nearly six-hour spacewalk to perform maintenance and upgrades on the International Space Station, the agency announced Thursday. Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers relocated a space station communications antenna and improved the ability to generate power on the ISS. "Additionally, the astronaut pair completed a pair of get-ahead tasks, including

Washington DC (UPI) May 1, 2025
SpaceX launched 28 V2 Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday night, adding to its fleet of nearly 7,300 orbitals already in space. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the payload was launched just after 6:51 p.m. EDT. It was the 18th mission for the first-stage fuel booster, which landed on the drone ship Just Read the Ins

Paris, France (SPX) May 02, 2025
Gaia, the European Space Agency's star-mapping mission, has revealed a peculiar family of stars unlike any seen before. Discovered using Gaia's third data release, the group, named Ophion, contains more than 1,000 young stars that are unexpectedly on the verge of rapid and chaotic dispersal across the Milky Way. Typically, stellar families form in clusters, with stars born in close proximi

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 02, 2025
The latest batch of experimental samples from China's Tiangong space station has safely returned to Earth, totaling approximately 37.25 kilograms and spanning 25 scientific investigations. Delivered by the Shenzhou-19 return capsule, this marks the eighth consignment of space station research materials. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported that the experiments covered space life

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 02, 2025
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope has officially launched into its primary science mission, capturing around 3,600 infrared images daily to produce an unprecedented full-sky map. Following its March 11 launch, SPHEREx completed a six-week phase of checkouts and calibrations. On May 1, it began operations aimed at capturing high-resolution data on hundreds of millions of galaxies. The two-year

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 02, 2025
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has finalized assembly and testing of NASA's Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission, officially transferring the vehicle to NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team. This handover marks a major milestone in NASA's campaign to return humans to the Moon and lay the groundwork for eventual crewed missions to Mars. Designed for deep space exploration, Orion

Image: The Ocean and Land Colour Instrument on Copernicus Sentinel-3 captured this image of Earth’s biggest iceberg, A23a, on 5 April 2025.

Week in images: 28 April - 02 May 2025

Discover our week through the lens