Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 05, 2025
China's Chang'e 7 mission is on track for a 2026 launch, with its sights set on the moon's southern polar region. The goal, China Media Group reported Monday, is to identify water ice deposits and trial breakthrough technologies crucial for extended human operations on the lunar surface. According to the report, the probe features a new hopper module equipped with a water molecule analyzer

Bethesda, MD (SPX) Feb 04, 2025
Cislunar space, the region between Earth and the Moon, has emerged as a focal point for both commercial and military interests. Its strategic importance is underscored by the growing investments in space exploration, resource utilization, and defense capabilities. There are several potential commercial uses of cislunar space. One of the most promising of these is resource mining. The Moon is tho

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 05, 2025
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has secured an agreement with the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), a Japanese Earth observation company specializing in high-resolution imagery, to deliver four separate missions aboard the Electron launch vehicle. Under the terms finalized in July 2024, the first three dedicated flights are set for 2025 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealan

Houston TX (SPX) Feb 05, 2025
The old saying - "Practice makes perfect!" - applies to the Moon too. On Tuesday, NASA gave 17 technologies, instruments, and experiments the chance to practice being on the Moon... without actually going there. Instead, it was a flight test aboard a vehicle adapted to simulate lunar gravity for approximately two minutes. The test began on February 4, 2025, with the 10:00 a.m. CST launch o

Tucson AZ (SPX) Feb 04, 2025
Nature had the conditions to "cook up" the chemical precursor ingredients for life before Earth formed, according to two studies published by the sample analysis team of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which is led by Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned a sample from asteroid Bennu in 2023, and following a year of in-depth analyses in labs across the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 05, 2025
The Expedition 72 crew dedicated Tuesday to advancing free-flying robotics research while performing crucial scientific tasks aboard the International Space Station. Their schedule also included evaluating the outpost's air and water quality, plus prepping a student-controlled camera for Earth observation. NASA specialists are harnessing microgravity to refine robotic techniques that can c

Video: 00:00:40

Back in 2023, we reported on Solar Orbiter’s discovery of tiny jets near the Sun’s south pole that could be powering the solar wind. The team behind this research has now used even more data from the European Space Agency’s prolific solar mission to confirm that these jets exist all over dark patches in the Sun’s atmosphere, and that they really are a source of not only fast but also slow solar wind.

The newfound jets can be seen in this sped-up video as hair-like wisps that flash very briefly, for example within the circled regions of the

In a landmark achievement, ESA successfully migrated Galileo’s Control Centres in a highly complex operation involving over 200 people from the Agency, industry and EUSPA. This milestone marked the beginning of a global operation to upgrade Galileo’s entire Ground Segment, a vast network of stations spread around the world.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 04, 2025
NASA has revealed a new call for American proposals that outline a public/private partnership to land and operate the agency's VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission on the Moon. This initiative aligns with NASA's Artemis campaign and showcases U.S. industry prowess in detecting water ice on the lunar surface while collecting key scientific data. The Announcement f