The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission will create artificial solar eclipses in orbit, allowing scientists to study the Sun’s corona for longer periods of time than would be possible during eclipses observed from Earth. To test the functionality of Proba-3’s systems, researchers from the Royal Observatory of Belgium took a snapshot of a star field – in the very first image captured by the mission’s coronagraph.

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
How prepared is humanity to deflect an incoming asteroid? This question is addressed in two recent studies published in *Nature Communications*, stemming from a collaboration between Politecnico di Milano, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and other global research institutions. The studies analyze the outcomes of NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which successfully impa

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
China is gearing up for its first asteroid sample-return mission, Tianwen 2, which is set to launch in the coming months from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The space agency announced on Thursday that the robotic probe has already arrived at the launch facility. It stated that "facilities at the launch c

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
PLD Space, a global provider of space services specializing in vertically integrated engineering and manufacturing, has announced its selection of the Etlaq spaceport in Oman as its second operational launch site for the MIURA rocket family. This addition strengthens the company's existing capabilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana, which is managed by CNES and ES

Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
Soon, a new cone-shaped spacecraft will launch into space on a mission to chart the skies like never before. Called SPHEREx (for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), the NASA mission will provide a unique all-sky 3D map of hundreds of millions of galaxies in our universe. Among several big questions the mission is poised to answer is how o

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
A team of Chinese scientists has linked the unexpected movement of a boulder on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to a process known as the "rocket effect." This phenomenon, triggered by the uneven sublimation of volatile ice within the boulder, was observed by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft during its mission between 2014 and 2016. The study, recently published in *The

London, UK (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
Heriot-Watt University has joined forces with a multi-agency consortium to pioneer a next-generation satellite user terminal aimed at expanding global connectivity. The initiative, backed by a Pounds 6 million grant from the UK Space Agency's Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme, seeks to develop an innovative, flexible, and cost-effective solution. Spearheaded by Cardiff-bas

Washington (AFP) Feb 20, 2025
The world's richest man Elon Musk got into a heated row Thursday with a Danish astronaut who criticized the tech billionaire's claim that former president Joe Biden intentionally abandoned two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Andreas "Andy" Mogensen had shared on X a Fox News clip featuring Musk and his boss, US President Donald Trump, where Musk claimed NASA's But

Washington (AFP) Feb 20, 2025
Is NASA still Moonbound, or will the next giant leap mean skipping straight to Mars? Speculation is mounting that the Trump administration may scale back or cancel NASA's Artemis missions following the departure of a key official and Boeing's decision to lay off hundreds of employees working on its lunar rocket. Late Wednesday, NASA abruptly announced the retirement of longtime associate