EU faces heat over millions paid to Musk firms
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) May 13, 2025
The EU handed over hundreds of millions of euros to companies belonging to the world's richest man, Elon Musk, a key ally of US President Donald Trump and frequent critic of the bloc, a document seen by AFP showed Tuesday.
German Green EU lawmaker Daniel Freund sent a letter in March to the European Commission, asking for information about EU funding to Musk-linked businesses.
In a respo

SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Washington DC (UPI) May 13, 2025
SpaceX early Tuesday launched another batch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Florida's east coast.
The Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 1:02 a.m. EDT.
The mission was to put 28 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, where they will join Starlink's growing cluster of thousands of orbitals that provide low-latency, high-speed Internet

NASA hosts Twitch event for moon mascot, zero-g indicator contest
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Washington DC (UPI) May 12, 2025
NASA will host a live Twitch event Tuesday to help "global creators" of all ages design a plush mascot that will indicate zero gravity, when Artemis II astronauts take flight next year around the moon.
NASA's livestream will promote its ongoing Moon Mascot Challenge and allow viewers to collaborate in real-time with an artist as they create a sample zero gravity indicator.
Zero g

Space law doesn't protect historical sites, mining operations and bases on the Moon
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Washington DC (SPX) May 13, 2025
April 2025 was a busy month for space. Washington DC (SPX) May 13, 2025 Pop icon Katy Perry joined five other civilian women on a quick jaunt to the edge of space, making headlines. Meanwhile, another group of people at the United Nations was contemplating a critical issue for the future of space exploration: the discovery, extraction and utilization of natural resources on the Moon.
At th

Glass Beads Provide Insight into Moon's Mysterious Interior
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 13, 2025
Researchers from Curtin University, Nanjing University, and The Australian National University have discovered unusual high-magnesium glass beads collected by China's Chang'e-5 mission, revealing potential clues about the Moon's mantle. These tiny green glass beads, distinct from typical lunar impact formations, may have originated from deeper within the Moon, suggesting an asteroid impact likel

Martian Atmosphere Enables Advanced In-Situ Thermoelectric Power Generation
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 13, 2025
The thin, CO2-rich Martian atmosphere presents a novel opportunity for in-situ thermoelectric power generation. With a composition of 95.7% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, and 1.6% argon, it offers significant advantages for dynamic thermoelectric conversion systems. The dense molecular weight and high thermal stability of Martian gases support robust system performance, reducing the risk of gas

Europa Clipper Conducts Critical Mars Flyby for Instrument Calibration
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 13, 2025
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, currently en route to Jupiter's moon Europa, recently utilized a close flyby of Mars to calibrate its critical infrared imaging system. The maneuver, conducted on March 1, positioned the spacecraft just 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the Martian surface, using the planet's gravity to adjust its trajectory for a more efficient journey to Jupiter.
The flyb

Webb Uncovers New Mysteries in Jupiter's Aurora
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Paris, France (SPX) May 13, 2025
The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and CSA, has provided fresh insights into the intense auroras that dance around Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System. These auroras, hundreds of times brighter than those on Earth, have been studied with Webb's highly sensitive instruments, revealing previously unseen details.
Jupiter's auroras form when high-ene

Early Star Formation May Have Impacted Cosmic Microwave Background
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 13, 2025
The afterglow of the universe, known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), provides critical insights into the early cosmos and the formation of the first galaxies. However, researchers from the Universities of Bonn, Prague, and Nanjing have presented calculations suggesting that this radiation's strength may have been significantly overestimated. If validated, their findings could challenge

Universe's End Predicted to Arrive Sooner but Still Billions of Times the Age of the Cosmos
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 13, 2025
The latest research from Radboud University scientists Heino Falcke, Michael Wondrak, and Walter van Suijlekom builds on their earlier work, revealing that the ultimate fate of the universe may arrive much sooner than previously believed, though still an unimaginable timescale away.
In their new study, the team estimates that the final decay of the universe, primarily driven by Hawking-lik

NASA Study Reveals Venus Crust Surprise
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Washington DC (SPX) May 13, 2025
New details about the crust on Venus include some surprises about the geology of Earth's hotter twin, according to new NASA-funded research that describes movements of the planet's crust.
Scientists expected the outermost layer of Venus' crust would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack of forces that would drive the crust back into the planet's interior. But the paper

NASA Cleanroom Microbes Reveal Survival Strategies for Space and Biotech
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
London, UK (SPX) May 13, 2025
Researchers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and institutes across India and Saudi Arabia have discovered 26 new bacterial species in the cleanrooms used to assemble spacecraft. These microbes exhibit genetic traits linked to extreme resilience, offering insights into how life might survive in space and potential biotech applica

HEO and BAE Systems Forge Partnership for Advanced Space Data Analysis
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 13, 2025
HEO and BAE Systems have announced a collaboration aimed at delivering a comprehensive geospatial exploitation solution that integrates HEO's resolved Non-Earth Imagery (NEI) with BAE Systems' latest SOCET GXP software capability, Non-Earth Registration (NER). This combined approach enables the creation of precise sensor models for HEO's NEI data, enhancing customers' ability to derive critical

Astrophysicist searches for gravitational waves in new way
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 12:41
Boulder CO (SPX) May 13, 2025
University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jeremy Darling is pursuing a new way of measuring the universe's gravitational wave background-the constant flow of waves that churn through the cosmos, warping the very fabric of space and time.
The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could one day help to unlock some of the universe's deepest mysteries, including how gra

Thank you for your service, Galileo GSAT0104
Tuesday, 13 May 2025 07:47
On 12 March 2013, Galileo satellite GSAT0104, alongside its fellow In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites, made history by enabling the first position fix by Europe’s independent satellite navigation system Galileo. Now, after 12 years of service mostly in the area of Search and Rescue, GSAT0104 makes history again by becoming the first satellite in the Galileo constellation to be decommissioned.