Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
China successfully launched a remote sensing satellite for Pakistan on Thursday morning aboard a Kuaizhou 1A carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. The launch occurred at 10 am local time, with the solid-fueled rocket placing the satellite into its designated orbit. The satellite, designed and manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites

Paris (AFP) July 30, 2025
A Chinese submersible has discovered thousands of worms and molluscs nearly 10 kilometres (six miles) below sea level in the Mariana Trench, the deepest colony of creatures ever observed, a study revealed on Wednesday. The discovery in Earth's deepest underwater valley suggests that there could be much more life thriving in the hostile conditions at the bottom of our planet's largely unexplo

London, UK (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
A new radiation-resistant coating developed at the University of Surrey could significantly improve the durability of next-generation perovskite solar cells in space. The innovation promises to make satellite solar panels lighter, more efficient, and less costly than traditional alternatives. Engineers from Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute, in collaboration with Oxford University, th

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 2, 2025
The four Crew-11 crew members joined seven other astronauts in the International Space Station early Saturday morning following a 15-hour journey from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, entered the ISS at 3:46 a.m. EDT, NASA said. At 2:27 a.m

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
If there are people and trends that are currently shaping the world, it would have to be the new President of the USA, Donald Trump, and his trusted advisor, billionaire inventor and entrepreneur, Elon Musk. Musk's SpaceX company is another big name everyone knows, and so is Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency. But how are they connected, and why do they depend on each other for success and a sa

Washington (AFP) Aug 2, 2025
Tucked inside President Donald Trump's flagship tax and spending bill last month was a little-noticed provision to relocate the iconic Space Shuttle Discovery from a museum outside Washington to Houston. The plan now faces legal uncertainty, with the Smithsonian Institution arguing Congress had no authority to give away what it considers private property - even before accounting for the ste

Kennedy Space Center, United States (AFP) Aug 2, 2025
An international team of four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked Saturday with the orbiting International Space Station (ISS). "Docking confirmed!", SpaceX posted on social media, along with a video showing the spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 2:27 am Eastern Time (0627 GMT), far above the southeast Pacific Ocean. American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Finc

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
A new study has identified moonquakes-not meteor strikes-as the primary cause of surface disturbances in the Taurus-Littrow valley, the Apollo 17 landing site. The research suggests that ground shaking from these quakes, which repeatedly struck over millions of years, triggered boulder falls and landslides that reshaped the lunar terrain. Published in Science Advances, the study was co-aut

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
Rocket Lab has announced the scheduled launch window for its next mission for the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), marking the 69th flight of its Electron rocket and the company's 11th launch of 2025. The mission, titled 'The Harvest Goddess Thrives', will lift off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand with a window opening on August 5, 2025 UTC. It will carry QPS-SAR-12,

Urbana, IL (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
Rather than completely burning up when a spacecraft reenters Earth's atmosphere, its heat shield's outer surface is sacrificed to protect the rest of the vehicle. The carbon fibers decompose, dissipating the heat. It was assumed that this only happens on the surface, but in a recent study, researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and four othe