Official: China's moon probe will carry French, Russian gear
Sunday, 25 April 2021 18:17China’s commercial sector finds funding and direction
Sunday, 25 April 2021 10:39China has experienced an explosion of commercial space companies since 2014, driven by the government opening up the space sector to private capital.
According to Chinese publication Future Aerospace, there were 141 registered commercial aerospace companies in China by the end of 2018, in areas including launch, propulsion, satellite manufacturing, payloads and applications and ground stations.
SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts enter International Space Station
Sunday, 25 April 2021 08:07The four astronauts aboard Crew-2 Dragon capsule Endeavour entered the International Space Station on Saturday morning, more than 26 hours after being launched from Florida. The arrival boosted space station occupancy temporarily to 11, one of the highest numbers in history and the most since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. The record was set in 2009 with 13 people on board.
Georgia Tech shares $15M from NASA to advance deep space exploration
Sunday, 25 April 2021 08:07Every few years, NASA creates Space Technology Research Institutes (STRI) in areas it believes are going to be strategic for future technology and space missions. Today, that area is electric propulsion - the use of electrical energy to accelerate propellant to create thrust. The technology yields extremely efficient thrusters to power space flight for gateway launches to the moon or even shuttl
Stone skipping techniques can improve reentry of space vehicles
Sunday, 25 April 2021 08:07Skipping stones on a body of water is an age-old game, but developing a better understanding of the physics involved is crucial for more serious matters, such as water landings upon reentry of spaceflight vehicles or aircrafts. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, scientists from several universities in China reveal several key factors that influence the number of bounces a skipping st
Biggest space station crowd in decade after SpaceX arrival
Saturday, 24 April 2021 19:13The International Space Station's population swelled to 11 on Saturday with the jubilant arrival of SpaceX's third crew capsule in less than a year.
Mission Alpha launch to docking highlights
Saturday, 24 April 2021 13:30Highlights of the launch and first day in space of ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on the Alpha mission.
On 24 April at 11:08 (CEST) the Crew Dragon spacecraft with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide docked with the International Space Station’s Node-2 Harmony module, marking the start of ESA’s six-month mission Alpha.
The crew spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up with the International Space Station after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time). The launch to
Crew-2 arrives at ISS
Saturday, 24 April 2021 13:16WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station April 24, less than 24 hours after its launch from Florida, giving the station its largest crew in a decade.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center April 23, docked with the station’s Harmony module at 5:08 a.m.
Mission Alpha: Josef Aschbacher congratulates the crew
Saturday, 24 April 2021 13:00ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher congratulates the Dragon Crew 2 shortly after they enter the Space Station. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide arrived at the Station one day after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time).
Thomas is the first ESA astronaut to fly in space in a vehicle other than the Russian Soyuz or the US Space Shuttle, and the first ESA astronaut to leave Earth from Florida, USA, in over a decade. This is his
SpaceX capsule Endeavour docks at ISS
Saturday, 24 April 2021 11:43The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early Saturday, a livestream showed. Soft capture - the first phase of docking - occurred at 5:08 am Eastern time (0908 GMT), 264 miles (424 kilometers) over the south Indian Ocean. Hard capture, the second stage, occurred about 10 minutes later, when 12 hooks were securely attached between Endeavour and the ISS's forward port.
Alpha: Second Space Station mission for ESA's Thomas Pesquet begins
Saturday, 24 April 2021 11:43Today at 11:08 (CEST) the Crew Dragon spacecraft with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide docked with the International Space Station's Node-2 Harmony module, marking the start of ESA's six-month mission Alpha. The crew spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up w
China announces Zhurong as name for first Mars rover
Saturday, 24 April 2021 11:43China named its first Mars rover "Zhurong", a fire god in ancient Chinese legend, on Saturday. Announced at the opening ceremony of 2021 China Space Conference in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, the naming is intended to represent the rover's symbolic task to ignite the hope of China's inter-planetary exploration, encourage humanity's relentless adventure into the immense universe, and urge man
China ready launch new space station core module
Saturday, 24 April 2021 11:43The Long March 5B carrier rocket tasked with launching the core capsule of China's space station was moved on Friday morning to the launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province. The China Manned Space Agency said that the rocket with the core capsule inside will begin pre-launch examinations. Currently, equipment at the coastal launch center is in good condition and
To Mars and beyond, as China's cosmic journey continues
Saturday, 24 April 2021 11:43Saturday marks the sixth Space Day of China. Five years after it was established in 2016, the nation has made tremendous progress in various aspects of space exploration. On the first Space Day in 2016, Tiangong 1 space lab, China's first, had just finished its mission and fallen into the atmosphere. Tiangong 2 would not be launched until five months later. Now, with all the data collected
China, Russia welcome int'l partners in moon station cooperation
Saturday, 24 April 2021 11:43China and Russia's aerospace authorities have invited all interested countries, international organizations and partners to cooperate in a moon station project. The announcement was made by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos at a conference for the international moon station in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province on Friday. CNSA de