Beijing (XNA) May 31, 2023
Traditionally, China's astronauts are selected from among fighter plane pilots with ample flying experience, as they can control the machinery and have the training to stay calm should an emergency arise in space. Yet among the three astronauts aboard Shenzhou XVI, which is taking them to Tiangong, China's space station, is Gui Haichao, a professor from Beihang University. He is the first

Beijing (XNA) May 31, 2023
China plans to send astronauts to the moon before 2030, a space official said on Monday. Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said at a news conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China that the country's space authorities have launched the manned lunar program. "The overall goals are to realize China's first manned landing on the

Miami FL (UPI) May 31, 2023
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Axiom Space Ax-2 crew successfully returned to Earth late Tuesday night, splashing down off the coast of Florida following 10 days in space. The Ax-2 crew undocked from the International Space Station Tuesday morning to make its 12-hour journey back to Earth, and splashed down at 11:04 p.m. ET in the Gulf of Mexico. "Splashdown of Dragon confirmed

Wright-Patterson AFB OH (SPX) May 31, 2023
The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, and NASA worked together over the last two weeks of April 2023 along with other industry partners, such as Lockheed Martin, to test the most current iteration of an astronaut crew seat and flight suit that will be used in the Orion spacecraft during future missions to space. "NASA came to us actually several years ago, to work with them on develo

Tsukuba, Japan (SPX) May 26, 2023
All biological amino acids on Earth appear exclusively in their left-handed form, but the reason underlying this observation is elusive. Recently, scientists from Japan uncovered new clues about the cosmic origin of this asymmetry. Based on the optical properties of amino acids found on the Murchison meteorite, they conducted physics-based simulations, revealing that the precursors to the biolog

Gainesville FL (SPX) May 31, 2023
Our familiar, warm, yellow sun is a relative rarity in the Milky Way. By far the most common stars are considerably smaller and cooler, sporting just half the mass of our sun at most. Billions of planets orbit these common dwarf stars in our galaxy. To capture enough warmth to be habitable, these planets would need to huddle very close to their small stars, which leaves them susceptible to

Perth, Australia (SPX) May 26, 2023
Astronomers have been working to better understand the galactic environments of fast radio bursts (FRBs) - intense, momentary bursts of energy occurring in mere milliseconds and with unknown cosmic origins. Now, a study of the slow-moving, star-forming gas in the same galaxy found to host an FRB has been published in The Astrophysical Journal. This is only the fourth-ever publication on tw

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 26, 2023
Much of our understanding of the Universe and its mysterious phenomena is based on theoretical interpretations. In order to deepen the understanding of distant objects and energetic phenomena, astronomers are looking at cosmic rays, which are high-energy charged particles composed of protons, electrons, atomic nuclei, and other subatomic particles. Such studies have revealed that cosmic rays con

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico late May 30, concluding Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.