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Beijing (AFP) April 29, 2021
China launched the first module of its "Heavenly Palace" space station on Thursday, a milestone in Beijing's ambitious plan to establish a permanent human presence in space. Billions of dollars have been poured into space exploration as China seeks to reflect its rising global stature and growing technological might, following in the footsteps of the United States, Russia and Europe. The
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Beijing (XNA) Apr 29, 2021
As Beijing's residents bask among the spring blossoms, engineers and technicians in the capital's northwestern suburbs are busily preparing for a challenging maneuver involving a spacecraft hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth. The team members-spacecraft control professionals at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center-are making all-out efforts to ensure that Tianwen 1, China's firs
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Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 24, 2021
In a decade filled by record-breaking events including raging wildfires, numerous hurricanes, unseasonal flooding and historically cold temperatures, NASA has continued to learn more about how the planet is changing and the effect it has on Earth's systems. In the satellite era, a fleet of Earth-observing satellites have gathered data on world-wide rain and snowfall, air and ocean temperat

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites

Thursday, 29 April 2021 09:51
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Starlink launch

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites April 28, its first since the FCC approved a modification that allows the company to operate more satellites in lower orbits.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:44 p.m.

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Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 29, 2021
Now that NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has accomplished the goal of achieving powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on the Red Planet, and with data from its most recent flight test, on April 25, the technology demonstration project has met or surpassed all of its technical objectives. The Ingenuity team now will push its performance envelope on Mars. The fourth Ingenuity flight fro

Zhurong on course for historic journey

Thursday, 29 April 2021 07:26
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Beijing (XNA) Apr 29, 2021
If it touches down safely on the red planet and works as planned, the Tianwen 1 rover will be the sixth such vehicle deployed on Mars, following five predecessors launched by the United States. If the semi-autonomous craft functions efficiently, it will work for at least three months and undertake comprehensive surveys of the planet. The rover, recently named Zhurong after an ancient

New View of Asteroid Ryugu's Surface

Thursday, 29 April 2021 07:26
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Washington DC (SPX) Apr 29, 2021
Samples from the near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu recently arrived at Earth, ready for laboratory analysis. In the meantime, ground-based measurements of Ryugu's surface are helping us to complete our picture of this nearby, rocky body. In December 2020, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 completed a daring 6-year mission, successfully landing on near-Earth asteroid Ryugu and returning a
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Washington DC (SPX) Apr 29, 2021
Like a chameleon of the night sky, the Moon often changes its appearance. It might look larger, brighter or redder, for example, due to its phases, its position in the solar system or smoke in Earth's atmosphere. (It is not made of green cheese, however.) Another factor in its appearance is the size and shape of moon dust particles, the small rock grains that cover the moon's surface. Rese
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Washington (AFP) April 28, 2021
American astronaut Michael Collins, who piloted the Apollo 11 command module while his crewmates became the first people to walk on the Moon, died on Wednesday after battling cancer, his family said. Sometimes called "the loneliest man in history" because of his long solo flight while his colleagues loped across the lunar surface, Collins never earned the same global name recognition as Neil
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Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Apr 29, 2021
On Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 10:50 pm local time (01:50 UTC on Thursday, April 29), a Vega launch vehicle operated by Arianespace lifted off successfully from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). This mission marked Vega's return to flight, and was also the second successful launch by Arianespace's teams in less than 72 hours. The mission's prima
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Lake Salda, Turkey (AFP) April 28, 2021
Boasting azure waters and white sands, a Turkish lake that NASA thinks hides secrets about Mars threatens to become too popular for its own good. Lake Salda gained international renown when US scientists began poking around in preparation for the Perseverance rover mission, which has been beaming back videos from the Red Planet since February. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory even posted a
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London, UK (SPX) Apr 29, 2021
Studying the violent collisions of black holes and neutron stars may soon provide a new measurement of the Universe's expansion rate, helping to resolve a long-standing dispute, suggests a new simulation study led by researchers at UCL (University College London). Our two current best ways of estimating the Universe's rate of expansion - measuring the brightness and speed of pulsating and
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Princeton NJ (SPX) Apr 29, 2021
Every day, the sun ejects large amounts of a hot particle soup known as plasma toward Earth where it can disrupt telecommunications satellites and damage electrical grids. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University's Department of Astrophysical Sciences have made a discovery that could lead to better predictions of

Europe's Vega rocket successfully launches

Thursday, 29 April 2021 07:17
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Europe's Vega rocket took off overnight Wednesday from French Guiana with Earth observation satellites on board, six months after losing two satellites.

The rocket left Kourou in French Guiana at around 10:50 pm local time (0150 GMT), with the mission lasting just under two hours.

The launch comes half a year after the operation lost French and Spanish satellites when the rocket fell into the sea on November 17 after a technical malfunction.

The April 28 to 29 launch carried Pleiades Neo 3, the first high resolution satellite of a new Earth observation constellation operated by Airbus.

The rocket is also carrying some lighter payload, including a Norwegian observation microsatellite used to detect radar for maritime navigation.

The Pleiades Neo satellites will offer improved geolocation tools which will help during natural disasters, according to launch provider Arianespace.

The launch is the third this year from the Kourou space centre and the 18th from a Vega.

The Vega rocket is a crucial component of Europe's ambitions to compete in the booming aerospace market, where it faces strong competition from rivals including Elon Musk's SpaceX.



© 2021 AFP

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China launches main part of its 1st permanent space station
In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV via AP Video, a Long March 5B rocket carrying a module for a Chinese space station lifts off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Wenchang in southern China's Hainan Province, Thursday, April 29, 2021. China has launched the core module on Thursday for its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long-term.
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