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LUNA recreates the Moon's surface on Earth next to ESA’s Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. The collaborative project between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will provide a training ground for astronauts and a test centre for technology, equipping partners and users with the knowledge to go forward to the Moon.

Access the related broadcast quality video material: LUNA stock shots, LUNA close-ups, LUNA animation, ESA EAC stock shots, LUNA interviews

Image: Nearing Hera era in space

Washington (AFP) Sept 30, 2024
The SpaceX crew that will ferry back in February two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station docked with the orbiting laboratory on Sunday, a live stream of the mission showed. The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission aboard a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm Sunday. After d

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Washington (AFP) Sept 30, 2024
The SpaceX crew that will ferry back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station docked with the orbiting laboratory Sunday, a live stream of the mission showed. The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission on a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm Sunday. After docking was complete

London, UK (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
Scientists from the University of Warwick have revealed a detailed "map" of distant planets, highlighting a newly identified area in deep space called the Neptunian Ridge. This ridge separates two distinct regions, known as the Neptunian desert and the Neptunian savannah. The team, including researchers from Warwick and other institutions, focused on Neptunian exoplanets, which share simil

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
In a remarkable discovery, astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have identified a galaxy with an unusual light pattern, which may offer critical insights into the evolution of the first stars in the Universe. The galaxy, named GS-NDG-9422 (9422), is situated about one billion years after the Big Bang and could represent a key stage in galactic development, bridging the g

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
As NASA advances toward establishing a long-term presence on the Moon through the Artemis campaign, the ability to move cargo from landers to the lunar surface autonomously has become a critical need. This cargo, referred to as payloads, could include anything from small scientific instruments to large components for building lunar infrastructure. However, with no crew on the surface to manage t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
Mars' ancient landscape was shaped by wind and water, with these forces sculpting the planet's sand and sediment into patterns such as dunes and ripples, known as bedforms. Over billions of years, many of these formations hardened into rock, becoming what scientists call paleo-bedforms. These features, largely frozen in time, have only been altered by slow erosion from wind, ancient lava flows,

Tucson AZ (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
It's been a year since NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully delivered the largest-ever asteroid sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. Since then, intriguing clues about the early solar system and potential origins of life on Earth have emerged from study of the sample, under the leadership of OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, a Regents Professor of planetary sciences at t