
Copernical Team
Ingenuity makes short hop to the north for Flight 16

Highly specialized team to design vehicle for sustainable lunar surface mobility operations

Twin of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover begins terrain tests

Bezos' Blue Origin hires lobbyist after 'Space Tax' proposed

Rocket Lab signs exclusive deal to use APL space radio technologies

NASA's Perseverance captures challenging flight by Mars Helicopter

Crew operations aboard Space Station return to normal

Rocket Lab launches 107th satellite; Tests helicopter recovery operations

Earth from Space: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
Moonshot: Japan recruits first new astronauts in 13 years

It's one small step for Japan, but one giant opportunity for would-be space cadets: the country is recruiting new astronauts for the first time in over a decade and applicants no longer have to hold a science degree.
Women are strongly encouraged to put themselves forward for the job, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, as all seven of the nation's current astronauts are men.
Successful applicants, who must be Japanese, will be trained and sent on missions—potentially to the Moon, the Lunar Gateway or the International Space Station.
"We want to establish a (recruiting) system that matches the current time," JAXA's Kazuyoshi Kawasaki said at a media briefing.
"Previously we limited candidates to those with a natural science degree, but many of us agreed to make it not a requirement."
However, written exams will include university-level questions on science, technology, engineering and maths, with the applicants' English ability also tested.
JAXA said it will accept applications between December 20 and March 4—the first time it has offered positions for rookie astronauts in 13 years.