Sriharikota, India (AFP) July 14, 2023
India on Friday launched a rocket seeking to land an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, a live feed showed, its second attempt to become only the fourth country to do so. The rocket lifted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, as thousands of enthusiasts clapped and cheered. The world's most populous nation has a

Isn’t it strange that when satellites run out of fuel or a single component breaks down, we just discard them? ESA and European industry have joined forces to make sure that our satellites can live on.

Image: Reminiscent of an artist’s pallet, this striking false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission features Lake Abbe in northeast Ethiopia.

Image: Lunar solar power satellite

After almost five years, ESA’s Aeolus wind satellite has completed its mission. Now, you can listen to the Life of Aeolus – an incredible wind orchestral piece that has been composed using data spanning Aeolus’ entire life in orbit around Earth.

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jul 14, 2023
Astronomers at the University of Sydney have shown that a small, faint star is the coldest on record to produce emission at radio wavelength. The 'ultracool brown dwarf' examined in the study is a ball of gas simmering at about 425 degrees centigrade - cooler than a typical campfire - without burning nuclear fuel. By contrast, the surface temperature of the Sun, a nuclear inferno, is

Manchester UK (SPX) Jul 14, 2023
A collaboration of scientists from The University of Manchester and the University of Hong Kong have found a source for the mysterious alignment of stars near the Galactic Centre. The alignment of planetary nebulae was discovered ten years ago by a Manchester PhD student, Bryan Rees, but has remained unexplained. New data obtained with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Tel

Paris (ESA) Jul 14, 2023
The European Space Agency (ESA) is set to support the Chandrayaan-3 mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This Moon mission features a lunar lander and a rover, tasked to perform scientific operations on the lunar surface for a period of 14 days. To ensure the mission's success, ground stations worldwide, coordinated by ESA and NASA, are se

Washington DC (SPX) Jul 14, 2023
After a disheartening 2019 moon landing failure, India's lunar exploration effort will resume Friday with the planned launch of Chandrayaan-3, a sophisticated, automated mission to touch down softly and demonstrate how its rover can navigate the surface. Liftoff is planned for 5:05 p.m. EDT from the Satish Dhawan Space Station in Andhra province of Sriharikota just above Chennai on the sou