Biden hosts four NASA astronauts, the first crew aiming to fly around the moon in a half-century
The four astronauts assigned to fly around the moon for the first time in 50 years met with President Joe Biden on Thursday at the White House, where he showed off an moon rock on display in the Oval Office that was collected in the Apollo era.
Rocket Lab launches a Japanese satellite from the space company's complex in New Zealand
California-based Rocket Lab, which specializes in putting small satellites into orbit, launched a Japanese satellite on Friday from the space company's complex on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula.
Week in images: 11-15 December 2023
Week in images: 11-15 December 2023
Discover our week through the lens
Measuring how space creates jobs and prosperity on Earth
Space is becoming ever more important to life on Earth – from managing climate change to responding to emergencies to digitalising the economy. To help policymakers and businesses take informed decisions about investing in space, ESA has today published plans to create robust and reliable data on the space economy, in collaboration with international partners.
Federal agencies caught in environmental crossfire over Starship launches
U.S. Space Command declares ‘full operational capability’
China launches large classified optical satellite towards geostationary orbit
Satellite transmission power battle drags on after WRC-23
Rocket Lab puts Japanese satellite into orbit
Rocket Lab returned its Electron rocket into space for the first time since September with a successful New Zealand flight on Friday that released a Japanese satellite into orbit.
The payload, the QPS-SAR-5, or Tsukuyomi-1 satellite, reached orbit about 57 minutes after launching from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1. The Japanese company iQPS develops and operates small SAR satellites and Huge solar flare, strongest since 2017, disrupts Earth radio communications
A huge solar flare, the biggest since 2017, disrupted radio communication for two hours on Earth Thursday. It was detected by a NASA telescope.
"This is likely one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded," the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center said in a statement. "Radio communication interference with aircraft were reported by multiple NWS Center Weather Service Units co-loc 
