Week in images: 26 - 30 April 2021

Discover our week through the lens

Antofagasta, a port city in northern Chile, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

One tends to think of mountain glaciers as slow moving, their gradual passage down a mountainside visible only through a long series of satellite imagery or years of time-lapse photography. However, new research shows that glacier flow can be much more dramatic, ranging from about 10 metres a day to speeds that are more like that of avalanches, with obvious potential dire consequences for those living below.

Paris (AFP) April 27, 2021
A year after collapsing into bankruptcy, satellite operator OneWeb has revived its goal of providing broadband satellite internet service after European operator Eutelsat said Tuesday it would invest $550 million in the project. Eutelsat's "roughly 24 percent" stake will allow OneWeb to position itself as a rival to Elon Musk's SpaceX as Eutelsat joins the British government and Indian multi

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 29, 2021
Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an additional 60 Starlink Internet network satellites into space late Wednesday. The two-stage, 70-meter rocket lifted off at 11:44 p.m. EDT as scheduled from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Some nine minutes after liftoff, SpaceX recovered its first-stage Falcon 9 booster upon the football field-size d

Wenchang, China (XNA) Apr 30, 2021
China successfully launched the core module of its space station on Thursday, opening a new foothold for humanity in space. China's space station, guided by the idea of building a community with a shared future for humanity, will become a common home transcending Earthly bonds and an outpost for countries worldwide to explore the universe through cooperation. Tianhe, the name of the

Wenchang, China (Xinhua) Apr 30, 2021
China on Thursday sent into space the core module of its space station, kicking off a series of key launch missions that aim to complete the construction of the station by the end of next year. The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan at 11:23 a.m. (Beijing Time).

Beijing (XNA) Apr 30, 2021
Sixty years after Yuri Gagarin undertook mankind's first space journey, China launched the core capsule of its space station on Thursday morning, formally embarking on the construction of one of the world's largest and most sophisticated space-based facilities. President Xi Jinping sent a letter after the launch, extending congratulations and greetings to those involved in the landmark mis

Beijing (XNA) Apr 30, 2021
Commercial enterprises will have opportunities to take part in the construction and operation of the nation's space station, according to a senior space official. Hao Chun, head of the China Manned Space Agency, told China Daily in an interview earlier this month that his agency, which administers the space station program, will take advantage of private space companies' technologies and c

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 30, 2021
Venus is an enigma. It's the planet next door and yet reveals little about itself. An opaque blanket of clouds smothers a harsh landscape pelted by acid rain and baked at temperatures that can liquify lead. Now, new observations from the safety of Earth are lifting the veil on some of Venus' most basic properties. By repeatedly bouncing radar off the planet's surface over the last 15 years