Beijing (AFP) June 2, 2024
China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe successfully landed Sunday on the far side of the Moon to collect samples, state media reported - the latest leap for Beijing's decades-old space programme. The Chang'e-6 set down in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, state news agency Xinhua said, citing the China National Space Administration.

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 1, 2024
NASA's unmanned Progress 88 cargo spacecraft docked successfully at the International Space Station on Saturday morning. Progress 88 linked up with the ISS at 7:47 a.m. EDT after traveling about two days from its launch point in Kazakhstan to the ISS. The Progress 88 spacecraft launched atop a Soyuz rocket at 5:43 a.m. EDT Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 1, 2024
NASA officials won't know until late Saturday night if they can try to launch the Boeing Starliner on Sunday or wait until Wednesday or Thursday. "We got really close today, and the team did a phenomenal job," said Steve Stich, NASA manager for the commercial crew program, told reporters during a post-launch attempt news conference. "This is kind of the way that spaceflight is,"

Cape Canaveral (AFP) June 1, 2024
Boeing's second attempt at launching a crew aboard its troubled Starliner spaceship was dramatically aborted Saturday with just minutes left on the countdown clock, yet another setback for a program that has faced years of delays. With the astronauts strapped in and ready for liftoff, the test mission to the International Space Station was unexpectedly halted due to reasons that aren't yet c

Tokyo, Japan (AFP) Jun 01, 2024
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said on Saturday he has cancelled his journey around the Moon on a SpaceX rocket, a voyage that had boasted an artist-filled crew, because of development delays. Maezawa announced in 2018 the "dearMoon" lunar orbital mission, travelling on SpaceX's Starship rocket, which was scheduled to take place by the end of 2023. However, the dearMoon's websit

Plainsboro NK (SPX) May 31, 2024
Harnessing energy from plasma requires a precise understanding of its behavior during fusion to keep it hot, dense and stable. A new theoretical model about a plasma's edge, which can become unstable and bulge, brings the prospect of commercial fusion power closer to reality. "The model refines the thinking on stabilizing the edge of the plasma for different tokamak shapes," said Jason Par

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 01, 2024
Mars has a distinct structure in its mantle and crust, with identifiable reservoirs, as revealed by meteorites analyzed by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and their colleagues. Meteorites formed around 1.3 billion years ago and ejected from Mars have been collected by scientists from Antarctica and Africa over recent decades. Scripps Oceanography geologist

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jun 01, 2024
China launched a communication satellite for Pakistan on Thursday night from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, reported China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC). Carrying the Pakistani satellite called PakSat MM1, a Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 8:12 pm at the launch complex and soon placed the satellite into a geosynchronous orbit, the State-owned con

Paris, France (SPX) Jun 01, 2024
Europe's newest rocket, Ariane 6, is set to launch soon, carrying multiple space missions with unique objectives. This inaugural flight will highlight Ariane 6's versatility and heavy-lift capabilities. Among the payloads is SIDLOC, an experiment by the Greek non-profit Libre Space Foundation (LSF), aimed at enhancing space safety through rapid identification and localization of spacecraft.

Paris, France (SPX) Jun 01, 2024
ESA's Young Professionals Satellite, YPSat, being checked out in a cleanroom at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, in preparation for the inaugural launch of Ariane 6, coming soon. YPSat is a project run in its entirety by ESA Young Professionals to give them direct early experience in designing, building and testing hardware for space. Equipped with cameras - seen here at the top of the