Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Twenty-eight astronauts and trainees have completed China's first cave-survival training program, a nearly monthlong exercise run by the Astronaut Center of China in Chongqing's Wulong district. The course included more than 10 core activities such as environmental monitoring, cave mapping, simulated communication with ground control, and a series of psychological and behavioral drills in

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
The third satellite in the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation radar constellation has been launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX Falcon 9 for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense, extending Italy's dual-use Earth observation capability. Built by Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, and operated in orbit by Teles

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Momentus Inc. has developed an additively manufactured metal fuel tank that will undergo flight testing on the companys Vigoride-7 Orbital Service Vehicle in orbit. The tank, produced in collaboration with Velo3D, is intended as a space-rated component for use on future missions. The tank was designed by Momentus and manufactured using Velo3Ds metal 3D printing systems. The companies used

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Starfighters Space Inc has completed a supersonic flight test campaign for GE Aerospace in which a company F-104 aircraft carried an advanced propulsion test vehicle on multiple flights at supersonic speed. The work supports GE Aerospace's Atmospheric Test of Launched Air-breathing System (ATLAS) program, which is focused on solid fuel ramjet propulsion. As part of the ATLAS program, Starf

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array ALMA have identified the earliest phases of giant planet formation inside the dense layers of gas and dust in the nearly edge-on disk known as Gomez's Hamburger GoHam. The team presented the research, which is in preparation for publication, at a press conference during the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Januar

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
The sun rotates about once every 28 days, so active regions on its surface are usually visible from Earth for only around two weeks before they move out of view behind the limb. Ioannis Kontogiannis, a solar physicist at ETH Zurich and the Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Dacco (IRSOL) in Locarno, notes that ESA's Solar Orbiter mission, launched in 2020, has extended this viewing window by o

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based observatories, astronomers have traced how Betelgeuse's recently identified companion star, Siwarha, disturbs gas in the red supergiant's extended atmosphere and produces a dense wake of material. The work, led by researchers at the Center for Astrophyphysics | Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA), links this wake to puzzling changes in Betelgeuse's

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
A team using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has identified a new type of astronomical object, a starless gas-rich dark-matter cloud considered a relic of early galaxy formation and nicknamed "Cloud-9." The object is the first confirmed example of a Reionization-Limited H I Cloud, or RELHIC, a neutral hydrogen cloud from the early universe that never formed stars. Program principal investiga

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Peking University, January 2, 2026: A coordinated observation campaign using space- and ground-based telescopes has yielded the first precise mass measurement of a rogue planet, confirming that one long-standing candidate is indeed a planet. Unlike planets in the Solar System, rogue planets travel through space without orbiting a host star. Over the last decade, astronomers have identified

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Small lakes on ancient Mars may have remained liquid for decades, even with average air temperatures well below freezing. Using a climate model adapted for Martian conditions, a team of researchers from Rice University discovered that lakes in locations such as Gale Crater, near Mars' equator, could have persisted under thin seasonal ice for at least decades and likely as long as climate conditi