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Copernical Team

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Washington (AFP) Sept 28, 2024
A SpaceX rocket soared into the sky Saturday with two passengers on board, leaving two seats empty to return American astronauts who have been stranded for months on the International Space Station, NASA said. The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It used a new launch pad, the pad's first use for a crewed mission. "Congrats to @NASA and @SpaceX
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SpaceX has been flying regular missions every six months to allow the rotation of ISS crews
SpaceX has been flying regular missions every six months to allow the rotation of ISS crews.

A SpaceX rocket soared into the sky Saturday with two passengers on board, leaving two seats empty to return American astronauts who have been stranded for months on the International Space Station, NASA said.

The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It used a new launch pad, the pad's first use for a crewed mission.

"Congrats to @NASA and @SpaceX on a successful launch," NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a post on X. "We live in an exciting period of exploration and innovation in the stars."

On board were NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.

When they return from the in February, they will bring back two space veterans—Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—whose stay on the ISS was prolonged for months by problems with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft.

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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 29, 2024
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched on time Saturday at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. The mission, Crew-9, is now in a nominal orbit and on course to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday at around 2130 GMT. This mission marks the first crewed launch from SpaceX's
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'Comet Nishimura' left a spectacular trail when it passed close to the Sun in 2023
'Comet Nishimura' left a spectacular trail when it passed close to the Sun in 2023.

A comet is expected to risk having its tail clipped on Friday by flying perilously close to the sun, promising fireworks next month should it survive the fraught flypast.

Astronomers believe the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet has been hurtling headfirst through the void of space towards the center of the solar system for millions of years.

Named for the Chinese observatory and South African program which detected and confirmed its existence in 2023, the ball of rock and ice may have formed at a distance up to 400,000 times that between Earth and the sun, models suggest.

Up till now, you had to be in the to hope to see it with the naked eye.

But on Friday evening it is projected to cross as close to the sun as it will get, before returning towards Earth.

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Paris (AFP) Sept 27, 2024
Europe has embarked on the mission to put humans back on the Moon with a new lunar simulator launched in Germany, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet told AFP. Pesquet was at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne on Wednesday to test out LUNA, a facility built to resemble the surface of the Moon. The 46-year-old astronaut, a national icon in France for his missions to the Internationa
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Lunar dust dynamics: Unveiling the charging properties and particle behavior of Chang'e-5 samples in an electric field
(a) The micro-examination and (b)–(e) SEM observations of the surface of MLI after collided by CE5 LS particles; (f) the micro-examination and (g)–(h) SEM observations of the surface of Aramid cloth after impacted by CE5 LS particles. Credit: Junping Gu et al.

A study published in Engineering has shed new light on the behavior of lunar regolith particles under the influence of an external electric field, a discovery that could revolutionize space exploration and lunar resource utilization. The research, conducted by a collaborative team of scientists from the Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, Tsinghua University, and other institutions, focuses on the charging properties and particle dynamics of lunar samples brought back by China's Chang'e-5 mission.

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Scientists begin testing space thruster which could boldly go where no one has gone before
Scientists trial new space rocket thruster. Credit: University of Southampton

Deep space exploration might no longer be confined to sci-fi after scientists began testing a rocket thruster which promises to boldly go further than ever before.

Astro engineers from the University of Southampton are trialing a new propulsion system which can power spaceships through the stars using any type of metal as .

They say this means crafts fitted with the could fly indefinitely by refilling their tanks using minerals harvested from asteroids or far-off moons.

Lead scientist Dr. Minkwan Kim, from the University of Southampton, has been tasked with testing the propulsion system in his labs to measure its thrust.

He said the tech could help spaceships and probes travel to regions of the universe previously thought unreachable.

Dr. Kim added, "Spacecraft have limited amounts of fuel because of the enormous cost and energy it takes to launch them into space.

"But these new thrusters are capable of being powered by any metal that can burn, such as iron, aluminum or copper.

Friday, 27 September 2024 12:11

Week in images: 23-27 September 2024

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Week in images: 23-27 September 2024

Discover our week through the lens

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full moon
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Earth will capture a miniature, "second moon" this week, according to NASA scientists.

The new is actually a tiny asteroid dubbed 2024 PT5. It will start orbiting the planet in a horseshoe path and stick around for a little less than two months before escaping Earth's gravitational pull and going back to its regular orbit around the sun.

"According to the latest data available from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons System, the temporary capture will start at 15:54 EDT (on Sunday) and will end at 11:43 EDT on November 25," mini-moon event expert and Universidad Complutense de Madrid professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com.

2024 PT5 is part of "the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth at an average distance to the sun of about 93 million miles," Marcos said.

He added that the asteroid, which poses no threat to the planet, will travel about 2,200 miles per hour while maintaining a distance of around 2.8 million miles from Earth.

Friday, 27 September 2024 10:41

View from Hera’s Asteroid Deck

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View from Hera’s Asteroid Deck Image: View from Hera’s Asteroid Deck
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