Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have secured $500,000 in funding from NASA's TechLeap Prize initiative to conduct a parabolic flight test of a novel electrolyzer system aimed at supporting future space missions. The test will assess the electrolyzer's performance in low-gravity conditions simulating lunar or Martian environments. The pr

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 30, 2025
Blue Origin launched six more tourists into space and back on Sunday from Texas on its 13th passenger flight. The company's New Shepard rocket lifted off Sunday 10:39 a.m. EDT with Allie and Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno, Jr., Owolabi Salis and James Sitkn on board. The rocket's hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine fired up for about two and a half minutes, boosting the sp

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
China's Tianwen 2 probe has traveled over 12 million kilometers from Earth on its mission to collect asteroid samples, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced Tuesday. Now more than a month into its flight, the spacecraft remains fully operational as it follows a transfer trajectory toward its target, near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3. The CNSA released two images taken by the

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
A pioneering 3D printing technology developed by Chinese researchers is enabling the creation of lunar structures using only soil collected directly from the Moon, eliminating the need to transport building materials from Earth. Engineers at the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory in Hefei, Anhui province, have built a working prototype of a lunar regolith 3D printer. According to senior eng

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
Infrared imaging from Japan's Himawari-8 and -9 meteorological satellites has enabled researchers to track temperature changes in the upper atmosphere of Venus over a ten-year period. Led by the University of Tokyo, the study uncovered variations in cloud-top temperatures and wave structures by analyzing archived satellite data captured from 2015 to 2025. The results highlight a new use for mete

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
Rocket Lab National Security LLC, a subsidiary of Rocket Lab USA (Nasdaq: RKLB), has successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Space Development Agency's (SDA) Tranche 2 Transport Layer-Beta (T2TL-Beta) program. This milestone confirms that the spacecraft design, manufacturing methods, and systems architecture meet mission criteria, paving the way for full-scale production.

Paris, France (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
This pioneering analog mission, part of the EU-backed EXPLORE project, has brought a cohort of European high school students out of isolation following their participation in a simulated Mars expedition in Monsaraz, Portugal. Launched in 2023 under the Erasmus+ program, EXPLORE-short for EXpeditionary Program for Learning OppoRtunities in analog space Exploration-seeks to ignite interest in STEA

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
China's Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has unveiled a detailed high-energy gamma-ray map of the Milky Way, marking a milestone in the search for the origin of cosmic rays. Through its "Mini Survey of the Milky Way," LHAASO offers the most sensitive view yet of the galaxy in teraelectronvolt (TeV) to petaelectronvolt (PeV) gamma rays. Cosmic rays, high-speed charged par

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Jul 02, 2025
he birth, growth and future of our Universe are eternally fascinating. In the last decades, telescopes have been able to observe the skies with unprecedented precision and sensitivity. Our research team on the South Pole Telescope is studying how the Universe evolved and has changed over time. We have just released two years' worth of mapping of the infant universe over 1/25th of the