Beijing (XNA) May 22, 2021
The Chinese Martian rover Zhurong moved from its landing platform onto the surface of the Red Plane at 10:40 am Saturday, starting its exploration around the landing site, according to the China National Space Administration. The administration said in a statement on Saturday afternoon that according to data sent back to the ground control, the rover's deployment was carried out safely and

London, UK (SPX) May 21, 2021
In what will be the world's first commercial servicing of its kind, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), Inmarsat and MDA UK are among those who won contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA), worth just over 2 million pounds in total, to shape the infrastructure for future lunar exploration. NASA plans to return to the Moon by 2024 and, working with ESA and other partners, intends

Moscow (Sputnik) May 21, 2021
Russia's state space agency Roscosmos revealed the design of future satellites and orbital stations equipped with space nuclear-powered tug technology at the New Knowledge forum in Moscow on Saturday. Alexander Bloshenko, executive director for advanced programs and science at Roscosmos, presented two images of future spacecraft with the Zeus nuclear-powered tug - one with rotary magnetopl

Washington DC (UPI) May 21, 2021
Virgin Galactic completed its first successful space flight in more than two years Saturday. "It was picture perfect," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told The Verge after the flight was completed. "We're gonna go through the data deeply and thoroughly as we always do." In a statement, Colglazier called the flight a "major step forward for both Virgin Galactic and human spaceflight

Moscow (Sputnik) May 21, 2021
Musk also suggested that humanity could expand its reach to other planets in our Solar System that lie beyond Mars with the help of an antimatter-powered spacecraft. Renowned tech entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has recently doubled down on his calls for establishing a human presence on other planets. According to The Independent, Musk voiced his thoughts on the subject dur

Guildford UK (SPX) May 21, 2021
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to lead a Phase A/B1 Study under ESA's Moonlight initiative that will shape the service provision and infrastructure to provide sustainable commercial Lunar data-relay services for communication and navigation around the Moon. The Moonlight Phase A/B1 Study will define the service infrastructure and

Tempe AZ (SPX) May 21, 2021
NASA has selected an Arizona State University-designed spacecraft to fly as an auxiliary payload aboard a rocket launching between 2022 and 2025. It is among 14 small research satellites, called CubeSats, that were chosen for this opportunity through NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. The ASU CubeSat, named LightCube, is about the size of a toaster and will be deployed to low-Earth orbit (L

Beijing (XNA) May 22, 2021
China's first Mars rover, Zhurong, drove down from its landing platform to the Martian surface Saturday, leaving the country's first "footprints" on the red planet. Zhurong's first successful drive made China the second country after the United States to land and operate a rover on Mars. The six-wheeled solar-powered rover, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trun

China's Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet.

The launch last July of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, which carried the Zhurong rover, marked a major milestone in China's space program.

Tianwen-1 touched down on a vast northern lava plain known as the Utopia Planitia a week ago and beamed back its first photos of the surface a few days later.

The Mars probe and rover are expected to spend around three months taking photos, harvesting geographical data, and collecting and analyzing rock samples.

The six-wheeled, solar-powered, 240-kilogram (530-pound) Zhurong is named after a Chinese mythical fire god.