Copernical Team
NASA continues to delay return of Boeing Starliner, astronauts from ISS
There still is no return date set for the Starliner astronauts aboard the International Space Station, officials with NASA and Boeing said Thursday.
NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich in a conference call Thursday morning said the agency has made significant progress in assessing the Starliner's return capability but there is no official plan to bring the astronauts home. SpaceX cleared to launch Falcon 9 rocket again
SpaceX's stalwart Falcon 9 rocket has been cleared for launch after experiencing a rare failure earlier this month, officials said Thursday.
The rocket, a prolific launch vehicle that propels both satellites and astronauts into orbit, experienced an anomaly during a launch on July 11 in its second stage booster that meant it failed to deploy 20 Starlink satellites at a high enough altitude, Gilmour Space to Start Hypersonic Flight Tests in 2025
Gilmour Space Technologies, an Australian launch services company, has announced a new suborbital flight test service targeted at commercial and defense customers needing hypersonic speeds above Mach 5.
"We've witnessed a surge in the research and development of hypersonic vehicles, materials, and other related technologies in recent years, especially since AUKUS (a trilateral security par Earth from Space: Paris in focus
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This striking high-resolution image offers an in-depth view of central Paris, allowing you to explore and zoom into the city’s most captivating areas in exceptional detail. NASA says no return date yet for astronauts and troubled Boeing capsule at space station
Already more than a month late getting back, two NASA astronauts will remain at the International Space Station until engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing capsule, officials said Thursday.
Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing's new Starliner capsule prompted NASA and Boeing to keep them up longer.
NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said mission managers are not ready to announce a return date.
Expert Q&A: NASA's cancellation of VIPER is a frustrating setback for lunar exploration
In July 2024, NASA announced it canceled its plans to send the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the moon's southern polar region. The rover was meant to search for water and other resources called volatiles, such as hydrogen, ammonia and carbon dioxide, which easily evaporate in warm temperatures.
Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, reiterated the agency's commitment "to exploring the moon for the benefit of humanity" through other missions.
Fifty-five years have passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made a giant leap for mankind.
Space-trekking muscle tests drugs for microgravity-induced muscle impairment
A gentle rumble ran under Ngan Huang's feet as a rocket carrying her research—live, human muscle cells grown on scaffolds fixed on tiny chips—lifted off, climbed, and disappeared into the sky to the International Space Station National Laboratory. These chips would help Huang better understand muscle impairment, often seen in astronauts and older adults, and test drugs to counter the condition.
Now, the results are back. Reporting in a study published July 25 in Stem Cell Reports, Huang's team showed that space-traveling muscle had metabolic changes that indicate impaired muscle regeneration and gene activities associated with age-related muscle loss called sarcopenia. But drug treatment partially prevented microgravity's adverse effects.
"Space is a really unique environment that accelerates qualities associated with aging and also impairs many healthy processes," says Huang, an associate professor at Stanford University.
"Astronauts come back with muscle atrophy, or a reduction of muscle function, because the muscle isn't being actively used in the absence of gravity.
How Europe’s biggest rocket came to be: Ariane 6 montage
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The first half of 2024 saw hundreds of people across Europe building, cajoling, shipping, lowering, integrating, securing and protecting the precious pieces and parts that came together to create Ariane 6 – Europe’s new heavy-lift rocket.
Huge engines, boosters and outer shells met tiny screws, electrical boards and masses of supercooled fuel. All this came together at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, for the spectacular first launch of Ariane 6 on 9 July 2024, restoring Europe’s access to space.
Get a glimpse at the teamwork, skill and care that went into this moment over many months, in this montage
From Concordia to the Moon
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Concordia is a research station in Antarctica that places you farther away from humankind than even the International Space Station. Every year, ESA sponsors a medical doctor to spend a year, or "winterover," at Concordia station. This year, our medical doctor is Jessica Kehala Studer, who is seen in this picture gazing at the Moon and the vast expanse of Antarctica. Around May, the Sun dips below the horizon for the last time, and the crew experiences four months of total darkness, with temperatures dropping to –80°C in winter.
The station serves as an analogue for space, mirroring the
