Category Archives: Space

‘Mission complete’: billionaire returns to Earth after spacewalk

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Jared Isaacman and crew splash down in SpaceX capsule in the Gulf of Mexico after first ever private spacewalk

The civilian crew on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission returned to Earth on Sunday after a historic five days in orbit that took them higher than anyone since Nasa’s moon trips more than half a century ago.

The Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas shortly after 3.37am local time (8.37am BST), carrying onboard the billionaire tech entrepreneur and mission funder Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former air force Thunderbird pilot.

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Boeing’s Starliner lands on Earth – without its astronauts

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Nasa’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who flew Starliner amid technical failures, will remain at ISS until February

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, months after its original departure date and without the two astronauts it carried when it launched in early June.

Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a Nasa live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.

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Nasa says astronauts stuck in orbit to return with SpaceX crew in February, not on Boeing Starliner

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Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore have been on the International Space Station since 6 June

Nasa has decided that the two astronauts currently stuck on the International Space Station will return next February on a SpaceX-crewed Dragon flight where two seats have been made available for Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

Space agency officials said there was “too much uncertainty” for the astronauts to return on the craft that brought them to the space station, Boeing’s Starliner, which has had problems after the capsule sprang small leaks and some of its thrusters failed.

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UK launches its first Earth-imaging military satellite

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Satellite named Tyche to support armed forces operations as well as monitor natural disasters and impact of climate change

The UK has launched its first military satellite able to capture daytime images and videos of the Earth’s surface.

The satellite, named Tyche, will support British armed forces operations as well as monitor natural disasters, help map information development and track the impact of climate change globally, the Ministry of Defence said.

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‘Not stranded in space’: how Nasa lost control of Boeing Starliner narrative

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Technical issues and poor comms led many to believe two astronauts are lost in space, but a return date is imminent

It should have been a welcome public relations triumph for Boeing, an opportunity to show that even if panels were falling from its aircraft, it could still fly humans into space and return them safely to Earth.

And for a while at least, it looked like it had been successful. The majestic June launch of the much-delayed and over-budget Starliner capsule from Florida, ferrying two Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station, offered a glimpse of a bright new future in the heavens for the troubled aerospace giant.

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Vandalism or the community’s future? Crofters feel ‘helpless’ in face of spaceport radar station

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An antenna park has divided the community living beside a world heritage site in the Scottish Highlands

On a small croft in the shadow of Ben Tongue, a 302-metre high mountain in the Scottish Highlands, Ian and Rachel Broughton lead a quiet life, growing produce and relishing the calm of their rural haven. But changes are afoot.

The retired couple are horrified by plans for a radar station for the Sutherland Spaceport, one of the UK’s first spaceports, on the summit of the mountain, with a new service road that will skirt within metres of their 170-year-old stone cottage.

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‘Once in a lifetime event’: rare chance to see explosion on dwarf star 3,000 light years away

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T Coronae Borealis, or the Blaze Star, was last seen in 1946 and will be visible again some time between now and September

In what is being called a “once-in-a-lifetime event”, light from a thermonuclear explosion on a star has been travelling towards Earth for thousands of years and it will be here any day.

T Coronae Borealis (also known as T Cor Bor, T CrB, and the Blaze Star) will be as bright as the North Star (for those in the northern hemisphere).

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Chinese space rocket crashes in flames after accidental launch

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Company Space Pioneer says first stage of its Tianlong-3 launched during test after ‘structural failure’ and crashed in hills near city of Gongyi

The space rocket of a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday, after it accidentally launched during a test.

The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launch pad due to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket and the test stand, said company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account. The rocket landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China, it said.

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China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe returns world’s first samples from far side of the moon

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Re-entry capsule containing precious cargo from mission has parachuted into Inner Mongolia

China has become the first country to gather samples from the far side of the moon and bring them back to Earth in a landmark achievement for the Beijing space programme.

A re-entry capsule containing the precious cargo parachuted into a landing zone in the rural Siziwang Banner region of Inner Mongolia on Tuesday after being released into Earth’s orbit by the uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe.

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US family sues Nasa for $80,000 in damages after space debris hits home

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Debris was from a pallet released from space station that did not burn up in atmospheric re-entry

A family in Naples, Florida, whose home was struck by debris that fell to Earth from outer space and punched a hole in the roof is pursuing $80,000 from Nasa in compensation for damages.

The law firm Cranfill Sumner said in a press release that it filed a claim on behalf of plaintiff Alejandro Otero and his family.

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Boeing Starliner capsule docks with space station despite helium leaks

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Successful maneuver means two US-built crewed spacecraft are anchored to ISS simultaneously for first time

Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule and its two astronauts overcame a technical hiccup to finally dock with the international space station on Thursday, as Nasa continued to monitor two separate helium leaks that have concerned mission managers.

A first attempt at the rendezvous was called off when engineers at the US space agency detected a problem with reaction control thrusters essential to the high-precision docking maneuver.

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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft lifts off for first crewed flight after multiple delays

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Launch from Cape Canaveral carrying two Nasa astronauts comes seven years after capsule’s original target date

Two Nasa astronauts were on their way to the international space station on Wednesday after Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule finally made its much delayed first crewed flight from Cape Canaveral.

The visually stunning liftoff, against a mostly clear and blue Florida sky, came seven years beyond the spacecraft’s original target date, five years after the failure of an uncrewed test flight, and following a more recent series of postponements for technical reasons that saw launch attempts aborted twice.

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Carbon detected in galaxy observed 350m years after big bang

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Exclusive: ‘Massive’ discovery raises possibility that conditions for life were present almost from dawn of time

Astronomers have detected carbon in a galaxy observed just 350m years after the big bang, in observations that raise the possibility that the conditions for life were present almost from the dawn of time.

The observations, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, suggest that vast amounts of carbon were released when the first generation of stars exploded in supernovae. Carbon is known to have seeded the first planets and is a building block for life as we know it, but was previously thought to have emerged much later in cosmic history.

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China’s lunar probe on way back to Earth from far side of the moon

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Uncrewed Chang’e-6 lander is carrying rock and soil samples in ‘very important achievement’ after lunar liftoff

China’s uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe is on its way back to Earth carrying the first samples from the far side of the moon, in a major achievement for Beijing’s space programme.

The probe landed on the lunar surface on Sunday, within one of the oldest craters on the moon – the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin – then spent two days gathering rock and soil samples using its drill and robotic arm.

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China’s Chang’e-6 probe lands on far side of the moon

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Spacecraft to collect samples from rarely explored area after landing heralded as ‘enormous technical achievement’

China has landed its uncrewed Chang’e-6 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, marking an important step in the country’s 53-day mission to retrieve rock and soil samples from the “dark” lunar hemisphere, in what would be a world first.

The landing elevates China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the US are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.

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North Korea spy satellite explodes in flight as latest launch fails

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Cause of accident was ‘operational reliability of engine’, says Pyongyang, after two failed attempts last year

North Korea’s latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit ended in a mid-air explosion, Pyongyang said late Monday, hours after its announcement of a planned launch was criticised by Seoul and Tokyo.

Japanese broadcaster NHK ran footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded into a fireball. NHK said the footage was taken from northeast China at the same time as the attempted launch.

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Potentially habitable planet size of Earth discovered 40 light years away

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Queensland- and Scotland-based PhD students co-lead team celebrating ‘Eureka moment’ spotting Gliese 12b

An Australian university student has co-led the discovery of an Earth-sized, potentially habitable planet just 40 light years away.

Shishir Dholakia, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland, is part of an international team that published the discovery in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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First Black astronaut candidate, now 90, reaches space in Blue Origin flight

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Ex-air force captain Ed Dwight, passed over by Nasa in 1961, now oldest person to reach edge of space with Jeff Bezo’s space firm

Sixty-one years since he was selected but ultimately passed over to become the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight finally reached space in a Blue Origin rocket – and set a different record.

At 10.37am on Sunday, Jeff Bezos’s space company launched its NS-25 mission from west Texas, marking Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight since 2022 when its New Shepard rocket was grounded due to a mid-flight failure.

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Aurora australis offers second chance of ‘bloody awesome’ southern lights display on Sunday

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Solar storm effects delight stargazers in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia but most in NSW miss out

Australians should have a second chance to see the aurora australis on Sunday night, experts say, after a Saturday southern lights display so spectacular it left at least one astronomer in tears.

Social media users posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and around the world.

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Aurora australis: spectacular southern lights might be seen as far north as Queensland after ‘extreme’ solar storm

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Social media users post pictures of skies lit up around the country while the Bureau of Meteorology warns of solar storm’s impacts

Aurora australis has lit up skies across southern Australia after an “extreme” geomagnetic solar storm.

Social media users in posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and across the Tasman in New Zealand.

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