Dictator seen with daughter at celebration for scientists and technicians who finally put Malligyong-1 into space after two failed attempts
The North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, has celebrated a “new era of a space power” with his family including daughter Ju Ae and the scientists who put the North’s first spy satellite into orbit.
Pyongyang’s launch of the Malligyong-1 on Tuesday was its third attempt after failures in May and August.
Continue reading...The soaring price-tag of a plan to fly rock samples back to Earth is jeopardising other space projects, say critics
It is one of the most complex space missions ever contemplated. A flotilla of unmanned probes and robot rovers will be flown to Mars to gather rock samples which will then be blasted back to Earth for study for signs of life.
This is Nasa’s Mars Sample Return and it would involve the first-ever space launch from another planet, as well as the first-ever rendezvous in orbit around another planet.
Continue reading...British astronaut last flew to International Space Station in 2015 as European Space Agency astronaut
The last British astronaut to go into space is to come out of retirement to lead the UK’s first astronaut mission.
Tim Peake, 51, who will be leading the mission, last flew to the International Space Station (ISS) as a European Space Agency astronaut in 2015.
Continue reading...Amid varying levels of cloud cover, Americans gathered and donned special glasses for rare celestial show
It was a moment that won’t happen again for 16 years – and Mother Nature obscured it in some places.
“It was supposed to be sunny in Corpus Christi today and now is clouds everywhere. Trying to see where we have to drive to,” one frustrated eclipse viewer in Texas posted on the Total Solar Eclipse 2024 Facebook page. (The title references next April’s total eclipse, which will be visible in some areas of the US.)
Continue reading...‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse to be visible in California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico
The sun’s “ring of fire” is becoming visible to hundreds of thousands of more Americans as the annular eclipse sweeps across the mainland US in a south-eastern direction towards Texas.
The eclipse has passed Oregon and a sliver of northern California, and sky watchers in New Mexico are the next to experience the full effects of the moon passing in front of the sun.
Continue reading...Annular solar eclipse passed over eight states from Oregon to Texas and partial eclipse was visible in other continental states
As the “moment of annularity” was reached, photos were snapped, crowds cheered and the sky darkened – in the areas that the annular solar eclipse could be seen, at least.
Annularity during a solar eclipse is the moment when the moon is fully in front of the sun, creating the ring of fire that is the visual highlight of today’s eclipse. It lasts for only a few minutes.
Continue reading...The luxury fashion brand announced a collaboration with Axiom Space to outfit astronauts for the 2025 mission to the moon
Prada will take its designs to the next atmospheric level as the Italian fashion house announced its latest partnership with Axiom Space to design spacesuits for astronauts.
This week, the Milan-based luxury brand announced its collaboration with the Texas-based commercial space company to design Nasa’s lunar spacesuits for its 2025 Artemis III mission – the first crewed flight to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Continue reading...Startup PLD Space says launch of Miura-1 is ‘just the beginning’ amid European drive to send satellites into orbit
Spanish company PLD Space launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday from a site in south-west Spain, carrying out Europe’s first fully private rocket launch and offering hope for its stalled space ambitions.
The startup’s test nighttime launch from Huelva came after two previous attempts were scrubbed. The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bull, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100kg (220-pound) cargo capacity. The launch carried a payload for test purposes but this would not be released, the company said.
Continue reading...Dish to pay $150,000 for failing to properly dispose of satellite and violating the FCC’s anti-space debris rule
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued its first fine to a company that violated its anti-space debris rule, the commission announced Monday.
Dish Network has to pay $150,000 to the commission over its failure to de-orbit its EchoStar-7 satellite which has been in space for more than two decades. Instead of properly de-orbiting the satellite, Dish sent it into a “disposal orbit” at an altitude low enough to pose orbital debris risk.
Continue reading...The blog is now closed, but you can read the full story about the successful Osiris-Rex sample touchdown here
Another hope is that by studying the samples from Bennu, scientists can compare their results against the data they obtained from instruments on board the spacecraft.
This ‘ground-truthing’ means they can then calibrate the latter, allowing them to more accurately explore differences in composition across the surface of Bennu. Remember - the samples that are heading from Earth only came from one small crater on the asteroid.
Continue reading...Return of the largest asteroid sample ever to be recovered marks the culmination of a seven-year journey
Sitting isolated in the arid landscape of the Utah desert, its orange and white parachute cast aside, the Osiris-Rex capsule was a picture of stillness. Yet all around, scientists were swinging into action, rushing to recover its precious cargo: 4.6bn-year-old chunks of space rock.
Racing towards the scene were four helicopters bearing scientists, engineers and military safety personnel. Their mission: to recover the capsule as quickly as possible to prevent samples of asteroid Bennu from becoming contaminated by planet Earth.
Continue reading...Regulators insist on 63 corrective steps after world’s largest and most powerful rocket blew up on debut in April
SpaceX’s Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, must stay grounded until the company takes dozens of corrective actions after the rocket’s April debut ended in an explosion, federal regulators said on Friday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it closed its investigation into SpaceX’s failed debut of Starship. The agency is requiring SpaceX to take 63 corrective steps and to apply for a modified FAA license before launching again.
Continue reading...Aditya-L1 is to observe sun’s outermost layers and will be first vessel by any Asian nation to be placed in orbit around sun
The latest mission in India’s ambitious space program has blasted off on a voyage towards the centre of the solar system, a week after the country’s successful unmanned moon landing.
Aditya-L1 launched shortly before midday, with a live broadcast showing hundreds of spectators cheering wildly against the deafening noise of the rocket’s ascent.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The country’s lunar landing was a triumph. This is how it quietly built a successful mission
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Last week India became the fourth ever country to land a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to touch down successfully near its south pole. It was hailed as a success for “budget” missions, with the project costing £60m, less than half of the £131m it cost Christopher Nolan to make his 2014 space epic, Interstellar.
Continue reading...Solar-powered vehicle will spend two weeks roaming lunar surface to help scientists understand geology of moon
India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has rolled its rover on to the moon’s surface after its successful landing at the lunar south pole.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the rover had “ramped down from the lander and India took a walk on the moon”.
Continue reading...India has raised its spacefaring profile and will now be seen as low-cost provider for missions possible
For all the risks, for all that was riding on a successful landing, the descent to the moon’s surface was remarkably uneventful, if not exactly stress-free. The Vikram lander, part of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, dropped steadily on its thrusters to the rock below, slowed to a hover as it approached the ground, and finally came to a rest on the dusty terrain.
When confirmation came that the lander was down, anxiety in the control room gave way to cheers and applause. With the soft touchdown, India becomes the first country to land a probe at the moon’s south pole, a rugged region where deep craters lie in permanent shadow and where ice could provide water, oxygen and fuel for future missions. The first will be on the moon itself, and in lunar orbit, but they could also supply trips to Mars, with the benefit that the materials do not need to be lifted off the Earth’s surface at great cost. It is a region of key scientific interest.
Continue reading...Vikram lander touches down at lunar south pole shortly after 6pm India time
India has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a historic moment that drew cheers at watching parties around the country.
“India is on the moon,” Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s Vikram lander touched down shortly after 6pm (1230 BST) near the little-explored lunar south pole in a world first for any space programme.
Continue reading...Chandrayaan-3 moves into prelanding orbit amid failure of Russian mission
As it was announced that Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years had crashed on to the moon, India’s own mission, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, moved into prelanding orbit.
News on Sunday of the Russian failure was met with excitement and nervousness in India: excitement that India was now poised to win the race to become the first country to land a craft on the moon’s south pole; nervousness that its mission could also go horribly wrong at the last moment.
Continue reading...Craft spun into ‘unpredictable’ orbit before planned touchdown could take place, Russia’s state space corporation says
Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years has failed after its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon, dealing a significant setback to the embattled Russian space programme’s attempt to revive its Soviet-era prestige.
The state space corporation Roscosmos said it had lost contact with the craft at 1157 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.
Continue reading...While meteors are active from July, Perseids will be most visible in northern hemisphere this Saturday and Sunday
Stargazers will be in for a treat this weekend as the best meteor shower of the year is expected to peak.
The Perseids are named after the Greek hero Perseus because the meteor shower appears to come from the eponymous constellation.
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