Category Archives: Space

New Zealand MP says Rocket Lab launches could betray country’s anti-nuclear stance

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The commercial space company rejects criticism of satellite launches for the US military

A New Zealand commercial space company, Rocket Lab, has faced new opposition to its activities on behalf of foreign militaries, with one New Zealand Green MP saying its actions could fly in the face of the country’s anti-nuclear stance.

The American-New Zealand company, founded by Peter Beck in 2006, provides rockets to deliver payloads into orbit from its launch site on the Māhia Peninsula, in New Zealand’s north. A third of Rocket Lab’s activities have been on behalf of defence and national security agencies. These include launching US and Australian spy satellites, the controversial “Gunsmoke J” satellite, and most recently Nasa’s capstone spacecraft.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer fund Starlink internet in Ukraine

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Firm reportedly asks US government to pick up bill as relationship between Musk and Kyiv breaks down

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has said it cannot afford to continue to donate satellite internet to Ukraine and has asked the US government to pick up the bill, according to a report, as the relationship between the billionaire and Kyiv breaks down.

“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote, in a letter seen by CNN.

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Nasa says Dart mission succeeded in shifting asteroid’s orbit

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Space agency attempted first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way

A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles from Earth succeeded in shifting the orbit of the space rock, Nasa said on Tuesday, announcing the results of its first such test.

The US space agency strategically launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (“Dart”) spacecraft into the path of the asteroid, thereby throwing it off course.

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‘Basically a bullseye’: Nasa crashes spacecraft into asteroid to test Earth’s defenses – as it happened

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Space agency conducts Dart mission to learn whether asteroid’s trajectory can be diverted away from Earth

Six minutes to impact on what is one of Nasa’s coolest missions of recent history.

It has taken Dart 10 months and 470m miles to get here, since launch last year.

Usually Nasa spacecraft are intended to operate for many years, or even decades, but not Dart.

Dart was built to be destroyed. Dart is a mission of firsts, proving that a spacecraft can autonomously seek, find and approach a target in space that’s so far away we don’t even know what it looks like.

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Nasa successfully crashes spacecraft into asteroid in planetary defense test

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Bid to change asteroid’s course marks ‘new era of humankind’ as agency seeks to protect Earth from future disaster

A multimillion-dollar spacecraft collided head-on with an asteroid the size of a football stadium on Monday in an unprecedented test of Nasa’s capacity to defend Earth from a doomsday scenario.

Nasa’s craft successfully crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos 6.8m miles from Earth. The mission, known as Dart (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), marked humanity’s first attempt at moving another celestial body, with the goal of seeing if a large asteroid hurtling toward our planet could be successfully diverted.

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Nasa delays Artemis 1 moon rocket launch again as tropical storm Ian looms

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Third delay in the past month for test flight as technical issues and weather hamper US effort to return to the moon after five decades

Nasa is skipping Tuesday’s launch attempt of its new moon rocket over concerns about a tropical storm headed to Florida that could become a major hurricane.

It’s the third delay in the past month for the lunar-orbiting test flight featuring mannequins but no astronauts, a follow-up to Nasa’s Apollo moon-landing program of a half-century ago.

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Water found in asteroid dust may offer clues to origins of life on Earth

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Discovery offers new support for the theory that life may have been seeded from outer space

Specks of dust that a Japanese space probe retrieved from an asteroid about 186 million miles (300m kilometres) from Earth have revealed a surprising component: a drop of water.

The discovery offers new support for the theory that life on Earth may have been seeded from outer space.

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Fireball seen over UK confirmed as meteor after day of confusion

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Experts revise initial assumption that sighting was space junk linked to Elon Musk’s satellite programme

A fireball seen over many parts of the northern UK has been confirmed as a meteor after a day of confusion about its identity.

The fireball was visible above northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland as it blazed across the clear night sky just after 10pm on Wednesday night.

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Fireball seen over Scotland and Northern Ireland was ‘space junk’, say astronomers

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UK Meteor Network says object in night sky most likely a deorbiting satellite from Elon Musk’s SpaceX

A fireball seen over Scotland and Northern Ireland is likely to have been space junk from Elon Musk’s satellite programme, according to astronomers examining it.

The UK Meteor Network said the fireball was visible for 20 seconds just after 10pm on Wednesday night. It received almost 800 reports from Scotland, North Ireland and northern England.

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Nasa calls off Artemis 1 moon rocket launch for second time after fuel leak

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Head of US space agency suggests maiden test flight will probably be delayed until the middle of October

Nasa called off its latest attempt to launch the groundbreaking Artemis 1 moon rocket on Saturday after failing to stem a fuel leak discovered during tanking. It was the second time in five days that technical issues had kept the spacecraft on the launchpad.

Mission managers at Kennedy Space Center waited until late in the countdown to scrub the liftoff after the failure of several workarounds to try to plug the leak of liquid hydrogen as it was being pumped into the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

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Artemis 1: Nasa’s moon rocket springs hazardous leak ahead of launch

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Fuel leak comes after Nasa fixed an engine issue that postponed the original launch attempt five days earlier

Nasa’s pioneering moon rocket sprang a hazardous fuel leak Saturday, throwing into doubt chances of a successful launch on a test flight that must go well before astronauts climb aboard.

The Artemis 1 was poised to make a second attempt to fly on Saturday afternoon after the US space agency declared it had identified and fixed an engine issue that caused the postponement of the original launch attempt five days earlier.

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Nasa’s Moxie instrument successfully makes oxygen on Mars

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Researchers hope scaled-up version could one day generate oxygen to sustain humans on Mars

An instrument the size of a lunchbox has been successfully generating breathable oxygen on Mars, doing the work of a small tree.

Since February last year the Mars oxygen in-situ resource utilisation experiment, or Moxie, has been successfully making oxygen from the red planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

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Nasa to try launching Artemis 1 mission again on Saturday

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An engine problem foiled Monday’s efforts but mission managers said a change in fueling procedures would help

Nasa will make a second attempt at launching its Space Launch System moon rocket this Saturday, the agency has said, five days after technical issues foiled an initial attempt.

The US space agency made the decision on Monday to delay its first attempt to launch a rocket capable of putting astronauts on the moon in 50 years due to engine issues.

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Artemis 1: Nasa cancels moon mission launch over engine problem

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US space agency technicians working against the clock to correct ‘engine bleed’ in time for possible rescheduled lift-off on Friday

Nasa is delaying a decision on the timing of its next launch attempt for Artemis 1, the US space agency’s first human-rated moon rocket in 50 years, after calling off Monday’s scheduled liftoff late in the countdown because of an issue related to “engine bleed”.

Engineers at Nasa’s launch complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida, discovered the problem with one of the four core-stage engines of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket during overnight loading of 2.76m litres (730,000 gallons) of liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel needed to send the spacecraft off on its 1.3m-mile, 42-day journey to the far side of the moon and back.

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‘The Artemis generation’: Nasa to launch first rocket to the moon since 1972

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Test flight that will have no human crew aboard aims to return humans to the moon and eventually land them on Mars

For the first time in 50 years, Nasa on Monday is planning to launch the first rocket that can ferry humans to and from the moon.

The giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to take off from Nasa’s Cape Canaveral, Florida, complex at 8.33am ET (1.33pm UK time) atop an unmanned Orion spacecraft that is designed to carry up to six astronauts to the moon and beyond.

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Artemis 1: crowds flock to watch Nasa’s most powerful rocket blast off to the moon

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Megarocket to lift off from Florida on Monday morning, one of final crucial test steps before astronauts’ return to the moon

The most powerful space rocket ever to leave Earth will take a 50-year leap across the heavens when it rises from its Florida launchpad on Monday, one of the final crucial test steps before humanity’s return to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Artemis 1, comprising Orion, a six-person deep-space exploration capsule, atop a 98m (322ft), 2,600-tonne (2,875-ton) Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, is scheduled for its maiden liftoff at 8.33am ET (1.33pm UK time) from the same Cape Canaveral launch complex that staged the Apollo lunar missions half a century ago.

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Nichelle Nichols to become latest Star Trek star to have ashes sent into space

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The late actor best known as Lieutenant Uhura will join James Doohan, who played Scotty, and creator Gene Roddenberry

The late actor Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, will become the latest member of the 1960s television series to be memorialized by having some of her earthly remains flown into space.

Nichols, who died on 30 July at age 89, is credited with helping shatter racial stereotypes and redefining Hollywood roles for Black actors at the height of the US civil rights movement, as one of the first Black women to portray an empowered character on network television.

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How to photograph a meteor shower: where to take a photo of the Perseids meteors in Australia

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Getting a good shot is tricky so here are some tips to capture a picture of the Perseid meteor shower at its peak in August

After three meteor showers lit up the sky across eastern Australia in July, the Perseid meteor shower will peak 13 August, giving stargazers another opportunity to photograph the fireballs as they blaze across the sky.

But capturing a meteorite shower is not as easy as just taking out your iPhone and pressing the button.

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Perseid meteor shower 2022: how and where to watch in Australia

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The annual Perseids meteor shower will peak on 13 August. Find out the best time to view

After the night sky in Australia was illuminated by a trio of meteor showers – the Piscis Austrinids, the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids late last month, stargazers will be able to see the 2022 Perseid meteor shower peak on 13 August.

The Perseids are considered by Nasa to be “the best meteor shower of the year”. This year, however, they coincide with a full moon on 12 August, resulting in less than ideal viewing conditions. Due to the brightness of the Perseids, though, some meteors should still be visible in a sky illuminated by moonlight.

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US and Australia to launch second joint spy satellite from site in New Zealand

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Some in space industry bewildered by Australia’s lack of fanfare about the launch of the satellites, which will be used to collect intelligence for allied nations

A second spy satellite built by Australia and the United States is scheduled for liftoff on Tuesday from a launch site in New Zealand.

The first of the two satellites, which will be used to collect intelligence for the allied nations, launched two weeks ago.

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