The air force’s mystery space plane is back on Earth, following a record-breaking two-year mission.
Related: Virgin Galactic launches (on the New York Stock Exchange)
Continue reading...Christina Koch and Jessica Meir leave International Space Station to replace faulty device
Two Nasa astronauts have embarked on the first all-female space walk in a historic first.
Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated feet-first out of the International Space Station’s Quest airlock on Friday lunchtime UK time, tasked with replacing a failed power control unit.
Continue reading...The Soviet cosmonaut almost didn’t make it back into his capsule in 1965, when his suit inflated in the space vacuum
Alexei Leonov, the legendary Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to walk in space 54 years ago, has died in Moscow at 85.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced the news on its website on Friday, but gave no cause of death. Leonov had health issues for several years, according to Russia media.
Continue reading...PM says five-year commitment designed to make Australia ‘partner of choice’ to support expeditions to moon and Mars
Scott Morrison has used a visit to Nasa on Saturday local time to unveil a $150m investment in Australian businesses and new technology to support the American space agency launch expeditions to the moon and to Mars.
The Australian prime minister on his second day in the American capital visited Nasa, and also laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Morrison visited the graves of Australian military personnel and visit the tomb of The Unknown Soldier.
Continue reading...Scientists believe the Beresheet’s unusual cargo may be alive and well on the moon
The odds of finding life on the moon have suddenly rocketed skywards. But rather than elusive alien moonlings, the beings in question came from Earth and were spilled across the landscape when a spacecraft crashed into the surface.
The Israeli Beresheet probe was meant to be the first private lander to touch down on the moon. And all was going smoothly until mission controllers lost contact in April as the robotic craft made its way down. Beyond all the technology that was lost in the crash, Beresheet had an unusual cargo: a few thousand tiny tardigrades, the toughest animals on Earth.
Continue reading...The Apollo 11 mission inspired the world. What has happened in the ensuing half-century?
When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon 50 years ago, it was down to a giant leap of political and scientific imagination. His footprints on the powdery lunar surface changed the way we saw ourselves, confirming that humanity could escape its earthly coils. The mission unleashed a dream of what we as a species might do. Yet only a dozen people have walked on the moon, all between the summer of 1969 and the end of 1972.
Did we lose our primordial urge to explore? Almost certainly not – though Buzz Aldrin this week decried “50 years of non-progress”, probes have travelled to Pluto and beyond. But times have changed. The cold war rivalry that catalysed the space race vanished. The Soviet Union was first with a satellite, dog and astronaut in space. Today Washington and Moscow play the great game in the Middle East, not the heavens, although both are now contemplating a return to the moon: Donald Trump wants to make America great again by putting astronauts there by 2024, though some think China may get there first; Russia talks of landing cosmonauts by 2030.
Continue reading...Thwaites glacier is likely to thaw and trigger 50cm sea level rise, US study suggests
Antarctica faces a tipping point where glacial melting will accelerate and become irreversible even if global heating eases, research suggests.
A Nasa-funded study found instability in the Thwaites glacier meant there would probably come a point when it was impossible to stop it flowing into the sea and triggering a 50cm sea level rise. Other Antarctic glaciers were likely to be similarly unstable.
Continue reading...Curiosity’s record-breaking measurement fuels speculation it is from microbial Martians
Nasa’s Curiosity rover has detected its largest belch of methane on Mars so far, fuelling speculation that the robot may have trundled through a cloud of waste gas released by microbial Martians buried deep under the surface.
Mission scientists announced on Monday that Curiosity had measured a record-breaking 21 parts per billion (ppb) of methane in the air in Gale crater, the rover’s landing site and area of exploration. The level is substantially more than the 5.8ppb it sensed on 16 June 2013.
Continue reading...President tweeted Nasa should focus on ‘Mars (of which the Moon is a part)’ over going to the moon, a reversal of previous remarks
Followers of astronomy were in for a surprise on Friday, when Donald Trump announced that the moon is part of Mars.
In a tweet, apparently commenting on his own administration’s space policy, the president said: “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago.”
Continue reading...Space agency chief says shooting down of satellite has created 400 pieces of orbital debris
India’s destruction of one of its satellites has been labelled a “terrible thing” by the head of Nasa, who said the missile test created 400 pieces of orbital debris and posed a threat to astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Jim Bridenstine was addressing employees five days after India shot down a low-orbiting satellite in a missile launch that it says elevated the country to the elite tier of space powers.
Continue reading...The spandex-based controversy has been broiling in the west for years; and it’s not just men policing women’s bodies, women are doing it to themselves
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Continue reading...Space agency blames shortage of outerwear after first-of-its-kind mission falls through
Nasa’s plans for an all-female spacewalk have fallen through – at least in part because the agency doesn’t have enough spacesuits that fit the astronauts.
Early this month, Nasa announced that Christina Koch and Anne McClain would take part in the first-of-its kind mission on 29 March, walking outside the international space station (ISS) to install new batteries. In the past, missions have been all-male or male-female.
Continue reading...Nasa’s quest to resume manned space flight from the US moves a step closer
The SpaceX commercial astronaut capsule has splashed down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean, marking a significant step in Nasa’s quest to resume manned space flight from the US.
The Crew Dragon capsule, whose lone occupant was a test dummy named Ripley, spent a week docked at the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to Earth on Friday morning.
Continue reading...Christina Koch and Anne McClain to make history at International Space Station on 29 March
The first all-female spacewalk is to take place later this month, 35 years after a woman first took part in one.
The US space agency Nasa said astronauts Christina Koch and Anne McClain will walk outside the International Space Station on 29 March on a mission to replace batteries installed last summer.
Continue reading...Launch brings US plans to resume sending people into space in own spacecraft closer
Astronauts could be flying again from US soil as early as this summer after the flawless launch of SpaceX’s privately built Crew Dragon capsule opened “a new era in American excellence”, according to the head of the space agency Nasa.
Related: Spacewatch: Nasa to launch new crewed craft in 2019
Continue reading...Mystery shrouds ‘very faint’ planetary body that appears to be 140 times further from the sun than Earth
A new object has been discovered in the distant reaches of our solar system and given the name FarFarOut, according to a prominent astronomer.
At 140 times further away from the sun than our own planet is, the newly identified body – if its discovery is confirmed – will become the furthest known object in our solar system.
Continue reading...Robot the size of a golf buggy has sent data to Earth for 15 years but fell silent eight months ago and Nasa says mission is complete
Nasa declared the 15-year mission of the veteran Mars rover Opportunity finally over on Wednesday, crediting the robot as having “transformed our understanding of our planet”.
The golf buggy-sized vehicle last made contact with Earth eight months ago, after being caught in a global dust storm.
Continue reading...Disintegration of rapidly melting Thwaites ice mass could threaten coastal communities worldwide
Scientists have discovered a giant cavity at the bottom of a disintegrating glacier in Antarctica, sparking concerns that the ice sheet is melting more rapidly than expected.
Researchers working as part of a Nasa-led study found the cavern, which they said was 300 metres tall and two-thirds the size of Manhattan, at the bottom of the massive Thwaites glacier.
Continue reading...Island sprang up near Tonga three years ago, giving researchers a glimpse of how flora and fauna colonise it
Nasa scientists have landed for the first time on one of the world’s newest islands, and discovered the three-year-old land mass is now covered in a sticky, mysterious mud, as well as vegetation and bird life.
The volcanic island sprang up in the ocean surrounding Tonga three years ago, one of only three new islands to emerge in the last 150 years that have survived more than a few months.
Continue reading...Images of rock on the edge of the solar system were taken on the most distant flyby in history
Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed home its first close-up images of Ultima Thule, a lump of rock the shape of an unfinished snowman that lies 4 billion miles away on the edge of the solar system.
Taken as the probe sped past the body in the early hours of New Year’s Day, the pictures reveal a dark reddish object about 21 miles long and 10 miles wide that spins on its axis once every 15 hours or so. The colour image of Ultima Thule, revealing its reddish tint, was taken at 05.01 GMT on New Year’s Day from a distance of about 18,000 miles, 30 minutes before the probe made its closest pass of the space rock.
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