CLARK, Philippines, Feb 9, 2024 (AFP) – NASA has kicked off a series of marathon flights in Asia with the world’s biggest flying laboratory, in an ambitious mission to improve the models that help to forecast and fight air pollution. Millions of deaths each year are linked to air pollution, and improving the ability to identify its sources and behaviour can lead to more accurate warning systems for the public. Starting this week in the […]
Tag: NASA
Living in extraordinary times! – ASEAN in Focus February 5, 2024
Russia, NASA agree to continue joint ISS flights until 2025
MOSCOW, Dec 28, 2023 (AFP) – Russian and US space agencies have agreed to keep working together to deliver crews to the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2025, Russian corporation Roscosmos said Thursday. The space sector — including its so-called cross-flights that involve sending crews from different nationalities on one spacecraft — is a rare area of cooperation remaining between Moscow and Washington since Russia sent troops to Ukraine. “An agreement was reached […]
US astronaut gets used to Earth after record-setting 371 days in space
HOUSTON, Oct 14, 2023 (AFP) – After spending more than a year in space, Frank Rubio now has to get used to that pesky thing Earthlings call gravity. “Walking hurts a little bit the first few days, the soles of your feet and lower back,” he said at a news conference Friday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “I think there is a certain level of pain that comes with the fact […]
NASA set to journey to a metal-rich asteroid
By Chandan Khanna with Issam Ahmed in Washington KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, United States, Oct 12, 2023 (AFP) – It’s a world like no other: a metal-rich asteroid that could be the remnants of a small planet, or perhaps an entirely new type of celestial body unknown to science. A NASA probe is set to blast off Friday bound for Psyche, an object 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) away that could offer clues about the […]
NASA asteroid sample contains life-critical water and carbon
By Moises Avila with Issam Ahmed in Washington HOUSTON, Oct 11, 2023 (AFP) – A sample collected from the asteroid Bennu contains abundant water and carbon, NASA revealed on Wednesday, offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. The discovery follows a seven-year-round-trip to the distant rock as part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, which dropped off its precious payload in the Utah desert last month for painstaking scientific […]
NASA to unveil first images of historic asteroid sample
By Moises Avila with Issam Ahmed in Washington HOUSTON, Oct 11, 2023 (AFP) – NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself. The OSIRIS-REx mission collected rock and dust from the asteroid Bennu in 2020, and a capsule containing the precious cargo successfully […]
Major asteroid sample brought to Earth in NASA first
DUGWAY, United States, Sept 24, 2023 (AFP) – A seven-year space voyage came to its climactic end Sunday when a NASA capsule landed in the desert in the US state of Utah, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected. Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable. “Touchdown of the Osiris-Rex sample return capsule!” […]
Historic NASA asteroid mission set for perilous return
WASHINGTON, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – NASA’s first mission to retrieve an asteroid sample and return it to US soil is expected to reach a perilous finale on Sunday with a descent into the Utah desert. Scientists hope the material — possibly the most ever retrieved by such a mission — will provide humanity with a better understanding on the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable. The US space probe OSIRIS-REx, […]
NASA to publish long-awaited UFO report
NASA is set to release on Thursday the findings of a long-awaited study on unexplained flying objects in Earth’s skies. The US space agency announced last year it was reviewing evidence regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs — which has replaced the term “UFO” in official parlance. The subject has long fascinated the public but was shunned by mainstream science. An independent team of 16 researchers shared their preliminary observations in May, finding that existing […]
NASA and SpaceX postpone launch of ISS crew rotation mission
By Greg Newton NASA and SpaceX said Thursday they have postponed the launch of a crew of four to the International Space Station. NASA said the mission was “standing down” from a scheduled Friday launch time, but did not provide a reason for the move. “Launch now is targeted at 3:27 am (local time; 07:27 GMT) Saturday, Aug. 26, for SpaceX’s seventh crew rotation mission to the microgravity laboratory for NASA,” the US space agency […]
One giant step: Moon race heats up
NEW DELHI, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – India became the first nation to successfully land a craft on the Moon’s south pole on Wednesday, the latest milestone in a renewed push for lunar exploration that has drawn in both the world’s top space powers and new players. New Delhi’s attempt came days after the crash-landing on the Moon of Russia’s Luna-25 probe. Here is the latest on various missions to the celestial body: – India’s […]





