Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Alexandra VARDI MITZPE RAMON, Israel (AFP) — Inside a huge crater in Israel’s sun-baked Negev desert, a team wearing space suits ventures forth on a mission to simulate conditions on Mars. The Austrian Space Forum has set up a pretend Martian base with the Israeli space agency at Makhtesh Ramon, a 500-metre (1,600-foot) deep, 40 kilometre (25 mile) wide crater. The six so-called “analogue astronauts” will live in isolation in the virtual station until […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — NASA on Monday announced it would land an ice-seeking rover on a region of the Moon’s south pole called the Nobile Crater in 2023. The space agency hopes the robot will confirm the presence of water ice just below the surface, which could one day be converted into rocket fuel for missions to Mars and deeper into the cosmos. “Nobile Crater is an impact crater near the south pole that […]
Four SpaceX tourists returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending three days in space, successfully concluding the first orbital mission in history with no professional astronauts on board. The SpaceX Dragon capsule, whose heat shield allowed it to withstand descent, was slowed down by four large parachutes before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 7:06 pm (2306 GMT), according to a video feed by the company. “That was a […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after completing the country’s longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the trio deployed its parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:34 pm local time (0534 GMT). “It feels very good to be back!,” Tang Hongbo told state broadcaster CCTV after the 90-day mission, a record for China. “I want to […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 crew are “healthy, happy and resting comfortably,” the company said Thursday in its first update since the pioneering mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral the night before. The four American space tourists “traveled 5.5 times around Earth, completed their first round of scientific research, and enjoyed a couple of meals” before going to bed, Elon Musk’s company said. Musk tweeted that he had personally spoken with the […]
by Lucie AUBOURG Can four people who’ve never been to space before spend three days spinning around Earth after only a few months of training? That’s the challenge SpaceX has set for itself when it launches its first tourism mission on Wednesday, the first time a crew of exclusively private citizens will orbit our planet. A five-hour launch window for “Inspiration4” opens from 8:02 pm (0002 GMT Thursday). A Falcon 9 rocket, with a Dragon […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A smoke alarm sounded Thursday in Russia’s segment of the International Space Station (ISS) and astronauts smelled “burning” on board, Russia’s space agency and NASA said. The incident, which the Russian space agency Roscosmos said happened at 01:55 GMT ahead of a scheduled spacewalk, is the latest in a string of problems to spur safety concerns over conditions on the Russian segment. “A smoke detector was triggered in the Zvezda […]
by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France Presse It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA’s helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn’t ready to retire. Given its stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency has extended Ingenuity’s mission indefinitely. The tiny helicopter has become the regular travel companion of the rover Perseverance, whose core mission is to seek signs of ancient life on Mars. “Everything is working […]
A Russian Soyuz rocket has blasted into space carrying 34 new satellites from British operator Oneweb, which aims to provide broadband internet everywhere in the world. The rocket operated by Europe’s Arianespace took off successfully at 2213 GMT Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Roscosmos space agency said in a statement. It was the fifth launch of OneWeb satellites this year, with the last one on July 1. OneWeb is working to complete […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese astronauts edged into space on Friday to add the finishing touches to a robotic arm on the Tiangong space station. The foray, the second spacewalk in two months and relayed on state television, is part of China’s heavily promoted space programme which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. In June, three crew arrived at the station, where they are set […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An asteroid known as Bennu will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact with our planet in the coming centuries is very slight, scientists said Wednesday. OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft, spent two years near Bennu, an asteroid that is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, observing its size, shape, mass and composition and monitoring its orbital […]
by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The wealthiest man on the planet Jeff Bezos lifted off on his own rocket and reached outer space on Tuesday, a key moment for a fledgling industry seeking to make the final frontier accessible to elite tourists. Blue Origin’s first crewed mission, an 11-minute hop from west Texas to beyond the Karman line and back again, coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the first Moon landing. “It’s […]
