Tag: space

NASA spacecraft breaks record for coming closest to Sun

TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which launched earlier this year, has set a new record for becoming the closest human-made object to the Sun, the US space agency announced Monday. “The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles (42.73 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about 1:04 pm EDT (1704 GMT),” said a NASA statement. “The previous record for closest solar approach was set […]

Mars likely to have enough oxygen to support life: study

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Salty water just below the surface of Mars could hold enough oxygen to support the kind of microbial life that emerged and flourished on Earth billions of years ago, researchers reported Monday. In some locations, the amount of oxygen available could even keep alive a primitive, multicellular animal such as a sponge, they reported in the journal Nature Geosciences. “We discovered that brines” — water […]

Mercury mission to explore origin of Solar System

by Laurence COUSTAL Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Is Mercury’s core liquid or solid, and why — on the smallest planet in our solar system — is it so big? What can the planet closest to the Sun tell us about how our solar system came into being? An unmanned European-Japanese space mission, dubbed BepiColombo, blasted off early Saturday morning from French Guiana, to probe these and other mysteries. “BepiColombo is coming like […]

Russia probes ISS rocket failure

  by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV in Baikonur with Theo MERZ in Moscow Agence France Presse BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) — Russian investigators have launched a probe into why a Soyuz rocket failed shortly after blast-off, in a major setback for Russia’s beleaguered space industry. US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin were forced to make an emergency landing after the incident on Thursday, but were rescued without injury in Kazakhstan. Russian officials said they were […]

Japan space tourist says moon training ‘shouldn’t be too hard’

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Billionaire Japanese tycoon and future space tourist Yusaku Maezawa’s training to go the moon should not be too tricky, he joked Tuesday, adding that he planned to use free time from his six-hour work day to squeeze it in. The 42-year-old Maezawa paid an undisclosed sum for a ticket on fellow tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket around the moon as early as 2023 and the passionate art collector also plans to […]

Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket blasts off for 100th time

PARIS, France (AFP) — A European-made rocket has blasted off from French Guiana for the 100th time, in a symbolic landmark for its manufacturer as it comes under increasing pressure from Elon Musk’s SpaceX program. The Ariane 5 spacecraft took off from the Caribbean launch site on Tuesday at 19:38 (22:38 GMT), propelling two telecoms satellites into orbit. In service for more than two decades and capable of blasting heavy payloads into the sky, the […]

NASA counts down to launch of laser study of ice sheets

  by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA counted down Saturday to the launch of its $1 billion ICESat-2 mission, using advanced lasers to uncover the true depth of the melting of Earth’s ice sheets. The mission will inform sea level rise forecasts and is “exceptionally important for science,” according to Richard Slonaker, ICESat-2 program executive at NASA. The half-ton satellite should reveal unprecedented detail about the current thickness of […]

NASA space lasers to reveal new depths of planet’s ice loss

by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA is poised to launch Saturday its most advanced space laser ever, ICESat-2, a $1 billion dollar mission to reveal the depths of the Earth’s melting ice as the climate warms. The half-ton satellite, about the size of a smart-car, is scheduled to blast off atop a Delta II rocket on September 15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The 40-minute launch window […]

SpaceX announces new plan to send tourist around Moon

  LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Thursday announced a new plan to launch a tourist around the Moon using its Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a massive launch vehicle that is being designed to carry people to deep space. “SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle — an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space,” […]

For first time in decades, astronaut quits NASA training

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — For the first time in five decades, a NASA astronaut candidate has resigned from training, the US space agency said Tuesday. Robb Kulin resigned from NASA effective August 31 for personal reasons, spokeswoman Brandi Dean said, declining to provide further details. It’s not an easy gig to get — some 18,000 people routinely seek the 12 spots that open each year. Kulin, who joined his class sounding upbeat, is the […]

NASA launches historic probe to ‘touch Sun’

  by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA on Sunday launched a $1.5 billion spacecraft toward the Sun on a historic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms. “Three, two, one, zero, and liftoff! Of the mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, a daring mission to shed light on the mysteries of our closest star, the Sun,” said the narrator […]

NASA counts down to launch of first spacecraft to ‘touch Sun’

by Kerry Sheridan Agence France-Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) – NASA counted down Friday to the launch of a $1.5 billion spacecraft that aims to plunge into the Sun’s sizzling atmosphere and become humanity’s first mission to explore a star. The car-sized Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to blast off on a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida early Saturday. The 65-minute launch window opens at 3:33 am (0733 GMT), and the weather forecast is […]