The Pigeon Express
The US-New Zealand Rocket Lab company has taken a big step forward in its quest to re-use its launch vehicles by catching one as it fell back to Earth. A helicopter grabbed the booster in mid-air as it parachuted back towards the Pacific Ocean after a mission to orbit 34 satellites. The pilots weren’t entirely […]
The European Space Agency announced that it will stop working with Russia on moon missions because of their attack in Ukraine. “Following the Russian aggression against Ukraine, ESA’s Director General has initiated a comprehensive review of all activities currently undertaken in cooperation with Russia and Ukraine,” a statement from the ESA said. “The objective is […]
SpaceX has lost dozens of satellites after they were hit by a geomagnetic storm a day after launch, causing them to fall from orbit and burn up. Such solar “storms” are caused by powerful explosions on the sun’s surface, which spit out plasma and magnetic fields that can hit the Earth. The company, owned by […]
A billion-year-old black diamond thought to have come from outer space is going up for auction. Named The Enigma, it is believed to be the largest cut diamond on earth and may have formed from a meteoric impact. At 555.55 carats the gem is considered extremely heavy for a diamond, weighing about the same as […]
NASA intends to keep operating the International Space Station until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo, according to newly published plans outlining its future. In the International Space Station Transition Report, NASA said the plan was for the […]
Space debris from a Russian anti-satellite missile test came within 47 feet of knocking out China’s Tsinghua science satellite this week, Beijing claims. The near-miss between Tsinghua and the piece of debris, called 49863, occurred at 02:49 GMT on January 18, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has said, based on tracking data. The two […]
Australian scientists say they have discovered an unknown spinning object in the Milky Way that they claim is unlike anything seen before. The object has been observed to release a huge burst of radio energy for a full minute every 18 minutes. Objects that pulse energy in the universe are often documented. But researchers say […]
A SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after spending almost seven years hurtling through space, experts say. The booster was originally launched from Florida in February 2015 as part of an interplanetary mission to send a space weather satellite on a million-mile journey. But after completing a long burn of its […]
Thirty days after it was launched, the James Webb telescope has arrived at the position in space where it will observe the Universe. The Lagrange Point 2, as it’s known, is a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth on its nightside. Webb was finally nudged into an orbit around this location thanks to a […]
An asteroid estimated to be a kilometer wide will fly by Earth on January 18. It will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at 47,344 miles per hour, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks potentially hazardous comets and asteroids that could collide with our planet. The approaching […]
The James Webb Space Telescope has completed its two-week-long deployment phase, unfolding its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror panel as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history. Engineering teams cheered back at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland as NASA announced on Twitter that the final portion of the 6.5-metre (21-foot) mirror […]
An out-of-control Russian rocket stage has re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the latest estimate from US Space Command, which has been tracking its descent. The Angara-A5 heavy-lift rocket was launched from the Plesetsk spaceport in Russia’s northwestern Arkhangelsk region on Monday, December 27. The launch was testing a new upper rocket stage, known as […]