JINCHANG, China (Reuters) – About 100 excited Chinese teenagers completed a five-hour tour of a space colony against a desolate backdrop not unlike the desert planet of Tatooine, the home world of Luke Skywalker. They were not on the set of Star Wars, but at a Chinese-built Mars simulation base in the barren, windswept hills…
Continue ReadingWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists on Monday provided the most comprehensive look to date at one of the solar system’s most exotic features: prime lakeside property in the northern polar region of Saturn’s moon Titan – if you like lakes made of stuff like liquid methane. Using data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before that mission…
Continue ReadingJERUSALEM (Reuters) – The aerospace company behind Israel’s failed first moonshot said on Saturday it would pursue a second mission with funds raised from private donors and the public. The robot craft Beresheet, built by non-profit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), crashed on its final descent on Thursday, dashing Israel’s hope of becoming…
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(Reuters) – The most powerful operational rocket in the world, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, launched its first commercial mission on Thursday from Florida in a key demonstration for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s space company in the race to grasp lucrative military launch contracts. The 23-story-tall Heavy, which previously launched Musk’s cherry red Tesla roadster to space…
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) – An American astronaut experienced multiple biological changes in space but returned to normal – with some exceptions – after coming back to Earth, according to a study involving twin brothers that shed light on how space flight affects the human body. In research published on Thursday, scientists compared Scott Kelly…
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YEHUD, Israel (Reuters) – The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed onto the moon on Thursday after a series of technical failures during its final descent, shattering hopes of a historic controlled landing on the lunar surface. The unmanned robotic lander suffered periodic engine and communications failures during the 21 minutes or so of the landing sequence,…
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YEHUD, Israel (Reuters) – The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet reached the moon on Thursday but its planned controlled, or “soft”, landing was unsuccessful, the support team said. The spacecraft had a number of technical problems during its final descent to the lunar surface, the team said. Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Kevin LiffeyOur Standards:The Thomson…
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(Reuters) – Virgin Galactic’s first test passenger received her commercial astronaut wings from the U.S. aviation regulator on Tuesday after flying on the company’s rocket plane to evaluate the customer experience in February. Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, Beth Moses, who is a former NASA engineer, became the first woman to fly to space on…
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thirteen fossil bones and teeth excavated in a cave in the Philippines represent an enigmatic previously unknown human species, probably small in stature and possessing an unexpected mix of archaic and modern traits, scientists said on Wednesday. The discovery of remains of at least three individuals from this species, named Homo luzonensis,…
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Using a global network of telescopes to see “the unseeable,” an international scientific team on Wednesday announced a milestone in astrophysics – the first-ever photo of a black hole – in an achievement that validated a pillar of science put forward by Albert Einstein more than a century ago. Black holes are…
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