Science

A Los Angeles-area startup founded by a veteran spaceflight robotics engineer unveiled on Thursday its full-scale, working prototype for a next-generation lunar rover that is just as fast as NASA’s old “moon buggy” but is designed to do much more. The company, Venturi Astrolab, released photos and video showing its Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX)

On January 7, space scientists in Europe discovered a large asteroid that appeared to be on a collision course with Earth. They calculated that the 230-feet-wide asteroid, named 2022 AE1, was set to hit Earth on July 4, 2023. The time they had to deflect its path was too narrow to actually mount a response,

If something is close to our view, we tend to lose perspective. To have a clear picture, we need to create distance between ourselves and the view. Astronomers know the importance of visual separation far better than anyone else since they keep looking at the vastness of the Universe most of the time. But they

North Korea will launch a number of reconnaissance satellites in coming years to provide real-time information on military actions by the US and its allies, state media on Thursday reported leader Kim Jong Un as saying. While inspecting North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration, Kim said “a lot” of military reconnaissance satellites would be put

More than 70 original NASA photographs including a celebrated image of Buzz Aldrin’s moon walk taken by Neil Armstrong were sold at auction in Copenhagen on Wednesday for more than EUR 155,000 (roughly Rs. 1.3 crore). The Aldrin image, which fetched EUR 5,373 (roughly Rs. 4,52,000), shows the astronaut on the surface of the moon

Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has launched another 48 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida, US, on March 9 and helped place the small satellites a little later. The rocket’s first stage then returned to Earth for a smooth touchdown on a SpaceX drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has declared that it will suspend the country’s “observer” status at its facilities and freeze new agreements with Russian scientific institutes. The 23 member states of CERN resolved to discontinue all collaboration with Russia at a meeting of the CERN Council, following a

The first NASA photographs taken on the Moon, including the first shot of an “Earthrise” and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface, will be auctioned off in Copenhagen on Wednesday. “One of my favourite photos from this fantastic collection depicts a photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong, and you can actually see Neil

A powerful new image of the giant Jupiter has emerged online. This enhanced colour image was created by citizen scientist Kevin M Gill showed the biggest planet in the solar system under the shadow of its biggest moon, called Ganymede. Gill got the image after analysing data from the 20th close flyby of NASA’s Juno spacecraft. During

A bizarre video posted by Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti shows the International Space Station (ISS) breaking apart in an artist rendering after Russian cosmonauts bid adieu. With this video, we are not sure if Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s Roscomos space corporation, is trying to threaten the US or hinting at something

The state of a three-tonne discarded rocket part that should have crashed into the far side of the Moon by now is not known, say astronomers. Scientists had expected the rocket part to hit the lunar surface on Friday at a speed exceeding 8,800kmph, dig out a small crater, and create a plume of smoke.

British satellite company OneWeb said on Thursday it was suspending all launches from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after Moscow’s space agency demanded guarantees that its technology would not be used for military purposes. The British government, which owns a stake in OneWeb, said it supported the decision. “In light of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked

The Sun is a mysterious place. Its atmosphere gets much hotter the farther one goes from the Sun’s blazing surface. In fact, the outermost part of the Sun (corona) burns at a temperature rising to one million degrees Celsius, while just 1,500 kilometres below, the surface simmers at 5,500 degrees Celsius. The biggest challenge in

SpaceX chief Elon Musk warned there was a high chance the company’s Starlink satellite broadband service could be “targeted” in Ukraine, which has been hit by Russian invasion. The warning came days after an internet security researcher warned that devices used for satellite communications could become “beacons” that Russia could target for airstrikes. “Important warning:

NASA is offering space enthusiasts a chance to fly their names around the Moon. The US space agency has set up a website where you can add your name on a flash drive that will travel aboard Artemis I, an unmanned mission to orbit the Moon and test the Space Launch System (SLS). Artemis I

There was a lot of excitement when astronomers from the Chile-based European Southern Observatory (ESO) claimed to have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, just 1,000 light-years away, in the HR 6819 system. But others had disputed the findings. Now, it appears those who doubted the findings were correct. Research by an international team

A Russian-European mission to land a rover on Mars is “very unlikely” to launch this year due to sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency said. The launch of the Rosalind Franklin rover, whose mission is to drill into Martian soil to seek out signs of life, was originally planned for 2020

NASA has granted three more missions — Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 — to SpaceX as part of its Commercial Human Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract for crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS). This takes the space agency’s total number of crewed missions to the ISS to nine, including the three successful operational trips

Iran likely suffered another failed launch of a satellite-carrying rocket in recent days attempting to reinvigorate a program criticized by the West, even as Tehran faces last-minute negotiations with world powers to save its tattered nuclear deal in Vienna. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies seen by The Associated Press show scorch marks at a launch

An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Florida on Tuesday carrying to orbit the next big satellite designed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide round-the-clock tracking of weather, wildfires and climate change over Earth’s western hemisphere. The GOES-T spacecraft is the third in the latest series of advanced geostationary satellites, credited