United States | AFP | SpaceX’s “Demo-2” mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this weekend will be the first flight with astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon capsule built by entrepreneur Elon Musk’s commercial space company. SpaceX conducted a successful test flight of Crew Dragon to the International Space Station …
Read More »SpaceX ready to launch astronauts into space for the first time
Washington, United States | AFP | In the beginning, everyone was skeptical. But Elon Musk’s SpaceX defied expectations — and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two NASA astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years. US President Donald Trump will be among …
Read More »Mission Impossible to Mission Control: Tom Cruise to film in space
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Tom Cruise will film his next Hollywood blockbuster on location — 250 miles up in the air and orbiting the Earth once every 90 minutes. The “Top Gun” star will fly through the stratosphere to shoot an as-yet-unknown film aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said on …
Read More »NASA’s trip to Mars begins in California ‘clean room’
Pasadena, United States | AFP | NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will head off for the Red Planet next year. But like Voyager, Galileo and Cassini before it, the mission’s epic journey began in a “clean room” in California. One of two ultra-sterile labs used for spacecraft assembly at the Jet Propulsion …
Read More »NASA finds Indian Moon lander with help of amateur space enthusiast
Washington, United States | AFP | India’s Vikram lunar lander, which crashed on its final approach to the Moon’s surface in September, has been found thanks in part to the sleuthing efforts of an amateur space enthusiast. NASA made the announcement on Monday, releasing an image taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance …
Read More »African forest fires in spotlight after Amazon outcry
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | In NASA satellite images, forest fires in central Africa appear to burn alarmingly like a red chain from Gabon to Angola similar to the blazes in Brazil’s Amazon that sparked global outcry. At the G7 summit this week, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted about the …
Read More »NASA descends on Icelandic lava field to prepare for Mars
The Lambahraun lava field, Iceland | AFP | To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job. With its black basalt sand, wind-swept dunes and craggy peaks, the Lambahraun …
Read More »One giant leap: 50 years ago, humanity’s first steps on the Moon
Houston, United States | AFP | “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”: it was with these words that Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon 50 years ago, an occasion celebrated by space enthusiasts globally Saturday. The era-defining event was …
Read More »How conspiracy theories followed man to the Moon
Paris, France | AFP | It was the biggest piece of supposed fake news before the term “fake news” was even invented. Millions of people across the world still believe that no one has ever walked on the Moon, and that the images that NASA broadcast in July 1969 were shot …
Read More »NASA to open International space station to tourists from 2020
New York, United States | AFP | NASA said Friday it will open up the International Space Station to business ventures including space tourism as it seeks to financially disengage from the orbiting research lab. Price tag? Tens of millions of dollars for a round trip ticket and $35,000 a night. …
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