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Elon Musk’s SpaceX is gearing up to destroy one of its own rockets on Saturday to test a crucial emergency abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule, the company’s final milestone test before flying NASA astronauts from US soil. Less than two minutes after liftoff from a launchpad in Florida, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will fire

CAPE CANAVERAL (Reuters) – Bad weather forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX to delay until Sunday a test in which it will destroy one of its own rockets in a trial of a crucial emergency abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule. The SpaceX Crew Dragon sits atop a Falcon 9 booster rocket on Pad 39A at

Instead of habitats made of metal and glass, NASA is exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi to become our future homes in the stars, and perhaps lead to more sustainable ways of living on Earth as well. Creating a livable home for future astronauts means doing more than growing a roof to

The European space agency Arianespace opened its 2020 space missions account with a successful dual satellite launch – India’s communication satellite GSAT-30 and Eutelsat Konnect – into geo-stationary transfer orbit on Friday early hours with its heavy lift of Ariane 5 rocket. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the spaceport in French Guiana. The

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A microorganism scooped up in deep-sea mud off Japan’s coast has helped scientists unlock the mystery of one of the watershed evolutionary events for life on Earth: the transition from the simple cells that first colonized the planet to complex cellular life – fungi, plants and animals including people. A scanning electron

In a new catalogue compiled by researchers, nine sources of extremely high-energy gamma rays have been identified. All nine sources produce gamma rays with energies over 56 trillion electron volts (TeV) — more than eight times the energy of the most powerful proton beams produced at particle accelerators on Earth — and three emit gamma

A recent study by the University of Warwick observes that stars need to be in binary systems to create gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-ray bursts are the universe’s brightest explosions, caused by massive collapsing stars. Thousands of binary star systems were modelled for the study and found that the tidal effects from a companion star keep the

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A climate research organization will offer access to a risk model that predicts the probability of flooding for homes across the United States, giving the public a look at the data institutional investors use to gauge risk.  FILE PHOTO: A neighborhood engulfed in the flood waters of the Arkansas River is

A meteorite that crashed into rural southeastern Australia in a fireball in 1969 contained the oldest material ever found on Earth, stardust that predated the formation of our solar system by billions of years, scientists said on Monday. The oldest of 40 tiny dust grains trapped inside the meteorite fragments retrieved around the town of

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A meteorite that crashed into rural southeastern Australia in a fireball in 1969 contained the oldest material ever found on Earth, stardust that predated the formation of our solar system by billions of years, scientists said on Monday. A scanning electron micrograph of a presolar silicon carbide grain, about 8 micrometers in

Just three days into his internship, little did 17-year-old Wolf Cukier realise that he is going to make history — in helping NASA discover its first Earth-size planet resting in its star’s habitable-zone — the way our Earth rests in its Goldilocks zone. In 2019, when Cukier finished his junior year at Scarsdale High School

FILE PHOTO: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo, who has been chosen as the first private passenger by SpaceX, attends a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, Japan, October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s search for a

Lunar eclipses are much more common than solar eclipses, but are still a sight to behold. The first penumbral lunar eclipse of 2020 is about to fall on January 10 i.e., later this week. NASA has coined the term ‘Wolf Moon Eclipse’ for this celestial event, and it will be visible in India this time.

NASA on Friday celebrated its latest class of graduating astronauts at a public ceremony in Houston, honoring a diverse and gender-balanced group now qualified for spaceflight missions including America’s return to the Moon and eventual journey to Mars. After completing more than two years of basic training, the six women and seven men were chosen

Lunar eclipse of January 2020, known as chandra grahan in Hindi, is all set to start at 10:37pm IST tonight. The celestial event marks the alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, and the penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible from India this time. The total duration of this eclipse will be 4 hour and 5 minutes,

LONDON (Reuters) – A new type of therapy using feces and fake rubber hands may be able to help patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) overcome their fears of touching contaminated surfaces, according to new research. A fake rubber hand used to help people who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is seen in San

Virgin Galactic’s next passenger spaceship has reached a major construction milestone, the company said Wednesday. All major structural elements have been assembled and the rocket plane is standing on its own landing gear at Mojave Air & Space Port in California, Virgin Galactic said in a statement. Photos of the “Weight on Wheels” achievement show

DETROIT/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Self-driving cars employ lidar, a remote sensing technology using pulsed laser light the way radar uses radio waves, and lidar makers waiting for the automotive market to take off are courting new customers who would use the technology for everything from monitoring cattle to helping a disc jockey synchronize dance music.

NASA’s planet-hunter satellite TESS has discovered an Earth-sized world within the habitable range of its star, which could allow the presence of liquid water. Another first for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is its discovery of a world orbiting two stars, evoking the planet Tatooine from Star Wars but unlikely to be hospitable to life

(Reuters) – NASA is opening an independent investigation with Boeing over a software glitch that prevented its unmanned astronaut capsule from reaching the International Space Station in December, the agency said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: One of Boeing Co’s CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsules is seen at a production facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., January

After some initial hype and a series of teasers, Neon has been debuted as an artificial intelligence (AI) powered project by Samsung-backed Star Labs. The new offering is designed to develop computationally created virtual beings that are touted to look and behave like real humans. The company claims that the human avatars created by Neon

NASA has lost contact with a satellite designed to study planets outside our solar system. Mission operators at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement that the last communication with the Asteria (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) was in December and they will attempt to contact it till March.

India has approved its third lunar mission months after its last one failed to successfully land on the moon, its space agency said on Wednesday, the latest effort in its ambitions to become a low-cost space power. The Chandrayaan-3 mission will have a lander and a rover, but not an orbiter, Indian Space Research Organisation

India will launch a heavy communication satellite GSAT-30 on January 17 from Kourou space centre in French Guiana on board an Ariane-5 rocket of the European Space Agency (Arianespace), ISRO chief K. Sivan said on Wednesday. “The launch of GSAT-30 from Kouru will be our first satellite in the New Year (2020) to augment capacity

The Indian Space Research Organisation and Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi are in advanced stage of talks on the provision of chipsets that can support NavIC, the Indian version of Global Positioning System (GPS), an official said in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The Chinese smartphone maker is likely to emerge as the first company to use chips

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A cousin of the starfish that resides in the coral reefs of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico lacks eyes, but can still see, according to scientists who studied this creature that expands the boundaries of the sense of sight in the animal kingdom. A red brittle star, Ophiocoma wendtii, is seen

FILE PHOTO: The logo of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the country’s biggest defence contractor, is seen at their offices next to Ben Gurion International airport, near Or Yehuda, Israel February 27, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner JERUSALEM (Reuters) – State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) [ISRAI.UL] said on Thursday it signed with the Israeli government to build

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared a video simulation of what the company’s Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) could look like. The two-minute clip that Musk tweeted on Monday shows flight crew boarding the capsule-like spaceship Crew Dragon, countdown, take off and separation of the vehicle from the Falcon 9 rocket.

BENGALURU (Reuters) – India has approved its third lunar mission months after its last one failed to successfully land on the moon, its space agency said on Wednesday, the latest effort in its ambitions to become a low-cost space power. FILE PHOTO: India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III-M1 blasts off carrying Chandrayaan-2, from the

India will launch Chandrayaan-3 in 2020, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday, asserting that the mission cost will be less than Chandrayaan-2. Singh, who is the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said it is wrong to term Chandrayaan-2 as a disappointment since it was India’s maiden attempt to land on the

A Chinese court on Monday sentenced the scientist who claimed to be behind the world’s first gene-edited babies to three years in prison for illegal medical practice, state media reported. He Jiankui, who shocked the scientific community last year by announcing the birth of twin girls whose genes had allegedly been altered to confer immunity

One of the sky’s brightest lights is losing its shine. Since the start of December, the star Betelgeuse – the gleaming right shoulder of the constellation Orion – has been rapidly growing dim. Just 650 light-years from Earth, it’s usually the ninth most luminous star in the sky. Right now, it wouldn’t even break the

From India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission to the first all-women spacewalk and commercial crew milestones by US-based companies, 2019 offered several exciting moments for space enthusiasts. India’s ambitious and keenly watched lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, was expected to make its soft landing on the surface of the Moon on September 7. While the whole nation waited with bated

The Mars 2020 rover, which sets off for the Red Planet next year, will not only search for traces of ancient life, but pave the way for future human missions, NASA scientists said Friday as they unveiled the vehicle. The rover has been constructed in a large, sterile room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

FILE PHOTO: Engineers and technicians install the remote sensing mast to the Mars 2020 rover in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, U.S., June 5, 2019. Photo taken June 5, 2019. NASA-JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) – A NASA robotic rover is nearing completion ahead of a journey

Like most teen years, the past decade in technology started out someplace relatively innocent before growing moody, dark and disillusioned. In 2010, we were excited about new iPhones and finding old friends on Facebook, not fretting about our digital privacy or social media’s threat to democracy. Now we are wondering how to rein in the

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Can you make an egg stand on its narrow side during a solar eclipse? An egg is seen on the ground in Shah Alam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia December 26, 2019 in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. HAKEEM MAAROF via REUTERS. According to a popular scientific theory, an

A combination of photos depicts a partial annular solar eclipse observed with the use of a solar filter in Siak, Riau province, Indonesia, December 26, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Thousands of skywatchers gathered across parts of the Middle East and Asia on Thursday to glimpse the sun forming a ring of fire around

Annular solar eclipse 2019 is taking place today, and you are planning to watch the celestial event, you should use safe viewing equipment and proper techniques to view the celestial event as the infrared and ultraviolet rays of the Sun can cause severe retinal damage, a senior astronomer has said. A solar eclipse occurs when

Astronomers have discovered a young star surrounded by an astonishing mass of gas which raises questions about current understanding of planet formation. The star, called 49 Ceti, is 40 million years old and conventional theories of planet formation predict that the gas should have disappeared by that age. “We found atomic carbon gas in the

An oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is seen in this WorldView-2 multi-spectral handout image taken June 10, 2010 and released on December 24, 2019 by Maxar Technologies. Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) – The biggest news events of the past decade have been chronicled from space. The last 10 years have seen a

While we’re set to say goodbye to 2019, a celestial treat is waiting for you just ahead of the New Year celebrations. It’s happening a day after you celebrate Christmas and is the time when the Moon will eclipses the Sun to form a “ring of fire” in the sky. The last solar eclipse of

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows a deforested area in the Amazon rainforest, near the city of Altamira, Para state, Brazil, September 11, 2019. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo BEIJING (Reuters) – An Earth observation satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil was launched into space on Friday under a bilateral programme seen as a template for

FILE PHOTO: The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is guided into position above a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, U.S. November 21, 2019. Picture taken November 21, 2019. NASA/Cory Huston via REUTERS/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s

Boeing’s new Starliner unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday, landing in the New Mexico desert in the United States six days early after a clock problem scuppered a rendezvous with the International Space Station. NASA hailed the aborted flight as a success, despite its failure to reach the ISS on what was meant to

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s (BA.N) Starliner astronaut spacecraft made a “bull’s-eye” landing in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, a successful ending to a crewless test mission that two days earlier failed to reach the orbit needed to dock with the International Space Station. The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which had been launched on

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N)’s Starliner astronaut spacecraft landed in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, the company said, after faulty software forced officials to cut short an unmanned mission aimed at taking it to the International Space Station.  The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which had been launched atop an ULA Atlas V rocket

(Reuters) – The Boeing Co Starliner spacecraft that failed in its mission to reach the International Space Station was due to barrel down to the Earth’s surface early on Sunday with the daunting task of landing safely. FILE PHOTO: The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, atop a ULA Atlas V rocket, lifts off for an uncrewed