Beijing (AFP) May 19, 2021
Solar panels against an alien landscape, ramps and rods pointing at the Martian horizon - China's first probe on the Red Planet has beamed back its first "selfies" after its history-making landing last week. The Zhurong rover was carried into the Martian atmosphere in a lander on Saturday, in the first ever successful probe landing by any country on its first Mars mission. Zhurong, name

Munich, Germany (SPX) May 20, 2021
A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those far from the Sun. A separate study by a Polish team, who also used ESO data, reported that nickel vapour is also present in the icy interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. This is the fi

Melbourne, Australia (The Conversation) May 20, 2021
China's Zhurong rover landed safely on Mars on May 15, making China only the third country to successfully land a rover on the red planet. More impressively still, China is the first Mars-going nation to carry out an orbiting, landing and rovering operation as its first mission. Planetary scientist Roberto Orosei told Nature China is "doing in a single go what NASA took decades to

Krakow, Poland (SPX) May 20, 2021
Unbound nickel atoms and other heavy elements have been observed in very hot cosmic environments, including the atmospheres of ultra-hot exoplanets and evaporating comets that ventured too close to our Sun or other stars. A new study conducted by JU researchers reveals the presence of nickel atoms in the cold gasses surrounding the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. The team's finding is being publi

New Orleans LA (SPX) May 20, 2021
Technicians at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans stacked two of three hardware elements for NASA's Space Launch System rocket in an assembly area in the facility on April 28. Crews connected the liquid oxygen tank flight hardware with the intertank. Later, they will add the forward skirt to form the upper portion of the core stage that will help power Artemis II, the first c

Washington (AFP) May 19, 2021
An online bid for a seat aboard Blue Origin's first crewed spaceflight was going for $2.6 million on Wednesday afternoon as the company prepares to blast off this summer. Would-be customers have until June 10 before the current phase ends, and the company will hold a live final round on June 12, with the proceeds going to the company's charitable foundation. Jeff Bezos' space venture is

Brussels, Belgium (SPX) May 20, 2021
The world first Methalox 3D printed aerospike engine The European space start-up Pangea Aerospace raised euro 3 million to close its seed round. The round has been led by Inveready and backed up by Primo space, Dozen Investments, E2MC and CDTI. The capital raised will be used to additively manufacture and test the first engine of this kind and work towards a commercial-ready aerospike engine wi

Beijing (XNA) May 20, 2021
The launch of China's Tianzhou 2 robotic cargo spacecraft that was originally scheduled for early Thursday morning has been postponed due to technical issues, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The agency said in a brief statement shortly before the preplanned launch time that the new launch time will be determined in due course. It didn't give more details. b>China t

London, UK (SPX) May 20, 2021
The UK's space sector has seen growth in jobs and income while investing more in research and development, leaving it well-placed to grow strongly as we recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, Science Minister Amanda Solloway announced today. Findings from the latest 'Size and Health of the UK Space Industry' report, commissioned by the UK Space Agency and delivered by know.space, show the sec

Redmond, WA (SPX) May 20, 2021
Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service has announced they are opening a satellite manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington. Their new, state-of-the-art campus is a key step in the company's mission to expand mass manufacturing of the XCraft the company's highly-capable, ESPA-class satellite, and the LightCraft, Xplore's highly-maneuverable spacecraft for deep s