Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 04, 2021
It's a classic superhero tale: Inconspicuous, underestimated, our hero is revealed to have powers beyond imagination! The hottest and coldest environments on Earth, decades without water, the powerful radiation of space - none of it is any match for...the tardigrade! This chubby, microscopic, eight-legged animal may be an unlikely hero, but tardigrades, also known as water bears due to the

Washington (AFP) June 4, 2021
The conclusion of a classified US intelligence report on the existence of alien UFOs is . . . inconclusive, US media reported Friday. US military and intelligence found no evidence that seemingly highly advanced unidentified flying objects sighted by military pilots were alien spacecraft, the report concludes, according to The New York Times and other media briefed on it. But it also cou

WASHINGTON — U.S. Air Force officials on June 4 expressed enthusiasm about the possibility that commercial space vehicles one day could be used to ship supplies around the world. 

“This never really made sense in the past” but now it does, said Greg Spanjers, manager of the rocket cargo program, a new effort to investigate how the military might be able to transport massive loads of supplies aboard commercial rockets.

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic has signed an agreement to fly a private researcher on a future suborbital flight, part of efforts diversify its business beyond space tourism.

Virgin Galactic announced June 3 that Kellie Gerardi, affiliated with the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), will fly on a future SpaceShipTwo dedicated research flight.

With ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in space for his first full month, let’s look at what he has been doing on the International Space Station in May.

Video: 00:00:43

Rotating Juice in the clean room at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands before transfer in the Large Space Simulator.

Juice will undergo environmental testing in ESTEC’s Large Space Simulator to replicate the extreme heating and cooling cycles that the spacecraft will experience on its way to Jupiter.

Once in the Jovian system the mission will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Week in images: 31 May - 04 June 2021

Discover our week through the lens

A detailed concept for a lunar habitat, created by one of the world’s leading architectural firms with ESA technical support, is currently on show at the Biennale in Venice. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, originator of many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, worked with ESA on a semi-inflatable habitat design which could be part of a long-term vision for an international Moon settlement.

WASHINGTON — A new House bill would classify space as a critical infrastructure and require the federal government to establish guidelines to protect it.

The Space Infrastructure Act, to be introduced June 4 by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.