Page 3 - Spacecraft

China successfully launches new manned spaceship with 1st civilian on board

China on Tuesday successfully sent three astronauts including its first civilian into orbit as it launched the Shenzhou-16 manned mission to its space station for its second crew rotation, signalling another leap forward for the country's ambitious space programme. The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 9:31 AM (Beijing Time), according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). About 10 minutes after the launch, Shenzhou-16 separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit. The crew members are in good shape and the launch is a complete success, the CMSA declared. Hours later the spaceship successfully docked with the space station's core module about 400km above the ground, the CMSA said. After that, it conducted a fast-automated rendezvous and docked with the radial port of its core module Tianhe. The astronaut trio aboard Shenzhou-16 will then enter the Tianhe module and the three ..

Japanese company's 'high probability' spacecraft crashes on moon

A Japanese company lost contact with its spacecraft moments before touchdown on the moon Wednesday, saying the mission had apparently failed. Communications ceased as the lander descended the final 33 feet (10 meters), traveling around 16 mph (25 kph). Flight controllers peered at their screens in Tokyo, expressionless, as minutes went by with no word from the lander, which is presumed to have crashed. We have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface, said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of the company, ispace. If it had landed, the company would have been the first private business to pull off a lunar landing. Only three governments have successfully touched down on the moon: Russia, the United States and China. An Israeli nonprofit tried to land on the moon in 2019, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact. The 7-foot lander (2.3-meter) Japanese lander carried a mini lunar rover for the United Arab Emirates and a toylike robot from Japan designed

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft capable of handling harsh launch conditions: Isro

India's national space agency ISRO announced on Thursday that it has reached a new milesone in the pursuit of a soft landing on the Moon, with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft having successfully completed "the essential tests" that validated its capability to withstand the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would face during its launch. The tests were conducted during the first week of March in the facilities located at U R Rao Satellite Centre here, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in a statement today. "These tests are an essential part of the qualification and acceptance process for any spacecraft," ISRO said, adding that they were particularly challenging, considering the fact that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is a composite of three modules -- Propulsion Module, Lander Module and the Rover module. The vibration and acoustic tests carried out on the integrated spacecraft has provided sufficient confidence about its structural integrit

Debris of Chinese rocket to fall back on Earth this weekend: Report

The rocket, Long March 5B, was used to send the final part of the Tiangong space station called Mengtian to the space station

Nasa to use SpaceX's Dragon to boost Hubble telescope to higher orbit

The deal signed by NASA and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. called for collaborating on a feasibility study of such a mission, though NASA has yet to commit to such a flight.

NASA's James Webb, Hubble capture DART impact after asteroid strike

For the first time, Webb and Hubble have simultaneously captured imagery from the same target in the cosmos

NASA spacecraft rams distant asteroid to test Earth's defence abilities

The mission is NASA's first demonstration of the agency's planetary-defense initiative to protect Earth from the possibility of a hazardous collision with an asteroid

NASA to ram distant asteroid in bid to avoid future catastrophes on Earth

Spacecraft's collision impact with the target asteriod uses 'kinetic impactor' method to cause deflection

NASA spacecraft to collide with asteroid on Sept 26; here's what we know

The DART mission first launched nearly a year ago on November 24, 2021, to test the use of a kinetic impactor, in order to change the orbit of an asteroid, in the first of its kind attempt

Explained: NASA postpones Artemis 1 launch; here's what we know so far

Artemis 1 was supposed to orbit the moon, deploy some satellites, and settle into the orbit. It was meant to test SLS rocket and the Orion crew capsule

Artemis 1: Maiden flight of spacecraft set to take humans back to the Moon

Artemis 1: maiden flight of spacecraft set to take humans back to the Moon here's what needs to go right

South Korea's first spacecraft launched to moon, to arrive in December

South Korea joined the stampede to the moon with the launch of a lunar orbiter that will scout out future landing spots

NASA says lost contact with spacecraft on way to test moon orbit

NASA said Tuesday it has lost contact with a $32.7 million spacecraft headed to the moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit, but agency engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem

Voyager missions: Twins that changed how we discern space giants

Who knows, someday, sometime, that might intrigue an intelligent al­ien if it does meet one and gets hacked

Dusty demise for NASA Mars spacecraft in July as lander losing power

The Insight lander is losing power because of all the dust on its solar panels.

Toyota heading to moon with cruiser, robotic arms and dreams

The vehicle being developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called Lunar Cruiser

Oldest tourist in space to hottest month in history: Record highs of 2021

Captain Kirk of "Star Trek", alias veteran actor William Shatner (pictured), became the oldest person to go into space at 90

Elon Musk satellites force China's space station to change course

Two satellites from the US company founded by Elon Musk came close to the station in July and October, forcing astronauts on board to take evasive action

Billionaires helping the ultra-rich live out their space fantasies

A small but growing group of ultra-wealthy adventurers have bought their way into outer space thanks largely to competing ventures founded by billionaires

Nasa launches asteroid-deflecting spacecraft on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

Move will test technique that one day might avert an apocalyptic collision with Earth