US achieves first Moon landing in half century with private spacecraft
Updated: 5:30pm (AEDT) Reuters A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the Moon’s south pole on Thursday, the first US touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector. NASA, with several research instruments aboard the vehicle, hailed the […]
Private US Moon lander launched half century after last Apollo lunar mission
Cape Canaveral, Florida Reuters A Moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida early on Thursday on a mission to conduct the first US lunar touchdown in more than a half century and the first by a privately owned spacecraft. The company’s Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after […]
Danish astronaut flying on SpaceX shuttle warns Europe not to fall behind in space
Copenhagen Reuters Europe is at risk of falling behind in the global space race and missing out on key technologies, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen said ahead of his second trip into space onboard Elon Musk’s next SpaceX mission in August. Mogensen, who will be the first non-American pilot to steer the SpaceX Crew Dragon shuttle […]
SpaceX launches latest space station crew to orbit for NASA
Cape Canaveral, Florida, US Reuters Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX launched a four-man crew to orbit en route to the International Space Station early on Thursday, with a Russian cosmonaut and United Arab Emirates astronaut joining two NASA crewmates for the flight. The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket topped with an […]
Gunmen kill 11 at Russian military base in latest blow to war in Ukraine
Reuters Gunmen shot dead 11 people at a Russian military training ground on Saturday, the defence ministry said, in the latest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s forces since the invasion of Ukraine. RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying 15 other people were wounded in the shooting on Saturday in the south-western Belgorod region […]
SpaceX capsule splashes down, returning four astronauts from Space Station
Los Angeles, US Reuters The fourth long-duration astronaut team launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station safely returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida after nearly six months of research aboard the orbital outpost. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Freedom, carrying three US NASA astronauts and an […]
“It came alive”: Astronauts recount wild ride home on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
Reuters US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, home two days from a landmark mission as NASA’s first crew to fly a privately built vehicle into orbit, recounted on Tuesday the loud, jarring ride they experienced through Earth’s atmosphere before a safe landing at sea. Their splash-down on Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico off […]