Blue Origin to resume space tourist flights after near 2-year pause
(Reuters) - Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin will resume flights to space on Sunday, ending a near two-year pause of crewed operations following a 2022 mission failure. The NS-25 mission will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas, with the launc...
May 14, 2024
Boeing Starliner's crew debut delayed again over spacecraft issue
By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing's first Starliner mission carrying humans to space was delayed to May 21 over issues with the spacecraft's propulsion system, Boeing said on Tuesday. Starliner's mission carrying two NASA astronauts to...
May 14, 2024
For elephants, like people, greetings are a complicated affair
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - People greet each other in a variety of ways. They might say "hello," "guten tag," "hola," "konnichiwa" or "g'day." They might shake hands, bump fists, make a fist-and-palm gesture or press their hands together with a gen...
May 13, 2024
New breast cancer genes found in women of African ancestry, may improve risk assessment
By Nancy Lapid (Reuters) - Twelve breast cancer genes identified in women of African ancestry in a large study published on Monday may one day help better predict their risk for the disease and highlights potential risk differences from women of Eu...
May 13, 2024
Musk sees fourth flight of SpaceX's Starship in 3-5 weeks
(Reuters) -SpaceX's Starship rocket, a futuristic vehicle designed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, will probably have its fourth flight in 3-5 weeks, the company's Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a post on social media platform...
May 11, 2024
Astronomers finally detect a rocky planet with an atmosphere
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers have searched for years for rocky planets beyond our solar system with an atmosphere - a trait considered essential for any possibility of harboring life. Well, they finally seem to have located one...
May 08, 2024
SpaceX's unit Starlink secures Indonesia operating permit
JAKARTA (Reuters) - The satellite unit of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Starlink, has secured a permit to operate in Indonesia, its communications minister told Reuters on Wednesday. Starlink had obtained a permit to operate as an internet service provider f...
May 08, 2024
Russia starts developing nuclear power unit for joint lunar station with China, RIA says
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has started developing a nuclear power plant for its planned joint lunar station with China, the RIA news agency cited Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, as saying on Wednesday. In March, Borisov sa...
May 08, 2024
First crewed test flight of Boeing Starliner capsule targeted for May 17
(Reuters) - The target launch date for the long-awaited first crewed test flight of Boeing Co's new Starliner Space capsule has been pushed back another week to no earlier than Friday, May 17, in order to replace a faulty pressure valve on its boos...
May 08, 2024
Timeline: Boeing's new Starliner set for first crewed flight to space station
(Reuters) - Two years after its initial unmanned journey to the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing's new Starliner astronaut capsule is set for its first crewed test flight on Monday night, following numerous delays. Boeing's Crew Space Tran...
May 07, 2024
Boeing's new Starliner capsule set for first crewed flight to space station
By Joey Roulette and Steve Gorman CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Boeing Co's new Starliner astronaut capsule was poised for a Monday night launch of its long-delayed inaugural crewed test flight to the International Space Station, two years af...
May 06, 2024
German company launches candle wax-powered rocket on test flight into space
BERLIN (Reuters) - German company HyImpulse successfully launched on Friday a candle wax-powered rocket capable of carrying commercial satellites on a test suborbital flight into space for the first time. "We're signalling Germany's prowess as a sp...
May 03, 2024
Factbox-China's missions to the moon - past, present and future
By Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday launched a mission to collect samples from the moon's "hidden" side, a first in space exploration history, and marked a new phase in China's 20-year-old Chang'e lunar programme, named ...
May 03, 2024
Scientists discover possible hammerhead shark nursery in Ecuador's Galapagos
QUITO (Reuters) - A team of researchers has discovered a potential breeding ground for smooth hammerhead sharks off an island in Ecuador's Galapagos archipelago, in what would be a "very rare" sighting, the national park said in a statement on Thur...
May 02, 2024
Orangutan's use of medicinal plant to treat wound intrigues scientists
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - In June 2022, a male Sumatran orangutan named Rakus sustained a facial wound below the right eye, apparently during a fight with another male orangutan at the Suaq Balimbing research site, a protected rainforest area in I...
May 02, 2024
Scientists explore how to improve crop yields - on Mars
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - For future human bases or colonies on Mars to be self-sustaining, a reliable source of home-grown food will be a must. It simply would be too costly and risky to rely upon rocket deliveries to meet the food needs of colon...
May 01, 2024
Explainer-The Eta Aquariid meteor shower: When is it and what to expect?
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - Meteors will be streaking across the sky as Earth passes through dusty debris in space left by Halley's Comet in the annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower, with peak activity in early May. Here is an explanation of this meteo...
May 01, 2024
T. rex is at the center of a debate over dinosaur intelligence
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surmising even the physical appearance of a dinosaur - or any extinct animal - based on its fossils is a tricky proposition, with so many uncertainties involved. Assessing a dinosaur's intelligence, considering...
Apr 30, 2024
What did people eat before agriculture? New study offers insight
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The advent of agriculture roughly 11,500 years ago in the Middle East was a milestone for humankind - a revolution in diet and lifestyle that moved beyond the way hunter-gatherers had existed since Homo sapiens...
Apr 29, 2024
Argentine scientists find speedy 90-million-year-old herbivore dinosaur
By Miguel Lo Bianco BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Paleontologists from Argentina announced the discovery of a new medium-sized herbivorous dinosaur, which was a fast runner and lived about 90 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period in present da...
Apr 25, 2024
China sends astronauts to Chinese space station for six-month stay
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station for a six-month stay, in a regular rotation of Chinese astronauts onboard the "Tiangong" orbiting high above the Earth's atmosphere. The spacecra...
Apr 25, 2024
Scottish spaceport moves closer to satellite launches
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's SaxaVord Spaceport moved a step closer to being able to send satellites into orbit after regulators granted it a licence to provide safety services, paving the way for its first launch later this year. The Civil Aviatio...
Apr 25, 2024
Russia, US clash at UN over nuclear weapons in space
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.S.-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space, a move that prompted the United States to question if Mo...
Apr 24, 2024
Huge energetic flare from magnetic neutron star detected
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnetars are among the universe's most extreme objects - a class of the compact stellar remnants called neutron stars that possess immensely strong magnetic fields. Once in a while, they produce enormous erupt...
Apr 24, 2024
Factbox-Shenzhou-18 caps over two decades of Chinese human spaceflight
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will send three astronauts into low-Earth orbit on Thursday in the country's 13th crewed mission to space, marking more than two decades of Chinese human spaceflight. Of the 13 crewed missions, half were visits to China's ...
Apr 24, 2024