North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”. The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and…
It is microscopic and rod-shaped, can create spores, and may have evolved to survive hundreds of miles above our planet’s surface. This bacterium, never before seen on Earth, was detected on China’s Tiangong space station. It has been named Niallia tiangongensis, and it inhabited the cockpit controls on the station, living in microgravity conditions. According…
Pakistan’s closure of its airspace to Indian airlines Thursday is forcing carriers to alter some routes that link India to Europe, North America, Central Asia and the Middle East. Indian carriers — including Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air and SpiceJet — must now fly longer, and thus costlier, flights on some westbound routes. The detour…
The unevenness of the state of each cloud layer is thought to be the reason why the brightness of SIMP 0136 changes as it rotates. It’s easy to understand if you think of Jupiter, which as a gas giant planet likely has a similar structure and chemical composition. Or for another way to picture this,…
With its Blue Ghost lunar module, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace has just achieved what no other private company, anywhere in the world, has ever accomplished: successfully landing on the surface of the moon. Having launched in January, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at Mare Crisium, in the vicinity of a mountain called Mons Latreille,…
Pop star Katy Perry will blast off into space as part of an upcoming all-women flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepherd rocket. The Firework singer will be joined by Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, CBS presenter Gayle King, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has responded to criticism of Kyiv by Donald Trump, by saying his US counterpart is “living in a disinformation space” created by Russia. On Tuesday, President Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for the war and suggested the Ukrainian leader’s popularity rating was as low as 4%. Trump was speaking after US-Russia…
The U.K. government announced Wednesday a £20 million ($24.8 million) investment in Orbex, a Scottish spaceflight startup aiming to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The investment — part of a larger funding round that’s being raised by the firm — was revealed at the European Space Conference in Brussels. Orbex raised £23 million for its latest…
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket streaks into orbit after launching from the Kennedy Space Center on its maiden flight, at Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 16, 2025. Gregg Newton | Afp | Getty Images Pure-play space stocks flew higher on Tuesday, a rally that a Wall Street analyst pinned to exuberance around the sector after…
Watch: Lift-off for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as rocket New Glenn launches into orbit Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company has blasted its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The New Glenn rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time…
