The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aims to give a name to the destination asteroid for the Hayabusa2 mission, which blasted off Wednesday, a senior agency official said. It might consider asking the public for a name, said Hitoshi Kuninaka, a professor and project manager at ...
A compromise defense policy bill in Congress would bar the purchase of more Russian-made rocket engines to launch U.S. military satellites, clearing the way for competitive bids for 14 future launches, senior congressional aides said on Tuesday. The proposal is one of several new agreements ...
Kremlin allies behind sales of crucial RD-180 engine to U.S.
He has money, media power and the ear of President Vladimir Putin. Such is his influence that some observers have described Yuri Kovalchuk as the Rupert Murdoch of Russia. Kovalchuk is one of an elite group close to Putin and has come to prominence outside ...
In opaque Pentagon deal with Russians, big profits for a tiny Florida firm
For months, a powerful U.S. senator has been pushing for details of a murky deal under which a Russian manufacturer supplies the rocket engines used to launch America's spy satellites into space. At issue: how much the U.S. Air Force pays for the engines, how ...
Star formation theories challenged by new telescope discovery
Theories about how massive stars are born could be revised after astronomers in Chile found evidence that the dust and gas surrounding a young star could survive bombardment by the star's own radiation. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observed a young star in the ...
As the first probe ever to be stationed on a comet hibernates, attention is turning to the Rosetta orbiter, which is still buzzing around the space snowball. The Philae lander's batteries lasted about 60 hours before running out. Rosetta is expected to observe comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ...
AP — British physicist Matt Taylor brimmed with excitement Wednesday as the European Space Agency's Philae lander separated from the Rosetta spacecraft, showing off a colorful tattoo on his thigh of the two craft while proclaiming, "We're making history." But the unconventional Rosetta project scientist's ...
As Rosetta comet probe batteries run down, scientists face key decisions
European Space Agency scientists are set to decide whether to try a risky drilling procedure to enable an exploration probe to examine samples from the surface of a comet before its batteries run out. The probe, released by the Rosetta spacecraft on Wednesday after a ...
Some of the most detailed images ever taken of new planets being born around a star were published Thursday, which astronomers said could transform theories about planet formation. High in the Chilean desert, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observed the planet-forming disc around the ...
Heeding a lesson from history, designers of a new generation of U.S. rockets will include escape systems to give crew members a fighting chance of surviving launch accidents such as the one that felled an unmanned Orbital Sciences Antares rocket on Tuesday. The U.S. space ...
A citizens' group in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, is working on making pumpkins grown from seeds taken to space into a local specialty. The city, which came up with the idea, asked Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, a Matsudo native, for cooperation. In 2010, Yamazaki took 230 ...
Rocket headed to International Space Station blows up seconds after liftoff
An unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from a commercial launchpad in Virginia on Tuesday, marking the first accident since NASA turned to private operators to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. Officials said no one was hurt. The 14-story rocket, built and ...
