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SpaceX test-fired the upper stage of its seventh Starship megarocket again recently, this time practicing for an in-space engine burn. The company ignited all six of the Flight 7 Starship spacecraft’s Raptor engines for about 10 seconds on a test stand at its Starbase facility in South Texas on Sunday (Dec. 15). SpaceX announced that […]

SpaceX’s 31st robotic cargo mission has made it back to Earth. SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule splashed down off the Florida coast at 1:39 p.m. EDT (1839 GMT) today (Dec. 17), a day after undocking from the International Space Station (ISS). CRS-31 returned to Earth with thousands of pounds of equipment and experiment specimens from ongoing

The European Commission on Monday awarded contracts to push forward delayed plans for a 10.6 billion euro ($11.13 billion) secure European satellite constellation in response to Elon Musk’s Starlink and other fast-growing internet networks. The multi-orbit array of more than 280 satellites known as IRIS² will provide an encrypted backbone for European Union governments and

SpaceX launched the mysterious RRT-1 mission from Florida’s Space Coast today (Dec. 16), after high winds scuttled a previous attempt. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (Dec. 16) at 7:51 p.m. EDT (0051 on Dec. 17), kicking off a mission that SpaceX called RRT-1. The company had aimed

Things are getting hot for SpaceX’s next Starship launch. SpaceX fired up its next Starship spacecraft during an engine test over the weekend, ahead of the company’s 7th orbital test flight of the gargantuan megarocket. SpaceX ignited Starship’s Raptor engines for approximately 10 seconds on Sunday, Dec. 15, as a part of a series of

SpaceX’s 31st robotic cargo mission is headed back to Earth. SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule today (Dec. 16) at 11:05 a.m. EST (1605 GMT) today (Dec. 16). The spacecraft will begin a series of deorbit burns to complete the company’s 31st commercial resupply services mission (CRS-31) for

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) EO AFRICA Research and Development Facility has disclosed ten innovative research projects to be conducted by African-European tandems, marking the outcome of the third call for proposals launched in July 2024. These projects, which will commence in December 2024 and run for 15 months, aim to tackle pressing water, food

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plans to purchase an Earth Observation satellite using a USD 20 million financing arrangement from SICOMINES, a strategic mining partnership between Chinese and Congolese investors. Gilbert Kabanda, Minister of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation, announced the plans during a plenary Senate session on December 10, 2024. This initiative represents

On Dec. 16, 1962, NASA launched the Explorer 16 spacecraft to study micrometeoroids near Earth. The mission would determine how likely it would be for spacecraft to get damaged by the small space rocks and dust particles around the Earth. The cylindrically shaped spacecraft measured about 6 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. It

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Jared Isaacman, a billionaire, philanthropist and private astronaut to lead NASA. What do we know about the potential next administrator of America’s space agency? Isaacman, born in Union, New Jersey in February 1983, is worth an estimated $1.8 billion, according to Forbes. He accrued this fortune from his payment-processing