Latest Mars News
RIP: Mars digger bites the dust after 2 years on red planet
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature. Scientists in Germany spent two years trying to get their heat probe, dubbed the mole, to drill into the Martian crust. But the 16-inch-long (40-centimeter)...
Cheers! French wine, vines headed home after year in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station bid adieu Tuesday to 12 bottles of French Bordeaux wine and hundreds of snippets of grapevines that spent a year orbiting the world in the name of science. SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule undocked with the wine and vines — and...
Moon rocks in hand, China prepares for future moon missions
BEIJING (AP) — Following the successful return of moon rocks by its Chang’e 5 robotic probe, China is preparing for future missions that could set the stage for an eventual lunar base to host human explorers, a top space program official said Thursday. China's next three lunar missions are on...
Chinese capsule returns to Earth carrying moon rocks
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese lunar capsule returned to Earth on Thursday with the first fresh rock samples from the moon in more than 40 years, offering the possibility of new insights into the history of the solar system and marking a new landmark for China's rapidly advancing space program. The capsule of...
World's space achievements a bright spot in stressful 2020
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronauts blasted into orbit from the U.S. for the first time in nearly a decade, three countries sent spacecraft hurtling toward Mars, and robotic explorers grabbed rocks from the moon and gravel from an asteroid for return to Earth. Space provided moments of hope and glory...
SpaceX launches Starship on highest test flight, crash-lands
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched its shiny, bullet-shaped, straight-out-of-science fiction Starship several miles into the air from a remote corner of Texas on Wednesday, but the 6 1/2-minute test flight ended in an explosive fireball at touchdown. It was the highest and most elaborate flight...
Test flight of SpaceX's Starship aborted at last second
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The first high-altitude test flight of SpaceX’s futuristic Starship was aborted at the last second in Texas on Tuesday. SpaceX came close to launching a prototype of the rocketship that company chief Elon Musk is designing to carry people to Mars. The goal was to shoot...
Japanese space officials eager to analyze asteroid samples
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese space officials said they are excited about the return of a capsule that landed safely in the Australian Outback on Sunday while carrying soil samples from a distant asteroid, and that they are eager to begin analyzing the “treasure” inside. The capsule's delivery by...
Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar rocks lifts off from moon
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft lifted off from the moon Thursday night with a load of lunar rocks, the first stage of its return to Earth, the government space agency reported. Chang’e 5, the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it again, is the latest in...
China: Moon probe preparing to return rock samples to Earth
BEIJING (AP) — China said Thursday its latest lunar probe has finished taking samples of the moon’s surface and sealed them within the spacecraft for return to Earth, the first time such a mission has been attempted by any country in more than 40 years. The Chang’e 5, the third Chinese probe...
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