China launches 3-member crew to its space station as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon by 2030

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (AP) — China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch...

China launches a three-member Shenzhou-18 crew to its space station

More cows are being tested and tracked for bird flu. Here's what that means

U.S. health and agriculture officials are ramping up testing and tracking of bird flu in dairy cows in an urgent effort to understand — and stop — the growing outbreak. So far, the risk to humans remains low, officials said, but scientists are wary that the virus could change to...

She was too sick for a traditional transplant. So she received a pig kidney and a heart pump

NEW YORK (AP) — Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart. Lisa Pisano’s combination of heart and kidney failure left her too sick to qualify for a traditional...

China to send three astronauts to Tiangong space station, part of its ambitious program

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (AP) — China's space agency is making final preparations to send a new crew to its space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030. The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will...

Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night, Japan’s space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after it landed on the moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a...

NASA leaders discuss global challenges, solutions with Mexico president, lawmakers and students

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a frequently tense relationship often defined by a shared border, the United States sent two officials with a different perspective to Mexico this week for a bit of space diplomacy. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy – both...

The first glow-in-the-dark animals may have been ancient corals deep in the ocean

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many animals can glow in the dark. Fireflies famously blink on summer evenings. But most animals that light up are found in the depths of the ocean. In a new study, scientists report that deep-sea corals that lived 540 million years ago may have been the first...

NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data last November. Flight controllers traced the blank communication to a bad computer chip and...

European Space Agency adds 5 new astronauts in only fourth class since 1978. Over 20,000 applied

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — For the past year, five fit, academically superior men and women have been spun in centrifuges, submerged for hours, deprived temporarily of oxygen, taught to camp in the snow, and schooled in physiology, anatomy, astronomy, meteorology, robotics, and Russian. ...