Boeing's new Starliner capsule set for first crewed flight to space station
By Joey Roulette and Steve Gorman CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Boeing Co's new Starliner astronaut capsule was poised for a Monday night launch of its long-delayed inaugural crewed test flight to the International Space Station, two years af...
May 06, 2024
German company launches candle wax-powered rocket on test flight into space
BERLIN (Reuters) - German company HyImpulse successfully launched on Friday a candle wax-powered rocket capable of carrying commercial satellites on a test suborbital flight into space for the first time. "We're signalling Germany's prowess as a sp...
May 03, 2024
Factbox-China's missions to the moon - past, present and future
By Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday launched a mission to collect samples from the moon's "hidden" side, a first in space exploration history, and marked a new phase in China's 20-year-old Chang'e lunar programme, named ...
May 03, 2024
Scientists discover possible hammerhead shark nursery in Ecuador's Galapagos
QUITO (Reuters) - A team of researchers has discovered a potential breeding ground for smooth hammerhead sharks off an island in Ecuador's Galapagos archipelago, in what would be a "very rare" sighting, the national park said in a statement on Thur...
May 02, 2024
Orangutan's use of medicinal plant to treat wound intrigues scientists
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - In June 2022, a male Sumatran orangutan named Rakus sustained a facial wound below the right eye, apparently during a fight with another male orangutan at the Suaq Balimbing research site, a protected rainforest area in I...
May 02, 2024
Scientists explore how to improve crop yields - on Mars
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - For future human bases or colonies on Mars to be self-sustaining, a reliable source of home-grown food will be a must. It simply would be too costly and risky to rely upon rocket deliveries to meet the food needs of colon...
May 01, 2024
Explainer-The Eta Aquariid meteor shower: When is it and what to expect?
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - Meteors will be streaking across the sky as Earth passes through dusty debris in space left by Halley's Comet in the annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower, with peak activity in early May. Here is an explanation of this meteo...
May 01, 2024
T. rex is at the center of a debate over dinosaur intelligence
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surmising even the physical appearance of a dinosaur - or any extinct animal - based on its fossils is a tricky proposition, with so many uncertainties involved. Assessing a dinosaur's intelligence, considering...
Apr 30, 2024
What did people eat before agriculture? New study offers insight
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The advent of agriculture roughly 11,500 years ago in the Middle East was a milestone for humankind - a revolution in diet and lifestyle that moved beyond the way hunter-gatherers had existed since Homo sapiens...
Apr 29, 2024
Argentine scientists find speedy 90-million-year-old herbivore dinosaur
By Miguel Lo Bianco BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Paleontologists from Argentina announced the discovery of a new medium-sized herbivorous dinosaur, which was a fast runner and lived about 90 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period in present da...
Apr 25, 2024
China sends astronauts to Chinese space station for six-month stay
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station for a six-month stay, in a regular rotation of Chinese astronauts onboard the "Tiangong" orbiting high above the Earth's atmosphere. The spacecra...
Apr 25, 2024
Scottish spaceport moves closer to satellite launches
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's SaxaVord Spaceport moved a step closer to being able to send satellites into orbit after regulators granted it a licence to provide safety services, paving the way for its first launch later this year. The Civil Aviatio...
Apr 25, 2024
Russia, US clash at UN over nuclear weapons in space
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.S.-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space, a move that prompted the United States to question if Mo...
Apr 25, 2024
Huge energetic flare from magnetic neutron star detected
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnetars are among the universe's most extreme objects - a class of the compact stellar remnants called neutron stars that possess immensely strong magnetic fields. Once in a while, they produce enormous erupt...
Apr 24, 2024
Factbox-Shenzhou-18 caps over two decades of Chinese human spaceflight
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will send three astronauts into low-Earth orbit on Thursday in the country's 13th crewed mission to space, marking more than two decades of Chinese human spaceflight. Of the 13 crewed missions, half were visits to China's ...
Apr 24, 2024
US, Russia set for a showdown at UN over nuclear weapons in space
By Michelle Nichols and Joey Roulette UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Russia are set to face off over nuclear weapons in space on Wednesday at the United Nations Security Council, which is due to vote on a U.S.-drafted r...
Apr 23, 2024
Three Russians parachute from stratosphere to North Pole
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Three Russians set a world record for parachuting from the Earth's stratosphere to the North Pole last week in a mission that also served as a test of a new prototype communications system for use in the Arctic, an organiser of t...
Apr 19, 2024
Fossils of colossal snake Vasuki unearthed in India mine
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a lignite mine are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 49 feet (15 meters) in length - longer than a T. rex - that prowled the sw...
Apr 18, 2024
Gigantic marine reptile's fossils found by British girl and father
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Eart...
Apr 17, 2024
Head of Russian space agency says work under way on modernised Angara rocket
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is working on a modernised Angara-A5M rocket capable of launching manned spacecraft, and plans to launch it in 2027, the head of its Roscosmos state space agency said on Wednesday. "Already now, by order of Roscosmos, a mo...
Apr 17, 2024
Astronomers detect Milky Way's second-largest known black hole
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers have discovered a black hole with a mass about 33 times greater than that of our sun, the biggest one known in the Milky Way aside from the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galax...
Apr 16, 2024
Genome study reveals prehistoric Ethiopian origins of coffee
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - You might call it a cup of Joe, java, mud, brew, mocha, or your morning jolt. Coffee undoubtedly is a big part of global culture, and the kind made from the Arabica bean is the most appreciated by coffee drinke...
Apr 16, 2024
Australia's Juukan Gorge yields up rare Tasmanian Devil tooth
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Archaeologists surveying the Juukan Gorge rock shelter in Western Australia that was destroyed by Rio Tinto in 2020 have unearthed major finds including the tooth of a Tasmanian Devil that has not been recorded on the mainland...
Apr 16, 2024
Dinosaurs displayed a fast growth rate from the very beginning
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the traits that helped make the dinosaurs such an evolutionary success story - thriving for 165 million years - was their fast growth rate, from massive meat-eaters like Tyrannosaurus to immense plant-ea...
Apr 15, 2024
China launch of relay satellite Queqiao-2 for lunar probe mission successful
BEIJING (Reuters) - China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Friday its launch of a key signal relay satellite was a "complete success" and it would serve as the communication bridge for its future lunar probe missions for years to come, ...
Apr 12, 2024