Tag - space

 
 

SPACE

The H3 rocket, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Feb. 17.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2024
Mitsubishi to provide H3 rockets for France's Eutelsat from 2027
The deal is a major overseas win for Japan's ¥220 billion ($1.55 billion) state-backed H3 rocket project.
The Milky Way, known as "ama no gawa" in Japanese, is seen above Mount Fuji.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 18, 2024
Comets and constellations: The language of stargazing
Whether it's telling someone to look at a shooting star or describing the difference between stars and planets, the vocabulary of space is vast and interesting.
A factory operated by metal processing company Iwanuma Seiko, which has been entrusted with work involving the space industry for the first time
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Sep 17, 2024
Small firms in Tohoku showcase technologies in growing space sector
The government plans to boost the space technology market, leading to hopes of a space industry ecosystem in the region.
The Osaka Expo site under construction. One of the key items to be showcased at the expo will be a rock from Mars collected by a Japanese Antarctic research expedition.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024
Mars rock to go on display at 2025 Osaka Expo
The rock, the largest Martian meteorite ever found, is significant because it suggests water once existed on Mars.
An H2A rocket carrying an information gathering satellite is launched from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture in January. The latest launch of the rocket has been delayed for a second time.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2024
Mitsubishi Heavy cancels H2A rocket launch for the second time
Unsafe upper-level winds were behind the latest delay.
Ai Tonomoto (second from left) and other members of a group of space enthusiasts who developed a microsatellite pose outside a JAXA building in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, in April.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2024
One small step for women: Microsatellite built by Japanese amateurs put into orbit
The team, which had no experience in space development and built their satellite from scratch, launched it into space last month.
Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in April 2023, after the firm's first attempt to land on the moon failed.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 12, 2024
Ispace aims for December launch of second moon landing mission
The Hakuto-R Mission 2 spacecraft will be delivered by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida and attempt a lunar touchdown after four to five months of spaceflight.
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft can be seen pulling away from the International Space Station for its unmanned return to the surface of Earth on Friday in this screenshot.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 7, 2024
Boeing's beleaguered Starliner back home empty
The gumdrop-shaped capsule touched down softly at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, its descent slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags.
Cows graze in a field near the Green Bank Telescope, a 100-meter fully steerable radio telescope, at the Green Bank Observatory in the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone in Green Bank, West Virginia, on May 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 2, 2024
Inside the 'golden age' of alien hunting at the Green Bank Telescope
If intelligent life exists out there, there's a good chance the teams at the world's largest fully steerable radio astronomy facility will be the first to know.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon on Jan. 20
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 26, 2024
Japan's space agency ends SLIM moon probe operation
JAXA said that there was no response from the SLIM after trying to communicate last week following three frigid lunar nights.
Space One President Masakazu Toyoda speaks at a news conference on March 13 following the failure of the firm's rocket launch in Wakayama Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 26, 2024
Space One planning launch of second unit of satellite-carrying rocket
The firm's No. 1 Kairos rocket was launched on March 13, but exploded five seconds later.
In this NASA handout, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft onboard at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of a test flight at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in July 2021.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 26, 2024
Boeing's CEO faces hard choices after NASA snubs Starliner for SpaceX
The specter of NASA astronauts being stuck in space is just one embarrassing moment of many for Boeing during an epically bad year.
A rocket carrying two astronauts aboard Boeing's Starliner is launched on a mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 25, 2024
NASA picks SpaceX to rescue astronauts marooned in space
Boeing’s flawed Starliner craft will return without people on board in early September, the U.S. space agency said.
An artist's impression of a large asteroid impacting at Chicxulub on the Mexican coastline, which caused the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, 66 million years ago, with the planet Mars and asteroid bodies in the background.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2024
Asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs originated beyond Jupiter
After migrating inward to become part of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid was somehow sent hurtling in the direction of Earth.
Scientists have proposed a way to heat up Mars using heat-trapping iron or aluminum particles as an initial step toward making the planet habitable for people.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 10, 2024
Scientists propose warming up Mars by using heat-trapping 'glitter'
The scientists who developed the proposal see it as a potentially doable initial step toward making the planet habitable.
A reddish rock nicknamed Cheyava Falls is seen in Mars' Jezero Crater on July 18 in an image captured by NASA's Perseverance rover.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 27, 2024
NASA did not say it found life on Mars. But it’s very excited about this rock.
The rock has been closely analyzed by scientists on Earth who say that nonmicrobial processes could also explain its features.
The Kestrel I Suborbital Launch Vehicle, operated by AtSpace, sister company of Taiwanese rocket startup TiSpace, at an AtSpace facility in Queensland, Australia, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Jul 25, 2024
Taiwanese rocket startup may bolster Japan's space hub ambitions
A planned launch has faced regulatory hurdles and delays amid questions over whether Japan should embrace overseas business as it works to grow its space industry.
A conceptual design of a potential Hokkaido Spaceport (HOSPO). HOSPO is aiming to become one of Japan’s major domestic spaceports for launching satellite-equipped rockets and spacecraft as well as for the aerospace industry to conduct research and development.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jul 22, 2024
Small Hokkaido town looks to the stars for future growth
Taiki, population 5,300, is home to what is billed as Asia’s first privately operated spaceport — Hokkaido Spaceport.
Shuji Ogawa of PD Aerospace (left) shows the PDAS-X06 unmanned aircraft at Shimojishima Airport in Okinawa Prefecture in March 2023, before it crashed into the sea during a test flight later that year.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jul 22, 2024
Okinawa space ambitions still strong a year after test-flight crash
The aircraft's developer aims to realize space travel by manned spacecraft from an airport in the prefecture.
This undated handout picture from NASA released on Wednesday shows the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover assembled inside a cleanroom at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
WORLD
Jul 18, 2024
NASA cancels lunar rover after spending $450 million building it
NASA's scrapped rover was intended to explore the moon's south pole in search of ice and other resources.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan