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Four astronauts, three from NASA and one from the European Space Agency, arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday and docked their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with the orbiting laboratory to begin a six-month science mission.

The rendezvous came about 21 hours after the team and its capsule were launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday night, following a string of weather delays that postponed the liftoff for a week and a half.

The docking took place about 6:30 p.m. EST (5am IST on Friday) while the Crew Dragon vehicle, dubbed Endurance, and the space station were flying about 260 miles (420 km) above the eastern Caribbean Sea, according to NASA.

The Endurance crew consists of three American NASA astronauts — flight commander Raja Chari, 44, mission pilot Tom Marshburn, 61, and mission specialist Kayla Barron, 34 — as well as German astronaut Matthias Maurer, 51, a mission specialist from the European Space Agency.

On arrival, the crew took inventory, conducted standard leak checks and pressurized the space between the spacecraft in preparation for opening the hatch to the space station about two hours later.

A live NASA video feed from the station showed the new arrivals floating headfirst through a padded passageway from their capsule into the orbiting outpost.

They were welcomed aboard with hugs from the three current space station occupants – Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who shared a Soyuz flight with his Roscosmos crewmates to the complex.

Astronaut wings

Endeavor’s second-in-command, Marshburn — a medical doctor and former NASA flight surgeon — has logged two previous spaceflights to the space station and four spacewalks.

Maurer, a materials science engineer, was making his debut spaceflight, as were Chari, a US Air Force combat jet and test pilot, and Barron, a US Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer. Shortly after coming aboard, Marshburn pinned astronaut wings to the collars of his three rookie colleagues amid handshakes and smiles.

Both Chari and Barron also are among the first group of 18 astronauts selected for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions, aimed at returning humans to the moon later this decade, over a half century after the Apollo lunar program ended.

“I think we all loved the ride up here,” Chari said during brief remarks in a welcoming ceremony webcast from the station. “It was way smoother than we could have imagined.”

The SpaceX Dragon also delivered more than 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) of hardware and research equipment, NASA said.

The crew arriving on Thursday was officially designated “Crew 3” – the third full-fledged “operational” crew that NASA and SpaceX have flown together to the space station after a two-astronaut test run in May 2020.

“Crew 2” returned safely to Earth from the space station on Monday with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida that capped a record 199 days in orbit.

SpaceX, the rocket company formed in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk, founder of electric car maker Tesla, has logged a total of 15 human spaceflights in 17 months, including its astro-tourism launch in September of the first all-civilian crew sent to Earth orbit without professional astronauts.

The space station, spanning the size of an American football field end to end, has been continuously occupied since November 2000, operated by an international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries.

An international crew of at least seven people typically lives and works aboard the platform while traveling 5 miles (8 km) per second, orbiting Earth about every 90 minutes.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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Japan Launches Final H-2A Rocket with GOSAT-GW Satellite to Monitor Climate and Oceans

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July 1, 2025

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Japan Launches Final H-2A Rocket with GOSAT-GW Satellite to Monitor Climate and Oceans

Japan launched a satellite which is a dual purpose, for monitoring greenhouse gases and sea temperature. On Saturday, June 28, 2025, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) held its 50th and final launch of the H-2A rocket, launching the GOSAT-GW satellite of dual purpose to space. This mission lifted off from Ypshinobu Launch Complex (LP-1) in Japan at Tenegashima Space Centre at 10:03 p.m. IST. These satellites have been sent by Japan to observe the changes in water cycles and greenhouse gases.

JAXA’s Dual Purpose Satellite Launch

According to JAXA, the Greenhouse Gas and Water Cycle Observation Satellite (GOSA-GW) is a very recent and significant effort of Japan to know about the effect of greenhouse gases and the changes in the cycle of rain. GOSAT-GW has joined the orbit of Earth with GCOM-W2, which is its predecessor, and was launched in 2012, known as SHIZUKU, whereas GOSAT-1, launched in 2009, is known as IBUKI. It is equipped with two main instruments.

More About GOSAT-GW

GOSAT-GW is equipped with two main instruments, the first is called the Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMSR), and the other is known as the Greenhouse Gases Observation Sensor (TANSO). The former one will measure water cycles and sea surface temperature fluctuations, while the latter one is for monitoring components such as carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere for measuring climate change.

H-2A rocket of Japan has been capable of launching payloads into the geostationary orbit around Earth and also orbiting the Moon. JAXA also launched the Akatsuki spacecraft for studying Venus in 2010; however, the spacecraft failed to enter the orbit of Venus properly.

Japan’s Successful Launch Operations

JAXA launched H-2A for the first time in 2001. With its 25 years in operation, the rocket experienced only a single failure, giving the spacecraft a 98% success rate. After 50 missions, the launch vehicle is now being retired to make way for the H3 rocket of Japan, offering comparable performance at a very reasonable cost.

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SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites in One Day, Crossing 7,900 Active Units

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July 1, 2025

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SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites in One Day, Crossing 7,900 Active Units

On June 28, 2025, two Falcon 9 rockets carrying the internet satellite broadband connection lifted off at 12:26 a.m. and 1:13 p.m. EDT. The first one was launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and another from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The new addons for megaconsellation of SpaceX (Group 10-34 and Group 15-7) reached low orbit Earth about 9 minutes after leaving the ground and were deployed after an hour.

According to As per NASA, in the intervening time, the first stage of the Falcon rockets (boosters B1092 and B1088) flew back to the droneships. The landing was on “A Shortfall of Gravitas, “ completing the fifth flight of the boosters. The stage touched down on “Of Course I Still Love You”, with its eighth flight to space and back, in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch at early morning carries 27 Starlink Satellites and the afternoon liftoff lofted 26 more of the relay satellites, vasting the network of SpaceX to more than 7,900 active units, said by satellite tracker Jonathan Mc Dowell.

Broader Deployment Context

The launch in the morning was delayed earlier that day because of the severe weather alerts at Florida, but flew in the near perfect conditions at the visibility of 10 miles. Throughout 2025, SpaceX heald 42 Falcon 9 missions with 28 Starlink launched by June. by mid-June the batch of 26 satellites launched from Vandenberg (Booster B1081’s 15th flight) which contributed to more than 7,600 active satellites by June 12.

Both the missions are a part of an aggressive Starlink deployment, mainly for boosting the low Earth orbit constellation for the global broadband coverage. Now the network expands to approximately 7900 satellites, focusing on the biggest LEO broadband constellation ever.

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Astronomers Discover a Gigantic Supernova Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud

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July 1, 2025

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Astronomers Discover a Gigantic Supernova Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Astronomers international team has employed various satellites and telescopes for performing multiwavelength observations of a supernova remnant known as SNR J0450.4-7050. The result that scientists got after an observational campaign, published on June 18, 2025, on the preprint server arXiv, gained new insights into the properties of this remnant, and observed that it is much larger than thought in the past. Supernova remnants (SNRs) are expanded structures resulting from the explosion of a supernova. It usually lasts for several hundred thousand years before the time it disperses into the interstellar medium.

Multiwavelength Observations Reveal New Details of SNR J0450.4-7050

As per the study by NASA, observations by the scientists indicate that SNRs contain the ejected expansion of material from the explosion and other interstellar material swept by the passage of the shockwave from the star that exploded. SNR studies beyond the Milky Way are important for comprehending the feedback in different evolutionary phases and gaining valuable insights into the local ISM. The Large Magellanic Cloud is the galaxy that has its SNR population explored in depth.

Importance of Studying Supernova Remnants Beyond the Milky Way

The recent observations reveal that SNR J0450.4-7050, a large supernova remnant in the LMC having physical dimensions of 332 by 244 light years, is estimated to have the remnants of around 45,000 years old. Scientists named it Veliki, which means large in Serbian. It also showcases the complex filamentary morphology with different inner and outer shell structures.

Discovery of Veliki: A Large, Aged Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud

An astronomer’s group led by Zachary J. Smeaton decided to take a closer observation of SNR J0450.4−7050 by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and MeerKAT radio telescope. The SNR showed a high radial surface brightness with one of the lowest average radio spectral indices, with similar remnants.

Unusual Radio Properties Suggest Veliki is a Fully Radiative SNR

These unusual features, according to the scientists, give the prediction that Veliki is mainly a radiative SNR with a high shock compression ratio. This states about the non-thermal spectrum and higher surface brightness and emissions. Further observations of the surrounding environment are needed to confirm the hypothesis with an understanding of the remnants’ nature in a better way.

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