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A SpaceX rocket soared into orbit from Florida on Wednesday carrying the next long-term International Space Station crew, with a Russian cosmonaut, two Americans and a Japanese astronaut flying together in a demonstration of US-Russian teamwork in space despite Ukraine war tensions.

A high-ranking official of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said shortly after the launch that the flight marked “a new phase of our cooperation” with the US space agency NASA.

The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Endurance, lifted off into clear skies at noon EDT (9:30pm IST) from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The two-stage, 23-story-tall Falcon 9 ascended from the launch tower as its nine Merlin engines roared to life in billowing clouds of vapor and a reddish-orange fireball.

The mission is notable for the inclusion of Anna Kikina, 38, the lone female cosmonaut on active duty with Roscosmos, making it the first spaceflight with a Russian launched from US soil in two decades. As the spacecraft entered Earth orbit, Kikina radioed her thanks to NASA, Roscosmos and their International Space Station (ISS) partners for “giving us this great opportunity.”

“We’re so glad to do it together,” Kikina said.

Kikina, who had trained in the US for the flight since spring 2021, was essentially swapping places with a NASA astronaut who took her seat aboard a Russian Soyuz flight to the ISS last month under a new ride-sharing deal signed by NASA and Roscosmos in July.

About nine minutes after Wednesday’s launch, the rocket’s upper stage delivered the Crew Dragon into a preliminary orbit as it streaked through space at nearly 16,000 miles per hour (27,000 kph). The reusable lower-stage booster flew itself back to Earth and landed safely on a drone recovery vessel at sea.

The four crew members and their autonomously flying capsule were due to reach the ISS in about 29 hours, on Thursday evening, to begin a 150-day science mission aboard the orbital laboratory some 250 miles (420 km) above Earth.

The mission, designated Crew-5, marks the fifth full-fledged ISS crew NASA has flown aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the private rocket venture founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk began sending US astronauts aloft in May 2020.

‘Smooth ride’

The team was led by Nicole Aunapu Mann, 45, who became the first Native American woman sent to orbit by NASA and the first woman to take the commander’s seat of a SpaceX Crew Dragon.

Moments after reaching orbit, as mission control wished the crew “Godspeed,” Mann radioed back, “Awesome. Thank you so much to the Falcon team. Whew! That was a smooth ride uphill.”

Mann, a U.S. Marine Corps colonel and combat fighter pilot, is also among the first group of 18 astronauts selected for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions aimed at returning humans to the moon later this decade.

The designated pilot was Mann’s fellow spaceflight rookie Josh Cassada, 49, a U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot with a doctorate in high-energy particle physics. Rounding out the crew from Japan’s space agency JAXA was Koichi Wakata, 59, a robotics expert making his fifth voyage to space.

The team will be welcomed by seven existing ISS occupants – the Crew-4 team consisting of three Americans and an Italian astronaut – as well as two Russians and the NASA astronaut who flew with them to orbit on a Soyuz flight.

The new arrivals are set to conduct more than 200 experiments, many focused on medical research ranging from 3-D “bio-printing” of human tissue to a study of bacteria cultured in microgravity.

ISS, the length of a football field, has been continuously occupied since 2000, operated by a US-Russian-led consortium that includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries. It was born in part to improve relations between Washington and Moscow following the Soviet Union’s collapse and the end of Cold War rivalries that spurred the original American-Soviet space race.

NASA-Roscosmos relations have been tested since Russia invaded Ukraine in February and US imposed sweeping sanctions against Moscow.

At a post-launch NASA-SpaceX briefing on Wednesday, Sergei Krikalev, head of human spaceflight for Roscosmos, said he and the agency chief Yuri Borisov were seeking to ease tensions after Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, raised questions about the future of the ISS partnership.

Krikalev cited bilateral teamwork in space dating back to the Apollo-Soyuz era in 1975, saying, “We started our cooperation many years ago, over 40 years ago, and will continue our cooperation as long as I can imagine.”

The July crew-exchange deal paved the way for resuming routine joint US-Russian flights to the ISS that had begun during the space shuttle era and continued after shuttles ceased flying in 2011. From then until SpaceX began offering crewed launch services nine years later, Soyuz was the only avenue to orbit for US astronauts.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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Water on Ancient Mars? New Study Challenges the Cold Planet Theory

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Water on Ancient Mars? New Study Challenges the Cold Planet Theory

Despite being a vast and inhospitable planet today, scientists believe Mars, the Red Planet, used to look much like Earth, the Blue Planet. Over the last four years, NASA’s Perseverance rover has wandered across an area of Mars where researchers believe a powerful river once poured into a crater, forming a sizable delta. According to computer models, ancient Mars most likely had frequent snowfall and rain, which shaped the enormous networks of lakes and river basins. In the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, a recent study found that the distribution of these land characteristics is more consistent with precipitation models than with only the consequences of melting ice caps.

Investigating Early Martian Climate Through Modeling

The researchers published their findings April 21 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. According to the research by geologists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, our planetary neighbour, on average 140 million miles away in space, was warm and wet billions of years ago. This challenges a long-held belief that early Mars was mostly cold and icy. However, there’s a vital mystery buried in the story: It’s unclear where Mars’ water could have come from, and most climate models predict the world exhibits surface temperatures that are far too cold to sustain liquid water, raising questions about how those visible geological features could have formed.

“It’s very hard to make any kind of conclusive statement,” Amanda Steckel, a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology’s Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. “But we see these valleys beginning at a large range of elevations. It’s hard to explain that with just ice,” she further added in the official blog posted by University of Colorado. 

Through computer simulations, Steckel and her team explored what Mars might have looked like during the Noachian epoch, when water may have drastically shaped the planet’s surface, some 4 billion years ago. Initially created for Earth, their model was modified to simulate how Mars’ landscape changed near the equator, where expansive channel networks extend from the highlands and drain into ancient lakes, possibly even an ocean. NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently exploring one of these sites, Jezero Crater, where a once-powerful river poured into the basin.

Comparing Climate Models and Implications for Planetary History

The group explored two major simulation models, the ice-melt model and the wet and warm model for how precipitation might have created the valleys on Mars: one in which the planet was warm and humid, and another in which ice briefly melted at the edge of a huge ice cap, signifying a cold, arid climate. With valley roots showing up in radically diverse places, each scenario produced a very different Mars.

Their goal was to determine whether ancient Mars may have had a more Earth-like climate, at least for a while. While more evidence is needed and answers to questions, such as how the planet stayed warm enough for rain or snow, are part of an ongoing investigation. Still, Hynek said the study offers valuable clues, not just about Mars, but about the early history of Earth as well.

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites, nails booster landing

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites, nails booster landing

SpaceX added to its growing Starlink mega-constellation with a launch to orbit and booster recovery. A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex-40 at 9:52 p.m. EDT (0152 GMT on April 25), carrying 28 new satellites into low Earth orbit. The spacecraft were stacked vertically inside the rocket’s nose cone, where they sat on the Falcon 9’s nine first-stage Merlin engine stack that blasted them into the sky over Florida’s Space Coast.

According to a SpaceX mission update, the Falcon 9’s first stage, booster B1069, separated from the upper stage about 2.5 minutes after launch. Roughly six minutes later, it executed a precise landing on the autonomous droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the 23rd successful flight for B1069 and the 19th time it supported a Starlink mission. The rocket’s second stage continued on its course, deploying the 28 satellites into low Earth orbit one hour into the mission.

These satellites come as new additions to the mission (Starlink 6-74), which is now amplifying an extensive network of no less than 7000+ operational units established in orbit. Starlink’s gates are inching open, as each new flight strengthens global service, and the company aims to beam high-speed internet to nearly every location on Earth, except the polar region. In the days to come, the new arrivals will gradually drift into their assigned orbital slots.

SpaceX is still maintaining a breakneck launch tempo for 2025, with Thursday’s flight being the 47th Falcon 9 mission of the year and the 30th carrying Starlink satellites only. The timeline reflects the firm’s determination to broaden satellite broadband deployment, particularly to rural and poorly served parts of the world. Each new batch enhances service reliability and builds resilience into the constellation’s structure.

The Starlink program continues to reshape global internet accessibility, backed by the Falcon 9’s proven reusability and precision recovery. As they tick off their successful booster landing and payload deployment, SpaceX continues to redefine both space travel logistics and satellite-powered access on Earth.

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Scientists Reportedly Found a Potential Sign of Life on a Distant Planet: What You Need to Know

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Scientists Reportedly Found a Potential Sign of Life on a Distant Planet: What You Need to Know

A team of astronomers have reportedly discovered biological activity outside the solar system. The scientists have revealed that the distant planet, named K2-18 b, comprises more than one molecule in its atmosphere that potentially has been generated by living things. However, this revelation has made a sensation among astronomers across the world, more specifically for those who study biosignatures in exoplanet atmospheres.

 

According to report by Nature.com, K2-18 b is a planet that is smaller than Neptune. It lies at a distance of 38 parsecs above the Earth.

About the Discovery

Dimethyl sulphide (DMS) has been discovered by scientists from the University of Cambridge, UK, in the atmosphere of K2-18b. The DMS molecule is generated by living organisms, which has raised speculations about the potential for life on this distant planet. The scientists used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to implement research. Also, the discovery happened when a molecule was detected in the starlight filtering through the planet’s atmosphere. These chemicals have raised curiosity amongst astronomers as they are generated by living organisms on the planet Earth.

This discovery first came into the light in the year 2023. However, the new revelations have been made as a result of the follow-up on similar findings. This time, the scientists used different wavelengths and a research strategy to support their discovery of molecules on the distant planet. .

Significance of this Discovery

For decades, scientists have been engrossed in studying life beyond Earth. Now that the pieces of evidence are hinting towards the potential existence of DMS or DMDS on K2-18 b. If proven, this will be a historic win for the scientists. Furthermore, this discovery is a step towards understanding planets from a broader perspective. Overall, more than 5,800 planets have been detected throughout the Universe.

Reason Behind Uncertainty by Other Researchers

The scientists are sceptical about this discovery as they doubt whether DMS or DMDS are really present or is K2-18 b is barren. While some of the researchers are not confident about the discovery, the expert team of scientists from the University of Cambridge, UK, is working extensively to provide a proven base to support their findings.

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