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    Space

    This Month

    People visit St Mary’s lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, on May 10, 2024, in the UK.

    Extreme solar storm hits Earth, could bring auroras but disrupt power

    An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth could produce southern lights across Australia, including as far north as Queensland.

    • Marcia Dunn
    A “super blue moon” rises over Bondi Beach in August.

    America’s new moon race is billionaire v billionaire

    Today’s space race looks in some ways like that of the 1960s; instead of the US v the Soviet Union, it’s Bezos’ Blue Origin v Musk’s SpaceX.

    • Loren Grush

    April

    This image from video provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation shows the surface of the moon as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft prepared for landing in August last year.  India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole.

    China set to launch high-stakes mission to moon’s ‘hidden’ side

    China has made leaps forward in its lunar exploration, narrowing the technological chasm with the United States and Russia.

    • Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo
    A total solar eclipse passed over North America on Monday (Tuesday AEDT).

    Millions watch total solar eclipse across Americas

    Experts called the eclipse “the most viewed astronomical event in history” as the moon blocked out the sun across North America.

    • Updated
    • Marcia Dunn

    March

    Betelgeuse is set to become the brightest star in our night sky.

    A sun in our galaxy is about to explode

    There hasn’t been a supernova in this vicinity since German astronomer Johannes Kepler saw one in 1604.

    • Jeff Allan
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    SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship cuts through clouds on it’s third test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

    ‘The ship has been lost’: SpaceX rocket breaks up on re-entry

    Starship soared higher and farther than ever before in a near hour-long test flight that bolstered the spirits of both Elon Musk and NASA.

    • Marcia Dunn

    February

    The more Putin escalates rhetorically and technically, the more jittery he makes the Pentagon and all other powers

    Putin’s space nuke is so crazy, it’s an opportunity

    The spectre of Russian nuclear escalation in space could offer Joe Biden and Xi Jinping a reason to make common cause in restraining and deterring the Russian autocrat.

    • Andreas Kluth
    The Intuitive Machines lander called Odysseus has touched down on the moon.

    First private spacecraft lands on the moon

    A successful touchdown by Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander heralds a more commercial era for space exploration.

    • Updated
    • Peggy Hollinger and Clive Cookson
    Adam Gilmour, chief executive of Gilmour Space, bought into the company’s latest capital raise.

    The Gold Coast’s answer to SpaceX is now worth $605m

    Gold Coast-based rocket company Gilmour Space has closed a $55m funding round, which will give it enough cash to make its first four launch attempts.

    • Tess Bennett

    January

    In this image made from NASA video, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket with Astrobotic Technology’s lander onboard is launched from Cape Canaveral.

    First US lunar lander in more than 50 years rockets towards moon

    The Vulcan streaked through the Florida sky, putting the spacecraft on a roundabout route to the moon that should culminate with an attempted landing on February 23.

    • Marcia Dunn

    December 2023

    Quasar CEO Phil Ridley is going to America to sell new satellite technology.

    Aussie company Quasar joins the global satellite space race

    Defence forces and commercial companies are seeking way to improve the tracking of space traffic.

    • Matthew Cranston

    November 2023

    This moonshot tech firm is Australia’s fastest growing company

    Fleet Space Technologies, with a compound annual growth rate of 582 per cent over three years, is top of the Fast 100 class for 2023.

    • Michael Bailey

    October 2023

    Doug Hilton

    Big ideas trump commercialisation for new CSIRO boss

    Doug Hilton has laid out plans for it to help answer the big questions facing society, while also making some money along the way.

    • Updated
    • Tess Bennett
    Skykraft CEO Dr Michael Frater.
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    Big money is back as space tech start-up raises $120m

    Skykraft, which is building satellites to communicate with aircraft in flight anywhere in the world, has closed one of the year’s biggest investments.

    • Paul Smith
    It is estimated that there could be as many as 150 billion other galaxies.

    Australian scientists shine new light on dark matter

    It might not yet be the answer to life, the universe and everything, but an analysis of international experiments suggests the existence of an unknown particle.

    • Jeff Allan
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    September 2023

    Lockheed Martin mission operations assurance lead Graham Miller, and recovery specialists Michael Kaye and Levi Hanish prepare the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission for transport after it landed.

    NASA asteroid sample parachutes safely onto Utah desert

    The gumdrop-shaped capsule was released from the robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx as the mothership passed within 107,826 kilometres of Earth hours earlier.

    • Steve Gorman and Maria Caspani
    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s H2-A rocket lifts off from Tanegashima Space Centre in south-western Japan.

    Japan launches rocket on mission to probe origins of universe

    The heavy payload rocket was launched carrying an advanced imaging satellite and a lightweight lander that was scheduled to reach the moon as early as January.

    • Nicholas Takahashi
    People watch the Indian Space Research Organisation’s rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 solar mission lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

    Fresh from moon landing, India launches spacecraft to study the sun

    The Aditya-L1 spacecraft took off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space centre in southern India on a quest to study the sun.

    • Ashok Sharma and Aijaz Hussain
    Six nations and two billionaires hope to colonise the Moon.

    How humans will colonise the moon – and when it will happen

    While the world was distracted by Putin and Trump, India pulled off a lunar landing. But with six nations and two billionaires eyeing up the opportunities, what will our first off-world settlement look like?

    • Boris Starling

    August 2023

    The Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 during take-off earlier this month.

    Russia’s moon failure a blow to space partnership with China

    The ill-fated spacecraft was aiming for the intended location of a joint base that space agencies in China and Russia had agreed to build together.

    • Bruce Einhorn