HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) – The U.S. Army has unveiled new technology that will for the first time allow AH-64 Apache helicopter pilots to see targeting and surveillance data in full, high-resolution color, instead of the fuzzy black and white images they ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Let’s face it. It’s easy to take for granted that mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish – vertebrates just like people – have a face. But it has not always been the case. The first creatures with a backbone – jawless fish from hu... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover has endured a long lunar night but is still malfunctioning, state media said on Thursday, after technical problems last month cast uncertainty over the country’s first moon landing. Jade Rabbit, named after a ... More »
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Florida’s plan to build a commercial space launch complex in a federal wildlife refuge surrounding the Kennedy Space Center drew sharp words from environmentalists and strong support from business boosters during the proje... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A year after they revealed a twisted skeleton found under a car park as the mortal remains of King Richard III, scientists in Britain plan to grind samples of his ancient bones and use them to map his genome. The project, which may alter per... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Flower power may have meant the difference between life and death for some of the extinct giants of the Ice Age, including the mighty woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. Scientists who studied DNA preserved in Arctic permafrost sedimen... More »
HAMBURG/BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany intends to abstain in a European Union vote on the cultivation of a new type of genetically modified maize, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. Some German opposition politicians said an abstention could lead to the Eur... More »
(Reuters) – DuPont Pioneer, the agricultural seed unit of DuPont, said Tuesday that it signed a deal with DTN/The Progressive Farmer to provide weather and market information to farmers, along with new grain trading capabilities, all accessed through mobile de... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – This may be the last thing that anyone with a touch of ophidiophobia – fear of snakes – would want to hear: flying snakes have surprisingly good aerodynamic qualities. Scientists studying the amazing gliding proficiency of an Asian speci... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a simple way to reprogram mature animal cells back into an embryonic-like state that allows them to generate many types of tissue. The research, described a... More »
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – For-profit space explorers who make California their headquarters would not have to pay property taxes on their rockets and space stations under a bill that advanced in the state legislature on Wednesday. The move is aimed at... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – It’s getting harder and harder to take umbrage if someone calls you a Neanderthal. According to two studies published on Wednesday, DNA from these pre-modern humans may play a role in the appearance of hair and skin as well as the risk of ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese scientists will have to wait until the end of a long lunar night, lasting about 14 earth days, to see if repair efforts on the country’s first moon rover, dubbed Jade Rabbit, were successful, state media said. Jade Rabbit began expe... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Under a new program called Lunar Catalyst, U.S. space agency NASA will provide free technical expertise, equipment, facilities and software to help selected companies develop lunar landers, officials said on Monday. “The int... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday to put the newest member of NASA’s space communications network into orbit. The 19-story tall Atlas 5 rocket, built and launched by United Laun... More »
(Reuters) – NASA’s decade-old Mars rover, Opportunity, has found evidence that life-friendly fresh water once pooled on the red planet’s surface, reinforcing similar discoveries made by newcomer Curiosity on the other side of the planet, scientists said on Thu... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The dwarf planet Ceres, one of the most intriguing objects in the solar system, is gushing water vapor from its unusual ice-covered surface, scientists said on Wednesday in a finding that raises the question of whether it might be hospit... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Scientists are stumped as to how a rock mysteriously appeared in images taken two weeks apart by NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity. The rover, which landed in an area known as Meridiani Planum a decade ago, is exploring the rim ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Syngenta AG is pressing ahead with U.S. sales of a new corn trait that is not approved in China, fueling concerns of another jarring GMO trade quarrel with the world’s fastest-growing food importer. While the U.S. grain industry lobbies the... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Syngenta AG is pressing ahead with U.S. sales of a new corn trait that is not approved in China, fueling concerns of another jarring GMO trade quarrel with the world’s fastest-growing food importer. While the U.S. grain industry lobbies the... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta woke from nearly three years of hibernation on Monday to complete a decade-long deep space mission that scientists hope will help unlock some of the secrets of the solar system. Rosetta, which was launched... More »
(Reuters) – After a 10-year journey, Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is due to end its hibernation on Monday and prepare for an unprecedented mission to orbit a comet and dispatch a lander to the surface. Rosetta’s on-board alarm clock is due to go off at 5 a.m. E... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian scientists are gluing tiny sensors onto thousands of honey bees to track their movements in a trial aimed at halting the spread of diseases that have wiped out populations in the northern hemisphere. Scientists at the Commonwealth... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Orbital Sciences Corp, one of two companies hired by U.S. space agency NASA to make supply runs to the International Space Station, delivered its first cargo ship on Sunday, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Space station flight e... More »
(Reuters) – Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft aiming to make the world’s first commercial suborbital spaceflights later this year, conducted its third rocket-powered test flight on Friday. With Virgin Galactic chief pilot Da... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket blasted off on Thursday to deliver the first of eight cargo ships to the International Space Station for NASA. The 13-story rocket lifted off its seaside launch pad on Wallops Island, Vir... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration wants to keep the International Space Station, a $100 billion orbital research outpost that is a project of 15 nations, flying until at least 2024, four years beyond a previous target, NASA said on Wednesday. The... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – A Space Exploration Technologies’ Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday to put a commercial communications spacecraft into orbit for Thai satellite operator Thaicom. The 224-f... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A mission to put humans on Mars that drew 200,000 applicants has selected more than a thousand candidates who will now be tested to come up with a final list of 24 would-be Mars-dwellers. Mars One was set up in 2011 by two Dutch men with ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Spacewalking Russian cosmonauts on Friday spent over eight hours installing two cameras outside the International Space Station for a Canadian streaming-video business and then retrieving the gear due to connectivity problem... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s homegrown satellite navigation system will bring untold economic, social and military benefits and other countries in Asia are welcome to use it, the director of China’s satellite navigation agency said on Friday. The year-old Beido... More »
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – From rocket-shaped playground equipment to faded murals of cosmonauts, mementos of the heyday of Soviet space exploration are scattered around this sandswept town that launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961. When President Vl... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A new way of assembling things, called metamaterials, may in the not too distant future help to protect a building from earthquakes by bending seismic waves around it. Similarly, tsunami waves could be bent around towns, and soundwaves be... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Two NASA astronauts spent more than seven hours working outside the International Space Station on Tuesday and successfully repaired a critical cooling system. It was the second spacewalk in three days for flight engineers R... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are planning a second and final spacewalk to fix the outpost’s cooling system early on Tuesday, a NASA official said. NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are ex... More »
HOMESTEAD (Reuters) – As a squat, red-and-black robot nicknamed CHIMP gingerly pushed open a spring-loaded door a gust of wind swooped down onto the track at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and slammed the door shut, eliciting a collective sigh of disappointment ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Two NASA astronauts, their spacesuits rigged with snorkels in case of a water leak, floated outside the International Space Station for 5-1/2 hours on Saturday, successfully completing the first steps to fix the outpost’s co... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will expand its presence in Antarctica by building a fourth research base and finding a site for a fifth, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday, as the country steps up its increasingly far-flung scientific efforts. Chinese scientist... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Astronauts aboard the International Space Station prepared for an unexpected series of spacewalks by fabricating spacesuit snorkels they can use for breathing in case of another helmet water leak, NASA officials said on Wedn... More »
(Reuters) – NASA will turn over one of its mothballed space-shuttle launch pads to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which intends to set up a second site in Florida for its Falcon rockets, officials said on Friday. NASA’s decision to ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists have proved for the first time that the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed 71 people can also infect camels, strengthening suspicions the animals may be a source of the human outbreak. Researchers from t... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – A kind of rock that often contains diamonds has been found in Antarctica for the first time, hinting at mineral riches in the vast, icy continent where mining is banned. No diamonds were found, but researchers said they were confident the gems... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will begin a series of spacewalks this weekend to repair the orbital outpost’s cooling system, delaying a cargo resupply flight until January, NASA said on Tuesday. One of th... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China aims to launch its next unmanned lunar probe in 2017, with the key aim of collecting and bringing back lunar samples, an official said on Monday, after the country’s first probe landed successfully on the moon over the weekend. China’... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said on Saturday it had sent a second live monkey into space and brought it back safely, the latest demonstration of the country’s missile capabilities, state news agency IRNA reported. “President Hassan Rouhani … congratulated Iranian s... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, state media reported, in the first such “soft-landing” since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat. The Chang’e 3, a p... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – NASA is assessing a problem with one of two cooling systems aboard the International Space Station, a potentially serious but not life-threatening situation, officials said on Wednesday. The system automatically shut itself down after... More »
(Reuters) – A commercial space company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has lost a challenge over NASA’s plans to lease out one of the space shuttle’s dormant launch pads in Florida, officials said on Thursday. The company, Blue Origin, had filed a protest w... More »
BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Chinese-Brazilian satellite launched by China on Monday failed to reached its planned orbit and likely fell back to Earth, Brazil’s Ministry of Science said. The satellite was the fourth in a series designed to monitor land use in Brazil... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Scientists have found evidence of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars well suited to support microbial life, the researchers said Monday. The lake, located inside Gale Crater where the rover landed in August 2012, likely covered an are... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian companies that built most of the parts for the country’s recently launched Mars mission are using their low-cost, high-tech expertise in frugal space engineering to compete for global aerospace, defence and nuclear contracts worth ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Two houses in China were damaged by falling pieces of a rocket launched on Monday, prompting calls for an insurance scheme to cover future damage from the country’s ambitious space program, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday. ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket developed by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, blasted off on Tuesday to put its first commercial satellite into orbit, staking a potentially game-changing claim in a global industry wort... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – The last vestiges of Comet ISON are fading from view after a sizzlingly close encounter with the sun, scientists said on Monday. “Comet ISON is now just a cloud of dust,” astronomer Tony Phillips wrote on SpaceWeather.com, a... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, plans to try again on Tuesday to launch its first commercial communications satellite after its Falcon 9 rocket was twice sidelined by technical issues, officials said. L... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched its first ever extraterrestrial landing craft into orbit en route for the moon in the small hours of Monday, in a major milestone for its space program. The Chang’e-3 lunar probe, which includes the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy,... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s first mission to Mars left Earth’s orbit early on Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the efforts in space of rival Asian giant China. The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbi... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched its first ever extraterrestrial landing craft into orbit en route for the moon in the small hours of Monday, in a major milestone for its space program. The Chang’e-3 lunar probe, which includes the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy,... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – A smaller, paler version of Comet ISON may have survived incineration in the sun’s corona and may be brightening, scientists said on Friday. Since its discovery in September 2012, Comet ISON has been full of surprises. It st... More »
(Reuters) – A comet’s 5.5-million-year journey to the inner solar system apparently ended during a suicidal trip around the sun, leaving no trace of its once-bright tail or even remnants of rock and dust, scientists said on Thursday. The comet, known as ISON, ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The publisher of a controversial and much-criticized study suggesting genetically modified corn caused tumors in rats has withdrawn the paper after a yearlong investigation found it did not meet scientific standards. Reed Elsevier’s Food and... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The skeleton of a diplodocus dinosaur that roamed what is now the United States some 160 million years ago was sold for 400,000 pounds ($651,100) to an unidentified public institution at an auction in Britain on Wednesday. Misty, as the dino... More »
(Reuters) – A comet that left the outer edge of the solar system more than 5.5 million years ago will pass close by the sun on Thursday, becoming visible in Earth’s skies in the next week or two – if it survives. “There are three possibilities when this comet ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will land its first probe on the moon in early December which will deploy a buggy to explore its surface, an official said on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the country’s space ambitions. China has already photographed the surf... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Space Agency on Friday launched three satellites it hopes will help understand why the magnetic field that makes human life possible on Earth appears to be weakening. The satellites, comprising ESA’s Swarm project, were launc... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Mining in space is moving from science fiction to commercial reality but metals magnates on this planet need not fear a mountain of extraterrestrial supply – the aim is to fuel human voyages deeper into the galaxy. Within three years, two fi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. Darwin’s frogs were named after the father of evolution, who discovered them in 1834 in Chile during his voyage around the wor... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fossils of two dinosaurs locked in a death match failed to sell at auction on Tuesday despite predictions they would fetch a record $9 million. The top bid for the dinosaur fossils was $5.5 million and did not meet the reserve price, Bonha... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Despite budget uncertainties, NASA on Tuesday issued a solicitation for a commercially operated space taxi to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, an attempt to break Russia’s monopoly on crew transport by 20... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, sending a Mars orbiter on its way to study how the planet most like Earth in the solar system lost its water. Unlike previous... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Scientists have no doubts that oceans and rivers once pooled on the surface of Mars, but what happened to all that water is a long-standing mystery. The prime suspect is the sun, which has been peeling away the planet’s atmo... More »
(Reuters) – Arizona on Thursday dealt a blow to the state’s largest utility by approving a monthly fee on customers with solar panels that Arizona Public Service said was not enough to offset the costs that those rooftop systems have heaped on its remaining ra... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Proponents of solar power will face off with Arizona’s biggest utility on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to sway regulators who are preparing to rule on the fate of a little-known solar subsidy that, if altered, would be a blow to the ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s first man-made ash cloud has been created by a team led by airline easyJet and planemaker Airbus to test how passenger aircraft cope with volcanic blasts such as the 2010 Icelandic eruption. The eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajo... More »
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – African smartphone users will soon have an alternative means to get round the power shortages afflicting much of the world’s poorest continent – a portable charger that relies on hydrogen fuel cells. British company Intelligent Energy pla... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – A comet is heading for a close encounter with the sun later this month, and if it is not vaporized or torn apart, it should be visible to the naked eye in December. Comet ISON is expected to pass just about 621,000 miles (1 ... More »
NEAR ZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – A Russian spacecraft brought three astronauts and the Olympic torch back to Earth on Monday after the torch was taken on its first spacewalk in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Russia’s Fyodor Yurchikhin bea... More »
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – A pair of Russian cosmonauts took an Olympic torch into open space for the first time on Saturday as part of the torch relay of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Gripping the unlit silver-and-red torch in the gloved fist of his spac... More »
(Reuters) – One out of every five sun-like stars in the Milky Way galaxy has a planet about the size of Earth that is properly positioned for water, a key ingredient for life, a study released on Monday showed. The analysis, based on three years of data collec... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Two new science satellites are being prepared to join a fleet of robotic Mars probes to help determine why the planet most like Earth in the solar system ended up so different. India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, the country’s fir... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy yet, a discovery that pushes back scientists’ view of the universe to about 700 million years after it is thought to have come into existence. Light from the galaxy, designated ... More »
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) – Dutch scientists hidden away in a top-security laboratory are seeking to create mutant flu viruses, dangerous work designed to prepare the world for a lethal pandemic by beating nature to it. The idea of engineering viral pat... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp completed a successful test mission at the International Space Station on Tuesday, clearing the firm to begin regular cargo runs for NASA under a $1.9 billion contract. Using the space st... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Hoping to cash in on a growing appetite for adventure, an Arizona startup has unveiled plans for a balloon ride to the stratosphere, offering passengers about two hours of space-like views from 19 miles above Earth. Privatel... More »
(Reuters) – A California marine instructor’s leisurely weekend snorkel turned into the discovery of a lifetime when she found the carcass of a massive, eel-like creature of a species thought to have inspired legends of giant sea serpents. Catalina Island Marin... More »
(Reuters) – Astronaut Scott Carpenter, who in 1962 became the fourth American in space and the second to orbit the Earth, died on Thursday in Colorado at age 88 of complications from a stroke, his wife Patty Carpenter said. Carpenter, who lost radio contact wi... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the country’s space agency (Roskosmos) chief Vladimir Popovkin on Thursday, three months after the latest botched satellite launch. “I hope that a number of problems that we have unfortunately... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three U.S. scientists won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy. The Royal Swedish Aca... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three U.S. scientists won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy. The Royal Swedish Aca... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Britain’s Peter Higgs and Francois Englert of Belgium won the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle that explains how elementary matter attained the mass to form stars and planets. The... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – With the Higgs boson in the bag, the head of the CERN research center urged scientists on Tuesday to push on to unveil the “dark universe” – the hidden stuff that makes up 95 per cent of the cosmos and is still a mystery to earthbound resear... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Here is a look at the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics, which was awarded jointly on Tuesday to Peter Higgs, a British physicist who proposed the existence of the boson nearly 50 years ago, and Belgium’s Francois Englert: – The award to Higgs an... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct 7 – Politics may be keeping most of NASA’s workers home, but that didn’t stop the U.S. space agency’s new moon probe from achieving lunar orbit, officials said on Monday. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, b... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Exposure to pollution from diesel exhaust fumes can disrupt honeybees’ ability to recognize the smells of flowers and could in future affect pollination and global food security, researchers said on Thursday. In a study published in the Natu... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – The world’s oceans are under greater threat than previously believed from a “deadly trio” of global warming, declining oxygen levels and acidification, an international study said on Thursday. The oceans have continued to warm, pushing many co... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Four decades ago, NASA’s Launch Complex 39A was at the center of the Cold War race to the moon. Now the mothballed launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which dispatched Neil Armstrong and his crew on their histo... More »
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) – An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year. The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Te... More »
(Reuters) – An unmanned U.S. commercial cargo ship flew to the International Space Station on Sunday, completing the primary goal of its test flight before supply runs begin in December. After a series of successful steering maneuvers, the Orbital Sciences Cyg... More »
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) – An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades needed for planned commercial launch services. The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or Space... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Leading climate scientists said on Friday they were more convinced than ever that humans are the main culprits for global warming, and predicted the impact from greenhouse gas emissions could linger for centuries. The Intergovernmental Pa... More »
