Astronautics

Virgin Galactic launched its first tourist passengers into the weightlessness of space Thursday, the culmination of a nearly two-decade commercial pursuit, the company said.

The three passengers -- Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff, and her teenage daughter Anastatia Mayers - floated gravity-free through the Virgin spacecraft about 45 minutes after taking off.

The two-stage moon mission that Türkiye intends to carry out using spacecraft that were built and developed domestically was revealed recently by Industry and Technology Minister Fatih Kacır.

Türkiye can make its space dream come true, a Turkish aerospace engineer known for her work on controlling the direction of spacecraft has said.

Turkey has successfully passed the first test of its indigenous engine to be used in a rocket that will be sent to the Moon in 2023.

"We, as a country, have a mission to the Moon, and I think we will succeed the first leg of our long mission in 2023," said Mustafa Varank, the minister of industry and technology, on April 11.

It is believed to have been a part of a Russian spacecraft

India aborted the launch on July 15 of a spacecraft intended to land on the far side of the moon less than an hour before liftoff.

Embarking on a mission that scientists have been dreaming of since the Sputnik era, a NASA spacecraft hurtled Aug. 12 toward the sun on a quest to unlock some of its mysteries by getting closer than any object sent before.

The United States and India, fresh from sending their own respective spacecraft into Mars' orbit earlier this month, agreed to cooperate on future exploration of the Red Planet.

A NASA spacecraft that aims to study the upper atmosphere of Mars and reveal how its climate changed over time is poised to begin orbiting the Red Planet