Outer space

Amazon has said it will invest $120 million to build a satellite construction facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, as part of its plans to launch a space internet service to rival SpaceX's Starlink.

China plans to land astronauts on the moon before 2030, which would be another advance in what's increasingly seen as a new space race.

The U.S. aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025.

Deputy Director of the Chinese Manned Space Agency Lin Xiqiang confirmed China's goal at a news conference yesterday but gave no specific date.

Virgin Galactic successfully carried out its first spaceflight in nearly two years on May 25 , the company said, after an "enhancement period" to make safety upgrades to its fleet.

Jeff Bezos' rocket company has won a NASA contract to land astronauts on the moon, two years after it lost out to SpaceX.

Blue Origin received a $3.4 billion contract to lead a team to develop a lunar lander named Blue Moon.
It will be used to transport astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2029, following a pair of crew landings by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Within the scope of the ALGALSPACE project, Alper Gezeravcı, Türkiye's first space traveler, will test the algae taken from Antarctica into space to provide additional food.

U.S. conservation groups on May 1 announced they are suing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for not doing enough to protect the environment from SpaceX's Starship program.

The move came after the world's most powerful rocket exploded on its first integrated test flight, just four minutes after launching from Boca Chica, Texas on April 20.

Flying chunks of concrete, twisted metal sheets, craters blasted deep into the ground: The thunderous power of SpaceX's first test flight of Starship - the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built - inflicted serious damage on its Texas launch site.

SpaceX's giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on its first test flight on April 20 and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Elon Musk's company was aiming to send the nearly 120-meter Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites.

Türkiye's first domestically produced observation satellite İMECE will be launched into space on April 11, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced.

"We will continue to exist in the global space race thanks to our trained human resources, the opportunities we provide and the technologies we have developed," the president said on his Twitter account.

For the first time, a woman and an African-American will go to the moon. NASA announced on Monday the names of the four astronauts who will orbit Earth's natural satellite at the end of 2024 after more than 50 years of absence, reported AFP.