In spaceflight

Police on the Greek island of Samos on Dec. 19 fired tear gas to disperse asylum-seekers protesting dismal conditions at their severely overcrowded camp, state agency ANA said.

The mainly African asylum-seekers blocked a road near the camp and threw stones at police, the agency said.

Interior Minister Marcel Vela announced on Thursday that a report on the August 10 riot police intervention in a street protest in Bucharest was declassified and sent to the Department for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) to be used in a probe that started as a result of complaints filed by people involved.

Interior Minister Marcel Vela said the case file regarding the intervention of the gendarmes in the public protests of August 10 will be declassified this week. "It will be declassified this week and you will be updated on this action that will take place at MAI [Interior Ministry].

Gendarmes can also be involved in protecting citizens, said Interior Minister Marcel Vela, on Tuesday evening, in the context of the teenager drugged and raped in an abandoned building in southern city of Giurgiu.

The Japanese government has decided that the country will join NASA's program to colonize the moon, which moves the landing to the lunar surface in 2024, the Kyodo news agency said.

The decision will be formally announced by the end of this year. NASA has announced that the new moon assimilation program has been named "Artemis." It will consist of three stages.

Alexei Leonov, the first man to enter outer space, died in Russia at the age go 85, TASS reported.

"He died today in Moscow at the Burdenko hospital after a long illness," Natalia Filimonova told AFP, CBS News reported.

A NASA mission to the Moon next year aims to assess the impact of cosmic rays on the human body using a system devised and produced by Greek startup Herado, founded by Dr Marianthi Frangopoulou.

Turkey's first national earth observation satellite, named Rasat, completed its 8th year in orbit.