Spaceflight

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

As exciting as the entire Perseverance mission to Mars is, one of the events most looked forward to by us Earthlings must be the first flight of Ingenuity. After conducting numerous checks and double-checks, the Perseverance team has set April 8 as the date on which they hope to attempt the first controlled powered flight on another planet.

A NASA contest for the next five weeks is looking for the best photographs of the Earth taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The Tournament Earth competition was kicked off by the agency's Earth Observatory and features images from more than 20 years of snapshots by spacewalkers.

Russia and China unveiled plans on March 9 for a joint lunar space station, as Moscow seeks to recapture the glory of its space pioneering days of Soviet times, and Beijing gears up its own extraterrestrial ambitions.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover went on its first drive across the planet's surface after landing there in mid-February, the US-based National Aeronautics and Space Agency announced in a statement.

The Perseverance rover touched down the Red Planet's surface in the area of Jezero Crater on February 18. All the operations were conducted in the automatic mode.

NASA's newest Mars rover hit the dusty red road this week, putting 21 feet on the odometer in its first test drive.

The Perseverance rover ventured from its landing position on March 4, two weeks after setting down on the red planet to seek signs of past life.

The US space agency's Perseverance rover has wiggled its wheels and undertaken its first Martian drive.

It didn't move far - just 6.5m in total.

But Nasa  scientist believe it was a significant moment.

While the rover is still doing a lot of engineering checkouts, the minute 'the rubber' begins to move it should be considered as "explorer" on the surface of Mars.

The launch at Boca Chica, Texas, was streamed live by SpaceX

A Turkish engineer, who worked at American space transportation company SpaceX's first rocket project Falcon-1, accused the company owner, billionaire tycoon Elon Musk of forcing them to work as "slaves."

"We were left alone on an island. He [Elon Musk] made us work like slaves," Bülent Altan said in a book called "Lift-off," describing his early days in the company.

The spacecraft facilities could also function as hubs to facilitate rocket travel to different places on Earth