Tag - space

 
 

SPACE

Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of Ispace. The Resilience lunar lander could become the company's first to touch down on the moon on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 2, 2025
Japanese startup Ispace prepares for lunar lander to touch down on the moon
The goal is to achieve a soft landing near the Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, in the moon’s northern hemisphere.
Jared Isaacman, U.S. President Donald Trump's then-nominee to be NASA administrator, testifies during a Senate panel confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 9.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2025
Trump pulls Musk ally's NASA nomination and will announce replacement
Isaacman's removal comes just days after Musk's official departure from the White House.
SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its Super Heavy booster is launched on its ninth test at the company's launch pad in Starbase, Texas, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 28, 2025
SpaceX's Starship spins out of control
SpaceX's Starship rocket roared into space from Texas on Tuesday but spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals, bringing fresh engineering hurdles to CEO Elon Musk's increasingly turbulent Mars rocket program.
Innovative Space Carrier CEO Kojiro Hatada poses with a model of the planned spaceplane ASCA 3 at JFE Engineering’s factory in Yokohama on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025
Japanese reusable rocket startup ISC eyes U.S. test launch in December
Innovative Space Carrier said its ASCA 1.0 reusable launcher will conduct a 100-meter flight and landing test.
People visit the exhibition "Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?" at the Natural History Museum in London on May 16.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 24, 2025
Doubt cast on claim of 'hints' of life on faraway planet
There is not enough evidence to support such lofty claims some studies say, with one scientist accusing the astronomers of "jumping the gun."
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency President Hiroshi Yamakawa speaks at a press briefing in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 17, 2025
Japan remains committed to moon missions as Trump cuts NASA budget, JAXA chief says
U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed a $6 billion cut to NASA's budget could upend the Artemis program to return people to the moon.
Tokyo-based satellite maker Axelspace's initial public offering is expected to be approved by the Tokyo Stock Exchange later this month, people with knowledge of the matter said.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 8, 2025
Axelspace is latest Japan space startup to seek IPO, sources say
If successful, it would be the fifth such listing of a Japanese spacecraft venture over the last two years.
Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of Ispace, says his primary interest in space development is not to abandon Earth, but to protect it.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 7, 2025
'Big picture thinker': Ispace CEO Hakamada on reaching the moon and dreaming of starships
CEO Takeshi Hakamada envisions a distant future where humans live and work on the moon — just don't ask him to visit.
The long-awaited India Pavilion has finally opened. A model of the Chandrayaan-3 unmanned probe, which made an unprecedented landing near the moon's south pole in 2023, is displayed, on Thursday in the city of Osaka.
JAPAN
May 1, 2025
India Pavilion opens at Osaka Expo
The pavillion features space exploration technologies and information technologies, areas in which the South Asian country has excelled.
An artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2025
In a galaxy far, far away ... did we find life?
K2-18b, which has eight times the mass of Earth, just might be covered with a massive ocean and blanketed by an atmosphere complete with water vapor and rain clouds.
The launchpad is seen after a Russian Soyuz 2.1A rocket carrying satellites took off at the new Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Uglegorsk, in Russia's far eastern Amur region in April 2016.
WORLD
Apr 26, 2025
Russian satellite tied to nuke program appears out of control, analysts say
The Cosmos 2553 satellite has had various bouts of what appears to be errant spinning over the past year.
The 50th two-stage H-2A rocket is stored at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Tobishima plant in Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2025
Final H-IIA rocket to be launched in June
After the launch, the H-IIA rocket series will be retired and replaced by the more advanced H3 series.
Astronauts for China's Shenzhou-20 space mission Wang Jie (left), Chen Dong (center) and Chen Zhongrui wave during a news conference a day before the launch of the mission, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert, in northwest China, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Apr 23, 2025
Veteran Chinese astronaut to lead fresh crew to space station
Chen Dong, a 46-year-old former fighter pilot and experienced space explorer, will be at the helm for the mission.
A handout artist's impression released on Thursday by N. Madhusudhan/University of Cambridge shows the K2-18b super-Earth, a hycean world, in which astronomers say they have found the strongest yet “hints” of life outside our solar system.
WORLD
Apr 17, 2025
Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet
The scientists stressed they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms and that the findings should be viewed cautiously.
A concept image of the Hayabusa2 unmanned probe, which utilizes Earth's gravity for acceleration as part of its asteroid exploration mission
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2025
Hayabusa2 target asteroid may be smaller than expected
Direct exploration Hayabusa2 is expected to provide important insight into planetary defense to help prevent disasters caused by asteroid collision.
Jared Isaacman (left), U.S. President Trump’s nominee to head NASA, testifies during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Bloomberg
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2025
NASA nominee should resist Musk’s pull toward Mars
During a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Jared Isaacman, the nominee for NASA administrator, was — in a twist on the Will Smith ’90s tune — gettin’ squishy wit it.
Details on rocks on the Ryugu and Bennu asteroids have been identified from their photographs using artificial intelligence technology.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 8, 2025
Japan researchers rapidly identify rocks on asteroids using AI
A University of Tokyo team achieved the feat with an AI-based rock identification tool that was fed information on rocks on Earth and other celestial bodies.
The International Space Station is seen as a small object to the upper left of the moon.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 5, 2025
Honda to test renewable tech in space soon
The auto giant is developing a mechanism capable of generating electricity and oxygen continuously — enabling astronauts to breathe.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is launched at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 1, 2025
SpaceX eyes Starlink hub with multiple ground stations in Vietnam, sources say
The move would herald its launch in the country and would help authorities police internet traffic.
A model of the Isar Aerospace mini-rocket
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 30, 2025
German startup's space rocket explodes after takeoff from Norway
The uncrewed Spectrum rocket was billed as the first attempt at an orbital flight to originate from Europe, where several nations have said they want a share of a growing market.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic