in spaceflight
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Chinese Rocket Seen Falling on a Village Was Spewing Highly Toxic Chemicals
A video circulating online appears to show debris from a Chinese rocket falling above a populated area, with residents running for cover as a heavy cloud of dark yellow smoke trails across the sky in a frightening scene. The suspected debris may have come from China’s Long March 2C rocket, which launched on Saturday, June…
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Venus’ Only Active Probe Mysteriously Falls Silent
For nearly 10 years, there’s been only one spacecraft able to keep its cool above the hellish landscape of Venus. The Japanese Akatsuki probe was sent to Earth’s neighboring planet to observe its atmospheric dynamics, but the lone Venusian mission has suddenly gone quiet. Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) has lost contact…
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The Saddest and Strangest Tales of Animals in Space
From spiders struggling to make webs in orbit to bats clinging to the outside of the Space Shuttle, the history of animals in space is as fascinating as it is weird. Here are some of our favorite stories. On June 11, 1948, a rhesus monkey named Albert I become the first animal to reach space,…
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Everything We Noticed During Starship’s Remarkable Third Test Flight
Starship flew faster and longer than ever before on Thursday, but with both stages lost during the mission, there’s clearly much more progress to be made. Here’s our detailed breakdown of Integrated Flight Test 3 and what happens next. The megarocket, standing 400 feet tall (121 meters), took off at 9:25 a.m. ET yesterday from…