China’s Tiangong space station receives fresh supplies from new Tianzhou cargo spacecraft

China’s Tianzhou 4 freighter has arrived at its orbital destination. The robotic Tianzhou 4 docked with Tianhe, the core module of China’s under-construction Tiangong space station, on Monday evening (May 9), Chinese space officials said. The arrival occurred as planned, about 6.5 hours after the cargo spacecraft lifted off atop a Long March 7 rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan Province. The 35-foot-long (10.6 meters) Tianzhou 4 delivered thousands of pounds of supplies, propellant and science experiments to the currently unoccupied Tianhe to help prepare the…

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Blue Origin announces crew for next suborbital space tourism launch

Blue Origin just announced the identities of the next six people it will launch to the final frontier. The six passengers for the NS-21 mission include a past spaceflyer aboard the company’s New Shepard spacecraft and the first Mexican-born woman to visit space, Blue Origin announced today (May 9). Unlike the company’s previous four spaceflights, no celebrity passenger is listed among the group. (“Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson was supposed to fly aboard Blue Origin’s most recent mission, known as NS-20, but he backed out due to a scheduling…

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‘Analog astronauts’ assemble in Biosphere 2 bubble to talk simulated space missions

The Biosphere 2 research facility in Oracle, Arizona.  (Image credit: Frogman1484/Getty Images) Out in the desert in Arizona, “analog astronauts” gathered this weekend for an annual conference in a giant, futuristic habitat called Biosphere 2.  The event, called the Analog Astronaut Conference, is an annual meetup showcasing the work of “analog astronauts,” or researchers who have completed simulated space missions, living and working in habitats on Earth that mimic expected living conditions in destinations like Mars or the moon.  The event took place from May 6 to May 8 at…

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