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Added on the 07/03/2023 03:53:19 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
A rocket made by a Japanese company exploded just after launch on Wednesday in Japan's Wakayama. Tokyo-based startup Space One had been aiming to become the first Japanese private firm to successfully place a satellite into orbit. Its 18-meter (60-foot) solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from the startup's own launch pad in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite. But seconds after the launch, the rocket erupted into a ball of flame, with black smoke filling the launch pad area. Burning debris was seen falling onto the surrounding mountain slopes as sprinklers began spraying water. IMAGES
A Russian rocket carrying Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, his production assistant Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome towards the International Space Station. IMAGES
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan on Wednesday carrying a Japanese billionaire to the International Space Station. The rocket carrying online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 46, and his assistant took off at 0738 GMT and is scheduled to arrive at the ISS about six hours later at around 1341 GMT. IMAGES
"All the ground teams really across the world made it easy on us to live and work onboard the ISS," astronaut Thomas Pesquet says during a change of command ceremony aboard the International Space Station. SOUNDBITE
This four-wheeled robot rover is undergoing its final trials on Japan's Tottori Sand Dunes before it will be flown into space and out to its final test - a 1,640 foot ride on the surface of the moon. Called the Moonraker, the rover was built by Team Hakuto of Japan to compete with 15 other teams from all over the world for the $20 million dollar grand prize in the Google Lunar XPrize competition. Google's Lunar XPrize competition calls for participating teams to create a rover, launch it into space, land it on the moon, have it travel at least 1,640 feet, and then send images of its travels back to the earth. The first team to successfully complete the challenge will take home the grand prize. Team Hakuto, which means 'white rabbit' in Japanese, is well on its way to securing the prize money - their Moonraker rover is scheduled to be launched from Earth by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket soon. The purpose is to create a cheap machine to help humans easily explore the moon, and maybe even prepare it for colonization. The Hakuto team hope that the Moonraker will be able to explore holes on the moon's surface and perhaps discover cave systems. The future looks interesting indeed.
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