Science News Roundup:what Japan extends participation in International Space Station to 2030; NASA's Artemis rocketship on course for moon after epic launch and more

Among Washington's programme partners, which are Russia, Canada, Japan and the 11-nation European Space Agency, Tokyo is the first to join the United States in extending participation. NASA's Artemis rocketship on course for moon after epic launch With a dash of launch-pad heroics and 8.8 million pounds (4 million kg) of thrust, NASA's colossal new rocket soared into space for the first time early on Wednesday, sending a next-generation capsule on a crewless voyage around the moon and back 50 years after the final Apollo lunar mission

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Japan extends participation in International Space Station to 2030

Japan will extend its participation in the International Space Station (ISS) programme to 2030, education and science minister Keiko Nagaoka said on Friday, following the footsteps of its ally the United States. The United States pledged in December to keep the ISS operational through to 2030. Among Washington's programme partners, which are Russia, Canada, Japan and the 11-nation European Space Agency, Tokyo is the first to join the United States in extending participation.

NASA's Artemis rocketship on course for moon after epic launch

With a dash of launch-pad heroics and 8.8 million pounds (4 million kg) of thrust, NASA's colossal new rocket soared into space for the first time early on Wednesday, sending a next-generation capsule on a crewless voyage around the moon and back 50 years after the final Apollo lunar mission. The U.S. space agency's much-delayed and highly anticipated launch from Florida kicked off Apollo's successor program, Artemis, aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.

Fossils of car-sized dinosaur-era sea turtle unearthed in Spain

Plying the subtropical seas that washed the coasts of the archipelago that made up Europe 83 million years ago was one of the largest turtles on record, a reptile the size of a small car - a Mini Cooper to be precise - that braved dangerous waters. Researchers on Thursday described remains discovered in northeastern Spain of a turtle named Leviathanochelys aenigmatica that was about 12 feet (3.7 meters) long, weighed a bit under two tons and lived during the Cretaceous Period - the final chapter in the age of dinosaurs. It is Europe's biggest-known turtle.

India successfully launches first privately made rocket

India successfully launched its first privately developed rocket, the Vikram-S, on Friday, a milestone in the country's effort to create a commercial space industry and to compete on cost. The 545-kg rocket, developed by space startup Skyroot, took off from the Indian space agency's launch site near Chennai and hit a peak altitude of 89.5 kilometers (km).ASA's asteroid-hunting spacecraft, Lucy, has resumed high-data-rate communication with Earth. The spacecraft continues to operate safely and progress toward its mission goals, the agency said on Friday.

Lucy launched on October 16, 2021, on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a mission to study the Trojan asteroids - a population of primitive asteroids orbiting in tandem with Jupiter.

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FulEarlier this year, the mission team carried out efforts to deploy the spacecraft's unlatched solar array, but the deployment attempts were paused during a period of low-data-rate communications. After analyzing the spacecraft's telemetry and carrying out ground-based tests, the team decided to continue attempts to further deploy the solar array. The latest attempt, according to the agency, deployed the wing incrementally forward, but it did not latch. The operation did succeed in providing the Lucy mission team with data to evaluate the solar array's status and ascertain any changes since the last deployment atte"The likelihood of mission success in the current unlatched state is high, however, the team expects that additional deployment—or potential latch only improves confidence in performance without jeopardizing the spacecraft's safety," NASA said in a statement.On October 16, Lucy carried out its first Earth gravity assist, during which the spacecraft came extraordinarily close to the planet's surface - within 350 Km. All of Lucy's instruments functioned as expected during the gravity assist. The team is continuing to analyze the images of the Earth and Moon collected during the The spacecraft will return for a second gravity assist in 2 years and for a third gravity assist in 2030. Data collected by the mission will help scientists hone their theories on how the planets formed 4.5 billion years ago.