Science News Roundup: NASA probe provides insight on solar system's border with interstellar space

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Boeing tests space taxi, one of three parachutes does not open

Boeing Co said on Monday that one of three parachutes failed to deploy during an otherwise successful safety test of its unmanned CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, being developed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The deployment failure happened during a so-called pad abort test of a system designed to propel the crew to safety in the event of an emergency, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said by email.

China launches high-res satellite able to provide stereo imagery - CCTV

China launched a new high-resolution remote sensing satellite capable of providing stereoscopic imagery on Sunday, state-run media said, marking another important step as Beijing seeks to reduce reliance on foreign technology in topographic mapping. A rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China at 11:22 a.m. local time, carrying the Gaofen-7 high resolution satellite into its designated orbit, the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) said, citing China National Space Administration.

NASA probe provides insight on solar system's border with interstellar space

The journey of NASA's dauntless Voyager 2 spacecraft through our solar system's farthest reaches has given scientists new insight into a poorly understood distant frontier: the unexpectedly distinct boundary marking where the sun's energetic influence ends and interstellar space begins. The U.S. space agency previously announced that Voyager 2, the second human-made object ever to depart the solar system following its twin Voyager 1, had zipped into interstellar space on Nov. 5, 2018 at a point more than 11 billion miles (17.7 billion km) from the sun. Several research papers published on Monday provided scientific details of that crossing.

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