Science News Roundup: Virgin Orbit fails first rocket launch attempt; SpaceX raises $346 million and more
Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Virgin Orbit fails first rocket launch attempt from modified plane
Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit company aborted its first attempt to launch a rocket into space from the belly of a 747 airplane on Monday, the company said. In a test of the company's plan to launch satellites into space, the 70-foot (21.34 m) rocket called LauncherOne was to blast into orbit at about 6.5 miles altitude from a modified airplane named Cosmic Girl.
Elon Musk's SpaceX raises $346 million ahead of debut astronaut mission
Elon Musk's SpaceX said on Tuesday that it raised $346.2 million in a new round of funding, a day before it launches two American astronauts to the International Space Station. The private rocket company's launch of its first crewed mission on Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will put an end to the U.S. space agency's nine-year hiatus in human spaceflight.
Musk's SpaceX set for debut astronaut mission, renewing NASA's crewed launch program
Entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to launch two American astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ending the U.S. space agency's nine-year hiatus in human spaceflight. California-based SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken and its Falcon 9 rocket is due to lift off at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) on Wednesday from the same launch pad used by NASA's last space shuttle mission in 2011.
Collision of galaxies may have spurred our solar system's formation
A violent event on a colossal scale - the crash of two galaxies - may have paved the way for our solar system's birth. A star-formation binge in the Milky Way spanning the time when the solar system was born more than 4.5 billion years ago was apparently precipitated by the collision between our galaxy and a smaller one called Sagittarius, scientists said on Tuesday.
(With inputs from agencies.)
ALSO READ
Scientists identify Milky Way's ancient building blocks Shakti and Shiva
Science News Roundup: Scientists identify Milky Way's ancient building blocks Shakti and Shiva; Soyuz craft launches en route to International Space Station, 2 days after glitch and more
Science News Roundup: Scientists Identify Milky Way's Ancient Building Blocks Shakti and Shiva; Thai Scientists Breed Coral in labs to Restore Degraded Reefs and more
Gaia discovers two starry streams 'Shakti and Shiva' that shaped infant Milky Way
Twisted magnetic field observed around Milky Way's central black hole