Science News Roundup: Spain's PLD Space plans first rocket launch test on May 31; NASA looks to spice up astronaut menu with deep space food production and more

If successful, the launch from a military aerospace research centre in Huelva, in southern Spain, will be the first in Western Europe by a private company. China launches Shenzhou-16 mission to Chinese space station - state media China sent three astronauts to its now fully operational space station as part of crew rotation on Tuesday in the fifth manned mission to the Chinese space outpost since 2021, state media reported.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Spain's PLD Space plans first rocket launch test on May 31

Spanish company PLD Space said it plans its first test of a suborbital reusable rocket on Wednesday, as it seeks to put small satellites into space and capture a slice of a potential trillion-dollar market. If successful, the launch from a military aerospace research centre in Huelva, in southern Spain, will be the first in Western Europe by a private company.

NASA looks to spice up astronaut menu with deep space food production

In the 2015 sci-fi film "The Martian," Matt Damon stars as an astronaut who survives on a diet of potatoes cultivated in human feces while marooned on the Red Planet. Now a New York company that makes carbon-negative aviation fuel is taking the menu for interplanetary cuisine in a very different direction. Its innovation has put it in the finals of a NASA-sponsored contest to encourage development of next-generation technologies for meeting the food needs of astronauts.

China launches Shenzhou-16 mission to Chinese space station - state media

China sent three astronauts to its now fully operational space station as part of crew rotation on Tuesday in the fifth manned mission to the Chinese space outpost since 2021, state media reported. The spacecraft, Shenzhou-16, or "Divine Vessel", and its three passengers lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northwest China at 9:31 a.m. (0131 GMT).

Italy bets on quietest of places to host world-leading telescope

Italy is proposing a disused mineral mine in a remote corner of Sardinia to house one of the world's most advanced telescopes, hoping that the uncommon stillness of the spot will clinch European Union approval and funds. The Sos Enathos lead and zinc mine, extending 300 metres underground below lush vegetation, has been picked by the Rome government as its candidate to host the so-called Einstein Telescope (ET).

Private astronaut crew, including first Arab woman in orbit, returns from space station

An all-private astronaut team of two Americans and two Saudis, including the first Arab woman sent into orbit, splashed down safely off Florida on Tuesday night, capping an eight-day research mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying them parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, after a 12-hour return flight and blazing re-entry plunge through Earth's atmosphere.