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by Juliette Collen PARIS, France (AFP) — The first Ariane space rocket lifted off over the forests of French Guiana 40 years ago, enabling Europe to at last take its place as an independent player in the international race for space. Following a number of delays and technical setbacks, Ariane 1 finally left the launch pad in Kourou at 2:13 pm local time on December 24, 1979. Its maiden flight was a so-called qualification […]
by Alia DHARSSI Agence France-Presse VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft took its inaugural test flight on Tuesday, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver where tall mountain peaks edge the Pacific Ocean. “This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work,” said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Seattle-based engineering firm magniX. The company designed the plane’s motor and worked in partnership with Harbour Air, which ferries half […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — India’s Vikram lunar lander, which crashed on its final approach to the Moon’s surface in September, has been found thanks in part to the sleuthing efforts of an amateur space enthusiast. NASA made the announcement on Monday, releasing an image taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that showed the site of the spacecraft’s impact (September 7 in India and September 6 in the US). A version of the […]
by Michel VIATTEAU MIKOLOW, Poland (AFP) — Silently the eight propellers of the Hermes V8MT drone begin to spin and the large yellow aircraft rises up, locates its direction and moments later disappears into the sky in southern Poland. Today the drone is making a successful 8.5-kilometer (5.3-mile) test flight near the headquarters of the Polish firm Spartaqs in the town of Mikolow; soon it will be making journeys between a blood bank and the […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Astronomers have discovered a black hole in the Milky Way so huge that it challenges existing models of how stars evolve, researchers said Thursday. LB-1 is 15,000 light-years from Earth and has a mass 70 times greater than the Sun, according to the journal Nature. The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100 million stellar black holes but LB-1 is twice as massive as anything scientists thought possible, said Liu Jifeng, […]
HUAILAI, China (AFP) — China on Thursday completed a test of its Mars exploration lander ahead of Beijing’s first mission to the red planet slated for 2020. Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space program, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022. Thursday’s hovering and obstacle-avoidance test, which took place in northern Hebei province, was conducted in a facility that simulated conditions on Mars. A red platform with steel cables attached […]
by Glenn CHAPMAN SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Wednesday said it has taken down some 5.4 billion fake accounts this year in a sign of the persistent battle on social media against manipulation and misinformation. Amid growing efforts to create fraudulent accounts, Facebook said it has stepped up its defenses and often removes the accounts within minutes of being created. “We have improved our ability to detect and block attempts to create […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s Hayabusa-2 probe will leave orbit around a distant asteroid and head for Earth on Wednesday after an unprecedented mission, carrying samples that could shed light on the origins of the Solar System. Science and Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda told reporters on Tuesday that the long voyage home would begin soon, with the probe expected to drop off its precious samples sometime in late 2020. The mission took the fridge-sized probe […]
by Rob Lever Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The allegations of spying by former Twitter employees for Saudi Arabia underscore the risks for Silicon Valley firms holding sensitive data which make the platforms ripe for espionage. The two Saudis and one US citizen allegedly worked together to unmask the ownership details behind dissident Twitter accounts on behalf of the Riyadh government and royal family, according to a federal indictment. Analysts say the […]
by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France Presse Tokyo, Japan (AFP) — Hideo Kojima, creator of the hugely anticipated Death Stranding game released this week, turned a family obsession with film into a talent for making highly cinematic video games. Best known for his acclaimed Metal Gear series, Kojima spent nearly 30 years at Konami, a major firm that he has said he joined because they were the only games company listed on the stock market at […]
by Jitendra JOSHI Agence France Presse London, United Kingdom (AFP) — In a world fractured by political populism and divisive voices on social media, can a video game build bridges to harmony? The Japanese auteur behind “Death Stranding” hopes so. The much-hyped title comes out for Sony’s PlayStation 4 on Friday and is the first creation of Hideo Kojima, the acclaimed designer of the Konami studio’s mega-selling “Metal Gear” series, since he went independent in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule successfully performed an emergency abort test Monday, meeting a key requirement before it can take US astronauts to the International Space Station as early as next year. The test took place in the New Mexico desert at the White Sands Missile Range and lasted around 95 seconds. The Starliner was set on a small launch pad with four engines to simulate an emergency in which the […]
