Outer space

SpaceX launched 60 more mini internet satellites late on Jan. 6, this time testing a dark coating to appease stargazers.

It's a "first step" compromise between SpaceX and astronomers fearful of having dark skies spoiled by hundreds and, eventually, thousands of bright satellites circling overhead.

NASA's Mars 2020 rover will head off for the Red Planet next year. But like Voyager, Galileo and Cassini before it, the mission's epic journey began in a "clean room" in California.

Russia deployed its first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles on Dec. 27, the Defence Ministry said, a move which President Vladimir Putin has boasted puts his country in a class of its own.   

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed Putin of the deployment, according to a ministry statement that did not disclose where the missiles were located. 

President Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 24 that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons.

Boeing's new Starliner capsule ended up in the wrong orbit after lifting off on its first test flight on Dec. 20, a blow to the company's effort to launch astronauts for NASA next year.

Roscosmos plans to launch a ship to the International Space Station in 2020. The flight taking will be ultra-fast taking only two hours, Roscosmos executives said at a press conference at the Vostochny Cosmodrome

"Up to the ISS - in two hours!" a video of the state corporation's plans for 2020 says.

Space satellites are increasingly required to maneuver to avoid possible collisions and damage with increasing amounts of space debris, according to DPA, citing astronaut and European Space Agency (ESA) coordinator Thomas Reiter.

The situation has worsened significantly in recent decades and is not expected to change in the future, Reiter notes.

CEO of SpaceX space technology company Elon Musk has said it will take 20 years and 1,000 spacecraft to build a city on Mars, which is his long-term vision.

The Japanese government has decided that the country will join NASA's program to colonize the moon, which moves the landing to the lunar surface in 2024, the Kyodo news agency said.

The decision will be formally announced by the end of this year. NASA has announced that the new moon assimilation program has been named "Artemis." It will consist of three stages.

The US Space Agency intends to resume its piloted flights to the International Space Station (ISS) in the first half of 2020, world agencies reported.

They cite a statement by NASA Chief James Bridenstein during a visit to a U.S. space company in Hawthorne, California.