Outer space

An automated spacecraft docked with China's new space station on May 30 carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew, the Chinese space agency announced.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space plane has conducted the first of three key test flights that should enable it to enter commercial service.

The Unity vehicle, with pilots Dave Mackay and CJ Sturckow at the controls, powered to a height of 89km (55 miles), and then glided back down to Earth.

Every space mission launched from Earth often leaves the remains of the spacecraft still floating in space. This could endanger the next mission to space or even fall to Earth as happened to Chinese-made rockets some time ago.

China's probe to Mars touched down on the Red Planet on May 15 to deploy its Zhurong rover, state media reported, a triumph for Beijing's bold space ambitions and a history-making feat for a nation on its first-ever Martian mission.

At the Center for Space Control in Beijing, there was big jubilation when China made a successful landing on Mars early on Saturday.

The landing has taken place blindly for them down to the surface of the planet. The rover is programmed to make the landing on its own.

Debris from a Chinese rocket threatens to fall to Earth in the next few days after it was used to launch the core module of China's new space station.

Space experts warned of an "uncontrolled" re-entry of the 20-ton main section of the launch vehicle into the Earth's atmosphere.

SpaceX returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on May 2, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.

The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m., ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk's company.

NASA has selected SpaceX to land the first astronauts on the surface of the Moon since 1972, the agency said on April 16, in a huge victory for Elon Musk's company.

The contract, worth $2.9 billion, involves the prototype Starship spacecraft that is being tested at SpaceX's south Texas facility.

A photograph of Turkey's Lake Van taken from space by an astronaut has been crowned the winner in a weeks-long NASA competition.

The photo, which depicts the lake in eastern Turkey with its swirling cerulean and azure waters was one of two finalists heading into the final day of voting on April 12. It was captured by Kate Rubins in September 2016.

Today, the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight. On this day in 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space. When responding to the ground control if he was ready, he said his famous "Poekhali!" meaning "Let's go!" in Russian. His Vostok1 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 09:07 (Moscow time).