For the first time, Rocket Lab reused one of its Rutherford engines, marking an important step in the road to reusability.

Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket with a pre-flown Rutherford engine for the first time yesterday, August 23.

The company has experimented with a mid-air helicopter retrieval method, though it has settled on plucking boosters out of the ocean after a parachute-assisted splashdown.

Despite attempts to decrease excessive greenhouse gas emissions, significant methane releases were detected at the rocket site of the e-commerce giant.

Methane (CH4) is responsible for 11.4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Being the most potent gas, methane was also on the agenda for discussion at the White House.

According to Reuters, the Biden administration, on 23 July 2023, implemented a cabinet-level task to help organize federal agencies in employing technologies that identify methane leaks. They further emphasized enforcing methane regulations to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

India has joined the U.S., China and the former USSR in successfully soft-landing a spacecraft on the surface of the moon. The uncrewed Chandrayaan-3 mission has also become the first to land close to the moon’s south pole.

About 15 minutes after initiating its Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS), Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module (LM) touched down around 8:34 a.m. EDT. Images were streamed live on YouTube from the Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO) control room in Bengaluru, India.

India’s uncrewed Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed today close to the moon’s south pole. It joins an elite club of only four nations to soft-land on the moon.

The Clearspace-1 mission is due to launch in 2026, but its target may have smashed into more space debris flying around Earth.

A European space debris cleanup mission run by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Swiss startup ClearSpace has been adversely affected by space debris.

The mission, called ClearSpace-1, is aiming to collect a Vespa payload adapter left in low Earth orbit by a Vega rocket over a decade ago.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is swooping toward the moon’s surface ahead of its historic landing attempt, and it’s capturing some stunning visuals on the way.

The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed Tuesday that Chandrayaan-3 is on schedule and “smooth sailing is continuing.” The spacecraft is set to begin its final descent toward the moon’s surface on Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. IST (8:15 a.m. ET).

If successful, this mission will mark the very first soft landing on the lunar surface by an Indian spacecraft and make India the fourth country ever to accomplish such a feat. Currently, the United States, China and the former Soviet Union are the only nations that have conducted controlled landings of spacecraft on the moon.