South Korea is scheduled to conduct its first test launch into space of a domestically built rocket on Thursday in a major step toward jumpstarting the country’s space programme.
Washington is concerned about hypersonic missile technology and its potential military applications by China and Russia, a U.S. arms control official said on Monday, after a media report that Beijing had tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide weapon.
NASA is set on Saturday to launch a first-of-its kind mission, dubbed Lucy, to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, two large clusters of space rocks that scientists believe are remnants of primordial material that formed the solar system's outer planets.
China will send three astronauts to an unfinished space station early on Saturday, including the first female crew member to visit the station, where they are due to stay for six months.
Britain's Prince William has taken a thinly veiled swipe at the billionaires embroiled in a space tourism race, saying the world's greatest brains should instead be focused on solving the environmental problems facing the Earth.