Spacecraft

Arceneaux relates how she spent a difficult yet meaningful year in hospital undergoing chemotherapy, and then surgery that replaced part of her femur with a prosthesis.

The robotic probe initiated and completed a 15-minute burn of its thrusters, the China National Space Administration said in a statement.

"Pilots and vehicles back safe and sound," the company said.

A video was published on SpaceIL's Twitter with the text "Ready to get excited again?"

If the mission is completed as planned, it would make China the third nation to have retrieved lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet Union.

NASA officials signed off on Crew Dragon’s final design earlier this week, ending a nearly 10-year development phase for SpaceX under the agency’s public-private crew program.

SATLLA-1's mission, which starts on Thursday, is to test out its star-tracking program, which helps the satellite position itself by using imaging from the surrounding stars.

The company competes with billionaire-backed ventures such as Blue Origin that are vying to usher in a new era of space tourism.

This year’s theme asked the decades-old question, “Why explore space?”

Sarid gained experience in engineering, command and management during his 28-year tenure with the Israeli Air Force (IAF).