Essay: Nukes in space – a bad idea in the 1960s and an even worse one now
Researcher MICHAEL MULVIHILL explains why efforts to ensure nuclear weapons aren’t used space need to be supported…
Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years kills nine; 50 missing
Updated: 8:15am, 4th April, 2024 (AEDT) Hualien, Taiwan Reuters Taiwan’s biggest earthquake in at least 25 years killed nine people on Wednesday and injured more than 900, while 50 workers travelling in minibuses to a hotel in a national park were missing. Some buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated county of […]
US, Japan urge nations not to deploy nuclear weapons in orbit
Washington DC, US Reuters The United States and Japan on Monday proposed a UN Security Council resolution stressing that nations should comply with a treaty that bars putting nuclear weapons in space, a message that appeared aimed at Russia. Washington believes Moscow is developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon whose detonation could cause havoc by […]
North Korea fires ballistic missile as South hosts democracy conference
Seoul, South Korea Reuters North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea on Monday for the first time in two months, at a time when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul to attend a conference hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol on advancing democracy. South Korea’s military said the missile was […]
Japan’s Space One Kairos rocket explodes on inaugural flight
Tokyo, Japan Reuters Japan’s Space One’s small, solid-fuelled Kairos rocket exploded shortly after its inaugural launch on Wednesday as the firm tried to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit. The 18-metre, four-stage solid-fuel rocket exploded seconds after lifting off just after 11:01am, leaving behind a large loud of smoke, a […]
Atom bomb survivor hopes Japan debut of ‘Oppenheimer’ will stoke nuclear debate
Hiroshima, Japan Reuters Teruko Yahata was eight when she saw a blueish-white light envelop the sky over her home city of Hiroshima one summer morning, moments before the first atomic bomb explosion knocked her unconscious and levelled swathes of the Japanese city. Teruko Yahata, 86, a World War II Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor, speaks about […]
Japan successfully launches next-generation H3 rocket after failure last year
Tokyo, Japan Reuters Japan successfully launched its new H3 flagship rocket on Saturday, putting its space programme back on track after multiple setbacks including the failure of the rocket’s inaugural flight last year. The launch also marks a second straight win for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) after its lunar lander, SLIM, achieved a […]
Know It All: Moon landings
Japan recently became the fifth country to land a craft successfully on the Moon. DAVID ADAMS looks at some facts and figures about that and previous landings…
Japan earthquake survivors battle unsanitary conditions with no running water
Suzu, Japan Reuters A month on from a huge earthquake that struck Japan’s west coast, survivors are battling freezing and unsanitary conditions while tens of thousands of homes remain without running water. Some areas in the isolated Noto peninsula may not have water restored for another two months, the government of Ishikawa prefecture said, adding […]
Essay: Japan is now the fifth country to land on the Moon – the technology used will lend itself to future lunar missions
International affairs scholar MARIEL BOROWTIZ, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, looks, in an article first published on The Conversation, at Japan’s achievement…