November 2014

The Chang'e 5 T1 Capsule after its landing (Photo courtesy Xinhua. All rights reserved)

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It was morning in China when the Chinese test capsule Chang’e 5 T1 landed successfully in Mongolia. The mission was launched on October 23 and in the following days flew around the Moon before returning to Earth. The spacecraft was composed of a service module and a return vehicle, which is the capsule that has landed.

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Yesterday it was morning in California when the news came that Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight in the Mojave Desert in California. The SpaceShipTwo crashed to the ground and in the hours after it was confirmed that, unfortunately, one of the two pilots died. The other pilot suffered injuries and was taken to a local hospital.