Two NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown, their capsule parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico to close out an unprecedented test flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. It was the first splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit. The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year. Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule back to Earth less than a day after…

For decades the challenge of creating artificial meat has occupied scientists, tech entrepreneurs and food aficionados. Billions has been spent trying to produce laboratory-grown burgers, steaks and bacon that satisfy carnivores while limiting the environmental damage of industrial farming. Now it is the turn of the chicken nugget. The American fast-food chain KFC says it is building the world’s first lab-grown chicken nuggets, joining an increasing menu of artificial meats. The skill with which foods are being recreated in the lab has meant that people are already accustomed to eating vegetarian burgers that “bleed” like real meat. Fake beef that…

Scientists have identified 37 volcanic structures on Venus that appear to be recently active - and probably still are today - painting the picture of a geologically dynamic planet and not a dormant world as long thought. The research focused on ring-like structures called coronae, caused by an upwelling of hot rock from deep within the planet’s interior, and provided compelling evidence of widespread recent tectonic and magma activity on Venus’s surface, researchers said on Monday. Many scientists long had thought Venus, lacking the plate tectonics that gradually reshape Earth’s surface, was essentially dormant geologically for the past half billion…

United Arab Emirates successfully launched its Mars-bound Hope Probe on Sunday, marking the the Arab world's first interplanetary mission and the first of three international missions to the Red Planet this summer. The Hope Probe took off from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan, after a delay last week due to bad weather. The solid rocket booster successfully separated from the launch vehicle, and the probe has established two-way communication with the ground segment in Dubai. Al Amal probe, as it is called in Arabic, is expected to reach Mars by February 2021. It will be the first time UAE has…