Space coverage

A total solar eclipse will occur on Wednesday, August 12 and be visible from northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal, with partial eclipse visible in other regions. Special ISO 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses, which are thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses, are required for safe viewing to avoid irreversible retinal damage.

WENCHANG, Hainan, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) — A satellite launch mission using a modified Long March-7 carrier rocket failed on Monday in south China. The rocket was tasked with carrying the Zhongxing-4B satellite. It blasted off at 8:02 p.m. (Beijing Time) at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the island province of Hainan, but an anomaly occurred during its flight. The cause of the failure is under investigation, according to the launch site.

The world's most powerful solar telescope has shown the Sun's surface in the highest detail ever recorded, capturing giant plasma vortices that play a key role in solar flare formation. Researchers hope the data will improve predictions of dangerous space weather.

Uzbekistan's Samarkand-2028 Earth observation satellite has entered orbit carrying an AI module developed by Uzbek engineers, processing data in orbit before transmission to improve efficiency in fields including agriculture and environmental monitoring.