Three Chinese astronauts safely returned to Earth near Dongfeng in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, at around 1:34 am ET on 17th September. Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo touched down after completing the first crewed mission of Tianhe space station. The 1,200 square metre main parachute opened 10 kilometres above the surface, then after landing, search and rescue teams

SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Resilience, touched down in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday. The spacecraft carried the four members of the Inspiration4 mission safely back to Earth after spending three days in LEO. SpaceX loaded the capsule onto its recovery ship in less than an hour so that the crew could exit.

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) cooperates with Quascom and NASA to launch project NEIL to experiment satellite-based positioning on the lunar surface, ASI reports. Project NEIL (Navigation Early Investigation on Lunar surface) is linked to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service mission.

TiSPACE’s Hapith I rocket has failed to launch for the third time from Whalers Way site in Southern Australia. The rocket caught fire on the pad but was contained and extinguished by Country Fire Service crews on the scene, the company said. No one was injured during the incident.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has collected the first sample of Martian rock, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil, NASA reported. The core is currently awaiting retrieval in an airtight titanium sample tube with serial number 266. The rover had failed to collect samples on its first try just last month.

NASA announced it will grant US $146 million to five US companies to conduct studies for future lunar lander concepts. This will enable a “steady pace of crewed trips to the lunar surface under the Artemis program,” NASA said. The five companies and their awards are Blue Origin: US $25.6M, Dynetics: US $40.8M, Lockheed Martin: US $35.2M, Northrop Grumman: US $34.8M and SpaceX: US $9.4M.

BAE Systems acquired In-Space Missions to make it a fully-owned subsidiary, In-Space announced. In-Space, founded in 2015, designs, builds and operates bespoke space missions for customers. The company specialises in space services for earth observation, navigation, satellite communications, and space exploration.

Spire Global and exactEarth Ltd. announced their agreement for Spire to acquire exactEarth for approximately US $161.2 million in cash and stock. After the merger, exactEarth will be fully owned by Spire and will become a subsidiary operating from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The combined company will accelerate Spire’s customer base by over 75% and will ensure cross-selling opportunities.

The Hungarian government announced that it accepted a document identifying the cornerstones that set out the country’s opportunities and future development directions in the field of space. The aim is to make Hungary an active player in space exploration and space activities. The government’s vision is for the country to play a regional leading role in certain development areas.

Astronauts Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA conducted the first spacewalk by two international partner astronauts without a NASA astronaut on Sunday, 8:15 a.m. ET, NASA reported. The event happened just three days after the Russian spacewalk. This was Hoshide’s fourth and Pasquet’s sixth extravehicular activity (EVA) and the 12th spacewalk of the year.