Author: SKYNEWS

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has successfully touched down on the moon, in a pivotal moment for private space travel.The size of a compact car, the four-legged lander is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon’s Earth-facing side. It has on board a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperatures as deep as 10 feet. Also on board is a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust – a scourge…

Rail fares in England and Wales are set to rise by 4.6% from Sunday.Railcards are also going to become more expensive, despite record-low reliability of services. Public transport campaigners cautioned that the fare hikes will “pile further misery on hard-pressed households” as some commuters will have to pay hundreds of pounds more per year for travel.Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged passenger frustration.The UK government set the 4.6% cap for England’s increase in regulated fares. This will include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.Operators set rises…

Charli XCX has continued her Brat domination at the BRITs, winning five awards, including album of the year.This year’s most nominated artist, she took the first prize of the night, best song, telling the crowd: “I’m really happy that a song about underwear now has a Brit award, very important stuff and I’m sure that that proves something about songwriting but I’m not quite sure what.” The 32-year-old, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, went on to win best dance act and artist of the year, joking that there had been complaints about her sheer top, and adding “free the…

Microsoft has announced it will shut down Skype, once the dominant video call service, in May this year.At its peak, the service boasted more than 300 million users, but that number had fallen to more than 36 million users, according to the most recent figures shared by Microsoft in 2023. The US tech giant, which bought Skype for $8.5bn in 2011, will shift some of its services to Microsoft Teams, its flagship videoconferencing and team applications platform. Skype users will be able to use their existing accounts to log into Teams.From Blackberries to floppy disks and MP3 players, Sky News…

A former chief executive of Aston Villa and Liverpool is a surprise contender to become the inaugural chairman of the government’s controversial football watchdog.Sky News can exclusively reveal that Christian Purslow, who left Villa Park in 2023, is on a three-person shortlist being considered by Whitehall officials to chair the Independent Football Regulator (IFR). Mr Purslow, an outspoken character who has spent much of his career in sports finance, was this weekend said to be a serious candidate for the job despite having publicly warned about the regulator’s proposed remit and its potential impact on the Premier League.A former commercial…

Police say it is a “reasonable assumption” that actor Gene Hackman died when his pacemaker had its “last event” on 17 February.Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in separate rooms of their home in a gated community in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday. One of the couple’s three pet dogs was also found dead near Arakawa. Their deaths were announced yesterday and an official later said the condition of the bodies indicated the pair had been dead for “several days, possibly even up to a couple of weeks”.In an update on Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff…

A privately-built spacecraft has embarked on an unprecedented deep space mission to scout out an asteroid’s potential for mining.The probe, called Odin, was launched on a SpaceX rocket alongside a robotic moon lander that will drill for water and a lunar orbiter that will map water resources with an instrument built by the University of Oxford. The asteroid mission is a high-risk venture that heralds a new dawn of commercial exploitation of our celestial neighbours.Odin is destined for asteroid 2022 OB5 that’s believed to be rich in platinum and similar metals, which are critical for electronic, medical and green technology.…

Donald Trump’s threats of additional trade tariffs against China, on top of the 10% hike imposed earlier this month, have contributed to a widespread stock market sell-off.Sentiment was already sour on the tariff front, given the spectre of 25% import duties being slapped on the EU, before the US president confirmed his intention to target Canada, Mexico and China next week. Mr Trump said his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods – delayed by a month – would take effect on 4 March as planned, alongside an extra 10% duty on Chinese imports.Money latest: Pocket money for kids…

The UK could face a second norovirus wave, according to health officials, who warned that people who have recently had the illness may be at risk again.On Thursday, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned laboratory reports of the virus, which can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, are at their highest-ever levels. There are an “exceptionally high” number of cases at the moment, said Amy Douglas, lead epidemiologist at UKHSA.New NHS figures also show the number of beds taken up by patients with the virus is nearly 150% higher than last year.Health officials believe a certain norovirus strain could be…

Katy Perry is set to head to space as part of an all-female mission.The 40-year-old singer will travel on the next launch of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket, the aerospace engineering company said. The Teenage Dream singer will be joined on the New Shepard programme’s 11th human flight by former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and TV hosts Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez – who is also Bezos’ fiancee.The mission will “challenge [the crew’s] perspectives of Earth”, “empower them” and “create lasting impact that will inspire generations”, according to organisers.Perry is one…