SpaceX just conducted the first full-duration static fire test with the upper stage of its 'V3' Starship, clearing a big hurdle on its path to launch, which is expected next month.
Venus is often called Earth's twin, but spend any time with it and the comparison falls apart quickly. Its surface is hot enough to melt lead, its atmosphere is a crushing blanket of carbon dioxide, and its clouds are made of concentrated sulphuric acid. Somewhere beneath those acid clouds, between the surface and the main cloud deck at around 47 kilometres up, a thin mysterious haze has drifted for billions of years, stubbornly resisting every attempt at explanation. Until now.

