Centaur

NASA's Space Launch System, derided by critics as the 'Senate Launch System', can lift the Orion capsule toward the Moon but only into a high lunar orbit rather than low orbit or the surface. NASA is now working with United Launch Alliance on a more powerful Centaur-based service module, alongside wider discussion of new Moon lander plans.

Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our Sun and home to the closest known exoplanet, is so distant that a journey there with current human technology would take more than 17,000 years. The figure highlights the enormous gap between discovering potentially habitable worlds and actually being able to reach them, prompting discussion about the practical limits of interstellar travel.

France is mobilizing elite police and gendarmerie units, Centaure armored vehicles, helicopters, water cannons, and military personnel ahead of a wave of nationwide riots planned for Saturday. The large-scale security deployment reflects authorities' concern that protests could escalate into serious unrest across multiple cities.