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Tracking Elephants Across Namibia
September 17, 2024
The wide open, arid lands of northwestern Namibia are home to the world’s largest living land animal: the African elephant (Loxodonta africana).
Like many large mammals, these iconic elephants are endangered, threatened by expanding agriculture, urbanization, human-elephant conflict, and poaching.
As their populations continue to decline, researchers have turned to conservation corridors—links between habitats—as a key strategy to strengthen the population’s chance of survival.
In a new study, researchers used a combination of GPS tracking data and satellite imagery to map elephant movement throughout the landscape in northwestern Namibia.
They found that elephants moved freely within the region’s protected areas, including Etosha National Park and community-managed lands in the neighboring Kunene region, but that there was little movement between each protected area.
The study, led by Aung Chan of Colorado State University, was published in Landscape Ecology.
Landscape connectivity matters from both an ecological and genetic perspective. Spanning more than 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 square miles), Etosha National Park is almost as big as New Hampshire.
But a single park could never sustain a whole species. Small populations of mammals within an isolated landscape face higher risks of inbreeding or being wiped out by a single catastrophic environmental event.
Chan and colleagues used eight years of GPS tracking data to create a “movescape” that depicted not just where elephants were, but how long they stayed and how fast they moved on the landscape.
The data revealed only three connective routes between Etosha National Park and protected lands in the Kunene region.
Next, the researchers used satellite imagery and other local data to assess how landscape features influenced elephant movement.
The presence of water was the most important factor determining how elephants moved. In the dry landscapes of Namibia, elephants ambled along rivers and gathered around watering holes.
The image above (left), acquired on March 7, 2024, with the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9, shows several such watering holes and rivers within Etosha National Park and areas north.
It includes several pans—depressions in the ground with deposits of salt—including a section of the Etosha Pan, the largest salt pan in Africa.
Beyond watering holes, elephants tend to stay in flatter areas, away from towns, and in areas with more available food.
The researchers used NDVI (Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) as a proxy for how much food was available, as NDVI measures the health and density of vegetation—the main diet for these large herbivores.
The false-color image above (right) shows the area’s NDVI on March 7, 2024, during a time of year when vegetation is especially abundant.
Importantly, not all elephants in the study moved the same. Some behavior was split across gendered lines; for example, NDVI influenced female elephant movement far more than it did male elephant movement.
According to Chan, this makes ecological sense. Female elephants tend to stay with their family group, which includes calves and juveniles, and they need more resources to keep everyone fed.
“Male elephants, in general, tend to disperse and take a lot more risk to achieve their reproductive and fitness goals than the family group,” Chan said.
There was also plenty of variation between individual African elephants. Chan said that being able to see the range of behaviors is important because it can help land managers triage their efforts to suit common behaviors (in this case, focusing on conserving areas with watering holes) while also accounting for rarer behaviors that may be critical for population health (in this case, marking the places where elephants moved between regions).
According to Chan: “We wouldn’t have found those connective corridors between the two regions if our approach didn’t account for individual variations.”
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153333/tracking-elephants-across-namibia
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-024-01957-2
Intuitive Machines Stock Soars on New NASA Contract. This Is Big.
Updated Sept 18, 2024, 7:25 am EDT
Shares of space technology provider Intuitive Machines
LUNR 62.96% soared in early trading Wednesday after the company announced another contract with NASA.
The stock is up 51.3% in premarket trading at $8.17 a share while S&P 500 SPX -0.07% and Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.29% futures were both up about 0.1%.
The rise comes after shares dropped 5.6% on Tuesday.
The dip looks large, but shares have been volatile since the start of September, gaining almost 16% through Tuesday.
In late August, Intuitive Machines said it had been awarded a $117 million contract to deliver six science and technology payloads to the Moon’s South Pole.
The numbers for the latest contract could dwarf that amount, potentially reaching some $4.8 billion over 10 years.
Intuitive will provide “communication and navigation services for missions in the near space region, which extends from Earth’s surface to beyond the Moon”
The contract is huge for the company. Wall Street projects 2024 and 2025 sales of $223 million and $371 million, respectively.
“This contract marks an inflection point in Intuitive Machines’ leadership in space communications and navigation,” said CEO Steve Altemus.
“We’re pleased to partner with NASA, as one team, to support the Artemis campaign and endeavors to expand the lunar economy.”
Intuitive burst onto investors’ screens after launching its Odysseus lander in February.
That became the first soft landing on the moon for a U.S. entity in some 50 years. Odysseus landed on the moon autonomously—the first-ever such landing for an American company.
Odysseus’ success is one reason Intuitive shares were up more than 110% year to date through Tuesday trading.
Intuitive “established itself as the leading commercial delivery entity with the first U.S. landing on the Moon since the 1970s earlier this year,” wrote Benchmark analyst Josh Sullivan in a Wednesday report.
“Now with the [contract] win, Intuitive Machines has established itself as the backbone of lunar data transmission.”
https://www.barrons.com/articles/intuitive-machines-stock-price-nasa-34824402
Measuring Moon Dust to Fight Air Pollution
Sep 17, 2024
Moon dust, or regolith, isn’t like the particles on Earth that collect on bookshelves or tabletops – it’s abrasive and it clings to everything.
Throughout NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon, regolith posed a challenge to astronauts and valuable space hardware.
During the Apollo 17 mission, astronaut Harrison Schmitt described his reaction to breathing in the dust as “lunar hay fever,” experiencing sneezing, watery eyes, and a sore throat.
The symptoms went away, but concern for human health is a driving force behind NASA’s extensive research into all forms of lunar soil.
The need to manage the dust to protect astronaut health and critical technology is already beneficial on Earth in the fight against air pollution.
Working as a contributor on a habitat for NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program, Lunar Outpost Inc. developed an air-quality sensor system to detect and measure the amount of lunar soil in the air that also detects pollutants on Earth.
Originally based in Denver, the Golden, Colorado-based company developed an air-quality sensor called the Space Canary and offered the sensor to Lockheed Martin Space for its NextSTEP lunar orbit habitat prototype.
After the device was integrated into the habitat’s environmental control system, it provided distinct advantages over traditional equipment.
Rebranded as Canary-S (Solar), the sensor is now meeting a need for low-cost, wireless air-quality and meteorological monitoring on Earth.
The self-contained unit, powered by solar energy and a battery, transmits data using cellular technology.
It can measure a variety of pollutants, including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds, among others.
The device sends a message up to a secure cloud every minute, where it’s routed to either Lunar Outpost’s web-based dashboard or a customer’s database for viewing and analysis.
The oil and gas industry uses the Canary-S sensors to provide continuous, real-time monitoring of fugitive gas emissions, and the U.S. Forest Service uses them to monitor forest-fire emissions.
“Firefighters have been exhibiting symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning for decades.
They thought it was just part of the job,” explained Julian Cyrus, chief operating officer of Lunar Outpost.
“But the sensors revealed where and when carbon monoxide levels were sky high, making it possible to issue warnings for firefighters to take precautions.”
The Canary-S sensors exemplify the life-saving technologies that can come from the collaboration of NASA and industry innovations.
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/measuring-moon-dust-to-fight-air-pollution-2/
NASA astronaut can see Houston pipeline fire from space
Sep 17, 2024
Houston, we have a problem. A fire that ignited on Monday at a pipeline east of downtown Houston is big enough for astronauts to view from space.
As the fire near Deer Park and La Porte continued to burn Tuesday morning, NASA astronaut Don Pettit was able to capture a photo of the flames from a vantage point 250 miles above Earth from aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The space agency shared the image of the bright orange glow from the towering flames.
Such imagery and data from the ISS can help monitor disasters, such as fires, on Earth in real time, NASA said.
"Pipeline fire in Deer Park, TX. ~ 10 miles north of Johnson Space Center, and even closer to my Earth home," Pettit wrote on X Tuesday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the fire at the Energy Transfer Pipeline continues to burn off remnant product.
The fire is believed to have been caused by an explosion sparked by a driver who ran through a fence at a nearby Wal-Mart parking lot and crashed into an above-ground pipeline valve.
Witnesses told ABC 13 that the vehicle flew up into the air after hitting the pipeline valve, which was followed by the explosion after it hit the ground.
Energy Transfer said it shut down gas to the pipeline and is allowing the remnants to burn off.
On Tuesday morning, the Deer Park Office of Emergency Management (OEM) said the blaze will continue burning into the day.
"The fire continues to burn itself out this morning, which is the safest way to manage the incident," Deer Park OEM wrote in a statement, adding the fire has shrunk significantly.
An investigation into the cause of the fire will be conducted once the fire diminishes.
https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/houston-pipeline-fire-19771480.php
Spell Your Name With USGS And NASA's Glorious Satellite Imagery
September 17, 2024
Here at IFLScience we enjoy a little interactive internet quiz or poll just as much as the next person, from finding out if we see the same color blue as each other to testing the Earworm Eraser after one too many TikToks.
Now, the Landsat series of satellites is getting in on the action with an online interactive that lets you spell your name in features of Earth’s surface.
Made using images from the NASA Earth Observatory, NASA Worldview, United States Geological Survey (USGS) EarthExplorer, and European Space Agency Sentinel Hub, users can find topological features to spell out the letters of their name or any word they choose.
Since the land on Earth covers around 150 million square kilometers (58 million square miles) there’s a lot of scope to choose from.
The Landsat Program began on July 23, 1972 to help document changes to Earth’s surface from things like commercial development, as well as climate change and natural disasters.
It is the “world’s longest continuously acquired collection of space-based moderate-resolution land remote sensing data,” explains the USGS.
The project is a joint operation between the USGS and NASA with many iterations of satellites contributing to the data pool.
Its main objective is to collect many images of the same places, allowing the changes over time in certain areas to be monitored.
“If you really want a long history of understanding any process on Earth, Landsat is where you should go,” said Tasso Azevedo of the MapBiomas Initiative.
Landsat 9 was launched in September 2021 and continues to contribute to more than 50 years of Landsat satellite data, including on pressing issues like sea ice decline and glacier retreats.
The IFLScience name features an “i” from Etosha National Park, Namibia, a “c” from Black Rock Desert in Nevada, and an “e” from the firn-filled fjords of Tibet.
So go on, see what features spell your name here.
https://www.iflscience.com/spell-your-name-with-usgs-and-nasas-glorious-satellite-imagery-75991
https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNameInLandsat-main/index.html?
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/8-things-to-know-about-nasas-mission-to-an-ocean-moon-of-jupiter/
https://youtu.be/q88fSdGMbys?si=hlztWJzrFBhr9cs_
8 Things to Know About NASA’s Mission to an Ocean Moon of Jupiter
Sep 17, 2024
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission, will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Europa, an intriguing icy moon of Jupiter.
The spacecraft’s launch period opens Thursday, Oct. 10.
Data from previous NASA missions has provided scientists with strong evidence that an enormous salty ocean lies underneath the frozen surface of the moon.
Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct 49 close flybys of the moon to gather data needed to determine whether there are places below its thick frozen crust that could support life.
Here are eight things to know about the mission:
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Europa is one of the most promising places to look for currently habitable conditions beyond Earth.
There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life — water, the right chemistry, and energy — may exist at Europa right now.
This mission will gather the information scientists need to find out for sure.
The moon may hold an internal ocean with twice the water of Earth’s oceans combined, and it may also host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface.
If the mission determines that Europa is habitable, it would mean there may be more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than we have imagined.
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The spacecraft will fly through one of the most punishing radiation environments in our solar system — second only to the Sun’s.
Jupiter is surrounded by a gigantic magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s.
As the field spins, it captures and accelerates charged particles, creating radiation that can damage spacecraft.
Mission engineers designed a spacecraft vault to shield sensitive electronics from radiation, and they plotted orbits that will limit the time Europa Clipper spends in most radiation-heavy areas around Jupiter.
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Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter, studying Europa while flying by the moon dozens of times.
The spacecraft will make looping orbits around Jupiter that bring it close to Europa for 49 science-dedicated flybys.
On each orbit, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in Jupiter’s dangerous radiation zone near Europa before zipping back out.
Two to three weeks later, it will repeat the process, making another flyby.
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Europa Clipper features NASA’s most sophisticated suite of science instruments yet.
To determine if Europa is habitable, Europa Clipper must assess the moon’s interior, composition, and geology.
The spacecraft carries nine science instruments and a gravity experiment that uses the telecommunications system.
In order to obtain the best science during each flyby, all the science instruments will operate simultaneously on every pass.
Scientists will then layer the data together to paint a full picture of the moon.
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With antennas and solar arrays fully deployed, Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.
The spacecraft extends 100 feet (30.5 meters) from one end to the other and about 58 feet (17.6 meters) across.
That’s bigger than a basketball court, thanks in large part to the solar arrays, which need to be huge so they can collect enough sunlight while near Jupiter to power the instruments, electronics, and other subsystems.
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It’s a long journey to Jupiter.
Jupiter is on average some 480 million miles (about 770 million kilometers) from Earth; both planets are in motion, and a spacecraft can carry only a limited amount of fuel.
Mission planners are sending Europa Clipper past Mars and then Earth, using the planets’ gravity as a slingshot to add speed to the spacecraft’s trek.
After journeying about 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) over 5½ years, the spacecraft will fire its engines to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.
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Institutions across the U.S. and Europe have contributed to Europa Clipper.
Currently, about a thousand people work on the mission, including more than 220 scientists from both the U.S. and Europe.
Since the mission was officially approved in 2015, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper, including teams who work for contractors and subcontractors.
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More than 2.6 million of us are riding along with the spacecraft, bringing greetings from one water world to another.
As part of a mission campaign called “Message in a Bottle,” the spacecraft is carrying a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, cosigned by millions of people from nearly every country in the world.
Their names have been stenciled onto a microchip attached to a tantalum metal plate that seals the spacecraft’s electronics vault.
The plate also features waveforms of people saying the word “water” in over 100 spoken languages.
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NASA’s Hubble Finds More Black Holes than Expected in the Early Universe
Sep 17, 2024
With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported.
The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.
Currently, scientists do not have a complete picture of how the first black holes formed not long after the big bang.
It is known that supermassive black holes, that can weigh more than a billion suns, exist at the center of several galaxies less than a billion years after the big bang.
"Many of these objects seem to be more massive than we originally thought they could be at such early times — either they formed very massive or they grew extremely quickly," said Alice Young, a PhD student from Stockholm University and co-author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Black holes play an important role in the lifecycle of all galaxies, but there are major uncertainties in our understanding of how galaxies evolve.
In order to gain a complete picture of the link between galaxy and black hole evolution, the researchers used Hubble to survey how many black holes exist among a population of faint galaxies when the universe was just a few percent of its current age.
Initial observations of the survey region were re-photographed by Hubble after several years.
This allowed the team to measure variations in the brightness of galaxies. These variations are a telltale sign of black holes.
The team identified more black holes than previously found by other methods.
The new observational results suggest that some black holes likely formed by the collapse of massive, pristine stars during the first billion years of cosmic time.
These types of stars can only exist at very early times in the universe, because later-generation stars are polluted by the remnants of stars that have already lived and died.
Other alternatives for black hole formation include collapsing gas clouds, mergers of stars in massive clusters, and "primordial" black holes that formed (by physically speculative mechanisms) in the first few seconds after the big bang.
With this new information about black hole formation, more accurate models of galaxy formation can be constructed.
"The formation mechanism of early black holes is an important part of the puzzle of galaxy evolution," said Matthew Hayes from the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University and lead author of the study.
"Together with models for how black holes grow, galaxy evolution calculations can now be placed on a more physically motivated footing, with an accurate scheme for how black holes came into existence from collapsing massive stars."
Astronomers are also making observations with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to search for galactic black holes that formed soon after the big bang, to understand how massive they were and where they were located.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-finds-more-black-holes-than-expected-in-the-early-universe/
https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/heliophysics-division/innovative-instrument-reveals-hidden-features-deep-inside-the-van-allen-radiation-belts/
Innovative Instrument Reveals Hidden Features Deep Inside the Van Allen Radiation Belts
Sep 17, 2024
A new instrument is using advanced detection techniques and leveraging an orbit with specific characteristics to increase our understanding of the Van Allen belts—regions surrounding Earth that contain energetic particles that can endanger both robotic and human space missions.
Recently, the instrument provided a unique view of changes to this region that were brought on by an intense magnetic storm in May 2024.
The discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts by the U.S. Explorer 1 mission in 1958 marked a prominent milestone in space physics and demonstrated that Earth’s magnetosphere efficiently accelerates and traps energetic particles.
The inner belt contains protons in the MeV (million electric volt) to GeV (109 electric volt) range, and even higher concentrations of energetic electrons of 100s of keV (1000 electric volt) to MeV are found in both the inner belt and the outer belt.
The energetic electrons in these belts—also referred to as “killer electrons”—can have detrimental effects on spacecraft subsystems and are harmful to astronauts performing extravehicular activities.
Understanding the source, loss, and varying concentrations of these electrons has been a longstanding research objective.
High-energy resolution and clean measurements of these energetic electrons in space are required to further our understanding of their properties and enable more reliable prediction of their intensity.
Overcoming the challenges of measuring relativistic electrons in the inner belt
Measuring energetic electrons cleanly and accurately has been a challenge, especially in the inner belt, where MeV to GeV energy protons also exist. NASA's Van Allen Probes, which operated from 2012 to 2019 in low inclination, geo-transfer-like orbits, showed that instruments traversing the heart of the inner radiation belt are subject to penetration by the highly energetic protons located in that region.
The Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) and the Magnetic Electron and Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) instruments onboard the Van Allen Probes were heavily shielded but were still subject to inner-belt proton contamination.
To attempt to minimize these negative effects, a University of Colorado Boulder team led by Dr. Xinlin Li, designed the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope integrated little experiment (REPTile)—a simplified and miniaturized version of REPT—to fly onboard the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE).
An effort supported by the National Science Foundation, the 3-Unit CSSWE CubeSat operated in a highly inclined low Earth orbit (LEO) from 2012 to 2014.
In this highly inclined orbit, the spacecraft and the instruments it carried were only exposed to the inner-belt protons in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region where the Earth’s magnetic field is weaker, which greatly reduced the time that protons impacted the measurement of electrons.
REPTile’s success motivated a team, also led by Dr. Xinlin Li, to design REPTile-2—an advanced version of REPTile—to be hosted on the Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) mission.
Like CSSWE, CIRBE operates in a highly inclined low-Earth orbit to ensure the exposure to damaging inner-belt protons is minimized.
The team based the REPTile-2 design on REPTile but incorporated two additional technologies—guard rings and Pulse Height Analysis—to enable clean, high-energy-resolution measurements of energetic electrons, especially in the inner belt.
As shown on the left in Figure 3, the field of view (FOV) of REPTile-2 is 51o. Electrons and protons enter the FOV and are measured when they reach a stack of silicon detectors where they deposit their energies.
However, very energetic protons (energy greater than 60 MeV) could penetrate through the instrument’s tungsten and aluminum shielding and masquerade as valid particles, thus contaminating the intended measurements.
To mitigate this contamination, the team designed guard rings that surround each detector. These guard rings are electronically separated from the inner active area of each detector and are connected by a separate electric channel.
When the guard rings are triggered (i.e., hit by particles coming outside of the FOV), the coincident measurements are considered invalid and are discarded. This anti-coincidence technique enables cleaner measurements of particles coming through the FOV.
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To achieve high energy resolution, the team also applied full Pulse Height Analysis (PHA) on REPTile-2. In PHA, the magnitude of measured charge in the detector is directly proportional to the energy deposited from the incident electrons.
Unlike REPTile, which employed a simpler energy threshold discrimination method yielding three channels for the electrons, REPTile-2 offers enhanced precision with 60 energy channels for electron energies ranging from 0.25 – 6 MeV.
The REPT instrument onboard the Van Allen Probes also employed PHA but while REPT worked very well in the outer belt, yielding fine energy resolution, it did not function as well in the inner belt since the instrument was fully exposed to penetrating energetic protons because it did not have the guard rings implemented.
CIRBE's launch, secured through the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), took place aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-7 mission on April 15, 2023.
REPTile-2, activated on April 19, 2023, has been performing well, delivering valuable data about Earth's radiation belt electrons.
Many features of the energetic electrons in the Van Allen belts have been revealed for the first time, thanks to the high-resolution energy and time measurements REPTile-2 has provided.
Figure 5 shows a sample of CIRBE/REPTile-2 measurements from April 2024, and illustrates the intricate drift echoes or “zebra stripes” of energetic electrons, swirling around Earth in distinct bunches.
These observations span a vast range across the inner and outer belts, encompassing a wide spectrum of energies and electron fluxes extending over six orders of magnitude.
By leveraging advanced guard rings, Pulse Height Analysis (PHA), and a highly inclined LEO orbit, REPTile-2 is delivering unprecedented observations of radiation belt electrons.
In fact, the team recently announced that measurements from CIRBE/REPTile-2 have revealed a new temporary third radiation belt composed of electrons and sandwiched between the two permanent belts.
This belt formed during the magnetic storm in May 2024, which was the largest in two decades. While such temporary belts have been seen after big storms previously, the data from CIRBE/REPTile-2 are providing a new viewpoint with higher energy resolution data than before.
Scientists are currently studying the data to better understand the belt and how long it might stick around — which could be many months.
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Group seeks records on space chief Kamala Harris’ work on astronauts stuck in orbit
Sep. 17, 2024, 9:02 a.m. ET
A conservative advocacy group is suing NASA for documents to determine what role, if any, Vice President Kamala Harris played in addressing two astronauts stuck in space — claiming she may have put “politics over our astronauts.”
Harris leads the National Space Council but has said little publicly about the crisis caused by technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which extended what was supposed to be a weeklong mission starting June 5 to an orbit lasting at least until February.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, currently living aboard the International Space Station, are expected to be rescued by SpaceX early next year after Boeing was unable to provide for their safe return as planned.
Mike Howell, head of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, told Fox News that the lawsuit will try to establish what exactly Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had to do with the issue.
“This looks like to me and other experts that Kamala Harris, the space czar, chose politics over our astronauts,” Howell said.
“It’s very bizarre that the mainstream media seems not to care about this massive scandal.
We’re going to continue to investigate this and get Americans the answers they deserve.”
The Heritage Foundation’s lawsuit seeks communications involving NASA chief of staff Bale Dalton III, associate administrator James Free and five other space-agency officials.
“Space is serious business. Kamala Harris obviously has no business running the National Space Council,” Howell told Fox.
“The fact is that Vice President Kamala Harris’ record as Border Czar is as awful as her record as Space Czar … Part of the reason they’re lost in space is that our NASA has been turned into another woke-DEI, dismal excuse for a government agency.”
The extended stay in space was caused by concerns that Boeing’s Starliner might explode and kill the astronauts upon return due to mechanical issues.
The craft, however, returned to Earth unmanned without combusting on Sept. 7.
Harris spokespeople did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
https://nypost.com/2024/09/17/us-news/watchdog-group-sues-for-nasa-emails-with-harris-boeing-as-astronauts-linger-in-orbit/
SpaceX Galileo L13 Mission
On Tuesday, September 17 at 6:50 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the European Commission’s Galileo L13 mission to orbit from to medium Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the 22nd flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, O3B mPOWER, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Marah Putih 2, and 12 Starlink missions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=galileol13
Harvest Moon Supermoon lunar eclipse delights skywatchers worldwide
September 18, 2024
Last night the Harvest Moon Supermoon lunar eclipse put on a spectacular show for people worldwide with at least some portion of the lunar eclipse visible to over 50% of the world's population.
The partial lunar eclipse reached its darkest phase, when the moon is most obscured by the Earth's darkest shadow — the umbra — at approximately 10:44 p.m. EDT on Sept. 17 (0244 GMT on Sept. 18.)
We'll have to wait until March 13-14, 2025 for the next lunar eclipse which will be a dramatic total lunar eclipse.
During a total lunar eclipse, the entire lunar disk will turn hazy red as it plunges into Earth's shadow.
This eerie color change is why a total lunar eclipse is also known as a Blood Moon.
The full phase of the lunar eclipse will be visible across the U.S., with at least some portion of the eclipse visible across Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and much of Africa, according to Timeanddate.
But until then, let's sit back, relax and enjoy the celestial show that our lunar neighbor put on for us last night.
Both the lunar eclipse and full moon resulted in some simply stunning photographs.
cont.
https://www.space.com/harvest-moon-supermoon-lunar-eclipse-september-photos
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