TYB
NASA Eyes New Date for Artemis II Rocket Rollout
March 16, 2026 6:24PM
Teams are now targeting no earlier than Friday, March 20, to roll NASA’s Artemis II rocket from the Vehicle Assembly Building out to Launch Pad 39B, maintaining the opportunity for a Wednesday, April 1, launch attempt.
Over the weekend at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, engineers were completing closeout activities ahead of rollout, previously slated for Thursday, March 19.
Teams identified an electrical harness for the flight termination system on the core stage needed replacement. They have since addressed the issue and continue to complete preparations to roll out later this week.
The trek to the launch pad takes up to 12 hours aboard the crawler-transporter. The agency will provide a live stream of the rocket’s journey to the pad.
A rollout on March 20 would still preserve the possibility of launching at the beginning of the April launch window, though teams also are keeping a close eye on the weather in the coming days.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/03/16/nasa-eyes-new-date-for-artemis-ii-rocket-rollout/
extra Artemis II
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-2/to-protect-artemis-ii-astronauts-nasa-experts-keep-eyes-on-sun/
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14988/
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2033894014835900557
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2033920473189208521
Solving Asteroid Bennu’s Mysteries
Mar 17, 2026
These X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans released on March 17, 2026, give us a glimpse inside asteroid Bennu.
They show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples; these networks solved a mystery that baffled NASA for years.
When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft first approached asteroid Bennu in 2018, scientists expected to see smooth, sandy beach-like surfaces.
Instead, they found a celestial body covered in boulders. Observations made in 2007 by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope measured low thermal inertia, indicative of an asteroid whose surface heats up and cools down rapidly as it rotates into and out of sunlight, like a sandy beach on Earth.
This was at odds with the many large boulders that OSIRIS-REx found upon arrival, which should act more like blocks of concrete, shedding heat long after the Sun has set.
Data collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its survey campaign at the asteroid suggested a possible explanation: the boulders could be much more porous than expected.
Once the samples were delivered to Earth, researchers were able to investigate this further.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/solving-asteroid-bennus-mysteries/
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/asteroid-bennus-rugged-surface-baffled-nasa-we-finally-know-why/
Podcast: An Army Officer’s Mission to Space with COL Anne McClain ’02
March 17, 2026
Category: Grad News
Class Years: 2002
How does an Army aviator and West Point graduate become a NASA astronaut commanding missions in space?
COL Anne McClain shares how discipline, preparation, and leadership under pressure carried her from helicopters to spacewalks 250 miles above Earth.
Drawing on combat aviation, astronaut training, and her connection to the Long Gray Line, this episode explores what it truly means to lead when the margin for error disappears.
WPAOG Podcast | EP107
WPAOG Podcast | EP107WPAOG Podcast | EP107
EP107: An Army Officer’s Mission to Space
In this episode of the WPAOG Broadcast Network, we sit down with COL Anne McClain: astronaut, Army aviator, and West Point graduate of 2002.
McClain reflects on the leadership foundations forged at West Point and how those lessons carried her from combat aviation to spaceflight, including spacewalks conducted 250 miles above Earth.
Through powerful stories from the cockpit, mission control, and the exterior of the International Space Station, she shares what it means to lead under extreme pressure, manage failure as data, and remain calm, prepared, and decisive when the stakes are highest.
COL Anne McClain was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and currently serves as a colonel in the U.S. Army.
A Spokane, Washington native, she graduated from the United States Military Academy with a degree in mechanical/aeronautical engineering in 2002 and went on to earn multiple advanced degrees as a Marshall Scholar.
A Master Army Aviator with more than 2,000 flight hours in 20 aircraft, McClain has served as a spaceflight engineer on multiple expeditions aboard the International Space Station and most recently launched as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission in March 2025.
Listeners will also hear her moving reflections on carrying West Point’s legacy gold into space, the responsibility of belonging to the Long Gray Line, and what future cadets and officers should know about service, humility, and leadership of character.
**This episode does not imply Federal endorsement.
Episode Timestamps
01:38 Embracing Uncertainty and Competence
03:24 Handling Failures and Setbacks
05:54 The Awe of Spacewalks
09:40 The Astronaut Network and Legacy
15:17 Advice for Future Leaders
“Never forget that the highest responsibility that you have is to lead other people’s sons and daughters into a dangerous situation, and that is the highest calling of the cadets at West Point is leading other people because you have the privilege and responsibility of impacting other people’s lives, and that needs to be the most important thing that you think about going to work everyday.”
— COL Anne McClain ’02
https://www.westpointaog.org/news/podcast-an-army-officers-mission-to-space-with-col-anne-mcclain-02/
https://x.com/AstroAnnimal
NASA Wallops to Support March Sounding Rocket Launches
March 16, 2026 5:00PM
Two sounding rockets are scheduled for liftoff between March 17 and March 23 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility launch range in Virginia.
The launch window each day is from 8 p.m. to midnight EDT. No real-time launch status updates or livestream will be available.
NASA Wallops provides services such as vehicle tracking, data telemetry, and range safety from NASA’s only owned and operated launch range to ensure successful missions operations for the agency, commercial partners, and other government agencies.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/wallops/2026/03/16/nasa-wallops-to-support-march-sounding-rocket-launches/
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A Bit of Gray on an Emerald Isle
Mar 17, 2026
Though Ireland is known for the many shades of green that grace its grassy pastoral landscapes, there's one corner of the Emerald Isle where gray reigns supreme.
In the Burren region, on the island's west coast, what geologists describe as limestone pavement covers much of the rocky, treeless landscape.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this view of the Burren on May 16, 2025.
The fossil-rich limestone that makes up the gray outcrops was deposited about 325 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period, when what is now Ireland lay near the equator beneath warm, shallow seas.
Although the limestone was initially deposited in flat, horizontal layers on the seafloor, it later buckled into gentle arch- and trough-shaped folds as tectonic plates collided during a mountain-building episode known as the Variscan Orogeny.
These folds in the tilted rock layers and differences in their rate of erosion produced the terraced appearance that defines the Burren's hills, with more erosion-resistant layers of rock persisting as ledges.
Glacial activity also played a role in sculpting the landscape, scraping away soil and sediment to expose the limestone pavement and smoothing the region's hills.
Limestone is prone to chemical weathering that produces an irregular terrain known as karst, pockmarked with sinkholes, caves, and fissures called grikes.
Many grikes in the Burren collect soil and have become footholds where vegetation grows in the otherwise rocky landscape.
Individual grikes are too small to see in Landsat imagery, but networks of them have aligned along the rock layers, contributing to the concentric vegetation patterns visible in the image.
Among the plants that you might find growing in them is the shamrock, the three-leaved clover that has become a symbol of Ireland.
With some luck, Trifolium dubium or Trifolium repens may even be found amidst the shamrock-shaped contours of Moneen Mountain, a 262-meter (860-foot) limestone hill visible in the image above.
While there's hardly consensus about what species is the true inspiration for shamrocks, these two clover species were among the favorites when Irish botanists were surveyed about the topic in the 1880s, according to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-bit-of-gray-in-an-emerald-isle/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/march-2026-satellite-puzzler/
NASA Invites Media to Learn About Upcoming X-59 Test Flights
Mar 16, 2026
NASA will hold a media teleconference at 5:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 19 to highlight plans for its X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft’s upcoming flight tests.
The teleconference is set to take place after the X-59 is scheduled to complete its second flight, in California.
For the media call, NASA leadership will join representatives from the Quesst mission and contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.
The X-59’s test pilots will be available to answer questions about what it’s like to fly the aircraft and how they prepare for flights.
The news conference will stream on NASA’s YouTube channel. An instant replay will be available online.
Learn how to watch NASA content on a variety of platforms, including social media.
Participants include:
Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator
Cathy Bahm, project manager, Low Boom Flight Demonstrator, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
Peter Coen, Quesst mission integration manager, NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
Jim “Clue” Less, X-59 test pilot, NASA Armstrong
Nils Larson, X-59 test pilot, NASA Armstrong
Pat LeBeau, Lockheed Martin X-59 project manager
To participate in the virtual call, members of the media must RSVP no later than two hours before the start of the event to: kristen.m.hatfield@nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
For second flight, the X-59 will taxi from its hangar at NASA Armstrong, then take off and land at nearby Edwards Air Force Base.
The aircraft will fly for roughly an hour, reaching a cruising speed of 230 mph at 12,000 feet before accelerating to 260 mph at 20,000 feet.
This flight will kick off a series of flights known as envelope expansion, during which NASA will gradually take the X-59 faster and higher to ensure the aircraft’s safety and assess its performance.
This phase will be followed by flights assessing the X-59’s unique acoustic profile. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission and was developed to fly supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, without generating loud sonic booms.
Through Quesst, NASA is working to make commercial supersonic flight over land possible, dramatically reducing travel time in the United States or anywhere in the world.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-learn-about-upcoming-x-59-test-flights/
https://www.nasa.gov/quesst-media-resources/
Hail Yeah! NASA Researchers Use Volunteer Observations for Hail Estimates
Mar 17, 2026
The bigger the hailstone, the more damage it can cause. But scientists find that predicting hailstone size can be challenging. How quickly does hail melt as it falls?
Now, you can help tackle this question by joining the SouthEAst REgion CoCoRaHS Hail (SEaRCH) project. This network of backyard weather observers includes volunteers of all ages and backgrounds who work together to measure and report hail in their local communities.
SEaRCH is also part of the NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and National Science Foundation supported Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network, whose amateur weather sleuths report rain and snow..
These rain and snow observations are helping scientists better understand local variation in precipitation. CoCoRaHS data is regularly used by the National Weather Service, the Hydrologic Prediction Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Drought Mitigation Center, broadcast meteorologists, research scientists, and more.
“I love the project, and I love being able to contribute meaningful data,” says Jeremy Kichler, a CoCoRaHS volunteer.
On June 14, 2023, Kichler witnessed a storm with hailstones ranging from 0.5 inches (12 mm) to two inches (51 mm) in diameter. The hailstones dented cars, damaged roof shingles, and shredded leaves across his neighborhood.
After the storm, he submitted a CoCoRaHS hail report to notify the National Weather Service with photos and additional details about the hail.
NASA scientists are now using hail reports from volunteers like Kichler alongside archived satellite overpass data and newly developed hail melt profiles to model how hailstones of different sizes melt, once they fall below the freezing level.
To join volunteers like Jeremy Kichler and make hail reports of your own, all you need is your smartphone and the free CoCoRaHS mobile app. To make rain and snow reports, you’ll need a specific manual gauge approved by the National Weather Service.
Find everything you need to get started in the CoCoRaHS and SEaRCH summary on the NASA Citizen Science website.) and the National Science Foundation.
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/hail-yeah-nasa-researchers-use-volunteer-observations-for-hail-estimates/
so much treason that its almost like they aren't even human
ASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes 27th Swing Around the Sun
March 16, 2026 2:10PM
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 27th close approach to the Sun on March 11, again matching its record distance of 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the solar surface.
The flyby allowed the spacecraft to conduct measurements of the solar wind and solar activity, contributing to our understanding of how the Sun’s atmosphere changes throughout the solar cycle.
The durable spacecraft checked in with flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland — where Parker Solar Probe was also designed and built — on March 14, transmitting a beacon tone indicating that its systems were operating normally.
Speeding on a path around the Sun that limited communications with Earth, Parker had been out of contact and operating autonomously, as planned, for about a month leading up to, and during, closest approach.
During this solar encounter, from March 6 through March 16, Parker’s four scientific instrument packages gathered data from inside the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona.
Parker will begin returning detailed telemetry on its status on March 17, with science data transmission for this solar encounter set to start the following day.
Parker’s observations of the solar wind and solar events, such as coronal mass ejections and the aftermaths of flares, are critical to advancing humankind’s understanding of the Sun and the phenomena that drive high-energy space weather events that pose risks to astronauts, satellites, air travel, and even power grids on Earth.
Understanding the fundamental physics of space weather enables more reliable prediction of astronaut safety during future deep-space missions to the Moon and Mars.
Parker also equaled its record-setting speed of 430,000 miles per hour (687,000 kilometers per hour) — a mark that, like the distance to the Sun, was set during a close approach on Dec. 24, 2024, and matched during 2025 flybys on March 22, June 19, Sept. 16 and Dec. 13.
Parker launched in August 2018.
At the time, the Sun was near the minimum of its 11-year activity cycle. In 2024, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period.
Parker’s 27 encounters with the Sun reflect this change over time, sampling the Sun’s atmosphere from quiet to very active periods. Parker Solar Probe will remain in this orbit around the Sun and continue making observations into the declining phase of solar activity.
The next steps for the mission in late 2026 and beyond are formally under NASA review.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/parker-solar-probe/2026/03/16/nasas-parker-solar-probe-makes-27th-swing-around-the-sun/
UCAR statement on lawsuit filed against federal administrative agencies
Mar 16, 2026
Complaint alleges violations of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act
The following is a statement from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which manages the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) on behalf of NSF.
UCAR is a nonprofit consortium of 129 North American universities with programs in Earth system science.
UCAR today filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado against the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); the United States Department of Commerce (DOC); the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB); and their respective directors in their official capacity.
The lawsuit alleges violations of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act arising from several adverse actions taken by federal agencies over the last several months directed against NCAR and UCAR.
The lawsuit requests the court to stop implementation of the actions, declare the actions unlawful, and issue an injunction to prevent further harm to NCAR and UCAR’s operations and mission.
These actions pose a direct threat to national security, public safety, and economic prosperity and risk setting back the country’s global leadership in weather and space weather modeling and forecasting. W
e are hopeful that this lawsuit will prevent future unlawful action by the agencies.
UCAR and NCAR will not be making any further public comment while this litigation is pending.
https://news.ucar.edu/133061/ucar-statement-lawsuit-filed-against-federal-administrative-agencies
https://d3opzdukpbxlns.cloudfront.net/34fc0287-fece-4eb6-93ff-53aa23a4f58e/790b043e62a645bbb2a69b885e493483
https://nasawatch.com/trumpspace/ucar-files-lawsuit-against-nsf-noaa-omb/
interesting timing
https://astrobiology.com/2026/03/dale-andersens-astrobiology-antarctic-status-report-16-march-2026-spring-field-season-completed-preparing-fall-field-season.html
https://astrobiology.com/2023/11/dale-andersens-1996-antarctic-field-research-photo-albums.html
Dale Andersen’s Astrobiology Antarctic Status Report 16 March 2026: Spring Field Season Completed; Preparing The Fall Field Season
March 16, 2026
Hi Keith, The team and I have been home for about two weeks now, settling back into the familiar rhythms of home and work after our time in Antarctica.
Our attention has turned to the return of samples and cargo, to the first careful look at the observations and data we gathered during our stay at Untersee, and towards planning the analyses of samples now making their way back to various labs.
Even so, field work does not really end with the journey home.
The next field season is already on the horizon, only seven months away, and this pause becomes both practical and reflective – a time to take stock of what we accomplished, to begin sorting through results, and to look ahead.
Work like this unfolds as a continuum, each field season building on the last while guiding our way back to Untersee as we refine our understanding of that remarkable ecosystem.
Returning to Cape Town, South Africa on 25 February 2026 — Dale T. Andersen
For many years, we have used Antarctica as a place to think about isolation, logistics, human factors, life-support constraints, enabling technologies such as remotely operated vehicles and telepresence, and the realities of conducting meaningful research far from easy rescue or resupply.
Those lessons have shaped and informed many of our efforts to use Antarctic field research as a model for planetary exploration and for scientific and operational investigations relevant to the Moon and Mars.
Our studies within these relatively rare ice-free oases are scientifically compelling in their own right, but they also offer something more. They provide settings for thinking about planetary exploration in grounded, practical ways.
Our work has shown that these perennially ice-covered lake environments can serve as useful models for understanding similar lakes and oceans that may once have existed on Mars, or within the oceans of the icy moons of Juipter or Saturn, while Antarctic field camps more broadly provide places where humans and machines – scientific instruments, robotics, and related systems – can be tested together in remote, demanding conditions while carrying out real science.
Over the years, through our exobiology-related research in these Antarctic oases, we’ve tried to carry those lessons forward – not only through the science itself, but through what these places reveal about exploration, communication, resilience, and the discipline needed to work together as a team in remote settings.
Looking back at those final images from beneath the ice, I was also reminded that important essons do not always come from scientific instruments or samples alone.
Sometimes they arrive in the form of a simple moment – a swim beneath the ice, following a thin, yellow line back to the surface.
Cheers,
Dale
“Just beneath Untersee’s ice, my tether runs ahead toward the distant glimmer of the dive hole” — Dale T.Andersen
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Beneath the Ice, But Not Alone
Just beneath Untersee’s ice, my tether runs ahead toward the distant glimmer of the dive hole, the only passage back from the blue and solitary world below.
As I swim, I hear the measured rhythm of my own breathing and, now and then, the voices of colleagues on the surface carried through a thin, yellow line into the earpieces of my Kirby Morgan Exo-26 full-face mask.
They ask for an update, reminding me to check my air pressure. A glance at my air-integrated dive computer, a few quick words in reply, and all is well.
Soon, after a brief three-minute safety stop beneath the dive hole, I will return to the surface through the three and half meters (about twelve feet) of ice.
While working in the dark water below the ice, the tether is more than just dive gear. It is direction, contact, reassurance – a slender line between wandering too far away and finding the way back to the surface.
Looking up at the Antarctica sky from a dive hole in Lake Untersee — Dale T. Andersen
And, as I unhurriedly return behind that yellow thread, I am reminded that all life is tethered in some way – by the people, values, and quiet bonds that hold us steady, especially during those moments when we find ourselves in remote, isolated settings on distant shores, or in those quieter, yet sometimes tumultuous, places within ourselves. Not a tether that stifles exploration or hinders progress, but one that reminds us where we are, what matters most, and how to find our way back to a better place when distance, silence, or uncertainty begin to blur the edges and wear away at our confidence.
It is, once again, a line – a strong but unseen tether – shaped by the voices of family, friends, and colleagues, and by affection and trust, reaching across space and time to steady us and draw us home.
2025/26 Lake Untersee Antarctic Field Season Team Members
Dale Andersen, Ph.D. Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA
Birgit Sattler, Ph.D. University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Alessandro Cuzzeri, Graduate Student (Ph.D. candidate) University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Denis Lacelle, Ph.D. University of Ottawa, Canada
Efe Kemal Koc, Graduate Student (M.Sc.) University of Ottawa, Canada
Klemens Weisleitner, Ph.D.Polar and alpine microbial ecologist, Professional photographer, Innsbruck, Austria
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Hera on course for asteroid rendezvous
17/03/2026
A successful deep-space manoeuvre has put ESA’s Hera spacecraft on course for its rendezvous with the Didymos binary asteroid system later this year.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera spacecraft is on its way to the only asteroids in existence whose orbits have been deliberately altered by human action.
At the Didymos binary system, Hera will help scientists answer the questions remaining after NASA’s DART spacecraft impacted Didymos’ smaller moon Dimorphos.
In doing so, Hera will help to transform asteroid deflection by kinetic impact into a well-understood and repeatable technique for protecting Earth.
Hera recently completed the second of two deep-space manoeuvres on its journey from Earth to Didymos.
The manoeuvre burned 123 kg of onboard hydrazine fuel and changed the spacecraft’s velocity by 367 m/s – a change comparable to an object accelerating from stationary to supersonic flight.
“We divided the deep space manoeuvre into three engine burns, plus one much smaller correction manoeuvre, carried out over a period of around four weeks,” says Francesco Castellini from the Flight Dynamics team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany.
“This is the Hera mission’s largest manoeuvre in terms of fuel consumption, and we used it to test all of the systems that we will need during the braking and rendezvous manoeuvres later this year as we arrive at Didymos.”
Tracking data from ESA’s Estrack network of deep space antennas confirmed the success of the manoeuvre, and downlinked telemetry from the spacecraft shows that all subsystems performed as expected.
With the deep-space manoeuvre complete, the Hera team has its sights set on arrival at Didymos. Extensive onboard software updates have been designed to prepare the spacecraft for close-proximity operations at the asteroids.
The update adds and improves functionalities that Hera will need to carry out humankind’s first thorough survey of a binary asteroid, such as new software for Hera’s laser altimeter – which will continuously monitor its distance from the asteroids – and for the monitoring camera that will visually monitor and confirm the release of Hera’s two CubeSats.
“Uploading new software to Hera across deep space is like having a video call with a friend on Mars at just 0.004% the speed of a typical home internet connection and with a twenty-minute time delay between speaking and hearing your friend’s response,” says Anna Schiavo from the Hera Flight Control Team.
“Sending the software to the spacecraft, which is just the first step in the overall software update, will take around three hours.”
In October, Hera will begin a series of precisely timed burns to transition from interplanetary cruise to asteroid rendezvous.
Unlike larger deep-space destinations such as planets, Didymos and Dimorphos are small, dark and hard to see: Hera will need to actively search for the asteroids and keep them centred in its field of view as it navigates towards them.
The approach will last around three weeks and will test Hera’s guidance, navigation and control systems to the fullest.
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Hera_on_course_for_asteroid_rendezvous
extra ESA
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Shaping_the_Future/ESA-enabled_helical_antenna_innovations_boost_space-based_connectivity
Mysterious space phenomenon visible in night sky could be 'early warning system' for Britons
17/03/2026 - 15:23
Miniscule ice crystals floating at high altitude can revel future weather patterns
Britons gazing skyward may spot an enchanting, luminous circle encircling the moon — a spectacle that astronomy specialists say functions as nature's own weather alert system.
This captivating optical display, nicknamed a lunar halo, frequently materialises in the hours preceding an incoming weather front carrying rain or snow.
Alan Jones, an astronomy expert from 365 Astronomy, notes these radiant rings serve a purpose beyond their visual appeal, with strong connections to approaching precipitation systems.
Curiosity surrounding unusual celestial events has been growing substantially across Britain, prompting experts to urge the public to observe these glowing formations and understand their meteorological significance.
The science underpinning this atmospheric phenomenon involves millions of minuscule ice crystals floating at high altitude, typically within wispy cirrus clouds positioned roughly 20,000 feet above ground level.
Mr Jones explains: "A lunar halo is a large, pale ring of light that appears around the moon, usually with a soft white glow and faint hints of colour.
"They form when moonlight passes through millions of tiny ice crystals suspended high in the atmosphere, usually in thin cirrus clouds around 20,000 feet above the ground.
"The light bends at a precise 22-degree angle, creating that perfect circular ring."
This precise angular refraction produces the distinctive circular shape that observers witness surrounding the moon.
These ethereal rings frequently herald the arrival of wet weather within a 12 to 36-hour window, making them a valuable forecasting tool that has been relied upon for generations.
Alan Jones explains the connection: "In many cases, those high cirrus clouds are the first sign that a large weather system is approaching.
"That's why farmers, sailors and weather-watchers have used lunar halos for centuries as a natural storm warning."
The seasonal timing also influences what type of precipitation follows.
During winter months, halos tend to precede snow or sleet, whilst summer appearances more commonly signal steady rainfall approaching.
Mr Jones added: "Not every halo ends in a storm.
"But far more do than people realise. Seeing one should at least make you check the forecast more carefully."
For those hoping to witness this celestial spectacle, certain conditions significantly improve the chances of a sighting.
A moon approaching full brightness offers the best opportunity, combined with thin, elevated cloud cover rather than dense lower formations. Minimal light pollution also enhances the contrast needed to observe the halo clearly.
Capturing the phenomenon on a smartphone is entirely achievable with proper technique. Mr Jones recommends utilising night mode or extended exposure settings whilst keeping the device completely still, ideally mounted on a tripod.
He said focusing on the sky itself rather than nearby structures produces superior results, and avoiding streetlights prevents the image from becoming washed out.
https://www.gbnews.com/science/space-weather-mysterious-phenomenon-early-warning-system-britons
Space Force announces second tranche of PAEs
March 17, 2026
ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) – In line with the ongoing Department of War-driven Acquisition Transformation, the Space Force has designated its second tranche of mission areas that will be assigned Portfolio Acquisition Executives, including:
Infrastructure; Battle Management, Command, Control, Communication and Space Intelligence; Satellite Communication and Positioning, Navigation and Timing; and Missile Warning and Tracking.
These PAEs, along with the Space Access and Space Based Sensing and Targeting PAEs that were part of the initial tranche announced January 2026, will report to the Secretary of the Air Force through the Space Service Acquisition Executive.
“To win in the long run we must innovate faster than our adversaries,” said Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink.
“These next six PAEs will allow us to do just that by capitalizing on the right talent, giving them the resources they need and empowering them to deliver mission effective capability to the warfighter faster.”
The portfolios are designed to prioritize the speed of delivery of combat-effective capabilities within their mission area.
For each PAE, those mission areas are:
• Space Access: delivering national security, civil and commercial capabilities to orbit
• Space Based Sensing and Targeting: delivering persistent space-based battlespace awareness
• Infrastructure: delivering data management, Space Force training and test capabilities, and personnel management capabilities
• BMC3I: delivering cross-cutting capabilities such as data, networks, C2, intelligence and space domain awareness to detect, characterize, attribute, anticipate and target activities
• SATCOM and PNT: delivering resilient commercial and military satellite communications and integrated PNT capabilities
• Missile Warning and Tracking: delivering diverse, integrated, and resilient missile warning and tracking space architecture
“By clarifying priorities and empowering leaders, the Space Force is positioning itself to outpace adversaries and secure U.S. interests in, from and to space,” said Thomas Ainsworth, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration.
“This is how we design and build the right systems for the warfighter, at the right time, to execute the right mission.”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4436172/space-force-announces-second-tranche-of-paes/
extra Space Force
https://www.ksby.com/lompoc-valley/vandenberg-space-force-base-mission-update-speaker-series-in-santa-barbara
SpaceX Launches
Starlink Mission
March 16, 2026
On Monday, March 16 at 10:19 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 launched 25 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
This was the 14th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, and now 10 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
There was a possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may have heard one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experienced depended on weather and other conditions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-17-24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3I1Xa7m2bc
Starlink Mission
March 17, 2026
On Tuesday, March 17 at 9:27 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the 11th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES O3b mPOWER-E, Crew-10, Bandwagon-3, mPOWER-D, CRS-33, and now six Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-10-46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKaLZY0S-QI
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/16-time-travel-methods-from-sci-fi-to-help-you-traverse-the-space-time-continuum
16 time-travel methods from sci-fi to help you traverse the space-time continuum
March 17, 2026
First, the good news. Time travel isn't necessarily forbidden by the laws of physics.
In fact, the mathematics underpinning Albert Einstein's theories of relativity offer up possibilities via the likes of wormholes and curved spacetime that might allow someone — or more likely something — to make a journey back into the past.
Not that anyone really knows how you'd do it — or if it's even possible at all.
Luckily for sci-fi writers, there's rarely any need to worry about backing up their ideas with facts.
Over the years, they've come up with numerous ingenious ways to negotiate the space-time continuum, from iconic cars and spaceships slingshotting around stars, to heavily-modded telephone boxes and even — we're sorry to say — a time machine built into a hot tub.
We've already looked at how sci-fi deals with faster-than-light travel. Now, we're looking at 16 memorable ways movies and TV shows have smashed through the fourth dimension, so keep reading to find out how to travel through time.
As seen in: "Back to the Future" (1985)
Doc Brown never really gets into the science of the Flux Capacitor — all we really need to know is that this cobbled-together component is "what makes time travel possible".
But when this unassuming glass box is installed in a car — preferably stainless steel, it aids with "flux dispersal", apparently — you can rest assured that you're going to see some serious s**t.
There are drawbacks, of course.
Getting your DeLorean serviced is not as easy as it once was, you need enough road to get up to 88mph, and — unless you've had a Mr. Fusion generator installed — you'll require some plutonium if you're going to generate the 1.21 gigawatts required to traverse the fourth dimension.
A small price to pay, perhaps, if you want to meet your parents when they were kids.
Other time-traveling cars are available, including the Volkswagen Beetle and Cadillac Eldorado driven by Austin Powers.
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TARDIS
As seen in: "Doctor Who" (1963-present)
Arguably the most powerful and sophisticated time machine of them all, a Time Lord's TARDIS (it stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space) makes hopping around the space-time continuum as easy as going to the shops in your car.
Despite the show's efforts to explain away a TARDIS's functionality with black holes and the Time Vortex, its abilities are best regarded as magic.
Any place or time in history (or the future) is at your disposal when you're the owner of a TARDIS, a vehicle that has the uncanny ability to blend into its surroundings — assuming, of course, a faulty chameleon circuit hasn't condemned you to a permanent phone box exterior.
The future dudes in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" also decided that phone boxes made for bodacious time machines — though their version was most definitely not bigger on the inside.
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Stellar slingshot
As seen in: "Star Trek" (1967-present)
Captain James T Kirk's famous voiceover never talked about "time: the final frontier", but the Enterprise and its successors have set coordinates for the fourth dimension on numerous occasions.
Sometimes known as the "light speed breakaway factor", Starfleet's preferred time travel technique involves accelerating to maximum warp before performing a slingshot maneuver around a star (or other body with a strong gravitational field).
This subsequently sends the starship forward or backward in time, while occasionally (and inexplicably) transforming your shipmates into freaky clay heads.
The calculations required to reach your destination are mind-bogglingly complex, which is why you need a Spock (see Original Series episodes "Tomorrow is Yesterday", "Assignment Earth", and 1986 movie "The Voyage Home") or a captive Borg Queen ("Picard" episode "Assimilation") to make it work.
This complexity is presumably why the Borg opted to unveil a more user-friendly time travel solution, namely "chronometric particles", in "First Contact".
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The Quantum Realm
As seen in: "Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania" & "Avengers: Endgame" (2019)
Unfortunately, the convenient time travel rules seen in "Back to the Future" — don't interact with your past/future self, don't bet on future sporting events — no longer apply in the MCU, where messing around in the past does not change the future.
The Avengers do, however, have access to the Quantum Realm, the sub-atomic domain where time starts to behave in weird, non-linear ways.
It's all kind of random, but luckily Earth's Mightiest Heroes also turn out to be Earth's Brainiest Heroes when Tony Stark works out how to circumvent potential issues with quantum fluctuations, the Planck Scale, and the Deutsch Proposition.
In layman's terms? Iron Man builds a "time-space GPS" capable of getting the team when and where they need to be — as long as they have enough Pym Particles (the mass-altering fuel for Ant-Man's suit) to make the round trip.
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Time Displacement Chambers
As seen in: "The Terminator" (1984-present)
With flesh-and-blood commander John Connor proving to be a thorn in its silicon side, malevolent AI Skynet builds time displacement equipment to open up a new frontier in the human/machine war — the past.
Although we don't see the machinery at work in the first two movies, later "Terminator" outings reveal a mass of spinning metal that zaps anything inside it to a predefined point in the past or future, with the goal — again countering the rules laid down by "Back to the Future" — of altering the timeline.
As an important side note, the device only works if you're covered in living tissue — or a shapeshifting cyborg constructed from mimetic polyalloy — so you need to be comfortable with the fact you'll be arriving in a new time period as naked as the day you were born.
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General relativity
As seen in: "Interstellar" (2014)
Is this technically time travel? Possibly not, though Einstein's theory of General Relativity does have some time-travel-like consequences.
In "Interstellar", the intense gravitational field of a black hole named Gargantua dilates time for the crew of the Endurance mission, meaning that mere hours on the surface of an alien world are equivalent to years back on Earth.
When intrepid pilot Coop is eventually reunited with his daughter, Murphy, he's skipped decades while she's now significantly older than he is — in effect, he's travelled to the future.
Special Relativity also comes into play in the '80s Disney movie "Flight of the Navigator", where a kid is abducted by an alien spacecraft in 1978 and — after a quick faster-than-light jaunt to the planet Phaelonn — wakes up in 1986.
Luckily, the boy's sophisticated spaceship buddy Max also has the time travel smarts to take him home again.
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Time inversion
As seen in: "Tenet" (2020)
Lots of people — including writer/director Christopher Nolan — will tell you that the time inversion in "Tenet" isn't technically time travel. We disagree, seeing as the tech can transport you into the past and back again.
It works by flipping entropy, the amount of disorder in a system, which — according to the second law of thermodynamics — always tends to increase.
In other words, stepping through one of the Turnstiles in "Tenet" allows you to experience time in the opposite direction to everybody else, meaning that your future is their past, and vice versa.
There are drawbacks, however. There are no shortcuts — your journey through time must, by definition, unfold in real (albeit reversed) time — and it's really, really hard to get your head around the mechanics of the situation.
Similarly themed "Red Dwarf" episode "Backwards" was a lot easier to follow.
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"The Box"
As seen in: "Primer" (2004)
Jeff Bezos famously launched Amazon from an ordinary garage. In "Primer", two ordinary guys go one step further by building a time machine in their spare time.
As you'd expect from a film that cost less than $10,000 to make, the device makes the Flux Capacitor look like the pinnacle of sophistication. Even so, it's big enough to accommodate a human time traveler, and it actually works.
The only problem is, negotiating and understanding the subsequent paradoxes — which writer/director Shane Carruth made little effort to simplify — requires a PhD in high-level physics.
"Safety Not Guaranteed" takes a similarly DIY approach to a complex problem.
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Closed loops
As seen in: "Looper" (2012)
The time travel in "Looper" is limited but extremely effective.
With the tech outlawed soon after its creation in 2074, it fell into the hands of the criminal underworld, who use it as an untraceable method for disposing of people they don't like — send the victim 30 years into the past and, the theory goes, their body will never be discovered.
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The drawback, of course, is that the only journey you can make is between 2074 and 2044, vastly reducing opportunities for time tourism.
Also, the eponymous Loopers (assassins in the past hired to kill people sent back from the future) know they'll be bumped off as soon as they've gone the long way round to 2074, thereby closing the loop. It's brutal, but nobody can say the system doesn't work.
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Anomalies
As seen in: "Primeval" (2007-2011)
These gateways through space and time are too random and sporadic to provide a useful method of temporal travel. They do, however, have a habit of transporting dinosaurs into the present day, which is handy if you want to recreate "Jurassic Park" in the UK.
Similar portals are a convenient way of getting from point A to point B in the spacetime continuum, and a riff on the notion of wormholes/Einstein-Rosen Bridges.
Notable examples include the Guardian of Forever in "Star Trek", the time travel device in "Continuum", and the gateway that transports new soldiers to a future conflict in "The Tomorrow War".
It's also pretty close to the time-travel side effects of Third Energy in the "Dino Crisis" games, which, wouldn't you know it, also brought dinosaurs to the present day.
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Quantum Leap Accelerator
As seen in: "Quantum Leap" (1989-1993)
Found in a top-secret facility beneath a mountain in the New Mexico desert, this experimental time-travel tech sent its inventor, Dr. Sam Beckett, on a frustratingly random journey through space and time.
There were caveats, however: he could only "leap" to dates within his own lifetime (with the odd exception), and had to inhabit other people's (or chimpanzee's) bodies while he was there.
And unlike other famous time travelers who are strictly forbidden from meddling with history, Beckett needs to alter the timeline (for the better) if he's going to make his next leap.
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Mutant powers
As seen in: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014)
Why waste your time building a fancy time machine when mutant powers can do the job just as easily?
In "X-Men: Days of Future Past", Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde's teleporting abilities are repurposed to transport Wolverine's consciousness from 2023 back to his 1973 self.
In Chris Claremont's original comic, it was Pryde herself who made the journey, but the mission remains the same — altering the past to avert a mutant apocalypse.
In "The Umbrella Academy", fellow teleporter Number Five also possesses superpowers that allow him to travel through time. He's subsequently head-hunted by the Commission to help monitor the timeline.
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Alien blood
As seen in: "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014)
Exposure to the blood of an alien invader — specifically one of the Mimics' Alpha leaders — traps cowardly military PR guy Major William Cage in an inescapable time loop.
It's more a cool plot device than a logical explanation, though it's no more ridiculous than the cave in "Palm Springs" and whatever it is in "Groundhog Day" (a magical rodent?), which induce similar déjà-vu-inducing qualities.
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A stone circle
As seen in: "Outlander" (2014-present)
The stone circle that transports World War II nurse Claire Randall back to the 18th century may just be a marker for a pre-existing region of magical properties in the Scottish Highlands.
Its powers also appear to act on a few lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) individuals. Either way, this is another time travel technique best written off as unadulterated sorcery.
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A cyberpunk raincoat
As seen in: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026)
If Sam Rockwell thinks this is the best way to time travel, who are we to argue? That man is a treasure.
Known only as The Man from the Future, Rockwell's character zaps back from the future and lands in a Norms diner, looking to assemble a dream team to stop the AI apocalypse. And, somehow, he succeeds despite looking like a wet-weather averse suicide bomber.
His time machine is constructed from a see-through raincoat, an angry piggy backpack, a bunch of wires and tubes, and every sci-fi-looking gizmo and doodad the prop department could hot-glue to it.
He claims that it's "the height of f***ing fashion" where he's from… we're not so sure about that, but it's a rad piece of costume design.
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A hot tub
As seen in: "Hot Tub Time Machine" (2010)
Yes, this is actually a thing in an actual movie. Some things just defy explanation. Seriously, what the hell were they thinking?
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área cincuenta y tres?