Hurricane season kicks off. Expect higher-than-normal storm activity.

The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season has officially begun, and it’s expected to bring a higher-than-average number of storms in the months ahead. There is a 60% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from Tuesday (June 1) to Nov. 30, will be an “above-normal” season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a statement on May 20.  The season will likely bring 13 to 20 named storms, or storms with winds of 39 mph (63 km/h) or higher, according to NOAA. Of those storms, six to 10…

Read More

NASA’s Juno to make the closest visit to Jupiter’s biggest moon Ganymede in 20 years

Ganymede, get ready for your close-up. No probe has gotten a good view of Jupiter’s largest moon since 2000, when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft swung past the strange world, which is the largest moon in the whole solar system. But on Monday (June 7),  at 1:35 p.m. EDT (1735 GMT), NASA’s Juno spacecraft will skim just 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) above Ganymede’s surface, gathering a host of observations as it does so. “Juno carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways never before possible,” principal investigator Scott…

Read More

Picard shatters the Mirror Universe with IDW’s year-long ‘Star Trek’ event series

Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the finest “Star Trek” series of them all?  Trekkies coming of age in the late ’80s might gravitate to “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as their favorite, and now thanks to IDW Publishing, Jean-Luc Picard and his crew are finally getting the Mirror Universe treatment in a bold new comic book series coming late this summer.  Written by “Star Trek” comic writers Scott and David Tipton, “Star Trek: The Mirror War” is a year-long event that sees Captain Picard’s sinister reflection thirsting for…

Read More

NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity set for 7th Red Planet flight on Sunday

NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity will take to the air again this weekend, if all goes according to plan. Ingenuity’s handlers are prepping the 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper for its seventh Martian flight, which will take place no earlier than Sunday (June 6). The plan is to send Ingenuity to a new airfield, about 350 feet (105 meters) south of its current location on the floor of Jezero Crater. “This will mark the second time the helicopter will land at an airfield that it did not survey from the air during…

Read More

SpaceX will launch a new Sirius XM satellite early Sunday. Here’s how to watch online.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX will launch a broadband satellite for Sirius-XM early Sunday (June 6) and you can watch the action live online.  A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket flight is scheduled to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station here in Florida. Liftoff is expected at 12:26 a.m. EDT (0426 GMT) during a one-hour 59-minute window. Perched atop the 230-foot-tall (70 meters) Falcon 9 is the high-powered Sirius XM-8 (SXM-8) satellite built by Maxar Technologies for Sirius XM. It’s the second of two…

Read More

Recruit your own ‘crew’ for the private Inspiration4 space mission with this new fundraising campaign

As part of a new fundraising initiative benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, you can now create your own “crew” for the upcoming Inspiration4 mission to Earth orbit. This September, four private citizens are set to become astronauts as they embark on the Inspiration4 mission, which will take them around Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission was booked by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman as both a spaceflight initiative and  a way to raise money for St. Jude.  Now, St. Jude has “upped the ante” with its fundraising…

Read More

UFOs just invaded Fortnite as the end nears for Chapter 2 Season 6

Fortnite players roaming the popular battle royale game are reporting alien abductions ahead of what may be a UFO-themed season. Multiple Fortnite bloggers and gamers are sharing their adventures on social media after an update from creator Epic Games on Tuesday (June 1). Epic is also reportedly posting teasers on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube with the tagline “They’re Coming” and some kind of garbled speech, along with the release date of Chapter 2, Season 7 on June 8. A bright light appears in the view of YouTube vlogger Ali…

Read More