Month: August 2021

Update for 4 pm ET: Tropical Storm Henri was downgraded from hurricane status around midday, but the storm continued to drop torrential rain on the U.S. northeast. The storm slowed over Rhode Island, with strong gusty winds and flooding ongoing across parts of the northeast, the National Hurricane Center reported.  As parts of the U.S. northeast brace for Hurricane Henri to make landfall in New York today (Aug. 22), astronauts and satellites are tracking the historic storm from space.  Henri, which reached category 1 hurricane status on Saturday, is forecast…

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Gavin McDonald, Senior Project Researcher, University of California Santa Barbara Fishing on the high seas is a bit of a mystery, economically speaking. These areas of open ocean beyond the territorial jurisdiction of any nation are generally considered high-effort, low-payoff fishing grounds, yet fishers continue to work in them anyway. I am an environmental data scientist who leverages data and analytical techniques to answer critical questions about natural resource management. Back in 2018, my colleagues at…

The August full moon rises tonight (Aug. 22), bringing skywatchers a rare seasonal “Blue Moon.”  The full moon, also known as the “Sturgeon Moon,” reaches its peak Sunday morning at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT). For New York City observers, the full moon will rise at 8:47 p.m., after the sun sets at 7:45 p.m. local time that day. However, it will appear large in the sky throughout both Saturday and Sunday nights, according to The Farmers’ Almanac. Full moons occur when the moon is exactly on the opposite side…

OneWeb’s internet-satellite constellation continues to grow. An Arianespace Soyuz rocket carrying the 34 satellites of OneWeb’s Launch 9 mission lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Saturday (Aug. 21) at 6:13 p.m. EDT (2213 GMT; 3:13 a.m. Aug. 22 local time at Baikonur) following a two-day delay. The launch was originally targeted for Thursday (Aug. 19), but that attempt was aborted late in the countdown clock due to “a non-nominal event during the final automatic sequence,” Arianespace representatives wrote in an update that day.  The issue was soon identified and…

Step outside around 45 minutes after sunset on Saturday evening (Aug. 21) and in a single glance you’ll be able to partake in a gathering of the moon and the biggest planet of our solar system, very low in the east-southeast sky.  Assuming your skies are reasonably clear, you’ll be able to see the moon passing near to the planet Jupiter. By about 10:30 p.m. local daylight time, the eye-catching celestial duo will be visible, roughly one-quarter up from the southeast horizon to the point directly overhead (called the zenith).…

Spacecraft development is a risky and sometimes explosive business. SpaceX’s Starship prototype spacecraft is an example of that. The fully reusable launch system for eventual moon-and-Mars trips is no stranger to explosions, ruptures and failed landings. The supercut video above shows the main SpaceX failures (some intentional, others not so much) from Starship’s early development. At 395 feet (120 meters) the stacked Starship and Super Heavy rocket is the world’s tallest rocket, and Starship is designed to do complex flips and maneuvers upon landing.  Many of these failures happened, therefore,…

[embedded content] Netflix’s trailer for its upcoming documentary on SpaceX’s private Inspiration4 spaceflight has landed to introduce the first all-civilian crew set to launch into orbit next month.  The near real-time Netflix series “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space” — which breaks new territory for the long-time streaming provider — will air across several episodes launching on Sept. 2. SpaceX will launch the four civilian astronauts into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft on Sept. 15. The trailer, released Thursday (Aug. 19) on YouTube, shows the crew in training and promises that…

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket is one step closer to spaceflight. The rocket completed a 15-second “static fire” test Wednesday (Aug. 18), successfully firing its first-stage engines at the launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The test, available in replay on Firefly Aerospace’s Twitter, shows cryogenic ice falling away from the rocket as planned while the engines spew fire. “The test was successful and clears the way for Firefly to make its first launch attempt, currently scheduled for Sept. 2,” the company added on Twitter. “Burn, baby, burn,”…