Soyuz Crew Docks With ISS - Watch This Amazing Time-Lapse
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 successfully launches to ISS to replace Spokane astronaut Anne McClain and company
Aug. 1—Within a week, Spokane's own astronaut will be back on Earth. NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 is on its way to relieve U.S. Army Colonel Anne McClain and company aboard the International Space Station after successfully launching from Cape Canaveral Friday at 8:43 a.m. Pacific Time. The arrival of the SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying Crew-11, which is composed of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Olege Platonov, is expected to occur around midnight Saturday morning. It will be mission commander Cardman and mission specialist Platonov's first spaceflights, while pilot Fincke and specialist Yui are beginning their fourth and second stint aboard the station. "I have no emotions but joy right now," Cardman said shortly after the Dragon capsule achieved orbit. "That was absolutely transcendent, the ride of a lifetime." McClain and her fellow members of Crew-10 will return after a brief handover period with their staffing replacements aboard the orbiting laboratory. "They'll join the crew that's in orbit, they'll hand over there, they'll learn as much as they can about the station from that crew and then we'll switch our emphasis to bringing home Crew-10 sometime, we hope, next week," said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate. "If weather and hardware cooperate." McClain shared via social media Wednesday that she and fellow NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are hard at work preparing for their successors' arrival. They are currently expected to undock from the space station no sooner than 11 a.m. Wednesday, splashing down off the coast of California just over six hours later, McClain said. On Thursday, McClain took to social media again to share one of the last photos she'll snap aboard the space station: an image of the Northern Lights dancing just above the curve of the Earth as seen from the station's cupola. "As we get close to leaving the International Space Station, I find myself wanting to savor every moment and every view," McClain wrote. "None of us are guaranteed to get to do this again, and every minute spent in space is a special one." Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in a Friday news conference that the Crew-11 launch was initially delayed from Thursday due to inopportune weather but went off without issue, shortly before the Florida weather almost necessitated another delay. The flight is the 12th human space flight and 11th space station crew change to come out of NASA's commercial crew program, in which the space agency partners with corporations in order to make the staffing of the space lab safer and more reliable and cost efficient. "We really got very lucky today, I would say," Stich said. "I was just looking at a shot on my phone, a view from Falcon 9 looking down, and you can see the launch pad was kind of in a little, it was almost like a horseshoe of clouds. The launch pad was in the center of that horseshoe." Sarah Walker, director of Dragon Mission Management for SpaceX, added that while it was disappointing to scrub Thursday's launch with less than a minute to take off, safety is always the number one priority. "Today was a better day to fly, although, just barely," Walker said. "I want to say that that horseshoe of clouds closed within a couple of minutes of T-Zero." Once aboard, Crew-11 will continue the research conducted aboard the station for decades. The International Space Station has been staffed by astronauts and cosmonauts since 2000, with visits from more than 280 people hailing from 26 countries. Breakthroughs and findings aboard the laboratory have helped make major advancements in space travel, medicine and natural disaster preparedness, just to name a few. Dana Weigel, manager of NASA's ISS program, said Crew-11 will have the opportunity to partake in some particularly "key" research as the agency prepares for the Artemis program, and possible Mars missions. Those include studies on the astronauts themselves that seek to protect human health during longer missions and simulated lunar lands in a region that mimic the Moon's South Pole. "The goal of this study is to really understand how the disorienting effects of microgravity impact piloting and landing, and then we'll take that feedback and we'll put that into our planning for tools and aids for the crew," Weigel said. The Artemis program seeks to return American astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and early '70s, and McClain was among those in the running for one of the program's missions prior to her naming to Crew-10. The 46-year-old now has two spaceflights under her belt totaling more than 340 days and counting, making her an attractive option for future Artemis missions. Cardman and the rest of Crew-11's mission is months longer than Crew-10's stay, and they will be among a handful of people to be aboard the station in November as NASA and its commercial and international partners celebrate 25 years of continual human occupancy. Weigel thanked all of those who have made reaching the notable milestone possible, and shared that the agency is working through a variety of ideas to commemorate the "amazing accomplishment" in the months to come. "We have no shortage of ideas for what everyone would like to do to celebrate," Weigel said with a smile. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bid to relocate US Space Shuttle Discovery faces museum pushback
Tucked inside President Donald Trump's flagship tax and spending bill last month was a little-noticed provision to relocate the iconic Space Shuttle Discovery from a museum outside Washington to Houston. The plan now faces legal uncertainty, with the Smithsonian Institution arguing Congress had no authority to give away what it considers private property -- even before accounting for the steep logistical and financial challenges. "The Smithsonian Institution owns the Discovery and holds it in trust for the American public," the museum network, which receives substantial federal funding yet remains an independent entity, said in a statement to AFP on Friday. "In 2012, NASA transferred 'all rights, title, interest and ownership' of the shuttle to the Smithsonian," the statement continued, calling Discovery one of the museum's "centerpieces" that welcomes millions of visitors a year. The push to move Discovery from the Air and Space Museum's site in northern Virginia began in April, when Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican who faces a tough primary challenge next year by state attorney general Ken Paxton, introduced the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act," naming Discovery. The legislation stalled until it was folded into the mammoth "Big Beautiful Bill," signed into law on July 4. Its passage allocated $85 million for the move, though the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has projected a far higher cost of $325 million, adding that the NASA administrator's power over non-NASA entities is "unclear." To comply with Senate rules, the bill's language was modified such that Discovery is no longer named directly. Instead, the bill refers to a "space vehicle," though there is little doubt as to the target. NASA's administrator -- currently Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, serving in an acting capacity -- was given 30 days to identify which spacecraft is to be relocated, a deadline coming up on Sunday. - End of an era - NASA's Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, after a 30-year run that carried America's post-Apollo space ambitions. The four surviving orbiters -- Atlantis, Endeavour, prototype Enterprise, and Discovery -- were awarded to Florida, California, New York, and Virginia through a ranked selection process. Discovery, the most flown, was chosen as a vehicle-of-record in a near-complete state, intended for study by future generations. "There was not a lot of support within Houston to want a shuttle," space historian Robert Pearlman told AFP, adding that a proposal to house it at Space Center Houston was relatively weak. But after the announcement, Texas -- home to the Johnson Space Center, which oversees NASA's human spaceflight -- felt snubbed, and allegations of political interference by then-president Barack Obama swirled. A NASA inspector general probe found no evidence of foul play. - Enormous challenges - Relocating Discovery now would pose major technical hurdles. NASA had modified two Boeing 747s to ferry retired shuttles -- one is now a museum piece, and the other is out of service. That leaves land and water transport. "The nearest water entrance to the Potomac River is about 30 miles away," Pearlman said -- but it may be too shallow for the orbiter and required barge, requiring a 100-mile journey instead. A water transport would require a massive enclosed barge, he added. The US government owns only one such vessel, controlled by the military. Loaning it to a civilian agency would require another act of Congress, and the alternative would involve building one from scratch. Dennis Jenkins, a former shuttle engineer who oversaw the delivery of retired orbiters to their new homes, told the Collect Space outlet he could see costs reach a billion dollars. Nicholas O'Donnell, an attorney at Sullivan & Worcester with expertise in art and museum law, told AFP that assuming Smithsonian has valid paperwork, "I don't think Secretary Duffy or anyone in the federal government has any more authority to order the move of Discovery than you or I do." The government could invoke eminent domain -- seizing private property for public use -- but it would have to pay fair market value or try to sue. The Smithsonian is unlikely to want a court battle, and while it's legally independent, its financial reliance on federal funds leaves it politically vulnerable, said O'Donnell. ia/jgc
Indianapolis Star
4 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
'Eclipse of the century': Lengthy 6-minute solar eclipse is coming Aug. 2, 2027
No, the world will not go dark this weekend. Rumors about a lengthy total solar eclipse may have been circulating online, but the so-called "eclipse of the century" isn't for another two years. A total solar eclipse lasting up to 6 minutes and 23 seconds, at its peak, is expected to occur on Aug. 2, 2027, according to NASA. The total solar eclipse, in which the moon moves perfectly between the sun and Earth and casts a shadow on Earth, will be one of the longest in several decades. For a time comparison, the total solar eclipse that occured on April 8, 2024, lasted 4 minutes and 28 seconds at its peak. The solar eclipse of 1991, however, lasted 6 minutes and 53 seconds. reports the Aug. 2, 2027 eclipse will be the longest eclipse totality until 2114. The eclipse will be visible in parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Unfortunately for American skywatchers, the vast majority of the U.S. won't have a view of it. The Aug. 2, 2027 solar eclipse isn't actually the next total solar eclipse though. That one, on Aug. 12, 2026, will be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and parts of Portugal, according to NASA. Here's what to know about the solar eclipse on Aug. 2, 2027. The solar eclipse's path of totality will cross over parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East, according to National Eclipse and NASA. Parts of the following countries are within the path of totality. Other countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East will have a partial view of the eclipse. A partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Maine between 5:14 and 5:19 a.m. ET on Aug. 2, 2027, according to Time and Date.
