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USA Today
6 hours ago
- Science
- USA Today
Blue Origin rocket launch: How to watch livestream of next human spaceflight
Blue Origin will provide a livestream of the launch, taking place from a private ranch in West Texas. A spaceflight that was delayed a week ago could commence this weekend as Blue Origin plans to once again attempt to launch a rocket that will take a group of six people to the very edge of space. The mission, known as NS-33, will be the 13th human spaceflight Blue Origin has conducted since 2021, when billionaire Jeff Bezos, the company's founder, boarded a New Shepard spacecraft for its maiden flight. The next six people selected to board the launch vehicle are set to join an exclusive club of more than 60 others who have flown on the brief 11-minute missions in the last four years. Awaiting them about 60 miles above Earth? A few precious moments of weightlessness in the crew capsule, and stunning views of space and the ground below. It's an experience the rest of us can only imagine, but at least those interested can watch the launch from West Texas from the comfort of their own home. Here's what to know about the next Blue Origin launch, as well as how to watch a livestream of the mission. When is the next Blue Origin launch? Blue Origin's next crewed launch, known as NS-33, was due to get off the ground Saturday, June 21. The company first opted to delay the mission to Sunday, June 22 due to "persistent high winds" before announcing at 5:48 a.m. CT that mission operators were once again postponing the launch "due to weather." The mission is now being targeted for 8:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. CT) Sunday, June 29, Blue Origin announced. Backup opportunities are available if the launch is scrubbed again on Monday, June 30, according to a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory. Where are Blue Origin launches? Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches take place from the company's private ranch facility known as Launch Site One. The facility is located more than 140 miles east of El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border. How to watch the Blue Origin New Shepard take off Blue Origin will provide a webcast of the launch beginning about 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled liftoff on its website. What is Blue Origin? Billionaire Jeff Bezos, best known for founding Amazon, is the founder of the private space technology company Blue Origin. Bezos himself even boarded Blue Origin's New Shepard for its maiden crewed voyage in July 2021, which came after the spacecraft flew on 15 flight tests beginning in 2012. For nearly four years since its first crewed mission, the New Shepard spacecraft has served as a powerful symbol of Blue Origin's commercial spaceflight ambitions amid a growing space tourism industry. In addition to sending space tourists on brief joy rides to the edge of space, Blue Origin has also increasingly sought to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX. Blue Origin's massive New Glenn rocket, which flew on its inaugural flight test in January 2025 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is also being developed for future spaceflights. At 320 feet tall, the spacecraft rivals SpaceX's 400-foot Starship in size. Who is going on the New Shepard? What to know about NS-33 Here's a look at the passengers on the next Blue Origin New Shepard spaceflight, known as NS-33: What happens during a New Shepard rocket launch? Each spaceflight on a New Shepard vehicle lasts about 11 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown. Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket is topped with the gum drop-shaped crew capsule. The spacecraft operates completely autonomously, meaning no pilots are aboard. During its ascent, the spacecraft reaches supersonic speeds surpassing 2,000 mph before the rocket booster separates from the crew capsule. At that point, those aboard the capsule become weightless as the spacecraft continues toward its highest point on its brief voyage above the Kármán Line – the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of space. While experiencing a few minutes of microgravity, passengers have the opportunity to unstrap themselves from their seats to gaze out the capsule's large windows and take in a stunning view of Earth. Meanwhile, the rocket booster heads back to the ground while firing its engines and using its fins to slow and control its descent to land vertical about two miles from the launchpad. The capsule itself eventually begins what Blue Origin refers to as a "stable freefall' – plummeting back to Earth as three massive parachutes deploy and the capsule makes a soft landing in the desert, sending up plumes of dust. Contributing: Jennifer Sangalang, USA TODAY Network Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX rocket launch may be visible in Arizona: Liftoff, where to watch in Phoenix
For the sixth and likely last time in June, SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Southern California. And like all but one of the commercial spaceflight company's missions this month from the state, the rocket will carry a batch of Starlink satellites for deployment into low-Earth orbit. The impending rocket launch, which could take place on a weekend morning, comes days after SpaceX's rideshare known as Transporter 14 also got off the ground from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. For that mission, a Falcon 9 rocket delivered 70 payloads to orbit for paying customers, including 166 capsules containing human remains bound for a cosmic memorial service. People in Arizona have a shot at catching a glimpse of the rocket soaring through the sky. But it's important to keep in mind that rocket launches can be — and often are — scrubbed or delayed due to any number of factors, including poor weather conditions or unexpected issues with spacecraft. Check back with for any updates on the rocket launch. Here's what to know about the launch from Southern California, as well as when and where to watch it in neighboring Arizona: California rocket launches: Here's a look at the upcoming SpaceX schedule from Vandenberg The launch is being targeted for Saturday, June 28, with backup opportunities available Sunday, June 29, according to a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory. Multiple sites dedicated to tracking spaceflights suggest the three-hour launch window opens at 9:43 a.m. PT. Neither SpaceX nor the Vandenberg Space Force Base have publicly confirmed the launch. The launch will take place from Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Most launches from Vandenberg fly at a south or southeast trajectory. The spaceflight will make use of the company's famous two-stage 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket, one of the world's most active, to deliver Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. The altitude is low enough to allow for things like satellites to circle Earth fairly quickly. SpaceX will provide livestream of the launch on its website beginning about five minutes before liftoff, along with updates on social media site X. Because of Arizona's proximity to the launch site, there's a good chance people there can see the spacecraft streak across the sky, especially at night or very early morning. Here's a list of some possible viewing locations compiled by The Arizona Republic, a USA TODAY Network publication. Dobbins Lookout, South Mountain, 10919 S. Central Ave., Phoenix, Arizona Papago Park, 625 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona Fountain Hills, a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, which in 2018 was designated a Dark Sky Community with little light pollution Superstition Mountains, located 40 miles from metro Phoenix in Arizona Cave Creek, a town in Maricopa County about 30 miles north of Fountain Hills, Arizona Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, 3400 Sky Harbor Blvd., Arizona, which has a parking garage that is popular for plane-watching Black Canyon City, an unincorporated community in Yavapai County, Arizona Any mountain park in Arizona , 14805 W. Vineyard Ave., Goodyear, Arizona , 2600 N. Watson Road, Buckeye, Arizona , 20304 W. White Tank Mountain Road, Waddell, Arizona , 6533 W. Phillips Road, Queen Creek, Arizona Monument Hill, a 150-foot slope on 115th Avenue, in Arizona Elon Musk, the world's richest man, founded SpaceX in 2002. The commercial spaceflight company is headquartered at Starbase in South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. The site, which is where SpaceX has been conducting routine flight tests of its 400-foot megarocket known as Starship, was recently voted by residents to become its own city. SpaceX conducts many of its own rocket launches, most using the Falcon 9 rocket, from both California and Florida. That includes a regular cadence of deliveries of Starlink internet satellites into orbit, and occasional privately funded commercial crewed missions on the Dragon. The most recent of SpaceX's private human spaceflights, a mission known as Fram2, took place in April. SpaceX was also famously involved in funding and operating the headline-grabbing Polaris Dawn crewed commercial mission in September 2024. SpaceX additionally benefits from billions of dollars in contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense by providing launch services for classified satellites and other payloads. Owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Starlink is a constellation of more than 7,000 satellites that provide internet service to customers around the world. SpaceX has spent more than six years delivering the satellites to orbit with a regular cadence of rocket launches from both Florida and California. While most satellite internet services operate from single geostationary satellites orbiting Earth at about 22,236 miles, Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites that operate from a low-Earth orbit, about 341 miles up. That allows Starlink's satellites to have lower latency and data time between user and the satellite, improving performance of things like streaming, online gaming and video calls. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: SpaceX rocket launch visible in Arizona sky? When is Falcon 9 liftoff
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why is Mexico threatening to sue Elon Musk over SpaceX debris?
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has threatened to sue Elon Musk's SpaceX over falling debris from a rocket launch across the border in the United States. SpaceX said its efforts to recover debris from Mexico had been hindered by 'trespassers'. Here is more about what is happening between Mexico and SpaceX. A SpaceX 'Starship' rocket, part of Musk's project to send humans to space, exploded in a giant fireball during a routine launch test in Texas on June 19. Starship rockets are 120 metres (400ft) tall and made primarily from stainless steel. The rocket, called the Starship 36, went through 'catastrophic failure and exploded' at the Starbase launch facility at 04:00 GMT, according to local Cameron County authorities. The facility is located at Starbase, formerly called Boca Chica Village, in Cameron County, Texas, close to the US-Mexico Wednesday this week, Sheinbaum told her morning news conference that 'there is indeed contamination' which has been detected in Mexico in the aftermath of the SpaceX explosion. She said Mexican officials are conducting a review of the environmental effect caused to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, a little more than 300km (190 miles) from Starbase. Tamaulipas governor, Americo Villarreal Anaya, said authorities were examining 'the internationally required distances are being respected in order to have these types of facilities, so that there is no risk to urban centres', according to a report in The New York Times. 'We are reviewing everything related to the launching of rockets that are very close to our border,' said Sheinbaum. She added that Mexico is currently trying to determine whether international laws had been violated so it can file 'the necessary lawsuits'. In an X post on Thursday, SpaceX claimed its attempts to recover the fallen debris from Mexican territory had been hindered. 'Despite SpaceX's attempts to recover the anomaly related debris, which is and remains the tangible property of SpaceX, these attempts have been hindered by unauthorised parties trespassing on private property,' the X account wrote. It did not clarify who these parties were or where they were 'trespassing'. SpaceX also said there were 'no hazards to the surrounding area' from the rocket debris. 'Previous independent tests conducted on materials inside Starship, including toxicity analyses, confirm they pose no chemical, biological, or toxicological risks. 'We have requested local and federal assistance from the government of Mexico in the recovery,' it added. In May, the Federal Aviation Administration in the US granted SpaceX permission to increase the number of Starships it launches each year from five to 25. Later that month, a Starship prototype exploded over the Indian that, two Starships broke into pieces after launching from Texas during test flights in January and March. In January, airlines were forced to divert flights to avoid falling January this year, a red-hot 500kg (1,100lb) metallic object fell onto a village in Kenya's Makueni county, 115km (70 miles) southeast of Nairobi. The Kenyan space agency said the debris was a fragment of a space object. On Monday, March 3, the Australian Space Agency released an advisory that a Russian rocket making re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere was expected to fall into international waters off the southeast coast of Tasmania, causing a 'sonic boom'. However, the following day, the agency said it had 'monitored a space debris re-entry over the southeast coast of Tasmania' but was 'unaware of any reports or sightings of the debris'. The likelihood of space debris posing a danger to people, aircraft or the Earth, in general, is very low. However, recent studies show that the amount of space debris falling to the ground is on the rise. A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada, published in Scientific Reports in January 2025, found that uncontrolled re-entries of rocket bodies or space debris into the Earth are on the rise and may pose an increased risk of collision to aircraft. Another study, called The Space Environment Report, released by the European Space Agency (ESA) in March this year, found that at least three 'intact', human-made objects fall back onto the Earth every day. This is besides the several fragments of space debris that fall onto the Earth. NASA has warned that there are millions of pieces of space debris low in the Earth's orbit, but there are no international space laws about cleaning up this debris. Currently, individuals on the ground are not at a high risk of being hit and injured by space debris re-entering the Earth. The US nonprofit space corporation, Aerospace, estimates this risk to be less than a one-in-one-trillion chance.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Catastrophic loss': Family mourns pilot killed in Beverly plane crash
The pilot of a plane that crashed in Beverly last week is being remembered by his family as a 'charismatic, beautiful soul.' Geoffrey Andrews was identified by the family as the pilot in the plane crash on Thursday morning that killed him and injured another person. 'Geoffrey's family, friends, and his beloved wife Gentry are devastated and heartbroken at his untimely death,' a statement by the family reads. 'We thank the investigators who we trust will conduct a thorough investigation into what caused this catastrophic loss of life.' The crash happened at about 7:45 a.m. near 106 Sam Fonzo Dr., next to Beverly Regional Airport. The plane, a Mooney M20, came to a rest on the industrial park roadway against a utility pole, and debris spread through the trees and across the street. The passenger survived the crash and authorities brought the person to the hospital, but their condition is unknown as of Sunday morning. The Essex County District Attorney's Office, the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. Andrews' family said his wife is expecting their first child in October. The family's statement described him as passionate about his career in aerospace engineering and how he 'dreamed of someday having the opportunity to become an astronaut.' He served as a staff scientist for MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He is a doctoral graduate from Purdue University and completed his undergraduate studies at Lehigh University, the statement read. 'Geoffrey loved flying, even moonlighting as a ferry pilot to build hours and experience when he was a graduate student,' the family wrote. 'Beyond his love for flight, Geoffrey was a charismatic, beautiful soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and always had a kind word for others.' A GoFundMe for Andrews' wife is collecting donations. Illegal fireworks have caused over 200 serious injuries in Mass. in the last 5 years First of two men charged with murder in 2021 Seekonk fatal shooting found guilty Land shortage prompts Springfield to propose property swap for new school 100,000 mattresses sold on Amazon recalled due to 'deadly' fire risk Boston police identify man shot and killed in car on Juneteenth Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
1 killed in Beverly plane crash Thursday morning
Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:38 a.m. on June 19 with further information on the plane crash. One person was killed and another person was hurt after a small plane crashed on the roadway in Beverly on Thursday morning. The plane crashed at around 7:45 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The plane was a Mooney M20, and two people were aboard at the time. The fatal crash happened next to Beverly Regional Airport, near 106 Sam Fonzo Dr., according to reports from WCVB and 7News. The small plane came to a rest on the industrial park roadway against a utility pole, and debris was spread through the trees and across the street. One person was dead at the scene — trapped inside the plane — and another was brought to the hospital, the outlets said. The incident is under investigation by troopers with the Essex County District Attorney's office, along with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The Beverly police and fire departments and Massport did not immediately respond to MassLive for comment. Lowell man killed in Dracut motor scooter crash on Route 110 Brockton couple, aged 18 and 22, identified in apparent murder-suicide 2 Mass. houses featured on HGTV's 'Ugliest House' Springfield to host 8 concerts, 10 movies for free this summer Police searching for person who hit Boston Starbucks employee with metal cups Read the original article on MassLive.
