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Oct162022 by adminNo Comments

Crew-4 astronauts splash down after 170 days in space

Science

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The International Space Station Crew-4 returned to Earth on Friday in the Dragon Freedom capsule after almost six months in space, landing off the coast of Florida. Splashdown occurred at 4:55 p.m. EDT after NASA and Space X mission controllers canceled the attempt Thursday due to weather concerns in the recovery area off Jacksonville. The descent took about five hours, aided at the end by parachutes that eased the SpaceX capsule upright into choppy seas. A team headed toward the capsule to assist the transport onto a recovery ship named Megan, after astronaut Megan McArthur. Aboard the returning capsule were Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti, who lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 rocket April 27. ...

Oct72022 by adminNo Comments

Satellite launch marks SpaceX’s third liftoff in 3 days

Science

Oct. 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX is scheduled to launch two communication satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday in its third liftoff in three days. The 7 p.m. blastoff is slated to deliver the Galaxy 33 and 34 satellites into geosynchronous orbit, where they will help the telecommunications company Intelsat maintain service in North America. The launch had been set for Thursday night but was scrubbed at 30 seconds to blastoff due to a small helium leak, which triggered the Falcon 9 rocket to automatically abort. The planned launch follows two others on Wednesday: the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 52 Starlink satellites in the evening and NASA's Crew 5 mission, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station, in the afternoon. The Crew 5 mission s...

May22022 by adminNo Comments

Watch live: Rocket Lab plans launch, booster catch with helicopter after days of delays

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., May 2 (UPI) -- Unfavorable weather conditions pushed Rocket Lab's 26th launch of an Electron booster to the end of last week, and the company decided to wait for Monday to take a shot at catching the rocket with a helicopter for the first time. With final checks on its recovery system under way, the company now plans for liftoff around 6:41 p.m. EDT from Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The mission, called "There and back again," will mark the first time Rocket Lab has attempted to recover one of its first stage boosters. If recovery with the helicopter is successful, the company also plans to conduct it's first booster offloading, with the aircraft dropping the rocket on to a waiting ship. "We don't usually give mother nature quite so much power over launch timing, but fo...

Mar282021 by adminNo Comments

Officials preparing to remove cargo from Ever Given after 5 days blocking Suez Canal

World

March 28 (UPI) -- Officials began preparing to unload cargo from the Ever Given after the massive cargo ship has remained lodged in the Suez Canal since Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, told Egyptian media that President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi had ordered officials to prepare for a "third scenario" of removing containers from the 1,300-foot, 200,000-ton ship to allow it to be refloated. Advertisement Rabie said that the president authorized the acquisition of special equipment necessary to move some of the 18,000 containers from the vessel. Leth Agencies, the canal's service provider, wrote on Twitter that tidal conditions did not help refloat the ship overnight, adding that a refloating effort on Sunday was postponed until 11 p.m. local time in order to ...

Mar162021 by adminNo Comments

Covid: UK vaccination surge expected in coming days

Health

Getty ImagesUK experts say there will be a big increase in the number of people being offered Covid vaccinations in the coming days. The number of shots given is expected to top 4 million this week, nearly double what has been achieved per week recently, NHS sources say.It should mean all over 50s will have been given at least one dose by the end of the month.That would put the NHS rollout two weeks ahead of schedule.The increase has been made possible by a large shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute in India, which has arrived and passed safety checks.So far more than 24 million people have already received a first dose of Covid vaccine in the UK.Vaccination teams are now working their way through the priority list of people in their 50s and younger adults wi...