- QMSat – Université de Sherbrooke
- Killick-1 – Memorial University
- VIOLET – University of New Brunswick
Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA Live.
WASHINGTON – Boeing Co’s Starliner astronaut spacecraft landed in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, the company said, after faulty software forced officials to cut short an unmanned mission aimed at taking it to the International Space Station.
The landing at 7:58 a.m. ET (1258 GMT) in the White Sands desert capped a turbulent 48 hours for Boeing’s botched milestone test of an astronaut capsule that is designed to help NASA regain its human spaceflight capabilities.
“We hit the bull’s-eye,” a Boeing spokesman said on a livestream of the landing.
The landing will yield the mission’s most valuable test data after failing to meet its core objective of docking to the space station.
After Starliner’s touchdown, teams of engineers in trucks raced to inspect the vehicle, whose six airbags cushioned its impact on the desert surface as planned, a live video feed showed.
The spacecraft was in an apparently stable condition after landing, according to images posted by officials from the U.S. space agency NASA.
The CST-100 Starliner’s debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing. The company is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.
The Starliner capsule was successfully launched from Florida on Friday, but an automated timer error prevented it from attaining the right orbit to meet and dock with the space station. That failure came as Boeing sought an engineering and public relations victory in a year that has seen corporate crisis over
the grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner following two fatal crashes of the aircraft. The company’s shares dropped 1.6% on Friday.
Parachute challenge
Ahead of Sunday’s landing, Starliner’s three main parachutes deployed just over one mile (1,600 metres) from the Earth’s surface after enduring intense heat from the violent reentry through the atmosphere, plummeting at 25 times the speed of sound.
The parachute deployment, one of the most challenging procedures under the program to develop a commercial manned space capsule, earned Boeing a fresh win after a previous mishap where one parachute failed to deploy during a November test of Starliner’s abort thrusters.
That test tossed the capsule miles into the sky to demonstrate its ability to land a crew safely back on the ground in the event of a launch failure.
For the current mission, Boeing and NASA officials said they still do not understand why software caused the craft to miss the orbit required.
Sunday’s landing marked the first time a U.S. orbital space capsule designed for humans landed on land.
All past U.S. capsules, including SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, splashed down in the ocean. Russia’s Soyuz capsules and China’s past crew capsules made land landings.
Watching the celestial event safely is possible with the right equipment and some preparation.
With the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, the New England College of Optometry (NECO) urges the general public to observe this celestial phenomenon safely. Solar eclipses are rare events that spark widespread interest and excitement. To ensure everyone can enjoy the eclipse without risking their vision, NECO is sharing crucial guidelines for proper viewing.
“Solar eclipses present a wonderful opportunity for communities to engage with astronomy, but it’s vital that safety is a priority,” says George Asimellis, PhD, Msc, MBA, Professor of Vision Science at NECO. “Viewing a solar eclipse without appropriate protection can result in solar retinopathy, which can cause lasting damage to the eyes. You must take proper precautions to view the eclipse.” PLEASE NOTE: NECO recommends that individuals who have recently undergone eye surgery or who have chronic eye conditions should refrain from viewing the eclipse.
NECO will host an eclipse viewing party on Monday, April 8, from 2:00-4:00pm at their main campus located at 424 Beacon Street in Boston’s Back Bay. Media are welcome to attend and receive a free pair of eclipse viewing glasses. Faculty will be present to talk about the science behind safely viewing an eclipse.
The map below (courtesy of NASA) shows the eclipse’s path of totality.
For those who reside outside the path of totality: The Boston area is outside the eclipse’s path of totality. However, we will be able to view a partial eclipse starting at about 2:10pm. Our area will experience moderate darkness and a drop in temperature during the partial eclipse, which will last two hours. Eclipse glasses must still be used to protect your eyes from the harmful rays of the sun, even during a partial eclipse!
Our vision experts are available for comment and additional information on eye care during this astronomical event. Please contact our Marketing Department by calling (617) 587-5609, or email [email protected].
For more information from national experts on the April 8 solar eclipse, visit NASA or the American Optometric Association.
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One of the largest studies on wildlife activity—involving more than 220 researchers, 163 mammal species and 5,000 camera traps worldwide—reveals that wild animals react differently to humans depending on where the animals live and what they eat.
Bigger herbivores—plant-eating animals like deer or moose—tend to become more active when humans are around, while meat-eaters like wolves or wolverines tend to be less active, preferring to avoid risky encounters.
Urban animals like deer or raccoons may become more active around people, as they get used to human presence and find food like garbage or plants, which they can access at night. But animals living farther from cities and other developed areas are more wary of encountering people.
The new study, a collaboration across researchers from 161 institutions, used data from before and during the COVID-19 lockdowns to examine wildlife behaviour amid changing human activity levels.
“COVID-19 mobility restrictions gave researchers a truly unique opportunity to study how animals responded when the number of people sharing their landscape changed drastically over a relatively short period,” said lead author Dr. Cole Burton, an associate professor of forest resources management at UBC and Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Mammal Conservation.
“And contrary to the popular narratives that emerged around that time, we did not see an overall pattern of ‘wildlife running free’ while humans sheltered in place. Rather, we saw great variation in activity patterns of people and wildlife, with the most striking trends being that animal responses depended on landscape conditions and their position in the food chain.”
In Canada, researchers monitoring areas such as Banff and Pacific Rim national parks, Cathedral, Golden Ears and South Chilcotin Mountains provincial parks, and the Sea-to-Sky corridor in B.C. found that carnivores like wolverines, wolves and cougars were generally less active when human activity was higher.
In several of these parks, and in cities such as Edmonton, large herbivores often increased their activity but became more nocturnal with the presence of more humans. Large carnivores were notably absent from the most human-dominated landscapes.
These findings highlight the importance of measures to minimize any detrimental effects of human disturbance on wildlife, including reducing overlaps that might lead to conflict.
“In remote areas with limited human infrastructure, the effects of our actual presence on wildlife may be particularly strong. To give wild animals the space they need, we may consider setting aside protected areas or movement corridors free of human activity, or consider seasonal restrictions, like temporary closures of campsites or hiking trails during migratory or breeding seasons,” said study co-author and UBC biologist Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor.
She added that strategies must also fit specific species and locations. In more remote areas, keeping human activity low will be necessary to protect sensitive species. In areas where people and animals overlap more, such as cities, nighttime is an important refuge for wildlife, and keeping it that way can help species survive. Efforts may focus on reducing human-wildlife conflict after dark, such as more secure storage of trash bins to reduce the number of animals getting into human food sources, or use of road mitigation measures to reduce vehicle collisions.
The findings are particularly useful amid the surge in global travel and outdoor recreation post-pandemic, Dr. Burton added.
“Understanding how wildlife respond to human activity in various contexts helps us develop effective conservation plans that have local and global impact. For that reason, we are working to improve wildlife monitoring systems using tools like the camera traps that made it possible to observe animal behaviours during the pandemic.”
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Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA Live.
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