Tag: Science News

Fuel Leak Disrupts NASA’s 2nd Shot at Launching Moon Rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA’s new moon rocket sprang another hazardous leak Saturday, as the launch team began fueling it for liftoff on a test flight that must go well before astronauts climb aboard. For the second time this week, the launch team began loading nearly 1 million gallons of fuel into the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, the most…


NASA Aims for Saturday Launch of New Moon Rocket After Fixes

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA aimed for a Saturday launch of its new moon rocket, after fixing fuel leaks and working around a bad engine sensor that foiled the first try. The inaugural flight of the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket—the most powerful ever built by NASA—was delayed late in the countdown Monday. The Kennedy Space Center clocks started…


NASA Orders 5 More Astronaut Missions From Musk’s SpaceX in $1.4 Billion Deal

WASHINGTON—SpaceX will launch five more astronaut missions to the International Space Station for NASA at the end of the decade under a $1.4 billion contract order, the space agency said Wednesday, taking the company’s total contracted missions for its Crew Dragon astronaut capsule to 14. The latest boost to SpaceX’s NASA contract is part of…


La Nina Weather Pattern Predicted To Return in Southern Hemisphere: Bureau of Meterology

Australians have been told to brace for more rain and flooding this summer after the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said in its latest climate update for the region that the La Nina Alert will remain in place. “The Bureau’s ENSO Outlook continues at La Niña ALERT, indicating at least a 70 percent chance of La…


Blaming Pakistan’s Flood Disaster on Human Driven Climate Change May Be Premature

Commentary The World Climate Declaration (WCD), signed by over 1100 reputable scientists, including Nobel Prize winners (pdf), states that there “is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts, and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent.” It is useful to reflect upon this statement in the context of a discussion on…


Take 2: NASA Aims for Saturday Launch of New Moon Rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA will try again Saturday to launch its new moon rocket on a test flight, after engine trouble halted the first countdown this week. Managers said Tuesday they are changing fueling procedures to deal with the issue. A bad sensor also could be to blame for Monday’s scrapped launch, they noted. The 322-foot…


Newly Discovered Giant Bacteria Challenges Previous Biological Understanding

Researchers have found a new bacteria species that is millimeters long and visible to the eye, challenging a previous understanding that one needs a microscope to see a bacterium. “It’s 5,000 times bigger than most bacteria. To put it into context, it would be like a human encountering another human as tall as Mount Everest,”…


Strange Properties of Water Revealed Via Graphene Oxide

Instinctively, people assume that if you poke additional holes in a sieve, more water will pass through; however, recent research demonstrates that the opposite may be true at the nanoscale with a global team of scientists from Australia, Germany, France and Japan finding that water does not behave as expected while using Graphene Oxide (GO) filters….


Fossil Teeth Offer New Insights Into Human and Primate History

A new window into human history has been opened up by a global team of scientists who have discovered an innovative method to identify ancient seasonal climates using teeth. The scientists have developed a novel way to establish the role that ancient seasonal climates and behaviours played in the development of both primates and humans,…


NASA Postpones Artemis I Lunar Mission Launch

Fuel leaks have forced NASA to scrub the launch of its new moon rocket on a no-crew test flight. The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest. The 322-foot Space Launch System rocket was set to lift off Monday morning with three test dummies aboard on its first flight, a…