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☆ NASA astronauts returning from space station on SpaceX capsule delayed by weather
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The astronauts — NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, as well as Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the European Space Agency — were scheduled to depart from the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Thursday morning. Aerospace company SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon spacecraft under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX renewed orbital human spaceflight capabilities from US soil in 2020 with the launch of its Demo-2 mission, which carried two NASA astronauts to the space station. The Crew-4 astronauts’ return to Earth comes less than a week after the Crew-5 astronauts arrived on a separate SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Since SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon under a fixed-price commercial contract, however, it retains ownership over the vehicle.

☆ NASA aims for mid-November launch of delayed Artemis moon mission
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

NASA’s next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, as it stands on launch pad 39B in preparation for the unmanned Artemis 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 27, 2022. NASA said Wednesday that it is planning to launch its Artemis I moon mission in mid-November, after past launch attempts in recent months were postponed because of technical and weather difficulties. NASA first tried to launch Artemis I in August but has called off multiple attempts since then. Confirming the agency leaders' expectation that the next attempt to launch Artemis I would not be likely until at least November, NASA is now targeting the early hours of Nov. 14 for liftoff. Tentatively, the plan is to land the agency's astronauts on the moon by its third Artemis mission in 2025.

☆ NASA looks to launch Artemis lunar test flight again on Nov. 14
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 12 (Reuters) - NASA has targeted Nov. 14 for a third attempt to launch its big, next-generation rocketship, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday, after weeks of technical setbacks and foul weather delayed the uncrewed inaugural Artemis mission to the moon. Plans call for rolling the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule back out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as early as Friday, Nov. 4 to renew final flight preparations. The newly targeted 69-minute launch window for the Artemis I mission on Nov. 14 opens at 12:07 a.m. EST (0407 GMT), with backup launch opportunities of two hours each set for Nov. 16 and Nov. 19, NASA said. Artemis I, aimed at launching the Orion capsule on an uncrewed test flight to the moon and back, would mark the debut voyage of both the SLS rocket and Orion a half century after the final lunar mission of Apollo, forerunner of the Artemis program. NASA ultimately plans to establish a long-term lunar base of operations as a stepping stone to even more ambitious human voyages to Mars.

☆ Japanese lunar company ispace aims to launch first cargo mission to the moon next month
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Japanese lunar exploration company ispace announced plans on Wednesday to launch its first cargo mission next month, racing to be the first of several private ventures to deliver payloads to the moon's surface. The private company aims to launch its "Mission 1" lunar lander during a window between Nov. 9 and Nov. 15, riding on one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mission 1 will carry a variety of payloads for both companies and governments, including a pair of rovers. Alongside ispace in the burgeoning lunar cargo marketplace are the likes of U.S. companies Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, both of which plan to launch missions to the moon's surface next year. Born out of Google's Lunar XPRIZE competition last decade, ispace aims to provide a wide variety of lunar-focused services, ranging from transportation of cargo to selling data to space agencies.

☆ Debt costs overshadow climate finance in small island states-report
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Small developing island states heavily exposed to the effects of climate change and often in critical debt situations spend at least 18 times more on debt servicing than they receive in climate finance, a report showed. The Eurodad report found that the island states from Guinea-Bisseau to the Dominican Republic to Samoa received just $1.5 billion in climate finance between them between 2016-2020. Public debt levels in the island states had risen from an average of near 66% of GDP in 2019 to nearly 83% in 2020 and were set to remain above 70% until 2025, the report found. In June, the fund's executive board approved a $60 million programme for Cape Verde while Barbados struck a deal for $293 million in late September. The report found that more than 80% of the island states were in debt difficulties under criteria established by the IMF and World Bank Debt Sustainability Analysis, or by civil society groups Debt Justice UK and Jubilee Germany.

☆ NASA asteroid strike test succeeds in shifting its orbit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A television at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, captures the final images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) just before it smashes into the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, 2022. A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. Before the impact, the moonlet took 11 hours and 55 minutes to circle its parent asteroid. Scientists had hoped to shave off 10 minutes but NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the impact altered the asteroid's orbit by about 32 minutes. Launched last year, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — was destroyed when it slammed into the asteroid 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) away at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph).

“This looks and smells like human trafficking,” said Ariadna Phillips, a New York community organizer with South Bronx Mutual Aid. On Tuesday, DeSantis said at a news conference that three of four people arrested last week for "ransacking" communities following Hurricane Ian were illegal immigrants who should be immediately deported. Remembering "horror stories" of immigrants not being paid for work or being deported following previous natural disasters, Phillips rushed to Queens. "Promises are often not kept to these workers," said Saket Soni, executive director of Resilience Workforce, a New Orleans group that advocates for and monitors migrant workers following natural disasters. In the days following Ian, Resilience Workforce deployed staff members to Florida to observe work conditions on the ground.

☆ Rocket builder Astra Space gets delisting warning from Nasdaq
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Sara Salinas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Embattled small rocket-builder Astra revealed Friday that it received a delisting warning from the Nasdaq after its stock spent 30 consecutive days below $1 per share, a violation of the exchange's requirements. The company has 180 days to lift its share price or face delisting, according to a regulatory filing. The company debuted on the Nasdaq in July 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. Astra did not immediately return request for comment Friday on the delisting warning. The rocket builder has been saddled with quarterly losses and in August said it was pausing flights for the remainder of the year.

☆ ‘Game of Thrones’ Meets ‘Harry Potter’ Inside This Fantasy-Filled Beverly Hills Home
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( Katherine Clarke | Photographs Yuri Hasegawa For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Robert and Krystal Rivani posed side-by-side in Medieval attire, she in a gold-trimmed cape and tiara-style headband, he in black fur, armored gloves and a gold crown. Carrying long, embellished swords, they looked stern. The resulting oil painting would hang in the Great Hall of their elaborate California home, Castle Rivani.

☆ Watch this rocket ignite using fuel that you can eat
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

In Maine, far from NASA's Cape Canaveral, bluShift Aerospace is working on sending rockets to space using bioderived, carbon-neutral fuel. And yes, you can even eat it. The company gave CNN exclusive camera access to its third rocket engine test to see if the future of suborbital launches could be bio-powered.

☆ SpaceX capsule heads to space station ferrying NASA crew and Russian
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

A high-ranking official of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said shortly after the launch that the flight marked “a new phase of our cooperation” with the U.S. space agency NASA. The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Endurance, lifted off into clear skies at noon EDT (1600 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. As the spacecraft entered Earth orbit, Kikina radioed her thanks to NASA, Roscosmos and their International Space Station (ISS) partners for “giving us this great opportunity.”“We’re so glad to do it together,” Kikina said. The mission, designated Crew-5, marks the fifth full-fledged ISS crew NASA has flown aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the private rocket venture founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk began sending U.S. astronauts aloft in May 2020. Rounding out the crew from Japan’s space agency JAXA was veteran astronaut Koichi Wakata, 59, a robotics expert making his fifth voyage to space.

☆ Tim Cook says there are 4 traits he looks for in Apple employees: ‘It’s been a very good formula for us’
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-02 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

For instance, the company typically seeks out employees with four shared skills: the ability to collaborate, creativity, curiosity and expertise. "It's been a very good formula for us," he said, noting those traits also contribute to an ambitious, yet supportive workplace culture. This year, the company dropped off Comparably's annual list of global companies with the best workplace culture. At the Utah Tech Tour in October 2016, Cook said Apple looked for brilliance, determination, obsessive curiosity, team focus and agitated idealism in its employees. Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletterDon't miss:Tim Cook became CEO of Apple 10 years ago.

☆ 'Big Short' analyst says Florida home values could drop as much as 50% in some areas when markets factor in flood and storm costs from disasters like Hurricane Ian
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-01 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Floridians aren't paying enough for flood insurance, according to an analysis by DeltaTerra Capital. Home prices in some parts could fall by 50% when buyers realize the true costs of flood protection. Hurricane Ian left a trail of destruction across Florida, but the state's housing market has yet to feel the brunt of its impact. That's because flood insurance is poised to get much more expensive in high-risk areas as a result of Risk Rating 2.0 , the Federal Emergency Management Agency's updated method of pricing flooding risk for insurance policies held through the National Flood Insurance Program. It's not just a matter of how hurricane damage will affect a regional market, Burt said.

“It’s fascinating how people seek queerness — and where they seek queerness,” Fuller added. Murnau’s “Faust” and “Nosferatu,” such moments of levity keep viewers engaged while they’re soaking up early Hollywood’s rich queer history. “Whether you’re ideologically queer or sexually queer, you might relate to the monster’s narrative, because you, too, have felt ‘outsidered’ or villainized in some way.” Bryan fuller, 'queer for fear' executive producer“The Dracula costume kit is basically drag. So this, to me, is the experience of being a gay man.”As Alaska’s assessment demonstrates, “Queer for Fear” isn’t interested in just exploring how horror has provided a haven for queer creatives. Because of the Hays Code, LGBTQ creators and those, like Hitchcock, who wanted to include those themes had to do so through subtext, which counterintuitively gave birth to some of the most essential queer horror ever made.

Hurricane Ian had weakened to a Category 1 late Wednesday, but the powerful storm that caused life-threatening storm surges, floods that stranded people in their homes and knocked out power to more than 2 million was not over, officials warned. At 2 a.m., Ian was around 55 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral and moving northeast at 9 mph, the hurricane center said. The storm is believed to be one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded making landfall in Florida. Central and northeast Florida could get 20 inches of rain, and life-threatening storm surge remained a risk for parts of Florida’s western and eastern coasts, the hurricane center said. But it then will likely turn north and approach the northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coasts Friday, according to the hurricane center.

☆ Hurricane Ian downgraded to tropical storm as it continues to batter Florida
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Phil Helsel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A flooded street is seen in downtown as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida, in Fort Myers, Florida, U.S. September 28, 2022. Hurricane Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday morning, but officials have warned the powerful storm that brought life-threatening storm surges, floods that left people stranded in their homes and knocked out power to more than 2.5 million customers was not over. President Joe Biden on Thursday declared a major disaster in Florida over the devastation caused by the storm. By 5 a.m., Ian was around 55 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral and moving northeast at 9 mph, the hurricane center said. The storm is believed to be one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded making landfall in Florida.

Share this -Link copiedFloridians are livestreaming Hurricane Ian on TikTok Floridians are giving TikTok users a front-row seat to Hurricane Ian. Storm surge map, they didn’t have a color for 12 to 15 feet," he said about the historic levels of storm surge expected near where Ian is expected to make landfall. Share this -Link copiedA view of Hurricane Ian from the International Space Station A view of Hurricane Ian from the International Space Station, on Monday. Share this -Link copiedSatellite images show Hurricane Ian approaching Florida Hurricane Ian over the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday. Share this -Link copiedIan expected to strengthen until making landfall, officials say Hurricane Ian is still forecast to strengthen until the hurricane makes landfall in Florida, the National Hurricane Center said.

Floridians are giving TikTok users a front-row seat to Hurricane Ian. Dozens of TikTok users in Florida used TikTok’s livestream feature on Wednesday to offer a window into their lives as the hurricane approached. Some comments trickling in sent the woman prayers, while others predicted her “house will disappear.” TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the hurricane livestreams. TikTok introduced its livestream feature in 2019, and it has since become a popular way of creating content on the app. TikTok’s livestreaming feature has been used for fun but also to share breaking news, such as when Russia invaded Ukraine.

In a sign of the severity of Hurricane Ian, Waffle House told NBC News on Wednesday it had closed 21 Florida locations that are in the path of the Category 4 storm. Waffle House has gained a reputation over the years for staying open in all but the most extreme circumstances, offering food and beverages to emergency crews and individuals riding out natural disasters. Waffle House spokesperson Njeri Boss said in an email that most of the affected locations were in the projected path of the hurricane, with a few others in low-lying flood zones. In previous years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has used an unofficial “Waffle House Index” in part to help assess damage in disaster areas. "If a Waffle House can serve a full menu, they’ve likely got power (or are running on a generator)," FEMA wrote on its blog in 2017.

Storm surge map, they didn’t have a color for 12 to 15 feet," he said about the historic levels of storm surge expected near where Ian is expected to make landfall. Share this -Link copiedA view of Hurricane Ian from the International Space Station A view of Hurricane Ian from the International Space Station, on Monday. “We are extremely concerned about the potential impacts Hurricane Ian may have on phosphate facilities around the state,” Whitlock added. Share this -Link copiedIan strengthens into Category 4 storm Hurricane Ian has strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it advances upon Florida's west coast. Share this -Link copiedSatellite images show Hurricane Ian approaching Florida Hurricane Ian over the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday.

☆ An 18-Acre Waterfront Compound on Cape Cod Asks $15.995 Million
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Libertina Brandt | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. A waterfront compound spanning about 18 acres on Cape Cod is asking $15.995 million.

☆ Artemis moon mission likely delayed until November as NASA moves rocket out of hurricane's path
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

With Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida, the space agency rolled back the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — set to launch the Artemis I mission — into the mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building for protection at Kennedy Space Center. NASA now sees November as the most likely opportunity for the next Artemis I launch attempt. For the rocket and capsule, "limited life" describes items which need to be refreshed or checked periodically, such as batteries or propellant tanks. Tentatively, the plan is to land the agency's astronauts on the moon by its third Artemis mission in 2025. More than $40 billion has already been spent on the Artemis program, much of that toward SLS and Orion development.

☆ Alice, the first all-electric passenger airplane, takes flight
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN Business —The world’s first all-electric passenger aircraft has successfully taken to the sky. Israeli company Eviation Aircraft successfully launched the Alice on Tuesday morning from Washington’s Grant County International Airport. The zero-emission plane traveled at an altitude of 3,500 feet for its eight-minute inaugural flight. Three different versions of the Alice are in protoype stages: a “commuter” variant, an executive version, and one specialized for cargo. The executive design has six passenger seats for a more spacious flight, and the cargo plane holds 450 cubic feet of volume.

☆ A man who helped get migrants on DeSantis flights to Martha's Vineyard says he feels betrayed: 'I never ever, ever knew it was a governor' behind the stunt
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A man who helped recruit migrants to get on flights bound for Martha's Vineyard says he feels betrayed. "I have nothing to do with the deception," the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told CNN. Dozens of migrants were flown to Martha's Vineyard in a move planned by Florida Gov. She also gave the man $10 McDonald's gift certificates to give to those who agreed to get on the planes, the man told CNN. An attorney representing a group of the migrants told Insider last week that the immigrants have been left "traumatized" by the stunt.

☆ Hurricane forces NASA moon rocket to shelter, launch on hold
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Ian is prompting NASA to move its moon rocket off the launch pad and into shelter, adding weeks of delay to the lunar-orbiting test flight. Mission managers decided Monday to return the rocket to its Kennedy Space Center hangar. With the latest forecast showing no improvement, managers decided to play it safe. NASA already had delayed this week’s planned launch attempt because of the approaching storm. Managers will assess their options once the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket is safely back in the hangar.

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