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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

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SpaceX capsule leaves space station; next rocket set for launch

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station dispatched a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, while the company prepared for its next rocket launch in Florida. The gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule, which arrived at the station on Jan. 12, was released by a 58-foot (18-meter) robotic arm at 2:10 p.m. EST (1910 GMT) as the vehicles sailed 257 miles (414 km) over Australia, NASA mission commentator Kyle Herring said. Meanwhile in Florida, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was preparing to launch its next Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT) The rocket will carry a U.S. government weather satellite to watch the sun and serve as a weather buoy to provide about an hour's notice of potentially dangerous solar storms, which can disrupt radio communications, satellite signals and power grids on Earth.

SpaceX Delays Satellite Launch, Rocket Landing Over High Winds

There will be no rare spaceflight triple play for SpaceX today (Feb. 10).

Britain gives go-ahead to test driverless cars on roads

Britons will from next summer be joined on the roads by driverless cars, after the government gave the go-ahead for the vehicles to be tested on public roads in a bid to encourage companies developing the technology to invest in the country. Driverless car testing will be restricted to vehicles with a person present and able to take control should the need arise, Britain's Department for Transport (DfT) said. The DfT said on Wednesday that after carrying out a review into driverless cars, it found there were no legal barriers to the technology being tested on British roads. It is now working on a code of practise for driverless cars, due to be published in the spring, with vehicles expected to be tested on roads across the country from the summer.

Florida weather delays SpaceX Falcon rocket launch

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - High winds over Florida on Tuesday prompted the second delay of the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a U.S. satellite to watch for solar storms, NASA said. Across the country, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship returning from the International Space Station remained on track for a 4:44 p.m. PST (0044 GMT) splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, will try again on Wednesday at 6:03 p.m. ...

SpaceX Dragon capsule returns from space station

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship made a parachute return into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, while high winds in Florida scrapped plans for the company's Falcon rocket launch, NASA said. The Dragon capsule departed the International Space Station at 2:10 p.m. EST and splashed down about 260 miles (418 km) southwest of Long Beach, California, about 5.5 hours later. The Dragon is loaded with nearly 4,000 pounds (1,814 kg) of returning science experiments and equipment, including two faulty components from spacesuits that NASA wants to analyze before clearing astronauts for a trio of spacewalks later this month.

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns to Earth with Ocean Splashdown

SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule has come back to Earth, wrapping up a successful monthlong cargo mission to the International Space Station.

The Secret Acrobatics of Popcorn Revealed

Believe it or not, the science behind popcorn's popping may be akin to an Olympic event: Researchers have found that popcorn kernels accomplish their acrobatic feats like somersaulting gymnasts who push off with their legs before launching themselves into a spin. Similar phenomena occur when volcanoes or champagne corks pop, the researchers wrote today (Feb. 10) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Volcano Megafloods May Have Formed Europe's Mightiest Waterfall

The findings show that the landscape can dramatically transform in a very short time, said study co-author Edwin Baynes, a geoscientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. "These very short-term, large-scale events can be quite important in long-term landscape evolution," Baynes told Live Science.

Europe's spaceplane launch delayed due to ground problems

The launch of a European experimental spaceplane was delayed on Wednesday due to an unspecified problem at the European Space Agency's (ESA) spaceport in French Guiana. ESA's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), which is the size of a car, had been due to lift off aboard a rocket at 1300 GMT (0800 ET), but the countdown was stopped 4 minutes and 25 seconds before launch. ESA has said it has a launch window of an hour and 43 minutes, starting at 1300 GMT, which means liftoff could still go ahead if the problem that caused the delay is resolved.

Meet Spot: New Breed of Robot Dog Climbs and Trots

Google-owned robotics company Boston Dynamics recently unveiled its newest animal-inspired bot. Spot is electrically powered and moves using a system of hydraulic pumps and valves, according to the company, which introduced its new bot to the world yesterday (Feb. 9) via a YouTube video that has already garnered close to 1 million views. While Spot is significantly smaller than some of Boston Dynamics' other creations — specifically, Big Dog, the company's 240-pound (109 kilograms) all-terrain quadruped robot — this mechanical pup is no lapdog. Boston Dynamics' video shows Spot casually strolling the hallways of what is likely the company's headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Dinos Got High, Oldest Grass Fungus Fossil Hints

The hunk of amber from Myanmar encases an exquisitely preserved ergot fungus, perched atop a grass spikelet that grew about 100 million years ago, researchers report in the 2015 issue of the journal Palaeodiversity. "This establishes for sure that grasses were in the Old World 100 million years ago," said lead study author George Poinar Jr., a zoology professor at Oregon State University.

Younger Generations More Likely to Think Vaccines Are Unsafe

Public health officials say the United States is experiencing a resurgence of measles because some parents are opting out of the recommended vaccines for their kids. A Pew poll found that 83 percent of adults in the United States view vaccines — such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine — as safe for healthy children. Ninety percent of adults ages 50 and older are confident in the safety of vaccines, the poll found. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said he wasn't surprised by the poll's results.

Why 'Measles Parties' Are a Bad Idea

"Measles parties" that intentionally expose unvaccinated children to the illness are not a good idea, health officials said this week. In a statement, the California Department of Public Health said it "strongly recommends against the intentional exposure of children to measles," according to the radio station KQED. Such action "unnecessarily places the exposed children at potentially grave risk and could contribute to further spread of the [measles] outbreak," officials said. The warning came after KQED reported that a mother in Northern California had been asked if she wanted her unvaccinated children to play with a child who was sick with measles.

Google Brings Fact-Checked Health Info to Top of Pages

Dr. Google is trying to become more reliable. The medical facts will start popping up in Google's Knowledge Graph, a feature that the company introduced in 2012 to make it easier to find basic information on a variety of topics. For example, when you search for Marie Curie, you see a box with basic biographical information about the physicist — when and where she was born (Nov. 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland) and what she discovered (radium, polonium). Now the same type of Knowledge Graph information will show up when you search for a medical ailment — its symptoms, treatments, the ages it affects and whether it's contagious.

Wearables vs. Smartphone Apps: Which Are Better to Count Steps?

If you think your Fitbit is better at counting daily steps than your smartphone, you may want to think again. A new study suggests that many smartphone apps are just as good as specialized wearable devices at tracking physical activity. In the study, 14 participants donned a number of wearable devices and also carried several smartphones loaded with activity apps, while they walked on a treadmill for a set number of steps (either 500 or 1,500). Participants also had one smartphone in each of their pants pockets: An Apple iPhone 5s that was running three physical activity apps (Fitbit, Health Mate by Withings and Moves by ProtoGeo Oy), and a Samsung Galaxy S4 that was running one physical activity app (Moves by ProtoGeo Oy).

European Mini-Space Shuttle Aces 1st Test Flight

The European Space Agency's car-size Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) blasted off atop a Vega rocket from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 8:40 a.m. EST (1340 GMT) Wednesday. The craft came back to Earth about 100 minutes after launch, making a parachute-assisted splashdown in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at about 10:20 a.m. (1520 GMT). A recovery ship is stationed near the splashdown zone and is on its way to collect the IXV, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said. The experimental vehicle is a wingless "lifting body" rather than a true space plane. During today's suborbital flight, the IXV was expected to reach a maximum altitude of about 261 miles (420 kilometers), then barrel back into Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 16,800 mph (27,037 km/h).

Quadruple Star Babies Found in Cosmic Womb

For the first time, a litter of four infant star siblings have been seen gestating in the belly of a gas cloud.

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