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Space Exploration

NASA 'Not Quite Ready' To Bring New England Native, 2nd Astronaut Home Amid Starliner Troubles NASA 'Not Quite Ready' To Bring New England Native, 2nd Astronaut Home Amid Starliner Troubles
NASA 'Not Quite Ready' To Bring New England Native, 2nd Astronaut Home Amid Starliner Troubles Nearly two months after blasting off from Florida’s Space Coast, a pair of NASA astronauts – including a Massachusetts native – still have no idea when they’ll return to Earth. In a mission update Thursday, July 25, NASA and Boeing leaders still could not commit to a return date for Starliner pilot Suni Williams, from the town of Needham in Norfolk County, and commander Butch Wilmore. The pair – serving as guinea pigs of sorts for Starliner’s first crewed mission – remain in limbo aboard the International Space Station after numerous helium leaks and malfunctions with the spacecraft’s thrus…
Will You Be Able To See It? Mile-Wide Asteroid With Its Own Moon Set To Do A Flyby This Weekend Will You Be Able To See It? Mile-Wide Asteroid With Its Own Moon Set To Do A Flyby This Weekend
Will You Be Able To See It? Mile-Wide Asteroid With Its Own Moon Set To Do A Flyby This Weekend Prepare yourselves, astronomy fans: a mile-wide “double asteroid” is approaching Earth and may be visible on Saturday night, May 25, according to the Farmers’ Almanac. The asteroid is categorized as 1999 KW4 and consists of a primary space rock just under a mile wide. The asteroid also has a .3-mile-wide “companion” asteroid, which experts are calling an “asteroid moon” in orbit. The 1999 KW4 completes an orbit around the Sun once every 6.18 months (188 days). Though the asteroid will undoubtedly be difficult to spot, there are some amateur astronomers who will take initiative and attemp…