What can we learn by listening to icebergs?
On a special episode (first released on February 12, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: Icebergs are bellwethers of environmental changes. Their formation, movement and melting offer insights into some of the most extreme areas of the cryosphere, such as Antarctica, Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. Scientists have long monitored icebergs because of their role in regulating our climate. But what do the sounds they make reveal? Geophysicist Vera Schlindwein, professor of polar and marine seismology at the University of Bremen in Germany, joins The Excerpt to discuss these breathtaking frozen wonders.
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6 hours ago
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Doomed Starliner launched 1 year ago from Florida: Look back at mission's biggest moments
One year ago, two experienced NASA astronauts boarded an experimental Boeing spacecraft known as the Starliner for a short voyage to orbit and back. If you followed the Starliner saga as a few days stretched into months, you likely remember how this story ends. Boeing's vehicle, which it is developing for NASA to make trips to and from the International Space Station, attained a certain degree of notoriety. And the astronauts who crewed the spacecraft for its maiden human flight test are pretty much household names. For 286 days, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made their home among the stars as unexpected extended crew members of the International Space Station. Meanwhile, back on Earth, their predicament involved intricate planning to get them home and ‒ when President Donald Trump and the world's richest man Elon Musk chimed in ‒ no small amount of finger-pointing. For their part, the astronauts, who have long since returned to Earth, have regularly spoken about relishing the extra time in the cosmos – including in an exclusive interview in January with USA TODAY. Wilmore and Williams have also downplayed their extended mission as just part of the job. On the one-year anniversary of the Starliner's doomed launch, here's a look back at the biggest moments of a now-infamous spaceflight mission that captured the world's attention. As the two astronauts selected for the Starliner's first crewed flight test, Butch Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams launched June 5, 2024, on a mission to test a vehicle intended to one day join the SpaceX Dragon in transporting NASA astronauts to orbit. The Starliner capsule rode to orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The highly anticipated liftoff came after several delays over the course of about a month due to troubles detected with the spacecraft, including issues with a valve in the rocket's upper stage. Wilmore and Williams reached the International Space Station the next day, June 6, 2024, where they were expected to remain for about 10 days before returning home. But when they made it to the orbital outpost, engineers discovered a slew of helium leaks and problems with the craft's propulsion system that for months hampered Starliner's return to Earth. Williams and Wimore's fate remained uncertain for months as NASA and Boeing deliberated on how best to get them home. That decision came Aug. 24, 2024, when NASA officials announced that the Starliner wasn't safe enough to crew, and would instead undock empty and return to Earth. The move, which dealt a blow to Boeing's hopes of getting the vehicle ocertified for regular space travel, would also free up a docking port at the station for the spacecraft now tasked with bringing Wilmore and Williams back. Under NASA's plan, the space agency selected a SpaceX Dragon bound the following month for the space station to transport Williams and Wilmore home. And to avoid having the station be understaffed, NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore at the station a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth. The empty Boeing Starliner then undocked Sept. 6 and made its way back to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing in the New Mexico desert. At the time, Boeing had plenty of work ahead to prepare the vehicle for routine spaceflight – including more ground tests and potential modifications to remedy its propulsion system woes. Starliner's future as a second operational vehicle for NASA to transport crews and cargo to the space station remains unclear, though the space agency appears to still be working with Boeing to make the vehicle operational. On Sept. 28, 2024, NASA launched the SpaceX Crew-9 mission as planned, but with one crucial change: Just two astronauts, Nick Hague of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, headed to the space station instead of four to leave two empty seats on their vehicle reserved for Wilmore and Williams. The pair arrived a day after getting off the ground on a spacecraft. But Wilmore and Williams didn't return with them right away. Instead, the Starliner astronauts were folded into the Crew-9 mission, and Williams even became commander of Expedition 72 – overseeing all of the spacefarers living and working at the space station. The plan then became Williams and Wilmore to return with Crew-9 in 2025 once Hague and Gorbunov completed their mission. If it weren't for the extended mission, Williams would not have been able to set a record Jan. 30 during her ninth-ever spacewalk. After she and Wilmore spent more than six hours venturing outside the space station, Williams has now spent a cumulative 62 hours and 6 minutes in the vacuum of space – more than any other woman in the world. Only three other people in the world have spent more cumulative time on spacewalks than Williams. After taking office in January, President Donald Trump weighed in several times on the Starliner mission, the delay of which he blamed on the Biden administration. He and billionaire ally Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, began characterizing the vehicle's crew as being "abandoned" or "stuck" in space – an assertion Wilmore and Williams have oft refuted. Trump also claimed that it was he who "authorized" Musk to retrieve the astronauts, despite the return plan being in place before he was elected. However, Trump did appear to have had an influence over NASA's decision to accelerate by about two weeks the launch of a mission that replaced Crew-9. That mission, unsurprisingly known as Crew-10, launched March 14 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew-10 included a full contingent of four spacefarers, including mission commander Anne McClain of NASA, NASA pilot Nichole Ayers and two mission specialists from other space agencies: Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. After more than 28 hours traveling through orbit, Crew-10 reached the space station late March 15 – a critical step in setting the stage for Wilmore and Williams to embark on their long-awaited return trip. Before the outgoing astronauts departed the station, they spent a few days helping the new arrivals familiarize themselves with the orbital laboratory and station operations during a handover period. Wilmore and Williams then boarded the Dragon with Hague and Gorbunov and undocked March 18 from the ISS's Harmony module, a port and passageway onto the station. About 17 hours later, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle – charred from its journey through Earth's atmosphere – deployed parachutes for a dramatic water landing March 19 off the coast of Florida. SpaceX teams then raced to retrieve the floating spacecraft and its crew of four, helping secure the Dragon and hoist it onto a recovery vessel. Once the Dragon was firmly in place on the ship's main deck, teams cut into the vehicle's side hatch to help Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov exit. As commentators explained during NASA's livestream, the astronauts were placed onto stretchers – standard protocol after long-duration spaceflights – and taken to receive medical examinations. Once cleared, the four astronauts were taken on a short helicopter ride to board an airplane for a flight to NASA's headquarters in Houston, where they began their recovery. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Boeing launched its Starliner 1 year ago from Florida: Here's a recap
Yahoo
10 hours ago
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Starliner launched 1 year ago on ill-fated voyage: Look back at mission's biggest moments
One year ago, two experienced NASA astronauts boarded an experimental Boeing spacecraft known as the Starliner for a short voyage to orbit and back. If you followed the Starliner saga as a few days stretched into months, you likely remember how this story ends. Boeing's vehicle, which it is developing for NASA to make trips to and from the International Space Station, attained a certain degree of notoriety. And the astronauts who crewed the spacecraft for its maiden human flight test are now as close to being household names as astronauts can get. For 286 days, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made their home among the stars as unexpected extended crew members of the space station. Meanwhile, back on Earth, their predicament involved intricate planning and ‒ when President Donald Trump and the world's richest man Elon Musk chimed in ‒ no small amount of finger-pointing. The astronauts, who have long since returned to Earth, have regularly spoke about relishing the extra time in the cosmos, including in an exclusive interview in January with USA TODAY. Wilmore and Williams have also downplayed their extended mission as just part of the job. On the one-year anniversary of the Starliner's doomed launch, here's a look back at the biggest moments of a now-infamous spaceflight mission that captured the world's attention. As the two astronauts selected for the Starliner's first crewed flight test, Wilmore and Williams launched June 5, 2024, on a mission to test a vehicle intended to one day join the SpaceX Dragon in transporting NASA astronauts to orbit. The Starliner capsule rode to orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The highly anticipated liftoff came after several delays over the course of about a month due to troubles detected with the spacecraft, including issues with a valve in the rocket's upper stage. Wilmore and Williams reached the International Space Station the next day, June 6, 2024, where they were expected to remain for about 10 days before returning home. But when they made it to the orbital outpost, engineers discovered a slew of helium leaks and problems with the craft's propulsion system that for months hampered Starliner's return to Earth. Williams and Wimore's fate remained uncertain for months as NASA and Boeing deliberated on how best to get them home. That decision came Aug. 24, 2024 when NASA officials announced that the Starliner wasn't safe enough to crew, and would instead undock empty and return to Earth. The move, which dealt a blow to Boeing's hopes of getting the vehicle certified for regular space travel, would also free up a docking port at the station for the spacecraft now tasked with bringing Wilmore and Williams back. Under NASA's plan, the space agency selected a SpaceX Dragon bound the following month for the space station to transport Williams and Wilmore home. And to avoid having the station be understaffed, NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore at the station a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth. The empty Boeing Starliner then undocked Sept. 6 and made its way back to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing in the New Mexico desert. At the time, Boeing had plenty of work ahead to prepare the vehicle for routine spaceflight – including more ground tests and potential modifications to remedy its propulsion system woes. Starliner's future as a second operational vehicle for NASA to transport crews and cargo to the space station remains unclear, though the space agency appears to still be working with Boeing to make the vehicle operational. On Sept. 28, 2024, NASA launched the SpaceX Crew-9 mission as planned, but with one crucial change: Just two astronauts, Nick Hague of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, headed to the space station instead of four to leave two empty seats on their vehicle reserved for Wilmore and Williams. The pair arrived a day after getting off the ground on a spacecraft. But Wilmore and Williams didn't return with them right away. Instead, the Starliner astronauts were folded into the Crew-9 mission, and Williams even became commander of Expedition 72 – overseeing all of the spacefarers living and working at the space station. The plan then became Williams and Wilmore to return with Crew-9 in 2025 once Hague and Gorbunov completed their mission. If it weren't for the extended mission, Williams would not have been able to set a record Jan. 30 during her ninth-ever spacewalk. After she and Wilmore spent more than six hours venturing outside the space station, Williams has now spent a cumulative 62 hours and 6 minutes in the vacuum of space – more than any other woman in the world. Only three other people in the world have spent more cumulative time on spacewalks than Williams. After taking office in January, President Donald Trump weighed in several times on the Starliner mission, the delay of which he blamed on the Biden administration. He and billionaire ally Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, began characterizing the vehicle's crew as being "abandoned" or "stuck" in space – an assertion Wilmore and Williams have oft refuted. Trump also claimed that it was he who "authorized" Musk to retrieve the astronauts, despite the return plan being in place before he was elected. However, Trump did appear to have had an influence over NASA's decision to accelerate by about two weeks the launch of a mission that replaced Crew-9. That mission, unsurprisingly known as Crew-10, launched March 14 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew-10 included a full contingent of four spacefarers, including mission commander Anne McClain of NASA, NASA pilot Nichole Ayers and two mission specialists from other space agencies: Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. After more than 28 hours traveling through orbit, Crew-10 reached the space station late March 15 – a critical step in setting the stage for Wilmore and Williams to embark on their long-awaited return trip. Before the outgoing astronauts departed the station, they spent a few days helping the new arrivals familiarize themselves with the orbital laboratory and station operations during a handover period. Wilmore and Williams then boarded the Dragon with Hague and Gorbunov and undocked March 18 from the ISS's Harmony module, a port and passageway onto the station. About 17 hours later, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle – charred from its journey through Earth's atmosphere – deployed parachutes for a dramatic water landing March 19 off the coast of Florida. SpaceX teams then raced to retrieve the floating spacecraft and its crew of four, helping secure the Dragon and hoist it onto a recovery vessel. Once the Dragon was firmly in place on the ship's main deck, teams cut into the vehicle's side hatch to help Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov exit. As commentators explained during NASA's livestream, the astronauts were placed onto stretchers – standard protocol after long-duration spaceflights – and taken to receive medical examinations. Once cleared, the four astronauts were taken on a short helicopter ride to board an airplane for a flight to NASA's headquarters in Houston, where they began their recovery. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Remembering the infamous Boeing Starliner mission 1 year since launch
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
A Saharan dust cloud is headed to the U.S.: How does this occur?
After making its way across the Atlantic Ocean, a massive cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert is expected to reach the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon. The cloud of dust, which is believed to stretch 2,000 miles west to east and 750 miles from north to south, will first hit Florida and then spread to other states, according to USA Today. When it reaches Florida it will have traveled over 5,000 miles from North Africa. This is the largest Saharan dust cloud so far this year to travel across the Atlantic. It is expected to have little effect on air quality, as it will remain high in the atmosphere, but Floridians should see hazy skies or colorful sunrises and sunsets midweek. 'Typically we have nice blue skies, but with the dust, the whole sky looks soft and warm because the particles themselves are red,' said Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami Center for Aerosol Science and Technology, according to The New York Times. 'Everything looks muted,' he added. This dust is technically known as the Saharan Air Layer, or SAL, and is a relatively common feature, according to The Washington Post. It is more unusual to see the SAL stay so strong after journeying across the ocean. The SAL is a very dry and dusty mass of air that forms above the Sahara Desert in late spring, summer and early fall, according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Every few days the dust clouds move over the Atlantic Ocean. According to The New York Times, the dry layer of air that makes up the SAL hovers around a mile above the Earth's surface and can be up to 2.5 miles deep. The SAL is carried west by the same winds that kick up hurricane season. These dust events can happen year-round but the largest occur from mid-June to late July and after early August the plumes of dust tend not to travel as far. Earlier this year a few smaller SALs crossed the ocean but this is the first significant plume of the year. 'It happens every year; some years have more dust transportation across the Atlantic than others,' said Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Miami, per The New York Times. 'It's like rinse and repeat every year, it's part of a normal cycle of Earth's oscillations.' Since the SAL is brought on by the same winds that drive tropical disturbances, excessive levels of dust can suppress and stifle tropical storms. This happens because the dust clouds are so dry and tropical storms require moisture to grow, per The Washington Post. The dust cloud is formed by light dry sands and other minerals, but they require a jet stream positioned correctly to send them westward. The SAL can also be shot northward toward Europe. This particular cloud that will reach the U.S. stirred up over Africa near Chad in late May. Meteorologists get plenty of notice for when an SAL is headed to the U.S., since the dust storms are visible by satellite developing over the Sahara seven to 10 days before reaching the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico, per The New York Times. Earlier this week, the dust cloud covered the Caribbean islands on its way to the U.S. The cloud was dense and caused hazy skies in Puerto Rico, and early Wednesday morning the cloud was affecting Cuba, per USA Today. The plume of dust should reach south Florida by Wednesday afternoon or evening, and then on Thursday it is expected to spread to the rest of Florida going north into parts of Georgia and South Carolina. By the weekend, it is predicted to reach other Gulf Coast and Southeastern states such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, reported AccuWeather. It is then expected to dissipate. Jason Dunion, a meteorologist who monitors Saharan dust and hurricanes, has been in Puerto Rico during a Saharan dust event before, per The New York Times. 'There's a lot of dry air, and you don't feel that dry air, but the clouds feel it because as they grow and form thunderstorms, they run into that dry air and they just collapse,' he said. 'They get stifled. So as this comes through to a place like Puerto Rico, you're going to tend to have fewer thunderstorms. It's going to probably be one of our hotter days. And very hazy. The haze is incredible.' It is possible that the Saharan dust could collide with smoke which made its way to the U.S. from wildfires burning in Canada, per USA Today. The smoke has caused unhealthy air quality in several states over the last week, including Minnesota and Wisconsin. It has also caused moderate air quality across most of the eastern half of the country. Later in the week, there could be a small area where the smoke and dust come together over the southeast, per USA Today. It should not cause health or safety issues, except for sensitive groups.
