Shubhanshu Shukla, First Indian in Space in 41 Years, Will Blast Off in a Musk Rocket
More than four decades after the first person from India went to space, the nation is finally about to have a sequel.
Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force test pilot, will be one of four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a flight scheduled to launch on June 11 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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2 hours ago
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SpaceX Starlink rivalry grows as next Kuiper deployment nears
Amazon is about to send another batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites to orbit as it seeks to take on SpaceX's Starlink service to provide broadband internet to customers around the world. The tech giant has a long way to go before it has any hope of effectively challenging Starlink, but with its second launch set for next week, progress is being made toward its goal. Recommended Videos Project Kuiper is currently targeting Monday, June 16, for the launch of 27 internet satellites aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The KA-02 mission comes seven weeks after the first Project Kuiper launch, which also deployed 27 internet satellites. Commenting after the inaugural launch, Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper, said: 'We've designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network.' SpaceX began deploying its Starlink internet satellites six years ago and now has more than 7,000 of them in low-Earth orbit, bringing broadband connectivity to more than 5 million customers globally. Project Kuiper says its initial constellation will be made up of more than 3,200 satellites, with more than 80 missions needed to reach that goal. To that end, Amazon has put together a busy launch schedule, with six additional satellite deployments planned for ULA's Atlas V rocket, at least 38 on ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket, and dozens more with Arianespace and Blue Origin. SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket may even help out. Amazon is targeting as early as the end of this year for the launch of a high-speed, low-latency satellite-powered internet service, with as few as 1,000 satellites needed for global coverage. Building out the constellation to the targeted 3,200 satellites will help to boost network performance and reliability for paying customers.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
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How many gopher tortoises are left on Egmont Key after Hurricane Helene's storm surge swept many away?
The Brief Local experts estimate Hurricane Helene's storm surge carried 50 to 100 gopher tortoises from Egmont Key to Fort DeSoto. Eckerd students are teaming up with the Egmont Key Alliance to see how many gopher tortoises are still on Egmont Key. In the students' first several days, they've more gopher tortoises on Egmont than they expected. EGMONT KEY, Fla. - In just their first several days studying gopher tortoises on Egmont Key, Eckerd College students already have found more than 40. "Gopher tortoises are a really important keystone species, so a lot of other animals depend on them, and Egmont Key is a really unique, important site for gopher tortoises, not just in the Tampa Bay region, but really throughout the broader southeast," Jeff Goessling, Eckerd College Associate Professor Biology, explained. The backstory Goessling is leading an internship for the students. Eckerd is partnering with the Egmont Key Alliance, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which is an internship program on campus and a local benefactor who supports conservation research in the area. The students are in the second week of a six-week study looking into the tortoises' normal population range. "Our goal this year is to basically figure out how many tortoises are out here. That's relevant for long-term monitoring of this population and it also fits in with understanding impacts of the recent hurricanes that we had last year," Goessling said. Local experts estimate Hurricane Helene's storm surge carried 50 to 100 gopher tortoises from Egmont Key to Fort DeSoto. PREVIOUS:Hurricane Helene storm surge relocates dozens of Egmont Key tortoises to Fort De Soto "When we were coming out to the island on Wednesday of last week, it was stormy and we were kind of reliving that of what that journey would be like is a 10 or 15-pound tortoise bobbing through the waves. So, I'm sure it was a pretty harrowing journey. I don't know if tortoises remember that kind of thing, but if they do, I'm sure it was memorable," Goessling said. Experts are monitoring more than 80 tortoise burrows at Fort DeSoto. That's 10 times the number of burrows there before Hurricane Helene. Dig deeper At Egmont, the students measure the animals, weigh them and give them an identifying mark. None of it hurts the tortoises. If the animal is already marked, the identification tells them information like how old the tortoise is. "We just want to see to it that we maintain that long-term continuity, so that when we have acute problems, like a hurricane or like other potential environmental threats, we have the background data to really understand what's normal, what's a normal population range, what's the normal population growth rate," Goessling said. "Everything that happens isn't always bad. If all of a sudden something good happens, we want to be able to quantify that. Hey, if all of a sudden some change in habitat management is improving tortoises, we want know that as well," he said. READ: Florida-based Silver Airways cancels all flights, tells passengers not to go to airport The research, Goessling said, is just like the animal. "Tortoises are classic a slow steady approach to their own life history and so, it takes that type of approach of kind of steady constancy to understand really long-term important questions again like how long they live, how many of them there are, what their normal kind of life history course is," he said. By the numbers Since researchers started studying gopher tortoises on Egmont Key in the early 1990s, they've identified 923. The students found some of the oldest ones in just the first several days. They say it's surprising, but welcome news. What they're saying "Honestly, it's kind of mind-boggling," Pixie Parker, a rising senior majoring in marine biology and a part of the internship, said. "We don't know how they survived events like that [the hurricanes], especially considering that this island was completely inundated. I know that they can survive some periods of anoxia, but we really don't how they survived, but clearly, they did," she said. "It was really amazing because, like I said, we were not expecting much here and then it was really beautiful when we got on the island and three tortoises walked up to us. It was very beautiful and resilient, like, life finds a way," Tristan Joyce-Velez, a rising sophomore majoring in marine biology and part of the internship, said. "It's amazing to see nature, you know, persevering and thriving," he said. "The hurricanes were so devastating for everyone who lived down here, so it was honestly just an amazing moment and encouraging, honestly," Joyce-Velez said gopher tortoises are extremely resilient, and the tortoises they found so far are in pretty good shape. Fifteen of the more the around 40 they had found as of Wednesday were already marked from previous researchers. READ:St. Pete consignment shop abruptly closes, thousands of dollars in designer goods missing "Tortoises are herbivores and the hurricane has created a lot of mess in some parts of the island, but then as that mess kind of ages and gets moved out of the way, there's a lot of vegetation coming up that the tortoises are eating," Goessling said. Gopher tortoises, their eggs and their burrows are all protected by Florida law and it's illegal to disturb them. You can report a sighting to Florida Fish and Wildlife on its website. The Source This story was written with information gathered by FOX 13's Kailey Tracy. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
Yahoo
9 hours ago
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Is there a rocket launch today? Upcoming SpaceX liftoff should be visible in California
The third rocket launch of June from California could be about a day away, and (as usual) it should be widely visible across southern portions of the state. SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, is preparing to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on the latest Starlink satellite delivery from the West Coast. The Starlink missions have become by far the most frequent and common rocket launches from Southern California – having comprised all six spaceflight missions in May from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The two-stage 230-foot-tall rocket, one of the world's most active, has become crucial in regularly deploying batches of internet-beaming Starlink satellites into what's called low-Earth orbit – an altitude that allows for things like satellites to circle Earth fairly quickly. The good news for Californians is, they have plenty of opportunities to see the Falcon 9 rocket soaring after it gets off the ground. But it's important to keep in mind that rocket launches can be – and often are – scrubbed or delayed due to any number of factors, including poor weather conditions or unexpected issues with spacecraft. Check back with the VC Star for any updates on the impending rocket launch. Here's what to know about the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, as well as when and where to watch it: California rocket launches: Here's a look at the upcoming schedule from Vandenberg A Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory suggests SpaceX is targeting the launch for as early as Friday, June 13, with backup opportunities Saturday, June 14. However, multiple websites that track rocket launches suggest the launch window could open at 6:46 p.m. PT Thursday, June 12. Neither the Vandenberg Space Force Base, nor SpaceX have yet officially confirmed the launch. The launch, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to deliver the Starlink satellites, will take place from Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. Following the delivery and deployment of the satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket's booster will aim to land on a SpaceX drone ship, nicknamed "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean. This allows for SpaceX personnel to recover the booster so it can be reused in future spaceflights. Residents of Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County and Ventura County could hear sonic booms, according to an alert from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Sonic booms are brief, thunder-like noises that are often heard from the ground when a spacecraft or aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound. SpaceX provides a livestream of the launch on its website beginning about five minutes before liftoff, along with updates on social media site X, which Elon Musk also owns. Because Vandenberg is an active military base, the launch complex does not host public viewings of launches. But if conditions are clear, rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base can be viewed from several locations as far as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Space Launch Schedule, a website dedicated to tracking upcoming rocket launches, provided a list of places in California to catch the launch in person: 13th Street and Arguello Boulevard, the public site with the closest views of SpaceX launches Floradale Avenue and West Ocean Avenue, officially designated as the 'viewing site for SLC-6' (space launch complex-6) Renwick Avenue and West Ocean Avenue, another intersection close to the base where spectators can park Santa Lucia Canyon Road and Victory Road, provides a partial view of Complex 4 Surf Beach on Ocean Avenue, the only location where the public can view the ignition and liftoff of rockets from Complex 4. Public access is at the Amtrak Surf Station parking area, but the area is closed in the case of back-to-back launches. The city of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County is filled with places to catch a rocket launch. The city's tourism bureau, Explore Lompoc, even maintains this list with additional viewing locations: , 6851 Ocean Park Road, which, while it doesn't have a view of the launch pad itself, is located only four miles from the launch site and provides a good vantage to see rockets get off the ground. Parking is limited, and law enforcement will close the road to the beach once parking is full. , 1 Hancock Drive, a community college located nine miles from the launch site where both the launch pad and rocket's tip can be seen before liftoff. , N A Street and McLaughlin Road, located within 10 miles of the launch site, is filled with large fields for activities or for spectators to set up chairs. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, founded SpaceX in 2002. The commercial spaceflight company is headquartered at Starbase in South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. The site, which is where SpaceX has been conducting routine flight tests of its 400-foot megarocket known as Starship, was recently voted by residents to become its own city. SpaceX conducts many of its own rocket launches, most using the Falcon 9 rocket, from both California and Florida. That includes a regular cadence of deliveries of Starlink internet satellites into orbit, and occasional privately-funded commercial crewed missions on the Dragon. The most recent of SpaceX's private human spaceflights, a mission known as Fram2, took place in April. SpaceX was also famously involved in funding and operating the headline-grabbing Polaris Dawn crewed commercial mission in September 2024. SpaceX also benefits from billions of dollars in contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense by providing launch services for classified satellites and other payloads. The Vandenberg Space Force Base is a rocket launch site in Santa Barbara County in Southern California. Established in 1941, the site was previously known as the Vandenberg Air Force Base. Though it's a military base, the site also hosts both civil and commercial space launches for entities like NASA and SpaceX. Space Launch Delta 30, a unit of Space Force, is responsible for managing the launch operations at Vandenberg, as well as the missile tests that take place at the base. Owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Starlink is a constellation of more than 7,000 satellites that provide internet service to customers around the world. SpaceX has spent more than six years delivering the satellites to orbit with a regular cadence of rocket launches from both Florida and California. While most satellite internet services operate from single geostationary satellites orbiting Earth at about 22,236 miles, Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites that operate from a low-Earth orbit, about 341 miles up. That allows Starlink's satellites to have lower latency and data time between user and the satellite, improving performance of things like streaming, online gaming and video calls. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: California rocket launch today: Where to see SpaceX Falcon 9 lift off
