Latest news with #Whitson
San Francisco Chronicle
21-07-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday's ball-strike calls in Giants game are why robo umps can't get here soon enough
I never thought I'd be the guy crying out for more technology, but enough human error is enough. Sunday afternoon, the San Francisco Giants got fed up with the ball-strike stylings of umpire Chad Whitson, leading to an ejection. Dave Flemming, calling the game on TV for Roku, sounded like he was ready to charge home plate to confront Whitson. The reason why? Whitson was interpreting the strike zone the way Picasso interpreted the human form. Just another day at the ballpark. Inconsistent ball-strike calling is a plague on Major League Baseball, an increasingly glaring defect of the game. Next season will be better, right? The rumble is that MLB will bring in the robo ump, also known as ABS, the Automated Ball-Strike System. Each team will get two challenges per game, appealing to the robot when frustrated by perceived human error. Two? Just two? So they're going to slap a band-aid on a shark bite. Let me tell you what should happen. But first: The Giants did not lose Sunday because of Whitson. According to Umpire Scorecards, 11 of Whitson's 51 called strikes were true balls. The Giants lost by two runs, and that website's analytics say that Whitson's errant eye made a 1.69 run difference. So if Whitson had had a perfect day, the Giants might have lost anyway, because nobody scores by the hundredths of a run in baseball. Still, Whitson was a party pooper. He punched out Rafael Devers on a 3-2 pitch outside the zone. A 3-0 pitch to Matt Chapman was two baseballs outside the zone, but called a strike. 'That was a very generous call,' Flemming fumed. 'What a weird strike zone today.' Same deal next inning, with Brett Wisely at bat. Flemming: 'Very friendly call (in the pitcher's favor), Wisely didn't like that one. Just another example of a strike zone that has been all over the place. When you're seeing the ball well, you see a pitch, you know it's out of the strike zone, yet it's called against you, that's not really that close, it jars you as a hitter.' Apparently it also jars you as a pitcher who isn't pitching. Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, on a day off, got tossed by Whitson for protesting from the dugout. Verlander was getting his info off a tablet, which displayed, in delayed time, the umpire's (many) goofs. So a guy sitting in the dugout, and everyone in the park with a cell phone, had access to technology unavailable to the ump. The thing is, Whitson called an OK game, for a human being. In a study conducted by Boston University and published in 2018, data showed that big league umpires blew 14 ball-strike calls per game, or 1.6 per inning. Whitson on Sunday had a 92% accuracy on ball-strike calls (per Umpire Scorecards). If you protest that the coming of the robo ump deprives baseball of a cool human element, tell me you'll smile and embrace it as a colorful part of life when Amazon delivers your package to the correct address 92% of the time. You got someone else's underwear? Makes life more fun! The challenge system next season will be wildly popular with players and fans, although maybe not with umps. To challenge a call, the batter or pitcher simply taps his helmet or cap. Within a few seconds, almost instantly, the verdict is rendered on the ballpark video screen. I believe that MLB will fast-track ABS for next season, because Rob Manfred and the boys have seen that most fans and players embrace positive change. The pitch clock has been a big success. Even though batters no longer have time to re-Velcro their batting-glove straps after every pitch, miraculously, not one single glove has flown off! Surely that's a sign from above. Do you miss the defensive shift? The ghost runner in extra innings isn't universally beloved, but it also hasn't ruined the game. Point is, MLB now knows that the change can be beneficial and widely accepted, if it improves the game. The ABS system has been tried in the minors, to widespread acclaim of players and fans. The problem with the two-challenge system, though, is that it's like ordering popcorn at the movie theater and they give you two popped kernels. Since we know there will be 1.6 blown calls per inning, how about one challenge per inning, per team? This would add, by my amateurish calculations, about 15 minutes to each game. Time well spent. At the very least, give each team a bonus challenge in the ninth inning, and in every extra inning. The BU study found that in that 2018 season, 55 games ended on incorrect calls. The study also found that umps have a dramatic bias toward pitchers on two-strike calls, that umps have blind spots in their strike zones, and that younger umps outperform older and more experienced umps. In short, human umpires are just too damn human. The two-challenge system will be a success, and it will be expanded, and eventually every pitch will be called by the robot. Real people will still do the pitching and hitting, and isn't that mainly what you came to the ballpark to see? This is not to say home-plate umpires can be entirely replaced. After all, you can't trust a ballboy to do a proper job of whisking dirt off the plate.
Canada News.Net
17-07-2025
- Science
- Canada News.Net
Axiom-4 crew splashes down off U.S. coast after ISS mission
LOS ANGELES, United States: A multinational crew of astronauts, including the first space travelers from India, Poland, and Hungary to reach the International Space Station (ISS), has returned safely to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean aboard a SpaceX capsule. The reentry marked the end of the Axiom-4 mission, the fourth privately funded spaceflight to the ISS organized by Texas-based Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX. The capsule, dubbed Grace, landed off the coast of San Diego, California, around 2:30 a.m. PDT following a fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere. Leading the mission was Peggy Whitson, a retired NASA astronaut and the U.S. agency's first female chief astronaut. Whitson, now with Axiom, extended her national record to 695 days in space across five missions. "We're happy to be back," Whitson radioed to mission control moments after splashdown. Joining her were Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary — representing their respective countries' first-ever ISS government missions. During their 18-day stay, the astronauts conducted over 60 microgravity experiments and brought back a cache of scientific samples for Earth-based analysis. For India, the mission is seen as a stepping stone toward the launch of its Gaganyaan crewed spacecraft, expected in 2027. Poland's astronaut flew under the European Space Agency, while Hungary's participant was part of the Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) program. Axiom's fourth mission builds on its business model of launching astronauts sponsored by foreign governments and private clients. The company is also working to develop a commercial space station that could eventually replace the aging ISS by 2030.
Reuters
16-07-2025
- Science
- Reuters
Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return with NASA veteran from space station
LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Reuters) - NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries' first ISS mission. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 a.m. PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit. The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles. The return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast. Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, slowed the capsule's final descent to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego. Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The astronauts' flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up. The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from NASA in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the U.S. space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition. She radioed to mission control that the crew was "happy to be back" moments after their return. A recovery ship was immediately dispatched to secure the capsule and hoist it from the ocean onto the deck of the vessel. The crew members were to be extricated from the capsule one by one and undergo medical checkups before the recovery vessel ferries them to shore, a process expected to take about an hour. Now director of human spaceflight for Axiom, Whitson has now logged 695 days in space, a U.S. record, during three previous NASA missions, a fourth flight to orbit as commander of the Axiom-2 crew in 2023 and her fifth mission to the ISS commanding Axiom-4. Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary. They returned with a cargo of science samples from more than 60 microgravity experiments conducted during their 18-day visit to the ISS and due for shipment to researchers back on Earth for final analysis. For India, Poland and Hungary, the launch marked the first human spaceflight of each country in more than 40 years and the first mission ever to send astronauts from their government's respective space programs to the ISS. The participation of Shukla, an Indian air force pilot, is seen by India's space program as a precursor of sorts to the debut crewed mission of its Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft, planned for 2027. Uznanski-Wisniewski is a Polish astronaut assigned to the European Space Agency, while Kapu is part of his country's Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) program, though he is not the first person of Hungarian descent to board the space station. Billionaire Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian-born software designer who became a U.S. citizen in 1982, has twice visited the ISS as a space tourist, in 2007 and 2009, hitching rides aboard Russian Soyuz capsules. But like many wealthy individuals from various countries who have paid their own way for joyrides to space, Simonyi was not flying on behalf of his homeland or any government. Dubbed "Grace" by its crew, the newly commissioned capsule flown for Axiom-4 was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral in Florida on June 25, becoming the fifth vehicle in SpaceX's Crew Dragon fleet. The Ax-4 team arrived at the ISS on June 26, welcomed aboard by the station's latest rotating crew of seven occupants - three U.S. astronauts, one Japanese crewmate and three Russian cosmonauts. The two crews parted company again early on Monday when Crew Dragon Grace undocked to begin its voyage home. Axiom-4 also marks the 18th crewed spaceflight logged by SpaceX since 2020, when Musk's rocket company ushered in a new NASA era by providing American astronauts their first rides to space from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle program nine years earlier. For Axiom, a 9-year-old venture co-founded by NASA's former ISS program manager, the mission builds on its business of putting astronauts sponsored by private companies and foreign governments into low-Earth orbit. Axiom also is one of a handful of companies developing a commercial space station of its own intended to eventually replace the ISS, which NASA expects to retire around 2030.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Privately funded crew returns to Earth after space station visit
America's most experienced astronaut and three international crewmates plunged back to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule early Tuesday, closing out a 20-day commercial flight to the International Space Station with a foggy Pacific Ocean splashdown. Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the U.S. record holder for time in space, Indian test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Polish astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu undocked from the space station early Monday. After nearly a full day coasting around the planet while waiting for the orbit to line up with the reentry trajectory, the Crew Dragon's forward Draco thrusters fired for nearly 18 minutes starting at 4:37 a.m. EDT Tuesday to drop the ship out of orbit. Plunging back into the discernible atmosphere on a northwest-to-southeast trajectory, the capsule rapidly decelerated in a blaze of reentry heating before parachutes deployed to lower the ship to a gentle splashdown just west of San Diego at 5:31 a.m. Over the next hour, SpaceX support crews "safed" the Crew Dragon, hauling it aboard the recovery ship Shannon, opening the side hatch and helping the returning fliers out of the spacecraft as they began readjusting to gravity after their three-week sojourn in weightlessness. All four appeared healthy and in good spirits, smiling and waving as they exited. This was the fourth so-called "private astronaut mission" to the International Space Station sponsored by Houston-based Axiom Space, which works with NASA to provide privately funded research trips to the station. The company charges up to $70 million or so per seat to carry non-NASA astronauts, professional researchers and others to the space station who might otherwise have no other route to orbit. Axiom Space is using the missions to gain experience as the company presses ahead with plans to build a commercial space station that will provide a destination in low-Earth orbit for NASA and other nations after the International Space Station is retired in 2030. Throughout their two-week mission, Whitson and her crewmates carried out a full slate of science research and technology demonstrations, along with interactive educational events with students and others in the crew's home countries. Researchers from 31 countries are helping evaluate data from the Ax-4 experiments and technology demonstrations. Whitson, a retired NASA astronaut, is the most experienced American space flier, with 695 days and six hours and 48 minutes in orbit during five spaceflights — three for NASA and two for Axiom Space. She now ranks eighth in the world for most time in space behind seven Russian cosmonauts. She also logged 10 spacewalks during her earlier flights, making her the most experienced female spacewalker and seventh in the world overall. Trump pushes senators to make $9.4 trillion in spending cuts Waltz faces questions about Signal group chat leak in confirmation hearing for U.N. ambassador Watch: Trump takes questions on Pam Bondi, the Epstein files, inflation, Russia and more
Observer
15-07-2025
- Science
- Observer
Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return from space station
LOS ANGELES: NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries' first ISS mission. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 a.m. PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit. The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles. The return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast. Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, slowed the capsule's final descent to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego. Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 1,927 degrees Celsius. The astronauts' flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up. The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from NASA in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the U.S. space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition. She radioed to mission control that the crew was "happy to be back" moments after their return. A recovery ship was immediately dispatched to secure the capsule and hoist it from the ocean onto the deck of the vessel. The crew members were to be extricated from the capsule one by one and undergo medical checkups before the recovery vessel ferries them to shore, a process expected to take about an hour. Now director of human spaceflight for Axiom, Whitson has now logged 695 days in space, a US record, during three previous NASA missions, a fourth flight to orbit as commander of the Axiom-2 crew in 2023 and her fifth mission to the ISS commanding Axiom-4. Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary. They returned with a cargo of science samples from more than 60 microgravity experiments conducted during their 18-day visit to the ISS and due for shipment to researchers back on Earth for final analysis. For India, Poland and Hungary, the launch marked the first human spaceflight of each country in more than 40 years and the first mission ever to send astronauts from their government's respective space programmes to the ISS. — Reuters
