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NASA Marks 20 Years Since Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – As part of its annual tribute to astronauts who died in space, NASA remembered and honored the 20th anniversary of the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Thursday.

More than 100 people gathered at Kennedy Space Center under a grey sky to remember not only Columbia’s crew of seven but also the 18 other astronauts killed in the line of duty. More than half of the names etched into the black granite of the Space Mirror Memorial result from NASA’s two shuttle accidents; the rest result from plane crashes.

The Columbia astronaut family members did not attend the morning ceremony. But local rabbi Zvi Konikov remembered that Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, asked him how to keep the Sabbath while in orbit for two weeks and seeing multiple sunsets daily.

“Ilan delivered a powerful message to us. We must pause and reflect on why we are here on Earth, no matter how fast we are moving or how important our work is, and that is what we are doing today. “We take a moment to remember all those brave souls,” Konikov said.

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NASA Ship Was Destroyed Feb. 2003

Columbia was destroyed during reentry on February 1, 2003, because a piece of foam from the fuel tank had broken off and pierced the left wing 16 days earlier when the ship was taking off. The shuttle broke up over Texas only 16 minutes before it was supposed to land in Florida.

Despite the concerns of others, NASA managers dismissed the impact during the flight. The shuttle Challenger was lost during liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing all seven people on board, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

On January 27, 1967, three astronauts were killed when the Apollo 1 launch pad caught fire.

Because these three dates are so close, NASA dedicates the last Thursday of January to remembering its fallen astronauts. Flags were lowered to half-staff at space centers across the country, and ceremonies were held alongside spaceflight safety discussions.

Former shuttle commander Bob Cabana, an associate administrator at NASA, says that the loss of Columbia could have been prevented, just like other tragedies at NASA.

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Three Astronauts Killed

“Why do we have to keep repeating the same difficult lessons?” he asked. “I never want to have to go through Columbia again.”

Columbia’s previous crew included commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ramon.

As the ceremony ended, a ship’s bell rang for each of the 25 names read.

Bob and Diane Ka lander’s sailing trip from Jamestown, Rhode Island, to Florida’s Key West was cut short of honoring the shuttle crews. Their daughter and her boyfriend also came to Kennedy.

“People’s memories are fading,” Diane Kalander said. “There has been a de-emphasis on space because people say, ‘Let’s worry about problems on Earth rather than future problems.'” We need to think about the future.”

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SOURCE – (AP)

 

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For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

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Global Ocean Temperatures

According to new data, the world’s oceans have now been subjected to an unprecedented year of heat, with new temperature records being smashed every day.

Global water surface temperatures began breaking daily records in mid-March last year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, raising fears about marine life and extreme weather worldwide.

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For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperature records were beaten in 2023, and now again in 2024, is remarkable,” said Joel Hirschi, associate head of marine systems modelling at the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom.

Gregory C. Johnson, a NOAA oceanographer, reported that the global average ocean temperature in 2023 was 0.25 degrees Celsius higher than the previous year. That increase “is equivalent to about two decades’ worth of warming in a single year,” he told CNN. “So it is quite large, quite significant, and a bit surprising.”

According to scientists, human-caused global warming, along with El Niño, a natural climate trend characterized by higher-than-average water temperatures, is accelerating  heat.

The biggest repercussions are for marine life and global weather. As the global waterwarms, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena, such as blistering heat waves and heavy rains, may gain more force.

High temperatures are already wreaking havoc on coral. In March, based on aerial observations, authorities declared that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is witnessing its seventh mass bleaching episode.

Bleaching happens when heat-stressed corals release the algae that dwell in their tissue and serve as a food supply. If water temperatures continue too high for too long, corals will starve and die.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

Data from NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program suggest that the crisis extends far beyond Australia, with the world potentially facing a fourth worldwide mass coral bleaching event in the coming months.

Ocean heat creates the conditions for more powerful hurricanes. “The warmer the ocean, the more energy to fuel storms is available,” said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at Mercator Ocean International in France.

Temperatures in the North Atlantic, an water area important for storm generation, have been unusual, startling some scientists who are still investigating the specific causes.

“At times, the records (in the North Atlantic) have been broken by margins that are virtually statistically impossible,” Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, said to CNN.

If water temperatures remain high in the second half of 2024 and a La Niña event intensifies the Atlantic hurricane season, “this would increase the risk of a very active hurricane season,” Hirschi explained.

The oceans contain around 90% of the world’s excess heat generated by burning planet-heating fossil fuels. “Measuring water warming allows us to track the status and evolution of planetary warming,” Schuckmann stated in an interview with CNN. “The ocean is the sentinel for global warming.”

El Niño is expected to weaken and fade in the coming months, perhaps reducing record water temperatures if La Niña replaces it.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“In the past, surface temperature values have decreased after the passage of El Niño,” Schuckmann said. However, she cautioned that it is now hard to forecast when water temperatures will fall below record levels.

While natural climatic variability will cause water temperatures to vary, NOAA’s Johnson predicts that in the long run, they will “continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rise.”

SOURCE – (CNN)

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Iceland Volcano Erupts Prompting Evacuation Of Blue Lagoon

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Iceland Volcano Erupts Prompting Evacuation

RÚV, Iceland’s official radio, reported that the world-famous Blue Lagoon and the surrounding town of Grindavik were evacuated on Saturday due to a volcanic explosion on the country’s Reykjanes Peninsula.

According to RÚV and the Icelandic Met Office, lava flows swiftly north of Grindavík, similar to the eruption on February 8. Later, RUV reported that lava was also flowing toward the Grindavíkurvegur road, which leads to Grindavik.

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Iceland Volcano Erupts Prompting Evacuation Of Blue Lagoon

According to the report, “the fissure is about three kilometers long [about 1.9 miles] and runs from Stóra-Skógfell towards Hagafell.”

According to Iceland’s civil protection service spokesman Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir, anti-lava barriers outside Grindavik are holding, and essential infrastructure has not been damaged by the eruption.

She said that because the barriers diverted the lava, there was no immediate threat to the town, and other sections of Iceland remained unharmed.

RUV reported that Iceland’s largest international airport, Keflavik Airport, and smaller minor airports are still fully operating. However, RUV said volcanic gas will be observable in the town near the airport on Sunday.

Geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, who recently returned from a helicopter fly over the location, stated that the present eruption is the most violent in recent seismic activity.

According to Guðmundsson, the currently active fissure extends from the northern edge of Hagafell to Stóra-Skógfell. He guessed that it was around 3.5 kilometres broad.

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Iceland Volcano Erupts Prompting Evacuation Of Blue Lagoon

Guðmundsson predicts that the lava flow will soon reach the Grindavíkurvegur road, based on its current speed.

Geophysicist Páll Einarsson told RÚV that the earthquakes near Grindavík follow the same pattern since October, with recurring magma flows that occasionally reach the surface. The previous eruptions “were strong, lasted a short time, but were powerful while they lasted,” Einarsson explained.

The Blue Lagoon, located less than an hour’s drive from the capital and largest city, Reykjavik, is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.

The location is in southwest Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, a broad finger of land extending west into the North Atlantic Ocean from Reykjavik. In addition to the Blue Lagoon, the peninsula is home to the principal airport, Keflavik International.

blue lagoon

Iceland Volcano Erupts Prompting Evacuation Of Blue Lagoon

Iceland has some of the world’s most active volcanoes. Rather than a core volcano, the Reykjanes Peninsula is dominated by a rift valley filled with lava fields and cones.

The lagoon had been evacuated earlier in March due to earthquake activity. It was shut down for a week in November after 1,400 tremors were recorded in 24 hours.

SOURCE – (CNN)

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RUSSIA 2024: Putin Says Setting Up A Nuclear Power Unit In Space Is A Priority For Russia

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According to state news agency TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin reminded government officials on Thursday that space programs, including establishing a nuclear power unit in space, should be prioritized and funded appropriately.

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Putin Says Setting Up A Nuclear Power Unit In Space Is A Priority For Russia

Russia “has good competencies and, moreover, even such reserves that we can be proud of, which we can count on in the future,” Putin said during a meeting with government members, citing a nuclear power unit that would function in space as an example.

“We need to finance it on time,” Putin stated, according to TASS.

“We just need to set priorities,” he added, adding that “there are issues there that require additional attention.”

“It seems that we are all used to the fact that we have such competencies that other countries do not possess, but we need to pay special attention to them so that they develop and can be used in the future to solve those tasks that can and should be solved with the help of these technologies,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

According to TASS, Yuri Borisov, the chairman of. the space agency Roscosmos, stated last week that Russia and China are collaborating on a project to build a nuclear reactor on the moon.

“Today, we are seriously considering a project to deliver to the moon and install a power reactor there in collaboration with our Chinese partners sometime between 2033 and 2035,” he stated at a youth festival on March 5.

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Putin Says Setting Up A Nuclear Power Unit In Space Is A Priority For Russia

According to TASS, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and China’s National Space Administration signed a memorandum of understanding in March 2021 to collaborate on establishing an International Lunar Research Station on behalf of their governments.

The discovery comes after CNN reported last month that Russia is developing a nuclear space weapon capable of crippling a large number of commercial and government satellites.

This new weapon, described as a nuclear EMP by military space scientists, would generate an electromagnetic pulse and a torrent of highly charged particles that would tear across space, disrupting other satellites orbiting Earth.

putin

Putin Says Setting Up A Nuclear Power Unit In Space Is A Priority For Russia

According to Biden administration sources, the weapon is still developing in Russia and has not yet been launched into space. However, if deployed, officials warn it would breach a dangerous threshold in nuclear weapon history and might inflict severe disruptions to everyday life in unpredictable ways.

SOURCE- (CNN)

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