Tropical Storm Alberto:
Cargo ship crew can leave the US under deal to comply with probe into Baltimore bridge collapse
Crew members on the cargo ship Dali can head home as soon as Thursday under an agreement that allows lawyers to question them as part of investigations into the cause of the deadly collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge.
None of the crew members has been able to leave the U.S. since their ship lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns on March 26.
Under the agreement, which was confirmed by U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar during a hearing Thursday, the crew can return home but must be available for depositions.
Attorneys had asked the judge Tuesday to prevent the roughly two dozen total crew members — all hailing from India or Sri Lanka — from leaving. Eight of the Dali’s crew members were scheduled to return home, according to emails included in court filings.
Cargo ship Dali readying for departure, could head as early as Friday to Virginia
With wreckage still aboard and six vessels assisting it, the cargo ship Dali will soon — after nearly three months in the area — depart Baltimore.
The 984-foot, 124,000-ton ship first left the Port of Baltimore in the early hours of March 26, headed for Sri Lanka, but it lost power almost immediately and crashed into a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It decimated the structure, knocking over 2,500 feet of bridge into the Patapsco River, killing six construction workers and blocking Baltimore’s shipping channel for over two months.
The ship itself, with its crumpled bow, was stuck in the waterway for 55 days before being towed last month to the port. Since then, crews have worked to ready the vessel for a voyage to Norfolk, Virginia. It is still unknown precisely when the ship will depart, but it could be as early as Friday evening, Coast Guard Cmdr. Baxter Smoak told The Baltimore Sun.
SpaceX switches up missions to set up Cape Canaveral launch tonight
It’s been 11 days since SpaceX last lit up the Space Coast sky with a rocket launch, the longest run between launches in more than a year.
It’s not for a lack of trying, though, but bad weather and a scrub as the countdown clock hit 0 last week led to SpaceX taking down a Falcon 9 rocket for a Starlink mission and switching it up with a Falcon 9 to launch a European TV satellite on Tuesday night.
The SES 24 mission flying the ASTRA 1P communication satellite for Luxembourg-based communications company SES is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a window that runs from 5:35-8:24 p.m. The satellite will service TV markets in Germany, Spain and France.
Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts only a 55% chance for good conditions with liftoff winds and the presence of cumulus clouds a concern. The same issues remain in the event of a 24-hour scrub worsening to only 45% chance for good conditions.
'1st of its kind': NASA spots unusually light-colored boulder on Mars that may reveal clues of the planet's past
NASA's Perseverance rover has spotted an unusually light-colored rock in Mars' Jezero Crater — the likes of which has never been seen on the Red Planet before. According to project researchers, the strange boulder may hint at new details about Mars' ancient past.
The rock, dubbed "Atoko Point" after a similarly light-colored feature of the Grand Canyon, is "in a league of its own," clearly standing out amidst all the darker boulders dotting the search area near the crater's Mount Washburn, the team wrote in a NASA statement. Scientists caught their first glimpse of the rock as part of an 18-image mosaic taken on May 27.
Atoko Point is estimated to measure 18 inches (45 centimeters) wide and 14 inches (35 centimeters) tall. Using the rover's camera instruments, SuperCam and Mastcam-Z, the scientists confirmed that the rock was made of pyroxene and feldspar. The team speculated that the pale rock may have been transported from a different part of the planet via an ancient river, or formed underground by a body of magma before ultimately being revealed through erosion.
Boeing Starliner’s return delayed again: How and when the astronauts will land
The return of the Boeing Starliner has been delayed once again with astronauts now slated to return to Earth from the International Space Station no earlier than June 25, Boeing said.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore became the first crew to fly aboard the Starliner on June 5 for its maiden mission. They were initially going to spend just a week at the space station, but have now remained there since they docked the Starliner spacecraft there on June 6.
The astronauts have been "testing spacecraft systems and performing tasks aboard the orbiting laboratory" ever since, according to the release.
"Mission teams supporting NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test continue to review Starliner’s data from the completed test objectives," Boeing said.
7-foot-9 Olivier Rioux, world's tallest teenager, set to become tallest college basketball player ever
Young basketball player Olivier Rioux is so tall that he's setting records simply by continuing his education.
The 18-year-old Montreal native recently graduated from high school and has committed to Florida. The school lists his height at a mind-blowing 7-foot-9. That would make him the tallest college basketball player in history.
A three-inch gain over seven months is massive, especially for a guy who was already in the Guinness Book of World Records just two years ago for being the world's tallest teenager. He was 16 then, and already 7-foot-5. He told the Guinness Book of World Records website that his height is likely the result of having two very tall (though not record-breaking) parents.