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oom At 12:37 a.m. EDT (10:37 a.m. MDT), a helicopter gently placed NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample capsule, attached to the end of a 100-foot cable, on the ground outside a hangar on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. Two technicians on the ground helped guide the capsule down. Once the helicopter line was detached and the helicopter had departed, the clean room team removed the capsule from its metal transport cradle. They loaded the capsule onto a cart and wheeled it into the hangar where a temporary clean room had been set up. In the hangar, the capsule...

Early morning on Sunday, Sept. 24, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s sample capsule will come face-to-face with Earth’s atmosphere for the first time since the mission’s 2016 launch. On board are an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams, of rocky material collected from the surface of Bennu in 2020 – NASA’s first asteroid sample and the largest ever collected in space. When it approaches Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft won’t slow down as it makes its sample drop-off. Instead, when it reaches 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface – about one-third the distance from Earth to the Moon – a message...

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft swings by Earth on Sunday, it is expected to deliver a rare cosmic gift: a pristine sample collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will release a capsule containing an estimated 8.8 ounces of asteroid rocks and soil from space toward a landing zone in the Utah desert. NASA will provide a live stream of the sample delivery beginning at 10 a.m. ET Sunday. The capsule is expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. ET, traveling about 27,650 miles per hour (44,498 kilometers per hour). It will land...

British scientists have reportedly deliberately created deadly hybrid Covid strains in a university lab in London. Twenty scientists at the Imperial College in London infected hamsters with mutant viruses including strains of the original coronavirus and parts of Omicron or Delta, according to the Daily Mail. One of the scientists involved in the experiment is a member of the British government’s SAGE advisory panel. Imperial College maintains the tax-payer-funded study was safe and that scientists adhered to British regulations while conducting the trial and denies that the work constitutes gain of function. Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biology expert at...

The Andromeda Strain in entirety on odysee. One of my favorite movies, science fiction/drama, great acting throughout! https://odysee.com/$/download/the-andromeda-strain1971/92c38cba7fabc02d6414fa98a71f1b915ef44cc9

April 16 (UPI) -- Two astronauts and a cosmonaut were scheduled to depart from the International Space Station at 9:53 p.m. EDT Thursday after concluding their mission. NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, who has spent nine months living and working on the space station, will join NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos for the return flight. All three had left Earth before the coronavirus pandemic began, as Meir noted in a live broadcast Friday from the space station. "It's a little bit difficult to believe that we are truly going back to a different...

On Saturday night, 31 states and the District of Columbia reported at least one confirmed or presumptive positive case, with those cases totaling 372. Including those infected people repatriated from abroad, and those trapped aboard the quarantined cruise ship Grand Princess off San Francisco, the total is at least 442. Washington state had the most cases with 103, including 16 deaths, followed by New York with 89 cases and California, with 81 cases and one death. Florida, which reports 11 cases, has also seen two fatalities. In the interior of the country, a number of more sparsely populated states reported...

Tests show that dormant herpes viruses reactivate in more than half the astronauts who travel on the Space Shuttle and International Space station, according to new NASA research - a phenomenon the space agency says could pose problems for deep space missions. ..."In keeping with this, we find that astronaut's immune cells - particularly those that normally suppress and eliminate viruses - become less effective during spaceflight and sometimes for up to 60 days after."

"NASA astronauts endure weeks or even months exposed to microgravity and cosmic radiation—not to mention the extreme G forces of take-off and re-entry," says senior author Dr. Satish K. Mehta of KBR Wyle at the Johnson Space Center. "This physical challenge is compounded by more familiar stressors like social separation, confinement and an altered sleep-wake cycle." "During spaceflight there is a rise in secretion of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which are known to suppress the immune system. In keeping with this, we find that astronaut's immune cells—particularly those that normally suppress and eliminate viruses—become less effective during spaceflight...

Scientists have discovered a thriving ecosystem of ‘infectious organisms’ aboard the International Space Station. A Nasa team found five different varieties of Enterobacter, which are similar to bugs found in hospitals down here on Earth. The toilet of the orbiting space base was one of the main sites of infection along with the exercise area. Researchers calculated that there is a ‘79% probability that they may potentially cause disease’, although analysis has only been carried out on dead samples at this stage so this risk could prove to be higher or lower following further research. Dr Nitin Singh, who has...

Ancient glacier creatures brought back to life By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 8:35pm BST 06/08/2007 Creatures that once lived eight million years ago have been successfully thawed from the ice of an Antarctic glacier, in an experiment that sounds like a scene from a science fiction film. The feat of revival was managed with as yet unidentified single-celled microbes and should pose no health issues, say the scientists. However, it does show that evolution of simpler organisms is complicated by thawing glaciers which allow ancient bugs to contribute their old genes to modern populations. The finding is significant,...

LOS ANGELES -- Robert Wise, who won four Oscars as producer and director of the classic 1960s musicals "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music," has died. He was 91. Wise died Wednesday of heart failure after falling ill and being rushed to the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, family friend and longtime entertainment agent Lawrence Mirisch told The Associated Press. Mirisch said Wise had appeared in good health when he celebrated his 91st birthday Saturday. Wise was nominated for seven Oscars, including the four he won, during a career that spanned more than 50 years. The...