technical updates

On October 23, 2007, the space shuttle Discovery launched the Harmony module to the International Space Station . The Harmony module is a utility hub 14 feet wide and 24 feet long, or about the length of a minibus. It joins the European Space Agency's Columbus module and Japan's Kibo laboratory and serves as the crew quarters for the American astronauts. Once it was installed, the space station grew from about the size of a three-bedroom house to something more like a five-bedroom house. When astronauts delivered Harmony to the space station , they left it temporarily attached to the Unity node. After the shuttle left, astronauts used the space station's robotic arm to move the shuttle docking port out of the way at the Destiny module. This made room for Harmony to then dock at its permanent home next to the Destiny module. The U.S. Harmony node flew to space aboard space shuttle D...

Tim McCollum captured a stunning view of Orionid meteors in the early hours of Oct. 21. (Image credit: Tim McCollum) Astrophotographer Tim McCollum captured a spectacular view of Orionid meteors sharing the night sky with a host of deep sky wonders on Oct. 21, as the annual shooting star display ramped up to peak activity. Comet 1P/Halley may be over 3 billion miles (4.8 kilometers) from Earth , but that didn't stop it from putting on a breathtaking display earlier this week, as particles cast off by the ancient wanderer carved a fiery path through the autumn sky. McCollum was able to capture a trio of vivid Orionid meteors as they streaked through the night sky above the city of Toccoa, Georgia, between 3-4 a.m. on Oct. 21. Each of the shooting stars can be seen racing away from the shower's apparent point of origin — or radiant — which is located close to the red giant star Betelgeuse...

On Oct. 22, 1992, the space shuttle Columbia launched into space with the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of " Star Trek ," aboard. During mission STS-52, NASA astronaut and shuttle commander James Wetherbee brought a small container with a portion of Roddenberry's ashes into space as part of his personal effects at the request of Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett . It was Roddenberry's lifelong dream to go to space, but he never got to go while he was alive. But thanks to his wife, a little bit of Roddenberry finally made it to space almost exactly one year after his death. NASA and his family didn't tell anyone about it until almost two years later in 1994. Wetherbee said he was "honored to be asked" by Barrett to carry Roddenberry's ashses on the spaceflight. "I'm just glad I was able to bring a little happiness to the family," he ...

The total solar eclipse on Aug. 2, 2027, has an ancient feel. It will certainly be a celestial event for the ages — at 6 minutes 23 seconds, it will feature the longest totality on land of the 21st century and the longest anywhere until 2114. However, its point of greatest eclipse occurs just a few miles from Thebes, the magnificent religious and political capital of ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom. On the east bank of the mighty Nile is Luxor, the great city of the living, with its massive temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor. On its west bank is the city of the dead, which includes the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut. Modern Luxor, population 285,000, is set to become a focal point for eclipse chasers on Aug. 2, 2027, and will attract many thousands of international visitors. They'll come for the forecasted 0% chance of clouds and the era-defining durati...

Researchers think they might have pinpointed the exact night sky that we see depicted in Vincent van Gogh's iconic painting "The Starry Night." Perhaps one of the most famous paintings in modern history, Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" carries a legacy that continues to inspire and mystify generation after generation. But while you might see in its swirls of color and bright spots of starlight a night sky derived purely from imagination, some scientists think it represents an actual view — one that includes a waning crescent moon, Venus and the Hyades cluster. And they may know exactly when this sky appeared.. In a new study, researchers suggest that "The Starry Night" depicts the pre-dawn sky seen around July 22, 1889 from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Van Gogh painted it. But while this sky happens to perfectly match the one depicted in the artwork, art his...

The writing was on the wall, but the news still hit us like a truck yesterday. BioWare, the iconic RPG studio behind the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, is no more. Development on the next Mass Effect has stopped, but EA might not be entirely done with the IP. Variety reported, backed by EA’s own statement and BioWare’s goodbye on socials , that EA is laying off 3% of its global workforce and closing down BioWare. The shift comes shortly after the company went fully private this summer , with Saudi Arabia and private equity acquiring it alongside all its studios and properties. A new Mass Effect game — meant to serve as a follow-up to the original trilogy — had been in development since the early 2020s, though progress was slow following severe downsizing after 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to meet EA’s expectations. According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, only around 50 staff re...